How I Made Money With A Dead Blog

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They say you will start earning money if you have reached 1000 page views a day

I beg to differ, I made money with a dead blog

It was completely shut, like really shut

Are you wondering why my blog was dead at the first place?

No worries I am going to tell you everything

A lot was going on:

  • I thought I was doing everything wrong and my blog wasn’t generating income as sooner as I expected
  • My former host was expensive
  • Pinterest suspended my account

DisclaimerSome links on this page are affiliate links. I may earn a small commission to fund my blog if you use these links. You will not be charged extra, Thanks a million for your support.

My Blog Wasn’t Generating Income As Sooner As I Expected

As I said earlier a lot was going on and as a new blogger I didn’t understand anything

I started blogging aiming to earn money instantly,

My site was hosted on Wealthy Affiliate and I was paying $49 every month

That was expensive to me but I was hoping that in two months time my blog will be making approximately $500-$1000

Crazy right? It’s not my fault, that’s what I read on other blogs

I also read income reports of those who testified that they made a thousand dollars on their first month

I even bought some courses that were guaranteed to help me earn a huge amount of money on my first month

But all those were just misleading and were created by scammers who wanted to steal innocent folks’ hard earned money

I only made 40c in my second month but I was so excited, at least I made something

It was an indication that I can actually make money from my blog

Since I was desperate, I expected to earn more than $40 the following month but I only earned $1.

How was I going to pay for hosting?

Lesson learnt: Don’t expect a thousand dollars on your first month rather focus on publishing fresh content frequently to build a solid relationship with your readers

Pinterest Suspended My Account

I wanted money to pay for hosting and my hosting subscription was due

I had to work on driving more traffic to my blog hoping that my readers will convert and make some purchases

Pinterest was my main source of traffic so I started spending lots of time pinning

My following grew so was my viewers and I created more boards but to my surprise, I got suspended

How I Made Money With A Dead Blog: Pinterest suspended my account

Imagine how I felt, after all, I didn’t violet any of their rules

Remember I was so desperate, my hosting account was due and Pinterest was my only hope

The same day that Pinterest suspended my account is the same day that wealthy affiliate suspended my premium membership as well

If your payment is due on Wealthy Affiliate they give you a few extra days and then cancel your membership.

But you will still have access to your WordPress dashboard for 30 days that is if you have your WordPress password

Back To My Pinterest Account

I contacted their support team asking why they suspended my account and they didn’t reply

On the other side, I was searching for a new host and I found a cheaper host

I moved to Siteground and paid $47 for the whole year!

But I couldn’t move my content to my new host because my premium membership was already cancelled

Lesson learnt: If you are hosted on Wealthy Affiliate don’t cancel your membership before moving your site to another host

So I lost all my posts, I was frustrated and decided to start over again on a different niche using a different domain name

Whilst I was working on a new niche Pinterest sent me the following message

How I Made Money With A Dead Blog: Pinterest reactivated my account

My account was reactivated again but Blogger’s Jungle was no more

I wanted to delete my Pinterest account after it was reactivated but then decided to keep it and maybe sell it later

I Didn’t Have A Passion On My New Niche

When big bloggers say, “you should choose a niche you are passionate about”, they really mean it and you should definitely focus on a niche you are passionate for

I didn’t enjoy the niche and I didn’t know how to promote it

I tried Pinterest but nothing worked, I even spent the whole month with just a single post.

And no one read it, the only comment I got was spam probably from a bot which commented on my about page, hahaha the comment didn’t make sense

After all this, I then decided to quit blogging FOR GOOD

How I Made Money With A Dead Blog

I made up my mind and was ready to quit blogging

Since I was approved as a ShareAsale affiliate with Blogger’s Jungle I wanted to delete my ShareAsale account

I logged in and BOOM there was a surprise!

A transaction was made the day before, it was a $20 commission from Grammarly

That was unbelievable! my dead blog made money!

But how was it possible? That’s the magic of affiliate marketing

I used to mention Grammarly a LOT in my previous posts on Blogger’s Jungle since I personally use it. It’s very helpful because I am not an English native

I know some non-natives are excellent English writers but I wasn’t, I was and am still learning English so Grammarly is my best buddy.

It’s always there to correct my grammar and spelling errors

Also, Grammarly proved to be my best buddy by being the #1 merchant to give me my first 40c and again my unexpected $20

Their cookie lasts for 90 days, so one of my referrals decided to upgrade to a Grammarly pro version and I earned a commission

Great right? That’s the power of Affiliate Marketing, all you have to do is promote the product insert links and wait for your commission

Do you want to become a Grammarly affiliate? If yes, you have to become a ShareAsale affiliate first to be able to promote Grammarly. Follow this guide: How To Be Approved As A ShareAsale Affiliate

Lesson Learnt:

  1. If done well, Affiliate Marketing is guaranteed to generate income for your blog
  2. You don’t need a thousand page views to make your first sale, what’s essential is to recommend products that you have personally used. In that way, folks will trust you and make a purchase
  3. Patience is the key to a successful business, if you are not making money now trust yourself and wait patiently, you will definitely make money soon. Keep working on your blog

I Relaunched Blogger’s Jungle

Instead of deleting my ShareASale account I ran to Siteground and deleted that blog (the one on a boring niche)

Luckily Siteground allows you to change your primary domain so I did and started Blogger’s Jungle over again

And now I am here to stay, come what may, I won’t give up blogging again

I now know what to focus on before stressing about the income

What matters is having you here reading and benefiting from this blog, which means I am focusing on publishing more content for you.

