blog update month 7

I can’t believe I started this blog 7 months ago! I just recently had a little win that made me feel like a boss blogger  so I wanted to do an update. I can’t wait to tell you guys about it…. a GIVEAWAY is involved!

A little back story:

For years and years I had been intrigued by the idea of blogging, especially as a side hustle. I did a few blogs for fun back in 2009-2011 ish but they weren’t self hosted and I didn’t really understand the potential of self hosting at that time.

For those of you who are like “uh, what??” — the difference is that you must pay to self host but you also have to option to use your blog as a platform to earn income.

On the other hand, with a free blog you are up and running with no investment but you cannot monetize.

So after almost pulling the trigger so many times, in late March 2018 I decided it’s something I would enjoy whether it made a dime or not and I started Mid Century Mom Blog.

Yay!!

You guys remember when I posted about having earned about $5?!  I was SO excited that this really could be a small revenue stream to add to my Dave Ramsey snowball.

You may remember too that in May Amazon Associates (the affiliate program I use) emailed me and shut down my account because the blog didn’t feature enough original content. Ouch! I even lost my little $5.

I really wish I had stuck with blogging these last 7 months since starting, but I slacked off big time all of June-Sept. I have to admit that Amazon  Associates rejection just bummed me out.

Lately I have reminded myself that those people who make hundreds and thousands of dollars a month by blogging are the exception, not the rule. They also don’t give up on their blogs after less than 3 months, I would assume.

Anyway, this is me jumping back into something that I really like. Of course I am still intrigued by blogging success stories and will always try to emulate those amazing blogs.  One day I might generate a viral Pin or a bunch of followers and then I may actually get to call my blog a side hustle!

For now, I am hoping to make back the money I invested in this blog which was an initial investment of $65.40 for one year.

You might be wondering, how does a blog make money? Well, typically 4 ways:

1. Affiliate links -Some of the links in my posts take you to a product I am recommending or reviewing, etc. There is often an agreement between myself and that company that I can earn a small commission for driving traffic their way if it results in a sale. The commissions vary depending on which affiliate program you use. I decided to try a second time around with Amazon!
2. Ads – There are many different advertising options for a blog that will pay a few cents for clicks or even views. My blog sees a very modest amount of traffic so I haven’t explored this option yet. 2020 Update – Using and loving Monumetric for ads!
3. Selling a product or service – This isn’t the route I am going right now but many bloggers sell training and informational e-books, coaching services, or physical products.
4. Sponsored posts – Companies will pay or provide their product for free in exchange for a review of their product.

I am excited to let you guys know that I have the opportunity for a sponsored post! I get to review a canvas  I receive for free from an online canvas company and I just placed my order today! Once it’s in, I will do a blog post all about the product and then offer a free canvas courtesy of the company to one of my readers!

With the canvas being worth roughly $45 and my second attempt at Amazon associates ringing in at $6.24, my little blog has technically earned me $51.24. Less than $15 away from breaking even 🙂

If you are interested in the canvas giveaway, please subscribe to my blog as the first step to be eligible to win. If you have already subscribed, awesome!

I will be announcing the rest of the criteria in an upcoming post (it won’t be hard! just asking for a share or a pin 🙂 ) But I wanted yall to subscribe now so you won’t miss the official giveaway rules.

PS- See “subscribe to blog via email” on the right hand side. Subscribing to my blog  simply means you will receive an email when I post. This is roughly 2-3 times a week, so it won’t be crazy spam or anything like that–promise!

As always, thanks for reading!