Can I Make Money Blogging About My Life? — A Detailed Guide
You can make thousands of dollars a month blogging about your life as a man — it’s called lifestyle blogging. You’re the central theme, and the blog posts revolve around your past and present experiences, ideas, activities, etc.
This article answers, in great detail, the question: can I make money blogging about my life? I’ll provide satisfactory answers to questions about attaining financial success with a lifestyle blog. You’ll also discover the few critical things to get right when starting a lifestyle blog. All my answers are grounded in reality and backed by scientific, statistical, and social proofs.
Generating Income From a Blog
Before you can make money from any blog, it must have a substantial readership. Therefore, I’ll start by investigating whether people will read lifestyle blog posts. While the short answer to this question is yes, I want to delve deeper to cement your conviction.
Most people asking questions about making money from a lifestyle blog aren’t sure people will spend time reading about another person’s daily activities. And they don’t want to invest in something that might not bring them income. Hence, the quest for answers.
If you have a lot of doubts about lifestyle blogging and its chances of success, I’d suggest you give my Blog Lifestyle Mastery course a shot. Here, I delineate the important secrets that most bloggers won’t reveal to you.
Regarding how many pageviews a blogger needs to get paid, I’ve explained this in the later sections of this article.
Why Will People Read My Lifestyle Blog Posts?
There are many reasons why many people will read your lifestyle stories. Online readers generally seek information and entertainment or simply want to satisfy curiosity. If written properly, your lifestyle articles will satisfy one or more of these needs and attract readers.
Just think about how many people watch vlogs on Youtube. Often, these are just a documentation of some people’s daily lives, so why wouldn’t they also read a lifestyle blog documenting yours?
Here are 17 compelling reasons why people will follow your lifestyle blog.
1. You’re telling a story.
Humans love stories — that’s why folktales are preserved and passed down from generation to generation.
Scientists have long discovered a neurological connection between stories and parts of the brain responsible for empathy, compassion, and cooperation. These are strong emotions, and we know that titles and contents that trigger emotions get the most clicks. The freedom to narrate stories is one of the biggest reasons you can write a blog about your life.
If searchers see your title implying a life experience, they’ll like that content better than expert articles not backed by such experiences. Part of the reason is that it’s a story, not some boring opinion or factual content.
2. You’re writing facts, not fiction.
Every reader wants to spend their time on information they can trust. As shown by many statistical studies, there’s no information readers trust like other people’s experiences and life stories. This is why positive customer reviews drive sales more than anything else.
Simply put, people trust reviews because they’re facts, not fiction. Hence, they’ll be more willing to read your lifestyle blogs because you’re presumably telling the truth, making it rewarding to write a blog about your life.
3. Perhaps they could learn a lesson.
Blog titles about life experiences will draw clicks from even users who may not be undergoing that experience or planning similar actions. The reason isn’t far-fetched — humans love to learn from the successes and failures of others.
If a blog is about your lifestyle, some people will read it just to learn something about your life that may benefit them in the future. Not only can you make money blogging about your life, but you can also help other men in the process.
Let’s say you live a cool lifestyle, earn money or have something about you that other people desire, this could lead to them learning and getting closer to their goals. If they can do this for free by just reading your articles, then you’ll get readers.
4. Your experiences are similar.
While certain people may not be interested in your lifestyle, let alone your daily experiences, many men are likely to read your blog posts that share similar experiences, even if they aren’t currently undergoing that experience. The reason is that it reminds them about what they lived through or are living through. They may also get curious about how you handled it.
5. Your experience is unique.
No two people can have the same experience in any event. So, they can’t read the same experience anywhere else apart from your lifestyle blog.
Don’t misunderstand me, though; I’m not saying no one has ever lived through your kind of event. My point is that many factors influencing that event will differ from anyone else’s. In other words, such uniqueness is a major reason you can make money blogging about your life.
