💭 How did Candace Abroad start?
Officially, Candace Abroad started in September 2020; when I decided to combine my love for business and entrepreneurship and my marketing and social media skills with my love for London.
Unofficially, I had the candaceabroad.com domain since 2016 (and have been blogging since the 7th grade). I also had a travel podcast called Abroad & Co. in 2019 and was focusing on expat-related content on my social media and blog channels before I decided I wanted to switch to London travel.
💭 What were you doing before Candace Abroad?
Working in social media and influencer marketing! Before Candace Abroad I had 5+ years of experience working in marketing in London, mainly for startups. I also have an MBA in International Business.
💭 Are you full-time?
Yes! I went full-time in May, 2022 after being burnt out at my 9-5. You can read more about that here.
💭 Do you have help?
Yes. I realised quite quickly after going full-time that if I really wanted to scale the business — I would need some extra hands.
I now have a lovely part-time VA (virtual assistant) and a part-time Content Assistant.
💭 How do you make money?
Brand Partnerships, Mediavine Ads, Ebooks, Affiliate Sales, Social Media Consulting, and Women in London Collective events (although most of the profits go back into running the events).
Multiple income streams are SO important as an entrepreneur, never rely on one source of income.
💭 What platforms are you on?
I currently have a blog, newsletter, Instagram, Tik Tok and Pinterest. That’s where you’ll find me the most!
💭 How big is your community?
To date, I have 100k+ followers on Instagram, 50k+ unique monthly readers on the blog, 25k+ followers on Tik Tok, 3,000 Pinterest followers with 400k+ monthly views, a few thousand email subscribers, and around 4500 members in the Women in London Collective.
💭 I want to be a full-time content creator. How do I start?
First things first, you need to treat your content creation like a business. What is your business plan? Who is your target audience? How will you make money?
You also shouldn’t expect to go full-time as a blogger or influencer until at least the 1 1/2 – 2 year mark (I went full-time within 1 1/2 years, working every day on it). And remember that being a full-time content creator isn’t a ‘get rich quick’ career, it’s building a strong personal brand and monetizing that brand later through various income streams.
P.S – If you want personal help creating a plan to go full-time, send me an email!
💭 How did you grow your social media channels?
In my opinion? Consistency and personality.
Constantly posting X amount of blog posts, stories, reels, newsletters and blog posts over a long amount of time truly did make all the difference.
In addition to using lots of voiceovers and talking to the camera in almost all my content to build a personal connection with my community.
💭If you could give one piece of advice to other aspiring content creators, what would it be?
Just starting creating! There’s 0 chance I would be where I am today if I spent more time thinking about creating content than creating actual content.
If you consume more than you create you’ll always feel deflated when it comes time to put your own voice out there. So, put the scrolling away and get to making some videos!
💭 If you could give one piece of advice to other aspiring bloggers, what would it be?
Focus on SEO and join Mediavine if you want a money-making blog (P.S – I’m not sponsored by them in any way, they’re just amazing and super well-paying to bloggers, they changed my life!).
Gone are the days where a blog can your diary, you need to have it filled with valuable and helpful information if you want to gain traction, traffic and income.
💭How do I work with brands?
Value first.
Although I don’t pitch for brand partnerships anymore, when I did I always highlighted that I had a niche audience and how working with me would put that product/service/experience in front of their ideal audience.
Also, always ask to hop on phone calls with brands! It makes a huge difference. And always be professional (it shows).
Happy creating,
