I first published the below article eight years ago – back then it was titled “How I Quit My Job to Become a Blogger”.
Aspects of the “how to” have changed since I started, but the “why” has not. (The specific “how to” for 2025 is outlined here!)
There is still SO much potential for those want to create their own job freedom, and as we experience more political and economic uncertainty, including rumours of massive recession… maybe there is more NEED now than ever, also.
One of my good friends in this blogging space has been making money online as a blogger since 2009 (wayyyy before me!) – and she told me once she started because of recession. (And she’s still going strong.)
Content creation as career still works.
Blogging – or, content marketing, as we should think of it now – is a real way to create your own job. (Not overnight, no, but over time. It takes around a year for most blogs to find their legs.)
When I started blogging I wanted freedom. I wanted the potential to earn MORE, and I wanted to be the boss of my own time, so I could spend more time with my babies.
I got all of that, and in SPADES.
I bet you want all that too.
But it’s hard to know where to start!
I think it helps to hear from people who’ve done it.
So, this is the simple true story of how I became a 6-figure blogger…
(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS REALLY BORING, BUT YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)
Nine years ago, I was in a very different place in my life.
The abbreviated version:
I was settling in as a receptionist (at a job I loved, but didn’t make a killing at), after 10 years of terrible customer service work (at a job I hated, but made decent money at).
I was ready to accept the pay decrease to finally be happy.
About three months in, we found out I was pregnant. (Not unplanned, but still unexpected. We had been trying for a long time, and I was giving up on the idea of becoming a mom. Praise God for His many blessings ♥.)
It didn’t take me more than 5 minutes to decided that if we were finally going to have a baby, then I was going to raise the baby – not pay some strangers to do it for me. (This is not a slight against working moms – this is what I wanted for me and my family. I want to be the one there with my baby, day in and day out.)
But, I had no idea how I was going to do that. (Like none. It was blank inside my head.)
I had tried and tried over the years to figure out how to create my own income at home – once as a travel agent, then as a photographer, even as a “crafter” (yes, that’s a real thing, maybe)… But none of those things were working for me.
They all felt a little like wading through waist deep mud.
But this time, I wanted to make working from home real for myself more than I wanted anything else in the world.
I had no idea where to start, what steps to take, how to make it happen.
Somewhere in the past I had seen a pin on Pinterest that said “how I make money by pinning on Pinterest” or something like that – and it had explained that this blogger drove traffic to her website via Pinterest, and that earned her ad income – enough to be able to stay at home.
I LOVED to write, so that seemed like a viable option for me.
I had attempted a blog once before, and WordPress had quickly defeated me. I don’t think I ever logged into that first blog more than once.
But this time there was a big glaring difference in how I approached it.
This time, I decided that I would not fail. I decided to be all in.
I did a.l.o.t. of research. I realized that if you want to make money at something, you need to LEARN to do it RIGHT.
There are no practicing doctors out there who didn’t graduate from medical school, no lawyers who haven’t passed the bar. Getting an education in what you want to do is usually necessary. So I invested a decent chunk of change into a blogging course.
And then I worked.
I quit watching TV, quit surfing Facebook, quit shopping and cooking and showering and sleeping. I worked 50+ hours per week on the blog for the first 8 months, while still working my desk job 4 days per week. (I was on a baby imposed deadline. It probably doesn’t have to be quite this intense – HA.)
I put in the time. (And tears, and some money.)
And more time.
One year later, I was making a full time income from blogging. (You can read my early income reports here.)
In 9 years, I’ve never considered returning to a desk job. In fact, now I homeschool while I work on the website(s).
I am raising my kids and working for myself from home.
(If I didn’t have kids, I could be working for myself from anywhere.)
It’s not a pipe dream at all.
The longer I do this, the more I love it. There are ups and downs with my income, sure – but it still beats a “real” job.
And if we are going into a recession, I’m not as concerned about my job as many others are. Will my income go down a bit? Almost inevitably, as advertisers pull back their spending.
But will it go away entirely?
Wildly unlikely.
How Get Started as a Blogger:
First of all, start now.
Just do it. (It really is cheap to get started. you just need a domain name, hosting, and a good course on wordpress (this one is free). THEN, I want you to watch this – also free – bootcamp on making money with a website.)
There is no time like now. If I hadn’t started nine years ago, the time would still have passed.
Whatever reason you have for not starting, it’s probably not good enough. You are capable – if you decide to be.
I am nothing special.
That’s not a self-esteem “issue” statement – I’m a pretty confident lady – it’s just a fact.
I have no education, no special talents, no anything about me that sets me apart from you or from anyone else. I am not more qualified than you. (Maybe I am more determined, but that’s something that you have complete control over!) I just decided to do it, and then I did it.
Secondly, you need to understand how to actually make money with a blog.
This is key.
