18 months ago, I saved up a little "nest egg" and left my full time PR job to devote myself to freelance writing (a longtime dream). In addition to pitching lifestyle article ideas to luxury magazines, I signed up for a free Blogger account and began writing daily about my favorite topic... cocktails.

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Become an expert in your field
Choose a specific topic -- then never stop educating yourself. I spend hours doing research, and even plan vacations around places with distilleries or vineyards. While spending a birthday weekend visiting the Monticello Wine Trail, in Virginia, I crafted a "weekend of wine" pitch for Northern Virginia Magazine and used my blog as a clip. After seeing the body of work I had amassed on the subject of alcoholic libations, an editor at the magazine offered me a monthly cocktail column, which a year later I still write.

Parisian software engineer-cum-food blogger, Clotilde Dusoulier, of Chocolate and Zucchini says, "The blog has been instrumental in my career change... to pursue my passion, and to hone my skills. [It] served as a portfolio of sorts that demonstrated my writing voice and my cooking style." (Dusoulier is currently on tour, promoting her recently released cookbook!)

Focus on quality
Treat your blog posts as a series of self-published articles in an online publication. You can conduct interviews and use professional-quality photos. One trick many bloggers use to maneuver around copyright issues when "borrowing" an image is to reference, and link to, the original source.

Post often
Stale content does not inspire readers to return, nor will it reflect your passion for the topic. If you want your readership to grow, you'll need to post frequently. Consistent traffic is essential to creating "blog buzz," which can attract an editor's attention and lead to an assignment.

Get noticed
Being linked to by larger blogs gets your writing noticed, which gets you more work. I introduced The Liquid Muse to every friend and business associate I had ever met. Within the first month, the Washington Post Express endorsed my blog, which inspired some (wonderful) mysterious soul to forward it to an editor at Every Day With Rachael Ray, who in turn assigned me an article on Thanksgiving Cocktails -- my first national clip. (Yes, he contacted me, and I didn't have to pitch.) My cocktail recipes ran in the print and online versions of the publication, and are being included in Ms. Ray's upcoming cookbook, a fact my agent is using to help sell my own cocktail book to publishers.

Avital Binshtock, who blogged about her cross-country trip for the L.A. Times, recently became editor at Valley Life Magazine. "Blogging... for the L.A. Times impacted my career by elevating my visibility and making my name more recognizable and respectable," she says.

Brian Sack's New York-based blog, Banterist, is frequently linked by Gawker, USA Today, MSNBC, Guardian, and CNN, which gives him a lot of credibility (read: work) as a freelancer. His humorous leather pants ad (originally posted on E-Bay in 2005) is now on his blog, and has generated 3.4 million hits, and counting.

Cross-link with other bloggers
The blog world is a relatively friendly place, and creating strong relationships with other bloggers is essential to your success. Amanda McClemments of DC's Metrocurean refers to it as "a community where healthy competition and a strong network of support go hand in hand." Exchanging links with blogs on related topics gets everyone more traffic, as does sharing content. You might try "guest posting" on someone else's blog. Usually, one of the stipulations of "guest posting" is including a link back to your blog, which introduces a new audience to you.

What about money?
My main revenue comes from writing for print and online publications, not my blog. Blogger is owned by Google, so I use Adwords and Adsense that place Google ads on my blog and allow me to input keywords into their system so my blog will appear in Google searches. Some people claim to make hundreds of dollars per month with these types of targeted ads, but thus far I have not.

Even if I don't make a single penny from my blog directly, the doors it opens are worth more than gold. A fellow writer recommended The Liquid Muse to the head editor at Where Magazine. After reading my work, and seeing that my focus fit the niche he sought to fill, he offered me a nationally syndicated cocktail column. As of September '07, my contribution to "Travel Buzz" will run in all 20 editions of the publication. That page is printed more than a million times per month, giving my writing more exposure than ever before.

I pull on my event planning, PR, and writing skills to make my living around cocktails. In addition to writing articles on the subject, I create "Signature Cocktails" for private and corporate parties, teach cocktail classes, and am working on my first cocktail book. Using The Liquid Muse as an editorial and marketing weapon helped me establish myself as an expert in this field.

Making your blog work for you takes dedication and patience. One post does not prove a writer's expertise. But, if you are willing to devote time and energy to something about which you are already passionate, a blog is an outlet where you have the freedom to show the world what you know, and build a body of work around it. I'll raise a glass to your success!

Cocktail columnist, blogger and lifestyle journalist, Natalie Bovis-Nelsen (aka: The Liquid Muse©) lives in Los Angeles. Her articles appear in regional, national and online publications. Visit TheLiquidMuse.com to read her blog, subscribe to Cocktail of the Week, sign up for a class or read about titillating libations and cocktail trends.