Hey,
Today is a new Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents!
Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a few of the topics you may want to know more about:
- Personal finance
- Blogging
- My life
- Travel
- RVing
- Sailing
- Being location independent
- Business
- Making extra money
And so on, and so on.
Seriously, ask me anything in the comments below, and I will take the time to answer every single one. Of course, please nothing inappropriate.
All right, go for it, ask away!
If you haven’t yet, please follow me on Instagram.
Here are links to common questions I’ve received in past Ask Me Anythings:
- How To Start A Blog Free Course – With this free email course, I will show you exactly how to create a blog, from the technical side all the way to earning your first income and attracting followers. Each day for seven days, you will receive an email in your inbox that will help you create a successful and profitable blog.
- 10 Best Things I Did To Build A $5 Million Dollar Blog – I have earned over $5,000,000 blogging over the years, which still seems so unimaginable to me. Here are some of my best tips.
- 29 Best Stay At Home Jobs (#1 Is My Full Time Job!) – Do you want to work at home or work while traveling? Here’s a list to get you started.
- What It’s Like Living In An RV? – We lived in an RV full-time for several years. Here’s what I loved about it!
- Living On A Boat – The Good, The Bad, And The Beautiful – We have lived on our sailboat for over 4 years. Here’s what we like and don’t like about boat life.
P.S. If you’re looking to see all of the comments and questions, make sure to hit “Older Comments” or “Newer Comments” below. The comments break apart in pages once there are over 50 comments.
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What is the most difficult/challenging/annoying thing about driving traffic to your website, and how do you overcome this challenge??
I don’t really know if anything is annoying, but it’s probably just wondering why some things get a lot of traffic and other posts that are similar do not get as much. It’s all just the luck of the draw, I guess, haha.
Finding ways to be diversified with your traffic is important, so that you are not too reliant on one form. Also, finding new ways to bring readers to your blog is important as well, as the blogging landscape in constantly changing.
Hi Michelle!
I’d love to start making more money off of my blog, which I’ve had for roughly 12 years now. I am a photographer that specializes in families, seniors and weddings … how would you recommend I incorporate affiliate links and get paid blogs when I mostly blog session work?
Thank you!!
Ashley
Do you publish many blog posts that are not focused on blog session work? Have you looked at how other blogs similar to yours are monetizing?
Im trying to get more traffic to my website
What do you currently do for traffic?
Have you checked out this blog post of mine of my favorite resources? https://fund-rise.live/2021/07/best-blogging-courses.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
What are your main sources of traffic to your blog?
Pinterest, Facebook, SEO, and my email list 🙂
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for all the great information and advice you provide. Your writing is so comforting to read by a newbie. I just turned 65 and am trying to start a blog that I hope will provide us with some extra income. I thought I would try a blog with photos and stories about unusual places I have found and photographed over the years in the American West. So I followed your advice on setting up my site on Bluehost. I have got a little lost in the weeds picking a theme and making it work for me. I have ended up choosing Elegant Themes Divi and I am learning how to use the builder and the premade layouts. I want to use lots of photos and design a magazine look. Was this a mistake, should I have started with something simpler? If so, what?
Second, do I need to start with an email host to have a domain name email and start an email marketing service to start an email subscription list to eventually monetize the blog? Or should I just be concentrating on writing a blog with no contact with readers?
Am I kidding myself about starting a blog at 65 to eventually make a little money that I don’t know if anyone will read and if I really have the ability to do this?
Hey Jon!
Thanks for your question. I am not really that good when it comes to the design side of blogging. If you like the design of the theme, then I don’t see why not start with that one. You can always change it later if you decide that you don’t like it.
I have a tutorial here that will show you how to get your own domain name email address – https://fund-rise.live/2020/10/how-to-create-and-set-up-your-blog-email.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
For the email newsletter, I recommend Convertkit. Here’s my affiliate link – https://fund-rise.live/convertkit%3C/a%3E. You can start it for free.
You are not kidding yourself! You won’t know unless you try.
Hello Michelle
Thank you for this opportunity.
I currently work full time in a job that I dislike, low paid but stable. I want to start a new business but I have no idea what. Can you help me with ideas? I do not have any dream job or any passion presently.
Great question!
Have you checked out this article here – https://fund-rise.live/extra-income%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
There are over 100 different side job and business ideas that I have listed there. I recommend reading a little about each until you find one that interests you 🙂
Hi Michelle,
Would you suggest opening an LLC to start a blog or I should wait? If I should wait, to what point should I transfer to LLC?
Thank you!
