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How To Make Money Blogging (In No Time)

How To Make Money Blogging (In No Time)

Blogging, MoneyDecember 14, 2020

This article may contain links from our partners. We may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through a link. Please read our disclosure and how we make money.

5 TACTICS I USED TO GO FROM $0 to $3,878 AFTER 3 MONTHS BLOGGING PART-TIME

Gathering Dreams - This is how I went from $0 to $3,878 after 3 months working part-time on my blog with NO experience. If you want to learn how to make money blogging, I will tell you exactly how I did it, so you can do it too!

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 currently living the life I want to live.

Some can stay at home and raise their kids away from the corporate world. Some can 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?

How to make money blogging infographic | Discover 50+ ways to make money blogging: Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Digital Products, Physical Products, Events, Offline Business and more! https://gatheringdreams.com

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 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…

3878

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.

Gathering Dreams - Mediavine Income Report

So how did I do it? Did it happen by magic?

First of all, I just want to say:

  • 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 think you cannot do it, you are wrong!

And if you think it’s too late to start a blog in 2021, 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 always to 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 to help you along with all the steps, just click here and get started!

Start a blog today! It is the best side hustle I have ever done to make extra money! It's really cheap to set up and I made over $3,800 after only 3 months.

Learn How To Start A Blog And Make Money

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!

To monetize your blog, you need to make sure you are not using a free service.

And these are the reasons:

  • There is a limit to how much money you can make 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

  • It’s the #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.

Gathering Dreams - This is how I went from $0 to $3,878 after 3 months working part-time on my blog with NO experience. If you want to learn how to make money blogging, I will tell you exactly how I did it, so you can do it too!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 crucial 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 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 homepageBuzzsumo 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 month, 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)

Buzzsumo - Most shared

  • 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! 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

Gathering Dreams Pinterest Homepage

Make sure you have an image in your profile. Most people suggest having your 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

Personal boards are critical on Pinterest right now.

You need to set up at least one board for your blog (or more than one if 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. Ideally, you need to create a board for each topic you think that your target audience would search for to find your blog.

For example, I write about food on Gathering Dreams, so I created relevant boards:

  • Dinner Recipes
  • Lunch Recipes
  • Healthy Recipes
  • Vegetarian
  • Vegan Recipes

Make sure, for each personal board, you use a well-keyworded description to make it easier to find.

Gathering Dreams Pinterest Homepage
3. Create great “click-worthy” Pinterest images that lead to your blog posts

I can’t stress how important this is. If people don’t click on your pins, all your effort in 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 relevant ones

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.
  • Join the Facebook group Pinterest Group Boards: they have some great group boards opening every week. Just keep checking it!

My favorite method is spying on other people’s profiles, especially the smaller blogger’s profile. If they got accepted to a board, I am likely to be accepted on it too.

Gathering Dreams Group Boards

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 of 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.

2021 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 as niched down as possible, very relevant to your topics, 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 10-20 contributors. Avoid boards with over 150-200 contributors if you can.
5. Set up your daily schedule

There was a time when you had to pin 30-50 pins a day to make sure Pinterest was showing your pins in its feed. 

Things couldn’t be more different now. What Pinterest wants is fresh content, and repinning the same pins all over the place many times doesn’t work anymore.

Pinterest now wants fresh content every day.

What is fresh content?

  • New pins related to a new blog post
  • New pins/images created for an old blog post

Ideally, you want to create fresh pins every day. I try to create at least 2-4 new pins per day.

And the trick here is to re-use one design and use it several times for different pins.

You can simply change some of the font colors or change the pin aspect ratio. So if you use the same image, you could make one pin 1000×1500 and another one 1000×2000, and Pinterest will count them as 2 different pins.

My current daily schedule is this:

  • I create 3-4 new pins a day and pin them to my most relevant boards just once.

That’s it. It’s that simple.

I do still pin to group boards from time to time, as I still get some great impressions and clicks from pinning to my best group boards.

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 many 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 course is AMAZING, and it’s one of the most reasonably priced courses you will ever find. The best value for money out there at $57 ($52 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:

Blog Simple Framework (AKA The Billionaire Blog Club)

It was run by Scrivs, the same guy who runs Obstacle.co 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:

Blog Simple Framework 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, Blog Simple Framework 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!

With 13 active courses, Blog Simple Framework is the only investment you need to make if you want to start a successful blog. There isn’t one single course in Blog Simple Framework that helped me above others, but it’s the combination of all the strategies that laid the perfect foundations to create my own successful 6-figure business.

If you are ready to make money doing what you love and are ready to put in the work, start by taking this free 6-figure blogging master class today! 

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 a year using her affiliate marketing techniques.

I don’t think I will ever get anywhere near that, but I do love learning from people that can show real results. Michelle teaches beginner bloggers how to make money with affiliate marketing in her course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.

In the course, she teaches you the strategies she used to go from making $0 in affiliate income to over $50,000 per month.

Note: Michelle’s course is great if you are a beginner and know nothing about affiliate marketing. If you know the basics and want to simply improve your conversions, I would recommend Carly’s in-depth and affordable course on affiliate marketing.

After implementing her strategies, my affiliate income went from $0 to $1,264 in one month.

You can read all the tips I used to improve my affiliate marketing strategy here.

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 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!

Courses like Pinteresting strategies, Stupid Simple SEO, and Blog Simple Framework helped me become a six-figure blogger in less than 2 years.

Mike’s course on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is, by far, one of the best courses I have ever taken. You can read a bit more about SEO and why it’s important in my SEO chapter here.

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!

Whenever 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 advice and feedback in their Facebook Groups, it’s just me and me alone that has to put the hard work and hours into 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 getting 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 I was ready to invest any money in blogging.

Ready To Get Started On Your Blogging Journey?

Start a blog today! It is the best side hustle I have ever done to make extra money! It's really cheap to set up and I made over $3,800 after only 3 months.

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!


MORE TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR BLOG:
How start a blog and make money: everything you need to start a successful blog!
HOW TO START A BLOG AND MAKE MONEY
AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR DUMMIES

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.

Blogging, Featured Money, Make Money

Comments

  1. Rebecca @ A Fresh Outset says

    March 27, 2018 at 8:03 pm

    This is great, I love hearing that you are learning from the people I am learning from! Cheers!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 27, 2018 at 9:41 pm

      Thank you Rebecca! Glad you are learning from the same people, they are the best 🙂

      Reply
      • Albert says

        April 9, 2019 at 2:31 pm

        Hi Sara interesting and intriguing but still don’t understand where the money making comes into!! If you’re not selling anything??

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          April 10, 2019 at 9:25 am

          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.

          Reply
          • Gaby says

            April 27, 2019 at 2:36 am

            I loved this!! Thank you!

          • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

            April 29, 2019 at 5:00 pm

            Glad you enjoyed the post, Gaby 🙂

          • Mba Ezinne says

            February 12, 2021 at 3:02 pm

            Best read ever,thank you

          • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

            February 16, 2021 at 10:09 pm

            Thank you, Mba 🙂

      • George says

        July 27, 2019 at 10:03 am

        Sara

        How many articles did you write in the 1st 3 months blogging? And how long were they?

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          July 29, 2019 at 2:11 pm

          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.

          Reply
          • Zee says

            May 13, 2020 at 4:46 am

            Great article! Did you post all 20 at launch of your blog or did you spread them out over the first month?

          • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

            May 16, 2020 at 3:10 pm

            Thanks Zee!
            I just published them all at once, to have more material to promote and to make my blog look more established from day 1. If I had to start all over again, I would probably create only 8-10 posts but of higher quality as some of my first posts weren’t that great! Lol 🙂

    • Rean says

      June 5, 2020 at 9:09 am

      I am a bit overwhelmed
      I think I would be needing a lot of help.

      Reply
      • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

        June 16, 2020 at 7:17 pm

        Hey Rean,
        Blogging can be overwhelming at first. You just need to take it one small step at the time 🙂

        Reply
        • Diana says

          October 8, 2020 at 5:11 pm

          REALLY WANT… AND I TRULY UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING I CAN’T WAIT TO EVEN GET STARTED AT ALL…I’M SO HYPED OUT TO START AND LET IT BE ONE STEP AT A TIME NOT DESPERATE BUT LOVE IT…THANK YOU!

          Reply
          • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

            October 14, 2020 at 3:43 pm

            You are welcome, Diana 🙂

    • Andrea says

      August 8, 2020 at 1:03 am

      Sara you inspired me try. I’m struggling but I working hard.

      Reply
      • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

        August 13, 2020 at 2:50 pm

        Amazing Andrea! Never give up and always keep learning 🙂

        Reply
  2. finsavvypanda says

    March 28, 2018 at 6:49 pm

    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! 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 28, 2018 at 10:56 pm

      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!

      ***Update Jan 2020***
      I now pin only 20-30 pins a day. That’s plenty to see results on Pinterest these days and I don’t find pinning more useful!

      Reply
      • Bridget says

        December 13, 2018 at 2:48 am

        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

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          December 13, 2018 at 12:07 pm

          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 🙂

          Reply
          • vrushtii says

            September 5, 2019 at 7:15 pm

            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

            September 6, 2019 at 11:14 am

            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 🙂

          • Heather Boodhram says

            January 4, 2020 at 8:12 am

            I’m getting confused now. You responded to one girl that was asking about how she ould get better results from Carly and making Sense of Cents… you replied that her Pins looked great and for her to just keep going! That you pinned like 100 a day in batches of 20-30 at a time.

            Then the NEXT person commented and asked how long it took you to create so any pins and you said you definitely don’t crear 20-30 in a day, but more like 5-7… hmmmmm. Cab you help me understand what is going on here?!

          • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

            January 5, 2020 at 8:45 pm

            Hey Heather,
            the only comment I could find in which I mentioned pinning 100 pins a day is from March 2018, which is almost 2 years ago. Two years ago Pinterest was very different and pinning 100 pins was very helpful to get more exposure (as it was being part of hundreds of group board).

            Blogging moves really fast and things change every couple of months. As of now (and for the past year), pinning more than 20-30 pins a day isn’t very helpful, at least in my personal experience.

            I also never said I make 5-7 pins a day. I said I create 5-7 new pins designs a week. But I do still pin 20-30 pins a day (a mix of my old pins, one or two new pins, and some pins from other bloggers).

            I hope this helps to clarify 🙂

    • Sarah says

      April 29, 2019 at 9:30 pm

      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!!

      Reply
    • Maria says

      July 28, 2020 at 10:06 pm

      Hi Sarah
      My brain is fizzing with ideas… since I am not new to the blogging thing, but have read lots about it but still need to really find my niche. You really gave me some solid advice on how to overcome that crossroad.

      Reply
      • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

        August 4, 2020 at 2:56 pm

        You are welcome, Maria!
        I am sure you will find something that you will enjoy writing about 😉
        Best of luck!

        Reply
  3. Alexis says

    March 28, 2018 at 8:55 pm

    You’re amazing! Your blog is seriously one of my favorites. 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 28, 2018 at 10:58 pm

      You are too kind Alexis! I love your blog too, you are one of the people I look up to. A great inspiration 🙂

      Reply
    • Jody Richard says

      October 24, 2019 at 6:09 am

      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!

      Reply
      • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

        October 29, 2019 at 11:18 pm

        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!

        Reply
  4. Scrivs says

    March 29, 2018 at 3:44 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 29, 2018 at 4:51 pm

      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!

      Reply
  5. Viv Digs says

    March 29, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    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!!!!!!! ♥

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 29, 2018 at 4:53 pm

      Thank you Viv! You will rock at blogging! 🙂
      I will be your number one fan and follower! xxx

      Reply
  6. Quinncere says

    March 29, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 30, 2018 at 11:34 am

      Thank you so much Quinncere! What you said means a lot to me! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Jenny says

    March 31, 2018 at 2:16 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2018 at 10:18 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  8. Malea Holm says

    April 3, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    Thank you for sharing! This is probably one of the most helpful posts I’ve read about starting a blog!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 3, 2018 at 9:36 pm

      Thank you so much Malea, glad you found it helpful 🙂

      Reply
  9. Kayli Barth says

    April 4, 2018 at 3:17 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 4, 2018 at 8:14 pm

      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!

