In last month’s January Income Report, I told you guys that I signed up to do an affiliate marketing course called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I absolutely blew through the course and having only implemented a few of the changes Michelle recommends, I’ve already noticed a difference in my income.
I decided instead of having me tell you all about the course and why it’s totally awesome, I would let the creator speak for herself. I interviewed Michelle Schroeder-Gardner about how she got her start in blogging, how she earns over $100,000 a month on said blog, and how you can too with her affiliate marketing course.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and how you got into blogging?
Hello! My name is Michelle and I own the personal finance blog Making Sense of Cents.
In August 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 magazine that featured a personal finance website in one of their articles. I became interested in that website and my interest in blogging and the personal finance community increased after that. This is interesting and hilarious because before that same summer, I had no idea about what blogs were, that they could even make money, or anything along those lines.
I did not create my blog with the intention of making money blogging. 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.
Read: How to Start a Successful Blog & Work From Anywhere
On my blog Making Sense of Cents, I talk a lot about different ways to make extra money, the best ways to save money, achieving your dream life, RVing (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 pretty much my life.
What’s your favorite thing about being a blogger?
There are so many things that I love about being a blogger. I love being my own boss, creating my own schedule, determining what I’ll work on, learning new things about blogging, helping my readers manage their money better, writing content, and more!
I love how transparent you are with your income – it has inspired me to be more open with my blogging journey. How much do you typically make a month from your blog?
Thank you! I typically earn around $100,000 a month through my blog and my affiliate marketing course. In January of 2017, I earned $139,000 from my blog – which is just crazy to think about.
What is Your Favorite Way to Make Money Blogging?
I love affiliate income because it can feel quite passive and it’s definitely my favorite way to make money blogging. You can create just one blog post or social media post, and potentially earn money from it years down the line, as long as you maintain it and keep generating traffic to it. With affiliate marketing, I can enjoy life more and know that I am still able to earn a great living promoting products that I use and enjoy.
How Long did it take before you were making enough to quit your full-time job?
You can find all of my blogging income reports here. It took me around 6 months to make $100, around one year after I started blogging I was earning $1,000, and just a few months after that I was earning around $5,000 a month. Like I said above, I didn’t start my blog with the intention of earning money, so I do believe that I could have earned more even sooner if I would have had that as my goal.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Our typical day varies greatly. For the most part, I like to save the mornings for exploring new places – going for a bike ride, a hike, and so on. And then I like to use the night time hours to work on my blog. This way I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything.
Tell us a bit more about the RV life? What do you love, what do you not love?
Location independence is great and we absolutely love RV life. There’s nothing I don’t love about RV life – I seriously can’t think of one thing. I love everything about it – being able to travel full-time, getting to park my home in new places, being able to bring my dogs with me everywhere, and more.
What’s been your favorite place that you’ve seen so far?
I don’t really have a favorite place. We absolutely love all of the national parks that we’ve been to – so I would say my favorite place is anywhere with a national park.
Any future travel plans beyond the RV?
We have lots of travel plans 🙂 We plan on sailing full-time afterwards, doing some backpacking and long touring, and hopping around everywhere that we can.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing? Who should take this course?
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a course for you if:
- You want to make money from your blog
- You want to improve your blogging income even further.
- You want to earn income while you sleep.
- 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 want to spend more time with your loved ones and have a better work-life balance.
- You love blogging and want to be able to grow your blog, build trust with your audience, and help more people!
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!
Do you have any final tips for aspiring bloggers?
My biggest tip for new bloggers is to network as much as you can. Networking is so important as a blogger. You should see others in the blogging world as your colleagues and friends, not your enemies or competition. You should network with other bloggers, companies in your niche, your readers, and more!
Thank you so much Michelle! Are you convinced that living the RV life and blogging full time is for you? Then I highly recommend Michelle’s course Making Sense of a Affiliate Marketing. I’ve already noticed huge improvements in my affiliate income.
If you purchase the course and then feel that it wasn’t worth the money you can get a full refund within 30 days of your purchase. You can sign up for it here.