Six months later, I made my first $100 from my blog when a blogger friend who was already profiting from her blog connected me with an advertiser. I didn’t even know blogs could make money.

Until then, my blog had genuinely just been fun for me. But once I realized I could make money, it boosted my motivation. I sought out deals and wanted to see if companies wanted to sponsor my blog. Also, companies would approach me. When my blog had been just a hobby, they would approach me, but I would ignore all those emails. Once I realized I could make money from my blog, I took them more seriously and gave them my rates. At that time, I charged $100 for a sponsored post on my blog or $150 for an advertisement on my sidebar. I also made a little bit on Google Adsense and affiliate income, where I was promoting other companies’ products, and if one of my readers bought through me, the company would pay me.

My advertisers were mainly financial companies like coupon websites and cell phone apps and other services that helped people save money. At that time, it wasn’t so much banks, but I do have bank advertisers now and I charge them much more than that of course.

I also started looking for opportunities writing for other bloggers and immersing myself into the blogging community.