How I make over £1000 every month blogging

I want to start this post off by saying that I know there are lots of bloggers making far more money than me. Those bloggers who are consistently earning £5,000-£10,000 every month are where I’m aiming for. But, let’s be honest, an extra £1,000 every month is pretty incredible in anyone’s book. A few months ago, I was making very little money, but for the last five months or so, I’ve regularly managed to make over £1000 every month blogging. I’m super proud of what I’m achieving, but I’m nothing special. If I can do it around my job and three children, then there’s nothing to stop you doing exactly the same.

Why I started blogging

I didn’t actually start out blogging in order to make money. I was actually doing lots of other side hustles to make extra money and I wanted to start a blog in order to keep track of what I was doing. I wanted to have something I could look back on to see what had worked, what hadn’t, and what I’d got out of it all. My first ever blog was completely personal. I didn’t share it anywhere and it was completely for me.

As I was heavily involved in making money online, I started to read about other people who were doing the same. I realised that these big bloggers who were writing about side hustles were actually making really good money from their blogs too! I wanted a piece of that!

And so, I bought my own domain in 2016 and clumsily made my way into the world of blogging as a way to make money.

I had a really rough round the edges start due to illness in the family, so in all honesty I’ve only properly put any real effort into blogging this year. Because of that, it’s only been the last five months or so that have been really lucrative.

I’m learning so much  every day from other bloggers, courses and just picking it up as I go. I am finally really positive about the future and feel as though I’m actually a business owner now rather than just someone who writes a bit now and then online.

If I can do this, then honestly, absolutely anyone can. There’s no secret formula to it but it does involve commitment and hard work. Blogging isn’t going to make you thousands of pounds from day one. I think I’m making a success of it because I absolutely love it. I actually have to pinch myself regularly because I can’t believe I make over £1000 every month blogging when it’s something I absolutely love to do!

How I make over £1000 every month blogging – consistently

When I first started blogging with a view to making money, I was really unsure of how it would work. I was seeing bloggers sharing their incomes online and I just couldn’t seem to get any work. I felt a bit lost and a little deflated if I’m honest.

It took me a while to realise that it wasn’t going to fall in my lap. I realised that I was going to need to put a lot of time and effort into building my blog into something that would bring in an income.

I need to build up my Domain Authority, build an audience and social media followers, in particular working on building my followers on Instagram. I also needed to think about my branding and how I wanted my website to look. And then there’s all of the content that needed creating. This is all slow going and it can be really soul destroying putting in all of that work and not seeing immediate results. I think you have to have a lot of determination in order to make a success of blogging. But I think that’s true of most things that are worth doing.

I started to see results fairly quickly. But I was only earning small amounts here and there, there was no consistency to it. I kept going though and soon enough I started to see emails coming my way with offers of work.

Over the last five months or so, I’ve consistently been able to make over £1000 every month blogging. For us, that’s a life changing thing. It may sound dramatic but it really is! I’m working part-time, so an extra £1,000 is like another wage coming in. It means we can afford to pay off some bills, have a little more enjoyment in our lives, and most importantly, finally start to save up for the house we’re hoping to buy in a couple of years time.

My typical day

Up until September, I was juggling so many things! But since our youngest has started full time preschool, I’ve had a lot more focused time to spend on the blog.

I work from home for two hours every morning and two hours every evening for 6 days a week. I love working from home, it’s perfect if the kids are ill or in the school holidays, it means I’m there for them when they need me. I also suffer from debilitating migraines and some days I know that I just wouldn’t be able to make it out of the house to go to a job. I’d have so much time off sick that I’d likely be sacked pretty quickly! Working just a couple of hours at a time from home means I’m able to sit quietly and just get on with it. The migraines do mean I have to phone in sick sometimes, but I’m able to crack on much more than I would if I had to leave the house.

