How does a blogger go from part-time to full-time blogger income? Is it still possible to make that happen? In this interview, Jen Grice shares her story and the steps she took to build her blogging business.
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This info is based on an interview I did with Jen. Feel free to listen to the episode below. You can also subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere else.
Who is Jen Grice
Jen is the author of the book, You Can Survive Divorce. She's a divorce mentor and empowerment coach guiding women of faith to surviving and thriving after divorce.
Her heart is to walk with Christian women who feel they cannot divorce even in cases of abuse and adultery. That's why she created Surviving + Thriving Ministries in January 2015 after her own unwanted divorce.
On her ministry website, she sells her self-published books, printable toolkits to create a divorce and/or custody binder, and coaching for women for before, during, and after their divorce.
Why Jen started Blogging
While in school, Jen's writing teacher encouraged them to start a blog. As a homeschooling parent, she decided to start a blog talking about homeschooling. She focused on finding the cheapest curriculum and other topics related to homeschooling in a frugal way.
In 2013, she went through a divorce and started blogging about the topic. This started to get a lot of attention. She realized it was something that was needed. Eventually, she decided to focus fully on being a resource for Christian women going through a divorce.
Creating Blog Content in the Beginning
At first, since her blog topic was about frugal homeschooling, she focused on creating content that promoted a lot of freebies. She connected with companies who provided the freebies and shared that with her audience. This brought a lot of traffic but it wasn't evergreen.
When she started writing about divorce and abuse, her topics were evergreen. As a result, her traffic was more sustainable. Eventually, she decided to delete all of the homeschooling content and focused on what was working.
How Jen Promoted Her Blog
When Jen started blogging, Facebook traffic was relatively easy to get. So she leveraged Facebook to get people to visit her blog. And fortunately, she focused on getting people to join her email list.
As she emailed content to her list, she also encouraged them to share the content with their friends. The result was that her traffic continued to grow organically, and she was able to grow her business.
How Jen Started Making Money
When Jen started monetizing her blog, she focused on three different revenue streams. She started hosting ads on her blog, offering to coach and wrote and promoted her book. By using these three methods, she was able to start earning a part-time income with her blog.
Creating and Promoting her Own Products
Eventually, Jen decided to start creating and promoting her own digital products. This was a great way to add an additional revenue stream to her blogging business.
To promote her products, she focused on email. When someone signs up for one of her printables, she sends them a welcome email to deliver the printable. She then introduces herself and asks them to do the same.
Whenever she publishes new content, she sends out an email to let her list know. And of course, when appropriate, she promotes her products in her content.
Joining the Blogger Coaching Club
In May of this year (2019), Jen decided to join the coaching club. When she joined, she had two main goals:
- To make $1,200 to publish her 3rd book.
- To get to a consistent full-time blogger income.
If she wasn't able to accomplish those two goals in three months, she would have to look at other options (i.e. get a job). To do this, she was looking to double the amount she made from each income source. By September 1st, she was able to get to a full-time blogger income.
How Jen got to a Full-Time Blogger Income
When asked how Jen got to a full-time blogger income, here are the steps she said she took.
She went through all the applicable blogging courses
When Jen joined the Coaching Club, she decided to spend time going through all the courses that were relevant to her goals. One that was especially useful to her was the Blogging Sales Funnel course.
She even went back to the Jump Start I provide for beginning bloggers. While she already knew a lot about blogging, doing this helped her plug in a few missing gaps.
She got on coaching calls and asked questions
This was one of the most valuable things she did. By asking the right questions, she was able to get answers to help her grow her business. One of her first questions was – what can I do to increase my income?
In my response to her question, I mentioned that there were four ways for her to accomplish this:
- Get more traffic.
- Increase your conversions.
- Create more solutions to the problems your audience face.
- Raise your prices.
So, Jen started implementing what she learned. First, she increased her prices. Then she started working on conversions. To do this, she created a sales funnel. And her income started increasing.
She worked hard
This part cannot be overstated. Building an online business takes hard work. It's not easy.
Jen put in full-time work to get to a full-time blogger income. In fact, she put in more than 40 hours per week. She was willing to do whatever it took to accomplish her goal. And as a result, she made it.
Jen's Tips for Anyone hoping to get to a Full-time Blogger Income
When asked what Jen would say to people who are struggling to get to a full-time income with their blog, here's what Jen had to say:
- It will be hard work.
- Don't try the quick fixes. They don't work.
- Seek good solid advice from a trusted mentor/coach.
- Check out the Coaching Club.
What are you waiting for?
Are you looking to get to full-time blogger income? Then what are you waiting for? Jen was able to do it because she was willing to put in the work and she had the guidance she needed to make it happen.
Are you willing to put in the work? If so, I'm willing to help you. Join the coaching club and let's make it happen.
Tools/Resources/References
- Jen's book:
- Jen's website:
- Become a Blogger Coaching Club
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