After moving from the Midwest to the San Francisco Bay Area in California, Kara Harms started a women’s lifestyle blog called Whimsy Soul in 2015, to build an online community. After two years, Harms left her job as a social media manager with a start-up to work on her blog full-time. At first, most of her earnings came from brand deals, but a lot of business disappeared in the Covid-19 pandemic. So, Harms began to focus on earning money from banner ads and affiliate links instead — with great success.
You estimate that your blog earned over $200,000 (about €180,000) last year. How did you achieve that success?
You know the saying: “Entrepreneurs are the only people who will work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40 hours a week.” I could be that quote’s poster child! The influencer and content-creation world looks easy from the outside, but building a profitable, stable business took me seven years to accomplish. I know everyone wants a get-successful-quick trick, but working hard, understanding my community’s needs, hiring people smarter than me and taking risks have been key for getting where we are.
What is your business model? What does your team look like?
The Whimsy Soul team consists of me, my husband, who handles most of our photography and admin tasks, four contributing writers and a number of other folks with specific skills (a lawyer, developers, etc.).
Hiring people to offload my day-to-day tasks was key for rapid growth. In our early days, we just couldn’t afford extra help. I did everything, from taxes and contracts to fixing broken things on the website and designing marketing materials.
Now, I find talented people to handle a lot of those tasks, so I don’t implode, but also so I can focus on bigger-picture things. On that note, I am on the hunt for an editor/content manager for 2022, if anyone is interested in the role.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as an influencer and blogger?
There’s no bachelor of influencing degree you can get — not that I know of! The blogger/influencer world has been around for about a decade, but it’s constantly changing. Choosing to be part of this industry right now means you are at the forefront, pioneering everything. Finding advisors and resources to learn from is extremely hard, and sometimes impossible. My background in social media marketing for start-ups was important, but I wouldn’t be here without other bloggers. I’ve been lucky to have a small network of women who are full-time influencers, and we chat about business, share tips or leads on freelancers to hire, and we support each other. Without them, I think I would have been set back at least a few years in my business growth.
How important are Instagram and TikTok to your business?
The truth? Instagram could die tomorrow, and our earnings would barely be impacted. Personally, I would really miss the community I have. I’ve spent seven years connecting and learning with the Whimsy Soul community on Instagram, and more recently TikTok as well. Many of those folks feel like friends, even though we haven’t met in real life. But my team and I saw an opportunity to build our business in a blog-first format that really resonates with our community. If Instagram or TikTok were to shut down, people would still know where to find us.
How do you use language to attract people to your blog and get them to click on headings and links?
I’m a big believer in using trendy slang in my writing — for example, “10 Cool AF Airbnbs To Travel To.” Language plays a big role in our brand voice and in attracting our target audience. We can’t grow in the right direction if we are attracting the wrong readers.
Finally, what’s your advice to people who want to create online content or simply use an online platform to grow their business?
Know that there are many ways to make money online and to be a content creator. The Instagram influencer model is just one way to be successful. It’s not the only way. Take time to figure out what you are passionate about and where your talents are (whether video, photo, writing, etc.) and choose the relevant social platform for you. Don’t waste time on platforms that don’t bring you joy.