How Blogging Can Pay the Grocery Bills (and more)

 

Have I ever told you my blogging story?  The story of why I started blogging?  My IRL (in real life) friends ask me this often, but I don’t think I have ever gotten around to telling my online friends much about it.

 

I first became a professional blogger nearly 4 years ago.  (By professional, I mean one who is attempting to and hopefully actively earning money by blogging).  I had just had my 6th baby, but my 1st C-section.  This particular baby was unusually fussy, so I would spend my days in my recliner, nursing and recovering from the abdominal surgery I recently had.  Even though I had plenty of kids to talk to, I found that I was growing unreasonably antsy and all out bored with how long I had to sit around, nursing, feeling like I wasn’t getting anything accomplished.  One night, I was chatting with my friend on the computer, when she told me about how she makes enough money on her blog to pay her grocery bills.  A light bulb went off.  How does she do that?  I mean, she has a huge family like me, groceries would easily cost her $600 to $1000 per month!

 

My poor friend didn’t know that she had just opened a can of worms.  We had been living paycheck to paycheck for years and I was always looking for ways to make some extra money so that we could do fun things with the family.  I began asking her what probably felt like an  overwhelming amount of blogging related questions!  Who would’ve thought that there was so much to know about running a website?  I decided to start my own site, knowing that it would take a while before I could actually earn money from it.  I gave myself 2 years.  I began making money before the 2 year mark, but I was making more than enough for groceries and more by the end of 2 years.  After about 4-6 months of asking my friend question after question, I was finally confident enough to make decisions on my own.

 

The great thing about blogging is that you can talk about the things that you love and you can help people in the process.  You make tons of great friends and get to do things you otherwise wouldn’t be able to.  I’ve made a lot of mistakes through the years and wish that I had done some things differently.  But I’ve learned so much, too.  I’ve been asked repetitively by friends and family how to make money blogging.  The fact is that there are so many different directions you can take and there’s so much information to learn.  It can be overwhelming without a guide to help you along the way.

 

I’m toying with the idea of putting together a mentorship program for those of you who are intrigued by the idea of starting a blog but have no idea where to start.  You may not have a close friend to guide you like I did.  I have such a passion for this subject and I’ve learned so much in the process, I’d love to teach other families how to grow their income.  If I do this, it will be a monthly membership program, with a monthly fee.  I would provide a Facebook group with weekly assignments and training videos.  Most importantly, I would be available to you, to answer your questions while you’re growing your blog and still a part of the group.

 

If this is something that interests you, you would need to:

1. Be aware that blogging is not a get rich quick scheme.  It takes lots of dedication and hard work to get over the hump before you start earning.  Sometimes it can take 2-3 years before you start seeing a steady cash flow.
2. Realize that you have to invest money to make money.  Not a lot.  You can start with a $10 per month hosting plan to host your website on.  Sometimes you have to pay people to do things that are difficult for you or too time consuming.  You CAN take the time to learn them if you have it, but realize that sometimes, you’ll move faster if you choose to hire certain jobs out.  I do not know how to do everything.  I’m not some crazy computer whiz.  I either learn as I go or I hire it out.
3. You need to think about a niche that you’d like to be in.  Perhaps you love DIY projects?  Maybe you’re everybody’s favorite cook?  Maybe you’re the coupon clipping queen?  Maybe you have  special needs child?  Maybe you’re a crocheter and love to share patterns and other tips?  Are you a homeschooler who would love to share her knowledge?  An entrepreneur?  See?  There’s so many different blogs that you could start.  It can be hard to narrow it down to what you want to write about.  I consider my blog a lifestyle blog, where I share what we do in our every day life.  It is heavy on the food side, because food is what brings a lot of my readers in, but I love sharing about other aspects of our life as well.  When thinking about a blog name, try to name it something that people would search for in Google.  That would give you a better chance at ranking quicker than those of us who didn’t do that (like me).

 

If you realize the above statements and are thinking them through and would still be interested in joining a beta class with me, please fill out this form.  I’m trying to gauge interest at this time.  I don’t want to spend time focusing on this if you all have no interest in it at all.  If you have any questions, just email me at [email protected].  Of course, if you received this in your email, you can always hit the reply button and it’ll come straight to me!