In order to pay off debt, the 53-year-old aunt started blogging as a side job and made money through advertising, earning 40,000 yuan a month.

Hello everyone! , I am a master of artifacts. Today we will share with you a business example of using blogs to make money. This is a side job of a 53-year-old woman. Her way of doing things and her love for reading are worth learning from: "It's never too late to do what you love." Her blog First, he gets traffic through social networks, and then he gets natural traffic through Baidu search engine optimization. His profitable advertising methods mainly include three parts: Amazon affiliate shopping guide products earn commissions, advertising alliance platforms, and brand sponsorship posts.

Brand: KatieGoesPlatinum Address: Montrose, Florida Founder: 1 person Founded_Time: July 2018 Monthly income: 40,000 yuan Introduction: Blog business process in the target market, making profits through web promotion.

1. Hello! Who are you and what business are you engaged in?

My name is Katie Emery, the founder of KatieGoesPlatinum. The website offers women tips on how to happily transition from dyed hair to natural gray hair.

I don’t sell many items. In turn, most of my income is through Amazon affiliate advertising, sponsored posts and advertising alliance platforms. My dream audience is mainly women aged 18-65, and most of my traffic comes from the United States.

Within a few months of gradually making money by writing articles, I was spotted by an advertiser. I made an extra 3,316 yuan in advertising revenue in the first month, and I was very excited. It continued to improve over the next year.

After two years, the average monthly income of my website URL is about 40,000 yuan, which is much better than I expected.

2. What is your background story? How did the idea come to you?

In 2018, after I decided to accept gray hair, I established this blog.

I have dyed my hair for 25 years. By 2018, my hair was severely damaged. It only looked very good within a few days after coloring, but not after that.

For years I considered giving up dyeing my hair and trying to restore my hair, but I worried about looking older and just "let it go." Eventually, I had enough. Due to the chemical products, costs and maintenance, I plan not to dye my hair again

I joined some white hair support group chats on Facebook and found that many people have the problem, but on the Internet. I couldn't find the answer on the site. So I decided to create a website that would provide white-haired women with a "one-stop shop where they could find the information and products they need."

Before I started KatieGoesPlatinum, I felt like my career was failing. I taught painting history and photography, but I couldn't make a good living from them.

I have worked in corporate offices for many years. Their salary is very high, but it is not satisfying for me.

In 2015, my husband lost his job and our son died from a mysterious disease. Owing a lot of debt, everyone gradually looked for other ways to increase profits.

Jen Sincero's book "You're Best at Making Money: Mastering the Mindset for Building Wealth" inspired me to gradually consider making money writing articles as a viable second career option. It seems to be a good fit for me because I can do it at home after get off work, and the cost of setting up a blog is extremely low.

I thought of two different blog ideas, but they were not successful either. I have enough interest in these topics, so I can often write about these topics to gain income.

But when we decided to write about "white hair," I gradually became obsessed with the topic of white hair, and found that I liked writing about this topic.

I knew this blog would be successful within a few months because my pageviews were increasing rapidly.

As we gradually built this website, I realized that I had finally found something that I loved doing and that I could make money from. At the age of 53, I finally began to tap into my can-do spirit, and it felt really great. I was also able to apply the creative and photographic skills I had honed in college.

3. Let us know how you designed and produced your first product?

A key part of blogging is monetization diversification. In the beginning, I relied heavily on advertising revenue, but I quickly realized that I needed diversified revenue sources to protect myself from being starved of one revenue source.

You don’t need a fancy logo, website design, or lots of articles and posts to attract loyal visitors. You need to write about stuff that no one else has read, and you need to write it well.

Today, the vast majority of my income still comes from advertising income. My new advertising partners are AdThrive and Google Advertising. AdThrive is a programmatic advertising alliance that specializes in blog creators.

Because I get commissions based on sales from shopping guides, mainly through the Amazon Alliance. I have always opened a well-known store on Amazon, and the business is not bad. I also want to increase a lot of revenue there.

I recently opened a store through Shopify. Here, I mainly sell T-shirts and other printed products. Making prints isn't too difficult and our quality has always been very good. I can market products to my Facebook group chat, Facebook page, and Instagram followers.

Another source of income is awareness marketing and promotion. Well-known brand owners will actively contact me and ask me to review their products. I only review products that I have tried and loved. If this brand and I can reach an agreement, I can write a sponsored article, social media article, etc. on the blog. This revenue stream can be very profitable, but sometimes overwhelming.

I ended up rejecting most of the collaboration requirements because there were too many new brands that only wanted you to advertise them through free use without paying. But my world is very precious, so I only accept paid title sponsorship.

The final income comes from salon activities. The current salon cannot be held due to the pneumonia epidemic, but I have a lot of traffic. Once the pneumonia epidemic is over, I plan to fully promote this service and hold salons around the world.

4. Describe the process of setting up this business?

Before I started making money by writing, I read a lot of articles about "how to make money by writing." , I have a rough grasp of what I am going to do. I convey too much information to myself, but I feel discouraged.

There are too many things I don’t understand about making a blog. region, I worry, “Can I do this? But we have to make money, so I’m going to keep going.