For example, if you travel somewhere new and the citizens greet you with unwelcoming looks, another foreigner there may also receive the same treatment. Despite this, prospective travellers would want to know about your experience and the other person’s because you two will not say the same thing.
That’s why when someone is planning a journey to an unknown location, they would be interested to hear from anyone who’s been there before.
6. Your stories move them.
Sometimes, it’s not that people want to learn from your experience or even be entertained by the story. What you’re telling them may be quite alarming or moving.
Moved by shock, sympathy, or humour, they’ll click your title to read the post. That’s how some people will develop an interest in you and read many other articles you publish. In essence, you can write a blog about your life experiences anytime and still get readers.
A big example of this is my article “how to be financially free” — what man doesn’t want to achieve that? It creates desire and leads to clicks.
7. They’re looking for answers.
Suppose a man is failing to achieve something you already achieved. In that case, he’ll be eager to understand the processes you followed to get where you are. And if he finds your methods effective, he’ll repeatedly visit your blog and most likely interact with you via email or comments.
The benefit of the WordPress dashboard and how easy web hosting is now is you can monetize your blog by just giving people the answers to their questions.
8. They’re simply curious.
Some people have an irresistible urge to learn about people’s lives. In such instances, they’re unlikely to visit your blog for answers or to learn from your experience. Rather, they find reading about other people’s lives entertaining.
Your stories give them conversation points with those around them. It’s easy to write a blog about your life that makes people curious. But your title needs to be intriguing to draw their attention.
9. Similarities in your lifestyles.
Unless someone is completely nuts, there’s no lifestyle they’d pursue passionately in today’s world that millions of people won’t follow or be curious about. For any lifestyle you lead, there are millions like you, and they’re online. They’re either currently living that life, interested in doing so, or simply curious to know more about it.
You and a reader may also adore the same role model. For example, like me, you may be nuts about the British thriller writer Rene Brabazon Raymond, who wrote under many pseudonyms, the most prominent of which is James Hadley Chase.
I like this man’s books, and I’m usually attracted to any online community about his thrillers. Lifestyle similarities like this are one of the main reasons why you can make money blogging about your life.
10. You’re their role model.
Are you extremely good at something that some people try to learn or perfect?
Do you already have a huge online following?
If yes, then there’s a part of your life that will make people interested in you, your story, and your daily lifestyle.
Bringing your daily life online and presenting it correctly might attract a crowd you never dreamed of. People are unbelievably loyal to their role models, and if there’s something you know or do exceptionally well, you can easily be a role model to other people.
One thing here is you can’t come across like a douche — if you’re over flashy and rub it in people’s faces, it’ll turn them away from you. As someone whose lifestyle is of interest to many out there, I developed a comprehensive Blog Lifestyle Mastery course to guide you on how to avoid this mistake and many others.
11. It’s a community of people with a similar lifestyle
Your lifestyle blog will gather like-minded people. This in itself is an incentive that’ll make users regular visitors.
If the community grows and you allow commenting, some users may not spend a day without visiting the blog. Others will likely recommend it to like-minded members of other communities who may not be aware of your blog. Your email list will get longer, and whenever you email users about new articles, many will show up within 24 hours.
Newbies usually wonder what type of blogs make the most money. Well, now you have your answer — it’s usually blogs that are communities of like-minded people.
12. They want honest advice.
Some of the best individuals that people turn to for advice are lifestyle bloggers. Because you live similar lives and your experiences are closely related, you’re in a better position to understand them and more likely to have faced a similar challenge.
On top of that, some of the blog’s community members can provide sound advice based on experience. This is why they’re likely to regularly visit your blog and ask questions there.
13. It’s an autobiography in progress.
Experience is the best teacher, they say. When you experience something, you’ll understand it better than anyone’s explanation. However, if you’ve never experienced an event, your next most precious information will come from other people’s experiences.
This is one of the main reasons autobiographies are popular. Ongoing autobiographies are among the types of blogs that make the most money.
Your autobiography matters too.
It’s not only the autobiographies of great people that are important. You can learn from someone who succeeded or failed at something by just observing their life or hearing about them.
