17 Blogging Habits To Double Your Income And Free Time

Do you know the productive blogging habits successful bloggers practice daily? How about systems in place to ensure that you double your income while doubling your free time at the same time? Sound too good to be true?

Picture this: it’s 2 AM, and there you are, squinting at your laptop screen, a half-eaten pizza to your left and a pile of scribbled notes to your right. That’s when it hits you — you can’t keep grinding at your blog with no plan.

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So today, I’ll share the blogging habits that turn everyday writers into viral virtuosos.

I’ve been where you are, wading through the internet’s endless advice with the same enthusiasm as a cat in water. But fear not! I’ve compiled my personal 17 blogging habits that helped me succeed. This is the real deal, no fluff.

We’re talking about the kind of habits that transformed my living room chaos into a hotspot of inspired content creation. So, buckle up, and let’s swap our confusion for these game-changing rituals.

Who knows? You might just end up with your own late-night ‘aha!’ moment.

 

Blogging Habits To Double Your Income And Your Free Time

As a business owner, do you feel like you’re just wearing too many hats and you’re doing too many things, and you feel like you’re busy all day?

But then at the end of the day, you’re not really sure what you got done. That is a pretty common feeling. For many entrepreneurs.

Blogging Habits To Double Your Income And Free Time – Conclusion

Here are the blogging habits I swear by!

Habit #1. Wake Up Early

Here’s a little nugget of wisdom wrapped up in my own experience, just like a chat over coffee.

So, rule number one in my book? Wake up early to work on your blog every day!

Starting your day early gives you a peaceful, uninterrupted time to focus. Try setting your alarm a bit earlier each day until you find a sweet spot where you’re awake enough to be productive but still catching those quiet hours.

Use this time to plan your day, brainstorm ideas, or even get a head start on writing. It’s amazing what a calm morning can do for your productivity and mindset!

Read: How to wake up early and not feel tired.

Habit #2. Trust Yourself

Trust your gut and skills. Listen, diving into any big dream, like starting that blog you’ve always talked about, is like stepping into unknown waters. Your brain’s your best tool here.

Keeping an upbeat headspace isn’t just nice; it’s your secret weapon! There have been loads of times when I’ve stared at my screen, wondering if all the late nights and endless cups of coffee are worth it.

In those moments, I toss out the doubts and recall why I even started tapping away at my keyboard.

You see, blogging’s done more than just fill up my spare time; it’s boosted my confidence and kept my outlook sunny. I’ve shared stories about how this attitude has helped me nail my goals.

Habit #3. Treat Your Blog Like A Job From Day 1

From the get-go, set regular hours for your blogging work and stick to them.

Create a dedicated workspace free from distractions. Set goals, deadlines, and to-do lists just as you would in a traditional job.

This professional approach not only boosts productivity but also helps you take your blog seriously, which is crucial for long-term success.

Habit #4. Invest In The Right Tools & Education

Don’t shy away from investing in quality blogging tools and education. A reliable hosting service, a professional-looking theme, and tools for SEO and social media management are worth their weight in gold.

Also, consider courses or workshops to improve your writing, marketing, or technical skills. Remember, investing in your blog is investing in yourself.

Habit #5. Overcome Money Mindset Blocks, And Have A Growth Mindset

Shifting your mindset about money is vital. Understand that it’s okay to earn from your passion and that investing in your blog can lead to growth. Embrace a growth mindset; see challenges as opportunities to learn rather than obstacles.

Celebrate small wins and learn from setbacks. Your mindset can be your biggest asset.

Habit #6. Write SEO-Optimized Content (SEO course – free access!)

Learn the basics of SEO and apply them to every piece of content you create.

Use keywords naturally, optimize your images, and understand what your audience is searching for. SEO might feel like a slow game, but it’s the backbone of driving organic traffic to your blog, so patience and persistence are key.

Habit #7. Post Seasonal Content Well In Advance Of Holidays

Plan your seasonal content months in advance. This foresight gives you time to create thoughtful, relevant posts that resonate with the season. It also means you’re ready to publish when people start searching for that content, not after the peak has passed.

Use a content calendar to plan and keep track of important dates and ideas.

Habit #8. Follow The 80/20 Rule (20% Content Creation, 80% Promotion)

It’s not just about what you write, but how you get it out there. Spend 20% of your time crafting high-quality, valuable content and the remaining 80% promoting it through various channels like social media, email newsletters, and guest blogging.

The more eyes you get on your content, the more it can do its job.

Habit #9. Utilize Pinterest SEO For Traffic

Pinterest isn’t just for crafts and recipes; it’s a powerful tool for bloggers. Use keywords in your pin titles and descriptions, create eye-catching images, and pin regularly.

