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5 TACTICS I USED TO GO FROM $0 to $3,878 AFTER 3 MONTHS BLOGGING PART-TIME
If you landed here, it means that you want to know how to make money blogging, right? And ideally, you want to know if it’s possible to make money pretty fast…
You are in the right place!
It doesn’t matter if you started your blog a year ago, yesterday or if you are just thinking about starting one today! I will tell you exactly how you can make money from your blog, and all the tactics I used to make money after only 3 months.
How I Started Making Money Blogging: My Story
Ever dream of quitting your job and start working from home?
I know I do! For the past 11 years, I have been working in a very demanding job. I have been lucky enough to work with people I love, but the job itself was very time-consuming. It was the norm working for 12-14 hours a day in a high-stress environment.
I kept dreaming of a stress-free life and being able to do what I loved.
So in the evenings, instead of relaxing on the sofa in front of the TV, I started researching online for alternative options. I found many interesting creative ways to make money that could give me more freedom, but what I really wanted was:
- Something that would fulfill me and that I could enjoy doing every day
- Something that made money and helped me live the life of my dreams
During my research, I came across the concept of passive income and I thought: “Wouldn’t it be great to be able to set something up and not having to worry about money anymore?”
So I convinced Dan to start investing in real estate and index funds. We started to generate some passive income but I was still looking for my real passion.
Something was still missing.
I then realized I spent a lot of time reading blogs, looking at people that are currently living the life I want to live.
Some are able to stay at home and raise their kids away from the corporate world, some are able to travel every day of the year using their savings and investments, some created a 6-figure business while going to school and some have created a new life for themselves that allow them to do what they love.
What do they all have in common?
They have a blog!
So I thought: maybe I should start a blog as well!
But how to make money Blogging?
Click here for the high-res version. Feel free to use this graphic for your own use, with attribution.
Let’s be real here:
I was looking to find my passion but I also wanted to make money blogging. My goal was to be able to make $1,000 a month after a year of blogging. If I couldn’t do that, I would just quit this blogging business and move on to new adventures. But in order to do that, I had to learn how to make money blogging…
And this is what happened after 3 months of having my blog online. I made…
Ads Income (Mediavine) = $2,572.73
Affiliate Income = $1,263.96
I am not going to keep writing how much I make every month, and it took me a long time to decide to share this number, but I really wanted to let you know that it is possible to make money blogging with NO EXPERIENCE.
So how did I do it? Did it happen by magic?
First of all, I just want to say that:
- I have no experience writing for a living
- Up to 6 months ago I didn’t even know what digital marketing was (I am still unsure…)
- I never liked social media (and still don’t)
- I have never made money with an online product before
So if you are thinking you cannot do it, you are wrong!
And if you think it’s too late to start a blog in 2018, it’s not!
Start NOW! I learned how to make money blogging and if I did it, so can you!
This Is How I Did It
In just a few minutes I am going to tell you how you can make money blogging, but before you all get too excited about it, I just want to be clear about a couple of things:
> Making money blogging is POSSIBLE but it is…HARD <
If you read an article that tells you can set up a blog in 10 minutes and make $5,000 after a month…that’s not true, at least in my experience.
Blogging takes a lot of time and commitment.
There will be moments in which you are alone and no one is reading your blog and you will be thinking: “Why am I doing this? Will this ever work?” but you have to keep pushing and be motivated. You need to always keep your goal in mind.
And if you think you are not cut out for that, then blogging might not be for you!
> Blogging is not a get rich “the quick and easy way” thing <
You are going to have to keep working at it.
You are going to have to write and re-write your content. Improve your articles, find out what works and what doesn’t work and you cannot be afraid to change things.
You need to listen to people that know what they are doing better than you, but then it will be down to you and you alone to put in the hard work.
No one is going to do the work for you.
And if this hasn’t scared you away, you can keep reading!
Learn How To Make Money Blogging
I put together the most in-depth, comprehensive post to help you start your blog. This is NOT a quick read. I will share with you all the tips I used to create a successful 6-figure blog. If you want a thorough guide that will help you along with all the steps, just click here and get started!
1. Set Up Your Blog To Make Money
The first thing I learned during my research is that you need to make sure people will come to your blog.
I am not a great salesperson and I knew that I wanted to monetize my blog using advertising. I don’t like the way ads look on a blog, but hey, they make money!
In order to monetize your blog, you need to need to make sure you are not using a free service.
And these are the reasons:
- You are not going to be able to make money from a free blog
- If you use a free service, you WILL NOT own your own blog or your website content
- You will have limited options to customize your design and you will have limited support
If you want to make money from your blog, your website will need to be self-hosted on a web server that completely allows you to customize your website.
WordPress.org is the most popular website platform in the world. It’s free and extremely flexible and it’s what I am using for Gathering Dreams.
Although WordPress.org is free, you will need to host your files on a server (using a hosting provider such as Bluehost). This option comes at a cost, but you won’t be able to add ads to your website if you set up your blog the wrong way.
Reasons Why You Should Use Bluehost
- Its’ #1 recommended web hosting company by WordPress.org
- You get a FREE domain name
- It’s the best affordable hosting for beginners if you are just starting out and you have limited resources to invest in your blog.
You just need to click on the green button Get Started Now to chose your package. I have a special deal with Bluehost where you can get started for just $2.95 a month.
Make sure you are selecting the Basic started package, it’s the cheapest and it’s all you will need to start out.
2. Write Compelling Content That People Want To Read
A very important thing I learned is that you need to make sure people will come to your blog.
PEOPLE = PAGE VIEWS = MONEY
The only reason people will come to your blog is if you are solving a problem they have and they can get something in return for giving you their time.
No one wants to read about your personal struggles (other than your mum, maybe!) but they might want to read about how they can overcome their personal problems.
You need to make sure you are not writing for yourself but you are writing to help your readers solve their problems.
But how do you do that?
You learn from what works on other blogs!
This is what you need to do (and how I do it):
- Put together a list of your favorite blogs (I love The Everygirl for example)
- Go to the website Buzzsumo.com
Buzzsumo is great. If you want to have access to all the options it’s really expensive, but you can do pretty much everything you need to do with the free option. You get about 5 free searches per day, and you can only see the top 5 most shared articles, but that is plenty when you are just starting out.
- Add the website you want to analyze in the search bar
- Check which posts have the most shares (you can see if they have been shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc and how many times)
- Write a list of possible topics and blog post ideas that could work for your blog (I keep them in a Google Doc)
If people have shared that article thousands of times, they are likely to be interested in it! So find a more personal twist on it and write something similar.
Why Can’t I Just Follow My Passion And Write What I Want?
Of course you can, but if you want to blog for money, I suggest you don’t.
I gave myself a year to make blogging work for me, and I couldn’t hang around for people to read what I wanted to write.
Don’t get me wrong, I love everything I write on Gathering Dreams, and the topics I picked are my real passions.
I don’t think you’ll ever see me soon writing about “How to get fit in 10 minutes a day”. It’s a great topic, but I am not really into fitness.
But if people at Christmas want to read about Christmas recipes, I am all up for that!
3. Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic
How do you find new blogs posts and articles on the web?
Google search!
But getting your website ranking in Google takes a good few months and who has a good few months to hang around before seeing people coming to your website?
NO TRAFFIC = NO MONEY
So I did some research and I read everywhere that other bloggers were driving traffic FOR FREE to their website using Pinterest.
Pinterest?! Yes!
I always used Pinterest to find nice kitchen inspiration and recipes, but little did I know about getting blog traffic.
I now see Pinterest as a visual search engine and a free ads platform, but the great thing is that “normal” people don’t look at Pinterest images as ads.
They look at them as images that will help them to solve a problem.
But How Do You Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic To Your Blog?
Here are the 5 steps I used to bring traffic to my blog!
1. Set up a great Pinterest profile and convert it into a Business Account
Make sure you have an image in your profile. Most people suggest having your personal picture, and I can see the appeal of that, as you can relate more with a person than a brand, but I always wanted to keep my privacy so I decided to use my logo.
It works for me!
2. Make sure you have at least 15-20 boards that are relevant to your audience
You need to set up at least one board for your blog (or more than one if in your blog you write about more than one topic).
For example for Gathering Dreams I have 4 boards:
- Gathering Dreams: for everything
- Gathering Food: for recipes
- Gathering Money: for everything money related
- Gathering Travel: for all my travel content
This board/s will contain all the pins that are linked to your blog posts on your website.
You then need to create another 15-20 boards of topics related to your blog that will interest your potential audience.
For example, I write about food on Gathering Dreams, so I created relevant boards:
- Dinner Recipes
- Lunch Recipes
- Healthy Recipes
- Vegetarian
- Vegan Recipes
3. Create great “click-worthy” Pinterest images that lead to your blog posts
I can’t stress how important this is. If people won’t click on your pins, all your effort of writing great content will be worthless as no one will ever read it.
- Make sure you use readable fonts
- Use call to action on the pin and intriguing wording that people have to click. For example “How I make $100 a day in my spare time” works a lot better than just writing “How To Make Money From Home”.
- Test several pins: I normally create 2/3 pins for each post and then create a new pin every week for a few weeks to see what works best.
- Once you find something that works, keep doing it! But don’t be afraid to change and experiment with new pin design.
4. Find group boards and apply to as many of them as possible
What are group boards? Group boards are boards owned by other people. They can invite you to “pin” into their board, and once you are in, your pins will get in front of their audience. This is a great way to get pins in front of more people if you have a small number of followers.
To find group boards:
- Look for group boards in other people’s Pinterest accounts
- Use PinGroupie, a website that provides you with a list of all group boards on Pinterest
- Join the Facebook group Pinterest Group Boards: they have some great group boards opening on there every week. Just keep checking it!
I really prefer spying on other people’s profiles for 2 reasons:
- If I look for small bloggers like me, and they got accepted to a board, I am likely to be accepted on it too
- Pingroupie can be out of date and I get a much better idea about which boards work well for other bloggers by looking at their profile: if a big blogger is on a small group board, it’s probably a good one to try to get into
In order to join a group board, you need to send a message or an email to the person that owns the board.
Sometimes you will find instructions in the group board description, other times you will have to hunt around.
Never stop applying to group boards and never give up.
During my first couple of months blogging, I wrote to at least 30 board owners a week, and most of the time I got one or two replies.
This is normal! Just keep doing it and things will get better.
2019 UPDATE: You might read in several Facebook groups that group boards are not as relevant as they used to be. This is true, but they still play a role especially if you are just starting out. When you apply to a group board follow these rules:
- Make sure the board is very relevant and keyworded well. Avoid boards called “The best of blogging”, “Everything from the best bloggers”, and only go for topic-specific boards. Good examples are: “Saving Money Tips”, “Vegan Recipes”, “The Best Blogging Tips for Bloggers”.
- Make sure the pins that are pinned to the board you want to apply to are relevant. For example, I was in a great “Make Money Online” board, then the owner started pinning craft pins to the board and that board became useless because Pinterest didn’t know what it was about!
- Make sure there aren’t a lot of contributors. Ideally, you want to participate in boards with 20-50 contributors. Definitely avoid boards with over 150-200 contributors if you can.
5. Use Tailwind to schedule your pins
For the first couple of months, I just used manual pinning as I didn’t want to invest much money.
But after a few weeks, I started using the free trial of the best scheduling website that allows you to re-pin your pins automatically to your boards and group boards:
What does Tailwind do, really?
Tailwind lets you create a schedule of pins. Basically, you’ll be creating a queue of pins, and Tailwind will be pinning to your boards (and your group boards!) over a set schedule throughout the day.
Think about it this way: while you’re watching prepping dinner or you are out with friends, Tailwind is pinning your content.
What’s not to like?
I am sure you’ll LOVE it: try it out for free using my link.
Tailwind: If you are tired of pinning manually, try Tailwind. It’s the perfect scheduler to set up your pin strategy and make the most of your time and get optimum results from Pinterest. Try it for free for the first month, and get a $15 free credit for your second month!
Don’t pay for it until you feel you know what you are doing!
TIP: Another great Facebook Group to join is Simple Pin Pinterest Strategy Group. If you are just starting out, and you are not sure about how to approach Pinterest, there are many helpful bloggers here!
What I Used To Go From 3,000 Page Views to 10,000 Page Views
These are great points to get you started.
By using these tips I managed to get over 3,000 page views in my first month of blogging.
But this wasn’t ENOUGH.
If I wanted to make money with my blog I needed a lot more page views from Pinterest. So I kept researching and wherever I looked, everyone was recommending Carly’s book Pinteresting Strategies.
Using the system in her book, Carly managed to get to 200,000 page views in just a few months!
Carly’s book is AMAZING, and it’s one of the most reasonably priced courses you will ever find. The best value for money out there at $47 ($42 if you use the discount code PINNING5).
Even so, I am not a person that departs from money easily. I read everything I could find on Pinteresting Strategies before buying it. I started to read Carly’s blog, subscribed to her emails and then decided to go for it.
Her course is everything you can hope for as a Pinterest novice and more.
I wish I didn’t hesitate as much and bought it sooner.
I purchased her course on the 27th of November and in December (my second month blogging) my page views skyrocketed to over 10,000.
Pinteresting Strategies: Carly’s course on Pinterest is very helpful when you are starting out. It really makes you understand what Pinterest is about and how to set it up the right way. Her strategy is going to set you apart from other bloggers and help you to gain thousands of page views from the start. Carly has just updated her amazing course and has given all my readers a lifetime $5 discount. Make sure you use the code PINNING5 at checkout!