You are my first priority, your satisfaction is the root of my success

UPDATE: I re-branded my blog from Blogger’s Jungle to Another Successful Mama

Conclusion

No matter how many page views you have you can still earn money with your blog

I made money with a dead blog! and it never had anything close to 500 page views

What matters is how you promote your products and the folks you are promoting it to.

So know your audience and make sure they are perfect for what you are promoting.

Focus on your audience first and the money comes in naturally

Blogging is like any other business you don’t earn six-figure income overnight

Be patient and NEVER give up

If you have any question(s) feel free to ask me, I am always ready to help you

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22 thoughts on “How I Made Money With A Dead Blog”

  1. Hi
    I am happy your blog is up and running again, sorry for what you went through. This post is so inspirational you have shown us the other side of blogging in fact you have covered everything good and bad. Some bloggers rarely share their challenges. I like the lessons in this post. I am new to blogging and I want to know more about siteground hosting I heard that they have 3 plans and they only recommend the grow big. Do you get customer support when you are using startup?

    1. Hi Luke
      I am glad that you liked the post! Yes grow big is recommended but it doesn’t mean that Siteground doesn’t value their startup customers. I use startup and whenever I need help they do respond, I contact them via live chat and it’s quick

  2. Same thing happened to me, I gave up on my old blog to start a new one and a week later I received an email saying that I made a commission of $38. It was my first commission and it felt AMAZING! But I like my new domain and I guess I’ll just have to kinda forget about my dead blog lol.

    Anyway, its good to know that I’m not the only one who made ghost money

    And I’m glad you ended up not giving up blogging, props for you! This stuff isn’t as easy as they make it look.

    1. Hi Dawn
      Am also glad to know that I am not the only one as well. If you are finding it hard to get over your ‘dead blog’ you can relaunch it and run both blogs

    1. Hi Kelsey
      Yes, things are going well I am enjoying this blog, I am mainly focusing on publishing more posts and helping my readers. thanks to you too

  3. You offer a great lesson and seem genuine. I am stuck on finding my “passion”. Am I thinking too much? Almost all blog posts I’ve read speaks of passion so I am finding it hard to choose one. Definitely need to have patience. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hi Pauline
      I can’t say you are thinking too much, we all go through such a phase, that’s why I killed my blog and started another one on a different niche which I thought I was passionate for but I wasn’t. I was more confused than you are and I have discovered my passion through trial and error. You can start with a lifestyle blog so that you can blog about 2 or more topics and niche down as time goes

  4. This is great article, whatever we do, if we do with passion, there has to be something in return, i have just started with blogging and this kind of posts help me continue my work, I know blogging in 2019, seems bit old fashioned yet it is difficult as well, but if one can continue it for longer time, it is not impossible earn from it.

  5. Well, this is my first ever comment on a blog. But I just wanted to let you know that I found this site while I was reading a blog post on which you commented and the moment I clicked on the site I come back here regularly for all my problems. You are just great!!!

    1. Aww! Thank you so much Aakansha for such a sweet comment you’ve made my day, so glad to be part of your blogging journey

  6. They say blogging is easy, but easy to start/setup is what is easy about it.

    Once you start writing your blog posts, one after another, things start to become clearer. Everything you were taught works in blue, is actually black and vice versa.

    Just write and promote, and cash in. Yeah right! The headaches such as keyword research, SEO optimization, link building, outreach, niche research, content planning, lead magnets, email marketing, affiliate marketing, sales funnels, content upgrades, copywriting, analytics interpretation, networking, graphic design, WordPress management, ….etc is hushed out.

    This isn’t to scare anyone just thinking of starting a blog, but blogging is a real business with real hustle, not a get quick rich scheme. And you don’t need to know all of the above when just starting or expect yourself to. You learn in stages, as you grow and learn more, you do more.

    I can understand why you felt tired and decided temporarily to quit, anyone would. Personally it’s been like 10 months blogging without seeing much. And in that time, I’ve made all the mistakes possible and I know I’ll make more, but I’m pushing strong.

    Congrats! For making it happen soon and growing. On my side, I’m working hard to increase my revenue.

    And to all those blogging and feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. You lost the plan, strategy, and you’re just bouncing everywhere, just know it’s normal. And in time you’ll make it, but if you quit you’ll lose Everything. My advice: Don’t quit, learn and adapt to conquer.

      1. This is a very good. Everyone says if you keep at it you will eventually make progress with your blog. Good for you. You have a nice blog here.

  7. Nice post, it is inspiring, when you failed in the first attempt, one have to get up, and start moving, then one knows the real value of success. And yes Earning money online nowadays bit challenging because of the competition. if one can do things correctly there’s nothing it is impossible.

  8. I worked with shareasale a provided legit leads but no sales concert from the lead for months and I had 132$ on it on 17th before 22nd(the day of pay out) I got all my transactions voided and my account was suspended, I think shareasale is scam

    Have u ever gotten paid in shareasale?

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