One thing that I don’t like to do is to write a review, but you can write a sponsored post that is not a review.     I make a lot of money on sponsored posts, so I want them to be great to keep the sponsor coming back again and again.  I feel like if it is so “sales-like”, it would seem un-genuine, because I normally don’t write that way.

Let me give you a few examples of how I work sponsored posts into my blog…

Lets take my blog, Your Modern Family.  It is a family-friendy blog, where I share parenting tips, child-development facts, kid activities, recipes, etc…   Now lets look at some sponsored posts that I have done in the past:

1. Tires.  I had an offer from cooper tires to write about their tires.  How on earth do you work that into a blog for kids?    I had to think outside of the box… I wrote “5 things to keep your kids busy in the car (great when you get a flat tire!)”   I shared the five tips and then I shared some tips on how to prevent a flat tired in the first place.

2.  Cleaning Products.   I had to write for Windex, so I shared  “10 tips to clean when you have a preschooler at home.”

3. An app to help you budget.    I shared  ‘How to teach your kids to save money like a pro”

4.  Dannon Greek Yogurt.  I turned this into “5 ways to get your preschooler to eat healthy foods”, listing Dannon yogurt as one and then listing a fruit & yogurt parfait (using Dannon yogurt) as another one.  The other three were other ideas that I would give our kids.

You can turn a sponsored post into whatever you want it to be.   Roundups are great, too.   Here are a few:

5. I wrote a sponsored post for LEGO and I shared 12 ideas to keep the kids busy during the winter break.

6. This one was for a phone for elderly people, so I wrote about  10 Great Gifts for Grandparents.  

7. Some companies (like social fabric) are very picky and make you include store images, etc… but I try to work them into the post as much as I can like this one:
Reese’s Spreads Frozen Smoothie

Many of the companies that I have worked with have told me that they like to work with me because I think outside of the box.    So… All in all, just get creative.  Can you “hack” their product? (You need to check with them first).   Can you work it into a cool roundup?  Can you talk about it genuinely?   If so, go for it!

Need more tips?  Check out our book on how to pitch brands your creative ideas on your own! 

Related: Where to find sponsored posts

The post How to write a sponsored post that is NOT a review appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Affiliate marketing is a huge opportunity for bloggers to earn money.  I earn a big percentage from using affiliate links in my posts (and I kick myself for not starting it from day 1).   Even today’s post has affiliate links in it (as almost all of my posts do!)

Here are some ways that you can earn money with affiliate links. 

1- Add them to social media!
Every single day I am sure to share my affiliate links on Facebook and Pinterest.   Even when we couldn’t’ share them on Pinterest, I was putting them in my posts and sharing that post, so it would bring the traffic to me and then over to buy the product.    I find what is useful and what I love… and then I share it.

2. Newsletters. 
I always add a little PS in my newsletter with an affiliate link.
Example: PS- here is the bracelet that I just bought for my daughter.  Isn’t it darling?

3. In your blog. 
The first step you’ll take is to choose one of your most popular posts. Select one that always seems to get decent traffic, even when you aren’t promoting it yourself. Click on the post and read it to yourself taking note anytime that you talk about a product or mention a product name.

4.  Do a Roundup. 
Have a roundup like the best two player games.  This one is a specific amazon round up post. This means that all of the links in the post go to amazon. You must be careful with these, as they can feel like a commercial fast.

But if you are mindful of your reader and the types of products they would like to hear about you can get away with the occasional round-up of this sort.

These can be HUGE money makers for bloggers when done right! You can round up anything that would be useful for your readers and unique enough that they hadn’t seen or heard of all the products you are mentioning before.

You can do a craft post with product links for the craft. (example: Best grandparent gift idea)

If you are a fashion blogger, you could use amazon affiliates to show similar outfits to those you are featuring in your post.

5. Take this affiliate marketing class.
Michelle earns over $50,000 a month with ONLY affiliate links.   Her course is amazing and she walks you through exactly how to do it.   Don’t think twice about it – take it if you can afford it.  You’ll earn your money back ten-fold by applying her ideas to your own posts.

HOMEWORK: 
Now that you know what to do, try to take 3-4 old posts a week (starting with your most popular) and add affiliate links to them. Sometimes you’ll need to rephrase a sentence or two to get it to flow easily, but the updating will help breathe new life into your old content as well.

You can even use the time to backlink to new and related posts on your own site as well!  As you go through these posts you’ll start to get a better idea of how to naturally share affiliate links in your posts. This will help you to add amazon affiliate links easily as you write moving forward.

While some of the products you link to may be cheap themselves, the way amazon works, is you get a percentage of all orders made after clicking one of your links. This means they may click on my $5 teether, but if they end up ordering a big screen tv on amazon, I’ll get a percentage of that sale as well! Trust me, I’ve had some crazy, and some expensive things ordered on amazon through my links!

Seek out your most popular posts first and add a link or two naturally to the body of your text. The more posts you monetize in this way the more you will start to earn money without putting in any extra work. Those links are there to stay and you will earn money on them as long as people are clicking!

PS- don’t forget to disclose that you are using affiliate links!

The post How to effectively use affiliate links appeared first on Becky & Paula.