Basically, you, too, tried some things that worked and others that didn’t. Readers will avoid your failed methods and try the successful ones, saving them time, money, and effort.
Many people love autobiographies.
What you write about specific aspects of your life can serve as a mini-autobiography. Because a lifestyle blog is a biography in progress, many people will be interested in your articles.
There are different benefits of a biography that motivate people to read one, such as promoting self-discovery, etc. Your blog will also provide such benefits. This is why you can easily write a blog about your life since you won’t lack what to share.
14. You won’t get tired of blogging.
A major defeating factor for most bloggers is that they quit along the line due to a lack of motivation.
No blog can succeed without firm dedication by the owner. Writing great posts regularly is feasible if there’s a passion but next to impossible if there isn’t. This is why a lifestyle blog is among those blogs that make the most money, as long as it’s by someone with the ultimate passion for it.
Visitors like blogs and social media channels that receive new content daily because every visit guarantees them something new. If you’re blogging about your passion and have even a handful of visitors to your blog—especially if they engage with the content—you won’t get tired of writing. And this will ultimately encourage continuous visits.
15. You’ll appeal to different personalities.
Not everything about your life will interest a particular reader since you can be many things simultaneously—such as a football fan, an adventurer, a political fanatic, etc.—and can share your experiences about all these interests.
However, some readers will follow your blog because they subscribe to your political views, for example. Regardless, your wide range of interests makes it easy to write a blog about your life at any moment.
On the other hand, you may dislike specific topics like wrestling and want to discourage people from patronising it. While readers who love this sport will disagree with you—perhaps rudely in the comments—like-minded visitors will love to read such blog posts.
16. Less reliance on Google.
You’ll have more advantages over a blog that relies fully on Google for its traffic. Since most people coming to your blog will remember it, they can easily find your blog since they intend to visit again. This advantage will benefit you in many ways.
First, it’ll increase your monthly pageviews. Secondly, it’ll protect you from any negative impact of a Google algorithm update. Thirdly, it’ll build trust in your followers, which will help your affiliate marketing. All of these ultimately help you make money by blogging about your life.
17. Many successful lifestyle blogs abound.
If all the previous reasons don’t convince you that people will follow your blog, this one will. Hence, why it’s listed last.
There are hundreds of successful lifestyle bloggers, many of whom are making at least $5,000 monthly. Some also make over $100,000 per month.
One great example of a successful lifestyle blogger is Martha Stewart. She attained resounding success with what you’re thinking to do — talking about her life and stuff she likes.
Why can’t you join this list? The only thing stopping you is starting.
Why Start a Lifestyle Blog?
Several benefits make starting a lifestyle blog a good idea. The icing on the cake is that you and your readers will benefit.
I’ll discuss only three points here, enough encouragement for you to make money blogging about your life experiences.
1. You’ll benefit someone.
I don’t have to stress this point because I previously emphasised how a lifestyle blog benefits readers. Summarily, people will learn from your mistakes and find answers concerning their lives. Moreover, you’re creating a community of like-minded people that will be happy to help one another.
2. You’ll make money from it.
People are making up to $100,000 monthly from their lifestyle blogs. The average monthly income for some lifestyle bloggers is $5,000, but it can be higher if you dedicate more time and effort.
Your blogging journey will likely start through earning £0, but you can soon find your feet in the lifestyle blog niche through getting your search engine optimization right and picking appropriate affiliate programs.
If you need help with SEO on your Squarespace website, then check out the Squarespace SEO plugin with step-by-step processes to follow to make a profitable blog through organic traffic.
There are many ways to make money blogging about your life experiences. I’ll address that in detail towards the end of this article.
3. You get stuff off your chest.
Blogging can be highly effective for warding off boredom. Plus, you’re unlikely to ever get tired of writing about your daily life.
Joining a community of your lifestyle buddies online will motivate you to try new things, some of which you never knew about. Most importantly, it’ll create an avenue for voicing your ideas and even sharing your grief with thousands of people — an audience you’re unlikely to get in the physical world.
