How I Make a Full-Time Income From My Blog - The Basics Of Blogging (2024)

I definitely didn’t when I started my Pregnancy and Parenting blog back in October 2016. I started my blog because I wanted a way to challenge myself while staying home (aside from the endless duties that come as a new mom) and I definitely wanted to contribute to the household income (we had just gone from 2 incomes to ONE!) So I started researching and planning andeducating myself and working my little tail off to launch a blog. I worked HARD in those first few weeks andmonths (heck, I STILL DO!) in order to build Swaddles n’ Bottles. The blog was brand new, I had no previous following and had never blogged before in my life.

Within 30 days of launch,I had 95,000 pageviews. By 6 months, I had clocked in over 1 million pageviews. How were all those people finding my brand new blog? PINTEREST! You can get my full Pinterest strategy that led to all those pageviews here.

Withall those pageviewscame a full-time income! While there are a ton of ways to make money from a blog I focus on 2 main areas: Affiliate Marketing and Ads. We’ll go into details for each on here in a bit, but firsthere’s a quick look at my income for the first 6 months:

Ads: $7,126.95

Amazon Affiliates: $12,837.67

Other Affiliates: $1,608.13

Grand total: $21,572.75

Note: You may be wondering why the dip in March and April… I found out I was expecting baby #2 mid-March and took a 35-day blogging hiatus… blame the morning sickness!

So many bloggers disregard affiliate marketing because they think the small commission percentages won’t add up to any amount of income that is worth their time. Well, my pregnancy and parenting blog is proof that isn’t true!

Affiliate marketing has HUGE potential!

The majority of my affiliate income comes from Amazon. They are one of the world’s largest retailers and with that comes a ton of opportunities to make money.

A vast majority of the products that I am promoting on my site are products I was already using in my home on a daily basis. And the fact that I am making a small kick back from each sale never effects the buyers price!

If you would like to apply my strategy to your blog, I’d love to share it with you. I sat down and outlined everything in Master Affiliate Marketing, a 30 page eBook that explains everything I do to earn money through affiliate marketing.You can download it here.

Ads are such a great way to make money from your site, but only if used properly. Certain type of ads can actually HURT your blog more than help. If you are going to sign up with an ad network, make sure it is a reputable one. The Mastering Affiliate Marketing eBook has an entire bonus section on ads, including which ad networks pay the most and how to strategicallyplace the ads on your page to optimize income!

If you are ready to start monetizing your site, I highly suggest taking some time to educate yourself on how it can be done effectively. Like I said, I make thousands of dollars every month from my blog using the exact strategy lined out in the Master Affiliate Marketing eBook.