As someone who’s been blogging since 2009, I can say it’s one of my favorite side hustles, and I’ve certainly learned a lot about it during that time.
For one, I’ve found the writing to be a great creative outlet and a powerful medium to reach a wide audience. (Although the podcast has grown much faster.)
But it was a loooooong time before my blog made any real money, and one of the mistakes I made was not having a focus. I would write about whatever came into my head; current events, our travels, our dog, and occasionally I might throw in something about business or marketing.
There was no coherent theme or really any reason for someone to stick around unless they were interested in me personally. In 2013, I narrowed the focus of my writing to be about side businesses, and that’s when the site traffic started to grow.
If you want to start a blog of your own, check out my free 6-part video tutorial series that walks you through:
I had a lot of fun creating the free “how to start a blog” course and hope you enjoy it too!
Whether you already have a blog or are looking to start one, here are some of the best blogging-related articles and podcast episodes from the archives:
I compiled a binge-worthy selection of blogging podcast episodes from The Side Hustle Show into this playlist. I think you’ll like it!
Enjoy!
So, you want to start a blog?
I don’t blame you! After all, it’s a great way to make money online and potentially begin to earn some of that elusive passive income.
And the good news is, it’s really not that hard (or expensive) to get started. In fact, you can be up and running in less than 15 minutes and for less than $3 a month.
Nagina Abdullah turned her weight loss blog, MasalaBody.com, into a 6-figure side business. By day, she works for a large consulting company, and with a busy work schedule, a young family, and limited time to work on her side hustle, Nagina has been very smart about her marketing and pricing.
After struggling with her weight for all of her adult life, she finally hit on something that worked and dropped 40 pounds! With friends, colleagues, and neighbors asking how she did it, she started her blog to share recipes and tips.
Erin Chase is a busy mother of 4, a former teacher, and today runs 5dollardinners.com and the 5dollarmealplan.
Back in 2008, after some number crunching Erin was excited at saving 50% on her grocery bills. She shared how she had done this on her family blog, but with a low amount of interest she decided to start her own blog to help others make savings on their own grocery bills.
Erin says it was ‘‘very shocking to me that it just took off the way it did’’. But with her dedication to sharing lots of free content helping her readers save money on their grocery bills it’s no coincidence.
As co-host of the #1 marriage podcast in iTunes, the ONE Extraordinary Marriage show, Tony DiLorenzo speaks to a worldwide audience about sex, love, and commitment. Along with his wife Alisa, their goal is to reach as many couples around the world as they can, equipping them with the tools and strategies they need to create an extraordinary marriage.
With a hugely popular blog and podcast, Tony is a little modest in saying, “that’s consistency over 7 years.” Tony and Alisa sell coaching services, their own products, promote affiliate products, and have sponsorships as some of their income streams.
You may remember Rosemarie Groner from episode 142 of the Side Hustle Show last year. She revealed how her blog Busy Budgeter was just a year old and receiving around 400,000 pageviews and making around $5k a month — primarily through Pinterest traffic.
It’s almost a year later now and I had to have her back to see how things were progressing. Rosemarie is now regularly making more than $20k a month, and while her pageviews are still at a similar number she has improved her ROI and diversified her traffic and income sources.
Before people can do business with you, they have to know about you, and before they know about you, they have to find you.
And that’s universal, whether you’re running a brick-and-mortar shop, an ecommerce store, a blog, or a virtual consulting business.
Neil Patel is a master at solving the first step in that equation: getting people to find you. Through SEO, content marketing, and social media, we go through the traffic generation tactics that are working today.
What’s the most common piece of advice when it comes to online business? Let’s see if this sounds familiar.
See what else is out there, and create something 10x better.
And while creating the best / most helpful / most shareable / most awesomely epic 10x content ever is supposedly the golden ticket, I thought I’d put this advice to the test and share some results from a recent attempt at “epic-ness” of mine.
Does it really work? Is it worth the effort?
A few months ago, I looked for new ways to monetize my blog. I came across a post about selling sponsorship spots in my email newsletter.
I liked the idea so I thought that I would give it a shot.
The result? 3 days after reading the post, I landed a 3 month-contract with a couple of sponsors and made $300/month with only 30 min of work. Here’s how it works.
Over the last few months, I’ve systematically deleted more than half of my site… and my traffic went up?!?
And I’ll be the first to admit, this sounded like completely nuts. Why would you delete perfectly good content? Each page is an extra chance — however remote — for someone to discover you, right?
Want to get paid to create content? Jason Zook is the undisputed king when it comes to sponsored content.
You may know Jason as the IWearYourShirt guy, where he earned over $1,000,000 wearing t-shirts for various companies. He’s even sold his last name (twice — each for $40k+), formerly going as Jason Surfrapp and Jason Headsetsdotcom.
In this episode, he shares his tips for getting sponsors for your work, even if you’re just starting out. I think you’ll like it!
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