I run into a LOT of people who do not understand what it takes to create a profitable website – and these days that starts with your niche.
I strongly recommend watching this free video on the subject before you start.
Last – and perhaps most important – plan to give it time.
This is not an over-night thing.
Plan to invest your time for up to a year before you make any determinations on if this is working or not.
Would this work for anyone? Can it work for you?
I do NOT think that just anyone can do this, but YOU get to decide if you can or not!
Fact of the matter is, if you don’t think it will work for you, then it won’t.
If you are ready to work for yourself, then do it.
Let’s be real. (There’s an awful lot of not real on the internet, and I hope you know you won’t find that stuff here.)
I am not (even though I do joke about it) working part time from my couch in my jammies. I am putting on pants, and choosing to work day in and day out when I would rather not.
It is hard to work for yourself. It is hard to make something – with your bare hands – that amounts to anything.
If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
But here’s the thing. It’s also hard to hate what you do, hate paying some else to raise your kids, hate that you’re trading two hours of sleep every day for two hours on the train.
It might be the path of least resistance, but it’s still hard.
So choose your hard.
Related: How This Blog Makes Money
Related: 4 Secrets of People Who Successfully Work From Home
I am so glad for your success. I have four children and am a single mom. No help from anyone, no family etc. I hate leaving them to go to work 40 plus hours a week. I started my blog in late Feb. Havent made any money yet but have invested quite a bit in courses, ConvertKit, and web hosting for three years. Not having the luck with tailwind like everyone claims to have but determined to stick with it. I can’t keep taking orders from a boss I don’t respect, yes i really would like to throat punch him..lol
HI Deanna! Late February is not long ago – don’t loose heart and keep going! I certainly didn’t make any money in the first few months either. Tailwind isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, in my opinion either 😛 I wish you all the best, you gotta get away from that boss.
Deanna, I have been on the same path of freeing myself from the 9-5 grind. Would much rather grind all day long for my future than someone else. I’m sure most of us entrepreneurs have experienced the same feelings of wanting to throat punch our boss just ONE TIME and have no consequences delivered..
How long have you been blogging? Your site looks great by the way.
You are such an inspiration to me! All of your words hit home. I am a little older than you (my youngest baby is 14) and trying to quit my miserable job. I am having some pinning success from what I have learned from your book and am now reading it again. I need to write more content, but I am getting there. You rock!
HI Lori!! I am so excited that you are seeing some Pinterest Success! Congrats! And I think YOU rock 🙂 (And we allllll need more content lol. Just keep going!)
Thank you so, so much for this post. I’ve got my domain name and signed up for a few free courses, but I’ve been too scared to invest in my blog (that EBA course is pricey!). But you just gave me the courage to do it. I stumbled on this post via Pinterest but I’m definitely going to check out more posts! Thank you so much. (I just had my LO almost five months ago!!)
HI Brooks 🙂 Yes, EBA is pricey! It was a stretch for me for sure. But so worth it in the end… and hey, congrats on tiny babe! Blogging will hopefully open up doors for you to stay with babe that you never even dreamed of – it’s an insane journey and I wish you all the best!
Congrats on being a huge success and such a short period of time. When you have determination and put in the effort, you can make it happen. A lot of it has been focus. So glad to hear this.
I’m making progress, but not as quickly as I would like. This month I will be much more focused (my dad was in the hospital, so that was a major distraction and my priorities were on him…which was right). But, now it’s refocus time. I think my category is a more challenging to monetize and slower growth. I have some new ideas now, so hopefully by end of June, things will be stronger.
Thank you for your inspiration.
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Congratulations on your success Carly. I know that God lead you to the place you’re in right now. Luckily for me, I am still a college student (In my 4th year) and I still have more time to grow my freelance writing website more. I am earning an enough salary every month from my freelance clients and I am praying really hard to Jesus to help me win this battle!
Keep blogging, keep inspiring. God bless!
All the Best,
Jan Limark | Brotherly Creative
Thank you Jan! Yes – prayer is an important part of my strategy too 🙂 perhaps the MOST important actually!
This is so inspiring! I hope to one day write a post just like this, haha. Off to sign-up for your mini-course, can’t wait to see what else you can accomplish!
Thanks Brenda!! I can’t wait to read your post like this one!
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That’s actually where I’m at right now. Took a crappy job , made the company over 100K in less than 7 months “Thank God for HIS help on that,” and got denied a pay raise. So I’m all in like you said on this content marketing thing. Making someone else rich off of my hard work off the sweat off my back and my talent is urking me!
Hello Caryl
Thanks for sharing, most people getting started in blogging hit a wall sooner than later,what to blog about,what to call the blog hosting and the 101 other things.
You have explained things so well and in an easy way to understand that any newbie will find really helpful
Yes – lots of bloggers do hit a wall, because blogging can be hard!