Understand what your audience is searching for on Pinterest and tailor your content to meet those needs. Pinterest can be a massive source of traffic if leveraged correctly.

Habit #10. Get On Stages

Increase your visibility and establish authority by participating in virtual summits, webinars, or platforms like Clubhouse.

These opportunities allow you to share your expertise, connect with peers, and reach new audiences. Plus, they’re great for building your confidence and communication skills.

Habit #11. Your Email List Is #1 Priority

Your email list is a gold mine. These are people who’ve expressed interest in what you have to say. Make building and maintaining your list a top priority.

Provide value through regular updates, exclusive content, or early access to your products. Remember, unlike social media, you own your email list, making it a stable and valuable asset.

Habit #12. Publish New Content Consistently

Habit #12: Publish New Content Consistently Whether it’s once a week or once a month, find a rhythm that works for you and stick to it.

Consistency helps build trust with your audience as they know when to expect new content from you. It also favors algorithms, making your blog more likely to show up in search results.

Habit #13. Engage With Your Readers

Don’t just talk at your audience; talk with them. Respond to comments, emails, and social media messages. Ask for their opinions and encourage discussions.

The more you engage, the stronger your community becomes. Plus, understanding your readers better can inspire new content ideas and improvements.

Habit #14. Monetize With Affiliate Marketing And Digital Products

Affiliate Marketing: Choose products or services that align with your niche and resonate with your audience. Be transparent about your affiliate relationships and always promote items you genuinely believe in to maintain trust with your readers.

Digital Products: Consider what unique value you can offer. Whether it’s e-books, courses, printables, or webinars, create products that solve problems or fulfill needs for your audience. Ensure your products are of high quality and relevant to your content.

Habit #15. Survey Your Audience Often

Regularly ask your audience for feedback through surveys or polls. Use tools like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey, or even simple social media story polls.

Ask specific questions about their interests, challenges, and what they’d like to see more of on your blog. This not only shows you value their input but also gives you valuable insights for future content and strategies.

Habit #16. Network With Other Creators, But Ignore The Drama In Blogging Communities

Engage with other bloggers through social media, blogging forums, or guest posting. Networking can lead to collaborative opportunities, learning, and support.

While being part of a community is beneficial, steer clear of any negative drama. Focus on positive interactions and relationships that uplift and motivate you.

Habit #17. Above All, Provide The Best Value!

Always aim to create content that is informative, engaging, and valuable. Your content should solve problems, answer questions, or entertain in a way that leaves your readers feeling satisfied and informed.

Keep up with trends and updates in your niche to ensure you’re providing the most current and relevant information.

Never sacrifice quality for quantity; it’s better to post less frequently with high-quality content than to post often with subpar material.

Sensi Carlery shares her blogging habits today on HerPaperRoute Podcast

My guest on the HerPaperRoute podcast today is Sensi Charlery, she is a finance professional by day and entrepreneur by night.

She is on a mission to help other young women take control of their lives and become the best version of themselves.

Sensi has also sold two of her websites through me, as her broker. Sales which earned her over $35,800!

Sensi is here to share her tips for implementing blogging habits that have helped her double her income and her free time.

Listen to today’s episode to learn more! Listen now: Blogging Habits To Double Your Income And Free Time

Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify

Q. Hi Sensi! Tell us all about your startup story!

Well, my startup story was actually a bit of an accident. I was just pursuing one of my hobbies. And then I realized that I can turn it into a business.

When I was a sophomore in college, I decided that I wanted to go on this whole personal growth journey.

I felt inspired to share it with other people, mainly young women my age. So I created a blog, and I started posting about personal growth.

I soon realized that I was the only one reading my blog! I figured out how to use Google Analytics, and I realized that I was the only one looking at it.

So I did some research on how I can get more views, to get more readers. I came across Pinterest. And on Pinterest, while I was doing research, I learned that you could turn a blog into a business and that there were people making six and seven figures with their blogs.

So I thought “I can do that!” And I started my blog, just before my senior year in college.

As I said, in the beginning, I was posting fairly random stuff. But I’d say 2019 was my first official year in business.

That’s when I said “okay, you know what? I’m going to turn this thing into a business.”

I liked doing it. I wanted to help people. I wanted to grow it and make money. You know, just blog about my personal growth journey.

I started pursuing that.

Q. When you decided to monetize it, how did you monetize?

Initially, I didn’t want to invest in my blog. Simply because I was still in college, and I was responsible for paying for my tuition every semester.

That was a hurdle that I had to get over.

I learned about a lot of different people who were selling courses and they were helping people make money too.

But because I was still in college, and I had to pay my tuition, I was afraid to spend money on something that I wasn’t 100% sure was going to work.

