10 Tips to Quit Your Job to Make Money Blogging

So, you wanna quit your day job?  This is a dream for many who want to leave their 9 to 5 for the life of entrepreneurship.  You’ll learn how to start a blog effortlessly, monetize it, and take steps to quit your day job!  Ready to dive in?

10 Tips to Quit Your Day Job to Make Money Blogging

Tip 1.) Put Together a Plan

 

It all starts with a plan.  Create a plan of where you want to be when you quit your day job.  How much do you want to be making?  What income sources do you want?  How much traffic do you want?  What’s your timeline?

Answer these questions and put it all on paper.  This will be a great motivator once you start your journey so you can measure your progress along the way.

Tip 2.) Start a Blog

This is the first step, right.  You start a blog, publish content, monetize it, then make enough money to leave your day job.  Starting a blog is super easy.

Step 1.) Pick a niche: Figure out what you want to blog about. Profitable niches: Work from home, Fashion, Food, Nutrition and Wellness, Travel.

Step 2.) Name your blog: Pick a blog name and domain name

Step 3.) Get hosting + domain: If you go with our favorite host, Bluehost, you can probably get your domain name for free!  They offer a bunch of cool incentives too, like advertising credits, free email, etc.  Plans start at around $3.95/month.

Step 4.) Connect WordPress, design it, add content, and launch:  Wordpress takes less than 5 minutes to connect with Bluehost’s 1-click installation. It’s a breeze!  Add a pretty theme from Studiopress (one of our favorite theme designers), add content which just means to write up a blog post (or multiple), then go live!

Need a little more hand holding?  No worries.  Our easy guide (with screenshots and step by step walkthrough) is available for free right here.

Tip 3.) Publish Content

If you want to monetize your blog, you’ll need traffic.  People need to visit to click links and make purchases so you get paid, right.  One of the best ways to get traffic is through publishing a lot of content.

What does that mean?

Aim for publishing at least 5 new blog posts every week.  It might sound like an ambitious, unrealistic publishing schedule but it can be done if you’re serious about treating your blog like a full time job, then act like it.  Writing 5 new posts per week should take 5-10 hours a week, maybe less, maybe a little more.  Find that time in your schedule and get writing!

Tip 4.) Get More Traffic

Posting often will help with traffic.  To get even more traffic, you’ll want to join social networks for your blog and be active.

Top Recommended Networks to Join:

You don’t have to join all these networks.  Some work better for some niches than others.  For example, a food blog would benefit from visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, compared to a personal finance blog which might do better with Twitter. Make sense?  Join some or join them all, your choice.

Some additional traffic tips:

  • Guest post
  • Participate in reciprocation threads in Facebook groups
  • Participate in Quora (see #3)
  • Experiment with paid ads (StumbleUpon Paid Discovery is as low as $.14/stumble)

Tip 5.) Monetization

Must Read: 10 Sites that Pay You to Blog

There are many ways you earn money blogging:

  • Ads
  • Sponsorships
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Your own products/services

It’s recommended that you have a nice mix of income so you don’t solely rely on one source.  This can prevent a complete and total loss in income in the future, if something were to go wrong with that income source.

Check out these awesome resources to learn more about how to monetize your blog:

How to Earn $5,000/Month on Your New Blog

10 Money Making Tools to Boost Your Blog Income

8 High Paying Affiliate Programs for Bloggers

The Ultimate Guide to Making Money Blogging with Affiliate Marketing

Tip 6.) Update Your Blog

As time goes by, don’t neglect your blog. Make sure to update your plugins, refresh the blog theme, add new categories, add new and interesting content, and build your list.

Tip 7.) List Building

The money is in the list, as the saying goes. This is totally true.

Want proof? How I Made $34,000 in One Month from My Email List

Build your list, starting from day 1. Some ideas…

  • Create one (more is better) freebie: Collect emails by giving away free advice, checklist, or some other valuable information to your readers.
  • Add a popup: The easiest thing ever. Create a popup with Aweber that captures email addresses of readers.

Must Read: 9 World-Class Bloggers Share Their #1 Email List Building Tip

Tip 8.) Create Products

Don’t shy away from this.  You can create a product, even on a new blog. What are some examples?

  • Printables
  • Digital drawings
  • Ebooks
  • Courses
  • Guides
  • Checklists
  • Mugs
  • T-shirts
  • Services (like proofreading, copywriting, media kit creation, logos, etc.)

Some sites to help: Etsy, Teachable, Sendowl

Product income is the #1 money-maker for some of the biggest blogs.

Recommended blogs to check out: Femtrepreneur and Melyssa Griffin

Tip 9.) Stay Hustling

Many bloggers do other blog-related jobs to supplement their blogging income.  How many blog income reports have you seen that include freelancing income?  A bunch!  In addition for getting paid to post on your blog, consider these blogging jobs:

  • Social media management
  • Copywriting
  • Proofreading
  • Creating sales pages
  • Designing logos

Must Read: 10 Sites that Pay You To Blog

You can join groups, chats, forums, or work sites like Upwork to find opportunities.

Tip 10.) Don’t Give Up

Blogging is a marathon not a sprint.  Bloggers celebrate success in all kinds of ways.  Continue work on your blog and don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Consulting, joining masterminds, and other learning tools will be worth it in the end, if it can propel you toward your goal of quitting your day job for blogging.

Final Thoughts

Quitting your day job for blogging is definitely possible.  Look at these successful newbie bloggers:

Start a Mom Blog

Mommy on Purpose

The Million Dollar Mama

Moms Make Cents

Have you succeeded leaving your 9 to 5 for blogging?  Share your best practices with us down below in comments!

 

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  • Ariyo Akinlosotu October 2, 2017 at 2:45 am

    This blog post is over the top and I doff my hat to you.

    Blogging isn’t for the faint hearted or the those seeking a get rich quick scheme. They’ll be left disappointed and burnt.

    If however you’re passionate about what you’re blogging about and you’re ready to be consistent , persistent and have a perservering spirit, one is bound to succeed.

    I would like intending bloggers to look into under exploited niches like soccer for instance. It is something a soccer lover can blog about and more importantly, he’ll never be short of stories. Your recommended 5 times a week post will be more than easy to meet. If one considers himself an expert on soccer or any well liked sports or recreation, then blog about. The beauty with a niche like soccer is that it has over 2 billion followers and there are many websites, forums and blogs dedicated to soccer clubs or the game in general, not including social media

    A great way to drive lots of traffic to it is simply to leave comments in related sites after a match and leave your blog link and see the traffic flood in. It will be a massive.

    Again I repeat, one must persevere but within 6 months or maximum a year if many of your traffic generating ideas are implemented including the one mentioned above, any blogger will begin to reap great financial reward for his or her consistent effort
    http://www.hitmoneymakercom/offer

  • Alya October 4, 2020 at 8:12 am

    Very nice blog
    Can you help me