We have three children, so with work and the blog life is pretty hectic! Sometimes I don’t think I’ve got the balance right. But I’m constantly working on that. Now that all three children are in full time education, I’m trying to have time dedicated to blogging separate from time dedicated to them. It means that I’m much more productive and I’m actually starting to plan ahead rather than winging it constantly.

Somebody asked me recently how I fit everything in. Any working Mum will know that it’s a constant juggle, no matter how many children you’ve got. I recently read though that having three children is the most stressful amount to have! I can well believe that! Although, I’m so lucky to have my three and the older two completely understand now that sometimes I need focused time to work.

I don’t know if this helps, but I thought I’d share my daily routine. If I’m honest, every day has it’s own slightly different spin on it, depending on who has to be at an after school club etc, but loosely my day goes like this:

• 6:30 – wake up, shower and coffee
• 7:15 – wake any of the kids who aren’t already bouncing around the house
• 7:30 – breakfast
• 7:45 – yell at the kids to get dressed (helping the 3 year old)
• 8:00 – packed lunches made, school bags packed
• 8:20-9:00 – wave off/drop off children
• 9:00-9:30 – tidy mayhem, load washing machine (or hang washing out if I’ve been mega organised)
• 9:30-10:00 – answer emails, publish offers to Bargain Bunny, answer FB messages, do and quick SEO jobs, look for potential work etc.
• 10:00-12:00 – work for my actual job
• 12:00-12:30 – lunch and plan my afternoon/respond to emails
• 12:30-2:45 – focused blog work
• 2:45-3:30 – school runs
• 3:30-5:00 – various after school clubs
• 5:00-6:00 – evening meal & homework
• 6:00-8:00 – work for my actual job
• 8:00-9:00 – bath times, story, bed times
• 9:00-10:00 – wind down watching TV, side hustles and finishing off any blog work

I fit the housework in around everything else, usually in ten minute bursts so that the house is clean and I’m not eating too much into my “making money” time.

I feel as though I’m always busy at the moment, but I think loving what I do really helps.

School holidays are tough going, but then I think that’s true for anyone with children. If you go out to work, then you have to find somebody to look after the children – work from home and you’re juggling everything.

How I make money blogging

I’ve written in the past about how bloggers make their money, but it’s always slightly different from one blogger to the next. Some bloggers have courses or products that they sell, others might write for other websites as well as their own.

For me, I make over £1000 every month blogging through affiliates and sponsored posts. I’m constantly working towards other things too, so that I can adapt and eventually have multiple income streams.

Where I find work

There are lots of ways I find blogging work. Sometimes brands or PR companies will approach me directly, but these are the main places I find work:

• Facebook blogger opportunities groups
• Referral from other bloggers – getting to know other bloggers within your niche is really important
• Twitter – search #bloggerswanted or #bloggersrequired

A lot of the work I do on sponsored posts pays really well – obviously bloggers with large readerships and high DAs will generally be better paid than bloggers who haven’t reached those figures yet.

As well as the high paid sponsored work, I also take on some lower paid stuff too. Some bloggers won’t touch this stuff, but for me, if I’ve got the time to spare then and not much work on, then I’d rather take some paid work than be sitting around without any money coming in. That money is building up the funds in our “new home” pot after all (I actually have a savings account called “HOUSE”).

• Get Blogged
• Guest posting – Fat Joe send regular copy and paste articles that I can just publish really quickly, I’ve also built up relationships with other SEO clients that send regular work too.

Affiliate Marketing as part of how I make over £1000 every month blogging

My affiliate income is something that I’m working on constantly. I know that there’s more money to be made here and I try to work on my strategies for this daily.

I share affiliate links where they’re relevant and only share products that I’ve either used or bought myself or in my Facebook group I’ll only share really good deals that will benefit members.

If you’re going to get into affiliate marketing, then you’ll want to sign up to lots of affiliate agencies – Awin is a great one to start off with as they have thousands of retailers you can register with.

