I just thought I'd take a second to welcome those of you who have stopped by via Crystal at Money Saving Mom and her post, Q&A Tuesday: Is it possible to save money when we’re barely keeping our head above water? And for those of you who are regular readers of mine, I recommend popping over there to visit! What an excellent question. What do you do when you feel like you're drowning financially?
I offer a few suggestions below ("What can you do today?") which I hope will get you started exploring the possibilities of supplementing your income via the internet, but here's a little of my own story…
I'm sure many of us can relate to Audrey's question. Like Crystal and her husband, Brian and I can absolutely relate to the feeling like we're just barely making ends meet financially. At our lowest point, I was staying home with our toddler, we had just bought a house and the new mortgage was a stretch. We were making it, but just making it. Then Brian lost one of his jobs about 2 months later. Yikes.
He started substitute teaching "full-time" but if you've substitute taught before, you know that unless you get a long-term assignment, you're sort of subject to the availability of jobs on a day by day basis.
I vividly remember many days when Brian would wake up, get ready for work (even though he didn't have work that day) then sitting down to breakfast and praying, "God, please, please, help the phone to ring with a job right now." Literally.
Many days the phone did, in fact, ring right then. Some days it didn't. It was HARD. Talk about a faith walk! But how awesome it is to look back and see God's fingerprints on our lives in a very tangible way as He really did provide over and over again.
While that was probably our lowest point, it wasn't our only low point. I think it's fair to say we have spent the majority of our 13 1/2 years of marriage just able to break even.
What can you do today?
So, what if you're in that spot today? What if you don't have any extra? In my steps to starting your own blog from scratch, I recommend starting a WordPress blog to help you bring in extra income. It has worked for lots of people (as well as myself), but I realize even a little bit of money to have to pay up front to get started is not feasible for some.
So, I have two recommendations:
- If you think blogging is something you'd like to do, read through my steps to starting a blog (particularly the first 5) and then start a Blogger blog. Blogger is completely free and will get you going. You'll have to build your readership but if writing is something you love to do, give it a shot! You can put ads on Blogger blogs and there are other ways you can use it as a vehicle for generating income. In other words, if you want to try your hand at blogging and want to see if you can make a little income, a Blogger blog requires no output up front.
- I have a post drafted as we speak which outlines as many creative ways I can think of to make money online. This will especially help if you aren't really sure blogging is what you'd like to pursue. I planned to have the post ready in about two weeks, but now I'm inspired to get it published sooner. So, if you'd like to catch that post either check back or sign up in the orange box below and you can get it via email when I publish it.
Hang in there!
Great tips for all of us who are financially stretched! I started on blogger, and I keep thinking I need to move to self-hosted WP because of everything I'm reading here and elsewhere. But if you can't afford the switch yet, you shouldn't make it! I'm actually a GoDaddy reseller, so I can get my hosting at "cost", and I'm still hesitating until I can put it in the budget.
Yes, I'm a fan of self-hosted WordPress, but a bigger fan of doing what works for you for sure!
Great tips. I started my little blog on blogger with .blogspot in my address and have since spent $10 to make my own custom domain on blogger. One day I hope to move to wordpress, but for now…the blog needs to be self sustaining…as it makes money, more money gets put into it.
It's not easy work. And the amount of networking it can take to build a readership can be exhausting…but it's fun.
Work on building up some really great content, be nice! and make friends with other bloggers…it won't be easy money or instant…but in time it will work it's way up! I'm seeing trickles here and there already.
Just find something you are passionate about and write about it! For me that's finding ways to save money so I can spend money where *I* want to!
I love my blog. It is seriously like my third child now, LOL
Thanks Heather! Great advice.
Great tips! Thank you! I'm currently in the process of switching from blogger to WP and I'm terrified to make the jump on my own. I just don't know if my funonadime.net is ready and I'm terrified to lose what audience I have now. I'm looking forward to reading your list of $ making ideas to see if I can use any for my site.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying it's okay to be on blogger to get started. SOmetimes I feel like it's treated as some sort of disease. I wanted to start a blog for a year and a half before I did. I researched and fully planned to "do it right" but could never justify starting one because of the state of my home. When I had the idea to blog about changing my slobbish ways, I needed to start then. Like, that day. I knew it wasn't ideal, but blogger was so incredibly easy to set up. You can literally have a blog up in minutes. Now, I know that as I grow, I'll eventually want to switch to wordpress, but can't justify paying someone to do that until my blog is profitable.
Sorry for the vent. I'm excited to read your advice!
While I do recommend self-hosted WordPress for various reasons, I *completely* understand it's not for everyone. I'm a much bigger fan of doing what works best for you!
I found your blog a few weeks ago through Money Saving Mom and I'm so glad I did! I've been blogging for almost a year now but still feel completely clueless as to what on earth I'm doing, so I've been slowly reading through your posts – they're so helpful! Thanks for all the tips . . . hopefully one of these days I'll figure it out!
I'm so glad Laurie. Welcome!
Looking forward to it!
Hi Amy! I found your blog through money saving mom today.
I saw where you are working on a post about making money online. Though I've yet to be a serious blogger, I do make money tutoring online. I wanted to recommend the site that I work with — Tutor.com. I like the flexibility and the format. All subjects are available and I like working one-on-one with kids…even sometimes very late at night since I'm on the east coast.
Thanks for the tip Allison!
Amy, I happened upon your blog a few weeks back when searching for how to do something. I've been back several times since. Your advice is helpful and EASY for a blogging newbie like me. I love this post especially about your "faith walk". God bless!
Thanks for stopping by Michele! And thanks for your encouragement.
Google Adsense took away my ads. I was so thankful to be making the little bit of money that I was with them. I now have lijit ads but they are not making much money at all. Is there anything I can do?
So sorry Becky. That stinks. I've heard others say the same thing about AdSense although I'm not sure there's much that can be done. Anyone else know?
Stay tuned for my next few posts which might give you some ideas of other ways to monetize.
I have been able to earn a decent amount online by writing or participating on various sites. The thing is though, that it takes time and you have to really choose which things are worth participating in. It doesn't happen over night, but it has led to permanent or at least semi-permanent jobs.
Agreed. Blogging is definitely not a get-rich-quick situation. It takes a lot of hard work. Thankfully, it's pretty forgiving, so you can fail umpteen times (like me!) and as long as you stick it out, you can often stumble on something that really works for you.
Thanks for all of the great info! I have been researching this area and have come up pretty empty handed!
Do you have any articles in the making for how to price advertising when someone is wanting you to write an article and post links to their site?
Thanks for all you do, Amy!
I will touch on this briefly in my next post (or possible the one after that if this next one turns out to be too long).
What does it cost to do a WordPress blog? I have a WP.com blog but I'm under the impression that you can't put ads on those type of blogs.
Hi Stacy,
Yes, you're correct that you can't advertise on a WordPress.com blog. The costs associated with a self-hosted WordPress blog are (1) a domain name (if you don't already have one) which will cost you $10-$20 per year and (2) hosting, which costs (with the company I recommend) $6.95 per month (but must be paid annually). Here's how to purchase hosting if you're interested. To cut costs further, you are allowed one free domain with each hosting account at Bluehost.
I am looking to make the jump from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. Like many folks posting here, we don't have much upfront cash. While I think I ultimately want to go with Bluehost, I have been considering starting with something that's cheaper (and not paid annually) for now. I'm not sure if it's better to get started (and potentially switch hosts later) or better to wait until we can afford the Bluehost. Do you have any thoughts/input (or perhaps a post I could reference)? Thanks!