how to make money blogging

How to make money from home | Blogging

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How I started making money blogging and from home and the tips and resources to help you get there also. How to make money through affiliate marketing and the highest paying affiliates. Tools you need as a blogger to help with accounting. 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you click on these links and make a purchase you will support my family and my blog at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog by sharing my journey and the products my family uses and loves.

PIN TO YOUR BLOGGING BOARD

HOW MUCH MONEY DO I MAKE WITH MY BLOG? 

UPDATE APRIL 2021: By April 2021, I was making about $5,000+ a month on my blog between ads & affiliate marketing.

UPDATE 2020: By the end of 2020, I was making about $2,500 a month on my blog between ads & affiliate marketing. 

MY MONTHLY BLOG EXPENSES 

#1 HOST YOUR WORDPRESS WEBSITE 

Start with BLUEHOST (for only $2.75 /mo only with this link) 

  • Do not mess around with Blogger or free blog tools. 
  • Host a WordPress Blog on Bluehost and start making money today! 
  • I was with Bluehost for YEARS and it’s the best place to start! 

#2 START WITH PINTEREST  

  • Canva – It’s FREE!!!
    • As a photographer, I am picky about design. AND I AM IN LOVE WITH CANVA!!!!
    • I do not use Photoshop at all anymore for my photos for my blog. 
    • Canva is FAST. It’s Simple. The designs are amazing. 
    • And it’s FREE to start! 
    • I upgraded to PRO to change the sizing. I make a ton of templates, then I change the size and I am able to make more pins in a similar style! 
    • I also LOVE the PRO images. And the 100GB of storage so I can save all my images and videos and have them ready to make new pins whenever I want! 
  • Tailwind – Get your FREE Trial today!
    • I love being able to automate my pins. I don’t work on Sundays so I have to schedule my pins. 
    • I also love the Board Insights so I can tell which boards are doing the best and I can get higher traffic from those. 
  • Pinterest Ads – Learn about Pinterest Ads here!
    • I am currently making 100% return on my investment with what I learned from Monica. 
    • So think about that. The income possibilities are endless. 
    • I started out with ads at $1-5/day to experiment and have increased every few weeks or months. 
    • And my income has increased accordingly. 

#3 GOOGLE SEO 

SEO Keyword Research Tools  – SEM Rush or KeySearch

See the SSSEO links below and why. 

#3 START AN EMAIL LIST

  • Convertkit Email List – It’s FREE!!!!!
    • Just start here and don’t even mess around with Mailchimp. When the time comes to have to switch to Convertkit, you’ll wish you had done it sooner. 
    • So just start with Convertkit. It’s simple. It works. And it’s free until you get over 1,000 subscribers! 
    • Want to learn how to grow your list and how to turn it into an income? This course is THE BEST! 

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE MONEY BLOGGING?

That totally depends on how many hours you put into it and how much research you do! And how much you can learn. Check out all the learning I have done below. I truly believe in RESEARCH and I believe in paying and investing in research. There is no way around it with blogging. The best info on how to do this for an income is not free! 

COURSES I USED TO MAKE MONEY BLOGGING 

I believe in spending money and learning from experts. I love to research. I buy books and courses. I dig in and learn. I PERSONALLY TOOK EACH OF THESE COURSES!  Here are my faves….. 

#1 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

STUPID SIMPLE SEO with Mike Pearson

I should have started here. I started with Pinterest. I should have started here. 

Start with SEO so it can be doing it’s thing in the background while you are hammering away with Pinterest! 

It’s so much easier to get your SEO going early and let it grow and do all those things first. 

Rathe than trying to play catch up later when your Pinterest traffic disappears! 

#2 MY FAVORITE PINTEREST COURSES 

All of the courses below are amazing and the teachers of these courses are amazing. They each have a Facebook Group where the teachers/bloggers/experts are totally accessible through commenting, messaging and monthly live video updates. They all update their courses with each Pinterest update. 

Start here…. Carly @ Blogging Like You Mean It – Pinteresting Strategies Course 

I cannot speak highly enough about Carly. I adore her. And I don’t even know her. How weird, right? WRONG. 

Why do I feel like I know Carly?! Because she is SO awesome. She is so awesome at what she does. If I feel like I know her from her course, her videos, her accessibility in her Facebook group (that only comes if you join her course), then she is…

a. doing all the things right. 
b. she can teach you how to do all the things right! 

Her courses are….

a. legit awesome. FULL of valuable info you can’t get elsewhere. 
b. she walks you through exactly everything she does and has learned. 
c. SOOOOOO CHEAP for the value packed inside! 
d. you have to get them all! 

Or here….Blog Clarity @ Pinning Perfect Course 

I took this course first and I loved it because they go through their EXACT routine of exactly how they work and what they do to pin. 
There are step-by-step details of exactly how they pin and their exact technique, covering every detail. 
And they have insider info into actually talking to Pinterest to learn more about how you could get penalized when you do the wrong thing. 
They also have an amazing Insider Facebook Group with great info! 