But then I received a scholarship, and I had some money from my part-time job and used some of it to invest in buying some blogging courses.

But of course, with blogging, when you start implementing different strategies it doesn’t always take off immediately. Which made me hesitate again to invest.

So I remember, in the first six months of that business year, I made a whopping $4. I only made $4!

But still, behind the scenes, I continued implementing all of the strategies I was learning from the courses that I was taking.

And then in the following six months, I made $10,000.

Related: All the tools, apps, and training I use to run my blog and business

Q. What do you think made that change from $4, to $10, to $10,000? What happened in between that?

So for one, I realized that I really had to work on my mindset.

One of the things you always see in courses is mindset modules. There’s always something in the beginning on mindset.

Back then, I almost always skipped over those mindset modules, because I just wanted to go straight to the strategies. Like, “just let me make some money!”

But it was after a couple of months when I really wasn’t seeing results. So I started to work on myself.

I focused on treating my blog as a business versus a hobby. I trademarked my blog name from the beginning, even before I had any traffic or revenue to speak of. .

The very first thing I had to do was work on myself, I had to do some personal development. I had to change my perspective and treat it as a business.

And then, as a result, I realized that I had to create systems in my business.

I basically created a simple Google Doc. I wrote all of the major activities that I had to do for my business. And I titled it ‘activities required to run my business.

With blogging, it was things like ‘creating content,’ ‘graphic design’, ‘marketing’, which was basically Pinterest, and email marketing.

I detailed out all of the steps that were needed for each of these tasks.

And then I highlighted what was training me what I could outsource. I started looking for ways to outsource. And then I discovered Fiverr. I started paying contractors.

At first, it was trial and error. But I landed some solid people at Fiverr that I worked with for the duration of my blog before I sold it.

I found someone to write my posts, I found someone to create my graphics and even help with keyword research!

One of the most important things that went along with these systems was I also started batching my work and scheduling time on different days to do different things.

So one day would be for reviewing content that I got from my copywriter and then editing it and putting it into WordPress to schedule.

Another day might be, focusing on my graphics, and then another day just for Pinterest scheduling.

Related: Time Blocking Examples For All Your Blogging Tasks

So after I changed my perspective, and I created those systems, I was able to free up a lot more of my time.

With this, I could better implement the strategies that I learned in those courses I had bought.

It was mainly:

• How to monetize with affiliate marketing and ads
• How to get more traffic to your website
• How to grow your traffic with Pinterest marketing

Once I started creating those systems, and I started treating it like a business, I freed up a lot more of my time.

Then I was able to reach all of those revenue goals that I had, that I wasn’t hitting in the beginning because I wasn’t just focusing on money.

All of those revenue goals eventually just started taking care of themselves.

Q. Wow! What was one specific strategy that really worked for you on affiliate marketing?

Yes! For example, with the Amazon affiliate program.

I had a college blog. So let’s say I made a post about dorm room items for freshmen.

Now, the average person’s attention span is not that great. Sometimes people don’t stay on blog posts very long.

So if you list the top three recommended dorm room products for college students at the top of your post, (before the fold). Because you can get a lot of conversions right there at the top of the page!

People will likely click on those affiliate links at the top, so they don’t even have to skim the list at all.

My Amazon conversions doubled from one month to another when I implemented this, because more people were clicking on the top of page links.

I went through all of the popular posts that I had, that were affiliate posts, and updated each article with affiliate links at the top.

I highly recommend that you go update your posts, summarize the top three recommendations, or just give a brief synopsis with the top three.

Here’s another great thing. You don’t necessarily have to try to guess what would be the top three items for whatever it is you’re posting about.

I simply looked on Amazon, I looked through my Google Analytics, and I looked at what people were clicking on the absolute most.

There, I can see the specific links, what products are getting the most clicks. Then I bump those ones up all the way to the front.

So you don’t necessarily have to guess if you already have posts that are published.

You can just see what people are clicking on, and then move those to the top.

Get the Affiliate Marketing Profit Planner and you’ll never wonder where your next commission is coming from again!

 

Q. Sensi, you have sold two of your websites with me. Can you walk us through what that process was like when you were putting your site up for sale?

Oh my gosh, Chelsea, that was one of the best things I did in my blogging business to be honest!

With my college blog, I eventually felt burned out. Sure, it made sense when I was in college. But after I graduated, I didn’t want to keep writing about college content.

So my initial plan was to just set it and forget it.

Because it was earning passive income and I knew which seasons I would get the most money.

But then one day I was on Pinterest, and I saw this post from another blogger who sold her blog.

And I was like “you could sell a blog?!” I had no idea you could even do that.

I read the post and she talked about how she sold it through your website.

So I emailed her and asked what her experience was like. She said “Chelsea is great, highly recommend her. She makes everything so easy.”