What I Used To Go From 10,000 Page Views to 180,000 Page Views
Carly’s system involves a lot of manual pinning and I couldn’t keep up doing it every day. Then one day she emailed me about an amazing blogging course she was part of:
Dare To Conquer (AKA The Billionaire Blog Club)
It was run by Scrivs, the same guy who runs Obstacle.co and The Free 6-Figure Business Bootcamp and I couldn’t believe someone as successful as Carly was still learning from it.
I was still skeptical so I emailed him…and to my surprise, he replied within 5 minutes. My email subject was “Will your course work for me?”
This is what he replied: The Billionaire Blog Club isn’t for everyone.
I loved his reply, which is private and I won’t share fully here, but enough to say I decided to invest in it in December.
And this is what happened in January, after implementing his strategies combined with Carly’s:
By combining Carly’s and Scrivs’ strategies I got over 114,000 page views in January (remember, my third month blogging). I made 4 times as much and repaid both these courses in a month, and I couldn’t believe it.
And this is what happened in February:
Dare to Conquer isn’t just a course:
It’s a community of great people always ready to help you and support you. Every time I have an issue I can just send a message to the community of bloggers there and I get a reply in a few minutes.
And Scrivs is always present and ready to encourage you and answer the many questions you will have for him.
The numbers speak for themselves. It’s not a cheap investment, but if you want to create a 6-figure blog that will change your life, Dare to Conquer is the place to be.
By using Carly’s and Scrivs’ strategies, I can assure you, you will get your page views up. But if you need support throughout your blogging journey, save as much as you can, and as soon as you have the money join us in the club!
If you want a taste of what Dare to Conquer is, Scrivs is offering an incredible deal. For just $1 (yes, that’s not a typo!), you can get access to the $100,000 Roadmap. Scrivs is going to show you everything you need to build your own $100,000-a-year blog.No gimmicks. No tricks. $1 and you get lifetime access to all of these things. Are you in? Click here if you want to join and I hope to see you there!
4. Learn from the best in the business
One of the things I spend time doing more than anything else is to check out other blogger’s content:
- How do they get page views?
- What are the most shared articles they have on their website?
- How do their pins look like and which pins have most repins?
- How do they make money?
You shouldn’t copy other people, but you need to take inspiration from them. If something is working for them, could you do it better?
How do other bloggers make money?
In January I had over 114,000 page views. This was beyond my wildest dreams. I managed to make around $1,000 with Adsense while waiting for my Mediavine account to be approved.
I could see bloggers having fewer page views than me, making a lot more money.
And this is how they were doing it:
- They created things to sell (like online courses or eBooks)
- They earned a commission through affiliate marketing
I had no time and willpower to create a product. When you start blogging, there are so many things to learn, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and give up.
The last thing I needed was to create something else, other than blog posts.
So I decided to look into Affiliate Marketing. I was impressed by how Michelle from Making Sense Of Cents managed to make over $1 million dollars a year using her affiliate marketing techniques.
I don’t think I will ever get anywhere near that, but I do love learning from the best.
Michelle teaches others how to make money online with her course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
In the course, she teaches you the exact strategies she used to go from making $0 in affiliate income to over $50,000 per month.
After implementing her strategies, my affiliate income went from $0 to $1,264 in one month.
And this is without fully implementing all her techniques (not because I am lazy, but because I am still learning and there aren’t enough hours in the day – and night!).
You can read all the tips I used to improve my affiliate marketing strategy here.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: Michelle’s course helped me to go from $1.34 to $1,264 in affiliate marketing in only 4 weeks. If you want to learn how to master affiliate marketing from one of the best people out there, I strongly recommend you to invest in Michelle’s course.
5. Don’t be afraid of investing
If you are serious about making money blogging, you need to invest in yourself!
There are a lot of great free resources out there, and you can learn so much from free courses like The Free 6-Figure Business Bootcamp, but if you are struggling with any step along the way, don’t be afraid of investing some money in a course that could help you to shortcut your learning.
The first time I bought a blogging course I was so worried I was wasting my money.
I thought everyone was a scam. How could someone make $15,000 a month with blogging? $50,000 a month?
I thought I was just going to get the usual advice you get from everyone for free but in a nicer package.
I couldn’t be more wrong!
But there are a few things I learned from buying courses, no matter how good they are:
- Always do your research and make sure you trust the people you are buying courses from
- Don’t be afraid to email the course owner before you buy: if they answer you, and you like what you hear, you will be reassured. If they can’t even spend time replying to your questions, that course (and person) is not for you.
- Don’t just buy a course for the sake of buying it and feeling better about yourself because you have invested some money. If you buy a course, use it!
Every time I spent money on a course, I knew I had to set time aside to really work on it and learn from it.
As much as Scrivs is supporting me in my blogging journey, or Michelle or Carly are giving me advise and feedback in their Facebook Groups, it’s just me and me alone that has to put the hard work and hours on my blog.
So just do yourself a favor and don’t invest any money in blogging if you are not serious about it!
If you just want to explore blogging and find out a bit about how to get started, read free resources and use your time to invest in learning as much as you can FOR FREE!
I read countless free blogging courses before I felt was ready to invest any money in blogging.
Ready To Get Started On Your Blogging Journey?
The Happy Ending…
I started thinking of blogging as a side hustle to make some extra money around 6 months ago.
It took me 2 months to learn and read as much as possible about it.
I launched my blog in November and after the first 3 months, I had over 180,000 page views and made $3,878 in one month.
This goes beyond anything I could have ever hoped for.
Yes, it’s HARD work.
Yes, it can be LONELY.
But it’s my blog and my journey and I couldn’t be happier.
This is just my beginning, and I really hope you will join me on this adventure to find your passion and be able to live your dreams!
If you have any questions please feel free to email me! I am where I am today because other people took the time to reply to my messages and I promise I will reply to yours!
If you are interested in starting your own blog, have a look at my step-by-step guide! I will show you everything you need to do to start a successful money-making blog!
Check out all the best resources for your blog! I find all these resources so valuable and I am sure they will help you as much as they helped me.
Rebecca @ A Fresh Outset says
This is great, I love hearing that you are learning from the people I am learning from! Cheers!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Rebecca! Glad you are learning from the same people, they are the best 🙂
Albert says
Hi Sara interesting and intriguing but still don’t understand where the money making comes into!! If you’re not selling anything??
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Alber,
The money comes from displaying advertising on the blog and from reccomending products. When people buy a product based on my reccomendation I take a small commission. This is called affiliate marketing. You can read about it here.
Gaby says
I loved this!! Thank you!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Glad you enjoyed the post, Gaby 🙂
George says
Sara
How many articles did you write in the 1st 3 months blogging? And how long were they?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey George,
I had about 20 posts ready when the blog went live, and I wrote about 1 post a week in the first 3 months.
finsavvypanda says
Hi Sara! This is fantastic that you’re seeing a lot of results with your blog! I am so happy for you!
Unfortunately for me, I am still doing something wrong and I’m not sure what it is. I have Carly’s Pinterest course as well, but I didn’t see any results after I implemented it. Maybe I misinterpreted some points. I should go back to the course and refer back to it. I always tend to think it’s more of my problem than someone’s or a course’s problem haha.
In the meantime, I just started taking making sense of cents course and I am trying to figure what products or services I could promote that adds value to my readers. I haven’t came across many that I think would add value to my readers, but hopefully I will soon…
and btw, I still can’t seem to understand the Pinterest game. I wasn’t sure if it’s my pins that suck, or is it the keywords in my profile, boards, and pins. I looked on Pinterest’s keyword top search and used those words with a full description on my pin (avoiding keyword stuffing), but I am not seeing the traffic I’d like to come back to my page 🙁 *sigh* I gonna have to keep working at this and figuring it through trial and error.
Thanks so much for this detailed post. It’s very well-written and I love your progress! I’m going to bookmark this page to re-read when I need a few more pointers. Keep it up, Sara! 🙂
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much 🙂
Yes, I would suggest you go back and re-read Carly’s book! I am re-reading it for the third time right now. There is always something else that you pick up after you have been doing something for a while.
Your pins look great! And I really mean it! Keep trying and try to be consistent as much as you can with pinning. I pin A LOT every day, like 100-150 pins a day, at different times in batches of 20-30 pins.
I am sure you will see results soon. And Pinterest is an up-and-down game! It never just goes up!
Bridget says
Question? How Long does it Take you to make 20-30 pins??
I mean it takes me 15-20 min to make one pin for a Blog post!
and do you use canva?
Thanks!
Bridget
Serving ALL Moms|The Breastfeeding Mommy
http://www.ThebreastfeedIngmommy.com
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Bridget!
Wow, 20-30 pins? It takes me a long time! I normally try to create unique pin design, so each pin can take me 15-30 minutes, sometimes longer! But I also do some color variations and those can only take 5 minutes. I definitely don’t do 20-30 pins in one day. I try to make at least 5-7 new pins a week, but I am consistent and do that every week, and over time the number of pins adds up!
I hope this helps 🙂
vrushtii says
Hi Sara
this was definitely helpful and thanks a lot. I like the effort you put in and it seems like that really paid off.
though, I have one question, is it normal to start a blog which is not a money-making one.
thanks for your time to read this!
love and support, vrushtii😊
I hope u see and reply to my comment.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Vrushtii,
Thank you! I am not sure I got your question right. Do you mean if you could start a blog without the idea of making any money out of it? If so, of course! You don’t really have to make money. You can just share your thoughts, opinion, and advice on your blog, without the intention of monetizing it.
It’s up to you 🙂
Sarah says
FinSavvyPanda! I see your pins on Pinterest all the time! I actually just scheduled some in tailwind for this week. I think your pins are beautifully branded. I agree that Pinterest is hard as I am struggling to get traffic to my site as well. Just keep at it! And if you figure out the secret sauce let me know and I’ll do the same. We can do it!!
Alexis says
You’re amazing! Your blog is seriously one of my favorites. 🙂
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
You are too kind Alexis! I love your blog too, you are one of the people I look up to. A great inspiration 🙂
Jody Richard says
This article was tremendously helpful and I am definitely grateful for the immense amount of information you provided. I am going to reread it for sure and take note of all the free resources you have brought attention to. I think that once I soak up all the free resources and get my basic starting foundation I will look into investing more because I truly believe in that. But like you said I also have a hard time letting go of money until it is a necessity. With that being said I just want to express how much inspiration you provided through your post! I d love to have you as a blogger buddy because I m just loving this post so much and it’s the first I’ve read!:) Anywho congratulations on your success I can’t wait to post something you can view as well!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks so much, Jody 🙂
I really believe investing in myself and my education about blogging is what made a difference and helped me to make a significant income much faster. But also as important is to put in practice what I learned!
Good luck with your blog 😉
And if you have any questions, just ask!
Scrivs says
There are so many different points to hit upon with this excellent post that if I tried to address them all I would be writing my own blog post here and I can’t do that to you or your audience.
So I’ll talk about the topic/niche selection because it seems to be a huge sticking point for people. Sometimes I wish I didn’t write about the 7 blog niches that I love because people tend to take them too literally.
I even mention in the article how you can write about whatever you want and probably still make money but your progress is going to be different.
So I do think you can write about your passion if you want but depending on the passion it might take you so much longer to see success. If your passion is Goldfish then I have no doubt you can make a living writing about them but it’s going to take time to bulid up the audience compared to the person that is writing about gardening.
Same thing is going to happen with people that read this post. They’re going to see your blog and the success that it has achieved and assume their blog should see the same levels of success in a short period of time.
If not then it’s a failure.
Of course this couldn’t be further from the truth. You write about big topics that already have huge audiences so you’ve put yourself in a position to get big numbers. As you’ve already seen it can happen quickly but it doesn’t happen for everybody.
You put the right pieces in places and rocked the hell out of them.
Does this translate into long term success? You know that’s up to you.
Or maybe it’s just your super cool logo that brings everyone to the site!
Keep rocking things out, girl. You’re making me play catch-up now.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much @Scrivs! I know you are a very busy man and it means A LOT to me that you have take the time to check out my post and write this comment!
I have to thank you and BBC for a lot of the success I have seen in these last 3 months!
Viv Digs says
Fabulous article, one of the best ones I have ever read outlining this whole “getting into the blogging world”. You break it down and make it seem doable! I’m so happy for you and that it’s working out! I think I’m going to give it a shot as well!!!!!!! ♥
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Viv! You will rock at blogging! 🙂
I will be your number one fan and follower! xxx
Quinncere says
This was an awesome post. I found it by way of a Scrivs email and I’m glad I did.
The points you hit are very true and you explain them with honesty.
Congrats on your success and you’ve gained a new fan!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Quinncere! What you said means a lot to me! 🙂
Jenny says
Congrats, be so proud of yourself for accomplishing so much so quickly! A question about pinning since I’m still confused over Pinterest group boards. How many pins per day are you pinning of your own and do you pin them all throughout the day or all at one time? And do you know if I make a pin B variation can I pin it the same day as pin A for the same post? ‘ve been pinning them one day apart but don’t know what others do–it’d be nice to have my most popular pins for out more than once per day but I don’t want to get penalized by Pinterest for that. I can’t quite figure out the best way with group boards, thanks for any insight!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Jenny, thank you so much 🙂
To reply to your questions:
– I try to pin between 20-30 pins manually every day (mostly my best-performing pins) and I schedule between 60-80 pins to my group boards. I pin throughout the day as I believe Pinterest rewards you for being on their platform as often as possible. I tend to pin when I wake up, 10-15 min at lunchtime, and before going to bed.