      Reply
  10. Miranda says

    April 4, 2018 at 3:44 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 4, 2018 at 8:30 pm

      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.

      Reply
  11. Virginia Newman says

    April 5, 2018 at 8:41 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 5, 2018 at 9:09 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  12. Charlie says

    April 7, 2018 at 1:24 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 7, 2018 at 8:39 am

      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 🙂

      Reply
  13. Paula says

    April 7, 2018 at 1:41 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 7, 2018 at 3:18 pm

      Thank you Paula 🙂

      Reply
  14. Schawann says

    April 7, 2018 at 10:44 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 7, 2018 at 11:42 pm

      Thank you so much Schawann! I am so happy you are enjoying reading the blog 🙂

      Reply
  15. Torez Ramsey says

    April 9, 2018 at 2:48 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 9, 2018 at 10:02 am

      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 🙂

      Reply
  16. Stephanie says

    April 9, 2018 at 7:16 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 9, 2018 at 7:30 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  17. Clary @ Ohclary.com says

    April 14, 2018 at 5:07 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 14, 2018 at 10:57 am

      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!

      Reply
  18. [email protected] says

    April 14, 2018 at 1:59 pm

    As a beginners in blogging we found this article very helpful.Very clear written and interesting at the same time.Great job.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 14, 2018 at 9:48 pm

      Hi Dimitri, I am glad you found the article helpful! 🙂

      Reply
  19. John Mulindi says

    April 21, 2018 at 8:56 am

    Well done, this is a comprehensive post with everything you need to succeed as a blogger. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 21, 2018 at 12:11 pm

      Thank you so much John 🙂

      Reply
  20. Janet says

    April 25, 2018 at 9:08 pm

    Thanks for sharing. I just started blogging and love your blog and the tips you share!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 25, 2018 at 9:55 pm

      Thank you so much, Janet 🙂 And good luck with your blog!

      Reply
  21. Candi says

    April 26, 2018 at 2:25 am

    Thanks for all the great info, thinking about giving this a shot!!!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 26, 2018 at 1:47 pm

      Thank you, Candi! 🙂 I love blogging! I hope you will give it a go! Let me know if you do!

      Reply
  22. Rachel says

    April 29, 2018 at 5:15 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 29, 2018 at 7:05 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
      • Rachel says

        April 29, 2018 at 7:23 pm

        Super helpful! Thank you again!

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          April 29, 2018 at 7:37 pm

          Any time Rachel 🙂

          Reply
  23. Paul says

    May 1, 2018 at 8:50 am

    Nice Article! Inspiring and motivating, I like the part about not paying them until you know what you are doing 🙂 Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 1, 2018 at 8:18 pm

      Thank you so much Paul 🙂

      Reply
  24. Leslie Andrade says

    May 4, 2018 at 5:42 am

    I LOVED this! After reading this I am interested in being a blogger!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 4, 2018 at 9:31 pm

      Glad I made you interested in blogging! It’s a great side hustle that can turn into a profitable business 🙂

      Reply
  25. Amanda Berke says

    May 4, 2018 at 11:52 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 5, 2018 at 10:45 am

      Thank you, Amanda! Glad you found it useful 🙂

      Reply
  26. Ting says

    May 5, 2018 at 1:32 am

    Im so interested in blogging 😊but dont know where to start.thank you for a beutiful inspiring article❤️Love it.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 5, 2018 at 10:46 am

      Thank you Ting, for reading it 🙂

      Reply
  27. Stephanie says

    May 5, 2018 at 10:21 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 5, 2018 at 11:42 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  28. Shirley says

    May 8, 2018 at 8:44 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 8, 2018 at 9:22 pm

      Thank you so much, Shirley! You are very kind! You have a great blog too! I wish you the best of luck with it! 🙂

      Reply
  29. Kendra says

    May 9, 2018 at 3:34 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 9, 2018 at 6:49 am

      Thank you so much Kendra 🙂

      Reply
  30. Callie says

    May 9, 2018 at 1:32 pm

    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! 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 9, 2018 at 7:50 pm

      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!

      Reply
    • Rohit says

      April 23, 2020 at 11:47 am

      Yes, I do agree with Callie. I was trying to make money through some apps and surveys (one was Paybox) but one day, just head about blogging and then started my own blog.

      I got no results within 2 months due to which I lost my motivation but after reading your article,

      I’m super excited to work again on my blog and hopefully, it will return something great in the near future.

      Thank you Sara for guiding and motivating through income reports. $2572 from ads is just unbelievable.

      Rohit (InsideCricSport)

      Reply
      • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

        May 1, 2020 at 6:44 pm

        Thanks so much, Rohit 🙂

        Reply
  31. Anishad says

    May 12, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 12, 2018 at 11:44 pm

      I agree, Anishad! Affiliate marketing is an amazing way to make money. Thanks for stopping by 🙂

      Reply
  32. Jane says

    May 16, 2018 at 4:16 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 16, 2018 at 3:58 pm

      Thank you so much, Jane 🙂 I am glad you found the post useful!

      Reply
  33. financial says

    May 18, 2018 at 12:19 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 18, 2018 at 12:40 pm

      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.

      Reply
      • financial says

        May 19, 2018 at 5:33 am

        thank you, it has helped a lot 👍

        Reply
  34. Amy says

    May 18, 2018 at 1:27 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 18, 2018 at 1:32 pm

      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!

      Reply
  35. Self Hosted Life says

    May 23, 2018 at 10:40 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 23, 2018 at 10:47 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
      • Self Hosted Life says

        May 24, 2018 at 10:26 am

        thank you

        Reply
  36. Tati says

    May 23, 2018 at 8:23 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 23, 2018 at 10:55 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  37. Kaylee Nelson says

    May 25, 2018 at 8:37 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 25, 2018 at 10:56 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
    • Vaibhav Aupmnya says

      April 27, 2020 at 4:14 pm

      Thank u Sara for detailed information on blog. I haven’t been able to receive any such info on blogging, and also i have not much info on blogging, digital marketing, freelancing, online earning..etc. I had just clear (in late January 2020) my higher secondary school exam. I hope your blog can incourage me and help me achieving my (online money earning) goal to fulfill my educational expenses of my further studies on my own.
      I will give it a try,if you have any youtube channel/video related to blogging, let me know because if this detailed info can be shown in video it will be very helpful for me.

      Reply
      • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

        May 11, 2020 at 2:14 pm

        Hey Vaibhav,
        I don’t have anything on YouTube about blogging! But if you are interested in making money online with blogs, you should check out the guys from Income School. They have some great content 🙂

        Reply
  38. shylo says

    May 26, 2018 at 9:04 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 27, 2018 at 12:07 am

      Thank you so much Shylo! Good luck with your blog 🙂

      Reply
  39. Mathieu says

    August 2, 2018 at 4:05 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 2, 2018 at 5:08 pm

      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!

      Reply
  40. Stefani Kaye says

    August 3, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 3, 2018 at 6:00 pm

      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!

      Reply
      • Om Rawal says

        March 20, 2019 at 1:28 pm

        Which platform do you use to run your site ?

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          March 21, 2019 at 1:29 pm

          Hey Om,
          I use WordPress.org
          I hope this helps!

          Reply
  41. Ryan Biddulph says

    August 6, 2018 at 12:53 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 6, 2018 at 4:46 pm

      Thank you, Ryan! I agree: great content and building a network are a powerful way to have success 🙂

      Reply
  42. Jonathan @ OnePercentIntent says

    August 8, 2018 at 7:38 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 8, 2018 at 9:59 pm

      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!

      Reply
  43. Colin says

    August 19, 2018 at 11:37 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 20, 2018 at 8:41 am

      Thank you so much, Colin! 🙂

      Reply
  44. Joana says

    August 21, 2018 at 2:39 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 21, 2018 at 12:22 pm

      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!

      Reply
  45. Lacey says

    August 23, 2018 at 1:31 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 23, 2018 at 8:39 am

      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!

      Reply
  46. Susan says

    August 26, 2018 at 11:35 pm

    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! 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 27, 2018 at 3:53 pm

      Thank you, Susan!
      BBC is an amazing community and I am sure it will inspire you 🙂

      Reply
  47. marta says

    August 26, 2018 at 11:39 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 27, 2018 at 3:54 pm

      Thank you so much, Marta!
      I had to use Google Translate as I don’t speak Portuguese! 🙂
      Good luck with your blog!

      Reply
  48. lusekelo says

    September 3, 2018 at 5:42 am

    That is great, three months must be a record, most people take more than a year to make their first sale.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 3, 2018 at 8:34 am

      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!

      Reply
  49. Dylan says

    September 6, 2018 at 6:06 pm

    Nice thanks for the sharing this article its very nice and helpful for us.. please keep it up with a new post…

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 6, 2018 at 9:54 pm

      Thank you, Dylan 🙂

      Reply
  50. Whitney says

    September 7, 2018 at 10:07 pm

    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!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 8, 2018 at 2:56 pm

      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!

      Reply
  51. Justin says

    September 10, 2018 at 10:36 am

    Some good tips there! Currently I’m only using affiliate marketing and considering ads myself.

    Justin

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 10, 2018 at 2:59 pm

      Thank Justin! You really have to check out ads income if you have good consistent traffic!

      Reply
      • Shalycee Johnson says

        December 18, 2020 at 8:56 pm

        This was a really helpful article. I was blogging awhile back and I gave up due to not understanding Pinterest and getting bored with sharing my articles on Twitter to other bloggers who only read my posts in exchange for reading theirs. I’m feeling more ready than ever for blogging after transitioning to a 9-5 from waiting tables. I have more time. I like what you said about investing in yourself. So true! Thanks for writing this. This article didn’t feel like u were just selling us stuff so thank you.

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          December 31, 2020 at 7:23 am

          Thanks so much, Shalycee! Best of luck with your blog!

          Reply
  52. Gisel says

    September 10, 2018 at 7:42 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 10, 2018 at 9:10 pm

      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! 🙂

      Reply
  53. Terri k says

    September 14, 2018 at 9:16 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 14, 2018 at 12:33 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  54. Anna says

    September 16, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 17, 2018 at 3:27 pm

      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! 🙂

      Reply
  55. Susannah says

    September 17, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 17, 2018 at 5:08 pm

      Thank you, Susannah!
      Mediavine is amazing! I can’t recommend it enough to all bloggers. Your customer service is outstanding.
      Love you guys 🙂

      Reply
  56. Hamim says

    September 22, 2018 at 9:13 am

    Thanks for this awesome stuff. I just start my personal blog. This guide’s going to be very helpful for me.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 23, 2018 at 11:29 am

      Thanks Hamim, glad you found it useful 🙂

      Reply
  57. Priscilla says

    September 27, 2018 at 12:19 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 27, 2018 at 1:42 pm

      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!

      Reply
  58. Latoya T says

    September 30, 2018 at 11:51 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 1, 2018 at 10:20 am

      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!

      Reply
  59. Raz | MakeLivingGood says

    October 7, 2018 at 12:50 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 8, 2018 at 9:27 pm

      Hey Raz!
      Thank you 🙂
      I used Adobe Illustrator to create the infographics!

      Reply
  60. Crystal01 says

    October 19, 2018 at 6:13 pm

    This is really helpful ! Thank you for posting this. This inspires me for starting a blog.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 22, 2018 at 9:08 am

      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 🙂

      Reply
  61. cathy says

    October 30, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 1, 2018 at 12:21 pm

      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.