My husband, Mickey, is my finance manager of Your Modern Family.  Before he took this position, he was a finance manager.  He knew his market trends almost month to month, consistently.   He knew when purchases were up and when they would be down.  He knew when consumers would buy & when they wouldn’t.

Like most businesses, the first quarter is usually down.  Companies don’t want to spend a lot of money in the first quarter, because they just spent a lot over the holidays.  They put their money towards marketing & promotions.

The summer is no different.   Families typically spend money in June, in preparation for graduation and planning summer trips- booking in advance.  They are using their tax refund money to plan their summer getaways.

As the 4th of July rolls around, typical consumer spending on products, gifts, etc… decreases, as the fourth of July is the ‘kick-off’ to vacation season.

As the summer starts to tail off, towards August, consumer spending typically increases for back to school.   This includes ranges from preschool up through college students.   Companies want to start promotions and marketing again.

That will fall off around labor day, as that is the end of the “summer vacation” season.

Typically, no one wants to spend much money after that until Black Friday, when the holiday spending starts & the cycle begins again.

The post The cycle of money with blogging – what to expect & when appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Most of us what to make an income with our blogs.   We devote our time and energy into this blog to turn it from a hobby blog to a full time income.   While we go through the full list in Blogpreneur, I wanted to give you a few ideas here.

There are three main components that will entice your reader to buy what you are selling, so you can make a sale.

1). Connect with people.   Be authentic, kind & helpful!

2). Capture emails.  Never let a post go out that doesn’t have a place to collect their emails.  I use LeadPages and send them to ConvertKit.  (Though you can also use ConvertKit directly, as I did up until this week)

3). E-mail a video.  Something new that I am going to try is to offer them something on a video sales page.  I haven’t tried this yet, but I have been talking to a friend and she is having a LOT of success with this method.  It is brilliant really.  She said talk like you are talking to your BEST friend.

What do you put in your video?

Step 1. Start out with “I help people to…” So they know they are on the right place.   So, an example that I would have on THIS page would be something like this:
“I help bloggers who want to grow their blogs to successful businesses” or whatever it may be.  

Step 2: welcome your viewer… Your best friend. Don’t talk like you are talking to the masses… Talk to one person.

Step 3: Position your promise. “In this course you will discover 3 secrets to…” Talk about what’s in it for THEM! Why should they buy it? Tell them.

Step 4: Who are you? Why are you an expert?
“Most of you know that I am the creator and founder of yourmodernfamily.com. I am the author of …”

Step 5: Share your Hero story. Story telling does the selling for you because it connects you to them. They need a before and after. A down and an up. Don’t make it all good or they won’t really be able to relate to you.

Step 6: Position the problem. What is their biggest problem and how can my product solve it?

Step 7: Position the solution. Give away 3 of your best tips as the solution.

Step 8: Call to action. Tell them want to do next “please register for my course”  or “Please read my book.”

Step 9:  Talk about your failure. Ask them “Why are you holding back?  What if you could take that and turn it around to make your biggest comeback? Can you see how _____ could help you with this?”

Step 10: The pitch! “How many of you know that your going to need help with this?  We know that you want to _____ and we are going to teach you how to do it!”

Find out more here.

Or Sign up for our newsletters here – we will send out weekly informative e-mails with blogging tips.  

The post How to make a SALE using your blog or newsletter appeared first on Becky & Paula.

I feel compelled to write this post because of the amount of my real-life acquaintances that want to start blogging.   While I never discourage anyone from starting one, because it is amazing, I do want to be real about it.

I blog at yourmodernfamily.com and I love it, but it wasn’t easy to start.  Its a job where you get out what you put in.  Put love, time and dedication into it… get readers, shares and income out of it.   (& yes, I do 90% of it when the kids are in bed, so it does not take over my “real life” – just my ‘free time’)

Blogging is a great way to spread your message.
Blogging is an awesome way to help others.
Blogging is a great place to promote your products.
Blogging is a great way to earn an income.

BLOGGING FOR A LIVING IS NOT EASY.

I was on a friends YouTube page the other day and she was talking about a trip that we took where we were paid to go and look at products in NYC.  I read her comments and one reader wrote:  “Wow- you’ll do anything for money, won’t you?”   I just wanted to yell out to that person “YES!  THIS IS HER JOB.  THIS IS HOW SHE EARNS A LIVING FOR HER FAMILY.”   The point is that “This is their job.  You work to pay your bills.   This is how bloggers work.”

I want to be upfront to say that if you are blogging for one hour a night, from the get-go, the chance of making a ton of money very fast is going to be pretty slim- sure you can make a little, but if you are wanting to make thousands, that’s going to be hard.   If you blog for two hours a night, I’m going to say its the same thing.   You may, but its going to take a lot longer… like years longer.   Now a few cases may prove to be the complete opposite, but I found that the harder I worked, the more it paid off.

Now, its not all about how much time you have, but how well you are using your time.   I spend around 4 hours a night working, sometimes more, sometimes less. Some nights I have to work from the time that the kids go to bed at 7:00 until 2:00 in the morning, if I am working on a project or a book.  Some nights I take off & watch The Blacklist and endless episodes of Modern Family with Mickey.    Those nights are great, but not often.  The 7 hour nights are more likely to happen than the 0 hour nights.

