If you’re going to start a side hustle (ie, a job in addition to your full-time job), it needs to be lucrative. While you can make extra money taking online surveys, it usually won’t amount to anything greater than coffee money. Here, I’m showing you the highest-paying side hustles you can start today that are guaranteed to bring in substantial income each month. And hey, if you work really hard, you may even be able to quit your full-time job! A life of freedom and being your own boss?! Heck yes!
January Blogging Income Report 2018
Hi everyone! Welcome to my January 2018 blogging income report! If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll notice I used to share these every single month, and then suddenly stopped for the past six months or so. The reason I stopped was simply because my income – as you’ll see below – tends to stay the same month after month. I felt inclined to share this month’s income report to show you that it really is possible to make money blogging even if you don’t have super high traffic and you don’t post often.
The Best Side Hustle for 2018
Side hustles have completely changed my life. I’ve tried a lot of different ones, but this one that I’m about to share is by far the BEST side hustle for 2018.
How to Find Work from Home Jobs
Are you wondering how to find work from home jobs that aren’t scams, selling to your friends or taking endless amounts of online surveys?
Going about how to find work from home jobs is tricky, but it is possible. I’ve been working from home (doing various jobs) for over five years! My income has varied; but it’s always been a full-time income each year.
The Best Tools to Grow Your Blogging Income
I cannot stress enough how awesome of a time it is to start a blog. For starters, there are so many reasons you should have a blog: It’s a creative outlet, you’ll make friends, it serves as a resume (especially for freelancers!), you’ll make money from it, and there are so many resources available to help you succeed. So long are the days of Googling for hours trying to figure things out. Now, you can simply invest in an eBook or course, learn from the pros, and start seeing success much sooner.
I’ve been really into taking blogging courses lately. As a business owner (my blog), I’ve realized it’s important to reinvest in my business. How can I grow if I’m never taking risks or learning new things?
Here are a few courses that I strongly recommend to bloggers, both new and advanced!
The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging – $12
This is actually my book, ha! After you purchase your blog through Bluehost and install WordPress (here’s my tutorial), there is so much to figure out. I remember feeling like I was looking at a foreign language. The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging was created to walk you through what to do after you purchase your blog! It’s a quick read and will save you hours and hours and hours of trying to figure all of this out on your own (like I did!).
If you purchase your blog using my Bluehost link, I’ll send you The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging for free! Just send me an email or leave a comment with your domain name 🙂
Blog by Number – $47 / $17.99
New bloggers: I cannot recommend this course enough!! I took it as a seasoned blogger and STILL learned a TON of information. You can purchase the Blog by Number course and eBook for $47 or just the eBook for $17.99. The book’s author, Suzi Whitford, took her blog income from $0 to $17,000+ in a year and a half!! She’s incredible. And, she’s a busy mom, meaning her course is quick and actionable. You can apply everything learned in the course to your own blog right away.
Building a Framework – $27 / $97
Abby Lawson of Just a Girl and Her Blog is the creator of Building a Framework eBook ($27) and course ($97). It’s similar to Blog by Number, except Abby is an organizational pro! She includes workbooks to keep you on track with both her book and her course. With the course, you also get access to a members-only Facebook group (these are super helpful!!), videos, tech trainings, tutorials on how to make printables, and more! I purchased the eBook about three months after I started my blog. It definitely helped me to go from a “hobby blogger” mindset to a “business blogger” mentality.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – $197
This is the priciest course I’ve ever taken, but it is worth every dollar. If you are serious about turning your blog into a full-time income, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a MUST for you. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, the course’s author, makes $50,000 a month from affiliate sales! And the beauty is any blogger in any niche can learn to make big money blogging as an affiliate. Her tips are practical, timely and valuable.
And, when you purchase her course, you’ll also receive access to her Facebook group. I’ve LOVED being a part of this fun group these past few weeks. We share each other’s posts, answer each other’s questions, and Michelle is in there all the time posting helpful tips and answering questions herself.
Michelle also offers an affiliate program for her course. Meaning you can buy the course and take it, then write a review of the course on your own blog. If one of your readers decides to purchase the course, you will make a generous commission (40%!). Welcome to the world of affiliate marketing 🙂
Pinterest Presence – $197
I took this course about two years into blogging and my only regret is not taking it sooner. Pinterest Presence teaches you everything you need to know about growing your traffic with Pinterest! It’s updated regularly, too, and you’ll have access to updates when you buy the course.
Since taking Pinterest Presence, my pageviews have more than doubled. Most of my traffic now comes from Pinterest. If you’re struggling with either getting traffic to your blog or with understanding Pinterest, Pinterest Presence is for you!
If you don’t want to buy the course, check out these image templates. They are proven to get clicks and customers over to your website!
Have you taken any courses lately?! I’d love to hear some recommendations!!
Tips for Brand New Bloggers
Are you a brand new blogger?! I started my blog three years ago and was able to quit my job after 2 1/2 years of blogging part-time. My results are average; you could very well be making thousands per month after one year, or it could take you five years to see results. Keep at it. Hard work pays off and results will come. For those just getting started, here are my best tips for brand new bloggers.
How to Quit Your Job to Blog Full-Time
I’ve been blogging for three years and the most common question I am asked is how to quit your job to make a full time blogging income. 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!
3 Ways to Make Money with Pinterest
Pinterest is not just a social platform; it’s a visual search engine. What if you could make thousands of dollars per month with Pinterest?! And, what if I told you some of these ways are passive? Here are three ways to make money with Pinterest that you can start implementing today.
