For a long time I was flying by the seat of my pants when it came to content. Each week I’d sit down to write a new post… but first have to think of what to write about.  Truth be told, there were more than a few weeks when thinking of what to write about took longer than actually writing the post.  This method of creating content was fine at first when I was not only figuring out what my audience wanted week-to-week, but also when I was only monetizing my blog through ads. I didn’t need strategy because… well, I didn’t have anything to strategize about! If I were starting my blog ..read more

The end of the year is a great time to reflect, examine, and set new priorities for what’s next, which makes it the perfect time to do a review of your blog business.  If the word review makes you shiver and think of your end-of-year teacher eval meeting, where you have to prove to your administrator that you’re an effective teacher, don’t sweat it. This is your business, and you don’t have to prove anything to anyone. If it helps, this is not just a review, but also a clean-up, a chance for you to clear out some digital cobwebs, and spruce up a corner or 2 of your website. And rememb ..read more

With a new year, comes new possibilities. Looking forward is so important for content creators, but rarely do we give ourselves time to do it. If I’m totally honest, I haven’t been good about giving myself enough white space to think about my business for several years.  When Side Hustle Teachers started, I didn’t expect it to become so popular so fast. I really had to keep my nose to the grindstone and fix the little issues that sprang up… seemingly one right after another. It didn’t leave me a lot of time for reflection, and certainly not for projection. This year, however, I’m not ..read more

As we approach 2023 – man, that sounds weird to say – I realized that I have been blogging for 10 years!  I don’t actually remember the date, so don’t be expecting an anniversary party or anything, but I made my first money as a blogger in 2012. Holy crap, that’s a long time. In those 10 years I was able to grow a successful mom-lifestyle blog that paid off my student loans, let us buy our cars with cash, and put me on track to pay off our mortgage in 15 years instead of 30.  I also sold my blog when I was called to start Side Hustle Teachers and it grew faster than I anticipated ..read more

With the holidays approaching, you may find yourself noticing lots of posts popping up with gift recommendations and wondered if they really boost revenue (they do!) and how you can make one for your own blog. A well done gift guide can be a fantastic way to increase your affiliate income. But a poorly done gift guide can actually damage the trust you’ve built up with your audience. So before you go on your virtual shopping spree and start seeing dollar signs in your eyes, let’s talk about the right way to put together a gift guide. Before You Start Know Your Audience Creating a gift guide ..read more

Know, like, and trust. You may have heard those words before – you may have heard them from me – and thought, “That’s great… how do I do that?” Even though we live in a time when we feel highly connected to people we only know from the internet – I have friends I’ve never met in my online due date group – you still have to put effort into forming authentic, human-to-human relationships. Today I’m sharing 5 practical strategies to connect with your readers: Be Yourself Nothing turns people off more than a phony. Still a lot of bloggers think they have to be or act a certain way because that ..read more

Burnout is nothing to joke about. It’s real and it is vicious. Blogger burnout has derailed many potential entrepreneurs and we don’t want that to happen to you. The good news is that you can avoid this all-too-common phenomenon with a little planning, and a lot of self-monitoring. Here are 4 tips to maintain a healthy schedule and avoid burnout: Start as You Intend to Continue We all know that when you first start a new venture you want to throw your whole self into it. This is normal, and honestly, it’s part of the fun of starting something new. When starting a long-term project like a b ..read more

Guest posting, also called guest blogging, is a process in which a blogger creates content for another site in order to build backlinks, expand their audience, and strengthen their authority.  Early on in the world of blogging, guest posts were a hugely popular way to increase your search engine optimization (SEO) and grow an audience. In fact, anyone could write a 300-word post, share it on any other site, and boost their blog’s standing. It didn’t even have to be a good post. However, in recent years Google (and other search engines) have updated their algorithms to limit the abuse ..read more