I’ve been blogging for three years and the most common question I am asked is how to quit your job to blog full-time. This guide will show you exactly how you can start a blog and make a plan to replace your current income from your full-time job so you can one day quit. Sound good?! Let’s get started!
I started my blog in September 2014 and quit my job in March 2017. It took about 2 1/2 years for my blog income to replace my salary (here’s my latest income report), but I definitely never blogged full-time. It was always part-time, sometimes less than one hour per week. I also was pregnant and had my third baby girl during that time 🙂
If I can do this, so can you!!
How to Quit Your Job to Blog Full-Time
A step-by-step guide
Step 1: Start Your Blog
I highly recommend Bluehost for new bloggers just get started. They are affordable, offer 24/7 support, and have a one-click WordPress installation feature (WordPress is where you’ll write all of your posts for your blog!). It’s super easy and allows you to start your blog in under 15 minutes!
Once you start your blog, send me an email so I can send you my free eBook on getting your blog up and running. I’d love to help you out on your journey!! (Email sbrooks 52111 @ gmail .com no spaces)
Step 2: Learn How to Blog 
Your blog is the foundation of your business. There is a lot to learn, and I’ve always recommended doing one blogging-related task every single day when you first get started. Yes, it’s easy to get overwhelmed; but there are tons of resources available to help you out on your journey! Because of this, now really is the best time to start and grow a blog.
My free eBook will help you get started – it covers everything from getting your blog up and running to setting up social media accounts to coming up with post ideas and more.
Learn the foundation of blogging first; then move on to getting traffic and making money.
Step 3: Get Traffic
Spend 20% of your time writing content and 80% promoting it. This is something I wish I knew when I first started. So many new bloggers focus on writing three times per week rather than promoting what they’ve already written. I suggest having 5-10 posts written and published first, then spend a good chunk of time promoting those posts. See how they do, read the comments, gauge the reactions of your readers, and figure out what they like and want more of.
As a new blogger, the BEST way to get traffic will be Pinterest. To get traffic from Pinterest, you have to have two things: Fantastic images and you must join group boards.
Here are the best image templates that are proven to have high click-through rates and get people to your blog. These will save you a ton of time and yield you a ton of traffic!!
And finally, sign up below to have 25 Pinterest group boards sent to your email! You can join them all and start contributing your pins immediately!
If you are a complete novice when it comes to Pinterest (which is totally ok!!), I recommend a course by a good friend of mine, Pinterest Presence. I only recommend courses that I KNOW will help you and, ultimately, make you money. Pinterest is an absolute must when it comes to blogging; consider taking the course if you need extra guidance!
Step 4: Start Your Email List
This is another crucial step that I wish I would have done three years ago. Having an email list full of valuable readers who love and respect what you have to say is essential. I recommend MailerLite for your list. You can create all of your signup forms in MailerLite and it’s really easy to do (I have absolutely zero skill when it comes to technology and I can work MailerLite haha!). Plus, it’s FREE for your first 1,000 subscribers!
To get people to sign up for your list, you’ll need to create freebies. These can be printables, short eBooks or guides, tutorials, and more.
And don’t stress – you don’t actually have to email your list right away. I just recommend at least getting started with a list as soon as you start your blog!
Here are three ways you can grow your email list >>
Step 5: Start Monetizing
Everyone starts making money at different times in their blogging journey and in different ways. I made my first $100 within five months of starting my blog through Google Adsense, but then I didn’t make another dollar until around the one-year mark. My income really took off about 1 1/2 years in, mostly thanks to affiliate income!
There are four basic ways to make money blogging: Ads, Sponsored Posts (where a company pays you to review or mention their product), Affiliate Sales and Product Sales. For my blog, I’m focused on affiliate sales (but I do make money through ads, product sales and sponsored posts, too).
How affiliates work is I mention a product, and then if that person makes a purchase, I get a small commission at no extra charge to the buyer. Fashion bloggers make a good chunk of money with affiliate sales by sharing their outfits and linking to the product. But, you can be successful with affiliate sales no matter what niche you’re in!
And again, if you need help with affiliates, I have a course to recommend to you. It’s called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing and is written by a blogger (Michelle Schroeder-Gardner) who makes more than $50,000 per month with affiliates. I just purchased her course this weekend and so far am loving it! Even as a seasoned blogger, there are plenty of things I’m learning.
The best thing about affiliate sales is once your blog posts are up and gaining traction, the income is passive! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up to $100 sales or come home from a trip to find I made $300! It’s really fun and I love that I’m able to contribute to my family finances while still being a SAHM.
Ok, so now you may be wondering what the timeline is like for all of this!
This is where it’s really up to you! If you take the “slow route” like I did, I would guess you could replace your full-time income within 2-3 years. If you work quickly and take courses (like the two I mentioned above), there’s a good chance you could quit your job within one year.
So, to recap, here is how to quit your job to blog full-time:
Start a blog —> Learn how to blog —> Get traffic —> Start an email list —> Start monetizing
Have you started your blog yet? What are you struggling with the most?! Share in the comments!
Hi Sarah,
Congrats on getting to a full-time income. I know that you’ve put in a lot of hard work to get your blog where it is today.
I agree with you on start promoting right away. I made the mistake of waiting till my fifth month to start promoting my blog.
As soon as you hit publish you should start promoting it. What seems to work for me is sticking to a blogging schedule that I can live with.
I post 2x per week and spend most of my time promoting my blog. I’ve also realized that it’s important to test new things out.
You need to find what works for your blog. Just because something works for others doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work for you.
So don’t be scared to test things out. These are awesome tips and I have no doubt that anyone who follows them will get the results they want.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan
Susan, what are your favorite ways to promote? I feel I have solid content, but would love tips on how to get more exposure and views (even with pinning). Just curious what you see most success with? Thanks!
I’ve been wanting to start a blog but I’m afraid i won’t write the right thing or write anything worth reading….or run out of things to talk about. Any suggestions?
Hi Tammy! I think every blogger thinks that at first 🙂 So don’t worry! When I started, I had about five post ideas. I wrote all those and then remembering thinking, “ok, now what?” The ideas will come, trust me!! The more you blog, the more ideas you’ll have haha! Also, if you do get stuck, focus on promoting the content you have, improving images, etc. Let me know if you have more questions!! I’d love to help!