Can You REALLY Make Money Blogging (Without Blogging About Blogging?)

Meet Jennifer:

everything from apartments in California to cooking thermometers, 11 years in, making full time income (not specified)

Q: First, tell us a little about you and your blog income journey –

when did you start, what do you blog about, how much time do you put into it etc. I understand that you’re not blogging about blogging, so talking about your income in specific numbers is something you might not do – but IF you’re willing to share how much you earn on average in a month, we’d LOVE to know.

Hiya =) I’m Jennifer – known online as PotPieGirl.

I started my journey to make money online wayyyy back on a cold night in February 2007.

‘Blogging’ wasn’t even a thing back then. Social media, like Twitter and Facebook, were pretty much unnoticed. Pinterest wasn’t around back then either.

Heck, back then even Google could take WEEKS to find new content online.

It was a much different environment online back then – and to say that getting found was HARD, that would be a huge understatement!

I had NO idea what I was doing, but I had one thing going for me: I was determined to make it work for me.

Back then, in 2007, the United Stated economy was starting to tailspin into one of worst economic times in history.

Meaning: There were no “real” jobs available here in Georgia where I live – I HAD to make this work.

Now, here I am, 11 years later.

I feel so incredibly blessed and humbled to have been able to make a very nice income from internet marketing all these years.

Not bad for a gal who didn’t even know what “upload” meant back when I started (yes, I was CLUELESS!)

Where Do I Blog?

It’s possible many who find me online think all I do is blog about blogging over at PotPieGirl.com.

That is VERY far from reality.

Over the last decade plus, I have built hundreds of websites, and I’ve created thousands and thousands of web pages, that have nothing to do with the “blogging” niche.

I have “blogged” about everything from apartments in California to cooking thermometers.

I’m an SEO gal at heart – if I see a profitable keyword I can work, I do it.

Ranking in Google is my first love in this business we’re in.

Q: Why do you think your blog is able to make money when so many others aren’t? What have you done differently?

A: I hear many new bloggers having issues with many things blogging-related from how to improve their traffic from Pinterest to day-to-day WordPress issues, to trying to figure out how to SEO their blog posts and get more Google traffic.

But above all the common “struggles”, I think the biggest one of all has to do with money.

We have decided that blogging is our job – and jobs are supposed to pay the bills, right?

Otherwise, it’s just a hobby, right?

For a new blogger, this question below is probably at the root of their biggest underlying struggle:

“For a NEW blog, how long to earn about $500 a month or so?”

First off, NO ONE can, will, or SHOULD ever guarantee you any earnings in this business.

Remember, we are SELF-employed so our earnings are totally dependent on our own actions.

I know YOU know that, but I always feel compelled to do my part to STOP perpetuating the myth that blogging is some “get rich quick” opportunity.

That said, I recently started a new blog that is a “niche” blog.

Since I’ve been doing this for SO long, I felt the need to start at “zero”, just like so many of you are doing.

The best way for ME to do this was to start a totally new blog in a new niche with new everything.

I happen to LOVE the “$500” a month number – perhaps you’ve heard me talk about my $16.44 a day strategy, right?

So that was my first goal for that new blog – to get to $500 a month.

Here’s some basic info about my new blog:

• The blog is NOT about “blogging” or anything like that – it’s just a blog with “mom tips” and “household tips” types of things.

• It was a brand new blog, new domain and I started a brand new Pinterest account for it (so I started at complete “zero” like all new bloggers do)

• I started the blog in August and the blog has about 40 posts or so.

• It’s a small site – it’s a side project for me that I work on in my spare time (which I don’t have much of… lol!)

• The blog is monetized with Google AdSense ads and Amazon affiliate links.

So, based on that question, I decided to crunch my numbers to see how much that new little blog has earned for me each month since I started it – and when it started earning me $500 a month or more.

So here’s my break down of monthly earnings:

(Amazon affiliate and Google AdSense ads combined)

Month 1 – 7.80

Month 2 – 32.77

Month 3 – 38.90

Month 4 – 55.95

Month 5 – 66.39

Month 6 – 461.31

Month 7 – 521.29

Month 8 – 503.26

Month 9 – 455.40

Month 10 – 826.56

Month 11 – 1070.28

(I’m now in Month 12 and it will be it’s best month yet)

Nice jump in earnings there from Month 5 to Month 6, right?? =)

You might notice that in Month 8 and Month 9 that my earnings took a dip – that’s because I test stuff and tried Google’s “Auto Ads” for my AdSense ads placements – and it was horrible.

As you can see in Month 10, I got those ad placements figured out for that blog and the ad income alone DOUBLED – and it was even better last month (Month 11).

If I didn’t test that other ad format, I would’ve easily been at a consistent $500 a month within 6 months.

In my opinion, and from my own experience, I think 6 months is a very reasonable amount of time to plan on hitting $500 a month – but ya gotta work at it… it’s doesn’t happen magically =)

While it’s true that I did not have the same ‘learning curve’ as someone brand new to blogging would have, I also did not have the TIME since I do SO much else online. So it kinda balances out in my mind and keeps me thinking that 6 months is a reasonable time frame and a great goal to set.

I talked more about that new blog in this case study post on my site, if you’re interested.

Q: Can you share you best advice for how to make money with a blog? 

A: When it comes to getting started blogging, it’s SO easy to get discouraged – and DISTRACTED.

Trust me, I’ve been doing this all these years, and I still have ‘those days’.

Here’s my best advice to new bloggers:

1. Keep your nose down and crank out those new posts.

You earn nothing, and you LEARN nothing, without your own content online.

It took about 10 blog posts on my new blog to even start to get a feel for what that audience wanted.

Once I knew what they wanted, it was VERY easy to create new posts based on that knowledge and grow not only the traffic to that new blog, but also grow its earnings.

2. Learn How To CONVERT Your Posts To Sales

If your post is getting traffic but NOT converting to sales, optins, etc – there’s a problem that you need to fix (unless you’re blogging as a hobby).

Now that my new blog is earning well over $500 a month overall, my next goal is take the best posts on that site and get them EACH making $500 a month individually.

If you’re interested in how I get individual blog posts to earning $500 a month (or more) – you can get more info here.

I’d like to thank Carly for inviting me to participate with all these other fabulous bloggers – and I’d also like to thank YOU for taking the time to read.

Your time is valuable and I know I can speak for Carly on this, too – THANK YOU for spending your time with us.

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