      Reply
  62. Carolyn @ TheDailyCapital.com says

    November 5, 2018 at 12:39 am

    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! (:

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 5, 2018 at 11:27 am

      Thank you, Carolyn!
      Glad you found the post inspiring! And good luck with your blog!

      Reply
  63. Samantha Botes says

    November 9, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 10, 2018 at 6:43 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
      • Jenessa says

        August 26, 2020 at 11:14 am

        Thanks for the amazing thorough answer! I appreciate the incredible amount of time it must have taken you to put together this article and personally respond to each comment. I was reading through the comments to see if someone had already asked my question and sure enough they did! I’m on the edge of starting my own blog and articles like yours are what give me more courage to do so.

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          August 28, 2020 at 2:02 pm

          Thanks so much, Jenessa! I am so glad you got some inspiration out of this blog post. That’s the reason I wrote it and I keep it up to date all the time!
          Everything is possible if you put your mind to it! 🙂

          Reply
  64. Athar Bhat says

    November 25, 2018 at 6:58 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 26, 2018 at 3:00 pm

      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!

      Reply
  65. Sarah says

    November 27, 2018 at 3:57 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 28, 2018 at 9:52 pm

      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!

      Reply
  66. Christy says

    December 7, 2018 at 5:29 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 8, 2018 at 2:50 pm

      Amazing! Good luck with your blog Christy 🙂

      Reply
  67. Jay says

    December 10, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 11, 2018 at 10:24 pm

      Thank you, Jay! Glad you found it useful! 🙂

      Reply
  68. Taylor says

    December 12, 2018 at 12:33 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 13, 2018 at 12:03 pm

      Thank you, Taylor! I am so happy to hear that you found this post useful 🙂
      Good luck with your blog 🙂

      Reply
  69. Gaurav says

    December 13, 2018 at 9:55 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 13, 2018 at 12:10 pm

      Hey Gaurav, Pinteresting Strategies is the best course I have ever taken if you are just starting out on Pinterest! I really recommend that 🙂

      Reply
  70. Emily says

    December 14, 2018 at 2:36 am

    I love your website it’s absolutely gorgeous! Great style, writing, everything! Best of continued success with it!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 14, 2018 at 8:47 pm

      Thank you so much, Emily 🙂

      Reply
  71. DAVID SLIP says

    December 20, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 20, 2018 at 7:18 pm

      Thank you David 🙂
      Good luck with your blog!

      Reply
  72. Mansi says

    December 22, 2018 at 7:26 am

    Hi, I am new to your blog. I must say it’s amazing and I am learning alot from you.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 27, 2018 at 10:29 pm

      Thank you so much Mansi 🙂

      Reply
  73. Maria says

    February 5, 2019 at 1:24 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 5, 2019 at 8:47 pm

      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! 🙂

      Reply
  74. Dan says

    February 11, 2019 at 6:44 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 11, 2019 at 7:23 pm

      Hey Dan, yes! Lots of hard work 🙂
      Mediavine is a great company! I love them!

      Reply
  75. khalid says

    February 12, 2019 at 6:15 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 15, 2019 at 7:14 pm

      Thank you, Khalid 🙂

      Reply
  76. Thehotskills says

    February 19, 2019 at 8:29 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 19, 2019 at 7:40 pm

      Glad you found the post useful 🙂
      Pinterest is the best platform to learn right now if you want to make money blogging!

      Reply
  77. ChrisTy says

    February 22, 2019 at 4:29 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 22, 2019 at 9:33 am

      Thank you so much Christy, and good luck with you blog 🙂

      Reply
  78. Jessi Fox says

    February 22, 2019 at 6:45 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 22, 2019 at 9:44 am

      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!

      Reply
  79. Lorraine Dzeka says

    February 24, 2019 at 8:52 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 25, 2019 at 11:46 am

      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!

      Reply
  80. Estee chait says

    February 24, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    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!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 25, 2019 at 11:41 am

      Thank you so much, Estee 🙂

      Reply
  81. Stacey says

    March 1, 2019 at 7:03 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 1, 2019 at 10:06 pm

      Thank you Stacey!
      Good luck with your blog 🙂

      Reply
  82. James Mulatya @REPEATBLOGGER says

    March 2, 2019 at 1:27 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 3, 2019 at 3:59 pm

      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!

      Reply
  83. Jessica says

    March 5, 2019 at 10:41 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 7, 2019 at 12:53 pm

      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!

      Reply
  84. Alexis says

    March 10, 2019 at 10:10 am

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 11, 2019 at 9:15 am

      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!

      Reply
  85. Mike beatty says

    March 10, 2019 at 1:44 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 11, 2019 at 9:03 am

      Wow, thank you Mike! 🙂
      I think it’s all about hard work, learning from others and taking action.

      Reply
  86. Pamela says

    March 10, 2019 at 5:35 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 11, 2019 at 9:04 am

      Hi Pamela,
      Thank you! And good luck with your blog 🙂

      Reply
  87. Corina says

    March 10, 2019 at 6:18 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 11, 2019 at 9:06 am

      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!

      Reply
  88. sandy says

    March 10, 2019 at 8:35 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 11, 2019 at 9:07 am

      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!

      Reply
  89. diana says

    March 11, 2019 at 10:07 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 12, 2019 at 11:15 pm

      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!

      Reply
      • diana says

        March 19, 2019 at 12:53 pm

        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.

        Reply
  90. Erica | I Spy Fabulous says

    March 11, 2019 at 9:09 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 12, 2019 at 11:15 pm

      Thanks Erica! I am glad you enjoyed the post! Carly is great!

      Reply
  91. Ashleigh says

    March 13, 2019 at 9:16 am

    This post is exactly what I’ve been trying to find to increase my traffic. Thanks so much for sharing!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 14, 2019 at 2:22 pm

      You are welcome, Ashleigh!
      Glad you found it useful 🙂

      Reply
  92. Kit says

    March 16, 2019 at 12:31 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 16, 2019 at 5:52 pm

      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!

      Reply
  93. Sivasankari K says

    March 23, 2019 at 2:13 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 23, 2019 at 9:15 pm

      Thank you Sivasankari!
      Glad we have the same taste in design 🙂

      Reply
  94. Miriam says

    March 23, 2019 at 3:52 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 23, 2019 at 9:30 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  95. Lauren K says

    March 24, 2019 at 5:20 am

    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:)

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 24, 2019 at 8:20 pm

      Glad you found the post useful, Lauren 🙂

      Reply
  96. zayoour says

    March 26, 2019 at 10:00 pm

    Great article! Very helpful information.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2019 at 11:45 am

      Thank you so much, Zayoour! 🙂

      Reply
  97. Tayler says

    March 28, 2019 at 12:00 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2019 at 4:23 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  98. Devante says

    March 28, 2019 at 2:32 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2019 at 8:08 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  99. Kristine says

    March 29, 2019 at 3:23 pm

    Such a great, detailed post! I found your blog through Pinterest, this is like a bible for those who want to make money blogging!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2019 at 11:43 am

      Thank you so much, Kristine!
      I am so happy you found the post useful 🙂

      Reply
  100. Hillary says

    April 2, 2019 at 4:31 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 4, 2019 at 11:32 am

      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 🙂

      Reply
  101. Infotitude says

    April 3, 2019 at 3:05 pm

    Respected Really amazing and faboulus Article as i am beginner blogger. I like it very much.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 4, 2019 at 11:30 am

      Thank you so much 🙂

      Reply
  102. Teya @Tlmblog.com says

    April 5, 2019 at 5:07 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 7, 2019 at 9:39 pm

      Thank you Teya 🙂
      And good luck with your blog!

      Reply
  103. Muhammad Faisal says

    April 6, 2019 at 6:44 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 7, 2019 at 9:34 pm

      Hi Faisal,
      Thanks so much 🙂

      Reply
  104. Granny Bee says

    April 9, 2019 at 1:21 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 10, 2019 at 9:21 am

      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 🙂

      Reply
  105. Sophia says

    April 10, 2019 at 2:53 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 15, 2019 at 1:42 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
      • Sophia says

        May 1, 2019 at 3:42 pm

        Thank you, Sara! 🙂

        Reply
  106. cathy says

    April 12, 2019 at 12:37 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 15, 2019 at 1:49 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  107. Smith says

    April 15, 2019 at 6:01 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 15, 2019 at 1:39 pm

      Glad you found this post useful, Smith 🙂

      Reply
  108. Deval Shah says

    April 19, 2019 at 6:45 am

    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!!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 21, 2019 at 6:44 am

      Thank you, Deval!
      Glad you found this post inspiring 🙂

      Reply
  109. Keshav Malad says

    April 23, 2019 at 6:12 am

    This is simply inspirational! When didI start earning once initiated blogging?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 29, 2019 at 5:14 pm

      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.

      Reply
  110. Tasha says

    April 23, 2019 at 8:05 pm

    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!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 29, 2019 at 5:05 pm

      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! 🙂

      Reply
  111. Kashy says

    April 27, 2019 at 8:15 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 29, 2019 at 5:11 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  112. diva says

    April 29, 2019 at 5:00 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 29, 2019 at 4:58 pm

      Hi Diva,
      Thank you!
      I use Simply Pro. It’s a Genesis theme by Studio Press.

      Reply
  113. Joseph Chez says

    April 30, 2019 at 9:55 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 4, 2019 at 1:29 pm

      Thank you, Joseph! And good luck with your blog 🙂

      Reply
  114. Niall O'Hara says

    May 1, 2019 at 1:25 pm

    Great post! I want to promote my own jewellery website oharajewellery and have just used this to open a Pinterest account. Wish me luck!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 4, 2019 at 1:30 pm

      Good luck, Niall! I really think Pinterest is going to be great for your jewellery business!

      Reply
  115. Saira says

    May 5, 2019 at 3:54 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 9, 2019 at 2:00 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
      • Saira Mian says

        June 29, 2019 at 4:28 pm

        Thanks Sara!

        Reply
  116. Naresh shaw says

    May 8, 2019 at 9:43 am

    Article is fabulous. big knowledgeable article and This article is helping my blog journey.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 9, 2019 at 1:44 pm

      Thank you so much, Naresh! I am so happy you found this article helpful 🙂

      Reply
  117. Marco B says

    May 10, 2019 at 9:23 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 13, 2019 at 9:52 am

      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 🙂

      Reply
  118. Lia Heusser says

    May 13, 2019 at 1:56 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 15, 2019 at 2:01 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  119. Summer | The Sunshine Suitcase says

    May 18, 2019 at 3:57 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 20, 2019 at 5:48 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  120. Katie says

    May 24, 2019 at 5:28 pm

    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 😉

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 24, 2019 at 6:57 pm

      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!

      Reply
  121. Lynn says

    May 26, 2019 at 6:07 pm

    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 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 28, 2019 at 10:05 pm

      I’m so happy that you found this post useful, Lynn! 🙂

      Reply
  122. Karlo says

    June 10, 2019 at 3:28 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 10, 2019 at 5:39 pm

      Thank you, Karlo! Good luck with your blog and with Adsense approval 🙂

      Reply
  123. Sachin says

    June 14, 2019 at 1:34 am

    Wow…..!
    Your website is to good i like you posts write more to make money blog post

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 14, 2019 at 2:30 pm

      Thank you Sachin, I am glad you like the blog 🙂

      Reply
  124. Brian Muguro says

    June 24, 2019 at 6:52 am

    Wow! I look forward to applying this in my new blog.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 25, 2019 at 7:50 pm

      Good luck with your blog, Brian 🙂

      Reply
  125. David says

    June 25, 2019 at 7:45 am

    Your story is motivating. I am also trying to improve my financial conditions, the steps you tell in this article are very impressive.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 25, 2019 at 7:53 pm

      Thank you David! the most important step is to take action! Good luck 🙂

      Reply
      • David says

        August 10, 2019 at 6:51 am

        yes I will Sara.