Resources I can’t live without

When I first started blogging, I was very reluctant to pay out any money for any products or resources. At that time, I wasn’t making much money from it and I didn’t want to plough money into it when I wasn’t sure it would work.

Now, I see my blog as a business and I know that in order to get more out of it and continue to grow, I need to invest.

There are some things that I cannot live without now, and if you want to take blogging seriously and developing it into a business, then I’d really recommend signing up for these.

Convertkit – Something that many bloggers will admit that they regret is not starting to collect email subscribers from day one. Your email list is the only thing that you can have complete control of when you’re interacting with your readers. It’s your direct line to each person. You can’t rely on Facebook groups any more as a way to build your followers, they are great but Facebook have a tendency to shut them down without any notice and then, bam, you’ve lost any way of contacting your group members. When somebody signs up to your email list, they are telling you that they want to hear from you. It’s a great way to build a relationship with your readers by sending regular updates, newsletters and eventually perhaps selling products. Convertkit is invaluable in so many ways. Yes, it’s an expense, but I don’t think it’s excessive for what you get in return. You can create opt in freebies that automatically get sent out when somebody fills in a form, schedule email updates, broadcast newsletters, it really is pretty nifty.

Canva – I am no graphic designer, but I do know that it’s important to use images both on my blog and across my social media channels. Canva is really easy to use and takes the hard work out of creating images.

Tailwind – Bloggers need traffic and you might be surprised to find that it actually takes an awful lot of time and effort to drive readers to your blog. Many bloggers swear by pinterest as a way to grow their traffic. I find pinning really tedious and I often just forget to do it altogether. So now, whenever I publish a new post, I use tailwind to schedule my pins to go out automatically. It’s so much easier. I also use the tribes on tailwind to share other bloggers’ pins and they share mine in return.

Social Bee – Social media is hugely important for bloggers. It’s a way of getting your content in front of a new audience every day, but we can’t all be tied to our computers posting new updates all day every day. For a while, I used a free Social Bee account for posting to Twitter which meant that I could schedule a load of updates and they would automatically post to Twitter when I wanted them to. This worked really well for a while, but the problem with the free account is that once the update was posted it would just go into the archive. Now, I pay for the next level up, it means I can have a pool of posts that just continue to cycle through and once they’re posted, they go back into the pool. Every time I create a new blog post or I have a new affiliate link to share, I just create an update and add it to the queue reservoir. It’s so easy and saves me a tonne of time.

Siteground – Hosting is important and Siteground have been incredible for me. I’m NOT the most tech-savvy person and I’ve hit a few major stumbling blocks along the way, I even tried to change the coding in my theme and completely crashed my website once. Siteground have always sorted my stupidness pretty quickly and on that occasion, they had my site back up and running within minutes once I contacted their live chat. A good host is vital for a successful blog.

Courses – If you want blogging to become your business, then you need to continue to learn and develop. I’ve taken a few courses over the last couple of years that have made a huge difference to me. I know that I wouldn’t be where I am now without these.

Wave – Keeping track of money is really important. I use wave to track all of my expenses and money coming in. It enables me to create professional invoices with my logo and it’s completely free.

I honestly believe that if I can do this, then anyone can. I’m just a Mum on a mission to make a better life for my family. I’m really excited about watching my blogging income steadily grow month on month. I know that there are bloggers making much more money than me, but I also know that they started out with nothing too. I’m incredibly happy that I’m able to make over £1000 every month blogging. That’s pretty good as a side hustle income in anyone’s book! At the moment, I have to accept that I have a job and a family that take up huge chunks of my time and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but there’s no reason why I can’t continue to grow my blogging income alongside that.

If you’re keen to increase your income, then I also have a 30 day money-making challenge where I aim to help you to boost your income in just 30 days. Blogging is just one of the methods I share within the challenge – there are 29 others too! I’d love it if you got involved!

Pin this if you think it might help you to make over £1000 every month blogging too.