So I went and filled out your free blog selling valuation form. That’s when we started talking about prices and everything. And I remember I had so many questions in the beginning.

But you were very patient with me, and you answered all of my questions. Basically, all I had to do was just sign a form, and then I literally just moved on with my life and you took care of everything in the background.

That honestly exceeded my expectations.

Because earlier when I had been thinking about selling, I did some research to find out about ways to sell it.

I found some websites where you could sell it on your own. But they talk about having to do your own contracts and stuff like that.

Plus, I had no idea how I could trust somebody to hand over everything before I get paid and stuff like that.

But you literally took care of everything, you had the contracts ready, you talked to all of the potential buyers.

This made it very easy for me, because I have a nine to five and I still work. So I literally just had you list it, and then we would talk when there will offers for me to negotiate.

The first blog we sold quickly. This gave me a glimpse of what the process was like, and I was just like, “oh, wow, this is, this is pretty simple!”

I felt confident. And then the second one sold, and that process was even easier!

I was so surprised. All I had to do was talk to you at first, and then you listed it. Then you came back with offers. When I accepted the offer you literally detailed all of the migration steps.

Because I was so nervous in the beginning! I was like “oh my God, I’ve had this blog since 2018. How do I transfer all of this?”

I had no idea how to transfer a domain, and the WordPress migration, and all of that. And as soon as I accepted the offer, and we signed the contract, you literally sent a detailed email with everything to do.

My thoughts were just “wow, this is amazing.”

Q. Well, that really makes me happy to hear! Now, you have your seasonal content down to an art. What is your strategy for getting seasonal content to rank?

So the most important thing is to post way in advance. For example, Halloween is in October and I’m planning to have everything posted by the end of this month and it’s April!

Because, if you plan on using Pinterest for traffic, typically it takes a couple of weeks for the pins to get traction and really rank.

You have to create optimized pins on Pinterest to link back to your blog. And it’s going to take a couple of weeks for those pins to gain traction.

So you want to post in advance, I would say probably about two, three months in advance of the season, just to give yourself that extra time.

Ensure that you are using keywords. You can find related keywords when you type something into Google.

There will be related search terms that populate at the bottom. These are keywords. You want to make sure you use them in your pin descriptions and also in your blog posts.

So if you do this correctly, by the time the season comes around, your pins will be ranking if you do it correctly.

And you can gain a lot of traffic this way. Rather than waiting to post your Halloween content in September.

So the number one thing is to start way in advance so that it can sit.

Next, with Google, it takes some time for them to crawl your website. If you don’t have a lot of backlinks on Google yet, you probably won’t have a high domain authority.

So Google takes even longer than Pinterest to rank your content. So you want to post way in advance.

Q: Any Last Words of Advice For Bloggers?

Yes: focus on creating value, instead of making money.

In my first six months of business, I was very money-oriented.

I was very focused on making money, and I had these revenue goals that I wanted to earn.

But I didn’t really focus on providing value.

If you think about it, the people you follow on social media, or the bloggers you subscribe to even podcasters; the reason you are hooked on their content is that it provides value to you. It’s useful to you.

And as a result of providing that value, your platform, whatever you use, is going to grow organically.

As a result, as it grows, you will make more money.

So the main thing you need to do is focus on creating value versus money.

Honestly, when I started doing that, that’s when everything started falling into place.

People started emailing me, asking me for tips on improving their GPA. I was suddenly building a whole community in my email list.

Which allowed me to write more content to cater to what people were asking me.

And then, as a result, those posts did very well. I got more money from AdSense and affiliate commissions.

So focus on value, not money.

And lastly, if you are struggling with imposter syndrome, know that you’re not alone and just trust the process.

Because I’m only 24. Imposter syndrome was something I struggled with a lot. But if I can have blogging success as a college student, then you can do it too.

Connect with Sensi via her new podcast Secluded Thoughts and her Instagram.

17 Blogging Habits – Conclusion

And there you have it! Seventeen golden nuggets of blogging wisdom, served with a side of my own late-night snack choices and the occasional existential crisis.

Remember, every successful blogger started somewhere, likely with more caffeine than sleep. As you step out with these habits in your arsenal, don’t just walk — moonwalk!

Make your blog the disco ball in the party of the internet. And if you ever find yourself typing away in the wee hours, questioning your life choices, just laugh and remember: even the best of us have been there, typing with one hand and Googling “how to be a morning person” with the other.

To learn how to start your own blog, enroll in HerPaperRoute’s free blogging foundations course.

This training walks you through every step you need to know to set up and monetize your brand-new blog so that you can start earning income right away.

Or if you are looking to buy or sell an online business, read: Where to buy websites.

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