How I Make Money Blogging + How to Monetize a New Blog
Are you sick of scrolling Instagram and TikTok and wishing you were the one living the life you see those people living?
MEE TOO! That was my life until recently,
I didn’t understand how people could be making a full-time income as bloggers or influencers.
Making money online is a dream job. But how the heck are you supposed to get started when you have no idea what you’re doing?
Today I am going to walk you through how I make $10k+ per month on my blog, and how to get started if you want to blog but first here is a little about my blogging story.
This story starts just after I got married to my sweet, redheaded husband a few years ago. We were super broke. I’m talking food stamps broke but we had big dreams of what our life would look like when we found better-paying jobs.
I was in nursing school and hated it, but I felt like I had to keep going because I had gone into debt to be there. Then one day after a hard day of school, and an even worse day at work I realized something had to give because even once I had finished nursing school I was still going to hate my job and life.
I couldn’t continue living for my days off, hoping that I could figure out a way to just not hate working in nursing.
I knew I wanted to be more in control of my time so I could spend time with our future kids, and I knew I wanted to work normal hours with a good amount of time off each year. That left me thinking that the perfect job would be a work-from-home job.
So I began using Pinterest and Google to try and find a way to make money from home so we could travel, pay off our debt, save for a house, and save for a baby. I came across people saying, “Try Etsy print on demand,” “Create UGC for brands,” or “Become a virtual assistant,” so I tried it all….
I kid you not when I say that after working for months on all the above things, I had made like $9.
I mean, great, that’s $9 extra, but that would buy me a Starbucks coffee and a chocolate cake pop, not allow me to live out my dreams of being a work-from-home mom and wife.
Then I found blogging.
(does this sound familiar?) >> Then I saw a post on Pinterest, (much like this very post) about “How I Make $10,000+ per month” so I started reading it.
I was so inspired to start my own blog. That night I talked to my husband and, he said If I thought I could make back the money it cost to start a blog then I should give it a try.
So, I started my blog. To my surprise, the next day, someone didn’t just hand me $600 for my efforts. In fact, I had literally no idea what I was doing.
All those blog posts that once inspired me to start my blog actually taught me nothing about running a successful blog. They would just say things like: “I made $10,000 last month blogging through affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and ads.” They didn’t tell you how to set up your blog, get into affiliate programs, or get sponsorship deals.
They were just writing those posts for the clicks because who doesn’t want to know how to make $10,000 per month.
So I promised myself that if I ever actually figured out how to make money blogging, I would actually teach other people who really want to make money blogging like I did.
I was super confused for weeks and had no idea how to do anything for my website. Then, three weeks in, after hours a day of research and taking notes, I suddenly made $60, then $100, and then, before I knew it, I made $300 in my first month of blogging.
Then, seven months after starting blogging, I had saved a ton of extra money, so I quit my job to blog full-time.
This year I earned over $100,000 from my blog.
I decided it’s finally time to keep my promise to myself and actually teach other people who want to start blogs how they can do that for themselves.
Here is how I make $10,000+ per month blogging
1. I Start By Creating Achievable Goals
When I started my website I had no idea what I was doing, I was completely lost. It was easy for me to dream about the things I would do with the money I made and how it would feel to not have a job but I didn’t have specific goals.
But then I realized I could just set goals based on the things I wanted to achieve even if I had no idea what I was doing on my blog.
So I sat down and wrote out some smaller more easily achievable goals for myself.
My first-month blogging goals were:
Earn: $250
What I thought I could do with that: half of our groceries, or my nails, or getting my hair done
Write 5 Blog Posts.
Monetize at least 3 of my blog posts.
Share all 5 of my blog posts on Pinterest to try and get more readers.
Join 3 Facebook Groups and share my blog posts.
Would you believe I achieved each one of these goals? I think it really helped push me to keep working especially as I started to get closer and closer.
Now my goals look much more like this:
Earn: $10,000 A month
We’re currently saving for fertility treatments, a new DVC contract, and a new car (I’d love an escalade).
Write at least 1 monetized blog post a week.
Schedule 25+ pins a week (using Tailwind once a week)
Write 1 weekly email newsletter.
Keep active in my Facebook Group weekly.
Post regularly on Instagram Stories (this is mostly just for fun.)
GOALS ARE SO IMPORTANT!
I am so glad I did this (and continue to do this) because each month these goals push me hard to engage and grow a community for my blog online which then helps me grow my income.
In the beginning, it was hard-set goals about how much money I thought I could make because I didn’t have anything to base it on so keep that in mind when you are getting started. Your goals will become more accurate as you get used to blogging.
Thinking about the amount of money I want to make for the things I want in my life makes it so much easier to want to wake up and work for my goals every day.
Thinking about being able to bring a baby into our home because of the blogging business I created for our family is the greatest motivation I could ever have.
2. I Focus on A Few Social Media Sites, Not All Of Them
I realized quickly that when I started blogging, I didn’t have time to try to grow all my social media accounts at once. Heck, I was in nursing school and had a job. So, I focused on Pinterest and Instagram.
