How I Made Over $19,000 in my 8th Month of Blogging

How I Made Over $19,000 in my 8th Month of Blogging

This post contains affiliate links. See affiliate disclaimer here.

Having success and freedom from the regular 9-5 is pretty weird (in a strangely awesome way). For a long time, gaining my own success sounded like a pipe dream. Especially after listening to dozens of podcast episodes and reading cliche “How to Work Online” posts. But once I finally found that way to having success, everything changed.

I had a way to gain freedom, and it’s made so many doors open for me. And I know that when you find your way to financial and dream freedom (dream freedom’s a term right?), your life will completely change. You’ll have a way to work from home and be with the family, stop commuting, travel full-time, and change other people’s lives. Isn’t that crazy awesome?

Guys, you deserve freedom; it’s empowering. And guess what? You can find a way to do it and I’ll show you exactly how.

Earlier last year, my husband and I were broke newlyweds (very broke). We had heard about creating a side hustle (a job apart from your 9 to 5) from many online entrepreneurs. There were TONS of ideas, but nothing really seemed to quite fit (especially since I wasn’t tech savvy at all).

That is until we listened to the The Side Hustle Show (a podcast) which interviewed Rosemarie Groner from The Busy Budgeter.. on blogging.

Now we had never wanted to blog. Everyone kept on saying that it would take years to gain any kind of real income. But Rosemarie had gone from just blogging about her passion for fun to blogging full time and making $5k a month. And she had done this in just a year.. but we wanted this sooner.

My husband had been working plenty of energy draining and soul sucking jobs (no joke), for a number of years and I was tired of seeing him coming home exhausted emotionally and physically. We both wanted change, and this podcast (which you can listen to here), literally changed our lives. It was packed with so much information on how to get started that without it, we’d probably be in the same place we’d always been: stuck.

And 3 months after launching the blog.. we were making more than my husband’s corporate job. Just from using Rosemarie’s advice and some newfound ideas that we discovered ourselves.

So down below, I’ll give you the sources you need to start a blog yourself and tell you what I did in June to make my numbers rise.

Making money blogging sounds like something only outgoing people and social media experts do. But to be honest, I’ve known so many bloggers who started theirs in the middle of a divorce so they could stay home with their kids, and I’ve known some who started a blog just so they could travel full-time. So starting a blog to create income doesn’t have to be a famous person’s thing, it can be your thing. It can be your project. And to be honest… it definitely beats the 9 to 5 job (maybe that’s an understatement).

SERIOUSLY, our lives have changed since the blog took off. We are now traveling full-time, currently in Bangkok, Thailand (crazy beautiful place) and spending everyday together. The adventures we’ve been on have been great and I’m so glad I pushed myself to work harder and smarter with this blog.

Now this month’s pageviews were still suffering slightly due to a possible algorithm change and the Thanksgiving week (because unless you’re a food blogger with great recipes or holiday DIY’s, your views will probably go down). However, it did go up a lot towards the end because of everybody being off for the holidays.

November Pageviews: 1,639,903

Income Streams:

Mediavine: $16,364.55

Bluehost: $2,560

Amazon Affiliates: $270.30

Total: $19,194.85

December Income Review

Last month’s income went up.. a ton! November’s total income was $11,134.33, so as you can imagine I’m pretty excited. I mean I’ve heard of people reaching $10,000 in a year, but after blogging for only 8 months.. it’s kinda crazy (see how leaving the 9-5 is weird in a strangely awesome way?).

Like going from making basically couch change to almost $20k a month has made my husband and me very thankful and excited that we get to do more things with our lives and actually help others.

So with that said, I’m going to share with you how you can do this too (no fluff I swear!).

Previous Income Reports

Quick Last Note Before You Start!

Many of these beginning tips are for people just starting out or finding out about blogging, so if you want new tips, skip this part.

However! You might just want to read through it fast because I do list some ideas and tips that you might not have heard before.

