Hello and welcome!
I was recently featured on CNBC, which brought many new readers here. If you haven’t seen the piece, it’s titled “33-year-old mom makes $40,000 a month in passive income—and lives on a sailboat: How I work ‘just 2 hours a day’.”
If this is your first visit, welcome to Making Sense of Cents. Below are some of my most helpful resources and popular posts to get you started:
- How To Start A Blog in 15 Minutes
- Affiliate Marketing Tips For Bloggers – Free eBook
- 10 Best Things I Did To Build A $5 Million Blog
- How To Start A Blog Free Course
- Best Blogging Courses & Resources That Helped Me Make $100,000+
- 29 Best Stay At Home Jobs (#1 Is My Full Time Job!)
- 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money
- 18 Passive Income Ideas To Earn $1,000+ Each Month
If you have questions, leave a comment below or send me an email. Thanks for stopping by.
– Michelle Schroeder-Gardner
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Beyond the CNBC feature, I want to share how I grew a blog that has brought in more than $5,000,000 in revenue. What began as a hobby—tracking my own finances and student loan progress—turned into one of the most transformative projects of my life.
When I launched Making Sense of Cents in August 2011, blogging was less understood as a business. Early monetization usually focused on display ads and sponsored posts, but over the last decade new methods—affiliate marketing, digital products, membership sites, and more—have made it possible to earn semi-passive income from a blog.
Passive income is what I love most because it gives flexibility: working while traveling, living on a sailboat, and setting my own hours. Building a profitable blog takes time and effort, but it’s absolutely achievable. I started earning within six months even though I didn’t initially set out to make money. Imagine what you could achieve if you begin with a plan to monetize from the start.
How I earned my first blogging income
My first paid opportunity came from a blog connection: an advertiser offered $100 to place an ad on my site. It wasn’t a fortune, but it proved that what I loved doing could generate income. That $100 motivated me to learn more about monetization. Within a year I reached roughly $1,000 per month, and two years later I was making about $10,000 monthly. The income continued to grow from there.
How To Start A Blog FREE Course
If you’re ready to start and want guidance on monetization, sign up for my free course, How To Start A Blog FREE Course. It’s delivered to your inbox and covers the essentials over seven short lessons:
- Day 1: Reasons you should start a blog
- Day 2: How to determine what to blog about
- Day 3: How to create your blog (step-by-step WordPress tutorial)
- Day 4: How to monetize a blog (an overview of income methods)
- Day 5: Tips for earning passive income
- Day 6: How to grow traffic and followers
- Day 7: Miscellaneous practical blogging tips
Sign up and get the lessons delivered directly to your email.
Start with a plan for your blog
You can start on a whim, but having a plan accelerates progress. A plan helps you define your niche, goals, content strategy, and income opportunities. I didn’t create a proper plan until four years after launching, and once I did, my blog’s growth picked up dramatically. If you’re planning, consider these questions:
- What will you write about?
- How will you make money?
- How will you reach your readers?
- What are your short- and long-term goals?
Write high-quality, engaging blog posts
Content is the foundation of any successful blog. You don’t need a formal degree to write useful posts, but you should be informed and honest. Helpful, well-researched, and personable content encourages readers to return and builds trust. Tips for strong posts:
- Write about topics you’re passionate about and can explain clearly.
- Ask your audience what they want to read; reader questions often inspire great posts.
- Research thoroughly—use statistics, reputable sources, and firsthand experience.
- Share personal stories when appropriate; readers connect with authenticity.
- Aim for long-form, useful content when it serves the topic—quality over fluff.
- Proofread and revise. Consider having an editor to maintain consistent standards.
Network, network, network
Networking is a powerful way to grow and monetize your blog. Connect with other bloggers, attend conferences, share and amplify others’ work, join relevant Facebook groups, follow peers on social platforms, and sign up for other bloggers’ newsletters. Networking led to my first paid opportunity and continues to be a major source of learning and support.
Be prepared to work hard
Starting a blog is straightforward, but growing one and turning it into a consistent income stream requires dedication. You’ll need to design your blog, create social profiles, write strong posts, attract readers, learn monetization strategies, and continually adapt. Early on I spent over 10 hours a week building the site; later I balanced a day job and blogging workload that sometimes reached 40–50 hours a week. Now, as a full-time blogger, my workload varies—some months light, some extremely busy. Passion for the work helps sustain the effort.
