If you’re reading this you’re likely interested in something related to your home. It could be home decor, design, home improvement, cooking, gardening or something similar.
I’ll also hazard a guess that you spend time reading this type of content or watching videos. You might contribute to various communities such as a Facebook Group, sub-Reddit, Quora, a forum or something else.
If you’re putting this kind of time into your passion or hobby or interest in maintaining your home, my bet is you have the potential to launch and grow a successful blog or some kind of online presence that you own and can generate some revenue from.
I’m not kidding.
Who am I?
My name is Jon Dykstra. I own an interior design company in North Vancouver, BC. Hence, I publish Homestratosphere.com which generates tens of thousands of dollars per month, mostly from ads.
I also own a small travel blog where I publish articles about my area and my trips. It’s JourneyJunket.com. When I go on trips or do something fun in my town, I write about it and post photos. You might think it a waste of time except that blog generates $700 per month. I take photos anyway so I might as well take a few moments to post it to the blog and generate a few bucks. That blog pays for a nice family trip every year. It’s a bit of an eclectic blog because it covers random places I and some friends have visited. If you scroll through it you’ll see plenty of Vancouver and North Vancouver articles which is where I live.
I have young boys, one of whom loves to color. So in addition to buying him coloring books, I hired an illustrator to create some coloring pages and then I published them on a blog (I printed them for him to color as well). In time, the website took off and now earns $4,000 per month. I started it as a fun project for my sons and now it’s a great little business. That website is Verbnow.com.
My view is instead of posting all my photos and interests to websites such as Facebook that make them money, I should post them to a website I own that will make me money over time.
I also write about blogging and offer a free course about it here (another blog I own called Fat Stacks).
You might be thinking that Homestratosphere is more than just interior design. That’s correct. It started with only interior design content but over the years I’ve invited some freelance writers to contribute articles on gardening and cooking (recipes). I know there’s crossover interest so that’s how it’s expanded.
I don’t have a computer science degree or any tech education whatsoever. I don’t need to. If you can create a Facebook account or Instagram account or Pinterest account you can start a blog. Yup, it’s that simple.
Costs very little to get started
All you need to start is your domain name (your site name plus the .com). This costs $20 per year. You also need website hosting which costs $100 per year. That’s the sum total in cost to get started.
From there it’s all about you writing about what interests you. Here are some ideas:
- Home decor / interior design – focus on a specific style or go a little broader and publishing a website about it generally (which is the direction I took homestratosphere.com by featuring many other interior designers and architects).
- Home improvement – woodworking, fixing things, hacks, etc.
- Cleaning and organization
- Cooking and creating recipes (if you’re cooking for your family, you might as well make a few bucks on the side with it).
- Gardening – outdoor, houseplants, herbs, vegetables, orchids, bonsai trees, roses… any and all make for a great blog.
- Travel – I don’t cover travel on Homestratosphere.com but it’s such a great concept because you can blog about where you live. You know the area. You can easily get photos. It’s a no-brainer. While it might not make you rich, it is fun and you can make a few extra bucks doing it.
- Hobbies – if you have a hobby, that’s a great topic for a blog.
I could go on and on. You can start a blog on any topic you like.
How do these websites make money?
In my case, I earn mostly from ads that I put on the site. I know ads detract from the visitor experience but that’s the best way to make money from these types of sites. Another way is to be an affiliate. An affiliate is sending visitors to a merchant website such as Amazon. When those people buy something, you as the website owner earn a percentage of the sale. This is a very common way for websites to make money. Any product review you read will have affiliate links. It’s very easy to become an affiliate and get the links to put on your site.
In other words, do not let the tech deter you. The tech is very simple these days. When I started long ago it was more complicated but these days it literally is as easy as managing a Facebook profile or Pinterest account.
As for the ads, once your website has some website visitors, you can apply for an ad account. When approved, they will provide you some code that you copy and paste and put on your site. The ads will display automatically. You don’t need to do anything. It’s remarkable. Every ad on all my sites load and earn with me doing nothing.
My focus is publishing articles and creating content people want to read and look at
I love producing content. I enjoy writing. I love looking out for great interior photos and the latest in residential architecture. As an interior design company owner, I love working with my designer to create stunning designs. It’s a fun, creative way to earn a living.