How Soon Can You Make Money off Your Lifestyle Blog?
The many income avenues for a lifestyle blog guarantee you some revenue if people start visiting the blog. As a blogger, the first income I received came from an affiliate sale, and the second was through a guest post.
Many wannabe lifestyle bloggers often ask how many views a blogger needs to get paid. This depends on the monetisation strategy.
Depending on the products or services you promote in your articles, you can make hundreds of dollars monthly from affiliate sales with just 1,000 pageviews a month. But if you limit yourself to Google AdSense, you’ll require at least 10,000 monthly pageviews to make over $100 a month.
I have to admit — a common question I encounter frequently is “how can I earn money off my lifestyle blog in the shortest time possible?” This and many other factors inspired me to create what I tag as the most well-rounded course on the internet for launching a profitable lifestyle blog. Purchasing this course will speed up your blogging success and help you cut costs with the many free tools provided there.
Challenges of Lifestyle Blogging
One of the main challenges of running a lifestyle blog is writing the posts yourself to maintain originality. If someone is ghostwriting your blog posts, you may lose the authenticity that people follow you for. This means your blog will no longer be an autobiography but a heterobiography, which rarely reflects originality.
Life story blogs typically have another weakness that, if not overcome, can kill it. This weakness is their reliance on the reader’s emotions, which compels you to write thought-provoking titles for each post.
These are the two most important reasons why many people fail to make money blogging about their life experiences.
How to Start a Lifestyle Blog
Lifestyle blogging isn’t hard if you get the right resources and coaching.
Here are the steps to take when starting a lifestyle blog:
1. Choose a niche.
Your strongest passion is the best niche for your lifestyle blog. You can focus on fashion, diet, health & fitness, hobbies, travel, finances, home decor, and many more.
To ease your niche selection process, I’ve put together the Blog Lifestyle Mastery course to help you discover your biggest passions and monetisation opportunities.
2. Choose a suitable name.
Pick something that rhymes with your lifestyle and is easy to remember.
I’ll strongly discourage you from using free hosting platforms that add an extension to your blog’s name. This is because they mess up your unique website identity and derail your SEO (search engine optimisation) when you decide to get rid of the extension.
This begs the question: how can I make money blogging about my life experiences with an unmemorable URL?
Since you intend to monetise the blog someday, you ought to set it up in a way that allows you to scale it when the time comes.
Free blogging platforms like Blogspot, Wix, WordPress, etc., offer limited wiggle space for scaling and monetisation. Using the free hosting and scaling resources provided in the Blog Lifestyle Mastery will be a great advantage.
3. Use the right hosting platform.
You can run your lifestyle blog smoothly with many website hosts. But many factors make some more suitable for a lifestyle blog than others.
Key among these factors for a lifestyle blog include the costs and support for newbies like you. Website hosts without any dedicated programs for lifestyle bloggers can’t give you much support specific to this space.
The Blog Lifestyle Mastery course is a great option for newbie lifestyle bloggers as it provides all the training and resources necessary to make money blogging about your life experiences.
4. Be specific when starting out.
Your blog’s peculiarity sets it apart from others, especially in its infancy.
Don’t discuss different subjects on your blog. For example, don’t talk about a shoe you bought today and a burger you ate yesterday because burgers and shoes have nothing in common, and Google doesn’t favour unspecified websites.
This is called “topic authority” - if you stick to one topic, you’ll be known for being an expert in it and Google will rank you higher.
I’m not saying you should limit your blog to one aspect of your lifestyle. But if your blog is relatively new, this is the best approach for SEO.
Why’s this so?
No matter how interesting your stories are, if your posts don’t rank well on Google, all your efforts will come to nought. While you can write a blog about your life based on any experiences, having specific categories will increase your readership.