        Reply
  126. Cheylene Rondpre says

    June 27, 2019 at 3:35 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 29, 2019 at 9:07 am

      Thank you so much Cheylene 🙂

      Reply
  127. Iyiola Owabumowa says

    June 28, 2019 at 10:24 am

    I’m so motivated, would love to shoot you a mail.

    Want to interview you on your big pinterest and blogging success

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 29, 2019 at 9:08 am

      Thank you so much Iyola! 🙂

      Reply
  128. Tara says

    July 6, 2019 at 9:10 am

    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❤️

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 11, 2019 at 8:33 pm

      Thank you Tara! So happy you found this post helpful 😊

      Reply
    • Tisha says

      July 15, 2019 at 8:37 pm

      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.

      Reply
      • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

        July 15, 2019 at 11:16 pm

        Thanks Tisha!
        I am sure if you work hard and smart on your blog you will be incredibly successful 🙂

        Reply
  129. Blake says

    July 16, 2019 at 2:00 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 18, 2019 at 10:34 am

      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 🙂

      Reply
  130. Ummi @ Ummi Goes Where? says

    July 21, 2019 at 5:38 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 29, 2019 at 2:09 pm

      No worries Ummi! And good luck with your blog! 🙂

      Reply
  131. Bareera says

    July 22, 2019 at 11:41 am

    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 ^_^

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 29, 2019 at 2:10 pm

      Thank you so much, Bareera!
      And do get in touch if you have any specific question! Happy to help 🙂

      Reply
  132. Fer Bonilla says

    August 1, 2019 at 5:55 pm

    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!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 2, 2019 at 9:10 am

      Goo luck Fer Bonilla! And I can’t wait to see your blog 🙂

      Reply
  133. Fer Bonilla says

    August 1, 2019 at 8:17 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 2, 2019 at 9:10 am

      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!

      Reply
  134. alber andesko says

    August 2, 2019 at 2:04 pm

    Good Article, I can get a lot of knowledge here

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 2, 2019 at 7:11 pm

      Thank you Alber 🙂
      Happy you found it useful!

      Reply
  135. Jen says

    August 2, 2019 at 7:09 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 2, 2019 at 7:15 pm

      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!

      Reply
  136. Yuliya S Shveykina says

    August 3, 2019 at 4:10 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 5, 2019 at 4:37 pm

      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!

      Reply
  137. Niva says

    August 9, 2019 at 5:56 am

    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:)

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 10, 2019 at 8:57 am

      Good luck, Niva 🙂

      Reply
  138. Roshan Aryal says

    August 12, 2019 at 4:49 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 15, 2019 at 12:12 pm

      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!

      Reply
  139. Ant @ MyEzy says

    August 13, 2019 at 7:14 am

    Wow you’ve been on such an inspiring journey. Definitely going to checkout Dare to Conquer.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 15, 2019 at 12:08 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  140. Jessica says

    August 14, 2019 at 12:57 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 15, 2019 at 12:07 pm

      Thank you so much, Jessica and good luck with your blog 🙂

      Reply
  141. Pramadox says

    August 21, 2019 at 9:27 am

    Thanks for this informative post. Traffic is my challenge but you’ve just figured it out for me. Working to improve my traffic ASAP.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 23, 2019 at 10:03 pm

      Good luck with your blog, Pramadox 🙂

      Reply
  142. Rav says

    August 25, 2019 at 9:51 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 26, 2019 at 8:41 pm

      Thanks so much, Rav 🙂

      Good luck with your blog!

      Reply
  143. Kaylee- To Be A Mommy Blog says

    August 27, 2019 at 1:34 am

    Thank you so much for sharing! I appreciate all of the details and an actual action plan to reach our goals. You’re awesome! 😊

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 28, 2019 at 10:46 am

      Thank you soo much Kaylee 🙂 x

      Reply
  144. Marina says

    August 29, 2019 at 1:16 pm

    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 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 29, 2019 at 10:12 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
      • Marina says

        August 30, 2019 at 9:21 am

        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!

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          August 30, 2019 at 9:45 pm

          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!

          Reply
  145. Emily Standley says

    August 29, 2019 at 9:08 pm

    Beautiful blog! Love the tips, your font, style – everything!! Great job!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 29, 2019 at 10:00 pm

      Thank you so much, Emily 🙂

      Reply
  146. Globex IT Solutions says

    September 4, 2019 at 1:51 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 6, 2019 at 11:10 am

      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 🙂

      Reply
  147. Crazijamz says

    September 6, 2019 at 7:16 pm

    Hi,
    I really enjoy your post. Thanks for the info shared.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 9, 2019 at 8:54 pm

      Thank you so much, Crazijamz 🙂

      Reply
  148. Cheeksandtoez says

    September 7, 2019 at 9:11 am

    Thank you for sharing this amazing post. Hope readers will like it. I really appreciate for putting such efforts

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 9, 2019 at 8:56 pm

      Thank you 🙂

      Reply
  149. Sipon says

    September 8, 2019 at 10:48 am

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 9, 2019 at 8:58 pm

      Thank you Sipon! Pinterest is a great way to get traffic to your blog! Good luck 🙂

      Reply
  150. Hosneara Parvin says

    September 9, 2019 at 6:26 pm

    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/

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 9, 2019 at 8:53 pm

      Thank you Hosneara! Glad you found this post useful 🙂

      Reply
  151. paulo says

    September 9, 2019 at 7:53 pm

    gostei do seu conteudo muito bom

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 9, 2019 at 8:52 pm

      Thank you, Paulo 🙂

      Reply
  152. cathy says

    September 9, 2019 at 8:41 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 9, 2019 at 9:03 pm

      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 🙂

      Reply
  153. Bailey says

    September 9, 2019 at 8:45 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 9, 2019 at 9:08 pm

      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.

      Reply
  154. Sandra Taylor says

    September 11, 2019 at 7:19 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 11, 2019 at 8:18 pm

      Great! Good luck Sandra 🙂

      Reply
  155. Sahil Jadhav says

    September 12, 2019 at 10:01 am

    Nice post, thanks for sharing

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 15, 2019 at 4:56 pm

      Thank you, Sahil 🙂

      Reply
  156. Stephanie Hawthorne says

    September 15, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    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! 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 20, 2019 at 4:49 pm

      Hey Stephanie,
      Glad to have you here! Good luck with your blog 😉

      Reply
  157. Alicia says

    September 17, 2019 at 7:55 pm

    What a great read, full of helpful info! Thanks for sharing. Love your content!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 20, 2019 at 4:51 pm

      Thanks so much Alicia 🙂

      Reply
  158. Aimee says

    September 20, 2019 at 10:20 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 24, 2019 at 12:26 pm

      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!

      Reply
  159. Anna says

    September 23, 2019 at 9:43 am

    Great tips. I am really happy to read this post, thanks!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 24, 2019 at 11:49 am

      Thanks Anna! Happy you found it useful 🙂

      Reply
  160. Dorcas says

    September 27, 2019 at 3:11 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 1, 2019 at 10:11 pm

      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

      Reply
  161. MagniFIMoney says

    September 27, 2019 at 6:15 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 1, 2019 at 10:09 pm

      Thanks so much, MagniFIMoney! Love your name 😉

      Reply
  162. Devil says

    September 28, 2019 at 4:23 pm

    This is the make money blogging site and this site article as very good and I am very happy

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 1, 2019 at 10:05 pm

      Thank you, Devil 🙂

      Reply
  163. Muhammed says

    October 5, 2019 at 10:47 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 7, 2019 at 9:47 pm

      Hey Muhammed,
      Do you have any specific questions you want to ask? I am not going to be able to help otherwise 😉

      Reply
  164. Minosh from TalkBitz says

    October 9, 2019 at 7:42 am

    Great inspiration, and thanks for the real info. One of the best articles I’ve ever read!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 9, 2019 at 7:12 pm

      Thank you so much Minosh 🙂

      Reply
  165. Marina says

    October 10, 2019 at 11:39 pm

    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 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 20, 2019 at 10:55 am

      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

      Reply
  166. Создание сайтов Крым says

    October 14, 2019 at 2:21 pm

    Wow that’s amazing results! I wish you a good luck with your income! I’m really impressed! you did awesome job!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 17, 2019 at 7:55 pm

      Thanks so much 😉

      Reply
  167. Renee says

    October 19, 2019 at 5:37 pm

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 20, 2019 at 11:03 am

      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

      Reply
  168. Monroe says

    October 28, 2019 at 3:38 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 29, 2019 at 11:42 pm

      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!

      Reply
  169. Vida says

    November 9, 2019 at 2:56 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 11, 2019 at 9:14 pm

      Thank so much Vida 🙂

      Reply
  170. Arlina says

    November 12, 2019 at 6:52 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 14, 2019 at 9:08 pm

      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! 🙂

      Reply
  171. Ali Khan says

    November 12, 2019 at 1:51 pm

    Hi Guys, thanks for sharing some good information!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 14, 2019 at 9:05 pm

      You are welcome 😉

      Reply
  172. Victoria says

    November 13, 2019 at 2:36 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 14, 2019 at 9:03 pm

      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 😉

      Reply
  173. cathy Belyea says

    November 14, 2019 at 11:31 am

    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

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 14, 2019 at 9:02 pm

      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!

      Reply
  174. Emma says

    November 25, 2019 at 9:25 pm

    Very nice article written some great ‘un-sugarcoated” advice.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 26, 2019 at 11:40 pm

      Thanks so much Emma 🙂

      Reply
  175. Richard says

    November 26, 2019 at 6:25 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 26, 2019 at 11:46 pm

      Thanks, Richard! Good luck with starting your own business 😉

      Reply
  176. Dope Khan says

    December 2, 2019 at 8:47 am

    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 ?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 4, 2019 at 9:13 am

      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.

      Reply
  177. dipali says

    December 6, 2019 at 7:42 am

    Thak you for this blog.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 6, 2019 at 9:49 am

      You are more than welcome, Dipali 🙂

      Reply
  178. anjan says

    December 10, 2019 at 8:23 am

    Hi there, do you use manual pinning cause i don’t have any budget for tailwind

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 11, 2019 at 4:08 pm

      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!

      Reply
  179. Bumbles says

    December 13, 2019 at 3:35 pm

    I love this post. I keep referring back to it time and time again. Just working on beggining my lifestyle blog atm (slow progress due to all the other projects that I keep picking up) but this post has some genuinely useful information 🙂 which is refreshing in the swamp of make money blogging blog posts that are out there. I feel like many of them started by teaching people how to make money and so their advise is generally less believable.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 18, 2019 at 5:44 pm

      Thank you Bumbles, I am glad you are finding this post useful 🙂

      Reply
  180. James Oso says

    January 2, 2020 at 4:58 pm

    Thanks do much for this information

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 5, 2020 at 8:50 pm

      You are more than welcome 🙂

      Reply
  181. My Wyoming Table says

    January 6, 2020 at 11:30 pm

    I have been blogging for almost two years and I really want to monetize my blog. I have good pinterest numbers. No really sure what I am doing wrong. I am about to just give up, not sure what I am doing wrong. http://www.mywyomingtable.com

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 14, 2020 at 3:42 pm

      Hey Eunice,
      Your Pinterest numbers need to be much higher in order to get more page views. You also need a lot more boards (at least 20-30 boards) and you need to be pinning much more if you want your recipes to get out there. Remember, blogging is 20% about writing amazing content and 80% about promoting it. I would suggest you read the Pinterest chapter in my blogging guide here.
      I would create at least 5 pins per post with different images and templates. Also, make sure your image size in the actual blog post is consistent. You have a lot of small images. People look at websites on mobile and they might be difficult to see them with the current layout you are using. Check your website on mobile.
      Good luck and don’t give up! Look at bloggers you love and see what they do to be successful.
      You can do it!

      Reply
  182. Saphire Hughes says

    January 8, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    So much helpful content. Good luck in your blogging endeavors! Will be starting a travel blog soon!