3 Ways to Make Money with Pinterest
*Please note that the first two ways to make money with Pinterest assume that you have a blog. If you haven’t yet started a blog, you can do so here for a discounted price. The first step in making money online is starting a blog, so get started today!
Create and Promote a Product
What is your area of expertise? What are you passionate about?! A great way to make money with Pinterest is by creating and promoting your own product. I know that sounds intimidating, but take it one step at a time!
First, I recommend creating a FREE product to get email subscribers and gauge interest. If you want to create a short guide/ebook on potty training your toddler, for example, you could create a free guide first on 100 fun things to do with your toddler after nap time. This will allow you to build an email list of parents to toddlers, some of whom would absolutely be interested in your potty training book.
Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to create an ebook that sells >>
Once you have your freebie and your product created, it’s time to start promoting. Ideally, you’ll want to rank in the top 10 in Google for your targeted keyword, but that actually takes months, if not longer. It’s completely impossible to write a blog post and have it rank #1 within a day or two.
Pinterest, however, is the polar opposite. A good pin can go viral in a matter of minutes. That is why you should focus on the platform for your product!
After you’ve created your product and freebie, you need to insert them into your blog posts and write fresh blog posts that coincide with your product. Then, create pinnable images that will lead to clicks over to your blog, freebie signups and, eventually, product sales.
The beauty of making money with Pinterest this way is that once everything is set up (your freebie, your product, your blog posts, your images and your pinning strategy), the money is relatively passive. That means you can essentially set it and forget it, and watch the sales roll in!
Get People On Your Email List
I’ve been blogging over three years, but just recently am realizing the power of an email list. You guys, to be totally honest, traffic doesn’t matter if you have a solid email list. And, you can very easily grow your email list with little pageviews. If you want to monetize your blog, every single post should have a purpose: Make a sale (your own product or an affiliate sale) or get an email subscriber. This way of thinking has totally transformed my blog and my business.
So what does this have to do with Pinterest? Well, Pinterest is a HUGE source of traffic for bloggers and business owners. Pinterest is constantly in my top two sources of traffic (the other being Google, or SEO), and it almost always accounts for almost half of my total traffic.
But, traffic without a purpose doesn’t do anything. Sure, it will increase your ad revenue, but unless you’re getting hundreds of thousands of pageviews each month, you won’t notice a difference. Instead, heavily promote your blog posts that will either make you money now or in the future. To do this, you must:
- Write helpful, authentic content with your target reader in mind
- Create stunning, high-converting images (check out these templates if you need help!)
- Join as many group boards as you can and promote, promote, promote!
Need some group boards to join?! Here are 25 that are currently accepting contributors!
Start Your Own Pinterest Virtual Assistant Business
And finally, the third way to make money with Pinterest is by starting your own Pinterest virtual assistant business. This is a relatively new career, but it has HUGE potential and is only going to grow in future years. If you have any interest in being a Pinterest virtual assistant, now is the time to get started.
A Pinterest virtual assistant is a virtual assistant that specializes in Pinterest. Again, it’s one of the biggest sources of traffic for bloggers and business owners, so it’s vital that people use the platform to promote themselves. The problem is a lot of business owners do not have the time or interest in learning the ins and outs of Pinterest.
That’s where you come in.
You become an expert in Pinterest – learning everything from creating stellar pins to customizing your client’s boards to joining group boards to promoting pins and more.
You market yourself as an expert, because you are. You charge competitive rates and finally get paid for what your time is worth. Eventually, you may even be able to quit your full-time job, hire your own virtual assistants, and run your business completely from the comfort of your home.
If this sounds like something you’d love, you may be wondering how to get started.
There are two ways: You can absolutely teach yourself everything there is to know about Pinterest and, more specifically, being a Pinterest VA. I would recommend starting a blog, using Pinterest to grow your own blog, watching YouTube tutorials on how to create the perfect pin, finding group boards to join, etc. And then once you’ve become an expert on Pinterest, you can start promoting your services through a “Hire Me” page on your blog, through word-of-mouth, via Facebook ads, and more.
The second way is to take a course on how to become a Pinterest virtual assistant. This highly-sought after course, taught by two of my friends and Pinterest-gurus, is called Become a Pinterest VA Today! and will teach you from the ground up how to start and run your own profitable Pinterest VA business. The course is amazing, and will save you tons and tons of time if this is what you want to do. It’s only open for enrollment four times per year, so hop on the waitlist today to make sure you get a spot in the class.
Have you ever made money off of Pinterest? Since half my traffic comes from Pinterest, I can definitely attribute half of my monthly income to the platform. You can view my latest income report here.
How to Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant
Do you browse Pinterest in your free time? Do you want to work from home? And not just work from home, but actually run a super profitable business from home? If so, I highly recommend becoming a Pinterest virtual assistant.
What I Learned in Three Years of Blogging
Happy September!! I’m excited to share what I learned blogging these past three years!
It’s officially (almost) my favorite season: Fall. September is a very special month for me. It’s when my middle daughter was born (she’s turning four this year!), it’s when we moved to Charlotte (we actually moved at the very end of August but the fall season is what I relate our move to), and it’s when I started my blog!
I started my blog exactly three years ago this month. One of my very first posts is on how to move across the country on a budget. You can see it here 🙂 The first thing I notice is that my images have (thankfully) come a longggg way. Graphic design is definitely not one of my talents, but I guess after three years of making images I’ve learned a thing or two, haha.
This journey has been so crazy but also so fun. Here’s how I got started blogging and what I learned in three years of blogging!