Two years ago, I wanted to start a mommy blog and make money blogging.
And now I’ve done it!
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(THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS HOWEVER, I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND ANYTHING THAT I DO NOT BELIEVE IN OR USE MYSELF. YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT MY DISCLOSURE POLICY HERE)
My Original Blogging Goals
When I started my blog just over two years ago, I wanted to make money to help support my family while I was at home raising our children. And of course, I was not expecting it to happen overnight but I also didn’t think it would take this long to finally make a good amount from my blog.
I originally set my monthly income goal at $1,000 and thought that it was completely attainable, but month after month, I had such issues making more than $200 per month. It was as if there was some secret to blogging that I just did not know.
What I Did Wrong…
Now that I have seen what I need to do to make money from my blog, I see what I was doing wrong.
The first thing was focusing too much on writing about blogging. I do like to write a little bit about blogging but my blog is a parenting blog and that is not what I was focusing on.
After taking some really horribly put together courses, I kept reading that to make money from your blog you have to make affiliate sales and to do that you have to blog about blogging. This was a huge mistake.
Another mistake was not writing consistently about what my readers loved. On my blog, I would try to write once a week or every two weeks, but that was getting me nowhere. I needed to write consistently, not just for my readers but for me. I am a person that needs to have a set schedule and having specific posting days helps so much.
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- 8 Ways Moms Can Make Money Blogging
OCTOBER INCOME: $1,012.77
Ad Network:
- Mediavine – $965.60
Affiliate Sales:
- Make Money Blogging at Any Level – $10.80
- MaxBounty – $4.60
- Commission Junction – $4.00
- Amazon Affiliate Program – $14.05
- Start A Mom Blog – $11.60
- Viglink – $2.12
Total Income = $1,012.77
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Tools that I Use
Web Hosting – I have been using SiteGround for my hosting service for just over 1 year now and have loved them so much.
Since making the switch to their hosting service, I have not had anymore mysterious website errors where my site unexpectedly went down for days I had so many times where I would finally get a little spike in traffic and my website would crash. It was so frustrating.
Another reason I am so happy to be with SiteGround is because of their customer service. Anytime I have had a question for them, I’ve been able to easily ask it in a chat with their customer support representatives and get help immediately.
WordPress Blog Theme – When I finally decided to get a better and more responsive blog theme, I noticed that my blog was easier to navigate, especially on mobile.
I use the Divi theme and all of the tools that come along with it through Elegant Themes. Here is a blog post I wrote about choosing the perfect blog theme.
Pinterest Scheduler – If you are a mom then you know as well as I do that there is never enough time in the day to get everything we need to be done. It is the same for blogging.
That’s why I use Tailwind to schedule my pins to Pinterest. Tailwind is also so great for keeping track of when I last posted a specific pin to my group boards. It is literally like my Pinterest brain.
What I did to Earn $1,012.77
I took the course – Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic by Elna Cain and it was amazing! I felt like as I was taking notes and applying some of Elna’s tips, a light bulb finally turned on.
You know what I mean if you are a mommy blogger that has been trying so many different strategies that are supposed to help you earn money from your blog only to fail every time.
Now that I have finally found what works for me and my readers, I am so much happier and feel like I can earn an income from my blog every month just by writing about what I love.
I also started writing and publishing 2 new blog posts every week and used the blog post outline I learned from this course – Post by Number by Suzi Whitford.
Best Blog Posts this Month
- 19 Baby Items You Do Not Need and Will Regret Buying
- 11 Secrets You Need to Know About Having a C-SECTION
- 13 Essential Baby Items for Surviving the First Year!
- Baby Gear You Should Always Buy Used and Never Pay Full Price For
October Pageviews: 54,920
I believe that part of the reason that I was able to get my traffic up so quickly is due to posting fresh content more often along with using catchy titles.
Another thing I noticed when looking over my pageviews was that it seems that my viewers like to read parenting blog posts more than other topics. I decided to take advantage of this information and concentrate mostly on that topic instead of talking all about mom blogging.
You see, when I first started blogging, I was under the impression that the only way I could make money blogging was by writing about blogging on my mom blog.
But you see that isn’t the case. My blog does better with talking about motherhood and all of the trials and mishaps that come along with it.
Pinterest – I focused only on this platform
As with most mommy bloggers, I get most of my blog traffic straight from Pinterest and it’s so amazing to see.
I learned through Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic that I needed to focus exclusively on the one place that provides me with the most blog traffic instead of spreading myself all over several types of social media.
The biggest culprit that I was often wasting a ton of time with was Facebook Group Boards. I was completely dedicated to trying to share my blog posts with every board that I was a member of and trying to keep track of all of their promo days and having to also go back and reciprocate the favors to the other bloggers that had shared to the Facebook Group boards.