That’s not the norm, but it does happen.   If I am going on vacation with our family, I will do this for several days before we leave because I don’t want to be busy on vacation.  I will schedule out my posts and social media shares, but I will still have to get online (on the trip) to be sure that things are going as well as they should be while I’m gone.

What does this mean for my times?
It means that I still volunteer in each of our kids classes.
It means that I still go to the gym every morning.
It means that I still hang out with Mickey every night (he is typing beside me, as I type this).  Some nights we will take a break to watch a movie or play a board game, but other nights, we just work.

It also means…
I blog instead of watching my shows on TV.
I blog instead of relaxing at night.
I blog instead of reading other blogs.

Now- that’s not to say that it can’t happen, making money without working a lot, but this is just the reality of it.

Another reality:  Writing a blog about your “daily life” may take longer to get “off the ground” than giving a “moral to the story” type of post (like a tip, recipe, craft, idea).   I love to write about my life, but a “what we did this weekend” type of post just doesn’t bring in the views of a “How to keep your baby dry at night” post.  It will, down the road, when my readers know me more, but for now, I still have a lot of new readers.

My goal is to move to more “here is my life” posts in a year or two, but for now, I’m sticking with what works- helping my readers with things and sharing tips & advice.

I hope that this post is not seen as discouraging, but just to let you know that there is a LOT that goes into blogging.   Writing is about 20% of that.  You will spend hours a week looking up how to do technical stuff and hours a week promoting & networking.  (You’ll probably make a few great friends of of that networking!)

Now- if you put in your work, you can be making a HUGE income in a few years time. I have been blogging for about four years and I am making a really great income now, but it took time and hard work.  The first year I made just a few hundred a month (nothing at all for the first 6 months) – by month six, I had made just enough to cover preschool, which was my goal)…by year four, I am making more than I ever thought possible.

If you are ready to make money on your blog, you need to start monetizing and be sure to implement the basics:
Ads
Sponsored posts
Affiliate programs
Selling things on your blog & getting others to work with you on it.

Sign up for our newsletter for more tips (we’ll send you a free “GO VIRAL” calendar, too!)

MORE POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE:

The post Getting real: If you want to start a blog to make money appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Here is how to make a full-time income blogging, with a break-down:

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• I have 2 million- 3 million page views a month on yourmodernfamily.com
• I have been blogging for about four years.
• This income does not include what I make on my other websites or from teaching other people how to blog, it’s strictly from my parenting site!
• I work from home, with four kids, so my hours a day vary greatly from 1 hour to 8 hours, depending on what kind of day it is (preschool day or home day, sports practice or not, early bedtime or late bedtime).
• My husband works from home, too, on his blog and mine, so he helps me to take care of the house, meals & kids.  We work as a team in everything we do!
• I write a lot of books and I give a 50% affiliate fee to anyone that sells them.  This helps a lot.

Here is how I earn money:

• I started a blog.  Yep.  That’s what I did.  You can jump right into starting a blog here (in 2 minutes).  If you want more details, you can buy our book about starting a blog here. 
• I write books that sell a lot.  It varies.   I self-published all of my books and that allows me to keep a bigger profit.   I highly suggest everyone write a book.  Find your very best post (highest page views) and turn it into a book.  Here is a post that covers everything about writing a book.  Here are our blogging books that you can sell (you get a % of the sales) and here are my books that you can sell for a 50% affiliate fee.
  Here is a course about reaching your publishing dreams. (Paula took this course before she published her first book and LOVED it. We highly recommend it or this ebook to get you started!)
• I swaps guest posts for book shares.  I will ask someone with more Facebook fans than me to promote my book (using their affiliate link) in exchange for guest posts on their page.
• For my blog, I often have posts that go viral.  I write what I would want to read and then I share that post.  Most of my posts do well because people want to read it, too.  That helpful hint that you do at home?  Share it.   That wonderful parenting Ah-Ha moment?  Share it.
• I take pictures that bring readers to my posts.  This book is perfect to learn how to take pictures of food (but I use the techniques to for all of my photos)
• I write sponsored posts.   This means that companies reach out to me and ask me to talk about their product.  They send me the product and they pay me money to write about it.  I used to make $50/post my first few months.  Now I make $1800 or more for my posts.
• I have ads on my website.
• I am an affiliate of many companies, like Etsy.  I make a lot on affiliate sales.  I sell on Facebook and in my posts, by showing my favorite things. and I do a lot with Craftsy because they offer freebies for my readers.
• I pin a lot.  I use Board Booster to pin.  It is a game-changer for me!   I spent about 4 hours one day setting Board Booster up & I never had to do it again.   Well- once a day I go in & pin my new pin for the day.
• I send out e-mails.  Every week.  These e-mails have links to a lot of different books and products that my readers can buy.  They have links to posts that they can read.  I use Convert Kit and I love it.If you combine the women of Bloggers Tell All, they are making millions of dollars in revenue each year, with around 25-30 million page views a month.  It can be done.   They are the proof. 
  Related:  SIGN UP FOR OUR BLOG TIPS WITH OUR NEWSLETTER HERE. 
• Try to include an affiliate link in every post (not sponsored posts).
• I use my Facebook page to promote those affiliate links, too.
• You can pin your affiliate links by doing a roundup of them & pinning from there.  Example:  20 best birthday gifts for your one-year-old   Link each one to an affiliate link & you can pin all of them.   It will bring the Pinterest readers to you & they can go to the store from there.

