During all of this, I ran my online business “Making Sense of Cents” from the ship. Ten years ago, I started blogging about my progress towards paying off my student loans. Currently, I earn $40,000 a month in semi-passive income through three different streams: affiliate marketing, sponsored partnerships, and online courses.
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Part of my income also comes from investments. A portion of the proceeds go into your personal investment or retirement account and you receive quarterly dividends.
I spent approximately 2-3 hours at work per cruise day, excluding port days, so I could fully explore the destination. In total it was 10-15 hours per week.
Here's what it was like back then and how I built an almost entirely passive income stream.
I carefully planned my work schedule based on my travel plans.
After spending several days in the sea, there will be about 60 of them! — I focused on work, especially during my daughter's nap time. I answer emails, write blog posts, brainstorm new ideas, take care of my finances, address urgent matters that need my attention, and strategize new ways to grow Making Sense of Cents. I did.
I have built many of my blog posts around affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a strategy that accounts for about half of my blog's income. I write about products I like and believe in, and add referral links for my readers to check out. I receive a commission when someone signs up through my link.
These links may be included in posts I wrote months or even years ago. You can write about your product once and earn money over time. The more traffic you get to your website, the more you can earn money even with your old posts.
While on the cruise ship, I published one or two new articles to my blog every week. We also noticed that our 2022 post “31 Best Work From Home Jobs (#1 is a Full-Time Job!)'' is also doing well thanks to social media platforms like Pinterest and Facebook. Ta. During the four months I spent at sea, tens of thousands of new readers visited that post.
Approximately 20% of my income comes from advertising, including sponsored partnerships. I partner with a company to promote their brand on my blog and social media, highlighting their products through my writing skills, and sharing my experiences with their products.
This content may include reviews and educational posts about what the company offers. This is a win-win situation. The company gets more exposure and I can make money by creating content and delivering it to my audience.
Before I decide to work with a company, I try out their products and services and find out as much as I can. If we don't like it, we won't form that partnership. Every week, I turn down offers from companies that I don't think my readers will like or that don't align with my beliefs.
Sponsored partnerships are a more active source of income, so I didn't do them much during the cruise. Specifically, I worked on a few sponsored newsletters, spending probably 5 hours total.
Another 20% of my revenue comes from selling courses.
When I started blogging, I didn't fully realize how much money I could make selling my industry expertise. By the time I got the idea for my first course, I had to have thousands of people (literally hundreds every week) ask me to help them monetize their blogs, and I ended up getting the idea for my first course. It was titled “Understanding the Meaning of Marketing.''
I created the guide I wish I had when I started in the blogging world and published it on an online course platform called Teachable. We've explained how affiliate marketing works and how to use it effectively, and broken down those topics into text-based lessons and modules. I still keep it updated and sometimes add new lessons.
During the cruise, I updated my lessons and answered questions from my students. I also managed the Facebook community group for the course and tried to be active there at least a few times a week.
Then I closed my laptop and sat on the balcony with my husband and baby and together we watched the sunset from our room.
Michelle Schroeder Gardner is the founder of Understand the meaning of centWe help our readers make smart decisions about how they earn, save, spend, and invest. She paid off her nearly $40,000 in student loans in just seven months and now travels as much as possible.follow her Instagram, Facebook and pinterest.
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