October has been a craaaazy month in the money department! As in, sometimes it seems like money has fallen out of the damn sky. Of course, I know this isn’t actually true. I’ve worked very hard the past couple of years to make this happen. But for the first time since starting Grad Meets World the blog will be bringing in an extra $1000 without having to completely bust my ass and run myself into the ground.
Can I get a “HELL YES!!”?
If you’ve been following the blog for a while then you remember that around this time last year I hit a milestone and made an extra 1k for my side hustle. What I didn’t tell you was that entailed completely burning the candle on both ends. Seriously, it’s almost as if I was working 2 full-time jobs. While at first this may be okay and maybe even down right necessary, by the time January 2012 came around I knew I needed to change things.
I needed to learn how to work smarter, not harder. It’s a concept I’ve discussed before with Justice Wordlaw IV (Justice Wordlaw IV, Empower Network) and Shannyn Allen (Frugal Beautiful, The Frugalpreneur) on their podcasts, and I think I may have finally nailed it!
So how did I do it? How did I manage to bring in an extra 1k from Grad Meets World?
Read on friends…
1. Increased my freelancing rates.
It’s insulting what writers get offered for their services on those big job boards. As a result, this year I decided I would up my rates and find better quality clients. Here’s some math to lay it out for you:
October 2011: $300 for 15 articles.
October 2012: $300 for 2 articles.
I’ve also started working with more individuals and their cool projects, which generally pays better than whatever you’ll find on those job boards.
How do you increase your rates? Well, you have to figure out what your time and effort is actually worth. Marie Forleo and Ramit Sethi did a great video about raising your rates not too long ago.
2. Blog Consulting
While I am taking on preliminary coaching clients for my certification, the actual dough is coming in from my blog consulting. I created a set of exclusive video tutorials, a list of resources, individualized guides and offer an hour long Skype session where I help bloggers strategize how they can grow their blogs and even make some money. All of this for only $120 is not only a steal for my clients, it also ensures that I make decent money doing something I love.
If you need help taking your blog up to the next level feel free to give me a shout. You can learn more about my blog consulting here.
3. Affiliate Sales
I’d been meaning to learn more about affiliate marketing and just didn’t have the time.For those of you who don’t know, affiliate marketing is defined as:
- Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. …
- (Affiliate Marketer) A person who promotes a product or service for another individual or company. You receive a unique ID in the form of a link, so when someone makes a purchase or completes a required action through your link, you receive some form of compensation.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that Grad Meets World is open to advertising. I’ve joined quite a few ad networks and have had other marketers reach out to me to run campaigns. The great thing is that they’ve been giving me the liberty to come from whatever angle I want. Of course, I do only try to run ads that are relevant to my audience.
Consider increasing your blog’s influence and revving up that email list so you can run sponsored posts and ad sales on your blog. The above mentioned resources are also great outlets for learning how to do just that.
Overall, it’s been a good financial month for Grad Meets World. Let’s see if we can keep the momentum going!
How do you make money from your blog? Feel free to share in the comments below!