    Thank you!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 14, 2020 at 3:16 pm

      Oh fantastic, good luck Saphire! Keep me posted on your blogging journey 🙂

      Reply
  183. Suezette says

    January 10, 2020 at 3:47 am

    Very useful article. I’m a new blogger and there’s so much to learn. It can be overwhelming. By I am determined to reach my income goal by the Spring. My question is how soon did you start to place ads on your site? Do you suggest waiting until you get a decent amount of traffic?

    Suezette

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 14, 2020 at 3:19 pm

      Hey Suezette,
      I would wait to think about ads until you have a decent amount of traffic. I started using Google Adsense when I reached around 10,000 page views per month. I then moved to Mediavine when I reached 25k sessions.
      Before that, you would only make a few cents so it’s not really worth it.

      Reply
  184. Alison Wright says

    January 23, 2020 at 11:36 am

    It’s incredibly impressive how you made so much money from MediaVine in just 3 months.I just wondered – do you still find Pinterest Group boards helpful? I keep finding conflicting advice.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 24, 2020 at 10:10 am

      Hey Alison, I think there is still use for Pinterest group boards, but as I said in the post, they need to be incredibly niched down and have only a few collaborators. Overall you should give more importance to creating well keyworded personal boards.

      Reply
  185. Ayush says

    January 23, 2020 at 3:01 pm

    I want to start blogging and I know how to set up a blog but I don’t have any knowledge in a particular field for which I should blog about.And most important question- how to select a niche and create our own content?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 24, 2020 at 9:57 am

      Hey Ayush,
      You should read my first chapter in the How to start a blog guide!

      It talks about selecting a niche 🙂

      Reply
  186. Shelly says

    January 27, 2020 at 5:11 pm

    “In order to monetize your blog, you need to need to make sure you are not using a free service.”

    I made a blog using blogger (free service) in 2011. I monetized it with Google Adsense and have made money from it ever since. Free services can be very useful and I don’t see how they would limit you not be able to monetize your blog/site.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 3, 2020 at 7:03 pm

      Hey Shelly,
      Yes, you can make money from a free service but you will make A LOT less 🙂
      Google Adsense pays at least 3 times less than for example Mediavine (personal experience). And you won’t be able to apply for Mediavine if you don’t have a self-hosted blog. By using a free service you are losing hundreds of dollars every month!
      This is just one of the many reasons why I think a free service is not the best. But if maximizing your earning potentials is not your priority, a free service is great to start 🙂

      Reply
  187. Joshua says

    January 31, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    Holy damn this was value-packed thanks a lot! 10k to 180k page views WOW… I could only dream of that number haha.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 3, 2020 at 6:47 pm

      You can do it, Joshua! Anyone can if I did it! 😉

      Reply
  188. Virginia Ndirangu says

    February 2, 2020 at 1:52 pm

    I found your blog a last year and have been quietly following your journey. The advice you’ve given here is really great and I especially loved that you mentioned scrivs course. He has changed the way I look at blogging and I launched my own last month.

    I’m hoping to quit my job in 6 months and start travelling full time.

    Keep being awesome 😊

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 3, 2020 at 6:46 pm

      Yeah Virginia, that sounds awesome!
      Good luck with your plans! You can do it! Keep me posted 😉

      Reply
  189. Courtney Carpenter says

    February 4, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    Great post! With never ending comments, nice…trying to gain confidence to finally launch my blog. Thanks for this inspiring post😃

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 10, 2020 at 6:15 pm

      Good luck, Courtney! And thanks for commenting 🙂

      Reply
  190. Carolyn Smith says

    February 6, 2020 at 6:11 pm

    Hello, I am as new to blogging as they come. I have only just started reading up on blogging in the hopes to learn how to do this thing called, blogging.
    Your article is incredibly insightful, well written, clear and professional. Thank you so much as not only do I understand I little better what I am embarking on but that it too can happen for me. Thank you for the encouragement.
    All the very best for you.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 10, 2020 at 6:19 pm

      Thank you so much, Carolyn!
      And good luck 🙂

      Reply
  191. Mackenzie says

    February 7, 2020 at 2:35 pm

    Very informative, I just started my blog recently and have taken steps to place ads and apply for affiliate marketing. This is going to be a side gig for me right now since I work full time but I’m trying to learn as much as I can. My blog is mistakenlymackenzie.com if you have any advice. I hope I can save up money to take the courses you mentioned. This is all a new experience for me as I’m not tech savvy at all, but it’s been fun so far to learn how to do new things! I just hope soon I can make at least a little bit of money so I can live somewhat better. Full time job just isn’t cutting it anymore. Thank you for the informative article, I appreciate it!!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 18, 2020 at 8:32 pm

      Hey Mackenzie,
      You have the right attitude 🙂 I had a quick look at your blog and I think you should add some categories on your menu to let people understand a bit better what your blog is about. Also, you seem to want to talk about a lot of topics. They are related but it might be hard to follow through and write about everything. When you write some more, try to narrow it down a little to 3-4 categories. I am saying this from my own experience. I had more categories on my blog but it was extremely hard to keep up. Good luck 🙂

      Reply
  192. Samhitha says

    February 9, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    Hey, really awesome blogpost! I haven’t read anything that is so in depth and helpful. My question is how do you find new ideas to write about in your blog? Also how do you go about choosing a blog topic? Some areas are just so crowded it’s hard to know how well you might to do. Food blogging for example it’s so popular that it’s easy to doubt yourself! I’m just having lots of trouble figuring out what I want to center my blog around – could you help me out?

    Reply
  193. Bryan says

    February 14, 2020 at 12:09 am

    It would be good to know how many blog posts you published and more about the amount of promotion you did weekly to achieve 3k+ in 3 months.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 18, 2020 at 8:26 pm

      Hey Bryan,
      For me, it was more about quality and topic research than quantity. I had about 18 posts when I launched my blog and then published about 2-3 posts a month. I mostly worked on promotion, probably 20-25 hours a week!

      Reply
  194. Natalie Quinn says

    February 18, 2020 at 9:02 am

    I just love your tips. I live here in Fiji Islands and I just started a blog a few days ago. At the moment i am just sitting on 100-120 page views. I always go back to your posts to get tips. Thanks so much for sharing. God bless.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 18, 2020 at 8:22 pm

      Thanks so much, Natalie! And good luck with your blog 🙂

      Reply
  195. Ronald says

    February 20, 2020 at 11:06 pm

    Wow sooo in depth, thanks a lot for all the information. I just started a blog to learn how to make money online. This really gave me some insight on how to drive traffic to my new blog. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 24, 2020 at 6:36 pm

      Thank you, Ronald 🙂

      Reply
  196. Mike says

    February 29, 2020 at 10:19 pm

    Thanks for sharing such as nice article. Its really helpful for beginners who want to start blogging. I have already started my blogging business.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 3, 2020 at 10:06 pm

      Thanks for stopping by, Mike 🙂

      Reply
  197. Paul Watson says

    March 4, 2020 at 8:41 am

    Great post – and great work on your success. Off to check out those Pinterest Group Pins…

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 6, 2020 at 9:09 pm

      Thank you, Paul! Good luck with your research 😉

      Reply
  198. Heleen Van Assche says

    March 4, 2020 at 1:27 pm

    Hi Sara,

    thank you for this very helpful article. I also bought Carly’s course but have a few questions.

    You say you make 2/3 pins for every new blog post and a few others in the next weeks. Do you upload those 2/3 pins in your blog post and pin them from there? Or use upload them on Pinterest directly? I don’t see any of your pins in this blog post for example. Or do you hide them?

    Do you always leave 1/2 days in between pinning the same pin again to a different personal board? If you have 2/3 pins in the first week for a new blog post, do you all launch them in the same week?

    Thanks so much for your insights,
    Have a great day,
    Heleen

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 6, 2020 at 9:13 pm

      Hi Heleen!
      I normally just upload one pin per post but live it hidden. I don’t personally like having pins visible (but that’s just me!). I use a plugin called Grow that lets me do that. And yes, I try to leave 2-3 days in between repinning the same pin to a different board. I normally don’t launch pins for the same post in the same week. I try to pin one a week for 2-3 weeks. But now that Pinterest seems to love fresh content and new pins, I try to create even 5-6 per post.
      I hope this helps 🙂

      Reply
  199. Louis Huynh says

    March 8, 2020 at 3:39 pm

    Very impressive and detailed guide.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 17, 2020 at 12:36 pm

      Thanks so much, Louis 🙂

      Reply
  200. Natalie Say says

    March 11, 2020 at 3:14 pm

    Another way to make money blogging is through sponsored posts, I never thought I’d make money through this channel but yesterday I’ve just gotten my first paid sponsored posts 🙂 Keep gritting.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 17, 2020 at 12:20 pm

      Yes, sponsored posts can be a great way to make money for some bloggers. I much prefer the passive income that comes from ads and affiliate marketing as with sponsored content you still have to keep looking for opportunities. But if you are up for it, it can be amazing 🙂

      Reply
  201. Arun says

    March 12, 2020 at 6:08 am

    Wow, I didn’t know Pinterest would drive this much amount of traffic, now I have to try this. thank you

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 17, 2020 at 12:17 pm

      Yes, Arun! Pinterest is great to drive traffic to your blog! Give it a try 🙂

      Reply
  202. Emmanuel says

    March 26, 2020 at 3:04 pm

    Holy damn this was value-packed thanks a lot! 10k to 180k page views WOW… I could only dream of that number haha.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2020 at 8:59 pm

      Thanks so much, Emmanuel 🙂

      Reply
  203. Sahil K.. says

    March 27, 2020 at 7:32 am

    Oh my god, such a great article. But I think the much-needed thing in the time when you just start blogging is emotional support. Because Blogging is not a thing for small-hearted people I think. Am I Right?

    I have a question for you – what was your state of mind when you first started, stressed, anxious, depressed? Share with us please.

    Waiting for your feedback.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2020 at 9:42 pm

      Hey Sahil,
      Yes, you need to be prepared for the ups and downs with blogging 🙂
      When I started my blog I was pretty happy and eager to see if I could create a successful business. I am not an anxious person so no stress or depression was involved!

      Reply
  204. Sahil K.. says

    March 27, 2020 at 8:49 am

    I have one more question – Do you ever feel like giving up and if you do please tell me what keeps you going? Waiting for your reply. Thank you

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2020 at 9:43 pm

      There might be days when I might not have enough motivation to write something new, but then I think about why I started my blog: helping people to live the life they want and reach financial freedom. That keeps me going 🙂

      Reply
  205. Taco says

    March 27, 2020 at 11:19 pm

    Great post! Thank you so much and God bless you

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      March 31, 2020 at 9:11 pm

      Thanks so much, Taco! 🙂

      Reply
  206. Sehaj says

    April 13, 2020 at 9:05 am

    Nice article thank you for sharing, Keep sharing

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 20, 2020 at 10:04 pm

      Thank you, Sehaj 🙂

      Reply
  207. Courtney Bartlett says

    April 16, 2020 at 4:27 am

    Hey, really awesome blogpost! I haven’t read anything that is so in depth and helpful. My question is how do you find new ideas to write about in your blog? Also how do you go about choosing a blog topic? Some areas are just so crowded it’s hard to know how well you might to do. Food blogging for example it’s so popular that it’s easy to doubt yourself! I’m just having lots of trouble figuring out what I want to center my blog around – could you help me out?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 21, 2020 at 2:09 pm

      Hey Courtney,
      In terms of choosing a blog topic, I am a big believer in looking for a niche that you actually love. I know some people out there say it doesn’t matter what you write about as long as you can make money, but I would quit after 2 months if I had to write about something I am not interested in.
      In terms of crowded: it doesn’t matter, as long as you can bring your voice and your style into it. Niches, like losing weight, getting fit, making money, are crowded for a reason: they work and you can make money in them!
      Food blogging is a great example: it might be crowded but people look for something to eat at least 3 times a day. As long as you specialize in a niche within that, you’ll be fine! (A few examples of sub-niches in the food blogging industry are: vegan, gluten-free, quick and easy recipes etc). I have a friend who started less than 2 years ago with a food blog and now has over 400k page views A MONTH!
      In terms of new ideas and topics, it’s all about looking at what’s trending on Pinterest, on big websites, or you can even check out Google Trends. It’s a great place to spot new topics and trends!
      I hope this helps 🙂

      Reply
  208. Kundan Sah says

    April 17, 2020 at 2:40 pm

    Your writing is good: it’s clean, it’s clear, and it’s well-organized, and that’s saying a LOT for the topic of blogging! I’m sure I’ll be referring to your blog a lot when I do the first steps, and again when tweaking. Thank you for excellent information.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 20, 2020 at 10:14 pm

      Thanks so much, Kundan! 🙂

      Reply
  209. Kevin says

    April 18, 2020 at 4:14 pm

    Wow Sara!
    I have never seen a post with these numbers of comments and more importantly you replied to all of them (hope you’ll to mine as well)

    Seriously, it was a great read and I learned some strategies from this single blog post and loved the way you promoted products (I’m sure you’ve made 100’s of sales)

    Anyways, there were some awesome take away from this blog which I’ll apply them right now on my blog. Lovely Blog of Lovely Sara 🙂

    Kevin (from TechStudio)

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 20, 2020 at 10:13 pm

      Thank you so much, Kevin, for your kind words 🙂
      Good luck with your blog and let me know if you have any questions!

