Four (4) years ago, if anyone had asked me: “Can someone REALLY make a living from writing a Blog?!”, I would have shrugged my shoulders and replied: “Maybe.”
Back then, I was at the end of my corporate tether. I had felt for some time I was treading water without a branch in sight to hold on to.
Truth be told, even though my career started in the Information Technology (IT) field in the 80s, I was out of touch with the profession’s progress four (4) years ago.
Yes, sure, I have been using computers and technology all through my work life. That was for big business, though. I moved from mainframe computers that took up an entire floor to high-powered desktops, notebooks, and laptops.
Technology has evolved in a big way, and it now allows the “Average Joe”, with grit, persistence, and a willingness to learn to create a lifestyle that others admire. I just hadn’t kept up with that part of its development.
Today, that is me with a different story. No more daily commute. No more 9 to 5. No more four to six weeks’ vacation on someone else’s approval.
Life is good!
No, life is GREAT! Today.
Here’s what I can say now when you asked me the same question.
Can You Really Make A Living Writing A Blog?
Table of Contents
Yes! You can REALLY make a living from writing a blog! Like everything else in life, it begins with that first step. Your first idea feeds into your first word, your first sentence, your first paragraph, and ultimately, your first blog post. I have found that with practice and a supportive community, you will get better and learn from the mistakes and successes of others. No point in learning how to write a blog on your own. That is the hard way. I followed the path of Super Affiliates from day 1. Once you are consistent, you can implement strategies to start earning income from the content you are creating. And soon, over time, you have the ability to choose how you want to earn – and how you want to live.
I can’t say in my position as the Vice President of my country’s National Gas Company that it had occurred to me that blogging was a career path. Sure I read blogs and knew that people made a profit. But, I never thought that it was a career path for someone like me.
But when I found Wealthy Affiliate (WA) I immediately started rubbing shoulders with six and seven-figure Bloggers. Suddenly, the penny dropped. A Blogger is a respected career and profession, just like an Accountant, Salesman, Marketer, or Human Resource Practitioner.
I am fortunate to know and work alongside some of the most respected Bloggers and Online Entrepreneurs in the profession today.
Many of them earn high 6-figure incomes and spend a lot of their time travelling the world with their families and embracing time as a friend, not wrestling with it as an enemy.
Take Vitaliy, for example. In a recent 16-year anniversary blog post, he wrote:
“16 years ago, if someone told me I’d become an Internet Marketer who travels and does this full time, I’d laugh because I would never have believed this was possible. Yet life has a strange, yet wise way of guiding us all and in my case, I am very fortunate to have chosen/been guided down this path.”
Vitaliy, Super Affiliate at Wealthy Affiliate
What better incentive could I have had than a Free Vegas jolly vacation?!
Every year the owners of Wealthy Affiliate take their top Super Affiliates to Las Vegas. Together they brainstorm what changes they will make to the platform and the Community (with a capital ‘C’) in the coming year.
As soon as I heard about this all-expenses paid trip I wanted a seat at that boardroom table. Not for the free champagne, or for the five-star restaurants, (although they are on offer too) but to hobnob on an equal footing with the best of the best in our business.
Instantly I knew that if I was willing to work as hard for my own business as I had for my employer I could create my own six-figure lifestyle.
I believe that you can too.
Why I Left My C-Suite Corporate Job
Life happens!
And sometimes, you happen to be with it when it is happening. You know those choices that you make that lead to decisions and outcomes that seem to happen to you and not for you?
Like taking THAT job or choosing THAT partner?
Well, life happened, and I happened with it.
In 2016, after 33 years of corporate life, changing professional lanes (many times, in many countries) and living in the C-Suite, I decided that it was time to create a different lifestyle for me and my 6-year-old daughter.
When she was born, I was a VP with one of the world’s largest and most revered manufacturing and retail conglomerates. I travelled weekly to Central and South America, the Caribbean and North America. This was a permanent living-out-of-a-suitcase kind of life.
Suddenly that life took its toll on me.
Most people think that travelling for business is glamorous but when you are on the road all the time and dreaming about your daughter’s smile, it becomes a beast that you no longer wish to see every day. One that you wish you could chase away.
The truth is, I was missing my daughter and watching her grow up around everyone else but me. As a working, single Mum, my constant absence, and the stresses that come with the C-Suite were starting to rock my core.
In 2016, while sitting in the airport in Miami, I came across a blog post from Accelerated Copywriting with the American Writers and Artists Institute, (AWAI) and clicked the button that said “Start Here” to learn Copywriting. It was written by a full-time Copywriter who had started out doing it as a side hustle, 3 years prior.