Here a few of my top posts, if you want to see an example: 
1- When Elf on the Shelf forgot to move
2- Why I still carry my kids
3- Potty Train in 3 days
4- Mommy, will you lay with me? 
5- Stocking Stuffers

MORE POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE: 

• Check out our income reports here.
• How to get your first million readers.

The post How to make money blogging appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Total income for November 2015: 

My page views in November:

Page views: 2,479,451

Number of posts published this month: 39

Average time on page: under a minute.

What I changed this month: 

This month I changed a few things.  I feel like I am working a lot, but not MORE.  I have actually cut back on my work time because the kids were home from school.  This meant that I had to cut back on Facebook (socializing), etc… to make time for my ‘work’.

1. I increased the amount that I charge for a sponsored post.  (I still charge a little less if the client is very easy to work with for a post.)    I was undercharging for my page views.

2. I started using BoardBooster for my Pinterest account and it has made a WORLD of difference.   I have multiple campaigns running and I have all of my boards looping, so I can literally pin it one time and it is being repinned all of the time, without my help!  Yay!    This cut my pinning time down by SO much!  I literally pin for maybe 5 minutes a day now.

3.  I made a list of books that I wanted to create and started working on them.
A- Paula and I published a new book about how to start a blog and it has been successful.
B- Mickey, Paula and I started working on a tax book for our BeckyandPaula.com page.
C- I was also asked to write a book for a publishing company and I have been busy working on that one.
D- We wrote a Christmas book
E- I started writing a book with Janae (Icanteachmychild.com) that we will finish in the spring. (we were both teachers)

4. If a company wrote to ask me to do a review of the product, I would instead offer a tweet for them instead (I would not have done this when I started, by now that I have a better Twitter following, I can do this).  I ended up having almost all of our kid’s Christmas gifts sent to us for free because of this.  I even bartered for tablets for my niece and nephew this way.

5. Sharing more of my own stuff on Facebook, in the evening hours.  I share most other’s people’s things all day long, but the nighttime hours are for yourmodernfamily.com

6. Asked my VA to run my share groups for me.  This was a time suck and I was forgetting about it.  Once she took over, it was such a load off of my mind.   Rule of thumb: I hire someone if I think that I can spend that hour doing something that would make me money.

7. Start adding more affiliate products & links to my top 10 posts on Google Analytics.

8. Made a spreadsheet (well- Paula made it for me b/c I am awful at making them!).  I then filled in my top 100 posts from G/A so I would know which ones to share on Facebook more regularly.   I went back & tracked the reach (after 3 days) on that same spreadsheet.

9.  I worked on my e-mail list.   I started being more consistent with once a week blog e-mails.  I made them less about “what my blog is about this week” and more about “here is one post that I thought you would like”.  I am playing around with titles.   It’s funny because when Mickey sends one out to his 500 subscribers, he gets a 50% open rate.  When I send them out to my 25,000 subscribers, I get a 22% open rate.  I am determined to figure it out & increase my rate.  (note: the average opening rate is 21%, so I am doing OK, but I want to do better… my mentality for my blog is always this.  I am doing my blog for my family and the better I do, the better for them.  My goal is to have my blog be 100% passive income in a few years, leave my time 100% open to my family, so I will work hard NOW, with many late nights and many early mornings, to make that happen THEN.)

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10. I started working for other bloggers that I look up to.  I want to point this out to everyone… you will learn when you work for other bloggers (I spend a lot of time studying).   You may be paid in shares, in education, or with money, but you will learn and it will make your blog better.  You are never too old/smart/experienced, etc… to learn.

11. I started doing much more on my Instagram page.  I want to grow that following.  It has grown over 1,000 this month (I think… I should be keeping better track than I am!) 

Highlights this month: 

My Motrin commercial with Kelly Ripa was released.   This was so much fun & so exciting!   Our son asks me every week “When do you think we can go back to New York and do another commercial with Miss. Kelly?” 😉

Blog Travel: 

In October:  Mickey and I went to Social Media on the Sand in Turks and Caicos.

We also went to Dollywood, for free (free hotel, trip and tickets to Dollywood and a museum) – I write about bartering for trips here. 

In November:  Mickey and I went to a Type A Mastermind group in Asheville for two days (just a two hour drive for us).

In November: I went to BlogHer Food in Chicago for the day on behalf of Bounty (I love working for companies that appreciate what you do!)  I learned some great youtube ideas and had a chance to meet the people that I work with via e-mail (for Bounty) & hang out with some blogging friends.

My Goals for next month: 

1- Make more videos & get over feeling egocentric & self-centered about it! 🙂
2- Turn ALL of my books into files that can be downloaded for people to listen to (audio books).
3- Make courses from my books.

Top High-Traffic Posts this month: 

Stocking Stuffers


Why I still carry my kids

Mommy will you lay with me?

