An honest and vulnerable peek at how I made my first $100 blogging. Tips and tricks from my real life experience monetizing my blog and how I made money blogging.
I see a lot of posts explaining how new bloggers made thousands of dollars within their first months blogging.
While that sounds amazing, I don’t believe that is realistic or even possible for every blogger.
Why not?
- Niche: Some blog niche’s are simply better than others at brining in blog traffic and therefore income.
- Writing/Style: Everyone’s writing background, abilities, and voice are different. Everyone has a different starting point (think left-brained people vs. PHDs in creative writing or marketing) and therefore this can also affect your ability to write good content and ultimately make money from your blog. Blogging successfully can be a learning process!
- Time: Time is also a factor when starting up your blog – how much time do you have to invest in your blog and learn about blogging and monetization? How much time do you have to write blog posts and promote them on social media?
- Background: Do you already have a social media following? Have you written for blogs before or have a failed blog where you learned most of the ropes?
- Luck: Some people get really lucky with viral pins or social media posts that bring in loads of traffic and income right off the bat.
All this being said, I am not here how to tell you how to become rich your first month blogging.
I am not an expert on blogging or making money from your blog.
I am also not going to go into details on how to set up a blog and monetize your blog. There are hundreds of other great blog posts out there that do just that!
But, what I do want to share is my real-life story how I started making modest income from my blog in hopes of helping other bloggers who may be in the same boat!
Timeline
It took me 8 months to make my first $100 blogging. This was after one failed blog attempt a few years ago, where I did admittedly learn a lot of the basics of WordPress, Pinterest, and monetization options like Google AdSense.
So, if you are starting from scratch, learning all of this it might take you even longer to make money blogging.
I started this blog by signing up with the web hosting service BlueHost.
Sign up for BlueHost here>>I cannot recommend BlueHost enough! It was so easy to sign up and their customer service has been great! Its so important to find a great web hosting service so that you can create your own URL.
For nearly all of the monetization options out there, you will need to have your own URL to make money blogging.
I also gained and lost some momentum writing content when starting out with this blog, so this also contributed to my 8-month timeline. I started this blog in January 2019 and was very motivated to write and come up with creative blog posts.
During April-June 2019 I had a bit of a lull in motivation. I was hardly seeing any income from my blog and was running out of ideas to write about.
One day in July 2019, I logged on and saw one of my posts had gone viral on Pinterest. This prompted me to start writing again and start researching more on how to increase traffic to my blog.
By August 31st 2019 with a lot of hard work (and a little luck) I made my first $100 from Google Adsense.
Finding my Niche
Another thing to mention is that I did start this blog with the intention of making money. I wanted to make money blogging and stay home with my babies. I hope that one day writing for this blog allows me to do that!
But…. I am also very passionate about what I write about as my posts are based on my real life experiences. I do think its a good thing that I had both passion and business in mind when I started this blog.
On the contrary, one example that comes to mind is that I often see that homesteading is the #1 blog niche. Are there really that many people who are experts in homesteading who can write meaningful blog content? If you are, more power to you!
However for the rest of us, I would image that unless you are an excellent writer or have extensive time dedicated to research, your blog might come off as fake.
I am no expert, but I am glad that my blog niche is somewhere in the middle. Parenting/Lifestyle is a popular blog niche, but is also something I have real-life experience with and can write honest and helpful blog content.
How I Did It
To make my first $100 blogging, I primarily promoted my blog on Pinterest and use Google AdSense to bring in ad revenue.
1)Google Adsense// Google Adsense is the advertising program that I have used since starting my blog. It generates revenue based on clicks and page view. As of writing this post, I do not have enough page views to use some of the other affiliate ad sites out there, but hope to progress there soon!
2) Pinterest Strategy// One of the major drivers of my blog traffic is social media traffic, specifically Pinterest. Currently about 95% of my blog traffic comes from Pinterest.
After on of my posts (this post to be exact) went viral on Pinterest, my investment in promoting my blog there increased significantly. What do I specifically do on Pinterest to drive blog traffic?
- Pin multiple times per day
- Pin in the evening, which i’ve noticed is the best time for readers in my niche
- I try to follow the 70/30 rule and pin 70% of OTHERS’ content and only 30% of my own
- I maintain 3 group boards and pin on nearly a dozen others
- Use the search tool to identify good titles and keywords for my pins
3) Amazon Associates // I am also registered as an Amazon Associate. This allows me to post affiliate links for products I recommend and earn a small commission when my readers buy a product through this link.
This has accounted for much less of my income than Google AdSense – $39.87 throughout the same 8 month time period.
4) Google Analytics // Another program I am signed up for is Google Analytics. I review my analytics regularly to see what posts my readers like the most and use that to write more similar content.
Google Analytics also gives you a deeper look at the source of your blog traffic, audience, and timeframes with the most page views.
What’s Next?
I am off to a great start and feeling very motivated after making my first $100. There are a few things I have researched and plan on doing to further promote and monetize my blog.
Instagram // I just recently created an Instagram account for Pinecones & Pacifiers blog. Hoping to further connect with my readers and keep sharing motherhood hacks and feeding tips for busy moms through this different venue!
Email Newsletter// I just revamped my subscription sign up box and signed up for MailerLite. From my research, an email list is one great way to promote your blog and maintain readers.
ShareASale// ShareASale is another affiliate program where I get a commission when my readers buy through affiliate links. I have heard great things about ShareASale and just registered for this affiliate program!
Thanks for stopping by!