Some days I write a lot. Some days not so much. It’s up to me. I’m also at the point where I’m able to hire some writers with their own expertise to contribute but that’s not necessary to get started. When I started, it was just me. Most start out this way. Many of the biggest websites online were started by one person who enjoyed publishing content.
I have as much fun producing content for my blogs as I do being involved in the activities that create the content. For example, I love traveling and taking great vacations but I also love showcasing those trips on my travel blog. It’s the same with Homestratosphere.com – I love looking at beautiful interiors and then publishing the photos for other people to enjoy them.
Jazz it up with social media (optional)
If you enjoy participating on social media, you’ll love blogging because the two go hand-in-hand. You can share your blog content across all social media or just your favorite platform. This can help grow your blog but having popular social media accounts can be valuable and fun in themselves. For instance, a popular Facebook page on your chosen topic can send traffic to your blog. Same with Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube etc.
If you look at the bottom right of Homestratopshere.com, you’ll see links to all social media accounts I use for Homestratosphere.com. I’m more active on some than others but the point is those social media accounts help grow this blog.
How much time does it take?
You can put in as little or as much time as you like. It happens to be my full-time job so I put in 40 hours per week into it but that’s not necessary. I have a woodworking friend I’m helping out with his woodworking blog. He has young kids and a full-time job so he can’t dedicate much time to it yet he’s getting traffic and making a little money from it on a hobby he loves to do and write about.
Most people start with a few hours per week. As it grows and the revenue grows, they get inspired and work more on it. Once you do earn some revenue from it, you can hire people to help out (or not). I chose to hire some folks to help out to grow faster but you can keep it as a solo project as well.
There aren’t any rules about how you go about it except that if you want to get visitors, you need to publish content they’ll like. Chances are if you’re interested in the topic or niche, other people are as well.
How much can blogs earn?
This is the crazy part and I don’t want to get your hopes up but they can earn well above $100,000 per month. This takes several years and a lot of work but they can. My blogs together earn in excess of $80,000 per month (I’ve been at this for many years).
Getting back down to reality, aiming for $1,000 to $3,000 per month is a realistic initial goal. That’s very doable with consistent effort. That would take one to two years. I know that seems like a long time but I’ve yet to meet anyone who started this process and who hung in there until they were making more than $1,000 who regretted it. That kind of money can help with a mortgage, pay off debt, pay for a vacation and so on.
As you grow, at some point you might decide to treat it more as a business and take it to the next level. That’s what I did. It took time but I hung in there and kept on creating content.
How do you get started?
The first step is figuring out what you want your blog or website to be about. You really should narrow down your topic. You shouldn’t publish a website about gardening, cars and technology. That’s to broad.
Instead, choose a specific hobby or interest, especially when starting out. If you like the idea of a gardening blog, start with a specific type of gardening. You can expand into other gardening topics down the road.
Same with home decor or improvement. Start with something more specific. You can expand later.
Same with travel. My travel blog is a bit eclectic at the moment. It would be a better blog if it was restricted to Vancouver, BC or even British Columbia. I may make that adjustment at some point but for the time being that website is more fun than a business for me.
Next steps …
I know that this blogging topic isn’t within the home and garden arena but it’s also true I’ve had readers ask me questions about starting a blog so I decided to finally put this very introductory article together for readers interested.
Actually, I’ve been showing folks how to start and grow their own blog for years. Many folks I’ve pointed in the right direction have grown blogs to earning $10,000 or more per month; in some cases way, way more. Don’t get me wrong, that didn’t happen overnight. They put in plenty of effort and time but their hobby blog turned into a great business.
In addition to a small portfolio of blogs all about my various interests, I own a blog called Fat Stacks. That’s the blog where I write about blogging. I started it because I enjoy writing about this stuff… it’s literally another blog based on something I’m interested in.
So, your next step is to grab my free course that delves more into this fun blogging business. Once you join my free course, you’ll have joined one of the most popular email newsletters about blogging (my newsletter). It’s been around for 7+ years and has helped thousands of people (not joking… I have a private forum with thousands of members who told me so).
Once you go through the free course, you’ll be given a chance to buy my premium course but there’s absolutely no obligation at this point. Perhaps explore this business more before buying the course. Read my email newsletters over the next month or so (sometimes I write a few a week, sometimes just one… depending on whether I have anything to say).
=> Check out my free course on blogging here (it takes you to my popular Fat Stacks website)