How to monetize a blog: four effective methods
There are several proven ways to earn money from a blog. The most common methods are:
- Affiliate marketing
- Advertisements and sponsorships
- Display advertising
- Creating and selling your own products (online courses, ebooks, printables, merchandise, memberships)
You can use one or multiple methods; I prefer diversification and employ all of the above.
1. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product or service and earn a commission on purchases made through your unique link. It’s my favorite monetization strategy because one well-written, evergreen post can generate income for years. Tips for affiliate success:
- Use link-shortening or redirect tools to make URLs cleaner and more trustworthy.
- Always provide honest, balanced reviews. Disclose any affiliate relationships.
- If you perform well with an affiliate program, ask for better commissions.
- Build relationships with affiliate managers for access to offers and bonuses.
- Create tutorials that show how a product solves a problem—practical guidance converts well.
- Include affiliate links thoughtfully—beginning, middle, and end of the post, without overdoing it.
I cover affiliate marketing strategies in depth in my course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
2. Advertisements and sponsorships
Sponsorships involve partnering directly with brands to promote their product or service. This can include sponsored posts, reviews, social media campaigns, or collaborative content. Sponsored work is often more lucrative than basic display ads and can be negotiated based on deliverables and reach.
3. Display advertising
Display ads (the banners and sidebar ads you see on many sites) are one of the easiest ways to begin monetizing. Ads are typically provided by ad networks and pay based on page views or ad impressions. Popular networks include Google AdSense, MediaVine, and AdThrive. Display ads are mostly passive once placed, but revenue scales with traffic.
4. Sell your own products
Creating and selling your own products can be one of the most rewarding and scalable monetization methods. Options include online courses, coaching, ebooks, printables, memberships, physical products, or digital downloads. You control pricing, messaging, and the value delivered, so product revenue often becomes a cornerstone of a sustainable business.
Have an email list
An email list is one of the most important assets for a blogger. Unlike social platforms, your email list belongs to you and gives you direct access to readers. Reasons to build a list early:
- Your newsletter is yours—no algorithm can block it from subscribers.
- Email often converts better for affiliate promotions and product launches.
- Subscribers tend to be loyal and engaged, offering a reliable audience for offers.
- Email platforms can automate courses, welcome sequences, and targeted campaigns.
Attract readers
Growing an audience is essential, but you don’t need millions of page views to make good money. Success depends on niche, engagement, product-market fit, and strategy. Focus on building a loyal, engaged audience by:
- Writing helpful, high-quality posts
- Choosing social platforms that suit your content and audience
- Publishing consistently—at least once a week is a good baseline
- Guest posting to reach new readers
- Making sharing easy with clear social buttons and properly formatted metadata
- Writing compelling titles
- Applying SEO best practices
- Maintaining a clean, user-friendly site design
Grow through SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) drives organic search traffic. When your content ranks for keywords, it brings steady, targeted visitors. SEO is a long-term strategy that pays off by increasing discoverability and compounding traffic over time.
Some useful SEO resources include guides and courses on on-page SEO, keyword research, and backlink strategies to help you build sustainable organic traffic.
Common questions about monetizing a blog
Here are brief answers to common questions I receive from new bloggers:
How many views do you need to monetize a blog?
There’s no fixed number. Monetization depends on your niche, traffic quality, email list size, and monetization methods. Some bloggers earn well with 10,000 monthly page views; others need more. Focus on audience value and monetization fit rather than a single benchmark.
How do beginner bloggers make money?
Beginners commonly start with display ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, or selling simple products. Display ads are easy to set up, but other methods typically earn more per visitor.
How many posts should I have before launching?
Launch as soon as you have at least one post and a basic design. It’s better to start and iterate than to delay indefinitely building a backlog of drafts.
How often should I post?
Consistency matters. Aim for at least one quality post per week. Early on I published daily, which was unsustainable; now I publish one to two posts weekly and focus on quality.
Why do bloggers fail?
Common reasons include giving up too soon, inconsistent publishing, not investing time to learn blogging skills, and delaying essential steps like owning a domain and self-hosting. Treat blogging like a business: learn, test, and iterate.
How do I start a blog?
If you want more detailed help on naming, design, hosting, traffic, and timelines for earning money, check resources that explain what a blog is, how blogs make money, and practical steps to launch and grow a blog.
Please leave a comment if you have any questions. Thanks for reading!