This is the one that taught me my secret sauce!…Anastasia @ Pinterest SEO Traffic Secrets  

I purchased Anstasia’s Pinterest SEO Traffic Secrets and her Coaching as well. I wanted her to look over my Pinterest strategy and help me. She was amazing. Even without coaching, she is super attentive to her group and her also to her clients. She has put a ton of time and attention to detail into this course and videos and learning Pinterest. Her coaching was invaluable. She went through my blog and my Pinterest pinning technique and gave me pointers. She made a document to go over everything. She was professional and so helpful! I would recommend her coaching hands down! Find her here! 

#3 MY FAVORITE AFFILIATE MARKETING COURSE

Carly’s Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers

I almost bought Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing First but when I read another review explaining this was a more advanced course and cheaper I was super excited about that info! 

I adore Carly (as I stated above) and was thrilled to find out that this course was full of better info (for me as a more advanced blogger) and that it was cheaper! Score for me! Carly does not disappoint! 

#4 MY FAVORITE PINTEREST ADS COURSE 

Monica @ Redefining Mom – Pin Practical Promotions 

This course is amazing! And it truly works. Not only does she give exact step-by-step detailed instructions on how to set up your ad, but I followed them to a T and went from 1-2 email signups daily to 10 per day! It was amazing. 

And she holds office hours for her students where she will look at exactly what is going on if you have an ad that you want more feedback on. 

She actually cares about her students and their situations and is seeking to understand the Pinterest algorithm perfectly so she can figure out how it works for herself and for you so it’s a win-win. 

I have also used what I learned and I’m making 100% or more on my investment with Pinterest Ads, increasing what I am spending and making every month. 

#5 MY FAVORITE EMAIL MARKETING COURSE 

Kate Doster @ Love Your List 

Talk about inspiring! Kate took a dream and turned it into reality. She learned email marketing and then created this amazing course to share it all. She is accessible and teaches EVERY SINGLE DETAIL to her students about how to grow a list and most importantly how to nurture that list! 

MORE INFO ON THE TOOLS I USE TO BLOG 

CONVERT KIT

The customer service is amazing. The platform is great. I love it all. 
The design is minimal and perfect at the same time! 

SEM RUSH

I get 30% of my traffic from SEO and I KNOW it is because I have done SEO research and I use the best SEO tools. 
It simply matters! Without the right search terms your blog posts will not be seen! 

Try out SEM RUSH now! 

TAILWIND

I have a thriving health coaching business. You can watch more on my Youtube Chanel here. Or message me and let’s chat. 
My point is just that I don’t have time to pin on pinterest all day anymore & Tailwind keeps my traffic up! 
Thank you Tailwind! Check it out here! 

Another feature I couldn’t live without on Tailwind is the way I can see which boards are doing well. That is not in Pinterest Analytics so I adore the Tailwind analytics tools and the Tailwind Tribes! 

SEND OWL

I use Send Owl to send out my free and purchased eBooks! It’s super simple and is very little effort and low cost. 

MEDIAVINE

I am so honored that I was accepted to be a member of Mediavine. I still don’t feel worthy. The Facebook group is worth it all! 

CANVA

I love Adobe Photoshop because I’m a photographer! So Adobe Photoshop is my happy place! 
BUT Canva is soooo easy for Pinterest pins! And there are so many templates pre-loaded in there! 

MILOTREE

I use milotree for my Pinterest Popup on my site to grow my Pinterest following and it works! 

FRESHBOOKS ACCOUNTING APP FOR ALL SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS! 

Once you start making money blogging or even before you do….you need to write off all your expenses. I LOVE Freshbooks! I used it for my photography business and it is SOOOO much easier than Quicken. It’s so user friendly. I used to use it to invoice clients. But now I just use it to track my receipts, my invoices, my milage etc. All of my write offs go in there. And I can put in all of my affiliate income and see how much I made. 

And the coolest thing….at the end of the year I can send my tax document directly to my tax person if I have one! It’s so simple! 

Freshbooks is amazing for my accounting!

MY FAVORITE AFFILIATES THAT MAKE MONEY BLOGGING 

If you believe in a product and research a product and want to share about a product, check to see if they have an affiliate network. Then write the post, add the pics and then make a GREAT pin for Pinterest! 

MY INCOME BREAKDOWN AS OF APRIL 2021

Someone got upset I didn’t break down my income for you so here goes….

  • AFFILIATES $4000+ / month 
  • ADS $1000/ month 
  • MLM income I cannot disclose 

START YOUR BLOG NOW AND START EARNING!

I am on a mission to remove toxins from as many homes as I can...starting with toxic fragrances and cleaners! I want to share my research with you and learn from you also! Let's do this together! I can't wait to meet you!

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