Our books that we suggest:

O

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The post YMF Blog Income November 2015 appeared first on Becky & Paula.

Blogging can be truly amazing!  You can actually quit your job to blog full time.  I had no idea that this was even a possibility when I decided to start a blog, let alone the thought that my husband would quit his job to blog with me!   Seriously?  Working from home with four kids and actually having the time to spend with them?  Yep- it was as surprising to me then as it still is today.   Just this week I said to my mom “I still can’t believe that I get to work from home, doing something that I love, and make enough to make it our full-time jobs.”

With that being said, I want to tell you that my first month blogging, I made $5.

Yep… $5. Do you know what?  I was SO excited about that $5!  I couldn’t believe it! Then it went up from there… pretty soon it was $300, then $3,000, then $30,000. I just want you to know that it is possible, but I also want you to know that you have to be prepared.   Normally I am a “jump with two feet” type of girl, but when it comes to quitting your job, it is more of a “toe in the water” type of thing.

Today, I have invited Elizabeth from r​eluctantlandlord to talk to us about finances that need to be in order before you quit your day job.  (literally).

Take it away, Elizabeth… 

From day one of our marriage we planned for me to work until we have our children, at which time I would stay home with them. From that point on we have always budgeted off one income. We have never budgeted or anticipated I would have a retirement or benefits from my position. Any money I have made has instantly gone into a separate account. That money has funded our six rentals, 7 houses, allowing us to have a net worth of over $​400k less than four years.​

Our dream evolved more when we were in South Texas during our second year of marriage. Not only did we want me to be able to stay home with our children, we wanted to be financially independent at the ages of 44 and 42. That will be the year my husband could retire from the Navy with a full pension and benefits, God and Navy willing of course. This dream makes things more complicated because now we do have to worry about all the “other stuff” ­you know the benefits to a position other than an income.

As the ultimate planner and a financial analyst by training (MBA with an undergraduate in finance with a minor in accounting), the husband and I have been planning and talking about our “exit plans” for years. The goal of this article is to share all of our research to help you become a one income family to TOTALLY self sufficient.

No matter how well you or I prepare, there will never be a life without surprises as an Entrepreneur. No matter how much you make as a blogger, it has always been on top of the other income. For example, I make almost $2,000 after 4 years of investing in real estate but that is in addition to my $5,000 income after working in my field. When my blog AND real estate empire take off and reach my goal income of $5,000, ​I plan to quit. The thing I have had to keep in mind is even when I make up my income $2,000 from real estate + $3,000 from blogging (so 10k) I will go from 10k to 5k when I leave my job. ​That will be an adjustment, even if it’s just emotionally because you have never touched the “replacement” income. My goal is to spare you some financial ulcers that we have had the pleasure of experiencing first hand. My husband is active duty military so we move A LOT. During our last move, which was unexpected and last minute, I was unemployed for 13 months. We learned a few things the hard way. This experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were able to learn some lessons before I went back to work and quit again for “real”.

The one thing I highly advise against is leaving your stable full time job if you are not in a great financial position. We lost my job just after we bought our 3rd house due to an unplanned military move. We had to buy another house to live in and deal with all the financial burdens without the added benefit of a second income. It all worked out and we bought an amazing 4th house that turned out to be one of our best rentals ​(Case Study #4). While I am a better landlord today because of those experiences, it taught me a lot. Lets just say the experience was a lot more stressful because we had a very puny savings account. While I learned more than I ever imagined, because failing was not an option, it was not enjoyable. Here are 13 tips that will lead you to a more succesful launch than we had.

13 Tips to Being Financially Fit

1. 12 Month Emergency Fund – When you plan your budget anticipate expenses going up 20­ – 25%. When you have time to yourself again, you are going to want to “do” things with your time. For example, I know in my head I already want to go back east and see my girlfriends from a previous duty station. I also want to go overseas to visit some buddies for a wedding and stay longer than if I had to go to work. So you make sure you have 12 months worth of funds that liberal fund. Quitting to focus on growing your business will be a lot more fun if you can go to all the blogging conferences or take the kids to the beach.
2. Housing – ​­As crazy as this sounds,if you have not bought a house you might want to think about it. Mortgage companies are fickle beasts (Interested in learning more? I talk about mortgages in depth on reluctantlandlord). Once you give up your job you are going to have a lot of trouble qualifying for a loan.

   (Becky here… jumping in for a second… Remember that even if you quit to blog, you blogging money won’t count until you have put in at least two years and they can see your tax returns for two years worth of blogging. Don’t learn this the hard way.  Ask your CPA for specifics in your state!)

   They scrutinize self employment very hard. The same with landlords. Therefore if you are renting and plan on staying in your rental then I would sign a 2 year lease. This is usually how long people want to see if your business income is on your taxes.