      Reply
      • Kevin says

        April 23, 2020 at 12:06 pm

        First of all, I highly appreciate the way you interact with each and every comment. (Have seen the same quality in Neil Patel)

        Anyways, Yes, I do have some questions but would keep it specific to my niche.

        I’m a solo Tech blogger (my awesome blog – TechStudio) and in the tech industry, I’ve to compete with major geeks like MakeUseOf, TechCrunch, WindowsPlus, etc to get organic traffic.

        I know that, in the beginning, targeting keywords with low difficulty (0-20) is the best thing & you’ll be happy to know that I’m doing exactly that and because of that I have reached 100 to 150 traffic per day.

        My point here is, I’ll get the little traffic from the low competition keywords, but the money & quality traffic is in the competitive keywords, so how can I make $$ with ads & also, how can I beat these giants. By the way, I have got AdSense and Media.net approval 🙂

        if you can give some hints, tips, I’ll be glad and thankful to you.

        You’re in this industry for a long period of time, so you may have an out of the box idea & that’s the only reason I’m asking you. I hope you won’t disappoint me.

        Kevin (TechStudio)

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          May 11, 2020 at 2:06 pm

          Hey Kevin,
          Yes, you have picked an extremely competitive niche, and to be honest, it won’t be easy to beat the big guys out there!
          Your niche isn’t really amazing for ads revenues. I honestly think you could be much better off trying to optimize and increase your affiliate income.

          You could:
          – target low volume keywords but with high buying potentials. For example, reviewing products and plugins, create comparison lists. You need keywords with high buyer intent. As you are familiar with Neil Patel 🙂 I would suggest you read this article here.
          -If you really want to try to get your page views up, you need to use Brian’s skyscraper technique. But that will still require a lot of time because you will need to build in-depth and incredible content to beat your competitors.

          Not sure if this answer is disappointing, but there are no magic solutions for getting traffic 🙂 A lot of it it’s down to writing amazing content, promoting it, building a great backlink profile and keep going!

          Good luck Kevin 🙂

          Reply
  210. Rihan Kapoor says

    April 20, 2020 at 1:35 pm

    Mam please tell how many hours you worked in one one day in that 3 months process and I am also new blogger please help me

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 21, 2020 at 2:13 pm

      I worked on my blog around 6-8 hours a day. Sometimes less, sometimes more (like at the weekends when I had more time). Now that my blog is more established, I work on it around 4-5 hours 3-4 days a week 🙂

      Reply
  211. Rihan Kapoor says

    April 20, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    one more thing please tell me when you started blogging then from that day of starting after 3 months you abled to earn what you have shown to us and please reply I know this question is seeming stupid but it’s important for me which gives me confidence that if you can do then I also can do please reply my both questions

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      April 21, 2020 at 2:14 pm

      Hey Rihan,
      I am not sure I understand your question but I will try to reply, hoping I get it right: I launched my blog in November 2017 and I made over 3k in February 2018. I hope this helps 🙂

      Reply
  212. Suzi Whitford says

    April 30, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    Awesome article! Love the transparency. I absolutely love your logo 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 1, 2020 at 6:40 pm

      Hey Suzi!
      Thank you so much! This means a lot coming from you!

      I love your blog and I’ve heard so many amazing things about your courses!
      I can’t believe you stopped by 🙂
      Thanks so much!

      Reply
  213. This is the Life! says

    May 2, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    Amazing blog post!

    And yay, I’ve finally found someone who has the same niche as my blog (making a better life for yourself) and who has made it all the while keeping their identity private!!!

    I’ve struggled with my blog because of this – I thought people might not want to read anything I write if they don’t see the face behind it and aren’t learning details about me and my life.

    So a while back I just forgot about my blog but now with the lockdown and everything I just felt the need to get back to it and to finally try to use it to make a better life for myself and maybe leave my full-time job someday.

    I’m giving it another try! I finally got a domain and I will move to self-hosting if I see that the traffic is coming in (yes, I struggle with committing to spending money, you got me!).

    I’m struggling to get traffic and I’ve been reading a lot online but most posts always seem sort of vague when they get to the actual tricks they use but this post (as well as your very helpful replies to comments!) cleared a lot of things up for me.

    I love Pinterest and I’ve been using it and have quite a lot of impressions but I think it’s mostly on other people’s pins that I repin. There isn’t much engagement on my own pins. I’m going to try to apply your tricks and make more attention-raising pins.

    I was also starting to wonder whether my niche was way too broad and how I’m supposed to write about getting a better life when I’m still kind of figuring that out for myself too but I’ve been focusing on the things that I have already concluded and found to work.

    I think I probably need to work on my titles and making better pins, as well as searching for what’s working for other bloggers.

    Thank you so much for the inspiration and great tips!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 11, 2020 at 2:26 pm

      Good luck with your blog 🙂
      Keeping your identity private is a choice and you don’t have to feel like that will hold you back! Have a look at my Pinterest chapter in the How to Start a Blog” page. There are more tips in there too! 🙂
      Good luck!

      Reply
  214. Jessie says

    May 12, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    Great thoughts, however I missed a bit more about making money with affiliate marketing and how to make it simpler.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 16, 2020 at 3:05 pm

      Thanks Jessie! 🙂
      I have a post dedicated to affiliate marketing that I link to in the post. That has more detailed info! I should probably make it more prominent so people won’t miss it!

      Reply
  215. HEMANT says

    May 12, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    Excellent and Long Article

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 16, 2020 at 3:09 pm

      Thanks Hemant 🙂

      Reply
  216. Julianna Kligmann says

    May 17, 2020 at 3:41 am

    This is really cool! I hope I can start making money with my blog. I have been working on getting followers.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      May 19, 2020 at 8:03 pm

      Hey Julianna,
      I am sure you will make money with your blog, if you follow all these strategies 🙂

      Reply
  217. Martina says

    May 27, 2020 at 10:00 pm

    Hi Sara, first off I love your website – it’s so pretty!

    I’ve just gone ahead and purchased the blogging framework by Scrivs. I totally love Carly’s pinterest course too but I definitely need to work more on the blogging side of things now and I really need a community where I can ask questions.

    Thank you for the post – I really hope I can be half as awesome as you one day haha

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 3, 2020 at 5:42 pm

      Hi Martina,
      Amazing! You are going to LOVE it!

      Let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything I cal help you with!

      Reply
  218. Frank Roberts says

    June 7, 2020 at 5:56 am

    Hi Sara, You have a great blog and your writing skills are amazing.
    I appreciate that you are replying to almost everyone in the comments this will definitely help you build a community of loyal visitors.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 16, 2020 at 7:21 pm

      Thanks so much, Frank!

      I just try to give back and help people as much as I can 🙂

      Reply
  219. david aneja says

    June 7, 2020 at 11:40 am

    Hi Sara , hope you doing well, gone through his article of yours, just loved it

    I also started blogging from last 14-15 days and I m seeing genuine traffic by now but I want more and more traffic as I started exploring Pinterest and SEO techniques for generating traffic, I started created backlinks on some websites to gather attention , but I m finding confusion in understanding Pinterest, how can I get through from that?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 16, 2020 at 7:27 pm

      Hey David,
      Have you read my Chapter 4 about Pinterest here?
      https://gatheringdreams.com/how-to-start-a-successful-blog/#chapter-4

      Another great way is to buy Carly’s course about Pinterest. It’s pretty cheap and it will help you immensely! You can find the link in the post 🙂

      Reply
  220. Dipesh Solanki says

    June 10, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    Thanks, buddy for the guide. This really helped me to understand new ways of making money from my home in this lockdown situation.

    Love to read more such blogs from you.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 16, 2020 at 7:31 pm

      Glad you found this useful, Dipesh 🙂

      Reply
  221. edwart says

    June 12, 2020 at 9:43 am

    thanks for the Inspiratioal Content I love your Page and its
    been Really Helpful. I figured l’d share with Everyone
    That’s helped me make money online as well. i hope it Can help Others

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 16, 2020 at 4:55 pm

      Thanks so much for sharing Edwart 🙂

      Reply
  222. Emilie says

    June 13, 2020 at 4:17 pm

    Thank you so much for your article, it’s going to be really useful to me and I’m going to keep all of your tips in mind ! I started my own blog not so long ago and my dream is to be able to make a business out of it, but obviously I still have so much more to learn. It motivates me to know that you were not a writer originally because I am not either and I’ve never imagined myself writing a blog but times have changed haha. Thanks again ! My blog is called kimchibaguette.com and if you ever have time (despite how busy you probably are) it would mean so much to get some more tips from a professional.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 23, 2020 at 4:24 pm

      Hey Emilie,
      I love your blog’s name! And it looks great! Clean and simple! Just how I like it 🙂
      I think your topic can be great if you want to sell courses on learning Korean!
      It could be a bit harder to be successful on Pinterest but I noticed you have a recipe section on it (although it’s empty at moment). Recipes will work well on Pinterest as will any travel tips you might want to share!
      Keep up the good work, and keep going 🙂

      Reply
  223. Juan Flores says

    June 17, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    Excellent post. A lot of valuable content. Thank you so very much. One short question:
    Is Pinterest good for selling Amazon products and t-shirts?

    Best of regards.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 23, 2020 at 4:30 pm

      Hey Juan,
      I never used it that way myself but I know a lot of people use Pinterest to sell products so yes!

      Reply
  224. Ujjwal Anand says

    June 22, 2020 at 10:12 pm

    Hi Sara,

    This is really an amazing and helpful post for me. I have learnt a lot form this post. I am in trying to synchronise everything in order to simplify the way to achieve my dreams. This Post is such an enthusiastic, motivational & inspirational one I read in a while.

    Thanks for providing such a great post, keep on posting amazing ideas. 😊

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 23, 2020 at 4:37 pm

      Thanks so much, Ujjwal 🙂

      Reply
  225. Vijay says

    June 23, 2020 at 11:31 am

    Hi Sara, I think I started loved to read your articles. What I learned now

    1 Started using BuzzSumo > Even I contact who’s the top sharer via twitter and sent the link of my blog with asking of feedback….
    2. Then, I created different – different boards. I don’t know that we can drive traffic from Pinterest.
    3. Bloggers Community.