ONE Last Quick Note Before You Start! (Sorry)

If you’re not new here, and you’ve already seen many of my tips on how to get started and how to drive huge traffic, feel free to head towards the bottom to see the new things I’m doing!

Or.. just skim over it as a review, whatever works for you!

I can’t tell you how MUCH this helped us. What I mean when I say “Do the work before,” isn’t the obvious “find a niche,” “create a catchy blog name,” or, “figure out your audience.” Yes those are all important, but you can read that from so many other bloggers out there. What I mean is, once you’ve done all that, start creating content for your blog before it launches. Say.. 25-50 blog posts, so that when it does launch, people have more than just a couple of articles to read on your site.

There’s also another reason for this, but I’ll get into that in step 4.

Do not, and I repeat DO NOT go with a free blogging profile. Yes you can get traffic, but making money is basically impossible (and sadly, the fair majority of people won’t take you seriously). So sign up for a hosting site like Bluehost which is $2.95/month (hosting is like renting a space on the internet to put your site out there). It’s super simple to get and they have awesome support to walk you through.

Final Note: Oh! I should also let you know that I have a post that shows you exactly how to create and set up your blog with Bluehost. Seriously, there’s so many benefits for going with them!

Now whether you’ve heard about WordPress (a blog platform used by many) or not, Bluehost let’s you install WordPress. Once you’ve done that, you can choose one of their themes, but just make sure to choose one that’s very visually appealing. It probably goes without saying, but the better looking your blog is, the more viewers are going to see it and come back because you look legitimate.

In my post on how I made $500 in May, I give a rundown on what both of those two things are. They’re both free and once you understand them, I suggest signing up for them as quickly as possible. Especially Adsense since it’s probably going to be your top money earner.

Now in step 1 I told you that there was another reason for creating content beforehand, and this is why. Adsense is Google’s ad service. They’ll display ads on your site for people to see. And when those ads are on your blog, you’ll start to gain income from them. However, Adsense can be picky about who they accept, so you’ll want to have some good content on your site before you sign up. That way they can see that you’re legitimate, not just some person who started up a blog, threw a few posts up there, and then never did anything with it again. They want real traffic seeing their ads, otherwise it’s useless.

So make sure you have enough content up so Adsense doesn’t turn down your blog.

This is literally the key to everything; making money, getting lots of traffic, everything.

I’m sorry, I’m not trying to direct your to different places to annoy you, but if I went into everything I did to get huge traffic numbers and money on just one page, it’d be way too long and you’d get tired of reading my post. So I will direct you to the same post on How I Made Pinterest my Full-Time Job.

It goes into why you need a Pinterest account, how to get a large audience, how to create a pinnable pin (seriously easy), and how to get people to click through to your content. So read up and take notes, this is exactly how I get the majority of my traffic and income.

Many people wonder if they should start their email list right after they launch their blog. But guys… those first few subscribers are the most important ones you’ll have. It’s been shown that the ones that stick with you even when you’re just beginning will be your most loyal readers and they’ll be more likely to buy from you when you offer them a product.

So Which Email List Builder Should I Use?

Well you could use a free service like Mail Chimp, but there’s a couple things you should know.

First, there have been so many times where I’ve heard bloggers complain about how they regret starting out with free services like Mail Chimp. Because when they decide to switch over to a more efficient email list builder like Convertkit, it take hours for them to transfer their entire list. It’s a complete headache and takes DAYS to do.

Now the reason why I suggest Convertkit is because their services are SO EASY to use! I am not tech savvy… at all. In fact, I get seriously frustrated when something takes way to long to figure out. But with just one video tutorial, I was able to easily understand everything. Convertkit is seriously intuitive and simple.

Now the monthly cost for Convertkit is $29.99 a month which is basically 5-6 Starbucks drinks in a month. I get it, it’s so much easier to sign up for something free when you’re first starting out, but the ease of using Convertkit is so worth it (and you won’t have to deal with moving all your subscribers over later)!

