Sophia was a sophomore who needed a job to pay for her college fees. One day, she saw a Pinterest pin that intrigued her. A mom said she earned $10,000 every month by blogging.
Sophia had a blog too.
But it was nothing special. She only wrote on it occasionally when something happened in her life. Only her family members knew about it and read it.
She had no clue that blogs could make money.
But when she got that idea, she went all out. She wanted to succeed with her blog. And her plan worked.
Today, after five years, she makes $120,000 a month by blogging.
Let’s try and understand her progress and learn, how we can use this as a blueprint to start and grow.
Year #1: How to Make Money Quickly with a Blog
First, Sophia erased all her old blog posts.
In her first year, she focused on making money quickly. As a student, she had little time to create blog posts. And she needed cash, fast.
She thought that the simplest way to make quick money with a new blog was with ads.
So her aim was to join an ad agency. She found out that for that she needed page views. She picked Pinterest for this goal.
After all, that’s how she had learned that you could make money by blogging.
Her second focus was to learn as much as possible about blogging. As quickly as possible. That made her choice easy.
She could learn it by herself, which would take a few years. Or spend $100 on a course and start making money in a few months. Pay attention to one thing here…
She did NOT think, “Let me take this course and do nothing.”
She applied what she learned right away. That’s where she acted differently than most people. Steady progress.
To make money for the courses, she did babysitting jobs.
And every time she learned something new, she would follow it exactly for two months. After that she would change. This is another smart tip.
Year #2: How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing and SEO
In her second year, Sophia focused on affiliate marketing, mostly from Amazon Associates.
Sophia suggested not to do affiliate marketing in the first year. Perhaps because you need more visitors to make it profitable. Perhaps because it takes more time.
She didn’t explain.
When you do affiliate marketing on a blog, it means you need to do SEO. Search Engine Optimization.
This was another subject Sophia had to learn.
She is an expert now, but she didn’t have that skill naturally. Observe how throughout, she learns and applies. Learns and applies.
Then adjust.
Year #3: How to Grow Your Email List and Social Media
Sophia didn’t realize the importance of an email list until this year.
I would move this to the first year. Unless you really don’t have the motivation. An email list will be your most valuable asset.
Sophia said to ensure that everything you posted was extremely helpful.
Keep the reader in mind always.
Don’t write about yourself. People don’t care about you. They care about themselves.
Focus on them.
Sophia also began on social media. She picked Instagram and YouTube. Both good sources of traffic.
Once more, she focused hard.
That meant an Instagram story every day. A YouTube video once a week. All that was extra work, though.
Because of all the extra work, Sophia started to hire.
She had no choice. She hired part-time freelancers to help her with her blogging. Now she had a team.
Year #4: How to Make Money with Course Creation
In her fourth year, Sophia started to create courses and focused on this aspect of her business.
There is a lot of money in courses. Online courses. Especially when you have the experience and the knowledge you share with others.
She also began a second business.
One she’d always wanted. An interior design business. Plus, she started to be more adventurous in her choices.
But she had the money now to be able to be adventurous.
Year #5: How to Grow Your TikTok and Hire Full-time Employees
In her fifth year, Sophia chose to focus on TikTok.
She also began more new business ventures. And she changed from hiring part-time employees to full-time employees.
It improved her work-flow.
Why would she like full-time employees? Because, as she said, part-time employees have other things to do as well. When you have someone full time, they are more attentive and more committed to your business.
Can You Make $100,000 a Month in 5 Years? Why not?
You have a 5-year plan to follow. You know exactly what worked for Sophia, year by year. And right now, she’s making $120,000 per month.
Not bad.
If you’re not sure if blogging is for you, though, why not try a small project first?
Key Takeaways
You can follow these key takeaways from Sophia
- Sophia was determined to make money blogging and invested in courses to learn the skills she needed.
- She followed a step-by-step plan that focused on different aspects of blogging each year, such as ads, affiliate marketing, SEO, email list, social media, course creation, and TikTok.
- She learned and implemented new strategies quickly and adjusted them based on the results.
- Sophia hired freelancers and full-time employees to help her with her workload and grow her business.
- She started new ventures and explored new opportunities that aligned with her passions and goals.