Pinterest: because it is how you get the most traffic to your blog. Pinning often means your followers are seeing content from your website more often. So, I spend most of my time focusing on Pinterest. (you can click here to learn how I met my goal and got a lot of traffic from Pinterest).
Instagram: because it is how I can best give you guys quick tips, answer questions, or just share my life and get to know you guys.
If you want to follow me or ask me a question, my Instagram is: @ByTaylorStanford
side note: Pinterest is the only reason I get traffic to my blog or earn an income. If you are new to blogging but really want to increase the money you make blogging, there are a few things that I recommend:
Tailwind: Tailwind is a Pinterest scheduler I use daily.
With Tailwind, you can find new things to pin by using group boards called Tribes or searching within Tailwind.
By using Tailwind Tribes, I have increased the number of views I get on Pinterest monthly from 40,000 to upward of 1,000,000 views a month. Tailwind is amazing and has changed my life. If you want to find out more you can sign up for a free tailwind account here.
3. I Make Most of My Money Affiliate Marketing (probably $9k+/mo)
Affiliate marketing has been so crucial to my blog making six-figures.
For months I was unsatisfied with my affiliate income because it was nearly nothing. Now I currently make around $9,000 per month from affiliate marketing which I am super happy with. After months of research, I finally figured out a method of affiliate marketing that worked! Here are a few of the things I think are key…
The keys to affiliate marketing are:
Knowing where to put affiliate links, and that you shouldn’t have more than 1-2 per blog post.
Knowing where to find the best affiliate programs.
Knowing how to target your audience with what affiliate links you use.
Knowing who your audience is.
You can’t advertise $3,000 boots when your audience is full of women who only make $20,000/year.
You can’t advertise Walmart products to women with Gucci taste.
Knowing how to drive traffic to your content with affiliate links in it.
BONUS: 4. You Should Offer Services
I don’t currently offer services because my schedule is so variable lately, but I know if you are reading this post, you are probably interested in starting a blog, or maybe you have one, and you probably want to make more money.
So I wanted to include this to inspire you to do go above and beyond so you can make even more money blogging than I do.
I see food bloggers all the time and wonder why they don't offer services to bring in more money.
You don’t have to blog about a specific topic to make money blogging, I have made money blogging about food, budgeting, and traveling on a budget.
Everyone has knowledge that someone else doesn't have and wants. The options are endless. Fashion bloggers could offer services helping their readers organize their clothes for that season, or for an event, or personal online shopping. There are so many ways to make money blogging with services.
5. I Don't Use Advertisements
Advertisements are a great way to earn extra money blogging. However, ads really take away from a blog when they are all over the place.
When your reader clicks on an ad they are taken away from your content to go buy something that isn’t making you any money. So sure you may earn $2 from every 1,000 people that see the ad, but you aren’t making the big bucks like the company running the ad is.
You never want your main source of income to be driving people away from your website. This will only lower the quality of relationships you can build with your readers.
If you want to use ads I recommend only having 1-3 advertisements on each page of your blog if you choose to have them.
6. I Don't Post Just To Post
I have come to the conclusion that posting every single day will not make you more money blogging. I wasted a lot of my time thinking that I needed to publish a ton of blog posts.
The way you make money blogging is by posting good content that is full of information and is actually giving something to your readers.
I currently post about once a week, but If I don’t have anything good to post, I just don’t post.
Here are a few of examples of how you can write good blog posts that make people connect with your blog more:
Let your personality shine through; it is the only thing that sets you apart.
People want to know about your old jobs, your kiddos, your husband, and what makes you able to create content.
Make sure you are always teaching.
Sharing a story is what is going to build a personal connection, but teaching is what is going to make people believe in your value as a blogger.
Believe what you are saying.
If you are talking about products you don’t believe in just to make a dollar, people will see it in your writing. Only talk about things you believe.
7. I Always Stay Educated Always
Blogging is always changing due to the nature of the internet. So you can’t just set it and forget it you have to keep learning.
Now a few of my favorite ways to stay educated are:
Keeping notes and looking back at them often so I don’t make the same mistake twice.
Using Pinterest to look at blogging tips and changes.
Reading other bloggers’ books/courses.
If you’re interested in blogging, and you want to know:
To know how to affiliate market like a six-figure blogger.
To know what to do day-to-day on social media and Pinterest in order to run a successful blog.
To know how the heck bloggers become successful.
To know what you need to do to increase your blog traffic.
To know when it comes to branding what is important, and how to do it yourself for free.
Then I highly recommend being on the look out for my Blog Coaching program that will be coming later this month.
8. Final Thoughts
I see so many bloggers post about everything under the sun even though they really want to be a fashion blogger or a mommy blogger.
To make money blogging, you need to stay true to yourself. Talking about something you don't care about to get people to click affiliate links or get more traffic makes your blog seem unprofessional and boring.
Talking about something you love makes it a lot easier to be dedicated to blogging. Being dedicated to blogging makes it a lot easier to make it a career.