3. Transportation – ​­Car and car repairs can be very expensive and draining. The last thing you want is the constant unpredictable expense of car repair. You also don’t want it hanging over your head wondering if you car will turn on. I know we personally plan on making sure our cars our paid off and within 2­5 years old. If you don’t want to replace a perfectly good car but are concerned you would want an even larger “car” fund.
4. Pay Off all Debt other than your Mortgage – ­You do not want debt when you are starting off. I highly recommend that all of your credit cards are paid off (even if they are 0%) and your credit score as great as possible. We use the credit cards as a back­ up to our back­up for emergency funds (if your active duty military or reserve on orders the Ame​rican Express card offers 0%)​.
5. High Credit Score­ – ​I know there are many advocates who argue that you do not need a high credit score. From someone who moves frequently, trust me, it comes into play often (utilities, landlord, mortgage, etc). When you no longer have a secure job it is going to be even more important so make sure you have as high of a score as possible. I know for us our credit score has been the tipping point to people giving us the benefit of the doubt.
6. Credit Cards – ­​If you are thinking about signing up for a new credit card. I would do it before you quit to make sure you can count your income for qualification. We use our credit card all the time as we are able to earn free rewards off every day business expenses. I use my loft rewards points to pay for my professional wardrobe.
7. Decreased “Lendability” – ­​One of the biggest things we ran into during
   my time of unemployment was our inability to borrow money. Even though our houses made money, we had not been at it long enough to “count” this money. So we were unable to continue to grow our houses until we had been at it 2 years. So be prepared to pay cash for a while to prevent your growth from being stunted.
8. Insurance­ – ​This could be expensive so make sure you have a solid quote. We had a bad experience with a car insurance dropping us 3 months after we bought a new car at renewal time because the new car made us non­renewable. I would make sure I not only had my coverage prepaid but also have everything in writing.
9. Short/Long-Term Disability­ – ​Many companies cover this as a part of their benefits package. If you are the sole breadwinner then having Aflac or another insurance on the side is going to be important. Make sure you don’t forget about this.
10. Life Insurance – ­​Many companies also cover this cost. Remember while your business may continue to run without you; there is a larger probability it won’t. Make sure you have a large enough fund so your family will be able to mourn your loss and restart their life without worry about financials. Learn more h​ere.​

Tip: P​repay 12 months of your expenses before you quit.  ­ I cannot recommend this enough. Prepay all of your expenses and then you leave. Not only will it give you peace of mind that they are all paid you will also have an exact amount to place into a savings account for the next year.

11. Establish a Team – As an Entrepreneur and full time blogger,  you are running your own business. You are taking over responsibilities that companies have whole departments (Legal, HR, Accounting, etc) to manage. While more expensive in the beginning it is going to be important that you have a team that supports you from day one. I have found the hard way that having contacts that you have established a relationship before an issue comes up is a lot easier. When one of our tenants wanted to buy our house, it was awesome to have a CPA to call and ask questions. The same came to play when we had a problem child tenant and needed immediate help. Our lawyer who had done our wills finished everything same day, preventing a sensitive issue from blowing up. The last thing you want is to waste valuable time trying to put your team together. Here are the top three types of people that I would not only have in my contact list but also have an established relationship.
    1. Lawer (Wills, Estate Planning, Business Solidification)​­ I have a lawyer who is in charge of helping me with my blog business. I have another one who I use solely for my real estate dealings. It looks like I will soon need to get one to help with estate planning. A great lawyer certainly is not cheap in the start up cost but they have saved me so much over the years. A lawyer is one of those assets that you won’t know the importance of having in your back pocket until it is too late.
    2. CPA­ ​Your tax liability, both personally and as a business,will drastically change. You will also have to file taxes quarterly. I personally have an accountant even though I have a background in finances/taxes including having a job as a tax consultant. After 4 houses it was simply safer to hire an accountant. My accountant saves me way more than her $300ish fee she costs me.
    3. Financial Planner​­ I will be the first to confess that we don’t have one and probably won’t hire a planner any time soon. Its not because it is not super important.  It is because I love personal finance and it is a second hobby of mine. So I am too much of a control freak over this area to hire someone. I am also blessed that this is a favorite topic for my dad and I. He is an expert so I have lots of help. On the other hand if you are not in my position it is imperative that you hire someone. You need them to help you work with your CPA to make sure you are saving for retirement, college saving plans, etc.
12. Long-Term Financial Planning –
    One of the hardest things about working for yourself is basic things like retirement and business capital are no longer automatically budgeted for you. This has to be in the budget now and you need to pay these first. I know for us we automatically have the max retirement taken out of my husband’s pay check, my paycheck goes into a separate account, and our business accounts are in a separate place.

    Here are four places I would evaluate with my financial planner and CPA.

    1. Retirement 
    2. Children College Fund
    3. Large Cost Replacement (Car/Upgraded House/etc)
    4. Business Investment
13. Unexpected Surprises – There are going to be tons of surprises. Doing anything new and different is always going to be a challenge. One challenge I personally never expected was the flack I was going to take for just being an outlier and something that was not typical. I know the first 2 years people thought that being a landlord was stupid. My husband’s work buddies still jokingly calls me the slum landlord because it drives me nuts. These were some of the things that I think might come as a shock because they certainly did for me.
    1. Increased Expenses​­ I know when I was home I was driving a lot more than when I worked because I now had time to do things so I spent more money on gas.
    2. Unpredictable Income​­ In the rental industry income is pretty stable.
    3. Increased Scrutiny­ W​e started buying real estate during the crash. To say people thought we were crazy is an understatement. Heck, members of my family might of hung up on me when we told them we were buying our 2nd and 3rd rental.
    4. Importance of Tax Returns­​ Your tax returns are going to be the testament to your financial status. This is what everyone is going to ask for when validating your statement of financial stability.