– I do pin pin A, B, C, D…for the same post on the same day, several times! I try not to put them on the same group boards, but I definitely do it on different boards. And if a group board moves quickly in the day, I might pin it even to the same board in the morning and in the evening. But always remember to check the board rules as some might not allow this!
I suggest you read this post:
https://business.pinterest.com/en/best-practices-for-pinterest-success
It’s from Pinterest! They won’t penalize you for pinning the same post several times. They actually say it’s great to have different images per post. Just make sure you don’t pin them too often at the same time to avoid making your account look spammy.
I hope this helps 🙂
Malea Holm says
Thank you for sharing! This is probably one of the most helpful posts I’ve read about starting a blog!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Malea, glad you found it helpful 🙂
Kayli Barth says
This post is SO amazing! So many resources to check out.
I’m curious how much time you are spending each week on your blog – writing, creating pins, pinning, etc. And how many posts did you have before you started seeing success?
Congrats on your awesome and quick success with your blog!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Kayli,
Thank you so much!
The first 4 months I think I put in the equivalent of 4 full days work a week. I just felt I had a lot to do and learn.
Now I am trying to take it a bit easier and I am doing between 2 to 3 days a week.
I had around 25 posts on my blog before I started to get some serious traffic! But I would say for the first month I didn’t know as much about writing the right posts and I probably wrote 10-15 posts that are not the best topic to get traffic!
Miranda says
This is probably one of the most straight forward and honest post about blogging I have read since I started. I really wish I had the money to invest in a coarse right now, I may just bite the bullet and put it on credit card even though I hate that. If you could take a look at my blog and tell me if you think it’s worth continuing the fight I would really appreciate it. http://www.healthylifestyleregiment.com. Your site looks amazing by the way. Did you have someone design it?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Miranda,
Thank you 🙂
Invest the money only if you have it! I think buying courses can fast-track your success, but I would never ever go into debt to buy a course. If you really want to take blogging seriously, there are a lot of free resources around.
You can make some extra money doing some freelance work for other bloggers, sell some of your old stuff you don’t use anymore (like clothes for example)…just don’t spend money you don’t have.
Health is a great topic for your blog and I think you can be very successful. You just need to make sure what you are writing about is what people want to read and you are solving people’s problems.
Look at websites like Buzzfeed for blog post titles. You need to make people wanting to click on your post. For example, your blog post called “What To Eat Post Work Out?” could be called “The Best 5 Snacks That Will Help You To Build Muscle After Work Out”. Or something like that! People love lists!
And I am glad you like the look of my website 🙂 I designed the logo myself and the theme is from Design by Bloom.
Virginia Newman says
Hello Sara, thank you for the insightful article. You’ve given me a lot of information I plan to use. I see the majority of your income is from Mediavine. If I Google search this will I discover what this is? Also can you share what the affiliate income is from? One more question I don’t understand your daily pinning. Are you re-pinning your posts to your boards or pinning other things to your boards? Thank you again and keep growing!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hello Viginia,
I am glad you found the article useful 🙂
Mediavine is an ads network. They pay you to put adverts on your blog. You need to have a certain number of visitors per month in order to be accepted (25,000 sessions per month, which is around 30,000 page views).
The affiliate income is from many different companies.
Just to list a few:
– Surveys websites like Swagbucks
– Airbnb
– Booking.com, Skyscanner
– VIP Kid
I re-pin my posts to my board, but also to Group boards. Group boards don’t belong to me. The owner is normally another blogger and they “invite” you to pin on their board. I also pin other people’s pins but I normally pin 70-80% of my pins from my posts and 20-30% of other’s people pins.
I hope this helps 🙂
Charlie says
This post taught me a few new things and I’m really interested in that Billionaire Blogging Course. Hmm though, I’ll have to research it more. Thanks for the tips!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Charlie! Doing your own research is super important! The BBC course is now open and will close again next Friday, the 13th of April 🙂
Paula says
Thank you for the great article – I was aware of most of these resources, but you have inspired me to invest the dollars in them to get the results. You’re an inspiration – thank you!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Paula 🙂
Schawann says
I’m so appreciative for your blog, I enjoyed reading every bit of it. Definitely informative piece for a beginner like myself to the blogging world. You have truly inspired me in more ways than one. Thank you
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Schawann! I am so happy you are enjoying reading the blog 🙂
Torez Ramsey says
I have been reading TONS of blog post about monetizing your blog such and it’s definitely been a struggle. There’s been on weeks and off weeks but I definitely will keep moving forward. Thank you so much for this post. It’s absolutely amazing and full of so much useful advise. I think this is the first post I’ve read about monetizing your blog from someone that has a blog that’s not only about blogging tips and advice!! This makes this so much more relatable to myself
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Torez,
Thank you so much for your kind words! I am so happy you found the post useful.
I thought a lot about writing it or not, because the last thing I want is to turn my blog into another “blog about blogging blog”. But I really wanted to tell other bloggers out there that it is possible to make money with your blog, no matter what you write about.
You still have to find the right topics, and write about stuff that people want to read, but it doesn’t have to be about blogging all the time!
Good luck with your blog 🙂
Stephanie says
Thank you so much for this article, I love it! I’m curious to know why you chose media vine as an advertising program instead of Google Adsense which everyone else seems to go for? Is there much of a difference? Thanks again!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Stephanie!
Glad you liked the article. For the first 2 months, I used Google Adsense, and I did make some good money. But with Adsense you have to manage your own ads and it’s not that easy find the right balance between content and adverts. There are some plugins to help you do that but I found they made my website look ugly and full of spammy ads where I didn’t want them. So I ended up placing ads manually in each article.
Mediavine makes it much easier to manage your ads, their technical support is outstanding and on average I make 30-35% more. They do say revenues vary a lot depending on your blog topics etc. but a lot of bloggers use them.
So I am pretty happy with them.
I hope this helps 🙂
Clary @ Ohclary.com says
Hi Girl,
Just had to say your blog is amazing and this post is especially great.
In fact it’s so great it convinced me to buy BBC yesterday through your link!
I hope it helps me as much as it has helped you in growing my blog and one day I will be able to get to your level 🙂
I noticed you have super unique and great pin designs on Pinterest and you should totally write a post or even release an ebook about how you get your pins to look so good.
I would love to know your tricks!
Best regards,
Clary
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Clary!
Amazing, I am sure you’ll find BBC super helpful. Your blog looks great, and you already have some fantastic posts! 😊 I am sure with BBC support you’ll be able to make more money in no time! Feel free to keep in touch and let me know if I can help in any way!
[email protected] says
As a beginners in blogging we found this article very helpful.Very clear written and interesting at the same time.Great job.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Dimitri, I am glad you found the article helpful! 🙂
John Mulindi says
Well done, this is a comprehensive post with everything you need to succeed as a blogger. Thanks for sharing.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much John 🙂
Janet says
Thanks for sharing. I just started blogging and love your blog and the tips you share!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Janet 🙂 And good luck with your blog!
Candi says
Thanks for all the great info, thinking about giving this a shot!!!!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Candi! 🙂 I love blogging! I hope you will give it a go! Let me know if you do!
Rachel says
Thank you so much for including real info in this post! I’ve been working at growing my blog after giving up on it for the past two years. I’m looking at both the pinterest books you mentioned here. I’m probably only going to invest in one for right now- which would be your pick for starting out?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Rachel,
I am glad you found the post useful!
Both books are amazing!
If you can dedicate 30 minutes to an hour a day manual pinning, I would suggest you start with Carly’s book. It’s great to understand how Pinterest works especially to jump-start your Pinterest game. And once you buy the book, you don’t need to invest any more money for a while.
If you are looking for a more automated system, Scrivs’ book teaches you a completely hands-off strategy BUT you will have to pay for BoardBooster. You can try BoardBooster for free for a few weeks, but then you’ll have to start paying $5 (for 500 pins per month) to $10 (for 1000) a month, depending on how many pins you will pin.
I hope this helps!
Let me know if you need more info 🙂
Rachel says
Super helpful! Thank you again!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Any time Rachel 🙂
Paul says
Nice Article! Inspiring and motivating, I like the part about not paying them until you know what you are doing 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Paul 🙂
Leslie Andrade says
I LOVED this! After reading this I am interested in being a blogger!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Glad I made you interested in blogging! It’s a great side hustle that can turn into a profitable business 🙂
Amanda Berke says
Wow! There’s so much great information on this blog post! I haven’t heard some of these strategies before and I feel like I’ve read so many different how to get started blogging posts! I loved the idea about the buzz sumo website I have never heard of that before! I have to come back and read this again.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Amanda! Glad you found it useful 🙂
Ting says
Im so interested in blogging 😊but dont know where to start.thank you for a beutiful inspiring article❤️Love it.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Ting, for reading it 🙂
Stephanie says
Hi! Great read! Thanks for sharing! I’m just starting my blog & I’m not sure what I’m doing😬 I’m trying to see how to connect with other bloggers. Is it through comments or email? Any advice you could give I’d greatly appreciate!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Stephanie! 🙂 There are some great Facebook groups to connect with other bloggers! I found it the best way to get support and meet other people. Just look for bloggers groups in your niche. I love Carly’s group “Blogging Live We Mean It”. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/159357984685265/
Good luck with your blog 🙂
Shirley says
This is a great blog post! I love your dedication! Happy to see your success in such a small period of time 🙂 Love your blog!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Shirley! You are very kind! You have a great blog too! I wish you the best of luck with it! 🙂
Kendra says
This post is SO full of amazing tips and helpful info! Such a great job, I will be pinning to reference in the future for sure! Loveeee the buzzsumo tip 🙂 Thanks for sharing all your tips and tricks and congratulations on your blog success!
Kendra | kendrablogs.com
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Kendra 🙂
Callie says
I just discovered your blog today and I am loving it! I am in the very early stages of starting my blog and I’m so excited to hear your story and see how you have grown your blog. I am with you on the hours of hardwork but it is so worth it! I can’t wait to see how far your blog continues to grow.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experiences.
Love your passion and the look of your blog. I’m excited to keep reading and it’s an encouragement to me! 🙂
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Callie 🙂 I love blogging and I really believe it’s an amazing way to earn money and still be yourself!
Good luck with your blog! It can be a hard journey at times, but if you focus on the end result you have in mind, it will be easier to go through tough days!
Anishad says
Thanks for informative post. Affiliated marketing is a best way to make plenty of money. And the is a lot of other ways to make money like product review and AdSense but for me I like Affiliated programs.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
I agree, Anishad! Affiliate marketing is an amazing way to make money. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Jane says
Amazing and inspiring information. Thankyou so much. I like the way you write truthfully and with integrity. The steps you took, the cautious approach. That speaks to my mindset.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Jane 🙂 I am glad you found the post useful!
financial says
it started out as a good article, but then i started noticing the MASSIVE amount of ads. there is an ad every 1-2 paragraphs; there were 28 ads in this one blog post. wayyyy too much. no wonder my page kep lagging. blog post not worth the extreme lags
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you for your feedback financial!
Ads are one of the ways I make money blogging 🙂 but I do take every comment seriously. I reduced the number of ads to half. I hope you will see an improvement in speed, although you might need to clear your cache to see fewer ads.
financial says
thank you, it has helped a lot 👍
Amy says
Your post was incredibly helpful. I have been blogging about 8 months now and while I am growing I feel like I am ready to take my blog to the next step. I know I could be doing a lot more, it is just trying to figure out exactly what the next step looks like. I have taken a lot of notes and will be checking out some of your resources. Thanks so Much.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Amy,
I am so glad you found the post helpful 🙂 Good luck with your blog!
Blogging is a constant learning experience. I always feel like I am 6 months behind everything I want to do, but I need to learn to have more patience with myself as it takes time!
Self Hosted Life says
Hats Off.. to you Sara..!
awesome post again charged me and fuel my dreams that I have chosen the best career as blogging.
So many resources included from all these a good intro to some of the best course out there.
After seeing your pageviews insights I planned to take at least a free trial of 12 days bootcamp.
Since my blog is newly born with 13 posts, and I’m struggling to grow.
Hope this free trial produce me some good results
Thanks a lot
keep up the good work.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Self Hosted Life! Blogging is a great way to earn money and I love it 🙂 Good luck with your blog and I am sure you’ll find the 12 days boot camp very useful 🙂
Self Hosted Life says
thank you
Tati says
Thank you so much for such an in depth article. I am struggling to find traffic to my blog, although I know I can offer better content than most. A lot of blogs I see are so superficial with just pretty pictures. I have always excelled at research papers so writing in depth articles is a breeze for me. I find it impossible to find traffic even if I spend alllllll of my time trying to make Pinterest work.
I wish there was a quicker way to apply to group boards. It takes me forever to apply to one!! Many group boards are closed. I can’t wait for the break through that I know is coming! 🙌🏼
I need to keep applying to group boards and not giving up! Besides buying a Pinterest course, which unfortunately every single blog post leads to, nobody actually wants to tell the formula for Pinterest. When I break the code, I vow to help out anyone FOR FREE that needs it but can’t afford to spend the money.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Tati, glad you found the post useful 🙂
Applying to group boards can get boring, but if you set aside an hour a week and send 15-20 emails at a time, it will be less painful and you’ll see results quite quickly.
