My tiny appetite for writing made $450 in a year

No, it wasn’t gigs. I never tried to get one.

Yep, I never got a freelance writing gig. No projects of any sort at all to work on for that matter. And no clickbait of any sort here, I promise.

For those who’ve never read about me, I’m currently pursuing my Bachelor’s Degree and I write whenever my college gives me a break. My blog which has been serving as a writing portfolio for quite a while is the only source of income.

While I read big title articles on Medium of How to build 6-figure businesses, I never really got my hands dirty into it. I never made time for it.

It was solely my teeny tiny appetite for writing, the blog, and of course my enthusiasm for SEO and affiliates that made most of half a thousand dollars this year.

While most well-off writers today make way more than this, it’s a big deal to me as I type away on my laptop on my University’s campus. For those miles away from working in remote places, imagine typing words into your keyboard and making revenue out of it.

The whole digital nomad idea still remains fresh to me. Anyway, this piece isn’t about the idea of making money online. It’s not tips on writing for profit either.

If anything for that matter, it’s simply a reflection on how my passion for writing has paid off so far.

This piece is similar to the last post I made on Medium: A breakdown of how I generated the revenue — most of which was made while I played guitar outside, read and watched thriller movies, bunked my Uni’s classes, went on unplanned trips to whatever seemed interesting and unwisely spent most my evenings with my friends.

Major Revenue: $350 from Ads

While ad revenue sure is cliché for starters, it still makes most of my revenue today. I haven’t focused my blog on any particular topic apart from the broad niches of travel and writing.

I’ve yet to decide whether to focus my site on products or keep it on the entertainment end.

But in this buffer state of mind, the ad revenue has been of great help. Whether I’m trying to sell products on my site or simply write for the fun of it, the ad revenue has been the only source of steady revenue no matter what.

I’ve always had my set of readers and that’s helped out a lot in maintaining regular traffic.

If there’s one tip that I’ve to give you for getting traffic is to be consistent with content and whatever you write, make sure you give it your best.

There’s a lot of other things to take care of such as user experience of the site, speed, keeping it minimalistic, subscribers, and so on — but let’s keep this simple.

All of these extra stuff, you’ll find out eventually if you’re serious about blogging.

The Other $100

The rest of the revenue was honestly an experiment from my end. I began adding a bit of affiliate links here and there on my site, and they’ve been performing quite a bit too!

Affiliate marketing itself is a huge ass deal, I’ve grasped some of its basics and tried implementing it, and hence the 100 bucks.

Funnily enough, while my blog focuses primarily on travel, all the affiliate revenue came from the writing niche. One good reason I can think of is because nobody’s traveling in a pandemic.

But again, it could also mean I’m not strong on my affiliate end. I recently did a 20-hour course on affiliate marketing and have yet to implement it on my site.

That sets my target for the next year

Conclusion

FYI, I began the revenue count from last December (2020) and it’s been exactly an year with Christmas approaching in a few days from now.

For someone who’s spent nothing more than an or two on the blog on average for the year, I think it’s a great start.

I’ve yet to decide whether to take my blogging career seriously or pursue my Bachelors in Engineering and get a job.

But this offbeat path sure is tempting. And of course I’ll be ultimately living my dream — doing what I love for a living.

However, when it comes down to reality, $450 can’t pay my bills. Hell, it can barely pay a month’s rent and food expenses.

I’ve yet a long long way to go.

If I had the right word for this article, I guess it best describes as a log of my writing career. This serves as 2021’s update.

Wish you Merry Christmas in advance folks :)