This article is not to overwhelm you or to make you think your dream is unattainable. Exactly the opposite. Your dream will be a reality. The goal is to make sure you have as few ulcer inducing moments as possible by making sure you think about these things NOW!!! We had the unique opportunity of having a test run when I lost my job because of a last minute military move. Boy, was it truly an eye opening experience. I learned more about making sure my business survived, how to budget, and honestly, it made me into the business owner I am today. It also had some rough moments because of many of things we didn’t plan ahead for because we couldn’t.

Does this list show you all the things you are missing? Then come on over to reluctantlandlord.net.​ Every Saturday and Sunday I will release an article on how to get your newest financial adventure in order in the business department. We will talk about reducing your time on things like paperwork and invoicing, how to find the perfect lawyer, and the importance of diversification and many, many more things.

What did I forget? What are you worried about when you forge your own path?

MORE POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE:

or this one… 

Elizabeth is an avid traveler, real estate investor, whose dream is to turn her MBA and finance/accounting background into a life friendly business. She hope you will join her on her adventure at reluctantlandlord.net

The post Can you afford to quit your job to blog full time? appeared first on Becky & Paula.

November Pageviews:  1, 917, 455

Blogging time:  almost 2 years.

Hi!  I share my income each month, so that you can see how it is possible to earn a living with your blog.  This is only for yourmodernfamily.com  and not for bloggingontheside.com.

I simply share it here for three reasons:

1- My personal family and friends aren’t interested in blogging, so I don’t share my blog with many people in my ‘real’ life.

2- I don’t want to sound “braggy” to anyone, so it is better to keep my personal life personal, (again- my personal friends don’t even know that this blogging website exists).   I hate to hurt people’s feelings and some of my friends have to work a little harder to make ends meet (My husband and I were in that situation not too long ago.  Having a family of six on a single salary is tight.  This blog pays for things that were ‘luxuries’, like sports & preschool- the rest gets saved) 

3- I want to inspire other bloggers to know that they can do this, too, so this is how I am able to do that, because only bloggers are reading this page and you guys know what to do with this info and how to use it.

So, about this report:
This is what I am owed (pending payments)… so this is what I have done and I am waiting for them to pay me for these things.

Example:  I wrote a sponsored post for $950, but they will not pay me for several months (usually about three months).   There are times when a company will close or when they will forget to pay me for my work.
I now have my husband (a finance major) helping me to keep track of this, because I have not been good about this in the past and I know that companies have gotten away with not paying me.   He started managing my income this month to help me out and its been great.

Also, remember that this income does not include my OUTGOING money.  I pay for things like newsletter services, memberships to blog-related things, editors, new camera lenses, products for posts (example- ornaments to make the TMNT ornaments), affiliates for my books, meeting expenses, accountant advice, signing up for Young Living (b/c I see huge potential there!),  website design costs ($300), website hosting ($150 a month, but up to $300 a month), etc…    This accounts for a lot of my earnings, but you have to spend money to make money

November will always be a high-earning month, before Christmas.  December will be just as big.   a great one, and you will find that November and December are usually ‘big’ months, but January and February will slow down.

Also- please note that We DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY.  This money is being saved, to be used to pay off our house.  My payments are directly deposited into an account that is separate from our family account (in another bank).   I don’t even have checks or a debit card for that account.  In order to take money out, I have to physically go in, with my drivers license and ask for a certified check.   I try to make it as hard as possible to get this money out, to try to deter us from wanting to use it.
Once our house is paid off, we will start saving it to go towards our four children’s college educations.     I don’t think that that we will be “spending it” for a very long time (four kids X $30,000 a year for college = around $500,000 and that is without inflation!)

The exceptions:
1- Donations (church and charities)
2- Preschool payment and the kid’s field trips, etc… (anything school related)
3- To pay for my blog-related expenses

I tell you this because I don’t want you to think that I just go out shopping all day or don’t treat this income like the blessing that it is to our family.

What blogging IS NOT… 

Blogging is not a “few hours here or there”
Blogging is not “my hobby”
Blogging is not “easy money”
Blogging is not “a quick buck”

What blogging is…
Blogging is how I contribute to my family
Blogging is a lot of work, at night, when my family is in bed.
Blogging is how I feel that I can help other moms from home.
Blogging is how I can stay home with our kids, but still earn a living.

Now for the breakdown of my income:

Sponsored posts:
Breakdown of sponsored posts: 30% sponsored posts
My e-books: 25%
Affiliates 10%
Books: 35%

(I recently moved from using only Google Adsense to letting The Blogger Network take care of all of my ads.  You have to have certain number of Pageviews to work with them, but it has paid off.  We still use Google Adsense for bloggingontheside.com)

QUESTION and ANSWERS….
There have been many questions on our Blogging on the Side Facebook page, so here are my answers:

– I work probably 3-4 a day (every night I work from about 9:00- 1:00 am) I try to hope on throughout the day to check FB messages & emails when I can.