When I finally stopped posting and worrying about all of the rules for each and every Facebook Group board, I felt a huge sense of relief. And believe it or not, I haven’t noticed any difference since I stopped posting to them. That just shows that it was a complete waste of my time.
Now I use that time to create new Pinterest pins and keep my Tailwind schedule full.
I still post to just a couple of group boards that I feel are truly worth the time and only on promo days which is just like 2 times a week when I have a new blog post to share. I don’t go out of my way to share on Facebook.
Also since Tailwind has introduced the new post to Facebook box when you are scheduling a new pin, I have been able to just click that every time I make a new blog post or new pin and I don’t even have to go to Facebook or think about posting on my Facebook page.
I use both Tailwind and Manual Pinning
In my Pinterest strategy, I use a mixture of both scheduled pinning through Tailwind and also use manual pinning just as I talked about in my Pinterest Strategies post HERE.
In Conclusion
At the end of last month when I was adding up all of my income I was so excited to see that I finally met my goal of earning $1,000 in a month. Most of my revenue did come from ads so that means that I need to keep most of my focus on traffic since that seems to work the best for my blog and my readers.
I am so happy that I finally took the course Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic! It had everything I needed to know about building my blog up and I hope to continue this journey with the tips that I have learned.
How do you feel that the Divi theme has helped you to gain traffic? Also, the 25,000 sessions for Mediavine, is that monthly sessions? Thanks for referring the Ready, Set, Blog course! I’m almost finished with it, and I’ve already been noticing great results!
Hey Nicole! I think that have a great working and very professional looking blog theme – the Divi theme has helped to keep readers on my blog. Also yes 25,000 sessions I believe is what is needed in a month to apply for Mediavine. Yes, I loved Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic. It really taught me about running a mom blog rather than other courses that only describe how to create a blog that is all about blogging.
Congrats Heather! I’ve been blogging since 2008 but I still learned new tricks from Elna’s traffic course. I really struggle creating new blog posts because I spend too much time researching. Did you find that creating more consistent posts is what helped your traffic grow so fast?
I learned that I needed to focus on exactly the topics that were getting the most traffic – which for my blog was mommy posts. Any by being consistent and posting twice a week I have a lot more opportunities out there to reach my readers. Also making better pins that were eye-catching I increased my traffic so much.
Mediavine is the best! I’m always so excited to see other people’s income on Mediavine. I’m only making about $600 average with them but I’m hoping to increase it with videos. Have you tried videos yet? I’ve made $25 this week just from having two videos on my site and having the video adhesion on mobile.
Hey Niki! I actually have not tried videos yet.
Really awesome to see your transparency here! I am also a mom blogger, and just want to encourage your blogging readers not to give up. I remember deciding last December that I was going to learn to use Pinterest and get my first 10,000 pageviews from almost 0. I bought one course (which was a LOT for me, haha $32), from a mom blogger who went from 0 to 10K pageviews in one month. It was the best encouragement for me and got me to 11K the first month and 30K the next month. I wrote a post about it called “My Blog Traffic Increase”. I agree with what you said also about it being tricky to figure out how to monetize a mom blog without the traffic. My stats right now are almost identical to yours and ads are my main source of income too. I also love what you said about learning one thing well. I completely abandoned sponsored posts and Instagram and social media for a while to focus on Pinterest and getting enough pageviews to get accepted into Mediavine. So worth it!
I’m in the process of taking RSBFT too, but I haven’t seen any results from all the courses I’ve taken. I feel like I’m missing something. Everyone sees success at one point or another and I’m just stagnant. Idk why.
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Elna and Suzi and all the other bloggers I follow, but nothing is significant. They provide lots of value, but maybe it’s not in the books for me. I’m consistent, I think I write well, and about topics that interest my key demographic…but as I said, nothing significant. I use Tailwind. Try to manually pin. Create new pins. The works and still nothing.
How long did it take you to start making $200? I’d be happy with that, especially since I spend so much time working on my content.
Hey Karima! It took me a year to start getting over 25,000 sessions to my blog and then I was able to apply for Mediavine ads. They pay a lot better than other ad companies. I started earning around $200 here and there from sponsored posts on occasion but nothing was consistent until this time last year when I joined Mediavine. I often felt the same way you do. It was as if everyone around me was seeing success and I was left behind not knowing what secret they used to grow their blog. When I took Elna’s course, Ready, Set, Blog for Traffic, I realized that I needed to write 2 times per week on specific days and times and make some great Pinterest pins for each post that makes people curious enough to click on them. If you want I would be happy to help you more and look over your site to give you some feedback. Sometimes having some fresh eyes helps me out as well. Just shoot me an email if you would like to talk one on one – heather@veryanxiousmommy.com
Yay I’m taking the Ready Set Blog for Traffic course too! I am happy to see that you are getting good results 🙂
I love love love it! Great job and I have to agree with you…FB groups are a total waste of time unless it is more of a mastermind type of group. FB keeps deleting my links anyway 🙂