Side Hustle Sunday: Make Money Blogging
The best side hustles are those that you enjoy doing – especially if they are things that you would do even if they made you zero money. For a lot of people, blogging is something that they do just because they love it and not because it pays any bills.
Personally, I have a mixture of that. What I mean is that I have some blogs that I write because they bring in the monies and others just because I happen to enjoy the subject matter. Personal finance is something that I just happen to enjoy, which is where this blog come into play.
That being said, there are plenty of people out there making incredible money from blogs. Sadly, I am not one of them (yet!), but it is definitely possible as real people are proving it each and every day.
One of the first real bloggers that I heard about doing this was Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income and that was years ago. Most recently, I was reading the latest extra income report by Michelle at Making Money Make Cents and she is raking it in from websites. She made over $11,000 in February from websites and states that around 60% of that is from her own sites.
Why Start A Blog As A Side Hustle?
The biggest reason to start a blog as a side hustle is to make some mega cash from it, right? I mean, that is the whole point of a side hustle. And if you start it on a topic that you enjoy, then you have the possibility of actually getting paid for something that you love – and that is pretty awesome.
Starting a blog is also incredibly easy. You can use a free platform like Blogger or you can spend around $10 to get yourself a domain name and then buy some hosting for cheap and have your very own blog that you control 100%. And that means that you can make money from that site however you want and you get to keep 100% of the income. Doesn’t get any better than that, eh?
My very first blogs were on Blogger, and I do recommend it if you are completely new to creating a blog. It is very user friendly and a great way to get the hang of blogging before moving onto your own domain name and hosting account – just don’t wait too long to get a real domain name and hosting account. Why? Because people will take you more seriously once you are not using a free platform. This is a sad but true fact. Of course, using a free platform does not hurt your chances when it comes to making money.
If you’re ready to create a blog with your own domain name and hosting, then you can follow this step-by-step guide or do it on your own. I do think that the best and cheapest option for hosting is through Stablehost when you use code STABLE40DISCOUNT as it gets you a 40% discount, which means a year of hosting for under $30! Pretty cool, huh?
Once you have your site up, you just need to blog about stuff that people want to read or that people find interesting. And, you have to monetize the blog in some way – this can be with ads like Google AdSense or with affiliate offers like Amazon Associates. Just go with whatever works best for your blog.
Do not expect the money to come to you right away. It can take months or years – or it may never happen at all. That’s why you should choose something that you enjoy. If you’re lucky, and you put in some hard work, then you just might see this side hustle turn into some pretty great income for you.