Unfortunately, I cannot give legal advice as I am not a lawyer, accountant, or anything like that.
I can say that I have an LLC, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best route for everyone.
At what point did you form an LLC? Year 1, 2, 3….?
I believe it was during Year 1.
How do you figure out a niche when you’re interested in so much?
Great question!
One way to try and narrow down what to write about is to think of around 5-10 blog post ideas for each niche you are interested in. This little challenge can help you realize which topic you are most interested in.
How can you keep your personal anonymity when starting a blog?
I was anonymous for awhile when I first started my blog.
Some things I recommend is buying domain privacy protection to protect your private info, writing with a pen name, and not publishing any photos with your face.
Hi Michelle: I am a mad fan of what you have accomplished, as you know. My experience with affiliates is limited. I am working through your course which is helpful (not done yet) and I have a few sales here and there. When a person has an affiliate link in a social post, is it enough to put #ad in the post, reel, whatever as the disclaimer? I am bigger of content creation and standing behind products I believe in, but ever so often I see an offer I think might interest my audience and have considered putting it on social for what it is.
Since I don’t have 10,000 followers on instagram there is already that friction, but curious what you care to share. Thanks!
Hey Doria!
I talk about this in the course in the lesson that is dedicated to the rules and legalities of affiliate marketing. Have you checked that out?
Hi Michelle! I fear I am asking similar questions to others and I apologize. If I could hire a coach, I would! I have a blog that I have been intent on turning into a success but I have not done so yet. I realized I am missing a lot of techy stuff: for instance, I can’t figure out why I don’t get views and then I realize that I didn’t properly verify my site with Google Console so most of my posts were not being indexed. These things discourage me big time because I don’t know what I don’t know. I truly want to be able to help others, whether through encouragement or information, while also being able to benefit my family financially. I’ve bought many courses and invested a lot of time and energy and basically feel like a failure as I can’t quite figure out HOW. I suppose I’m looking for personalized encouragement and advice (without the budget to pay for a coach). Any suggestions?
Thank you for answering. This is awfully kind of you! You’re quite inspirational with your success!
I think there will always be things that you’ll realize that you’ve overlooked. I have felt the same way in the past!
There’s a lot to learn about blogging, and things are continually changing. One way to stay up to date is to find blogging groups on Facebook. I’m not really active on Facebook too much anymore so I don’t know what the popular groups currently are, but that helped me stay up to date a lot in the past! If there are Facebook groups for any of the courses that you have taken, that’s a good place to start.
How long have you been blogging for?
I have honestly HAD a blog for a few years but I haven’t made much traction. I lock consistency and I know that’s my first problem.
Have other bloggers who are not social network savvy or even like dealing with social network have a solution that you recommend as an option to share blog content?
I know that you have an editor now to help proofread your content. Are there similar ideas for sharing blog posts?
Thanks!
Yes, there are other ways such as SEO, guest posting, ads, and growing your email list.
Yes, there are social media managers who can help share your blog posts.
Hi Michelle,
I wanted to know what is the best way ( step by step) to become a good blogger! I am scared to write my own content or I will ran out of content. How can I get started and be on the stream of always getting traffic.
Thanks,
Hey Shirley!
I have a step by step blog post on this topic- https://fund-rise.live/2019/06/how-to-start-a-successful-blog.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Please let me know if you have other questions.
Hi Michelle!
Is it necessary to start growing an email list from the very beginning because it’s costly in the long run or can I still make money just with the help of Pinterest and other things and not use the email list at all?
Thanks in advance for your response!
Hey Milica,
I recommend doing so, yes. I believe you can start for free on Convertkit. Here’s my affiliate link – https://fund-rise.live/convertkit%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Hi Michelle. I hope you are doing well. I have been working on my website for over a year now. I don’t know why. I guess I’m afraid of failing again (I have had 2 previous blogs). I know I need to launch my blog but after I do that, what would you do, or what would you focus on first? I have about 5 posts that have been written so far that will be on the blog when I launch. I have no idea how to work with Instagram and my Pinterest account for this blog is new. I didn’t know if I could just take my old Pinterest account and change the name of it. So with all that said, if you were me, what would be your top priorities? I appreciate you answering my question. Take care.
Hey Julie!
I would focus on things such as:
1) Consistently publishing new content (at least one blog post a week)
2) Finding ways to grow your blog, such as Pinterest, SEO, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
3) Starting an email list
4) Maybe finding a few websites to guest post on.
Also, if you haven’t yet, I highly recommend taking a blogging course – https://fund-rise.live/2021/07/best-blogging-courses.html%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E