Freedom is the American Dream, right? Financial freedom that allows us to exceed that of our 9-5’s. Freedom from time constraints that prevent us from spending time with our families. Freedom of location. Freedom of travel or work from home. If you are someone that has drive and commitment, you too can have this freedom!  

When I discovered this side hustle of making additional money, I knew I could not keep it to myself and had to share it with others! The success that seems so out of reach is right at your fingertips.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn some money if you click on one. Read the full disclaimer here.

This is NOT an Income Report

While income reports were a huge part of my motivation to start a blog, I also feel they can be intimidating for some. They see that large number and feel like they will never see that. Those bloggers I followed are heavy hitters and that they are making $5,000 a month or more and I wanted that too! They shared how they did it and I want to do the same for all those that follow me.  

The bloggers I follow showed how to monetize and make an income from ads and affiliate income. They didn’t keep the secret of their success. They shared it. All I had to do was implement it!

About Me...

In late 2017, I had a career that I was making a decent income with but I wanted more. I wanted to be able to help my (adult) children and have investments.  I stumbled on to The Side Hustle Show (a podcast) which interviewed Rosemarie Groner known as The Busy Budgeter on how she made a success in blogging...in under a year! 

I had actually had a blog many years ago. But I didn’t know how to make it a success. I had been doing it all wrong. Did that scare me? Heck no! Hearing Rosemarie say she was making $5k a month in less than a year was all I needed for motivation!

What Happened

I started my monetization with Adsense. This is good to start but doesn’t make great money. I think my highest was $200 or $300 a month. I applied to Mediavine but kept getting denied. Unfortunately, they do not tell you why and turns out it was a simple glitch in my analytics that, once fixed, got me immediately accepted.

Going with Mediavine has been life-changing. Immediately I was making at least $200 a DAY (you only get paid monthly and 2 months out)! Remember with Adsense that was a MONTH. My numbers are continually on the rise.

If you are considering starting a blog, I first want to say, Congrats! Creating a blog is one of the most amazing things I ever did. I want to share my knowledge with you all and help you get your blog set up and running in no time. Then you can start putting your creative juices to work, and even potentially make money in the long run! Many bloggers start a blog to share their knowledge and have a creative outlet, and in the end, can quit their full-time job and make a living writing on their blog. Sit back and take the plunge, you won't regret it!  

As of this writing, it was less than a year ago that I started my blog. It was the best thing I ever did! I thoroughly enjoy it.  A little secret though, I started with Bluehost. They toggled my site so that I couldn't use it to get more money from me. Not to mention they would not help on initial setup. I researched and this seems to be an issue with other bloggers as well. In my research, I found others use Siteground. I went to the chat on Siteground, discussed my site and they walked me through the plan I needed (I have 500k page views a month). They set it all up! I am not techy so this is HUGE to me!

To start a blog I recommend going with a self-hosted WordPress blog, and for that, you need a host. For me, I recommend Siteground. They have affordable prices, and they offer exceptional customer service. They will help keep your site running smoothly, and if you cross a bump, they are eager to help and get your site in running order.

Setting Up A Blog Using Siteground

Pick A Plan

Siteground offers a few different plans, so you want to pick which one fits your needs. I will help break down the plan options in case you are unsure what you might be needing.

Start-Up Plan | This plan is excellent for someone who is just starting out. You can handle up to 10,000 visitors and 10 GB of space. This is a pretty good starting point. Then as you grow you are always welcome to upgrade at a later time. (This is where I started!)

Grow Big Plan | The next step up is the grow big plan, it is great if you intend to create multiple websites, can get 25,000 visits, and you get double the space (20 GB).

Go Geek Plan | This plan is for the more advanced or larger website. Say you purchased a pre-owned site that gets a lot of traffic, then you might want this plan. The Go Geek plan comes with a backup and restores service so if anything were to happen your content is saved. (This is where I am now!)

Domain Name

The next step in this is picking out your domain name - blog name. This is where you want to pick a name that is easy to spell, remember, and can fit what type of content you are writing. You want the name to be easy to remember because if it is hard or too-unique, people could forget your site. You can purchase your domain name directly from Siteground to save you time as well (the method I chose). Just make sure the name is available and purchase away.

Fill Out Form And Select Plan

Once you have that picked out you move on to putting in your contact information and select the plan you want and the length of your plan. The longer your plan is, the more of a discount you get. I normally go for a 1-year plan, to save money and not have to worry about heading over to pay each month. There are additional extras they will offer when you are going through the process that you can choose if they will be a good fit for you or not!

Once you are all set up, it will say your account is complete. Next comes setting up your WordPress portion!

Setting Up Your WordPress Blog

WordPress

1. Sign into your Siteground and go into the "My Accounts" tab. Then head over to your "cPanel"
2. Click on Autoinstallers section, and then select WordPress.
3. Hit the blue Install button.
4. It will open up a screen where you can fill in your information to your blog website.
5. If you have a theme you want you can select it or skip and do that later.

That is all it takes to create your blog, then the fun part begins with designing your blog and creating compelling content for readers! Let me know if you have questions that I can help with and if you go for it. I wish you all the luck!

Do the Work

This is not fluff. You need to get about 40-50 blog posts up. This way, when you launch there is something to KEEP people on your site.

Sign up

To start off ready to make money, sign up for Adsense and Amazon Affiliates as quickly as possible. Remember when I said do the work? You must have blog posts up in order to apply for these. They are a business too and want to know you have content and quality content that drive traffic so that you both benefit.  

Pinterest

Pinterest is totally my secret weapon. Pinterest is all about finding content. If you are looking for recipes or DIY, where do you go? Most of us go to Pinterest! Pinterest is where the majority of my traffic comes from.

If You’re Still Worried

I simply want to say, what have you got to lose? A few dollars? I have made exponentially! You are already on the computer either watching Netflix (currently watching Netflix as I blog!) or all in on Facebook. Wouldn’t you rather make $5,000 or more a month?!

PIN IT!