Hey there!
I was recently featured on CNBC, and I’m thrilled to welcome all the new readers! You can check out the article titled “33-year-old mom makes $40,000 a month in passive income—and lives on a sailboat: How I work ‘just 2 hours a day’” if you haven’t already.
For those new to Making Sense of Cents, here are some blog posts you might find helpful:
– How To Start A Blog in 15 Minutes
– Affiliate Marketing Tips For Bloggers – Free eBook
– 10 Best Things I Did To Build A $5 Million Dollar Blog
– How To Start A Blog Free Course
– Best Blogging Courses & Resources That Helped Me Make $100,000+
– 29 Best Stay At Home Jobs (#1 Is My Full Time Job!)
– 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money
– 18 Passive Income Ideas To Earn $1,000+ Each Month
Feel free to leave a comment or email me if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping by!
-Michelle Schroeder-Gardner
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Besides the CNBC article, I want to share how I turned my blog into a $5,000,000 success story. What began as a hobby has become one of the most transformative experiences of my life. I started my blog, Making Sense of Cents, over a decade ago, and since then, I’ve earned over $5,000,000 from it. It’s still hard for me to believe sometimes!
Initially, I started blogging to track my personal finance progress as I finished school and paid off student loans. Blogging was new to me; I learned about it from a magazine back in 2011. Most bloggers back then made money through display ads and sponsored posts, but now there are many more options, like affiliate income and selling your own products. These methods allow for somewhat passive income, making blogging flexible and something I can do from anywhere.
Monetizing a blog takes time and effort, but it’s entirely possible. I started earning money after just six months of blogging, even though making money wasn’t my initial goal. Imagine the potential if you start knowing that making money is possible!
Starting my blog has been one of the best decisions for my work, personal, and financial life. I encourage anyone interested to start a blog and learn how to monetize it.
**How I Earned My First Income from Blogging**
Many of my readers know this story, but I love sharing it because I started like many of you, unaware that blogs could make money. In August 2011, I created Making Sense of Cents to track my financial progress and connect with others with similar goals. A blogger friend introduced me to an advertiser willing to pay $100 for an ad on my site. I was ecstatic! That first $100 motivated me to research more about monetizing a blog, and my income grew from there. One year in, I was earning about $1,000 a month, and by the second year, it was around $10,000 monthly. My income has continued to grow, and I still earn a healthy income from my blog today.
**How To Start A Blog FREE Course**
If you want to learn how to monetize a blog and haven’t started one yet, I recommend my free blogging course, How To Start A Blog FREE Course. Here’s what you’ll learn:
– Day 1: Reasons you should start a blog
– Day 2: How to determine what to blog about
– Day 3: How to create your blog – including an easy WordPress tutorial
– Day 4: How to monetize a blog
– Day 5: Tips for earning passive income from your blog
– Day 6: How to grow your traffic and followers
– Day 7: Miscellaneous blogging tips for success
This course is delivered directly to your email inbox, guiding you through growing a blog from scratch. You can sign up for free below.
**Start with a Plan for Your Blog**
While you can start on a whim, having a plan is a good idea if you want to monetize your blog. A plan helps you get organized, identify your niche, set goals, and find income opportunities. I didn’t create a blogging plan until 2015, four years after I started, and my income grew significantly after that. Here are some questions to consider when planning your blog:
– What will you write about?
– How do you want to make money?
– How will you attract readers?
– What are your goals?
Answering these questions will guide your journey and help you decide your next steps.
**Write High-Quality and Engaging Blog Posts**
Your blog’s content is crucial. It attracts readers, keeps them coming back, and earns you income. You don’t need to be an expert, but you should be knowledgeable or interested in your topic. Here are some tips for writing high-quality content:
– Be passionate about your subject.
– Ask your audience what they want to read.
– Research your topics.
– Share personal stories and be truthful.
– Write long, helpful content.
– Reread your content multiple times before publishing.
