Blogging has been something I have been doing for the last nine years as a way of supplementing my income. In the last two years, my husband and I have been talking a lot about next steps in our life and we both agree that we would like to simplify more, travel more, and work less. Who doesn’t want to work less?!? We have been looking at the different ways bloggers are making income. This year we are dedicating ourselves to learning how we can make a living from our blogs. We are setting blog income goals for 2019 as a way to challenge ourselves and stay focused.
We are excited to see our blogs grow and for all of our hard work to pay off. Blogging started as a hobby for me back in 2009. I wanted to keep track of my recipes and have a place where I could easily search for them and find them. That started my blogging adventures and my first blog, Sweetie Pie and Cupcakes, was born.
Small hobby blog grows into a business
What started out as a tiny recipe blog has turned into a full on party and recipes website. It receives hundreds of thousands of visitors a year and generates income from ads, affiliate links and sponsored posts. One of the courses I took years down the road to learn about affiliate marketing was Making Cents of Affiliate Marketing. In this course, you learn how to link to products and courses you love and receive a commission for the referral. I wish I would have taken that course way sooner! Going back over the content in this course always helps me get new ideas every year.
I didn’t start the food blog with the intention of making money; it just naturally evolved into a fully monetized site. If I were to start a blog all over again, I would consider how to make money from the blog right from the start. It’s so much easier to incorporate and share your favorite products, courses and reviews right from the beginning. And it doesn’t have to come across as salesy. All you are doing is sharing your ideas and tips to help others succeed and learn.
Blogging as a way of making money from home
If you have been trying to figure out a way to work from home and make extra income, you may want to consider starting a blog about your favorite topic. I definitely recommend choosing a topic you either know about already or have a strong desire to learn more. If you are going to be writing consistently, it helps to be blogging about a topic you love.
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Consider blogging about topics that give you incentives and write-offs
When I started my food blog, I was already taking local cake design classes and buying tons of different baking pans and tools. When you start a blog as a business, you get to write off your expenses associated with that type of business. If you are hoping to travel more, start a travel blog and consider getting your hotel and travel expenses sponsored in exchange for a review and links. The possibilities are endless as to how you can make money with your blog.
Blog about topics with high income potential
The husband and wife team over at UnconventionalProsperity.com realized it was easier to make a larger income from their blogs if the affiliate courses are higher end courses. The links they incorporate into their blogs have a minimum course cost. They look for courses and links that cost between $1000 and $10,000 (minimum of $300) with a 50% commission per sign up.
Once you find what works, work all the angles
Once you find a topic or course of interest, approach the topic from every angle in additional articles. This is a great SEO and monetization tool. Find different ways to talk about the topic or course and focus on one or two main keywords for each article. This helps your article and website get picked up by major search engines such as Google.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different topics
Many popular bloggers tell stories of starting their blogs with one topic in mind and then they suddenly became popular for something totally different. The key is to not be too rigid in what you are sharing. Try out various topics and be yourself. With time, you will start to see what people come to you for and you can start focusing your content in that direction. One successful YouTuber shares that he had to do 100 videos before he discovered what people liked about his content. I’ve had the same experience with my websites and YouTube. It’s too hard to know what people will like so just start creating and ask for feedback.
What we are currently making in income from our blogs?
We currently make about $2500 a month between our three blogs, https://SweetiePieAndCupcakes.com, www.BePassionateAndProsper.com and www.AmandaGatlin.com. A portion of this income comes from coaching sessions through those websites. Another percentage of income comes from ads, courses and sponsorships.
What are our blog income goals for 2019?
We would like to double what we are making monthly and hit $5000 a month to hit our blog income goals. We hope to do this by incorporating more targeted affiliate links into posts, gaining more sponsorships and opening up a new course.
My specific blog income goals are to write engaging content consistently, publishing about 2-3 times a week.
We are also gaining a lot of traction and traffic with Pinterest, so I hope to be pinning consistently and sharing to more group boards this year.
More recently, we are having a lot of success with people engaging with our stories through videos. So we will be utilizing Facebook and YouTube to share our streaming and recorded videos more. Read here for how we make money with our coaching business using YouTube.
Where does our traffic come from for these blogs?
Most of our traffic comes from Pinterest. We utilize Facebook and post a small description and link to new articles. Many people also find our services through Yelp and Google. Don’t forget to list your new business blog on Yelp and Google to drive local traffic to you. Think about ways you can offer products and services that you can do locally. We get many referrals from people on a local level and this has been a great way for us to have interactions on a more personal level.
Tips from experts to reach blog income goals
1. Be Consistent-
The huband and wife team over at Food Blogger Pro mention one of the keys to their success was to post recipes consistently. Only a handful of their posts went viral and account for the majority of traffic to their site. You can’t predict which post is going to attract attention and go viral. It’s important to keep posting and don’t give up!
2. Look for what’s already going viral-
Use Pinterest to research what’s already going viral. Create a board to just for article ideas. Then write up your own article on the topic with your spin on the topic. Looking for board inspiration? Check out our Sweetie Pie Pinterest account where we average over 600,000 viewers a month. Or head over to our Be Passionate and Prosper Pinterest account which is a fairly new account. We reach over 20,000 viewers a month there, and it’s growing organically without any paid advertising!
3. Find ways to monetize from the beginning-
How will you make money from your efforts? If you are writing a post, is there a product that fits perfectly with the content you are sharing? If you are sharing a video, is there a company or brand you can represent because your audience would relate to them easily? Start with a realistic blog income goal and focus on one idea or way to make money. For example, choose a few affiliate programs that you love and start promoting them in your popular posts. Then branch out to other affiliate links, get sponsorships, and develop courses as you learn more about your audience.
4. Be Yourself-
Genuine and unique content that speaks directly to people is the ONLY way someone will know if they want to work with you or buy from you. Don’t be afraid to share what you have been through and be vulnerable. Most of the people who end up working with me mention that there was something in the story I was telling that spoke directly to them. Either they had the same thing happen to them, or they experienced the same struggle. Your story helps people connect to you and want to work with you.
My favorite resources for blogging
Are you also wanting to create income, a side hustle or a business for yourself this year? These are some of the resources I used to get started…
This is the platform where I started my blogs- Bluehost
The course I took to learn about Blogging- Blog Boss with Her Paper Route
Where I learned to do affiliate marketing- Making Cents of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate programs I signed up with and love- MagicLinks, Amazon, and Share-a-Sale
The Blogging Business course I created where I’ve gathered all the tools and things I learned along the way- Be Passionate and Prosper Start an Online Business
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What are your blog income goals for 2019? How will you make them happen? Share your ideas and questions below!
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