After sharing What I Have Learned About Blog Growth last weekend, I wanted to talk today about monetising your blog in a way that works for you and your blog. For me, my blog is not my full time job; I'm a writer, a consultant, and an editor, and my blog is part of my brand and just one of my income streams. When I first started this space back in 2013 I never dreamed it would become something more than just an online journal, and even though being a full time blogger and making a living from monetising my blog alone has never been a desire for me, I do earn a part of my income from this blog and I wanted to share today some of the biggest lessons I've learned so far.

Of course, you don't have to monetise your blog, it's a personal choice everyone makes along the way as their blog develops and I know and read (and love) so many awesome blogs who don't build income streams into their space. It's up to you, and what's best for your online space, and hopefully this post can encourage anyone who does want to explore monetisation to do it on their own terms and in a way that stays authentic and true to their voice and their blog.

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I've shared 8 Things We Should Stop Apologising For and Things We Should Stop Doing So We Can Be Happier on ALO, but I wanted to touch today on some excuses I think we should stop making to ourselves in our day to day lives. It's far too easy to hold ourselves back and not move forward because things scare us or because they take hard work, but to really make the most out of our lives I think it's super important to quit those excuses and focus on building a life we really love. There are so many excuses to myself that I've made over the years, but these four are the ones I've found can hold us back the most:

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Dealing with criticism is something we're all faced with when we put ourselves and our work out there online. We can never control how others behave, but what I think is super important is not letting the criticism of others (when it's not constructive) to stop us from doing the work we want to do. Bethany wrote an awesome piece on the topic here, and I wanted to share some thoughts and advice today for any fellow bloggers for when they're faced with criticism and negativity online. 

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There will be feast and there will be famine A freelancers income isn't usually as steady or stable in the beginning as a monthly salary can be, and being okay with both the feast and famine stages is a must. Some months may be fantastic - all your clients pay on time, you're booked up full with new work, and you make more in one month than you do sometimes in three. But then there are those quiet months, where work seems to dry up, or you're chasing clients for payment, and you panic a little inside that you won't pull together enough to pay this months bills. The best way to deal with this is to save, save, save - when money is good, remember that there will be some quiet months so stick to your usual budget and save any extra in advance for those quieter periods. The financial ups and downs of working for yourself comes with the territory, and the best thing we can do is be responsible with our finances along the way. 

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Being a 20-something is both an awesome and scary time - we have our whole lives ahead of us and so many adventures still to come, yet we all feel this crazy pressure to have everything figured out and be on the path to success right away. For any fellow 20-somethings, I wanted to share some of my favourite posts I've read that share advice, words of wisdom, and remind us that were not alone when it comes to trying to find our way in life...

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So as bloggers and creative entrepreneurs, I'm sure you're like me and have lots of new business and project ideas floating around your head on a regular basis. The hard thing is actually knowing what to do with those ideas and how to put them into action, and then eventually turn them into something super awesome that you can be proud of. 

These past few months I've had lots of ideas floating around, but it's only recently I've managed to sit myself down, focus myself, and start to put some of them into action. For anyone else wanting to turn their ideas into something awesome, I wanted to share some advice with you guys today for how to do just that.

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November is finally here, which I'm super excited about as there are lots of things I'm looking forward to this month. I'm having so much fun with this blog at the moment and I'm really enjoying the content I'm creating for this space, but I realised I haven't really shared anything about my life or things happening behind the scenes so I thought it was about time for a little update. 

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Way back in June I wrote a piece all about Living At Home In Your 20s and I wanted to talk about it again today and share some advice for if you've found yourself living back in your childhood bedroom. I moved back home to my parents with Alex  a year ago now, and it's been quite the learning curve ever since. If you've found yourself living at home again in your 20s, here's my best advice for making the most out of it:

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