What’s everybody selling Elite Blog Academy?? Wish I could get some real advice instead of a big affiliate sales pitch!
HI Marie! Did it occur to you that “everybody” selling elite blog academy is doing that because it is genuinely they way that “everybody” grew successful blogs in a short time? It is an amazing course. You wouldn’t fault an engineer for mentioning his MIT education and you wouldn’t expect a red seal chef to have learned everything they know on google – or to set up a free class on “how to be an awesome chef”. Not to mention, you can not buy EBA right now, so this isn’t just a big affiliate sales pitch. There is plenty of real advice in here, not least of which is you NEED to invest in LEARNING how to do what you want to do PROPERLY. If you try to blog based solely on what you can learn for free through google, it will take you years and years to become successful.
Because part of these blogger’s ‘success’ stories is the money they are making off of pushing affiliate programs on everyone. TailWind, Elite Blog Academy….. bloggers are paid to push this stuff. They are copying what everyone else is doing.
Right, that’s the point of THIS post, these people are still making money without selling that stuff.
I’m happy to hear that you made it blogging in a year’s time after starting and quit your job successfully. Many bloggers don’t have direction where they want to go and just simply post whenever they feel like it. The Internet is pretty much open season to everyone who serious about blogging and content marketing and turning it into a full-time business because search engines thrive off of fresh and informative content whether it be from a blog or website. I’m just curious how often did you blog daily in order to achieve the status of quitting your day job. Did you blog just once a day or more than that? 🙂
And out of curiosity, would you be interested in an online interview sometime and discussing your humble beginnings to blogging greatness? 🙂
Thanks so much for your response in advance and talk to you soon!
I’ve only just recently found your site, after clicking on several Pins of yours. I guess I’m just gravitating towards the info you’re putting out there.
As someone who’s treated their blog like an unimportant hobby for the last 7 (yes 7!) years, I’m a new mom and looking to make it my full time job. I’ve narrowed topics and tried to start branding. Because I’ve let it all hang loose for the better part of a decade, I’m struggling to get things moving in the right direction.
Your blog, and more specifically, your articles about blogging, have really been a valuable resource for me. I’m sure it’s just a drop in the bucket at this point, but you’ve made a new fan.
Thank you!
HI Sam! You’re so welcome! WOW 7 years is a long time – you must have a wealth of amazing content to work with already stockpiled 🙂 I’m jealous! It’s so exciting that you’re tackling the full time blogging thing- I wish you all the best (and congrats on the new momness… it’s even better than blogging 😉 )
How encouraging to see another person who wants to treasure every moment of her baby’s life (except for time spent blogging, of course!) 😉 I am also staying at home now and hope to be able to pay some of our bills by writing! I wish you lots of luck!
(Yes, of course the blogging time is important too 😉 ) I wish YOU lots of luck too Anna – it’s so amazing to be able to stay at home and still feel like you’re contributing financially!
Thanking you for sharing the information you have learned about blogging. It is scary to start a blog, spend money, try to write great posts, monetize it, and then find ways to get others to read it. As a newbie blogger, I can use all of the help I can get!
HI Rae!! It is a very uphill journey for sure… there are still days now where I feel like I have NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING! But I’m loving learning and I wish you all the best in your learning too 🙂
congrats on your success. just wanted to say how much I enjoyed actually reading your page. there are only two ads and they stayed in place. one on the far right and one across the bottom. I cannot read a blog that has constant pop ups and I mean constant where you are trying to read. I give up and close the page.
HI Dianne ! Yes, my ads are managed by a FANTASTIC network (Adthrive) and they are very careful not to chase anyone away – that defeats the purpose! lol
Hi, Carly;
I just came about your blog and I love it! Looking forward to following you and learning more from you. I recently lost my career to Multiple sclerosis, so I’m “Starting Over” with a new blog of my own. I have learned a lot from just this one post, and look forward to gleaning more wisdom from you. Thank you for sharing your gift with others.
Blessings,
Kimberly (aka, Casey)
HI Casey!! I’m sorry to hear about the MS – that’s a difficult thing to face! But GOOD FOR YOU for making the most and getting going with a blog. You will have SO much to share with people, and blogging is such an amazing way to share! Looking forward to seeing what you create 🙂
CARLY!!! 🙂 I love how you give God all the glory! 🙂 He is so faithful and I love reading your posts about how much success God has given you with blogging! 🙂 I have been blogging for a year and a half but went full time when I had my first child ( a boy) in Sept. I worked like 50 + hours at first and just recently I started making “real” money. God is faithful. 🙂
P.S. I love your book! I am currently trying out the manually pinning method!
HI Latasha!! YES – Everyday God astounds me with the way He has blessed this blog. I just still can not believe it sometimes!! Thank you for reading <3 (I'd love to hear how manual pinning goes for you! And congrats on the baby AND the blogging success - WOOHOO!)
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