Learn all my top secrets on how to become a successful blogger who makes money.
I’m a full-time blogger who started this blog in 2019 and quit my full-time lawyer job in 2022 to focus on everything from blogging for success to making better investments of my time and money and having a more flexible lifestyle that supports myself and my family better.
I’m here to tell you more about the journey of blogging successfully from both a technical and a business mindset standpoint, so let’s get started!
About These Successful Blogging Tips
a Note from jules
For the purposes of this article, I’m defining “success” as monetary profits.
Further, I’m defining a “blogger” as someone who primarily writes blog posts on a website (versus social media and sponsored content, which can be very different).
First, I share my tips, hacks, and secrets on how to become a successful blogger. It’s part mindset, part business strategy. Then, I answer how long it takes to make money blogging.
Tips on How to Become a Successful Blogger
First, believe in yourself.
I believed in my blogging abilities from the minute I started, and I was utterly unwilling to hear any opinions to the contrary. It can be hard to keep going when other people doubt you. This meant I had to set many personal boundaries, including not even discussing it with some people closest to me for the first few years.
This remains true as the future of blogging after AI is uncertain.
Second, run your blog as a business.
Notice I said “as” and not “like.” A full-time blog is not “like” a business; it is a business. Set your blog up like you would start any other business: conducting research, making investments, complying with the law, budgeting, strategizing and planning, setting goals, making projections, etc.
The reason is that, in most cases, businesses don’t consistently produce a full-time income by magic or luck. I can tell you with certainty that my blogging business required this focus to grow, and it still faces existential threats every day of the year.
You also need to have a lot of money accessible for taxes and income for the months you inevitably don’t earn well. If you are in the U.S.A., I recommend you get an idea of your estimated taxes before you make the leap to becoming a full-time blogger — mine were substantially higher than I anticipated.
Third, invest in your blog.
Blogging is cheap and easy to start as far as businesses go, yet many bloggers still balk at spending money on it, especially when they aren’t making money. This holds you back both personally and professionally.
You need the best blogging resources to have a blog that functions well, and you need a well-functioning blog to grow. The givers of blog traffic, like search engines, don’t reward sites that don’t adhere to best practices. Better resources also help keep your site safe and secure.
Investing in your blog also means investing in yourself. You need to learn a lot to grow. Blog courses can help with this dramatically and quickly. I have taken more blogging courses than I can count, and while they haven’t all been worth the cost individually, the costs balanced out overall. I made way more money than I ever spent. I just recommend doing your research before you decide on which courses to invest.
Below are the blogging courses I recommend the most:
- Perfecting Blogging (for beginners)
- Perfecting Pinterest (for everyone except Pinterest experts)
- SEO Jumpstart (for everyone except SEO experts)
- Email Marketing Jumpstart (for beginner and intermediate email marketers)
Fourth, work hard.
Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires consistent effort over time to reach the finish line. There’s simply no other way around it. I don’t like to promote “hustle” culture, but I also don’t think you’ll become a full-time blogger if you don’t work daily for a long time.
Fifth, work smart.
Working smart is incredibly important. Blogging involves a lot of tasks, and a lot of these tasks can be “time sucks.”
It’s essential to identify what the time sucks are for you, what the money-making tasks are, and to adjust your schedule accordingly over time as your business develops. You can’t do it all, and only some tasks will make you money at the end of the day.
Sixth, focus on the reader.
Your blog is never really about you, but your readers — the same way any business is about its customers/clients at the end of the day. The purpose of most profitable blogs is to help readers: sometimes by informing, sometimes by solving a problem or answering a question, sometimes by offering inspiration and recommendations, and sometimes by making someone else feel less alone.
The reader should always be at the forefront of your mind, and you should constantly be gathering updated feedback and learning about your customers as you grow so you can best serve them. Every time I have truly listened to what readers wanted from me and changed course in that direction, my business has grown substantially, sometimes in ways I never expected.
