Making Money Blogging – and Beyond: I Chat with Serial Blogger and Course Creator Lena Gott

Can you still make money blogging in 2022?  Have all the blogging ideas already been written about? You might be surprised to learn that there are six and seven figure blogs out there. People are still finding new things to write and post about on various blogging platforms, and making plenty of money blogging.

How are these people earning so much money blogging? Many (maybe most) of the highest earners start blogging , but don’t stop with just coming up with blog post ideas and writing them. They’re strategic about how and what they choose for their writing topics. Instead, they focus on a niche – or a few of them. They often use affiliate marketing to boost their income.

They also diversify. There are many ways to use a blog as a springboard for new income streams. Once you start blogging and build an audience, you can create an ebook from some of your best posts, sell ad space or merchandise related to your site, create paid membership spaces, or make money by creating courses based on what you’ve learned along the way.

That’s what serial blogger, course creator, and former CPA Lena Gott did. She first learned how to make money blogging at her mom blog, WhatMommyDoes, then released an ebook. Later, she moved into course creation. Lena’s Adventures in SEO is rated one of the best blogging courses of 2022 by the Mommy on Purpose blog.

Along the way, Lena has helped many beginners earn money online by sharing her best blogging and SEO practices. Her approach is simple and easy to apply, and her style is warm and friendly. Lena says she loves the challenge of growing her blog in less time by “tracking the metrics that matter.” She teaches other bloggers to do the same.

I recently had the chance to chat with Lena. Here’s what she had to say about making money blogging, creating courses, and how she manages all that with three children.

Hi, Lena!

What did you do before you started WhatMommyDoes?

Before WhatMommyDoes, I wrote for an online magazine where I published 600 articles. Before that, I worked as a CPA specializing in corporate tax. I started writing online as a creative outlet as a stay-at-home-mom. 

When did you start seriously working to make money blogging?

WhatMommyDoes was my first solo blogging venture, and I dabbled on and off for several years when my babies were little. I finally started taking it seriously in 2014 when my youngest was a toddler.

Can you tell us about how you first branched out into course creation?

My first product for bloggers was an ebook about blog traffic. It’s what is now called Traffic Transformation. I wrote that to help other bloggers avoid all the mistakes I made for many years. After I published that ebook, I quickly learned that there was a big need for more down to earth blogging advice. That’s why I started Adventures in Blogging. 

What is your favorite part of helping people learn how to make money blogging?

My favorite part of blogging is the teaching aspect. I was a teacher for many years for the University of Phoenix as well, and I absolutely loved it. I actually use a lot of the same teaching methodologies from those classrooms in my blogging courses.

What one thing about making money blogging would you change if you could?

If I could change one thing about my blogging career, it would be to hire writers sooner. I stepped away from working on WhatMommyDoes for the better part of two years in order to grow Adventures in Blogging. Now I’m circling back and working on WMD. I wish I hadn’t halted content production so drastically on that site. It would be way ahead of where it is today if I hadn’t. 

You’re a mom of three, and you make money blogging and running courses. How do you fit everything into your life and still have time for your family? 

Oh boy – good question! The answer is, I really don’t. I decided a couple years ago that I would focus on my family first and fit in my business as best I could. I used to try to do it the other way around, and that was a recipe for being constantly stressed out + tons of mom guilt. After many years of struggling against myself, I chose my family over my business. I don’t regret it one bit.

How many hours do you work in an average week? Do you keep that constant, or vary it by week?

My schedule varies based on my kids’ school and sports schedules. I work during school hours mostly. When they were little, I’d fit in work during nap times and after they went to bed, but I don’t work at night anymore. I don’t have set work hours because I also try to fit in other things during the school day like tennis practice and meeting up with friends. For the past two years, I’d say I work about 5-15 hours a week, depending on the week. Some weeks are more work heavy while others can be closer to just a few hours if we have a lot of activities scheduled. 

How has starting a home business changed your life? How about your family life?

Starting my business online has been the best thing I’ve ever done financially. It allows me to make a real income AND employ others (including my sister) AND fit in my work around my family life and not the other way around.

Do you have clear financial goals for your business? If so, are you attaining them? How long were you making money blogging/creating courses before that became true?