You can check Convertkit out here and if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me!

Now this is where I’m going to show you how I get huge views to my site each month. It’s so important that you follow these tips because it’s what’s going to get you to the next level of blog income.

Pain Points and WIIFM

Pain points are the problems that people want fixed now, and you have to know how to hit them.They don’t want to know about you and your dog’s relationship, they want to know how they can lose 5 pounds in a week for their sister’s wedding. They want to know how they can cut out $2,000 from their monthly budget because they’re living paycheck to paycheck.

Another way to put this is WIIFM which means, “What’s In It For Me.” You have to act like everyone has this written on their foreheads. People want to know how this blog post is going to make a big or small change in their life. So every time you write a post, make sure you have WIIFM in mind.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they first start out blogging (and of course I made this mistake at first too), is assuming that people want to know about their personal life. I also see them give vague titles to their blog that doesn’t tell the reader in any way how this will benefit them, or they write on a subject that only a small amount of people will care about. If you want to have blogging success, you can’t do this.

It’s ok to write more personal posts about your life, but don’t market it on social media; it’ll just waste your time. Or just save them for when you’re more established and have a great following.

a/b/c/ and d Test

One of the best tricks that I’ve learned when it comes to promoting your posts on Pinterest is to make multiple pins for every post. It sounds like a lot of work, but it honestly doesn’t have to take very long. Make a list of 4-5 titles that grab the reader’s attention and create a sense of urgency and/or curiosity. Then, once you create your pin image, you can simply put the different titles onto the picture and save each one. You can do this whether you’re just using one image or more.

You have NO IDEA how many times I thought one of the pins in the group of 4-5 images wouldn’t do well and it ends up doing the best.

Last Note on Multiple Image Testings: I’ve found that if one pin in the group of images that’s linked to the same url goes viral, the rest will do extremely well too. Just so ya know!

Add Value Where Others Don’t

Now one of the biggest questions I get from people who want to start a blog is, “What if I have nothing to write about.” Many people have the same interests such as DIY, recipes, finances, and/or family, and they all let me know that they’re afraid that no one will read their content because there are so many other people out there that blog about the same niche.

And each time, I answer them with the same thing; add value where those other bloggers don’t. If this is a fear of yours, then one of the best things you can do is to find the top bloggers who are writing the same subjects you want to blog about and see what they’re putting out there. Then, once you find a project or an idea you could replicate, add value where they don’t. Go into more depth on the subject and prove to new readers why you should be their go-to for DIY or financial issues.

If you’re just starting out as new blogger, this can prove extremely helpful.

Know the Opportunity Cost

So when my husband was working a soul sucking corporate job and we kept on having bills pop up and the car breaking down, it was pretty tempting for me to go out and get a part-time minimum wage job (Remember? I don’t have a college degree) to ease the tension and money stresses. But we chose not to.

Opportunity cost in my case was me losing out on easy money for an opportunity that wasn’t bringing in anything. It was just a promise at that time, but I still went after it because I knew I’d have bigger benefits later on instead of working at the dollar store down the street which was the ultimate definition of a “dead end job.”

I believe opportunity cost is one of the the biggest things you need to remind yourself of when blogging.

Elite Blog Academy

One of the things that The Busy Budgeter referenced in the podcast was the Elite Blog Academy. It was an online class that she took to get her numbers and income raised. After learning about this, Silas and I bought it and haven’t regretted it. The Elite Blog Academy really helped us learn more about how to create great content as well as make profit from our blog. We’d highly recommend it for beginner bloggers who want to start making money from their site.

However, it only opens up once a year (around February), so check out their page and sign up for their wait list. Once they open, they’ll send you an email and you’ll be able to apply.