Seventh, build a unique brand.
In my first year of full-time blogging, one of the biggest and best lessons I learned was to focus instead on building a community and a brand and to have very personal, meaningful intentions behind every blog post and every business decision I make.
I ask myself many “why” questions and consider what unique qualities I may offer before I do anything now. This goes hand-in-hand with my prior point of putting your readers’ specific needs first.
It’s changed everything regarding the quality of my work product and how readers receive it, and I look forward to seeing how it continues to impact my business. In my opinion, this gives you the best chance of avoiding risks, keeping your readers invested in your business over time, and maintaining your full-time income over the long term, no matter what changes occur in the blogging industry and threaten your business.
How Long Does It Take to Become a Successful Blogger?
Becoming a successful blogger generally takes an average of three years (and a range of two to four years). Further, during this time, you must implement best practices consistently. In other words, simply having a blog for this long will not automatically make it “successful” monetarily.
Generally, year one of blogging for beginners is all about learning and beginning to implement best practices. You need to learn how to set up a functional, robust website, and follow the laws. You must also learn the basics of writing quality content in this format. Meanwhile, you should also consider starting to grow your social media accounts and your email list. You will likely not make money in year one. (I didn’t either.)
Year two is all about growing your readership, content base, followers, etc. This is because you need a lot of content and a lot of eyeballs on the content to earn real money. You should also continue to hone your skills during this time. You may make some money in year two. (I did.)
Year three is finally all about earning. You should start seeing regular income this year if you’ve done the above. This is when you may shift your focus to protecting your asset and keeping it a sustainable source of income, as you’ll likely face more business challenges as you grow. A few months into year three, I quit my full-time job and could sustain myself with my blogging income.
(Keep in mind these are all generalities based on a zillion factors. Eb over at Productive Blogging also published these updated statistics about the general timelines and income for bloggers.)
My Personal Journal from Zero to Full-Time Blogger
I think it’s helpful for aspiring bloggers to see the full trajectory of how someone else got to a certain point rather than just the positive result. I look at my book blogging journey as a lifelong one that I want to share with you for more insight into my marathon vs. sprint mentality, which has gotten me to this point:
Early teen years: Computers became a new thing in the world and in my life. I loved to spend hours playing around with it and practicing some creative writing of my own, even before Microsoft Word existed.
Later teen years: I took advanced English classes and continued to work on my writing skills. I won a writing award at my high school graduation that gave me the confidence to pursue an English minor in college. I also participated in online communities based on shared interests, which was pretty new then.
College years: I took a minor in English, and I chose to focus on a mix of reading, writing, and creating websites for writing (blogs), which was also very new at the time.
Law school years: I maintained scrapbooks and personal blogs for visual inspiration, journaling, and creative writing to escape a rigorous academic load. Learning how to code and express myself in writing online became a therapeutic escape for me.
Law career years: I met my husband, who owned an e-commerce site and focused on search engine optimization (SEO). I started representing him as counsel and became interested in both his business and business in general. I devoured as much content as I could (probably thousands of hours) on all of these topics. I spent my free time reading and writing book reviews, but I really wanted to blog again.
I had a time period when I was driving a lot for work and listened to blogging podcasts in the car. Afterward, I knew I would be busy with work, but I committed to doing at least one thing a day to get this blog started. It surprised me how fast things snowballed.
First year of full-time blogging: A few months into year three of this blog, I decided to quit my full-time job. Long story short, successful blogging on this blog took about 3-4 years, but it also feels like a lifetime of occurrences that got me here.
Recap
I hope you can see that it takes time and dedication to become a successful blogger, and that a lot of little efforts can compound over long periods of time.
Second, I hope my journey over decades of life helps you think about what stands out in your own life, as this can help you determine things like your niche, what format of content you should focus on, what your strengths are, etc.
Interesting in learning more? Check out these blogging tips and tricks.
