How to Make Money Blogging

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

When I was pregnant with our second daughter and looking for ways to make money from home, I came across a course called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. At the time, I knew very little about affiliate marketing and did not even have a blog. I just read that the course’s creator, Michelle, was earning a full-time income from affiliate marketing and wanted to help others do the same through her course.

Michelle earns more than $50,000 per month in affiliate income from her blog Making Sense of Cents and is able to work from anywhere. She and her husband currently live an RV and travel the country. How cool is that?! Inspired by her story, I enrolled in her course and started a blog a month later.

Her course taught me everything I needed to know about affiliate marketing and has helped so many people (including me) monetize their blogs. She was kind enough to answer some questions about affiliate marketing and her course for this post. Check out the interview below!

Interview with Michelle from Making Sense of Cents

1. Please tell us about your blogging journey and how you got started.

Hello! I own the personal finance blog Making Sense of Cents. Through my website, I write and teach a lot about the many different ways to make extra money, how to save money, achieving your dream life, being a digital nomad (me and my husband RV full-time), and more. I love running Making Sense of Cents and I am very happy that this is now my full-time career, my business, and my life.

Almost 6 years ago, in the summer of 2011, I started my blog with the aim of teaching people how to save money as well as talking about my personal finance situation after reading a women’s magazine (Cosmopolitan) that featured a personal finance website in their content. After reading that article, I became very interested in that financial website and my interest in blogging grew quickly from there. This is both interesting and funny because before that same summer in 2011, I didn’t even know what blogs were, that they could even make money, or anything else along those lines.

So, as you can see, I did not start Making Sense of Cents with the intention of earning a living online. It was all just a hobby and an outlet. I then realized how much I loved blogging and realized that it was for me, so now I am a full-time blogger! I went full-time in October of 2013 and I haven’t looked back once. Blogging has completely changed my life for the better and it’s something that I recommend everyone try if they are interested.

2. What is affiliate marketing and when did you begin earning affiliate income with your blog?

Affiliate marketing is when you earn income by placing an affiliate link or some sort of referral code on your websites, social media account, influencer platform, etc. and have people purchase a product through your link. If you get someone to sign up through your affiliate link, you are then rewarded by the company for promoting their product.

I have been interested in affiliate marketing for quite some time, but I never thought it was possible before. I always thought that you had to have a huge following and a ton of page views in order to be successful with affiliate marketing, and I just thought my blog was too small in order to make any affiliate income.

That all changed, though. One day I decided to give myself a goal of earning affiliate income, and I worked towards achieving that goal. I started by making a little bit each month, and then it just continued to grow month after month. I now know that you don’t need a ton of page views or a huge following in order to make a great income through affiliate marketing.

3. What inspired you to create a course all about affiliate marketing?

I decided to create my Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course because I was always being asked about affiliate marketing. What seemed normal and easy to me, isn’t easy for others, so I knew I had to create this course so that I could get my affiliate marketing expertise out. Affiliate marketing is great and has so many positives, and I want others to benefit from it as well!

4. Who is the course for?

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a course for you if:

• You desire to make money from your blog or if you want to start earning more.
• You want to make an income while you sleep or when you’re on vacation.
• You want to write a blog post and earn money from it for years down the line, with minimal work needed.
• You tried affiliate marketing but haven’t had any luck.
• You enjoy blogging and want to be able to grow your audience, build trust with your readers, and help more of them!

In Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, there are 6 modules, over 30 lessons, several worksheets, bonuses, an extremely helpful and exclusive Facebook group, and more. I go through everything that you need to know about affiliate marketing, and more!

5. What can someone expect to learn from your course?

In Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, students will learn:

• The basics and background of affiliate marketing, what it is, etc.
• The positives of affiliate marketing and why all bloggers should be doing it
• The exact steps I’ve taken to earn over $400,000 from a single blog post
• How to pick the correct affiliate products to promote
• How to build trust and not lose followers
• Required disclosures and rules that you need to know about
• Different affiliate marketing strategies to use to promote your affiliate products
• How to use Pinterest to succeed at affiliate marketing (yes, this includes the newest Pinterest affiliate rules!)

And much, much more!

6. What is the price of your course?

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing costs $197. Or, you can pay for it in two payments, with each payment being $105.

7. What is your favorite thing about affiliate marketing?

I love affiliate income and affiliate marketing because it can feel very passive to earn money blogging in this way. After all, you can create just one blog post or social media post, and possibly earn an income from it for years into the future, as long as you maintain it and keep generating traffic to it. Due to affiliate income, I can enjoy life more and know that I am still able to earn a great living promoting products that I use and enjoy.

Think about affiliate marketing this way: If you already enjoy a product, why not get paid to promote it?

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Many thanks to Michelle for taking the time to answer questions!  Not only is the course itself awesome, but the bonuses that come with it are very helpful as well.

My three favorite bonuses included with the course:

1. The Facebook group – The Facebook group is a very active and helpful community of bloggers. I have been able to find answers to many of my blogging questions through the group.

2. Lifetime access to the course and all future updates for FREE – I have already gone through the course twice. I went through it before I started my blog and then again a few months later to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Also, since the course’s launch, Michelle has updated it with a couple of additional lessons including 80+ Affiliate Program Ideas for Different Niches and How To Always Get Approved To An Affiliate Program.

3. Pinterest Strategy – As a course bonus, Rosemarie Groner from The Busy Budgeter shares the Pinterest Strategy that earns her more than $22,000 a month from Pinterest. The guide is simple to follow and has been a huge help to me.

I had my first affiliate sale less than two months after I launched my blog because I was able to implement the strategies outlined in this course from the beginning. Whether you’re in the beginning stages of starting a blog or you’ve been blogging a while but want to add a revenue stream from affiliate marketing, this course will give you the tools and strategies you need to begin earning affiliate income from your blog.  Click here for more information on Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.  

Happy blogging!

If you are thinking about starting a blog, check out this list of my favorite blogging resources to help you get started.