How to Manage a Lifestyle Blog
Before you publish anything, ask yourself how it’ll benefit the reader. Don’t just write anything that comes to your mind unless you have an intended benefit for the reader. It’s good to mention this benefit directly or indirectly, preferably at the beginning of the article.
Here are key tips that’ll help you manage your lifestyle blog excellently:
1. Do SEO research for each post.
No matter how spectacular your post is, Google must categorise and rank it before it can benefit your blog.
Do in-depth keyword research to understand how people look for your type of content and the type of articles that Google displays for relevant queries. Talk about any stuff you like or dislike, but always use the words and phrases people use to search for such content.
If you follow a particular diet and want to talk about it, research the internet first to know what people are searching for about that diet. You’ll discover some of their questions are about things you have already experienced, and you can confidently answer such and related questions.
Summarily, since a blogger needs many pageviews to get paid, strong SEO is mandatory for success.
2. Post titles must imply experience.
From your post title, let it be clear to the reader that this content is NOT based on research but on experience. Unless you’re a renowned expert in the field, people will rather hear from someone with experience.
This post about my experience with a Vitabiotics Multivitamins formula is a great example of an article with an experience-reflecting title. It has the title “How Vitabiotics Changed My Opinion on Multivitamins Forever.” This is a more befitting title than say “Are Vitabiotics Multivitamins Worth It?”
3. Learn to narrate your stories well.
No one dislikes a good story that’s well expressed. For that reason, choose events in your life that you find interesting, but always have a purpose for sharing such experiences.
You can narrate past events to entertain, warn, or encourage your readers. For example, you could warn readers about pitfalls when trying to learn a particular skill.
Proper expression is key to hooking readers, and you can perfect that skill with the Blog Lifestyle Mastery course.
4. Never lie in your posts.
Don’t lie to your readers or fans, no matter what.
Some people will be so interested in your life that they’ll read virtually everything you post online. And if you contradict yourself even once, especially with obvious lies, the reader may think you spin lies just to publish something.
This will hurt your loyal followers. Such readers will begin to doubt your stories, and nobody wants to keep reading an author they can’t trust.
5. Think before you write anything.
No matter what, some people will dislike the entire blog or a particular article you wrote. Internet trolling is something all celebrities grapple with.
Once you have a popular lifestyle blog, be ready for some hate speech from your personality counterparts. You can write a blog about your life on any subject, but don’t make inappropriate statements.
6. Put up posts regularly.
There are many reasons why people follow celebrities. Some are just curious to peek into the celebrity’s life. Listening to people’s stories is something they love very much, even if they lead different lifestyles.
The moment they discover your blog is regularly updated with interesting life events, they’ll keep coming to read your articles. Try your best to post daily because there’s no disadvantage to that besides the stress.
If a fan visits your blog twice or more without seeing anything new, they’ll be disappointed and won’t visit regularly.
How Can I Make Money Blogging About My Life?
Once you grow a loyal following, monetising that popularity is the juicy part.
The best way to generate income from your blog is through affiliate marketing or partnering with brands. You can also join advertising networks or sell ad spaces.
Moreover, some lifestyle bloggers write their complete autobiographies and ask readers to pay anything they want for it.
According to research, nothing convinces people to buy like reviews — a staggering 92.4% of B2B buyers tend to make a purchase after reading a trusted review.
If your readers trust you to always tell the truth, they’ll gratefully buy whatever you recommend, especially if it concerns something they’re planning towards.
Departing Words
There you have it — more than enough answer to the question: can I make money blogging about my life?
In summary, you’ll do a lot of work if you want your blog to rise quickly; otherwise, you’ll blog for a year or more without making a dime from it. Every aspect of your life will have an online community of like-minded people talking about it. These communities will help greatly, especially when your blog is new.
Engaging with online communities will help channel traffic to your blog. And if you do a good job blogging, most newcomers will become regular visitors and even share your posts. The Blog Lifestyle Mastery is a great opportunity for new lifestyle bloggers to fast-forward their progress as it teaches all the skills you need and provides the necessary resources.