Hey there!
This article has been quite a hit on CNBC, so I wanted to extend a warm welcome to all my new readers. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can check out the CNBC article titled “This 33-year-old mom makes $760,000 a year in passive income—and lives on a sailboat: ‘I work just 10 hours a week.’”
For those new to Making Sense of Cents, welcome! Here are some blog posts you might find useful and enjoyable:
– 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 send me an email if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping by!
– Michelle Schroeder-Gardner
I also want to share how I turned my blog into a $5 million venture. What began as a hobby evolved into a life-changing experience. Since learning to monetize my blog over a decade ago, I’ve earned over $5 million. It all started with tracking my personal finances, paying off student loans, and discovering blogging from a magazine back in 2011.
Initially, most bloggers used display ads and sponsored posts, but now there are many ways to make money blogging, like affiliate income and selling products. Passive income is my favorite because it allows flexibility to work from anywhere, anytime. Blogging has significantly improved my life, letting me earn thousands monthly doing something I love.
Monetizing a blog takes effort and time, but it’s entirely possible. I started making money just six months in, even though I didn’t initially aim to. If you start knowing it’s possible to make money, imagine the potential!
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 to monetize it.
### How I Earned My First Blogging Income
I love sharing this story because I began just like many of you, unaware that blogs could make money. When I started Making Sense in August 2011, it was to track my financial progress and connect with like-minded individuals. A blogger friend introduced me to an advertiser willing to pay $100 for an ad on my site. That first $100 was a huge motivator, and I began researching how to monetize a blog, quickly growing my income.
A year in, I was making about $1,000 a month, and two years later, around $10,000 monthly. My income has continued to grow, and I still earn well from this website today.
### How To Start A Blog FREE Course
If you want to learn how to monetize a blog, start with my free blogging course:
– Day 1: Reasons to start a blog
– Day 2: How to determine your blog topic
– Day 3: Creating your blog on WordPress
– Day 4: Monetizing your blog
– Day 5: Tips for earning passive income
– Day 6: Growing your traffic and followers
– Day 7: Miscellaneous blogging tips
This course is delivered directly to your email inbox, guiding you to grow a blog from scratch. Sign up for free below.
### Start with a Plan for Your Blog
While you can start on a whim, having a plan helps. It wasn’t until 2015 that I created a blogging plan, and it significantly boosted my income. A plan helps you stay organized, identify your niche, set goals, and find income opportunities.
### Write High-Quality and Engaging Blog Posts
Your content is crucial. It attracts readers, keeps them returning, and earns you income. Be knowledgeable or interested in your topics and always be truthful. Here are some tips:
– Be passionate about your subject.
– Ask your audience for content ideas.
– Research your topics thoroughly.
– Share personal stories and thoughts.
– Write long, helpful content.
– Reread your content or have an editor review it.
### Network, Network, Network
Networking can be extremely helpful. It includes:
– Making friends with other bloggers
– Attending blogging conferences
– Sharing others’ content
– Following bloggers in your niche on social media
– Joining blogging groups on Facebook
Networking can teach you new ideas, make valuable connections, and even lead to income opportunities.
### Be Prepared to Put in a Lot of Hard Work
Starting a blog is easy, but growing and monetizing it takes effort. You’ll need to:
– Design your blog and create social media accounts
– Write high-quality posts
– Attract readers
– Monetize your blog
– Continuously learn about blogging
Even as a new blogger, I spent over 10 hours a week on my blog. When I was working full-time, I spent 40-50 hours a week on my blog in addition to my day job. Now, my hours vary, but there’s always something to do.
### How to Monetize a Blog: 4 Different Ways
1. **Affiliate Marketing**: Promote products you enjoy and earn a commission. It can be quite passive and lucrative.
2. **Advertisements and Sponsorships**: Partner with companies to advertise on your site or social media.
3. **Display Advertising**: Join an advertising network like Adsense, MediaVine, or AdThrive. Your income depends on page views.
4. **Sell Your Own Products**: Create and sell products like online courses, eBooks, printables, or physical items.
### Have an Email List
Start an email list from the beginning. Your newsletter is yours, and your subscribers have chosen to hear from you. It’s a great way to promote products and build a loyal audience.
### Attract Readers
You don’t need millions of page views to succeed. Focus on having a loyal audience and helping them with your content. Here are some tips:
– Write high-quality articles.
– Be active on social media.
– Share new posts regularly.
– 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.
### Grow Through SEO
SEO helps you get organic search traffic. Here are some resources:
– **Stupid Simple SEO**: A comprehensive course for bloggers.
– **Easy On-Page SEO**: Learn on-page SEO strategies.
– **Easy Backlinks for SEO**: Build backlinks for SEO.
– **How To Get 50,000 Pageviews per Month With Keyword Research**: Learn keyword research for SEO traffic.
### Common Questions About Monetizing a Blog
**How Many Views Do You Need to Monetize a Blog?**
There’s no magic number. Success depends on various factors like your niche, monetization methods, and audience engagement.
**How Do Beginner Bloggers Make Money?**
Beginners can earn through display ads, affiliate marketing, creating products, and sponsorships.
**How Many Posts Should I Have Before Launching My Blog?**
Just launch with one post and a design. Building a huge backlog isn’t necessary.
**How Many Times a Week Should I Post?**
Aim for at least once a week to keep readers engaged.
**Why Do Bloggers Fail?**
Common reasons include giving up too soon, not publishing consistently, not learning enough about blogging, and not having a self-hosted domain.
### How Do I Start a Blog?
For more questions related to starting a blog, check out my article “What Is A Blog, How Do Blogs Make Money, & More.” It covers topics like:
– How to come up with a blog name
– Which blogs make the most money
– How to design a blog
– How many views you need to make money
– How to get noticed by Google
– How long it takes to make money
– How bloggers get paid
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions. Thanks for reading!