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