Career Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

How I Made $135,110 In August 2017 Blogging

September 13, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 55 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Welcome to August 2017's business income report where I show you how I made money online last month. It's time to look at this month's update and see how I did.

If you're new to Making Sense of Cents, you may be wondering why I would want to publish my income report each month. You can simply skip to the next section if you're not new here.

This all started out as my extra income report because in the beginning, it was all about the money I was earning from my side jobs. In my side income reports from the beginning, I included all of the income I made except for what I made at my day job.

However, I left my day job as a financial analyst in October of 2013 and now my monthly income reports consist of the many ways I earn a living.

Many have asked why I would ever want to publicly post my income each month. Some think I'm crazy, whereas some are glad I'm open about what I'm doing. Whatever you think, I enjoy publishing my monthly online income reports and I share them publicly for three main reasons: [Read more…]

How I’ve Earned $434,698+ From One Online Course Without Webinars Or Spending Money On Advertising

August 30, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 51 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I launched my first and only online course in July of 2016. In the first year of running the course, I earned approximately $434,698. Here's how I did it! I launched my first and (so far) only online course in July of 2016. After only one year of running the course, I earned approximately $434,698.

This was without a single webinar, any guest posts, a “launch” period, or anything else. It's an evergreen course that has mainly spread through word-of-mouth.

While it’s been incredibly successful, that doesn't mean that creating an online course has come easy to me.

I was very nervous when creating Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. It's my first and only product that I've ever sold, and like all online course creators, I was afraid that no one would want it.

I knew that creating this online course would be a lot of work – it still is! I was also afraid of what I was getting myself into because creating a blogging course was such a foreign concept to me.

PLUS, I had numerous people tell me that your first product usually ends up being a dud. I really didn't want to waste a ton of time creating something that could basically fail. [Read more…]

How This Successful Family Of Four Makes Travel Blogging Work For Them

August 28, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 26 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Did you know that you can travel for a living, with a family too?! Caz and Craig Makepeace, from yTravelBlog, a married couple from Australia have lived in five countries and traveled to 52 of them. Here's how they travel blog! Recently, I decided to start a new series where I interview people who are doing extraordinary things with their lives. First up was JP Livingston, who retired with a net worth over $2,000,000 at the age of 28. Today’s post is about Caz and Craig Makepeace, a married couple from the Central Coast of Australia. They have lived in five countries and traveled to 52 of them. They blog about their travels at yTravelBlog.

Just seven years ago, they had no idea what they were doing with their blog, and since then, their blog has grown to be one of the biggest travel blogs in the world.

In this interview, you'll learn:

The obstacles they had to overcome getting started.
How they afford to travel extensively with their family.
How they have become such successful travel bloggers.
What an average day is like for them.
Tips for traveling with children, and more!

They have traveled extensively, including an 18-month stint traveling through Australia with their two daughters. They recently came to the US and are road tripping here. [Read more…]

5 Ways I Made My Blog Go Viral – 2,000,000 Views A Month In One Year!

July 28, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 110 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I have a great article about making your blog go viral from Silas and Grace. They currently receive around 2,000,000 views each month, earn around $10,000 to $15,000 a month, and they've only been blogging for around one year! Below is their article, enjoy.

Silas and Grace receive 2,000,000 views each month, earn around $10,000 to $15,000 a month, and they've only been blogging for around one year! Finally having success is kind of weird. You keep on listening to podcasts and reading blog posts on how a certain person made it with their online business or side hustle, and then you start to wonder if it could ever happen for you.

And then it does. After hard work, lots of research, lots of experimenting and asking a ton of questions, it happens.

How it Started

It was early 2015 and my husband and I had just gotten married. We were the very definition of broke newlyweds. We both had a passion for full-time travel and we both knew that the corporate/retail world wasn’t for us. And so we decided that we were going to start researching and finding ways we could work online.

We looked into so many things such as writing articles for sites, Youtubing, becoming a virtual assistant, etc. But none of it seemed to fit us or any of our interests. That is until we listened to a podcast episode from The Side Hustle Show with Nick Loper later on in the year. He was interviewing Rosemarie Groner from The Busy Budgeter (check it out here), and the interview literally changed our lives. You can find Rosemarie's Pinterest Strategy guide here, which is highly recommended. [Read more…]

Should you get an MBA if you want to start your own business?

July 24, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 33 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

The path to owning my own business started around 10 years ago. I graduated from high school and went on to college for business. I graduated, got a job as a financial analyst, and then around five years ago, completed my MBA with an emphasis in Finance.

Should you get an MBA if you want to start your own business? Is it a need? Or, can a person start a business without a college degree? It seemed like a logical path – graduate from high school, go to college, get a job in that field, and then get my MBA to further my career opportunities.

It was the path I fell into, and I never really gave it a second thought. For my MBA, I figured I needed it in order to be successful in the corporate finance world.

However, I'm now a full-time blogger.

One of the questions I'm often asked is if I regret going to school for so many college degrees (3). After all, it took a lot of time and led to a significant amount of debt.

I definitely did not learn a thing about blogging back in college, and an MBA isn’t 100% focused on the topic of starting your own specific business, especially a niche one. Plus, I did not get my MBA thinking that I would be starting my own business. I went for it to better my career opportunities. [Read more…]

My Search For A Better Work Life Balance

July 5, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 53 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

As I talked about in How I Made $979,321 in 2016, my top goal for 2017 is to have a better work life balance. I am by no means complaining about anything at the moment, but I know that I could do better.

As a full-time blogger, taking a break from blogging can be quite difficult. It's easy to work 24/7, and as your own boss, you know that every minute is an opportunity to improve your business.

Plus, it's can be very difficult to disconnect because as a blogger, you can work from your phone, laptop, on vacation, and more.

If you’re like me, it is even more difficult to unplug when you love what you're doing.

But, that doesn't mean it's healthy.

Finding a good work life balance means taking breaks from work to enjoy life, and it’s important that you aren’t glued to a screen 24/7.

You need to enjoy what's going on around you, be present in the moment, and have a life outside of work.

Even if you are enjoying your work, a break is good. A bad work life balance can make you irritable, stressed, impact your relationships, and affect your health. [Read more…]

How This 29 Year Old Is Building A Real Estate Empire

June 26, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 45 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I'm loving this new interview series that focuses on people who are doing extraordinary things with their lives. All of these stories have been incredibly motivating, and I can’t wait to share more! Past interviews include How This 28 Year Old Retired With $2.25 Million, How This Couple Paid off $204,971.31 in Debt, and How This Couple Bought an $11,500 RV, Traveled To All 50 States, and Built A Thriving Business.

For today’s post I interviewed 29 year old Elizabeth Colegrove, a successful real estate investor, property manager, and landlord.

She currently owns eight rental properties and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.

I asked you, my readers, what questions I should ask Elizabeth Colegrove, so below are your questions (and some of mine) about owning rental real estate and being a long distance landlord. Make sure you're following me on Facebook so you have the opportunity to submit your own questions for the next interview.

In today's interview, Elizabeth shows us how exactly she built her real estate empire, the process to affording each, what she looks for in rentals, how she manages her real estate properties long distance, and more. You can follow her on her blog at Reluctant Landlord. [Read more…]

How it Started

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