About Pinterest, you don’t necessarily have to pay for courses! Courses will help you to get results faster, but unfortunately, there isn’t a secret method that will work 100% of the time.
You just need to be consistent, create as many pins as possible and pin every day! Courses will help you to fast track some strategies, to get better at pinning consistently and create well-designed pins that could potentially attract more readers, but a lot of the hard work is still down to you and you can absolutely get there without having to pay for it!
It might just take a bit longer!
I hope this helps 🙂
Kaylee Nelson says
Thank you so much for the information and sharing how others can achieve the same success. I’m just barely got started and may be a bit ahead of myself but I’m hoping to start financially investing in my blog by mid-june!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Kaylee,
I am glad you found the post useful. The beginning of the blogging journey can be hard, but it’s really worth it and it gets easier the more you learn and push yourself! Good luck with your blog 🙂
shylo says
Awesome post, thank you for sharing your experience! I’m always looking at seeing what other bloggers have done to be successful and try to learn from them. Blogging is a lot of work but it’s awesome because you’re doing something you love, I hope to reach your status soon and start earning some income!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Shylo! Good luck with your blog 🙂
Mathieu says
Sara,
what an awesome and inspirational Post!
I wish I had found it earlier, before launching my own bloG. however, there is a lot of good information in that post!
I Actually found you while trying to build my Pinterest presence. And to be honest, It’s actually my first comment ever on a blog.
I hope I will be able to reach your level in a short time! And thanks to that post, I am taking Scrivs 12 day BOOTCAMP.
By the way, I love the look of your Blog. Very professional.
I hope that one day I will be up to the challenge.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Mathieu!
Good luck with your blog!
The biggest advise I can give you is to learn from others, and don’t be afraid to experiment and change things that don’t work!
Stefani Kaye says
Thanks for sharing this post, I love reading other new blogger’s experiences with generating passive income – especially in a short amount of time. My blog only launched 2 days ago so of course not much of anything has happened yet! My goal is to be earning $10,000 a month by the end of 2019 (hey, a girl can dream).
I’ve also been following Scrivs and BBC for a while, I love what he does. I wish I had the money to invest (especially before the huge price hike) but there is just no possible way I can afford it so hopefully if I can start earning some money from this I’ll be able to invest finally. In the meantime I look forward to his emails and always read them – filled with insight but not the kind that makes blogging out to be this super easy, anyone can do it, get rich quick scheme, which I love. He’s brutally honest.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Stefani!
And congratulations on launching your blog 🙂 And hey, I am not calling that a dream! You can do it! Without a final goal in mind, we wouldn’t achieve anything.
I wish you to get there even sooner!
Om Rawal says
Which platform do you use to run your site ?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Om,
I use WordPress.org
I hope this helps!
Ryan Biddulph says
Creating compelling content and strong bonds helped me prosper sara. Rocking post here! I helped folks through posts, videos and podcasts to be of service. But then I had to build bonds through genuine blog commenting and promoting other bloggers to amplify my reach. powerful 1-2 punch that rocks around the clock lol.
Ryan
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Ryan! I agree: great content and building a network are a powerful way to have success 🙂
Jonathan @ OnePercentIntent says
Hey Sara,
Awesome post, thanks for sharing. This is MASSIVELY inspiring.
I recently shared a blog post with my audience that compared the income reports of six trusted bloggers to see how long it took them to reach a full-time income. (I decided on $4,168.97 for the monthly full-time income figure, which was based on the average annual United States salary for 45-54 year olds divided by 12).
I found that the quickest time to achieve this full-time income was 12 months, while the slowest was 36 months. The average time taken by the six bloggers was 21.67 months (much shorter than I had imagined!)
It’s fantastic to see that you’ve completely smashed it; reaching not far off the full-time income figure I used in only three months! Good job!
I really like your tips on how to learn from the best in the business too. I couldn’t agree more how important it is to figure out what’s working for other people and to emulate it to achieve success as quickly as possible.
Keep up the amazing work.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Jonathan,
Thank you so much for stopping by! And you have put together a great post 🙂
I really hope I will reach your full-time income (I am actually aiming for $5,000 a month) in 12 months! We’ll see!
My initial goal was $1,000 after a year and I am very happy I got there only after a couple of months!
Good luck with your blog!
Colin says
This is a great post and I’ve bookmarked it and signed up for your emails to keep in touch!
I agree we must learn from those who are succeeding and i can see you are im going to follow and learn from you.
Good luck as you journey into the future.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Colin! 🙂
Joana says
Hey Sara! I love how informative and straight to the Point your blog post is! It has been difficult (at least on my end) to find bloggers who really talk about every baby step you need to take to build your own successful blog!
One question I do have for you is, how do you get paid for all the views that you RECEIVE on your blog? Is it something that is offered through Blue host or WordPress, where they pay you directly for having all these people reading your blog?
Thank you
Joana
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Joana!
Thank you so much for your message!
You make money based on advertising revenues. The more people come on your blog, the more money you can make. There are several companies that pay you to put adverts on your blog, once you have enough readers. The most famous are: Google Adsense, Mediavine and AdThrive.
You will need to add advertising on your blog and every time someone see the advert or clicks on it, you will make money.
I hope this makes sense 🙂
Let me know if you need more info!
Lacey says
I HAVEN’T commented on any blog posts before but I just have to Tell you that this was such a great, to the point, thorough post on exactly the info I was looking for. Thank you! I subscribed and am Inspired to stop collecting information and just do it!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Lacey! 🙂
I am so glad I have inspired you to start a blog! Read as much as you can and research and let me know if you have any questions when you are ready to start!
Susan says
What a great article, sara! A lot of great information, thank you. I recently joined BBC and am loving it. I’m still getting through the courses, but found the community to be really encouraging. being in the program has definitely spurred me into action after sitting on my blog idea for months! 🙂
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Susan!
BBC is an amazing community and I am sure it will inspire you 🙂
marta says
Amei o seu blog, essas dicas são incríveis. Criei o meu blog desde 2014 e aconteceram tantas coisas até esse ano. Agora em agosto decidi que quero trabalhar só com blog … procurando conteúdo na internet, encontrei o seu blog e vou colocar as dicas em prática. Quero muito chegar lá … obrigada por compartilhar!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Marta!
I had to use Google Translate as I don’t speak Portuguese! 🙂
Good luck with your blog!
lusekelo says
That is great, three months must be a record, most people take more than a year to make their first sale.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Lusekelo! 🙂
Yes, I still can’t believe how fast I managed to get there. I think timing played a big part in me being able to make money blogging so quickly, but I put in a lot of hard work too!
Dylan says
Nice thanks for the sharing this article its very nice and helpful for us.. please keep it up with a new post…
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Dylan 🙂
Whitney says
I have been considering starting a blog for a while now, I’m still in the “research phase” but I will say this article has the most useful information I have seen without being too overwhelming! I love that you show that you are just like everyone else and not ‘perfect’ yet you have found success! It is very inspiring!!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Whitney! 🙂
I am so glad you found this inspiring! I really love blogging, and there is so much to learn. I’ve made mistakes along the way, but you only learn by doing stuff!
Justin says
Some good tips there! Currently I’m only using affiliate marketing and considering ads myself.
Justin
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank Justin! You really have to check out ads income if you have good consistent traffic!
Gisel says
This has to honestly be the most helpful post about blogging I’ve come across with. not only do you make the dream of living a stress-free life relatable, but you have such good tips I haven’t been able to find anywhere else.
I have been reading and researching about how to get my blog started for a while now and there is one question that keeps me from taking real action, how long do I or should I wait until I make my website live or viewable for others? How long did it take you to finalize and be ready for others to view your website?
Thank you and I hope you the best continuing your success!
Gisel
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks for your kinds comments, Giselle!
I am glad you found this post useful!
I waited roughly 6 weeks before I made the blog live. That’s the time it took me to create my first posts (I started with 15-18 posts) and set up the theme exactly how I wanted it.
I hope this helps! 🙂
Terri k says
I am so glad i found yhis blog post when i did. I started blogging back in 2012 as a hobby and for the past 3 years i’ve wanted to get More serious and see if i can earn some passive income From the blog but i havent put in the effort. Your post inspired me to just do it. I especially like the part when you said it would be lonely sometimes cause That has been the trend over the years. Although i have connected with like minded individuals, my JOURNEY is mIne alone to travel. I look FORWARDto joining your email list and watching you grow your blog!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Terri,
I am so happy you found the post useful!
And yes, you’ll need to create your own journey and find what works for you and what motivates you!
Some days it’s really hard, other days is very rewarding! Remember the great days and the goals you want to reach when you have a bad day, and things will get easier!
Good luck 🙂
Anna says
Thank you so much for sharing all this information! It’s definitely the best post I’ve read on getting money from your blog. I started blogging 5 (ish) months ago and i’ve been reading about ways to make money but haven’t really found a way to work for my blog. I think i’m a little discouraged because my blog is mostly about books and i haven’t figured out a way to work in affiliate links. but I’m definitely going to try and use your tips and tricks.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Anna,
Don’t get discouraged! You have a lovely blog! There are a few things I would suggest you to try to gain traction:
– I can see from your blog that you love all things Disney! There are bloggers who just blog about that, there is so much you can write about that, and it’s a topic that works very well on Pinterest. Try to leverage your passion and knowledge on the subject.
– Books: I couldn’t find any link to Amazon books? Are you an affiliate with Amazon? If not, you should apply straight away! You can then sell the books you are reviewing on Amazon.
– Why don’t you put together lists of books you are suggesting to your readers? Things like:
“The best 10 books you absolutely need to read before turning 30” or “5 books that will change your life” really work!
And make sure you create a beautiful pin at least for each of your blog post to add on Pinterest.
Good luck with your blog, Anna! 🙂
Susannah says
Hi Sara! Thanks so much for the shoutout!
We’re so glad you’re a Mediavine publisher and proud to play a small part in your success.
If you ever have questions about revenue, optimization, etc., please reach out to us at [email protected]
— Susannah at Mediavine
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Susannah!
Mediavine is amazing! I can’t recommend it enough to all bloggers. Your customer service is outstanding.
Love you guys 🙂
Hamim says
Thanks for this awesome stuff. I just start my personal blog. This guide’s going to be very helpful for me.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks Hamim, glad you found it useful 🙂
Priscilla says
What an inspiring article! MY sister and I have a blog and a podcast. We’ve been having so much fun doing it. Now that we are hitting our groove we are talking about refining it before looking into gathering more traffic. I just know I will come back to this post in a few weeks for the information I need! Congratulations on your success!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks, Priscilla! 🙂
A blog and podcast with your sister: that’s amazing! Starting up is one of the hardest steps to take!
I wish you all the best of luck, I am sure you’ll smash it!
Latoya T says
Good evening,
thanks so much for this very informative information, i have been doing research on starting a blog for months. I was a little skeptical but after finding your site i’m excited!!! I’m ready to make a investment into what i love, i’m tired of giving up on my dreams and putting them on hold due to fear. i do alot of motivational speaking and i said now it’s the time i turn my hobbies into income and hopefully i can leave corporate America.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks, Latoya!
We always find a reason not to get started. The thing is: it’s really difficult to admit that often we are the first ones that don’t believe in ourself.
If you do motivational speaking, you are very familiar with this yourself 🙂
We all just need to believe more in what we can do. And just go out there and start!
It’s going to be hard work, and some days will be tricky, but the rewards are incredible!
Good luck with your business!
You are going to be amazing!
Raz | MakeLivingGood says
Thanks Sara for this amazing post. I have a question though, what tool did you use for creating the infographic at the beginning of the post. Appreciate your response. Thanks.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Raz!
Thank you 🙂
I used Adobe Illustrator to create the infographics!
Crystal01 says
This is really helpful ! Thank you for posting this. This inspires me for starting a blog.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Crystal01!
I am so glad you found the post useful! Starting a blog was one of the best things I’ve ever done! If you need any help, feel free to ask 🙂
cathy says
Although I really enjoyed your site and read I must say I have been blogging for years and in the last year I have tried many ways to make money including affiliates and ebooks. never made a cent. I find it so surprising how people make money or claim too. it is my passion to write but it has no money in it unless you have some other incentive thanks
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Cathy, I am glad you enjoyed the post.
I think if you love writing, it’s ok to not make money out of your blog.
But if you want to make money blogging, your mindset needs to be a bit different, and you need to treat your blog like a business.
Not everything you write will make you money.
There are posts I wrote that make me no money at all, and others that bring in hundreds of dollars every month.
It’s just about finding the balance between what you want to write, and what is going to help other people. And by helping them, you can suggest products that can genuinely make their life easier, and earn money.
When I started my blog, I knew I wanted to help people first, but also make money, as writing and managing a blog is time-consuming. And I tried to find the best balance (and I am still trying) between writing what I love and writing helpful posts.
Carolyn @ TheDailyCapital.com says
Your post is super inspiring. I recently started my own blog, but I really haven’t been able to do as much as I have wanted. I’m still in my teens and I’m in college as well, so there’s still a lot that i have to learn.
Thanks for the info! (:
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Carolyn!
Glad you found the post inspiring! And good luck with your blog!
Samantha Botes says
Hi Sara,
i love this post – thank you so much for sharing! i am going to try follow your suggestions.