That blog post resonated with me and I realized that it had been written specifically to jab my Pain Points of what was becoming my corporate cage. It offered me freedom.
When I returned home, I signed up for AWAI’s Accelerated Copywriting course. It was my first step towards creating my success as a Blogger and Online Entrepreneur.
If you are determined to create a different lifestyle for yourself and your family, allowing you more time to enjoy and nurture your loved ones, I can help you achieve it.
From Copywriter To Blogger
Whilst learning copywriting, I started to volunteer to do work for others, it made sense to me to strengthen my skills. I analyzed websites online, volunteered to write copy for friends, and made time to help on various committees, even while working and travelling.
I simply emailed my copywriting and sat back, eagerly awaiting feedback.
It wasn’t long before I had honed my skills and suddenly I was being referred for jobs, such as writing resumes, drafting policies, and writing articles about events and products.
These paid commissions spurned me on, I knew I was onto something. I could actually replace my income in the corporate world.
I was walking with my laptop everywhere – from hotel rooms to restaurants – and making good use of my time away from home. Okay, I used to do this for my employer, but suddenly that laptop felt lighter, it held promise. The promise of a new life.
AWAI’s Copywriting Course was great BUT I started to feel lonely and limited. This was not like an office where I could meet with someone, share my experiences, and get help.
I was alone and I craved greater interaction, I envisioned a community where people could help each other grow.
One Sunday, in October 2019, while searching for coffee on the internet, I stumbled upon a website that talked about “One More Cup Of Coffee“. I soon discovered that it had nothing to do with coffee.
I didn’t know it then but One More Cup of Coffee was written by Nathaniell, a Super Affiliate at Wealthy Affiliate. Nathaniell shared blog posts with ideas, strategies, tools, and training for creating an online business so that you could enjoy “One More Cup Of Coffee” at home and leave the traffic and 9-to-5 grind behind.
Suddenly this random act opened a world of enormous possibilities. I was catapulted into what seemed an alien world. A world where it was normal
to receive commissions for referring people to products and services online.
When I clicked through to Wealthy Affiliate (WA) from Nathaniell’s website in 2019, I Didn’t understand that Nathaniel was getting a commission from my click, but I was determined to follow in his footsteps and work as hard as I needed to become a successful Online Entrepreneur.
The journey is not one of all perfume and roses but once you are willing to buckle down, learn, and consistently apply what you are taught and be open to the community’s support, you will succeed.
Step By Step To Success
My life as a C-Suite Executive was a good one. Yes, we had a Nanny, a Driver and a Housekeeper, but I was not there with my daughter. When I was, I was too tired and distracted to be fully present.
Does this sound at all familiar to you?
I missed my daughter and desperately wanted to spend more time with her. I wanted to be the one who dropped her to school, picked her up and sat in the audience cheering her on.
AWAI made it easy with their Copywriting programs. But, by the time the WA opportunity rolled around in 2019, I was ready.
The first FREE lessons were done in no time and the following weekend, I became a Premium WA Member. That was one of my BEST life decisions.
By the time I reached six (6) months in WA, I already had a growing list of accomplishments.
Year 1 Was Tough!
I will not lie and tell you that it is all hunky-dory when you start to create an online business. You have to invest A LOT of time and consistent effort to start seeing results.
It takes discipline to write blog posts every day and to work in and on your business. But what is your alternative?
Do you really want to work in the traditional way, every single day of your working years – and then some?! I do not believe that anyone wants to but the majority of us HAVE to.
The blessing of choice is what I prefer.
During my first year, I was working full-time, creating content for my website, (blogging), learning about my new profession, trying and failing AND helping other individuals and businesses build their businesses as well.
IT WAS A TOUGH GIG!
However, to be fair, it was a lot less stressful than getting on a plane every week.
I know most people thought that the COVID-19 pandemic was a curse, but I changed that script and called it a blessing.
The world shut down and I buckled down at home, learning and doing, learning some more and doing a lot more. I was probably sleeping only four (4) to five (5) hours a day. I persevered and success began to blossom.
COPIED FROM MY WEALTHY AFFILIATE BLOG POST OF 4 DECEMBER 2020
By the end of my first year, my personal brand Cassi of Troy was born. Who knew I would have a brand, but hey if you are going to be an affiliate, then do it properly.
I had written over two hundred and fifty (250) blog posts and started to generate income from them. I was an Affiliate Marketer!
Year 2 Was A Game-Changer!