I also searched for a tool online to make a logo for free, hired a WordPress website builder, bought a theme template, a domain name, and paid the hosting fee. I already owned photography equipment and a laptop, so the cost of starting my own business was extremely low.

I also launched my website in July 2018. There were only 2 to 3 articles at the beginning. I thought it would take some time before visitors would read my articles, so I was not too worried. But the traffic increased very quickly, so I have been writing new content since then.

By November 2018, I had enough traffic to apply for the Mediavine advertising alliance platform.

Part of the reason my traffic increased so quickly was that I took an excellent Pinterest course and learned how to use Pinterest to drive traffic to my website. Pinterest is a great way to get your website exposed quickly because it can take up to 18 months for Google to identify your blog and get you natural traffic.

Looking back, could I have changed the way I published my blog? Actually, I don't want to. Starting with a limited budget and a small amount of posts, one thing is great, I'm lucky.

In turn, you need to write some unique content and write it well. Before Google search engine traffic increases, you need to master Pinterest and social network promotion to guide people to browse your new website.

5. Since its launch, what strategies have you adopted to attract and attract customers?

In order to attract my loyal readers, I wrote my own experience honestly.

I send out a weekly email newsletter to my subscribers, just like I would send a letter to a friend. My email open rate is 70%, which is much higher than the industry average. I think this is because I write very personal email content, mostly to better help my readers, rather than simply Marketing and promotion.

I am also very active on Instagram and Facebook, and my Facebook group chat also brings a lot of traffic to my website. Sometimes it’s difficult because I don’t want to spend all my free time on social networks, but I need to connect with my readers and understand what they care about so that I can write about them in future online articles. Discussion of topics of interest.

In order to increase traffic, I have been learning Baidu search engine optimization. I took a very good course and read an e-book written by Debbie Gartner. Of course traffic is the best traffic because it generally results in a higher purchase conversion rate. Those who naturally search for you usually have some kind of special requirements, so they will be very interested in this matter.

As my traffic increased, I became busier, so I hired an assistant. It's worth my money and a lot of my time dedicated to creating and marketing webmaster statistics.

6. How are you doing today, and what will happen in the future?

I did very well today. The cost-to-revenue ratio of my website was so small that I was able to pay off my debt, increase my savings, and consider doing it full time.

My dream is to continue to increase website traffic, thereby increasing my income. Because Google's optimization algorithm is constantly updated, the traffic statistics collected by webmasters sometimes decrease.

I need to be able to make better use of my email subscription. I’m not going to be too good at promoting products to them because they are my loyal readers and I need to find a way to do that without them resisting.

My income goal this year is to achieve a monthly income of 60,000 yuan. I'm thinking about taking a course on Facebook advertising or Pinterest advertising, and since advertising isn't really my strength, I feel like I'll be able to get a better handle on them.

Because I am working hard to increase my visibility on YouTube. It also has a lot of traffic and I know I can do more with it.

A few months ago, I joined Melepavi Marsh's Film & TV membership group in hopes of getting a lot of control over YouTube. I've learned a lot, now I just have to put what I've learned into action.

7. In the process of running this business, have you learned anything particularly useful or useful?

I quickly learned the really useful information. Content is generally not free, you need to find experts in this field and want to provide social e-commerce for them.

Fashion bloggers often joke that I am a "course content junkie". Because I taught too many things at the beginning, I couldn't help myself from buying courses. After a while, you will realize that there are Some items are indeed valuable, while others are worthless.

Therefore, if you start to make money by writing articles, I suggest you join some professional group chats and communicate with some bloggers. Communicate and ask them for best practices.

For me, after these two years of development, I now know whose information I should trust. Sen, Debbie Gartner and their courses are worth my money to learn.

8. What platforms/tools do you use in your business?

My favorite business tool is:

WordPress is a great platform for those who want to make money building websites This is my hosting. Company, they have great customer service. I originally used HostGator, but when our traffic increased, I moved to BigScoots with no regrets TRACIE: Tracy Forbes on my website. Teacher, she taught me about blogging. I use Tailwind to distribute my Pinterest posts. Many people like to post them personally, but they don’t have the time to do it with ShortPixel. If you don't optimize these images, it will slow down the website opening speed. I did use Photoshop to enhance my images, and ShortPixel will further reduce them when they are uploaded to my website.

9. What are some books, podcasts, or other sources for you?

I found Nick Rapper’s “TheSideHustleShow” podcast to be very inspiring. Even though I've been getting great benefits from my website, I keep getting new ideas after listening to this podcast.

I admire Jen Sincero’s books because they are great at making money. It requires me to gradually think about how to treat money and how to get rid of the factors that block my progress. It is really suitable for people like me who are not good at analysis but need inspiration.

10. Any suggestions for other people who want to get started or are just developing?

If you try it for the first time, try to accept it day by day, so that you will not be at a loss. At the beginning, I wanted to give up for several days, but I'm glad I could persevere and come out.

Try to reduce negative thoughts, such as: "I am too old to start a new job. Age is not a problem, and it is never too late to try new things. You can give it to you What I do makes me feel excited. In fact, in the long run, learning new things will make people feel younger.

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