**Network, Network, Network**
Networking is vital for monetizing a blog. It can help you enjoy blogging, learn new ideas, make valuable connections, and more. Networking opportunities include:
– Making friends with other bloggers
– Attending blogging conferences
– Sharing content from other bloggers
– Following bloggers in your niche on social media
– Joining blogging groups on Facebook
Networking helped me earn my first $100 and has been a tremendous support as I’ve grown my blog.
**Be Prepared to Put in a Lot of Hard Work**
Starting a blog is relatively easy, but growing and monetizing it takes a lot of work. You’ll need to:
– Start and design your blog
– Create social media accounts
– Write high-quality posts
– Attract readers
– Monetize your blog
– Continue learning about blogging
I spent over 10 hours a week on my blog even when I had no plans of making money. When I was working full-time and earning from my blog, I worked 40-50 hours a week on it. Now, my hours vary, but there’s always something to be done. I love blogging, which makes the hard work worth it.
**How to Monetize a Blog: 4 Different Ways**
There are many ways to monetize your blog, including:
1. **Affiliate Marketing**
– Share a unique affiliate link for products you enjoy.
– Use the Pretty Link plugin to clean up affiliate links.
– Provide honest reviews.
– Ask for commission increases.
– Build a relationship with your affiliate manager.
– Write tutorials to show how to use the product.
2. **Advertisements and Sponsorships**
– Partner with companies to advertise on your site or social media.
– Write reviews, tutorials, or talk about their products.
– Increase your advertising income with courses like Making Sense of Sponsored Posts.
3. **Display Advertising**
– Join an advertising network like Adsense, MediaVine, or AdThrive.
– Display ads on your blog to earn income based on page views.
4. **Sell Your Own Products**
– Create and sell online courses, eBooks, printables, memberships, or physical products.
– You control what you sell, and your income potential is unlimited.
– I launched my first product, a blogging course, five years after starting my blog and regret not doing it sooner.
**Have an Email List**
Starting an email list from the beginning is crucial. Here’s why:
– Your newsletter is yours, unlike social media followers.
– Email lists often lead to more income and sales.
– Subscribers are loyal and trust you.
– Email is a great way to deliver content, like free courses.
**Attract Readers**
To attract readers, you don’t need millions of page views. Focus on having a loyal audience and helping them with your content. Here are ways to grow your readership:
– Write high-quality articles.
– Be active on social media.
– Regularly share new posts.
– Guest post on other blogs.
– Make it easy to share your content.
– Write compelling titles.
– Apply SEO strategies.
– Have a clean, user-friendly blog design.
Some resources to help you improve traffic include:
– **Six Figure Blogger**: An advanced blogging course with actionable strategies.
– **Traffic Transformation**: A guide with 21 strategies to increase page views.
**Grow Through SEO**
SEO (search engine optimization) helps you get organic search traffic. Some SEO resources include:
– **Stupid Simple SEO**: A comprehensive SEO course.
– **Easy On-Page SEO**: An ebook on on-page SEO.
– **Easy Backlinks for SEO**: An ebook on building backlinks.
– **How To Get 50,000 Pageviews per Month With Keyword Research**: An ebook on keyword research.
**Common Questions About How to Monetize a Blog**
**How many views do you need to monetize a blog?**
It varies. Success depends on factors like how you monetize, your niche, email subscribers, and more. Some succeed with 10,000 page views a month, others with over 100,000.
**How do beginner bloggers make money?**
Beginner bloggers can use display advertising, affiliate marketing, creating products, and sponsorships. Display advertising is the easiest to start, but the payoff is usually lower initially.
**How many posts should I have before I launch my blog?**
I recommend launching with just one post and a design. Building a huge backlog isn’t necessary and can delay your start.
**How many times a week should I post on my blog?**
Publish at least once a week. Consistency helps readers know to expect regular content from you.
**Why do bloggers fail?**
Common reasons include giving up too soon, not publishing consistently, not learning enough about blogging, not having a domain and self-hosting, and more.
**How do I start a blog?**
For more questions about starting a blog, check out my article “What Is A Blog, How Do Blogs Make Money, & More.” It covers topics like coming up with a blog name, designing a blog, getting noticed by Google, and more.
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. Thanks for reading!