    Can you please take a while to review my website, blog, would your feedback. Here’s my Website URL is http://www.rockviju.com

    Thank You so much,
    Do you have any kind on how to find best and trending keyword niche basis? updated article as 2020’s.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      June 23, 2020 at 4:52 pm

      Hey Vijay,
      I cannot access your blog because it’s not using the https protocol. Make sure to make it secure otherwise people won’t be able to visit it 🙂

      Reply
      • Vijay says

        June 26, 2020 at 12:47 am

        Thank You, I just fixed it. Thank You please visit now my website.

        Eagerly waiting for your feedback…….

        Reply
        • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

          July 3, 2020 at 3:33 pm

          Hey Vijay!
          Yes, it working now. Your blog looks great, it ‘s easy to navigate and the layout looks good. Your posts are in-depth. I think you should try to leverage Pinterest more as I can see your account is pretty fresh and doesn’t have many pins. And make sure to use compelling graphics and with the right aspect ratio. Your pins need to be make specifically for Pinterest (have a look at my Pinterest chapter in my start a blog guide).

          One thing I would say: you decided to blog about blogging 🙂 The blogging niche is quite a difficult one to tackle especially on Google, as it’s extremely competitive. But this doesn’t mean it’s impossible to be successful in it!

          I wouldn’t really go too much after “trending keywords” in your niche!
          Make sure you use long-tail keywords when you do your keyword research, and try to make your guides and how-tos as useful as possible.

          Best of luck! 🙂

          Reply
          • Vijay says

            July 3, 2020 at 7:06 pm

            Thank you so much mam, for you suggestion,

            1. Yes, I’ll start to work on Pins, Images.
            2. Hmm, Much competition in it, have to target long tail keywords then only I can exist.
            3. Yes, I’m also thinking to add engagement things like can embed video in middle for how to’s (isn’t good?)

            Thank You once again.

          • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

            July 14, 2020 at 2:38 pm

            You are very welcome 🙂

          • Sumeet says

            July 6, 2020 at 5:24 am

            Really amazing content..no surprise so many people are engaged in discussion here.. Your site is one of my inspiration for my blog. Thanks

          • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

            July 14, 2020 at 2:39 pm

            Thanks so much Sumeet! 🙂

  226. Sreenath Akkineni says

    July 12, 2020 at 1:03 am

    This is such a great post! I thought I had learned and implemented everything I possibly could about Pinterest but this article alone changed everything!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 14, 2020 at 2:42 pm

      Thanks Sreenath! 🙂

      Reply
  227. Areeba Irshad says

    July 12, 2020 at 6:14 pm

    Hey Sara!
    How are you 🙂
    I saw your blog post and I found it really beneficial but I’m somehow confused how did You make pins or where did you get the option of pinning your blog post and add image to it.and do I have to email Carly or scrivs to get the course and learn from it.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 14, 2020 at 2:45 pm

      Hi Areeba,
      Yes, I create my own pins using Adobe Illustrator. For Carly’s and Scrivs’ course, you can find the links in my resource page by clicking here.

      Reply
  228. Sanjeev P says

    July 19, 2020 at 6:33 pm

    You are a real inspiration. Congratulations on such a beautiful achievement. I can also see that you blog on varied topics such as food, travel & money which is unique. I am glad I found this post.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 28, 2020 at 4:54 pm

      Thank you Sanjeev P 🙂

      Reply
  229. Abby says

    July 20, 2020 at 8:15 am

    Hi Sara! I loved this post! I just started blogging less than a month ago and it’s overwhelming. I feel lost and confused and sometimes I wonder if it’s even worth it, but reading your post was a refreshing reminder that I just need to work harder and smarter. Thank you for your tips!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 28, 2020 at 4:55 pm

      You are welcome, Abby! Working harder and smarter will really jump start your blog 😉

      Reply
  230. Newton Onukwusi says

    July 20, 2020 at 11:17 am

    This is a well detailed post but i don’t like the way you talk down yourself on making 1 million dollars from affiliate marketing… I believe anything is possible so long as you have time…

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      July 28, 2020 at 5:27 pm

      I am not talking myself down at all, Newton 🙂
      I just know I won’t get to that amount because I enjoy life too much and I much rather enjoy the freedom that blogging gives me, instead of concentrating on increasing my revenues all the time! I worked hard enough in my past life to know that money can help you to get freedom, but you also need to know when to stop being greedy and you have enough! 😉 My time is best spent walking on a beach or in the woods, instead of trying to reach one million dollar revenues 😉

      Reply
  231. Muzammil Shah says

    August 19, 2020 at 10:43 am

    I am also a blogger and I run a job portal website on blogger with a custom domain. I am facing difficulty in doing Off-Page SEO. There are a lot of WordPress plugins that helps the author to do On-Page SEO properly but what about blogger. How I check blogger on-page SEO. Please help.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 28, 2020 at 2:11 pm

      Hey Muzammil,
      As much as plugins can be helpful, on-page SEO is mostly about creating stunning content. If you create great content and keep in mind the basic rules on on-page SEO, you’ll be fine (this is a good guide). About Off-Page SEO, to be honest, I don’t worry about it that much. I’ve never done a guest post other than some interviews, and never stressed too much about building backlinks. I believe that by creating great content, people will link to you naturally.
      One tool I like quite a bit is HARO (Help A Reporter Out) where you can find opportunities to collaborate with journalists and get backlinks!

      Reply
  232. Romica says

    August 20, 2020 at 6:02 am

    I appreciate this so much 😁. I am a college student athlete in The Bahamas and I’m looking at ways of creating passive income. I like how you layout every detail of your experience.
    Learning about blogging is overwhelming but I feel a little confident now after reading your post and if my blog is at least half as good as your blog, I will consider it a success and continue it.
    I also want to say how I love that you responded to everyone’s comments, giving it a community type feeling and I have subscribed to your blog becasue I like what I see.
    If I get into any problems I will send
    a message and I am considering those courses that you mentioned so I can start my blog on a good note. But don’t worry, I won’t be sending you emails on every little problem becasue one thing I understood from reading the post is that I am going to make some mistakes.
    I do appreciate this and please don’t stop anytime soon. 🙂

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 28, 2020 at 2:06 pm

      Hey Romica,
      Welcome to my blog! And yes please, feel free to ask questions any time!
      Starting out can be lonely and difficult. But you got this and I am here to help 😉

      Reply
  233. Gian says

    August 26, 2020 at 4:12 pm

    Thank you for all of this! You said you’re not a writer, but your writing is so easy to read. Curious to see how many blog posts did you write in those 3 months?

    I’ve been implementating Pinterest strategies, but I really don’t have a lot of content, so I want to focus more on that.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 28, 2020 at 2:04 pm

      Hey Gian,
      Thanks so much! I am glad you enjoy my writing. But yes, I am really not a writer but I do find it easy to write about personal experience and stuff I am passionate about. And I think passion transpires from my words (or at least, I hope it does!).
      In the first 3 months, I wrote about 25 posts. I had about 18-20 posts on my blog when I launched it, and added roughly 3 a month since then. I have to say though that of the first 20, around 10 were really bad lol!
      But you got to start somewhere! 🙂

      Reply
  234. Tom says

    August 28, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    This is so amazing, like the name of your blog ” Gathering Dreams”.. You achieved a whole lot in a short while…So impressive. Thank you for the sharing your tips.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      August 28, 2020 at 1:58 pm

      Thank you so much, Tom, for stopping by 🙂

      Reply
  235. Bailey McGraw says

    September 2, 2020 at 1:47 pm

    Thank you so much for these tips. I’m just starting out with my blog and it can seem a little overwhelming with all that there is to learn and do but I’m having so much fun. Posts like this help me so much and give me inspiration to keep being persistent and working hard. Again, thank you so much for the amazing post!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 11, 2020 at 5:53 pm

      Thanks so much, Bailey! And good luck with your blog 🙂

      Reply
  236. Looseleaf11 says

    September 15, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    This was so inspiring! One question, what platform or website did you use to create it? I’ve been looking for a place where I could start a one, but I can’t seem to find one since they are more rare now.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 22, 2020 at 8:25 pm

      Hey Looseleaf11,
      I use WordPress. I explain everything in my post “How to Start A Blog”. Check it out 🙂

      Reply
  237. Rupam Sardar says

    September 18, 2020 at 6:13 am

    Hey,

    First of all thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of content. This post is really very helpful and informative. Hope people will start making money from now…

    I am going to check others posts also from your blog.

    Keep sharing!

    Cheers,
    Rupam

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 22, 2020 at 5:13 pm

      Thanks, Rupam for taking the time to comment! And I hope you will enjoy the other posts 😉

      Reply
  238. Simon says

    September 20, 2020 at 11:02 am

    Nice post. I am still struggling to get adequate traffic to help with monetizing my blog, it’s been a real tug of war. I pin regularly but I am not getting the traffic I need to my site. I am already into affiliate marketing but without traffic it’s worthless.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 2, 2020 at 9:05 am

      Hey Simon,
      Pinterest is an evolving machine! What seems to work right now is creating new content and new pins!
      Keep at it and I am sure you’ll start seeing results!

      Reply
  239. Monica says

    September 20, 2020 at 7:34 pm

    Great, great tips! First time I read someone saying 30-50 pins are not necessary anymore, and I feel kind of relieved 🙂 Thanks for sharing them, wish you the best results with this blog!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 22, 2020 at 5:12 pm

      Thanks, Monica! Yep, 30-50 pins are not necessary anymore! Pinterest now loves fresh content, so a few new pins a day are plenty! Until things change again…lol

      Reply
  240. Visualam says

    September 22, 2020 at 10:06 am

    Hi there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it’s really informative

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      September 22, 2020 at 5:11 pm

      Thanks so much! Glad you found it useful 🙂

      Reply
  241. Visualam says

    September 25, 2020 at 6:18 am

    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. The keywords I choose are either are too crowded with strong competitors or have very little traffic.

    Please suggest.

    thanks
    Visualam

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 2, 2020 at 3:46 pm

      Hey Visualam,
      You need to look for long-tail keywords. It doesn’t matter if they don’t have massive traffic. Start with keywords that have 300-500 searches per month. And see if you can rank for those. It’s also important to rank for keywords that have the right search intent, so a keyword with only 100 searches a month could bring you more money than one with 10,000! If you don’t know much about search intent, this is a good post to read. 🙂

      Reply
  242. Angelika says

    October 7, 2020 at 7:24 pm

    Hi! I just want to start off saying that this post is everything I needed. I started my blog last month and I’m definitely feeling overwhelmed. I’m wanting this to work for me and my family. I love it but it is stressful with everything!

    I do have a question. I’m just starting the affiliation aspect along with getting my Pinterest out there. Which do you think I should focus more on. I’m all for investing in the suggestions you gave but should I do the affiliated course first and then the Pinterest?

    Thanks so much!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 14, 2020 at 3:42 pm

      Hey Angelika,
      Without traffic, you won’t be able to make much money from affiliate marketing. I am not saying you need 100,000 page views, but when no one visits your blog, it’s hard to sell… 🙂
      So I would concentrate on understanding Pinterest first, and when you start to get at least 100-200 people a day on your blog, you can work on apply to affiliate programs and add affiliate links to your blog.

      Reply
  243. Digital Sakshi says

    October 20, 2020 at 5:36 am

    Hello Sara Mam,

    After reading this article, I am of the opinion that this blog post makes it easy to learn blogging and affiliate marketing. This blog post is in-depth also it is easy to understand.

    Mam, I’m a bit confused about the keyword research. Can you recommend any tool for keyword research?

    I think every content creator should read this article.

    It’s a full value-pack article!

    Thanks Again!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      October 26, 2020 at 2:17 pm

      Thank you for your kind words! 🙂
      Ubersuggest is free up to a few searches a day. It’s quite helpful. You can have a look at the SEO chapter in my post on how to start a blog. In it, I mention quite a few useful apps you can use to help with keywords research!

