When I first started blogging, I genuinely didn’t know I could make a side hustle or business out of it. For me, it was a creative outlet. I love to write. I love to be active online, go to events, and try new things. I had some free time and needed a hobby to fill that space. It didn’t take long to realize that I could actually make money with this whole blogging thing!
But I didn’t start earning money right away or even try to. I spent nearly a year building a strong foundation for my blog before I turned it into a true side hustle. It seems like the number of bloggers, especially lifestyle bloggers, multiplies every day. There are tons of people entering this space, so many of whom can’t wait to start making money. The bad news is that monetizing your blog doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen without a LOT of work. The good news is that it is 100% possible and that it does not have to take you a year! Today I want to share with you all how I turned my hobby blog into a side hustle.
BLOGGING AS A SIDE HUSTLE IS HARD WORK
You’re here because you’re interested in blogging as a side hustle. I’ll tell you how I make money blogging, but before I do I’m going to be brutally honest with you: blogging as a side hustle is hard work, before you get started you should know that:
Writing a blog post isn’t the end of your work – that’s when the work really begins. The behind the scenes running of blog is challenging, time consuming, and un-glamorous. Getting readers takes time; be prepared to write for weeks (or months) before anyone shows up
When readers do show up in numbers, prepare to be criticized (I don’t care what anyone says, getting criticized hurts so you’ll need to get some thick skin).
A blog is like a baby – it needs constant attention to grow. Neglect it and all of your hard work goes down the drain. For me the most important part about blogging is the passion and drive behind it. People are drawn toward authenticity, make your own way, be creative, be yourself, and I promise people will begin to notice and start to follow.
The key to earning money from a blog is getting a large readership. Most bloggers get frustrated with the slow progress and give up before that ever happens.
SUCCESS CAN TAKE YEARS
Most bloggers that make HUGE money from their sites are NOT blogging as a side hustle they have either been doing it a very long time or are blogging full-time. If you’re ready to be creative, put in the work and make your own way then you’ve got what it takes to build something great!
SETTING UP A BLOG IS EASY
If, after reading this far, you’re still interested in giving blogging a try, let me give you a bit of good news: setting up a blog is easy.
I’ve outlined the steps below, but if you know what you’re doing, you could have a blog up and running in less than 10 minutes.
Creating a blog is a one-time event that can be super simple if you have the right tools in front of you. The the first step is neither complicated or time consuming. In fact, if you follow these five steps you can create a blog in less than an hour. Here’s how you do it:
HOW TO CREATE A BLOG IN 5 STEPS
Pick a host (I use GoDaddy); register an account with them (10-20 minutes)
Choose and purchase a domain name (10-20 minutes)
Install WordPress through your host (10-20 minutes)
Start blogging
Work hard & give it time to grow!!
Follow these five steps and you’ll have your blog up and running in no time. Here’s a bit more information on each step in the process.
WHAT IS A HOST?
In order for your blog to be live and accessible by others on the Internet, it needs to be ‘hosted.’ The good news is that hosting isn’t expensive and there is no shortage of hosting providers available to you, but there is a shortage of good ones.
Picking a host is your very first baby step into the world of blogging, and you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot by picking a bad host to partner with, so be careful.
I use GoDaddy to host my website because they load my fast, they protect my sites from cyber attacks, and on the rare occasions when I need customer support, they never fail to exceed my expectations (ever!). GoDaddy’s mission is to help their customers kick ass by giving them the tools, insights and people to transform their ideas and personal initiative into success, however they measure it .
I recommend GoDaddy without hesitation for you as well. Specifically, GoDaddy offers a website builder that is straightforward and a simple way to build a brilliant website to get your idea out there for everyone to see. You can even build your website in under an hour.
GoDaddy’s Website Builder includes a suite of tools that get your company found on Google and beyond. From the basics like Search Engine Optimization (or SEO if you’re hip to the lingo) to email marketing, and even your social media presence. Update and manage your website from anywhere on any device — laptop, phone or tablet. Thanks to GoDaddy I’ve been able to turn my passions into a full-on side hustle and I couldn’t be happier with the results. My biggest piece of advice is to GO FOR IT, you never know where it will lead if you don’t give it a try.
MORE TIPS ON HOW I TURNED MY HOBBY BLOG INTO A SIDE HUSTLE:
I Narrowed My Target Audience. Despite what you may hear from so many “experts” in the industry, I truly don’t believe you have to narrow down your niche to have a successful blog. It’s okay to write about several topics. What I did instead was narrow down my blog’s target reader. So that way, whenever I sit down to write a new blog post or brainstorm blog post ideas, I know exactly who I’m talking to and what they’re struggling with.
Narrowing down your target audience will limit your content, but that’s something that will be worth it if you can start making money on your blog. The more narrow your focus, the higher the chances that each post you write will be super relevant to your audience.
I Got Organized. I have both a full-time job and an online business, and both take up a significant amount of time. In order to balance both successfully, learning to stay organized was super important.
For me, this means a few different things. First of all, it definitely means keeping a content calendar for my blog and filling it out well in advance. I also try to write each blog post a few weeks in advance. This allows me to plan ahead and avoid that moment where I sit down to write a blog post with the only free hour I have and have no idea what to write about.
Getting organized also meant learning how to utilize a to-do list. Everything I need to get done is broken down into small, manageable tasks and written out in daily to-do lists so that I always know what task is up next. I currently use Asana for organizing my business-related tasks and projects.
I Learned Time Management. When you’re working a full-time job as well as running a side hustle that might as well be a full-time job, you have to learn to manage your time as effectively as possible. The list of things I could do to improve or grow my blog is literally endless, so I feel like I’m never actually done. And since I work all day at my other job, my blogging hours are slightly limited. Luckily, I learned how to effectively manage my time really quickly and have learned to take advantage of small pockets of time, as well as prioritize tasks so I’m making the most of the time I do have.
I hope that if you’re reading this you find something you are passionate about, whether it is blogging or something else, go out and make your ideas a reality. Get your side hustle on with help from GoDaddy!
This post is sponsored by GoDaddy and the InfluenceHer Collective. All opinions are my own.
Stay tuned for more adventures…
xoxo Mimi