– my initial goal was to pay for preschool

– The first big blogging expense was buying my laptop (macbook pro) and my camera (cannon rebel) – those totaled over $2,000. I spend $150 a month on hosting fees, plus overage costs (this month it went over by $200 b/c of traffic). I have monthly subscriptions to places like Picmonkey, ejunkie, etc… I pay anywhere from $100-$1000 in affiliate fees for my books.   I have spent a lot of money on design things so far, since blogging (over $1,000).  That is my best investment, next to my laptop & camera.

• Just a few off the top of my head.
  – Do  I log into Tap Influence & Izea daily to find posts?   No, they email me directly with offers. I don’t really go looking for any posts anymore. (unless I feel like its a slow month or something)

  – Do I work in the day?  Not really. So today I just got home from work (I am a play therapist & work a few hours on Wed) but normally my day looks like this:
  7:00 – up with the kids 
  8:10- kids to school. Get our younger kids ready to go. 
  8:40- drop our 4 year old off at preschool 3 days a week. 
  9:30- Workout at Burn Bootcamp (local workout place)
  10:30 – run errands with our two year old. 
  11:40- pick up our preschooler 
  12:00 – lunch w the kids 
  1:00 – quiet time (I am working right now during quiet time) for about 30 min.) 
  Make dinner… 
  3:15- kids home from school
  4:00- homework with kids
  6:00- dinner 
  7:00 -bedtime for the kids.

  45 mins · Edited · Like
  – DO I HAVE A VA?   No, I don’t have a Virtual Assistant. I run my blog alone, with the help of my husband on the finances. 

  – Do I message the big bloggers that I mentioned to ask for shares?   No, I just promote & share a post to their Facebook page once in a while, but most of my traffic is organic. I share to other’s FB pages about 1-3 times a week. I find that if I have a share-worthy images and a post that people are looking for, the shares are really organic, meaning the are ‘found’ and shared without me doing much to promote it.–  Why don’t I share my income on my Your Modern Family Page- I don’t want to make my real-life friends & family feel uncomfortable.

  TO SEE MY TOP-TRAFFIC POSTS, THEY ARE HERE ON MY ABOUT PAGE.

You will want to see the post on top pages that share your posts on Facebook.

SEE MY MORE RECENT INCOME REPORTS –>> CLICK HERE FOR INCOME REPORT.  

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The post November Income – Your Modern Family appeared first on Becky & Paula.

This post contains affiliate links that help us & hopefully help you, too!!

There are new ways to make money blogging popping up every day and I wanted to share three of them them with you today.

Well they are all new to me- I’ve known about #3 for a while, but I”m finally putting it into play on my blog.

1. Izea

They have finally made the “switch”.  We had been hearing about it for MONTHS, but it has arrived!  Are you signed up?  You “bid” on jobs that you want.  You look through, find what you want and make a bid.  (Similar to Sverve).   You can bid on sponsored tweets, posts or other social media updates.

NOTE:
I was so confused because you only get three bids, so I e-mailed them and they told me that I can upgrade (so can you) to have unlimited bids for $1 a month, but to do this you have to put a credit card on file or use the money that you have made through them.  They have their payout after 6 weeks, so  you might need to put a card on file to do this sooner (instead of waiting the 6 weeks to use your balance).  Find out more here. 

2- Moms Affiliate

I literally JUST signed up for this one, but it looks great.  You can find jobs that you like, similar to Izea.   They even have coupons & deals that you can share and you make money every time someone prints the coupon or uses the deal or code.   I suggest you click “take the tour” when you join to find out all of the perks!  Find out more here. 

3- Affiliates of other places.

So, what I have started doing lately is finding popular companies and sharing about them!   Here are my favorite ones (click on the links to be taken to the sign-up form for affiliates)

1– Ebates.  You earn $5 for each blogger that you refer, plus you make money if you promote them on your blog & your readers take advantage of it!

A few examples:  
I love Jane.com and so do my readers.  I know this because I shared a few things that I liked on there and found that my interaction (via Facebook) was high.   So- I joined share a sale and became an affiliate of Jane.com.  Now I try to share at least one thing a week from there- something that I LOVE!    I don’t make a ton of money, but it is easy money.   Last month I made around $100 and I only posted 4 times, I think, on Facebook.   Easy money & sharing something that I would share either way!

Another example is GroopDealz.  Similar to Jane.  Its awesome.

Another example is ABCmouse.com.   I post about Kindergarten a lot on my website, so adding a few great teaching tools in there is a no-brainer!   I joined CommissionJunction and I just tell my readers about the free month on  ABCmouse.com (free trial) and they jump on board.   I know that they will love it because I love it (I actually have a year membership to it because our kids are crazy for it!)

Bloggers- help other bloggers by sharing things that you love.  Paula and I used Bluehost as our host for a very long time.  When you tell OTHER bloggers about it, you make $65 for the referral!    I started telling other blogging friends that if they joined, they could use our referral link and we would split the cost of the referral fee that I would make.   So- instead of them paying their fee and neither of us getting anything, I would make $32.50 and they would make $32.50.   It really was a win-win!  
I hope that was helpful!   If you are looking for more ways to make money- I have a huge list right here. 

The post 4 new ways to make money blogging (& how to use them) appeared first on Becky & Paula.