How to Turn a Blog into a Side Hustle!
Starting a blog was something I didn’t put much thought into… at first. I used an already existing Gmail account and just activated a Blogger account. I put together a few posts, tried to set up Google ads, sat back, and waited…
and waited…
and waited…
It was quickly evident that this half-baked attempt to start a blog was not going to be the key to my financial freedom.
So at this point, I was faced with a decision… do I throw in the towel? Or so I invest some money, a lot of time, and figure out how to do it the right way. Fortunately, I chose the latter.
Time to Take Things Seriously
When I decided that I was going to put a little more time and money to try and make this blog legit, I started doing research.
Through doing some research, mostly on Pinterest, I found CreateandGo
. I started taking their courses to try and learn how to launch a successful blog.
Their courses teach you step-by-step, how to set up your blog, launch your blog, drive traffic to your blog, and monetize your blog.
Host Your Own Website
For the most freedom to control your blog and monetize it, it is better to host your own website instead of using WordPress.com or Blogger.
I use Bluehost to host my blog. And I run WordPress.org.
For more information on how to do this checkout, Build and Launch Your Blog
Affiliate Marketing
I learned that the best way to make money blogging is to sell your own products. But when you’re new to the game, this isn’t always something that you can create quickly.
When you don’t have your own products, you can participate in affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is when you earn a commission by promoting other people’s products.
Great places to get connected with affiliate marketing is through Amazon Affiliates.
Amazon Affiliates allows you to link to products on your website or blog. If someone clicks through your link and then buys products from Amazon within a certain period of time, you make a percentage of the sale. The percentage of the commission depends on the category of items that the buyer purchased.
Share a Sale
Share a Sale is a great resource for affiliate marketing. They promote that they have access to over 4,000 companies that are available to link up with.
Share a Sale also keeps track of your link clicks and earnings. Each month they also handle the payouts.
If you are looking to set up affiliate marketing, I really recommend Share a Sale. I have looked into a few others that have been recommended to me and they are the one that I find the easiest to use, and has the best source of affiliates that match my values as a blogger.
Develop a Social Media Strategy
Driving traffic to your blog is the key to success, it is also the hardest part (for me at least).
Social media is the best way to start building traffic. Personally, 75% of the traffic to my blog this year has come from Pinterest. So for every blog post that I have, I create multiple pins to post.
I am constantly keeping up with new research and modifying my pinning technique to try and utilize Pinterest as best as I can.
You can also use a company like Tailwind to schedule your pins so that you are not tied down to your phone or computer all day.
Click for my article on how to best utilize Tailwind.
Create an Email List
Your email list is the key to your success. If anything happens to your site, you will always have your email list.
You constantly need to be using incentives to get your readers to sign up for your email list.
I use ConvertKit to distribute my incentives, schedule emails, and maintain my email list.
See Also:
