As a reporter who worked for years covering personal finance for other websites, I was ready to start writing for my own website. Two things motivated me: To make money on my own as an entrepreneur with my writing, and to cover the topics I wanted to cover in a way I wanted to cover and write about them.

What I learned about money

It has been an interesting year for me and Add-Vodka. Financially, the site is doing well, though my goal in 2016 is for the site’s income to double. Income is a good thing for websites, because creating quality content takes time, and I like to be paid for my time working on this site.

I won’t go into the specific numbers because I want to keep them private, but after paying for the site and the expenses of a tech consultant and a virtual assistant, Add-Vodka turned a profit in November.

My plan was to put all of the income each month either back into the business by hiring writers, and to put the money that was coming in toward paying myself back for the money I took out of our savings account to pay for the initial purchase. The payback was complete in November, and I’m now focusing on increasing income and looking to hire more writers and keep my assistant busy.

Making money blogging

Before I bought Add-Vodka, the site made money with sponsored posts and didn’t have ads.

I’ve continued with sponsored posts, and have had limited success with advertisements on the site. Most of the ads on Add-Vodka are affiliate ads, meaning I get money if a reader clicks through on the ad and buys something.

These aren’t working too well for me, so I’ll soon be getting rid of the ones that don’t work. I think the site is pretty clean looking as it is, but fewer ads will make it look less cluttered. I also like to only run ads that I think will be of service to my readers and are related to personal finance.

By having sponsored posts, I’ve learned that it’s important to only have quality sponsored posts that are beneficial to readers and don’t go far off the mark of what Add-Vodka is about.

For example, months ago we accidentally allowed a sponsored post to run that linked to a gambling website. That’s not a personal finance strategy we support, so the post was removed soon thereafter.

Website changes

When I first got my hands on Add-Vodka, one of the first things I wanted to do was change the look. It looked a little dated and I wanted something that was easier to view and had a cleaner look.

A website crash created an opportunity to change the website theme, which a tech expert helped change.

While I don’t think the site is perfect, I like the cleaner look and think articles are easier to find and make blogging easier.

We’ve also expanded our use of Add-Vodka’s Facebook and Twitter pages. The Twitter page, in fact, is new this year and helps get the word out about what other personal finance bloggers are doing.

Given how popular our blogging slogan is — When Life Gives You Lemons, Add Vodka — we opened an online store in 2015 to sell shirts, bumper stickers, hoodies, coffee mugs and much more with our logo and slogan on them. We’re hoping to expand the store’s offerings this year.

Blogging topics

One of the biggest things I learned after a year of blogging and owning Add-Vodka.com is an obvious one: writing posts that matter.

Before I bought the site, it was a tale of the owner’s personal journey into her finances. That was something readers were really interested in, but as a new owner, I couldn’t continue her story.

My main goal was to use my reporting and writing skills to bring personal finance stories to the site that would help readers with their personal finances. I didn’t want the blog to be about my finances, but about money tips that could help people in their everyday lives.

The difficulty is coming up with unique content that isn’t repeated on every other personal finance website out there. I’ve tired to publish unique content that’s informative and interesting, but admit I haven’t always hit the mark.

One way I plan on doing that in 2016 is to write less often. In trying to find the sweet spot between too many posts per week and too few, I erred on the side of having too many posts, I think.

Some weeks I had three or more posts up. This can give readers a lot of options and a reason to come back often. But unless the posts are well thought out and full of awesome content, then they’re a waste of time. My goal this year is to only write when I really have something to say, and not just write for the sake of having something new posted.

Thanks for helping make 2015 a success, and please let us know how we’re doing and how we can improve in 2016.

What I Learned in a Year of Blogging is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

What does your to-do list look like?

Nice and long?

Mine too.

It’s got laundry and dishes and filing and getting rid of a bunch of old clothes on it.  There’s people to email and trips to plan (fun parts!), and on and on.  On top of those regular tasks, there are a myriad of side hustle to-dos.  My side hustle is blogging.

The problem I find with blogging is that the list grows at a faster rate than I can get through it.  There are side bar image buttons to create, posts to write, advertisements to tweak, people to email, new projects to start, virtual assistants to pay, pages to update, images to make, links to add, social media to schedule, and more and more.  As soon as one little project gets crossed off of the list, I have identified or thought of a dozen more!

Other Side Hustles

With many side hustles, AKA ways to bring in extra dough beyond your main job, there is a very clear “X for X dollars” relationship.

Deliver pizzas?  You will be paid an hourly rate plus tips.

Work as a brand ambassador?  There’s an hourly rate or an event rate. 

Sell Tupperware?  You get a set commission.

Mystery shop?  Your experience is reimbursed and sometimes you make more beyond that.

Write freelance articles?  The terms are established; you provide a piece of work and in return receive payment.

That’s where freelance writing differs substantially from blogging – you know what and when you’re going to get paid!  With blogging, you have no idea what any particular piece of writing will bring in.  Unless, of course, it is a review or sponsored post. 

Heartbreaking Side Hustling

It is frustratingly common to pour your heart into a piece only for it to receive minimal love, as measured in page views and comments.  There are also posts you write that provide awesome content, beautifully packaged with affiliate links to products you love, and no one bites.  Other times, the thing you threw together in half an hour takes off. 

It often feels like rolling the dice for this side hustle.  No matter your superstitions, the blowing on the dice, the prep work, it’s all a matter of luck.  That is a stretch, of course, but it certainly feels that way some days!

All of this is to say, that the idea of “pump out a blog and get rich from the Internet” is a big ‘ol mirage. So, why do I persist with blogging as a side hustle?  It’s a tough side hustle.

Why Persist with a Tough Side Hustle?

For the words! For the chance to put my story and my ideas out there and find out that others relate to me.  For the reader emails, rare as they may be, saying that something touched them or caused them to take action, or they are relieved to know that someone else has experienced the same thing.

There is also the ability to go to any computer and pull up your site and know that you made it. There is a pride in that, having a finished product to call your own.  Getting to that point is a challenge, even if it is for a side hustle.

Pushing Yourself

Therein lies another benefit to persisting with blogging, the skills.  If we were to rewind two and a half years, I knew nearly nothing about the online world. Sure, I understood that there was writing to do and that some people had sites that looked better than others. There were people who were obviously more successful at this whole blogging thing than others, that was apparent enough.

But good golly was there a lot to learn, and there is still a ton to learn!  Just like with the to-do list, the to-learn list grows at a rapid pace.  I should know more about Google Adsense, Google Analytics, CSS, Facebook marketing, eStores, and a host of other platforms, plugins and programs.

Back to the beginning, though, I had to learn about cPanels, installing wordpress, choosing a host, changing nameservers, setting up social profiles I had never had before, how to drive traffic, how to network with other bloggers, how to add a tracking code to the HTML header of my site, SEO, pick logos, and more and more and more. 

Unfortunately, with blogging as a side hustle, a large portion of the learning is right at the beginning, making the whole process rather intimidating. After the first site, you have a vague idea of how to get things up and going, but there are certain things that you never touch again. 

Blogging for a Second Time

That’s where I ran into difficulties with Money Propeller, my personal finance site.  Sure, I “knew what I was doing” but boy oh boy did I go about it in an inefficient manner!  I started off alright, sure, but I kept discovering that I was missing steps.  It got to a point that I was so frustrated, I thought to myself, “I really need a start up checklist, of all of the steps, in the right order.” 

That thought stuck with me, especially when I went to make more sites, for non-profit groups I am in, for my brother’s Christmas present, and for future projects that I have up my sleeve.  So, I started to write them down.

Then, I asked a blogging friend of mine, Kathleen, if she wanted to help me write a book around this checklist and side hustle.  Kathleen also has a penchant for buying new domain names and had faced the same challenges.  In fact, between the two of us, we have started up 20 different sites, and counting!  We knew there was a faster way to do it, than bumbling through and fixing things as we went.  With both of us, and some test sites, we wrote everything down, to share it with the world.  That’s how we came to write our first book, called On Your Mark, Get Set, Blog!

It’s a road map to staking your brand quickly and efficiently, whether it’s your first blog or your 101st.

Get your blog and your brand set up, in order, so that you have a solid foundation, with no scrambling around for accounts.  AKA, benefit from our bumbling, and get yourself off to the blogging races with a sprint start in your side hustle.

Why I Persist Even Though Blogging is a Tough Side Hustle

Why do I do this, even though it takes a ton of time and sometimes money?  Even though there are emotional upsets and stress I bring on myself?

For the words!  For the chance to put my story out there.  For all the skills I’ve developed and friends I have made along the way.

Anne dreams of financial independence and is working her way toward it, whilst still enjoying life. She also loves money (who doesn’t?) and needed an outlet to discuss it, so she started blogging at Money Propeller. Getting that site up and running was an adventure that caused her to coauthor On Your Mark, Get Set, Blog! so that others would be off to the races with a side hustle a lot more quickly than her.

How Blogging is a Tough Side Hustle is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Since that post went up, I have gotten a flood of support and emails from loyal Add Vodka readers who were sad to see the blog go, which makes me even happier to announce that Add Vodka will live on under new ownership.

Aaron Crowe, who you may know from his freelance writing in the personal finance community, is taking the reins this month and will continue writing on Add Vodka.

I’m sure he will serve you well and do the site proud.

If you want to continue following me, all is not lost. You can find me at Unsettle.org (which just launched today), on Twitter, or get in touch by sending me an email.

I hope you stick around and read along as Aaron gets to know you all.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Add Vodka Lives On: What to Expect From the Site Going Forward is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

When I first started this blog, I didn’t even look up a comparison of WordPress and Blogger. I should have, but I just jumped to Blogger.

There are pros and cons to each. Many people believe that WordPress is better in every single way. I disagree, but I do like it a little better, so here’s my version of WordPress Vs. Blogger:.

Design

Blogger blogs are easier to design, whereas WordPress blogs have more range and options. I’m not terribly tech savvy, so my designs are never super intricate, but I also liked the range of widgets available at blogger better than I do here in WordPress. Plus, adsense was nice.

Ease of Use

In my opinion, Blogger was much easier to use. I think that’s why they do so well, you can just jump right in. WordPress takes a lot more time to use, but this may be because it has a much broader capability.

Stats

I hated Blogger’s stats page. When I logged on, it was messy, annoying, and hard to look at. With WordPress, it’s all laid out neatly and obviously. You can see more of what happened than with Blogger, such as clicks out and not just clicks in.

Comments

WordPress blogs get substantially more spam comments than do Blogger blogs. However, WordPress does do a great job in catching them – my WordPress blog has about a 95% success rate in distinguishing spam comments between real.

It’s so, so difficult to comment on Blogger blogs. WordPress blogs are intuitively easy to comment on. Many people refuse to comment on Blogger blogs – I don’t. I just hope they have the Name/URL option, because logging into WordPress for Blogger rarely works well. However, if a Blogger blog has a captcha, I’ll only comment if I really like the blogger or if the post is pretty good.

Blogger doesn’t allow you to reply directly to comments. Hate this. WordPress does, and it makes life so much easier.

Posting

To be honest, with my Blogger blog, I never used the schedule post option, and with WordPress I do almost always. They both have the option, so neither is more superior in that regard.

Blogger does not allow private, password protected posts. I hate this. I don’t do many (or any), but I like having the option. WordPress allows password protection.

WordPress allows for both categories and tags, whereas Blogger only allows for one.

WordPress allows for a blogger to publicize a post on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Blogger does not.

WordPress allows “likes”. Blogger does not.

Blogger lists followers publicly, WordPress does not.

You can copy a post in WordPress as a template. You can’t in Blogger. You can also request Feedback in WordPress before publishing. In blogger, you cannot.

I’ve stuck with WordPress because the posting, stats, and commenting capabilities are much, much better than Bloggers’. However, it’s personal preference. I have struggled (and continue to struggle) with designing my WordPress blog.

This is just my take on Blogger vs. WordPress. Feel free to tell me yours in the comments. I know Blogger has changed recently, so I didn’t take into account any of the changes the would have done.

Starting a blog? You may also be interested to read some of my other posts about the subject:

Blogging 101

• Why Should You Blog? I Have a Bunch of Reasons!
• If You’re Just Starting Out, You Should Start on WordPress. Here’s why
• Ways to Inject Personality Into Your Posts (because nobody wants to read boring stuff)
• A Post About Knowing Your Audience
• If You Want a Successful, Money Making Blog, You Should Outsource (or quit your job and blog full time)
• Make Sure You Are Running Your Blog Like You’d Run Your Business
• Learn From My Mistakes in Blogging

Should You Blog Anonymously?

• Blogging Anonymously – How to Do It
• A Case for Blogging Publicly
• My Beef with Blogging Anonymously

Feel free to email me with any blogging questions and I’d be happy to help!

You may also be interested in checking out the comments below and leaving one yourself if you don’t know whether to blog on WordPress or Blogger.

Blogger Vs. WordPress is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.