I do have a question on the pins and pinning and hope you can help.
you said you create 2 – 3 pins per post.
In your first three months that you started, can you tell me how often you pinned?
And do you pin the 2 or 3 pins to the same boards to see which work, or do you pin each one to a seperate board?
and then that is in addition to re-pinning other people’s pins?
and then on the group boards, do you only pin the best one of the 3, or do you pin all 3?
i have just started a new blog and pinterest business account and don’t want to come across as unprofessional or spammy.
my blog is http://www.sarongsandsafarihats.com if you want to have a look.
another thing that i could be doing wrong is that my pinterest is focusing on my blog: cape town, zimbabwe and zambia.
i think to gain traction i should add more boards for other african countries? the only thing is that those people won’t end up on my site.
thanks so much – i hope you get a chance to read this!
luv samantha
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Samantha,
In my first 2-3 months, I used an app called BoardBooster. It was a scheduler similar to Tailwind and I used to pin around 100 times a day. But BoardBooster closed down as it wasn’t a Pinterest approved partner. Since then I changed my strategy and I now pin between 30 to 35 pins a day using Tailwind. I also still do some manual pinning using Carly’s strategy (roughly 3 to 5 manual pins a day).
I pin all the pins I make for the same post to the same board.
I don’t pin many pins from other people. I used to repin more at the beginning because I didn’t have many of my own pins and I had to fill my boards with something relevant. Now I might pin 2 or 3 pins from other people a day.
You definitely need to add more relevant boards to your profile! 🙂 When I say relevant, I mean relevant to people that could be interested in your blog. You should add more boards about other African countries but also about travel in general (travel tips, useful travel inspiration, African food that you would love to try while traveling…).
The idea with Pinterest is to get people to find you because they are interested in your profile. For example, I have a board about Interior Decor, but I don’t write about it. But I know that my readers are! If you go under Pinterest Analytics/Audience Insight, you can see what your audience is interested in and create some more relevant boards.
I hope this is helpful!
Good luck 🙂
Athar Bhat says
Hey,
The post is really informative. I have started blogging a month back.
I am facing problems with finding the topics i should write about. Th keywords i choose are either are too crowded with strong competetors or have very less trafiic.
Please suggest.
thanks
Athar Bhat
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Athar! I normally use a free tool called keywords anywhere plus Ubersuggest to try to find keywords.
It helps me to narrow down what keywords have a good number of searches per month and with Ubersuggest I can look at the difficulty!
But I am not an expert! I have just finally started to see results with organic search!
The most important thing I can say worked for me is writing relevant and in-depth content!
Sarah says
I love this break down of starting a blog! I have been doing so much research over the past year and now that i am about to be a mom I think its time i give it a shot!
I’ve been wondering about the process of writing the actual blog post. Like what routine works best for you? (i know everyone is different). Ive read so much information on how to get started with a blog but not very much on what it really takes to blog.
What would a daily routine look like for blogging?
How do you come up with topics to write about/ getting over writers block? Ive started a list of topics that I would like to write about and lists under those topics of post ideas.
I tend to be a very cautious person and let my worries prevent me from doing things, but i really think i can do this. just looking for more information on what a routine looks like.
Thank you and this post was super simple and helpful.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much for your comment 🙂
What you are describing is exactly what I did when I decided to start my blog. First, I decided what topics I wanted to write about, then I researched what similar blogs did, what posts were doing well for them (using Buzzsumo, as described in the post), and the came up with ideas of what I wanted to write. I saved all the topics on a google doc, and when I had 20 post ideas, I started to write!
Now that I have a much better idea of what I am interested in writing and what people like to read on my blog, I normally spend a few hours every month to select a few topics I want to write about.
In terms of starting from a blank page and start writing, this is what I do:
– once I know the title of the post, I research in Google similar articles on that topic
– I look at what points they cover and decide which ones I would like to write about and start by outlining my table of content, to break down the post in smaller sections
– once I have a table of content, I find it much easier to write the shorter paragraphs in each section, instead of starting from an empty page
It really helps me to focus!
In terms of daily routine, this is really personal. I blog part time 2/3 days a week. I tent to spend:
– 1 day writing content (researching topics, finding keywords etc), and actually writing the post.
– 1 day promoting the blog. This involves creating pins for Pinterest, setting up a Pinterest schedule with Tailwind, participating in Facebook groups, Instragram etc.
– 1 day learning: taking courses to improve what I know. I think learning is super important, especially if you want to make money blogging! I am a big fan of investing in my blog, because I see it as my business. And it has paid off so far!
I hope this helps 🙂
And do let me know if you have more questions!
Christy says
Great article! I just started my blog a month ago and need to make a lot of changes. Your article has given me so many new ideas! Thank you!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Amazing! Good luck with your blog Christy 🙂
Jay says
HI there,
Super informative article and actually has information that i haven’t seen before. Thanks for this as i’ll be looking to put this to good use.
Thanks again and take care.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Jay! Glad you found it useful! 🙂
Taylor says
Hi Sara!
I am brand new to blogging and have been doing a ton of research and trying to learn as much as I can to build my blog. I just wanted to let you know that this is a post I keep referring back to because it was really inspiring and one of the first posts I read that really made me feel confident that I can make my blog successful. I finally got my blog http://www.theshadowsandsunshine up and running last month and have really been enjoying it.
Thank you! This post made me feel like it was definitely possible to have a successful blog.
-Taylor
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Taylor! I am so happy to hear that you found this post useful 🙂
Good luck with your blog 🙂
Gaurav says
I want to buy Pinterest marketing course if u have any course on Pinterest. I am new here I just start my blog and get few views help me if u have any course on it.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Gaurav, Pinteresting Strategies is the best course I have ever taken if you are just starting out on Pinterest! I really recommend that 🙂
Emily says
I love your website it’s absolutely gorgeous! Great style, writing, everything! Best of continued success with it!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Emily 🙂
DAVID SLIP says
Your BLOG is amazing, I’m inspired and started a blog http://WWW.BLISSFULYEAR.COM trying to help people earn money online rather than just posting info. Thanks for your website!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you David 🙂
Good luck with your blog!
Mansi says
Hi, I am new to your blog. I must say it’s amazing and I am learning alot from you.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Mansi 🙂
Maria says
Hi, I am new to your blog and to the blogging world in general. I’ve been researching a ton and I just wanted you to know that your post is one of those that I go to keep me motivated.
My blog https://blogundermoonlight.com is still pretty new and Blogging with a full-time job is a pretty packed schedule. but knowing that there’s someone out there with a 12++hour Day job who was able to make a successful blog is the greatest motivation.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Maria,
Thank you so much for your comment!
It’s definitely possible to be successful with your blog, even if you work full time. It might take a bit longer, but if you keep learning and working on it you can get there!
Blogging is a bit like a rollercoaster!
Some days can be lonely, but there are many bloggers out there that can help you stay motivated!
Good luck! You can do it! 🙂
Dan says
Hard work and lonely! You nailed it there, especially at the beginning. This was a motivating post to read, seems like mediavine is the ad network to pitch for. hopefully soon.
Keep up the great posts!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Dan, yes! Lots of hard work 🙂
Mediavine is a great company! I love them!
khalid says
Hi,
it feels something is written for me, and it gives me energy to move ahead eagerly and joyfully, like if someone is writing regarding any problems or proposal but expressing it genuinely that it is hard, its required a lot of efforts which prepares mentally be ready if you have the courage!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Khalid 🙂
Thehotskills says
Hi,
Excellent post. I’m also working on Pinterest to grow an audience. When I started with Pinterest, the growth was very low but after 2-3 month I reached 300K monthly view and nearly 10K engagement. Pinterest is a great platform for blogging beginners.
Thank you so much for sharing an informative and inspiring article with us. Keep up the good work.
Rajinder SIngh
Thehotskills
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Glad you found the post useful 🙂
Pinterest is the best platform to learn right now if you want to make money blogging!
ChrisTy says
Wow! That’s incredible! I’ve only been at it for a couple months And have a long way to go!! Thanks for all the advice! Great post!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Christy, and good luck with you blog 🙂
Jessi Fox says
Thank you for this article! I’m wanting to start a blog, and have been researching the different aspects in preparation for launch. I do want to make money from my blog (Hoping that it will eventually bring in enough every month I can work from home), so looking at actionable steps now is important.
I am a pinterest junkie, lol, but I’m not understanding what you mean about re-pinning your pins. Are you meaning you’re pinning your personal pins to another board, or the same board again? Are all of your pinterest boards just your own personal content (from your blog), or are they articles, etc. from others’ sites? Any good free resources you would recommend to learn how to leverage Pinterest to aid in traffic, etc.?
TIA!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Jessi,
If you love Pinterest, you are off to a great start 🙂
Re-pinning means both: you will pin the same pin to several of your personal boards. For example, if I create a meal prep recipe, I would pin it to my generic food board, to my lunch ideas board, to my healthy recipe board, and to my meal prep board. This means I am repinning the same pin to 4-5 of my own boards.
You CAN repin the same pin to the same board as well, but Pinterest recommends to wait a good amount of time before you repin the same pin to the same board (like 4-6 months), although some bloggers do it more often.
As a free resource, I would check out this website: https://www.simplepinmedia.com/
Kate also has a podcast and an amazing Facebook group. All free!
But once you start your blog, I can’t recommend Carly’s book enough. It’s cheap and it has all the info you’ll need to get started in one place!
Lorraine Dzeka says
Pardon me because I’m not sure if I have commented before because I think this is the third or so time I’m reading this post.I’ve even bookmarked it on my computer for a number of reasons :
-This post delivered beyond my expectations in terms of value, you outlined step by step how you did it from how you used Pinterest for traffic and built it up with Carly and Scriv’s help.P.S I’ve enrolled in Carly’s course and will let you know.
-I’ve also signed up for Scriv’s FREE 12 day bootcamp because I am such a keen and avid learner.
-I love how you make it clear in no uncertain terms: “are you writing for yourself or to solve your audience’s problem?”(this spoke straight at me!).Thank you for waking me up. It had me go like, oh yeah I am writing to solve my audience’s problem.
-you honestly state how blogging takes work and dedication
-I am new to blogging and girl you are right, it takes dedicated time and commitment
I have to say this blog is one of my favorites, keep up the amazing work and content (you surely over-delivered on this post) and as a result have me checking out the links you inserted of Carly, Scriv and Making sense of sense.
I found you on PINTEREST AND AM SO GLAD I did.
Cheers
Lorraine
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Lorraine,
Thank you so much for your kind comments! I am so glad you found this post about making money blogging helpful. I found a new passion in blogging and I really want to help others to succeed 🙂
Good luck with your blog and if you need any help, feel free to ask!
Estee chait says
Wow, I really enjoyed this article! A lot of helpful tips- joining Pinterest group boards is an idea I hadn’t thought of…How else do you Get your pins to be noticed?! Its so INSPIRING To know that you started from NOTHING, and in so short a time became successful! Thank you for sharing!!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Estee 🙂
Stacey says
I love this blog. I have set a goal of 1000 follow on Pinterest before I MONETIZE my blog…However, I would like to invest in some courses along The way… I am determined and ex to make this happen! I’ll be referring back to this blog regularly.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Stacey!
Good luck with your blog 🙂
James Mulatya @REPEATBLOGGER says
Hi SARA, the dreamer. YOU DID IT! Personally, I’m just into my 3rd-month blogging. But it’s clear you didn’t get these results by being lazy.
Your post is great and I’ve learned so much that I have to fix if indeed I need my blog to work.
That money part can be a bit eluding and I like how you had set a year to make it work. so it was even sweeter I believe when you surprised yourself by doing it in just 3 months.
I plan to write my story soon as well.
Great logo by the way.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey James,
Oh yes, I definitely wasn’t lazy. Especially in the first 3 months. But the great thing about blogging is that things get easier the more you stick with it.
We all have different journeys ahead of us. You can’t compare yourself to others, but you can learn from what others do and apply it to your own story. I love looking up at successful bloggers, and see what I can learn and apply from them!
Good luck with your blog! 🙂
I can’t wait to read your own story!
Jessica says
So I had a blog that I was doing really well with, and it ended up getting hacked and I lost everything. Honestly, I cried for a while because I had put my life into it for 2 years. There was absolutely no getting it back. I am just now starting over and I feel like in the past few years (maybe 3ish) things have changed drastically! I am so out of the loop and am learning all over again, and honestly, it stinks lol. My ADD doesn’t let me concentrate for too long. I appreciate you taking time out of your day to write posts like this. And hey! Where did I find YOUR blog at?! Pinterest of course!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Jessica,
That’s awful, I can’t imagine the pain of losing all your blog. Make sure you install a backup plugin on your new blog. I use the free version of UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore. You can save a back up on your google drive or dropbox every few days to be safe!
Do it as soon as possible!
Alexis says
I like this blog and learned a lot from it. I want to have the same passive income as yours. How can I achieve the same even though I am from the Philippines?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Alexis,
The amazing thing about blogging is that you can do it from anywhere! You don’t have to be in the US to blog or anywhere else specific. For example, you can start an incredible blog about traveling to the Philippines in English aimed at the US market. Talk about all the tips, hotels and incredible experiences people from the rest of the world can do.
As long as you are writing for an international audience in good English you can do it!
A lot of affiliate companies will pay you in US dollars, and for example, to apply to ads management companies like Mediavine you need to make sure most of your traffic comes from the US. But by targeting the US market with Pinterest you can do that easily!
Mike beatty says
THIS IS SO LIKE UNBELIEVABLE!! Seriously like unbelievAble!! It’s incredible what you did in such a short space of time I can’t get over it!!
Officially mind blown! Congrats
Mike
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Wow, thank you Mike! 🙂
I think it’s all about hard work, learning from others and taking action.
Pamela says
Loved your article. I just got started blogging and building my websites. You have some great pointers that I plan to implement. Thanks for sharing.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Pamela,
Thank you! And good luck with your blog 🙂
Corina says
Amazing article. I just started blogging and, like you, I read as much as I can from the best. I took some of your advice, as well as Michelle’s and working my ass off to hopefully one day be where you are.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Learning and implementing what you learn is the most important thing. A lot of people just buy courses and book but then get stuck and don’t take action on the incredible things they learn.
By doing one small new thing every day, no matter how uncomfortable we can feel about doing it, we make progress!
sandy says
As I was scrolling down the post, I was making certain changes to my blog and Pinterest! I have subscribed to the facebook groups you mentioned and will look for more interesting groups to join. As you said, earning money can be possible but requires lots of work to be put in. As well as some investing.
Will be looking into the courses you mentioned and take a good look at my blog to see what products or services I can offer. Your post is so inspiring and I have bookmarked this page to refer back to. Thank you!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
I am so happy that you found the post useful Sandy! Even more happy that you started to take action 🙂
It’s so important to apply what we learn!
diana says
I started my blog last year with my long distance boyfriend hoping that we’ll make money. We made $60, but sometimes I think that it was just luck. There are moments when I’m disappointed. Who wants to read about how blind people live, Our lifestyle, how we use a phone etc? But there are moments when I get a comment from someone who liked my post and I keep hoping that it will get better. I loved your post! I don’t have money to invest in the courses you mentioned, But I will subscribe to your mail list. Thank you for writing this!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Diana,
I think what you are doing is amazing! And you can help so many people that face the same challenges you have to go through. As Pinterest is more of a visual search engine, I would concentrate your effort on SEO. You should 100% take Mike’s free email course on SEO here: https://stupidsimpleseo.co/
Good luck with your blog and don’t give up. Keep writing useful content and always put your readers first. Think about their problems and how you can help them to solve them!
diana says
Hey there, Thanks for answering! 🙂 I will take the course, Thanks for the recommendation. It’s sad that i’m missing what Pinterest can offer, but it’s just…pretty hard. I guess that I’ll keep pinning but I will focus on SEO.
Erica | I Spy Fabulous says
This is really great. I’ve read a lot of similar posts and you have a fresh take. Your tip on Buzzsumo is a really helpful one and I will definitely be using that! Thanks for the reviews on the courses that helped you, too. I’m on carly’s emails and she really is so much more responsive and genuine than most. Thanks!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks Erica! I am glad you enjoyed the post! Carly is great!
Ashleigh says
This post is exactly what I’ve been trying to find to increase my traffic. Thanks so much for sharing!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
You are welcome, Ashleigh!
Glad you found it useful 🙂
Kit says
Your so inspirational!! Ive been blogging for a while ( 2 1/2 years) but a lot of that time I got distracted with IG and now I’m back full force working on my blog and making this happen. I love group boards! I was wondering if I should get off of some of the general blog boards. Honestly I was on them at first because I was still narrowing down what I wanted to write about plus what was profitable and successful. Luckily for me fitness is a passion and it also is a money maker! And recently I’ve gotten the travel bug (; truely great tips in this blog post about blogging! I’m glad you have found happiness and success.
Best,
Kit from http://www.kitstanwood.com
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Kit!
You should check how you more generic group boards are performing. Generally, if there are lots of contributors and too many topics, it’s better to leave them. They can hurt your profile. If you are not sure about leaving a board, you can archive it. This gives you the option to bring it back in the future.
Good luck with your blog 🙂
It looks great, and your Instagram profile is stunning!
Sivasankari K says
Inspirational posts, informative content, great-looking pins, neat look of blog design and all in one place. Seems we’re having the same taste in designing of pins. All the best for your future endeavors.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Sivasankari!
Glad we have the same taste in design 🙂
Miriam says
Wow! First of all, Sara, what an insightful and well-written post! Your visual map on the different income streams from blogging and your tip on buzzsumo as a research tool were super helpful. I just started my travel blog two weeks ago so I’m just learning everything from everywhere and like you’ve mentioned in your post, it’s definitely overwhelming! You’ve really inspired me to work towards my success!
Many thanks from,
Miriam of http://www.themimiodyssey.com
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Good luck with your blog, Miriam!
Blogging is really overwhelming at the beginning but it’s also very rewarding once you start seeing the results of all your hard work 🙂
Lauren K says
This is such a great post! I thought I had learned and implemented everything I possibly could about Pinterest but this article alone had key tips that I haven’t thought of or seen suggested elsewhere (your suggestions for creating a board for your aff links and multiple Pinterest boards for your blog is genius).
Thank you, thank you! I can’t wait to try out some new strategies! Keep up the great work, we all appreciate you and your work:)
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Glad you found the post useful, Lauren 🙂
zayoour says
Great article! Very helpful information.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Zayoour! 🙂
Tayler says
This is such a great post! I’m a brand new blogger & this gave me the extra juice to keep going. Do you mind sharing how many posts you published in your first 3 months? I have a lot of ideas but I’m struggling to find the time to get them all written down & published. Thanks so much!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Tayler,
I published around 30 posts in the first 3 months. I had about 15-20 written when the blog went live, and then I tried to keep writing at least one post a week (which is what I am still doing!)
What really helped me was to create a Google Doc with all my ideas, and try to group them by topics, and then go through them and write posts for each idea 🙂
Devante says
I have read many many posts/articles about blogging but this one seems to be the easiest to understand and kept my attention including the amount of information.I am so glad I came across your site. I am currently struggling to come up with a new name for my site. I love the name of your blog. How were you able to know 100% that you knew this was the right name for your blog ? I have used just my name for my blog, but I am unsure at this point. I will be re-launching it soon. Thanks again for this helpful post!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Devante,
I am glad you found this post useful and easy to understand 🙂
It took me a couple of weeks to come up with the right name. I kept writing down different names but it was only when I thought about GATHERING DREAMS that I thought I had the right one.
It just resonated with what I wanted my blog to be about: helping people to make their dreams come true! Just think about what your blog is about and how it’ll help people and I am sure you’ll know when you have the right name.
Good luck 🙂
Kristine says
Such a great, detailed post! I found your blog through Pinterest, this is like a bible for those who want to make money blogging!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Kristine!
I am so happy you found the post useful 🙂
Hillary says
Hi Sara,
I feel like this post was just for me! I started my blog in early March after years of dreaming about it. I keep getting so discouraged thinking that I have to be incredibly niched down to be successful. I love that you write about a variety of topics and are still finding your “tribe” of an audience and success along the way. My traffic hasn’t been terrible, but I keep second-guessing my content. I can’t wait to follow along with more of your tips and advice. THANK YOU <3
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Hillary!
I know what you mean! I had the same thoughts so many times. You keep hearing that you need to focus on a small niche, and sometimes you are not sure you are doing the right thing! But I really believe that as long as you are helping people, and you know who your readers are, you can be successful 🙂
Infotitude says
Respected Really amazing and faboulus Article as i am beginner blogger. I like it very much.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much 🙂
Teya @Tlmblog.com says
Awesome post! I love reading your reports! They give me so much hope that it’s totally possible to make money from blogging! I love all the great info from both Pinterest strategies and making sense of affiliate marketing! My next course I think will be Scrivs! Keep up the good work!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Teya 🙂
And good luck with your blog!
Muhammad Faisal says
Hello Sara,
I just discovered your blog on Pinterest and I think you putting great efforts and value in your content.
I find some new ideas and information on how we can create successful blogging. This is quite right when we create the blog and there is the time when nobody comes to your blog and we demotivate from our blog but we have to need to keep doing work.
THank you so much.
-Faisal
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Faisal,
Thanks so much 🙂
Granny Bee says
Great post – a ton of great info all in one place! I’ve been studying how to start a blog for a few weeks. I’m making good progress and have set up my WordPress website on BlueHost, but now I’m trying to pick a theme. I like the look of your site. What theme do you use?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Granny Bee, I use the Genesi Framework and Simply Pro as a theme, although I customised it quite a bit in the last couple of months 🙂
Sophia says
This is such an amazing post! I really want and need to get into blogging.. I’ve been doing it all wrong for some time now!
How exactly though, do you make money from page views. Like, do you get money from every visitor that comes to your page? (and if so, how?). Or, do you get money from visitors that purchase something such as an ebooks, a downloadable or a product through affiliate marketing?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Sophia,
You make money by displaying ads on your blog. You can use things like Google Adsense, or once you reach 25,000 sessions a month you can apply to Mediavine. It’s an incredible ads network that pays you to display ads. You get paid every time someone sees or clicks the ads. You can normally make anything between $10-$25 every 1000 page views depending on the time of year and your niche (some niches are more profitable than others when it comes to ads!)
I also make money through affiliate marketing!
I hope this help 🙂
Sophia says
Thank you, Sara! 🙂
cathy says
hi great info for sure i found you on pinterest but i have to tell you i have read many posts like this and never made a cent from blogging affiliates and it wasn’t for lack of trying all the tricks of the trade. i have many views, traffic and all of the above however this my website has only been about writing and does not generate money and of course i love doing this have for years but it is very disappointing that i can’t make a living off of it. i just want to share my thoughts, and have lost all hope in making money online.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Cathy,
If you have many views and you are using all the right tricks there is no reason for you to make money. You probably just need to find the right affiliates for your audience. When I have a post that does well and has many page views, but affiliates on it don’t perform (it happens!) I try to move the links to a different place or update the description of the product. Most people prefer products that you have genuinely tried and you are passionate about! I am sure there are ways to make it work for you. If you have any specific questions or want me to look at your blog for feedback let me know 🙂
Smith says
Thank you so much, I definitely need this! I just got my blog to the point where I consider it ready for people to see–but I have no idea what to do next! There’s so much to learn about blogging and I appreciate how you’ve broken it down so there’s a roadmap to follow.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Glad you found this post useful, Smith 🙂
Deval Shah says
Such an inspiration while reading this post and fully boosted up after watching your genuine analytics pictures. looking forward to implementing this on my blog soon.
Thanks for sharing & keep sharing!!!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Deval!
Glad you found this post inspiring 🙂
Keshav Malad says
This is simply inspirational! When didI start earning once initiated blogging?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Keshav, I made around $3 in my first month lol!
But I started making serious money after 3 months. But this isn’t something that is necessarily easy to do as it really depends on your niche and how much time you can dedicate to blogging.
Tasha says
Great article full of lots of super helpful info. I’m just getting started and have hit a bit of overwhelm. Trying not to get discouraged and your post really helped. Thanks!!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Tasha,
Blogging can be frustrating and a bit of a lonely journey but you have to keep going to see results. The important thing is to keep learning! 🙂
Kashy says
Hi, thank you so much for this helpful post! A lot stuff I didn’t know yet. 🙂
I would like to ask, when you’re using Buzzsumo, are you looking for other bloggers that have at least how many total shares? because I can see the search you did for Every Girl she has more than 100K total shares, so do you recommend to find other bloggers with at least 100k or more shares? Or how many to be starting a blog I should look?
Loving your blog, thank you again! xx
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Kashy,
Oh no, 100k was just a very high example! I try to make sure I look for posts with at least 2k-5k shares. Of course, the more shares a post has the better, but it also depends on how useful and relevant the post is to your own blog.
I hope this helps 🙂
diva says
Love your blog, big fan and have been reading a lot of your content lately
What theme do you use? this theme is so elegant and clean, very nice!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Diva,
Thank you!
I use Simply Pro. It’s a Genesis theme by Studio Press.
Joseph Chez says
Hello Sara, this post is great stuff. I am a blogger in the first stages – will launch it today – and your insight and tips are great. I have also read stuff (great suff also) from Michel schoeder and Paul Scrivens. I follow their blogs.
Hope to implement some of your advises. Keep growning and teaching. This post nailed it.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Joseph! And good luck with your blog 🙂
Niall O'Hara says
Great post! I want to promote my own jewellery website oharajewellery and have just used this to open a Pinterest account. Wish me luck!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Good luck, Niall! I really think Pinterest is going to be great for your jewellery business!
Saira says
Great article. Very in-depth, well written and very useful.
Had a question for about the below:
Test several pins: I normally create 2/3 pins for each post and then create a new pin every week for a few weeks to see what works best.
Are you posting from your website? Pinterest only lets me pin one post per url. How do you get around this?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Saira, you can upload new pins directly from Pinterest. Just go on your profile, click on Pins and then on the + button where it says “Create Pin”.
From there you can upload new pins and link them to any of your posts.
I hope this helps 🙂
Saira Mian says
Thanks Sara!
Naresh shaw says
Article is fabulous. big knowledgeable article and This article is helping my blog journey.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Naresh! I am so happy you found this article helpful 🙂
Marco B says
Great inspiring article. I started a blog last year and began trying Pinterest to drive traffic. I feel like Pinterest is good, but the updates they do really throws traffic into a crazy rollercoaster ride sometimes! What are your thoughts on diversifying traffic and putting more emphasis on driving traffic with Google than with Pinterest? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Marco!
Yes, Pinterest can be a rollercoaster! Especially in the first few months 🙂
I think Google is super-important and I’ve been focusing on SEO from the beginning. But in your first 3-6 months, if you want to see results, Pinterest is the way to go. Google takes a lot longer to get results, and I felt I needed to see that things were working in the first few months.
That’s why I used Pinterest to start with, but all my posts were always optimized for SEO. This has really paid off as now I get quite a lot of traffic from Google too!
If you want to learn about SEO I think Mike’s course Stupid Simple SEO is hands down the best course out there 🙂
Lia Heusser says
Hi Sara,
I registered to be an affiliate with Amazon. Do I have to start posting links on my website now? Or do I wait until they tell me what to post? I’m still a little confused
Thanks!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Lia,
Great! Getting approved by Amazon is a great start 🙂
Yes, now you need to add links to products that are relevant to your audience on your blog. For example, you could write a post on “The best 10 books to improve your wellness in 2019” – and add text or banner links to your Amazon links.
If you need any help creating the links, you should read this guide by Amazon. It’s quite useful and it shows you exactly what to do.
If you have any other question let me know 🙂
Summer | The Sunshine Suitcase says
Thank you so much for these awesome suggestions. I’m on month 4 of my blog and just can’t seem to get past 1500 pageviews. I’m in Facebook groups, have over 20 Pinterest Group Boards I participate in, use Tailwind tribes. I just can’t seem to get over that hump. So, I’m going to try using some of your other suggestions to improve my blog. I have affiliate links set up and media.net for ads. Hopefully I can start making more than just a few bucks a month with your tips.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Summer,
Your blog looks great, and 1500 page views are pretty good if you are in your 4th month blogging! I had a quick look at your Pinterest profile and if you don’t mind I have a couple of suggestions:
– I can see you have only one board related to your blog, “The Sunshine Suitcase Blog”. This is a generic blog board with all your topics, but since you have a lifestyle blog that talks about different topics you should have 1 specific blog board per topic. For example, The Sunshine Suitcase Travel, The Sunshine Suitcase DIY etc.
– Pin your pins to the most relevant board first, and not to your generic board
– use mostly block capital letters in your pins, they are easier to read and avoid hand-written fonts where possible. Capital letters are much easier to read.
I hope this helps 🙂
Katie says
Wow. It’s the best and the more detailed text about monetizing blog. Great job. I’m having in plans a new blog so I am sure I will use your advice. Just keep it updated 😉
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Katie,
Thank you so much! And of course, it’s always up to date 🙂
When Pinterest decides to update things, I change the post!
Lynn says
I can’t remember how I found your blog, but I am so grateful. Thank you so much for this post, it’s really helped me. Looking forward to applying a few of these techniques 🙂
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
I’m so happy that you found this post useful, Lynn! 🙂
Karlo says
Thanks for giving this wonderful information you explained clearly how to start making money from blog. I hope I will get also Adsense approval on my travel blog – https://ilcroatia.com/ . Thank you!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Karlo! Good luck with your blog and with Adsense approval 🙂
Sachin says
Wow…..!
Your website is to good i like you posts write more to make money blog post
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Sachin, I am glad you like the blog 🙂
Brian Muguro says
Wow! I look forward to applying this in my new blog.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Good luck with your blog, Brian 🙂
David says
Your story is motivating. I am also trying to improve my financial conditions, the steps you tell in this article are very impressive.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you David! the most important step is to take action! Good luck 🙂
David says
yes I will Sara.
Cheylene Rondpre says
This is a fantastic post. I am still considering if I want to enter the world of blogging but this was article was the most concise and helpful thing I have read.
Thank you!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Cheylene 🙂
Iyiola Owabumowa says
I’m so motivated, would love to shoot you a mail.
Want to interview you on your big pinterest and blogging success
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Iyola! 🙂
Tara says
I just want to say thank you so much for posting this. You are awesome. I am so appreciative of your willingness to share your knowledge. I’ve been trying to figure out if this is right for me for some time and after reading this post I feel a lot better about trying to start my own blog. Just thank you so much❤️
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Tara! So happy you found this post helpful 😊
Tisha says
Thank you so much for posting this. I am new to blogging and I have learned so many great things from this. I hope that someday I will have a successful blog like you.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks Tisha!
I am sure if you work hard and smart on your blog you will be incredibly successful 🙂
Blake says
I love this, but this is definitely not the norm. My wife has been blogging for years and doesn’t see these kind of numbers. I’m in my fourth month of blogging and I’m only getting about 7k page views. Don’t get me wrong I’d love to see those kind of results that fast because I want be able to leave my day job and only do this. I just don’t see it happening anytime soon.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Blake,
I think a lot of your success depends on how much time you can dedicate to your blog and what you are blogging about. Some niches are definitely more profitable than others.
There are bloggers that have been far more successful than me and bloggers that have been blogging for a long time and not made any money. What really helped me in my journey was to constantly look at people in my niche. I always try to look at what they are doing to get page views, which articles perform best for them, which platform they use on social media etc.
I probably spend far more time researching than writing content, because I want to make sure that when I invest time writing, I create something that not only will help people but also will create income for me (either through ads or affiliate marketing!). I also spend a lot of time marketing my content (creating new pins for Pinterest, invest time updating old posts for SEO) etc.
I think you should focus on what you need to do to leave your day job as quickly as possible (if that’s what you want!) instead of thinking that it’s not going to happen! Because it’s 100% possible within 12-18 months!
Also 7,000 page views a month after 4 months is amazing! It means you are doing many things right! You just have to do more of what’s working for you. I also love your blog name 🙂
Ummi @ Ummi Goes Where? says
Hi, Sara. This is so inspiring! I’m into my third month of blogging and I think my viewers are mostly just my family and friends for now 😆. I have so much more to learn. Thank you for sharing those courses that helped you.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
No worries Ummi! And good luck with your blog! 🙂
Bareera says
Hey Sara,
I loved your post and how much sincere and honest it is. I am a newbie in the blogging world. I used to read stuff a lot and contents and love to write. I created a blog on my own name. I am a total beginner. I hope that you will help me out. As a beginner, I have fears that I won’t be able to achieve it. And as you said, it is so overwhelming in the beginning when you are faced with what to do with your blog and how to promote it. I am researching a lot nowadays and believe me, this is the best post ever! <3 Thank you ^_^
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Bareera!
And do get in touch if you have any specific question! Happy to help 🙂
Fer Bonilla says
Hi Sara!
This post is great! I am stuck in the “researching” area, probably because I am quite afraid and nervous but super excited to start this endeavor, but your post has shed a lot of light into how to build a blog (the other article that you have) and this one for monetizing.
My goal is to launch by Dec 2019, wish me luck!!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Goo luck Fer Bonilla! And I can’t wait to see your blog 🙂
Fer Bonilla says
Hi Sara,
This post is amazing! I am in the research stage however the first goal is to launch the blog before Dec 2019 arrives. I feel really nervous but at the same time I feel excited to start this adventure and pass all the things I know.
I hope I can write you back once my blog is ready 🙂
Best regards,
Fer Bonilla
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks so much, Fer Bonilla!
It’s normal to be nervous but it’s also super exciting! I can’t wait to see your blog! 🙂
Please send me the link when it’s ready!
alber andesko says
Good Article, I can get a lot of knowledge here
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Alber 🙂
Happy you found it useful!
Jen says
I’m stuck trying to grow and I feel like I’ve done every course known to man! What would you say your top-performing topics are? I’m sure you get a lot of pageviews from posts like this one that talks about making money from blogging. But Id love to know, what posts (not specific post but what topics or niches) brought in that amount of pageviews so quickly?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Jen, you’ll be surprised to know that this post is not one of my top-performing articles 🙂
My best posts are about food (vegan recipes, meal prep, quick recipes), travel posts (like the posts on the tops tips to go to Italy or cheapest countries to visit) and some money posts (like the $5,000 saving money challenge and creative ways to make money).
There isn’t one specific niche on my blog that does significantly better than others!
Blogging isn’t really one of my main topics. I just wrote 3 or 4 posts because I LOVE it and I wanted to share what I learned with my readers 🙂
I hope this helps! If you have any other question let me know!
Yuliya S Shveykina says
Hello! I love coming back to this post!
I had a question about posting. I know you recommend WordPress and BlueHost but do they automatically get published on Pinterest?
Thank you!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Yuliya,
No, when you publish a post, it will only be published on your blog (which will be on WordPress and hosted on Bluehost). For Pinterest, you will need to create pins (special graphic images), upload them directly on Pinterest and link them to each post you create. It can be time-consuming but worth it, as it’s a great way to get free traffic, especially at the beginning!
Niva says
Hi! Thanks so much for the helpful post! I’ve had my food blog cravingeverything.com for a while but I’m really trying to invest more into it and grow it, so I loved reading your post. I’ll definitely try to implement some of the strategies you suggested:)
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Good luck, Niva 🙂
Roshan Aryal says
Hey there
thanks for the article it is really helpful
I just started blogging moving from blogger to WordPress
Hoping for the best
but it’s hard to generate traffic
is there any way to increase traffic
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Roshan,
A combined effort on Pinterest and SEO are the best strategies to grow your traffic fast! I recommend Carly’s Pinteresting strategies for Pinterest only and Stupid Simple SEO, for SEOan incredible course!
Ant @ MyEzy says
Wow you’ve been on such an inspiring journey. Definitely going to checkout Dare to Conquer.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
I love Dare To Conquer! It helped me so much to grow my blog quickly. Scrivs teaches you the right mindset to grow and it also gives you all the steps you need to get there 🙂
Jessica says
Thank you so much for this post! I feel so inspired now. Makes me want to go out and really invest in my new blog! I wish you all the best and am happy to see your blog growing so quickly!
Cheers!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Jessica and good luck with your blog 🙂
Pramadox says
Thanks for this informative post. Traffic is my challenge but you’ve just figured it out for me. Working to improve my traffic ASAP.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Good luck with your blog, Pramadox 🙂
Rav says
Very inspiring and detailed article. I am very new to blogging and still learning the basics. Your content is great! I was so confused on where to start, I guess now I have an answer – Pinterest. Keep inspiring!
Rav xoxo
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks so much, Rav 🙂
Good luck with your blog!
Kaylee- To Be A Mommy Blog says
Thank you so much for sharing! I appreciate all of the details and an actual action plan to reach our goals. You’re awesome! 😊
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you soo much Kaylee 🙂 x
Marina says
This is such a helpful post! I want to start my own blog and I just have a few questions.
Since I’m a student, I don’t have too much money to invest (but I will as much as I can). I see you wrote that on bluehost we get a free domain for a year if we take a 12 month plan, but on their site I see that it says that the 2.67 per month price is only if we take a 36 month plan. So can I take a 12 month plan or not? Also, I am from Europe, Serbia, and I wanted to know does that have anything to do with making money with affiliate marketing? My blog would be in English, and my targeted audience is also from the US, so it would’t have anything to do with Serbia, but can I make the same amount of money if I live here? I hope that it doesn’t matter where I live if I wouldn’t mention it anywhere in my blog and posts.
Thank you so much once again for such a great post 🙂
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Marina,
To answer your questions:
1. About Bluehost: as long as you sign up for a 12-month plan, you will get a free domain but the cheaper price is only valid if you sign up for 36 months. If you sign up for 12 months, the monthly price is a bit more expensive. It’s up to you! I went for the 3 years when I signed up because it was cheaper and I knew I wouldn’t give up blogging after a year! In the grand scheme of things, blogging is one of the cheapest start-up costs for any type of business out there. I know you are a student and might not have much money, but if you get a part-time job or work on a side hustle you can easily set aside enough money for hosting in a few months. And in the meantime, start to plan your content!
2. It doesn’t matter where you are from! You can make money blogging from anywhere. I currently live in the UK and make most of my money in the US. As long as you know where your target audience is, you can make money with ads and affiliate marketing from anywhere. I have blogging friends who live in the US, Canada, UK, Singapore, India, Australia, friends who travel all over the world and are successful and make tons of money.
I hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions 🙂
Marina says
Thank you so much for your reply, it really helped! I am very excited to start a blog!
I have one more question: when do I apply for Mediavine or Google Adsense? I saw that you first used Adsense and then switched to Mediavine, was that just your choice or does that mean that you can get accepted to Adsense with less page views than you need to get accepted to Mediavine, so I can apply for Adsense sooner and then later switch? And also is there another way to get money as well (without making products for selling)? How do you make money from your blog besides affiliate marketing? If you could explain that a bit more (like what I need to do in order to make money from my blog) I would be very thankful because I need al the help I can get and I want to do thing right haha.
Thank you sooo much and I am so sorry for bohering you with all of these questions!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Marina,
For Mediavine: you need to reach 25,000 sessions in 30 days period (which is roughly 30,000 page views a month). You will be able to check how many sessions you have on your blog once you install Google Analytics on your blog. Here is a useful guide on how to do it.
It can take a while to reach that level of page views, depending on how much time you can dedicate to your blog. That’s why at the beginning I applied for Google Adsense. You can apply for Adsense after you have 10-15 posts online. As long as your blog looks legit, you normally get approved no matter how many page views you have. Once you reach 25,000 sessions you can switch to Mediavine. They pay much more than Adsense (depending on your niche it could be anything from 50 to 100% more).
How I make money: today my earnings are roughly 60-70% from affiliate marketing (which is pretty much, recommending products and service to people) and 40-30% from ads, depending on the month. Those are the easiest ways to make money, especially when you are starting out.
I hope this helps 🙂 And you are not bothering me at all! If you have more questions, I am here!
Emily Standley says
Beautiful blog! Love the tips, your font, style – everything!! Great job!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Emily 🙂
Globex IT Solutions says
You can earn a handsome living from blogging but it is time consuming. Also in the beginning, you need to be one man army for doing writing, proof-reading, link building and web designing.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Yes, everything that is going to make you money is time-consuming. People that promise you to make money in 5 minutes are just trying to get a cool headline to sell you something.
No matter what you do, you always have to put in the hard work to make money. But what I love about blogging is that posts I’ve written 18 months ago are still generating money today. That’s an amazing way to invest your time for a constant stream of revenues 🙂
Crazijamz says
Hi,
I really enjoy your post. Thanks for the info shared.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much, Crazijamz 🙂
Cheeksandtoez says
Thank you for sharing this amazing post. Hope readers will like it. I really appreciate for putting such efforts
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you 🙂
Sipon says
I am a new blogger I already make my brain into 2k writer. Which this means weekly I am writing 10k words and 2 days for post setup/edit in blog. But I am lost after seen your Pinterest working mahouts. Now I know what to do: I will create 15-20 boards and will start learning this new strategy. I’m following you on Pinterest u know my name too! Thanks for writing this valuable content.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Sipon! Pinterest is a great way to get traffic to your blog! Good luck 🙂
Hosneara Parvin says
Thank you for share this helpful topics. I read your blog , I think it’s helpful for others, You can also checkout my own blog. I write here about make money from online: http://dreambizpro.info/
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you Hosneara! Glad you found this post useful 🙂
paulo says
gostei do seu conteudo muito bom
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Paulo 🙂
cathy says
Ok all great how to drive traffic but if you dont have products to sell, you are not making any money. Been blogging for over many years and never made a cent so really explain how you made money just from traffic and no products
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Cathy, I through I explained exactly how I make money (that’s the whole point of writing this post lol).
I make money with affiliate marketing and advertising. There are dozens of ways to make money blogging that don’t involve creating products (as you can see from the infographic I created).
Making and selling product is just one way. You can make money with sponsored posts, by selling your service etc.
Just have a look at the infographic for inspirations 🙂
Bailey says
Hi, I’m looking at starting my own blog and hopefully to make some money off it!
I’m wondering how much money you invested into starting your blog before you started to see profit?
And do you pay for your website?
Also how did you advertise you website? Did you do it only through Pinterest?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hi Bailey,
I only invested in a domain and hosting with Bluehost (which is $2.95 a month for 3 years). The only other money I spent as I mentioned in this post, is for education.
I bought the courses listed in this post, so I invested roughly $600 in the first 3 months of blogging, and made that back in around 2 months.
I promoted my website with Pinterest, using only free organic traffic and I learned SEO to start ranking in Google results. I now get most of my traffic from Google.
Sandra Taylor says
Wonderful article, great tips to make money blogging. I recently started a new business blog. I’ve implemented your monetization strategies on my blog. Hopefully, I’ll start making some money from it. Thanks for sharing.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Great! Good luck Sandra 🙂
Sahil Jadhav says
Nice post, thanks for sharing
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Sahil 🙂
Stephanie Hawthorne says
Hi, this was super inspiring and helpful to read! Thank you so much for sharing your tips and experience that you have learned. It really means a lot, and it couldn’t be a more fitting time to find your post! I love blogging and the peace it brought to me. Now, I’m getting a little bit more serious about it, and this was one sign that I needed. Hope you have a wonderful day! 🙂
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Stephanie,
Glad to have you here! Good luck with your blog 😉
Alicia says
What a great read, full of helpful info! Thanks for sharing. Love your content!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks so much Alicia 🙂
Aimee says
Hi Sara!
Awesome post, fantastic blog and congratulations on your success! You’ve gained a new follower, me! 🙂
Just wondering if you could provide some advice please?
I am in my 3rd month blogging now and am heavily focusing on Pinterest, but unfortunately, am not really seeing much progress.
I have purchased a few courses (including Carly’s) and pretty much devoured all of the free resources available on the internet relating to blogging and Pinterest. I am implementing all the strategies but only averaging 100 page views per day from Pinterest.
One thing I really don’t understand is how bloggers are able to pin so many of their own pins per day?? How do you have enough especially because we really shouldn’t pin the same pin to the same board too soon? I make 2-4 pins per post but I still don’t have enough to be pinning 10+ of my own pins per day. Do you keep posting the same pin but with different descriptions?? How many of your own pins did you pin (per day) during your earlier months? Hellllp!
I’m really trying to crack this Pinterest code, cos I really believe it’s possible… But it’s not easy!
I’m trusting and holding on to the newer successful bloggers (like yourself) for inspiration and motivation, so thank you for sharing so much useful insights!
Regards,
Aimee x
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Aimee!
Your blog looks great 🙂
A couple of things I would suggest:
1. create a few boards that only contain YOUR pins on a topic. I can’t find any board that is specific to your blog. You should create something like “OP Motherhood”, “OP Money Talk” etc. and pin your new pins on your most relevant board. The boards that only contain my posts are the most powerful ones!
2. Make sure you use bolder fonts. I love you pin design, but the fonts can be a bit hard to read. Believe me, being a bit of a minimalist I don’t like fonts that shout in your face, but that’s how you can grab attention on Pinterest 🙂
3. You should make 15-20 pins per post 🙂 I mean not straight away, but you should pin a new pin a day and, depending on how many posts you have, keep creating new ones! You also need a lot more boards! You have plenty of topics and have only 38 boards. I have 158 boards! With more boards, it will be easier to rotate your pins and pin more. And the more blog posts you’ll have and the more pins you’ll make, the easier it will be to pin 25-30 pins a day consistently. I wouldn’t suggest pinning any more than that. I know some bloggers say they pin 100 pins a day but I did several tests and it doesn’t make a real difference!
Anna says
Great tips. I am really happy to read this post, thanks!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks Anna! Happy you found it useful 🙂
Dorcas says
I love this article so much – you have no idea. It contains ALL of the info I was searching for. I am so inspired by your determination and drive to be a success! It has really fires me up.
– Your new subscriber ♥️
Dorcas @ourfreedomroad
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks so much, Dorcas!
So glad you found it inspiring. Blogging changed my life for the better and I really want to share what worked for me to help as many people as possible! x
MagniFIMoney says
I love this post! I have already shared this with some friends because it is so down to earth. I am a new blogger and it seems like you summed it up perfectly. Get out there, network, socialize and push hard on Pinterest to gain traffic.
Thanks again!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks so much, MagniFIMoney! Love your name 😉
Devil says
This is the make money blogging site and this site article as very good and I am very happy
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you, Devil 🙂
Muhammed says
Looks like you guys are on another level. I just started blogging and am still struggling with a 1,000 view. I feel like I have given my all so am a bit exhausted.
If it’s okay to ask for help, then am gonna ask. I need help and I want to learn.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Muhammed,
Do you have any specific questions you want to ask? I am not going to be able to help otherwise 😉
Minosh from TalkBitz says
Great inspiration, and thanks for the real info. One of the best articles I’ve ever read!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank you so much Minosh 🙂
Marina says
This post inspired me to make my blog, so I wanted to say thank you! 🙂
My blog is still very new, but could you tell me what do you think so far and do you have any tips?
Also, do you have any advice on how to get more traffic so I could start making money? I have affiliate links and so far I use Media.net for ads, but I need a lot of blog traffic in order to start making money that way. How can I achieve that? I use Pinterest of course, but I could use your help. My blog is less then a month old, so I don’t have a lot of posts yet but I’m trying to write at least 1-2 posts a week.
Thank you in advance, your blog is amazing 🙂
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Marina,
Thanks for your message (and you second one too). It does take me time to respond to each message. That’s why I didn’t reply sooner. I do personally respond to everyone, which can take time 🙂
My best advice to get more traffic, especially at the beginning is to focus on one platform, and I found that Pinterest is the best platform to help you to get traffic. You also need to spend 80% of your time promoting your posts and only 20% writing them. If you keep writing and no one reads what you write there is no point in keep doing it!
It normally takes 6 months to a year of hard work to see any consistent results with blogging. If your blog is less than a month old, you just need to be patient and keep working hard 🙂
You are writing about the perfect topic for Pinterest but you need to:
1. create a lot more relevant boards, at least 30-40 boards
2. make 5-10 pins per post using different designs. I could only find 5-6 of your pins. I had to create over 100 pins before I started to see a good amount of traffic to my blog from Pinterest.
3. apply to a lot more group boards, but these days you need to find group boards with fewer contributors and more relevant. You are in only 1 group board with too many bloggers that has pins in all topics, from blogging to food. That’s not going to help you at all!
4. Make sure you pin 20-30 pins a day consistently. A mix of others and your own is ideal. The more content you will create, the more of your own you can pin.
Good luck! One of the hardest steps is to start, and you did it! Keep working hard and learning and money will come 🙂
Let me know if you have other questions!
Sara
Создание сайтов Крым says
Wow that’s amazing results! I wish you a good luck with your income! I’m really impressed! you did awesome job!!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks so much 😉
Renee says
Hi Sara!
I loved reading this! I’ve been working on my blog for a few months, promoting, pinning, doing my best at SEO. I feel like I’m not seeing anywhere near the results you saw in your first three months – do you think it’s really worth investing in a Pinterest course? I’ve tried my hand at email marketing and I don’t seem to see any results in terms of subscribers or views!
Any guidance would be so appreciated!
Renee x
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Renee,
I am a big believer in investing in myself to get the results I want. When I started my blog, I knew I had to spend some money if I wanted to get results fast.
I don’t think I would have gotten these results if I didn’t invest in Carly’s Pinteresting Strategies and in Scrivs’ Dare to Conquer.
I don’t do much email marketing myself, so I can’t help you there (yet ;), but if you want more page views, starting with Carly’s very affordable course is really going to help.
But of course, once you’ve gone through it, the most important step is to actually implement what she talks about 😉
And it will take 2-3 months of hard work to see results. Don’t give up before then!
Good luck!
Sara
Monroe says
Hello! Thank you so much for this wonderfully well-written post! I am definitely ready to take the first step forward into the blogging world. I checked out the link to the Dare to Conquer blogging course. I see there are a few different ones. Which one did you take? There’s a $149, $249 & $999 option? Also, can you explain the difference between authority revenue engine vs. blogging revenue engine?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Monroe,
When I bought the course, there weren’t many options and I think my subscription will be the same as the $249 blog revenue engine.
Blogging revenue engine is based on making money with ads, while authority revenue engine will teach you everything you need to know to make money with affiliate marketing. They are both essential to start a successful blog.
I hope this helps to clarify things a bit 🙂
If not, feel free to ask more questions!
Vida says
This is one of the best and instructive texts about blogging I ever read. This is amazing what You did and it’s basically a guideline to start. I read so many texts on Pinterest and Yours a by far the best! Keep going and thank You!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thank so much Vida 🙂
Arlina says
Can I ask how long did it take for your account to get approved by Mediavine? And did your income improve by a lot through out the months?
I’m in the researching phase and I actually wanna make this work, and your story of how ur page views increased so much by each month is really inspiring!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Arlina,
It took a bit over 3 weeks. My income improved because I started to get more and more traffic. In terms of RPM (Revenue every 1000 people), that tends to fluctuate during the year. You make more near black Friday and Christmas (as advertisers spend more money), and less at the beginning of each year (January through March), when people spend less money.
Hope this helps! 🙂
Ali Khan says
Hi Guys, thanks for sharing some good information!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
You are welcome 😉
Victoria says
Hey,
Your advice does work because I found you on Pinterest! Just to know, do you need to have great personal images to get traffic on Pinterest. Because I’m a beginner.
Keep up the good work!
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Victoria,
You don’t necessarily have to have personal images. Check out my bonus section in my “How to start a blog” guide. I go through that 😉
cathy Belyea says
I still don’t get how you make money? maybe I missed something but do you sell something? affiliates never work for me and i have been doing this for years. whats the real meat and potatoes
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Cathy,
I make money with affiliate marketing and display advertising 🙂 The trick with affiliates is to sell things you believe in, and also create posts that are specifically targeting affiliate sales. You should read my guide on affiliate marketing! It might help!
Emma says
Very nice article written some great ‘un-sugarcoated” advice.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks so much Emma 🙂
Richard says
Your story is motivating.I am currently working in a digital agency and now I am also thinking to start my own your article is very helpful.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Thanks, Richard! Good luck with starting your own business 😉
Dope Khan says
Hello. I’m Khan, from India.
This post is all i wanted to start my and blog and i started one http://www.thecreativeblog.co my question is can i use you pictures we don’t have enough resources to take our own ?
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Khan,
Not really 🙂 Please don’t use my images as I needed to buy a license to use some of them and I cannot give you permission to use them as the license is only in my name.
You should check out the bonus chapter in my “How to start a blog” article. There is all the information you need about images.
dipali says
Thak you for this blog.
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
You are more than welcome, Dipali 🙂
anjan says
Hi there, do you use manual pinning cause i don’t have any budget for tailwind
Sara @ Gathering Dreams says
Hey Anjan,
No, I don’t use manual pinning. But it’s very possible to obtain great results just by using manual pinning. There are several bloggers that use just that and have great results!