How To Make Money Blogging (In No Time)
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Is it still possible to make money blogging starting today? Yes! And here, I will share the 5 steps I used to go from $0 to $3,878 after 3 months of blogging part-time.
If you landed here, 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 or 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
Have you ever dreamed of quitting your job and starting 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 to work 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 have to worry about money anymore?”
So I convinced Dan to start investing in real estate and index funds. We began to generate some passive income, but I was still looking for my absolute 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!
How to make money Blogging
Click here for the high-res version. Feel free to use this graphic for your own use, with attribution.
Let’s be real here:
I was looking to find my passion, but I also wanted to make money blogging. My goal was to be able to make $1,000 a month after a year of blogging. If I couldn’t do that, I would just quit this blogging business and move on to new adventures. But to do that, I had to learn how to make money blogging…
And this is what happened after 3 months of having my blog online. I made…
Ads Income (Mediavine) = $2,572.73
Affiliate Income = $1,263.96
I am not going to keep writing about how much I make every month, and it took me a long time to decide to share this number, but I really wanted to let you know that it is possible to make money blogging with NO EXPERIENCE.
So how did I do it? Did it happen by magic?
First of all, I just want to say:
- 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 that 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 on 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!
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 how 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 must be self-hosted on a web server that 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 must 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 and you have limited resources to invest in your blog.
You just need to click the blue button Get Started Now to choose your package. I have a special deal with Bluehost where you can get started for just $2.95 a month.
Make sure you are selecting the Basic starter 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 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 can only see the top 5 most shared articles, but that is plenty when you are just starting out.
- Add the website you want to analyze in the search bar.
- Check which posts have the most shares (you can see if they have been shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. and how many times)
- Write a list of possible topics and blog post ideas that could work for your blog (I keep them in a Google Doc)
If people have shared that article thousands of times, they will likely 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 blog 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 read everywhere that other bloggers were driving traffic FOR FREE to their websites using Pinterest.
Pinterest?! Yes!
I always used Pinterest to find lovely kitchen inspiration and recipes, but I knew little about getting blog traffic.
I now see Pinterest as a visual search engine and a free ads platform, but the great thing is that “normal” people don’t look at Pinterest images as ads.
They look at them as images that will help them to solve a problem.
But how do you use Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog?
Here are the 5 steps I used to bring traffic to my blog!
1. Set up a great Pinterest profile and convert it into a Business Account
Make sure you have an image in your profile. Most people suggest having your 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 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
For each personal board, use a well-keyworded description to make it easier to find.
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 usually 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 designs.
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. If they got accepted to a board, I will likely be accepted on it too.
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 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.
2022 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,” and “The Best Blogging Tips for Bloggers.”
- Make sure the pins pinned to the board you want to apply to are relevant. For example, I was on 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 reuse 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:
It was run by Mike, and I couldn’t believe someone as successful as Carly was still learning from it.
So I decided to take the risk and invest in it!
And this is what happened in January, after implementing his strategies combined with Carly’s:
By combining Carly’s and Mike’s strategies, I got over 114,000 page views in January (remember, my third month of 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:
Stupid Simple SEO isn’t just a course. It gives you the right mindset to use SEO to up your game and use Google search to convert your traffic into money.
By using Carly’s and Mike’s 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!
With 9 active modules and 12 Bonuses, Stupid Simple SEO is the only investment you need to make if you want to start a successful blog.
If you are ready to make money doing what you love and are ready to put in the work, start by taking this free master class today!
And remember: SEO is a long-term game. It can take anything from 3 months to a year to start seeing results! But it’s the best investment you can make in your blog!
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?
- What do their pins look like, and which pins have the 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 improve your conversions, I recommend Carly’s in-depth and affordable course on affiliate marketing.
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 and Stupid Simple SEO 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?
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!
Thanks for sharing. I just started blogging and love your blog and the tips you share!
Thank you so much, Janet 🙂 And good luck with your blog!
Well done, this is a comprehensive post with everything you need to succeed as a blogger. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much John 🙂
As a beginners in blogging we found this article very helpful.Very clear written and interesting at the same time.Great job.
Hi Dimitri, I am glad you found the article helpful! 🙂
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
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!
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!
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 🙂
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
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 🙂
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
Thank you so much Schawann! I am so happy you are enjoying reading the blog 🙂
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!
Thank you Paula 🙂
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!
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 🙂
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!
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 🙂
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?
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.
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!
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!
Thank you for sharing! This is probably one of the most helpful posts I’ve read about starting a blog!
Thank you so much Malea, glad you found it helpful 🙂
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!
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 🙂
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!
Thank you so much Quinncere! What you said means a lot to me! 🙂
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!!!!!!! ♥
Thank you Viv! You will rock at blogging! 🙂
I will be your number one fan and follower! xxx
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.
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!
You’re amazing! Your blog is seriously one of my favorites. 🙂
You are too kind Alexis! I love your blog too, you are one of the people I look up to. A great inspiration 🙂
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!
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!
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! 🙂
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!
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
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 🙂
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.
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 🙂
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?!
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 🙂
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!!
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.
You are welcome, Maria!
I am sure you will find something that you will enjoy writing about 😉
Best of luck!
This is great, I love hearing that you are learning from the people I am learning from! Cheers!
Thank you Rebecca! Glad you are learning from the same people, they are the best 🙂
Hi Sara interesting and intriguing but still don’t understand where the money making comes into!! If you’re not selling anything??
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.
I loved this!! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed the post, Gaby 🙂
Best read ever,thank you
Thank you, Mba 🙂
Sara
How many articles did you write in the 1st 3 months blogging? And how long were they?
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.
Great article! Did you post all 20 at launch of your blog or did you spread them out over the first month?
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 🙂
I am a bit overwhelmed
I think I would be needing a lot of help.
Hey Rean,
Blogging can be overwhelming at first. You just need to take it one small step at the time 🙂
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!
You are welcome, Diana 🙂
Sara you inspired me try. I’m struggling but I working hard.
Amazing Andrea! Never give up and always keep learning 🙂