Blogging for Income I My Personal Blogging Journey and Tips

Click the banner above to monetize your blog now.  Read on to hear how I did it!

When we first immigrated to Boerne from McKinney, Tx,  I was an overworked Montessori teacher who loved what she did but was tired of the corporate feel of the school I had been a part of for so long.  When we came to this land of milk and honey I knew there was more to be had than a 9-5 job and the rushed feel of home life my husband and children and I lived. I very vividly remember praying with my closest friend, as I drove to our new barren piece of acerage near Kendalia, that the Lord would allow me to be a more focused wife and mother and a better "Proverbs 31" woman, 'bringing her items to market and feeding her family' and so on. I had no idea what the answer to this prayer looked like then but I am continuously in awe of His plan always unfolding around us.  Over the  past three years I have been blessed to work tirelessly to create the brand of Hill Country Homestead.  In all this time He has allowed me to be a wife and a mother, and to give birth to more children along the way, all while guiding me and all of us on our Homestead journey.

So, with the Lords guidance I built a name for our Homestead by baking and selling Organic Sourdough baked items starting out at our local farmers market.  Over time the business grew and we have moved into several store fronts and are also hang out outside of our local brewery once an month with other like minded farmers and homesteaders spreading the good word, local and sustianable.  This path has included many many late nights, early mornings, baking around the clock, tons of failure but more success than I could ever imagine. Goodness gracious,  I was baking two days after delivering a child!  Plenty of blood, sweat and tears has gone into this dream! 

As the hunger for our breads continues to grow and people become more interested in our way of life it occured to me to take the brand of Hill Country Homestead and turn it into a blog.  Not just any kind of blog but a monetized blog, that is, blogging for income.  I have very little computer skills and can't code a line for anything but there are plenty of support programs out there for people like me.  I personally use Squarespace and I love it.  It makes all of the design and organization really easy.  Anything I can't figure out I have a wonderful husband who understands a lot more of it than I do and he doesen't mind pitching in on website work!  It's been a lot of work to get it all set up and publish plenty of content and I'm still working on it but it's a lot of fun and a pretty interesting side job. But how does a homestead generate income online?

While we can't sell bread or eggs online, I can offer sourdough starter, baking recipes, checklists and other things for sale in our Homestead store.  Over time we will continue to brainstorm other homestead items, homestead checklists and possibly even an e- book on a homestead topic we excel at.  Sharing knowledge and expertise on any kind of topic with the public is a great way to quickly offer something online to potential visitors.

Can't sell goats milk online either! So what's next? Then comes the MONETIZING of the blog. That's a little scary sounding and it's taking some time to learn a few new tricks but overall this is falling into place for me.  Setting up ads (nobody likes but revenue generators), learning to utilize affiliate programs, being part of an ad network, creating email lists and newsletters, and utilizing powerful social media tools have all become commonplace and understood as important ways to leave behind blogging as a hobby and turn it into an income.  I would not have known right from left if I had not read this e-book by Victoria from A Modern Homestead.  It was a game changer and the best investment I could have made to help me set my website up to start making an income. Another great tool to use was  Board Booster for helping to drive Pinterest traffic.

 And that's it!  You will learn so much more on your journey but you have to start first.  This may sound like a little work or too much for you based on your level and where you are right now but you have to get started to know where you are going.  It helps to have a support system of like minded online influencers, so find the people that get you or leave your email here and start collaborating!

-Jessica