      Reply
  244. Amey Sarode says

    October 29, 2020 at 7:45 am

    Hi Sara,
    Thanks for the great post and you really inspired me. I have recently started a blog, Not planned 20 posts like you did but, I am trying to add 2 posts per week.Soon I will start pinning on pinterest about relevant topics. Its time to use tailwind. I think this article deserves tobe featured on google search. And again thank you for the really helpful insights.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 4, 2020 at 4:55 pm

      Thanks so much Amey! Your comment made my day! Let’s hope Google notices it lol!

      Reply
  245. Arlynne says

    November 1, 2020 at 10:35 am

    Hi Sara!

    Your article’s super-packed with info and I feel so much more confident trying to create pins on Pinterest which is so relieving! Thank you so much <3

    One question, in your opinion, how many times can you re-use the same URL (lifetime and daily)? This is assuming you change up your pins' design every time you re-pin.

    Also, as for affiliate marketing, when did you start? Like was there are any base amount of pageviews you had/needed before you could apply?

    Thanks so much in advance! Looking forward to your amazing posts! 😀

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 4, 2020 at 5:45 pm

      Hey Arlynne,
      You can re-use the same URL as much as you like, but you should try to avoid looking spammy in the eyes of Pinterest. So I would say to publish one pin for the same URL no more than once per week. That’ll mean a maximum of 52 pins a year for the same URL!

      For affiliate marketing: to be honest, I started after I had quite a few page views. I would say around month 3-4! Mostly because I didn’t have time to even learn what it was before that, between writing and trying to understand WordPress lol!
      It’s good to familiarise yourself from the beginning, but remember, you’ll need some page views to make sales, and programs like amazon require you to make a minimum number of sales in the first 3-6 months.

      Reply
  246. Vedavyasa Huli says

    November 3, 2020 at 11:08 am

    Money Blogging!!! Yes, one of the toughest and excellent means to earn money. It is not easy to become an expert blogger, one should have passion, a thorough understanding of the subject, an excellent writing skills and presentation, still a lot more skills which we can go on explaining. It is really inspiring to see how much effort you have put to get success. Really hats-off to your dedication. The explanation is simply fantastic and a guidance for future bloggers. Nice to know your success story. Keep it up.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 6, 2020 at 5:59 pm

      Thanks, Vedavyasa, for your kind comment! Making money blogging can be tough, as you said. But, I can also tell you, it’s not as tough as being stuck in a stressful job for 12-14 hours a day 🙂
      I guess it all depends on our own perspective of what tough is!

      Reply
  247. Isuamfon Offiong says

    November 9, 2020 at 12:56 am

    The content is so fantastic that I had to scroll way down in minutes. 😊

    Hi, Sara. Great article.

    Just as you’ve said. Blogging is sweet but the bitter part is the Hardwork.

    Maybe it was a fast rich scheme years back when someone could easily rank on the Big G those days but now, one needs to really put in the work and also invest in it as a business.

    Between, do you think Bluehost can host a 25k monthly visits for Beginners?

    Thanks for the content. Will come back for more.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 11, 2020 at 5:50 pm

      Hey Isuamfon,
      Thanks so much! Bluehost can definitely host 25k page views! I only moved when I reached closer to 500k page views per month 🙂

      Reply
  248. Diana | CozyHomeHacks says

    November 20, 2020 at 9:21 pm

    Thank you so much for this amazing, comprehensive article. i stumbled upon it on Pinterest and i’m so happy I did. I’m a newbie blogger, so I’m soaking up all the information. Now, to check out the rest of your blog 🙂 have a great day!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      November 25, 2020 at 2:37 pm

      Thanks, Diana! Glad you found this post useful 🙂
      Good luck with your blog!!

      Reply
  249. Laura says

    November 28, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    Thanks for the great info! I am a former journalist turned personal trainer and nutrition coach. I’m finally taking the leap to combine my two passions by starting a health and fitness blog. After seeing my clients try to make everything harder than it had to be, I decided to create a blog to simplify fitness. I plan to use your techniques to aid in my journey.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 15, 2020 at 3:59 pm

      Hey Laura,
      What a great idea! I love it! I wish you the best of luck with your journey! And there isn’t a better time to be online right now, teaching about staying fit from home! 🙂

      Reply
  250. Jex Paul says

    December 2, 2020 at 7:22 am

    Awesome post with useful content, Thanks for sharing it.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 2, 2020 at 9:37 pm

      Thanks for stopping by, Jex! glad you found it useful 😉

      Reply
  251. jan says

    December 11, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    I’m in the process of starting my blog, but also had previously thought about starting a youtube channel. I have put off starting the channel as I too tend to have introvert traits (i guess i would be considered an ambivert).

    Do you know rather or not google adsense would require me to have two separate accounts for youtube and the blog? Would they pay twice/separately? Since, I may be more comfortable starting out with a blog, I plan to drive viewers to view my youtube channel for similar content and build a more intimate community.

    Thanks a bunch for your posts! One of the best on the topic!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 15, 2020 at 3:56 pm

      Hey Jan,
      You can simply use 2 separate Google accounts for YouTube and your blog. That’s absolutely no problem!

      Reply
  252. Kayla says

    December 16, 2020 at 12:29 am

    Wow, I loved reading this and can not thank you enough for your insight! I do have one question though – did you need to have all the viewers prior to joining with Adsense or does Adsense allow new bloggers into their program? Thanks again for making this post!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      December 18, 2020 at 3:40 pm

      Hey Kayla,
      With Adsense, you can apply straight away, as long as you have a few good blog posts and everything looks in order with your blog (theme is set up, and it all looks legit).

      Reply
  253. Dipesh Solanki says

    December 23, 2020 at 6:48 am

    I preffer Affiliate and dropshipping instead of Google Adsense. What’s your views on it?

    What are the pros and cons as per your knowledge on it?

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 10, 2021 at 11:27 pm

      Google Adsense isn’t very profitable. Other advertising companies like Mediavine and AdThrive are much better to work with. But I agree that affiliates can be very lucrative. I like to diversify my income streams, which is why I use both. Dropshipping is definitely a great business model and one I am keen to look into in more detail in the next few months 🙂

      Reply
  254. Fd Shakil says

    December 24, 2020 at 9:37 am

    Hi, This is such a nice post, I’ve just started my blog back in July 2020. I completely agree that blogging isn’t quick stuff. There are a lot more things to learn.. However, I enjoy your post a lot.

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 10, 2021 at 11:22 pm

      Thank you, Fd! Glad you found this post useful!

      Reply
  255. FinansowaDroga says

    January 14, 2021 at 3:44 pm

    I started blogging also 3 month ago, but for now – I make zerooo dolars 😛 Only costs ..

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 25, 2021 at 10:07 am

      That’s pretty normal 🙂 Don’t get discouraged! I always say to anyone who wants to start a blog to keep at it for at least a year, if you want to see results. the most important thing is to be able to see growth over time, even if small. If there is growth, it means you are doing something right and people will come. If there is no growth, keep learning and reading from people who know what they are doing 🙂

      Reply
  256. Atul Kumar Singh says

    January 17, 2021 at 10:20 am

    For sure. People are bound to get useless information about online money-making. They just want to be a billionaire over a night. Every other wants to be a blogger, they want to earn money by writing blog posts and monetizing. But wait, let me ask them how many blog posts you have read in your entire life?

    I am dam sure you will be shocked by the answer. So, reading authentic information is very much vital for nay they of growth and earning. I am really proud to be part of G Dreams and hope gets going on.

    Since I started blogging I tried different thing and failed. Now have started a new website, working with full potential. Hope the results will be better.

    Cherss,
    Atul Kumar Singh (Bloggtemplate)

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 10, 2021 at 3:14 pm

      Thank you, Atul!
      I agree, there are many people online looking to make quick money. But to make a living out of blogging you need to treat it like a business.
      Best of luck with your blog.

      Reply
  257. Clickforgrowth says

    January 17, 2021 at 7:35 pm

    Hi Sara!!
    This is so inspiring.!! I read the comments and was so surpriced to see the same bloggers i follow now struggling with the same things i am as a new blogger.
    This gives hopes and strengths to keep goin and learning every day.
    I registered for SSSO, Mike has really good insides.
    Thank you for your invaluable tips and guide.
    Dalia

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      January 25, 2021 at 9:59 am

      Thanks, Dalia! I am sure you’ll find Mike’s course AMAZING! It’s so full of useful tips and actionable steps to take! Best of luck!

      Reply
  258. Lisa says

    January 26, 2021 at 4:31 pm

    You are such an inspiration!! You inspired me to take Pinterest Strategies for my blog http://www.thefinancialcookbook.com. I hope it helps! Blogging definitely is tough work but I’m excited! Thank you!!!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 10, 2021 at 3:10 pm

      Best of luck, Lisa! 🙂

      You will find it enlightening! And I am sure it will help you to get more traffic!

      Reply
  259. Epifania @FemaleBlogpreneur says

    February 19, 2021 at 6:18 am

    Such a helpful guide for newbie bloggers!

    Reply
    • Sara @ Gathering Dreams says

      February 19, 2021 at 6:07 pm

      Thank you, Epifania 🙂 Glad you found it helpful!

      Reply

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Are you worried about not being good enough, not k Are you worried about not being good enough, not knowing what to sell, what to write, worried about not having anything different to say?⁣
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I heard it all. 🤪⁣
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About  savings, investing for your future, or start your own business:⁣
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"I have no idea about how to invest."⁣
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"It's easy for you to say, but I don't earn enough money to save."⁣
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“I'm scared to start my own business. I don't know if enough people would be interested in buying my product.” ⁣
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“I'd like to start a business, but I’m not very good at selling.” ⁣
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Or even “I’d like to start a blog, but everything has been said before.”⁣
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Look, I know it's scary to put yourself out there. ⁣
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I felt exactly like that. But you know what? ⁣
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You can do it all, one step at a time.⁣
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The best way to overcome fear is to:⁣
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START🔥⁣
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What are you going to do next? Or what have you were afraid to start and you are now proud of? 💛
If you could go anywhere right now, where would yo If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go⁉ 🌍⁣
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I would teletransport myself somewhere in sunny California! 😎☀ ⁣
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This is where I was exactly one year ago! Next to some giant cacti, absorbing as much sun as they do!
I was driving 🚙 in the dark a few days ago, and I was driving 🚙 in the dark a few days ago, and I thought about all the things I have done in my life full of fear:⁣
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✔Leaving my country and my family behind to start a new job in the UK without knowing anyone. I still remember the fear, traveling with all my belongings in a suitcase and the “what have I done” feeling, lying in a hotel bedroom alone that first night.⁣
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✔Leaving the security of that job only 2 years later to move to London, accepting a job offer that paid way less with the hope to make more in the future.⁣
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✔Leaving that job 12 years later to dedicate my time to my own business and to learn how to enjoy life more...⁣
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Every time I took a new step forward, I was full of fear. Was that the right choice? What if it wasn't?⁣
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But fear is what allows us to be better, to learn, to be brave.⁣
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Let 2021 be the year to embrace your fear, and let it help you to empower you. 💪🙌💛
I debated for far too long whether I should share I debated for far too long whether I should share my recipes on Instagram...and you know what? Why not? 

I stopped caring about niching down, having a consistent feed, blah blah!

So here you go: from now on, you'll also get my my recipes, including my love for wholesome, delicious and nourishing food 😋

I am just going to have fun with this and post what I love ❤️

So today I have something sweet for you my friends! 🤩

It's not Christmas if the house doesn't smell like cookies! 

I love to make these soft, nutty chocolate hazelnut cookies pretty much once a week during the holiday season 🤤

The only problem is that when I bake them they don't last a day!

But if manage to bake them and don't eat them, you can even turn them into a delicious gift! 

What are your favorite cookies to bake for Christmas?
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