Last But Definitely Not Least

Now if you don’t believe in God, then feel free to completely overlook this bit, but I seriously couldn’t have done this without Him. He really guided me to my success by leading me to the right people to listen to and read from. He showed me ways to ramp up my viewership and income and if it wasn’t for Him, I wouldn’t be able to travel full-time with my husband. Now if you do believe in God, I definitely recommend that you make him a part of the process. He’ll show you what to do if you include Him in your path to success.

For those of you who are revisiting my site, and already know many of my tips and techniques, here is where I’ll discuss any updates on what I’m doing and using for my blog.

And even if you’re not new to my site, you can definitely take notes on what you can try later (or even right now!).

Mediavine

This is the first full month I’ve had Mediavine as my ad server, so as you can imagine, it’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve made for the blog so far

For months I was with Google Adsense as an ad server, and I am so glad that I switched over to Mediavine. It’s so good to go from 80 cents RPM (how much I get for every 1,000 views) to around $10 RPM. I feel like I’m actually being paid for how much hard work I put into this blog.

Mediavine is a great option for an ad server and accepts anyone who has over 50,000 views per month. So once you hit that magical pageview mark, sign up for them as fast as you can!

Affiliate income went up quite a bit last month. I blame this on Michelle’s course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. It’s always great to keep on learning, even when you feel like you have a lot figured out. Because when you put money into your blog/business (in this case, taking online courses), you’ll get even more than what you paid for it back.

December was crazy for income, but it’s almost ironic. Because of big moves and transitions and the holidays all wrapped up together (no pun intended), I wasn’t able to produce as much content as I wanted. So my work decreased while my income increased. It just goes to show that even on the down months (for work), you can still get great money because of the hard work you’ve put into previous months.

Popular Posts on Chasing Foxes last month:

I’ve decided that for every monthly income report I do, I’ll be featuring a blogging question from you guys. And last month I gave you all three most frequently asked questions, and you chose, “How do I save up for starting a blog when I hardly have any money?”

Well here’s my answer!

It’s easy to get intimidated when you don’t have much money to fund a blog. I would know, my husband and I were there in early 2016. You start to think, “This money that I’m saving up for blog hosting could go towards other things like my rent or bills or student loan payments. Should I really be investing in something that’s not paying me right now? I really need the money.”

And the answer is yes. That hard earned money that you set aside to pay for hosting (or another part of blogging) will be paid back to you multiple times over if you decide to invest in it now.

Alright, now you’re probably wondering, “So HOW do I save up for it Grace? C’mon! Get to it!” Ok ok! Sorry!

Here’s what my husband and I had to do. Each paycheck, we would put back a certain amount to pay for hosting (or another part of the blog). It didn’t matter how small of an amount it would be (ex. $10 or $20), we would just put something back. And finally we would have the amount we needed to pay for a certain part of the blog.

We also made sacrifices as well, such as not eating out, not getting new clothing, not buying things we didn’t really need. Seriously guys, during the time we started the blog, I had lost some weight (on purpose, don’t worry), and all of my pants didn’t fit me anymore. I was a couple sizes too small for them now but I refused to buy new pants just so we could make ends meet and have me work at home without having to look for a job. It was tough, but of course I’m so glad I did it.

I promise you, you can do this.

Let me know which one you want answered for next month’s income report!

1. How do I manage the time I work on the blog when most of it’s already taken up by a full-time job and/or kids?

2. How do I find the best group boards on Pinterest to join?

3. What if the niche I want to do is already done by so many other bloggers? How will I get people to see my blog and even take an interest in it?

Lastly, just remember that in a year from now, you’ll wish you started today. This is something my husband always reminded me of. So where do you want to be in a year from now? Would you rather be surfing Facebook or watching Netflix after a hard day of work at a dead end job, or would you rather be bringing in a new income stream and working from home?

You may think that you deserve to relax after working so hard at your job, but what you really deserve is to work hard now so that you can have time and financial freedom later.

Original article and pictures take www.chasingfoxes.com site