How I Increased my Blog’s Income by Over $1500 per Month

Thursday, January 22nd, 2015 - Category: Blogging, food blog academy

Another post in my little series about blogging full-time, this time I’m sharing how I increased my blog’s income by over $1500 per month to generate a steady monthly income without relying solely on advertisements.

If you’re reading this post it means that you would love to make significant money from your blog. Maybe you even want to transform your blog into your dream job. I’ve been lucky enough to make that transformation and now I want to share everything I can with you because I truly believe a rising ride raises all ships.

This month I’ve already shared some dirty little secrets when I wrote about Why Food Bloggers Fail and when I wrote Why I stopped Blogging for Bloggers and Feeling Guilty. In both posts I talked about a topic that affects all of us: the pitfall of getting tapped in that comparison/jealousy cycle when looking at the successes other bloggers have experienced.

If you’ve ever looked at how many pageviews another bloggers gets, how many awesome press trips she’s gone on, how many hundreds of thousands of social media followers she has, you’ve probably felt that stabbing pain of jealously we all know too well. You’ve probably also thought “well I don’t have those things so maybe I should just give up on trying to really turn this blog into a thriving business…”

I’ve said it before and I will say it again:

You DO NOT need a million pageviews or hundreds of thousands of social media followers to grow your blog into a money-making business.

Do not listen to those voices out there or that little voice in your head that tells you to define yourself and your success by these numbers. You don’t even need a partner, spouse, VA, or anyone else to turn your blog into a moneymaking business. In fact, I show you exactly how to turn your blog into a moneymaking business you can be proud of in my exclusive membership training site Food Blog Academy.

But for now let me say that you can do it all yourself… as long as you have motivation, persistence, and dedication. It’s hard work and it won’t happen overnight but if I can do it, you definitely can. But simply trying harder, building up your numbers, or focusing on content is not enough to start making more money now. Following all the blogging “rules” and listening to those outside voices won’t always lead you to success.

This is why I’m sharing with you a specific strategy you can employ now to begin increasing your blog’s income by over $1500 a month. Of course, the income will vary depending on the size and quality of your blog, the work you put into it, and the time you have to dedicate to this. By generating this income stream you will be able to dedicate more time and resources to further solidifying your blog as your dream job.

Thanks to this specific technique, I never have to wonder whether my blog’s advertising income will be enough. In fact, this additional income was that cushion that allowed me to quit my job and focus on my blog full-time. You may already be utilizing this income stream, but I can practically promise you that you’ll learn something about how to be more effective, more proactive, and how to make more money with the simple techniques I’ll share.

So what on earth am I talking about?

Brand partnerships. Seems obvious, right? But I know that when I first decided to pursue sponsored brand partnerships I was crippled with overwhelm. Who should I work with? How do I contact them? Do I pitch them or wait idly by hoping to be approached? What do I even say?! What do I charge?

Though they involve quite a bit of time and work, locking down solid brand partnerships that are a perfect fit for your blog, lucrative, and long lasting is the first step to treating your blog like a business.

Even if you’ve worked with brands before, I’m going to show you how to pitch the brands you would LOVE to work with so you can not only increase your income but secure a more stable income stream that’s actually based directly off your work and not network advertising which is a process that’s completely out of your control. Plus you’ll probably have fun doing it and if you do it right, your readers will love it too.

Here is what these proven techniques have helped me achieve:

1. Increase my monthly income by $1500 in 30 days.

2. Locked in contracted monthly brand engagements and long-term ambassadorships to create a secure, guaranteed income stream.

3. Built my professional recipe development, food writing, and food photography resume in order to attract future opportunities and establish myself as a pro.

Okay, so now that you’ve seen what you can achieve with smart brand partnerships, you probably have a few questions. The most important thing to realize is that you must take control and initiate these partnerships in order to boost your revenue in 30 days.

That means PITCHING.

Pitching brands can be a nail biting and slightly terrifying ordeal but I’m going to be showing you the step-by-step formula that has worked for me 100% of the time. Here are three simple steps to get started:

Step 1

Narrow down a brand you’d love to work with, one you truly love, use, and value. Bigger isn’t always better, smaller brands can be great too. Most importantly, make sure they’d be a great fit for your blog and readership, as this will actually help you sell the pitch later on and make the sponsored content enjoyable for your readers.

Download this Finding Brands PDF to discover how to find the appropriate brand contact to pitch.

Then, be sure to do your research of the brand (their history, values, products, celebrity chefs, partners, etc.) and follow them on ALL social media and start genuinely interacting.

Step 2

Dive into the mind of the brand. Consider what they would find important and valuable, and how you can offer them value with your blog, audience, voice, expertise, etc. The key to locking in brand partnerships is to make the brand rep’s life easier and to offer the brand immense value that a print advertisement couldn’t begin to rival. Look at their market positioning, latest products or services, their past or present blogger relationships, and their overall online presence. Create a specific outline of the work you’d offer to demonstrate your preparedness and have it ready to go for when the brand agrees to a partnership (because there’s a good chance they will if you use this formula!).

Step 3

Time to pitch. If you sign up to receive blogging emails from me (SIGN UP BELOW) I’ll send you my step-by-step formula for how to pitch brands, including a word for word script that has worked for me 100% of the time. It’s way too much juicy information to squeeze into one post.

By the way, if you’re still thinking you need huge numbers to be able to pitch and work with brands, think again. Many brands, especially smaller brands, value bloggers with engaged audiences (even if they’re smaller audiences), quality content, and that are a perfect fit for their product and message. If you don’t believe me, check out this post written by a PR expert and blogger on the subject.

How to Pitch Brands like a Pro

Did you find this interesting? If so, you’ll probably love the new project I’m working on called Food Blog Academy. Feel free to signup just below to receive more blogging articles, tips, tricks, and tutorials straight to your inbox. If you want to go a step further and enroll to receive exclusive training on how to transform your blog into your dream job, including EVERYTHING you need to know to make serious money working with brands, be sure to check it out here. Happy blogging!

I’d love to hear from you. Please let me know in the comments below what your NUMBER ONE struggle is when it comes to working with brands.

Happy blogging!