2021 marked the end of my second year as a WA Premium Member. I was an Ambassador, ((which means I was ranked in the top twenty-five (25) in WA. More importantly, I was earning consistent income across multiple income streams.
Starting an online business is not rocket science. However, it will not happen overnight. I want to make that very clear. It is a marathon, not a sprint, it’ s not unlike climbing the corporate ladder.
With a few simple clicks, your website will be launched. Know I was knowledgeable enough to know that it was ready to be found by eager beavers from Google. Who knew that Google and other search engines send out little robots or bots daily to find new content? That is what search engines do to keep their content fresh,
They find you which is indexing, then if you write good content consistently they rank you. That means they give you a page rank. Suddenly you are projected onto a path to be found on Page 1.
So the success of your venture into blogging is in your hands, you just have to do the work.
I kept going and was able to grow my online passive income and expand the services I was providing. Somewhere along the way, I realised that what I was learning in my Online Entrepreneurship Course (OEC) could be turned into a suite of service offerings for Clients.
After redesigning Cassi of Troy’s brand, I started to promote it on Social Media, primarily Facebook and LinkedIn. This wasn’t a complicated step I had used LinkedIn for my career and Facebook for my social life.
I simply shared my blog posts and joined Groups and communities that were in my business genre (niche). A niche is not a complicated concept, I soon found out it is simply a group of people who wanted to buy what I recommended.
Can you see the smile on my face? That is what happiness and success look like. I ‘Changed My Script‘ and I was living on MY terms.
The demand for my services was so high that I started to outsource. I could no longer do it all alone. That meant I was being paid, to get other people to write the sales pages and the stories they wanted.
I set my sights on earning a 6-figure income.
Year 3 Brought 6-Figures To The Horizon!
After thirty-three (33) months, just 3 months shy of three (3) years of learning and implementation in WA, I could see my 6-figure income on the horizon. One of our WA Members, Prince Partha as I fondly call him, rolled out a series of trainings titled The ULTIMATE Guide To Keyword Research.
His teachings are gold!
Within Wealthy Affiliates he teaches people how to research the pain points in your niche. If he played chess he would be the grand master of the Universe.
I digested each one and implemented it immediately. The traffic on my websites skyrocketed and soon I was in a position to monetise them with ad revenue. I am not referring to Google Ads here.
We joined platforms like Ezoic and Mediavine which reward high-traffic sites with superior ad revenue. That was the ultimate goal.
You have no doubt seen these little boxes at the end of blog posts that have headlines like ‘Simple Little Hack’ that makes a 65-year-old granny look 35!
Remember, websites are digital assets. Just as you would a brick-and-mortar business or real estate, you can buy them, improve them and then sell them for a profit.
Once I realized this was another income stream I started to buy and sell domains and blogs, which is called domain flipping.
Oh boy I was firmly on that roller coaster to success
You are limited only by your imagination!
I believe that if you give yourself the opportunity to explore the possibilities, like I did in 2016 and 2019 you can become a successful Online Entrepreneur and Affiliate Marketing Professional.
4 Years! A Wealthy Affiliate University Graduate!
In October 2023, I graduated as a Senior from WA.
As a traditional university post-graduate, I decided to approach my learning and investment just as I did in university. The difference this time was that I had built a successful business and a career while I was studying.
Who graduates from College or University with a 6-figure income, working a few hours a day?
I do! You can too.
One simple website.
One blog post at a time.
That is where I started this journey and the path could be yours as well.
What matters most to me is that I now enjoy the lifestyle and the freedom that I want. Again, I will be the first to tell you that it is not an overnight success “thing“. But it is not complicated either. I found it a whole lot easier than networking and Shmoozing (much to my relief)
It IS possible.
This is real and it requires as much, (maybe more), energy, time and commitment as you would give a traditional opportunity.
The difference is that, once you are CONSISTENT, success WILL find you!
Do You Want To Create An Online Business?
Now you know that someone can REALLY make a living from writing a blog, what about you? Is it an opportunity that you would like to explore?
Do you want to create a legacy for yourself that can last the test of time and be passed on from generation to generation?
Let me know in the comments below what your interests are and how I may be able to guide you. remember, this may not be for you BUT you will not know unless you give it a go.
What do you have to lose?
Our first five (5) lessons in WA are FREE!
Yep!
No payment is required and no credit card is needed.
Choose a name for your website, enter it below and let me help you get started.
It will be my pleasure to welcome you into my network of over five thousand (5,000) WA members who are successfully investing in their future.
About The Author