I do have clear financial goals for my business. I never had pie in the sky goals, but rather a minimum annual revenue I wanted to hit. I hit that a few years ago, so now I simply strive to hit the same mark year after year without stressing myself out. Each year I get a little bit more efficient at this. That’s why I’m able to work so few hours and maintain my business.

What would you say is the most important skill or thing to remember about creating and/or marketing courses?

I think the most important thing to remember about creating & selling courses is that those are two distinct things. You create the course that your audience needs to learn a skill or reach a goal. It takes some time to lay out a course that walks students through the steps of learning something step-by-step. 

I didn't know this at first, but students LOVE worksheets! When in doubt, create more worksheets! 🙂 

Once you create your course, then you must move onto marketing. The very easiest way I know to create marketing material is to create your entire sales page first, then use bits & pieces of that sales page for your other marketing efforts (Facebook posts, email blurbs, etc). Do as much marketing material creation as you can in the beginning, and you won't find yourself scrambling for copy whenever you want to make an announcement. 

How many courses have you created? Do you have favorites?

My favorite product of all time is Traffic Transformation because it's so practical, heartfelt, and applicable to this day, 7 years after original publication. It's been through 3 editions because blogging changes a bit throughout the years, but the bulk of the advice has never changed. 

I've created so many courses & ebooks, I've lost count. I believe I have officially published 15 or so to date, but I have what I refer to as the “ebook graveyard” of products I started and never sold! There are at least 15 more in there! 

My other favorite is my flagship course Adventures in SEO. This was a true labor of love as I poured over 12 years of SEO advice into it. I use all the same tips on my own blog every day. We have nearly 1000 alumni of this course to date, and we are all making waves in the blogging world. I just love seeing my students rank on page 1 for search terms they intentionally targeted using my strategies! 

Your courses help people make money blogging. They can improve their own blogs or develop services to offer to others. Could they take that a step further, and become SEO auditors or consultants using your methods?

Yes, you can absolutely use my courses to become an SEO consultant in your own right. I will say that SEO is a skill that takes practice, so you need somewhere to implement what you learn. But once you get a good series of successes under your belt as proof, there are so many bloggers and business owners that need help with SEO that you'll have more work than you can handle!

Have your students surprised you in how they’ve used what they learn in your courses to make money blogging? Have you seen anyone put them to uses you didn’t expect?

Yes – I was actually super pleased to find out that my keyword strategies work for YouTube as well! I had a feeling they would, but never tested this theory myself. One of my students was able to quickly monetize her YouTube channel by using the keyword research strategies I teach in Adventures in SEO. I really want to try this myself sometime soon!

You have a new product for moms, the Home Management Success Kit. Would you like to tell us a little about it, and how it could help our Anywhere and Anytime Careers readers?

 The Home Management Success Kit is my flagship product for WhatMommyDoes. I made it for moms who want to manage their homes well, from Meal Planning to Cleaning to Financial Planning. What's great is that it's really for anyone who has a home to run, so it's not just for moms! I offer a fillable version of the PDF as well for anyone who'd rather fill it in on the computer instead of printing it out.

What advice can you give to others to help them make money blogging and/or build their businesses?

The best advice I can give when building an online business is to pace yourself. The internet is always on, so it can be easy to feel constantly behind on everything. My motto is “I will do one small thing per day to move my business forward.” Sometimes it's outlining a course or new blog post. Other times it's simply making a marketing image or two. Small steps taken one day at a time can eventually snowball into something amazing if you keep going. 

Lena’s Practical Tips for Work/Life Balance in Blogging & Course Creation 

• Don't stress yourself out constantly trying to set new stretch goals and burn yourself out trying to reach them. Really think through what is “enough” for you and aim for that. Once you get there, you can re-evaluate and re-prioritize your time. If you are constantly striving, you'll never find contentment in your success. 
• Make yourself an expert in one area before moving on to something else. Particularly with social media, online business owners often find the urge to be everywhere at once. I find that this is unsustainable and unnecessary for a full-time income. I recommend finding 2 (maybe 3) platforms you love and sticking with those. For me, that's Google Search, Pinterest, and Facebook. For others it's YouTube and Instagram. You can be successful at any social media combination you want, but if you stretch yourself too thin, you'll likely get burned out and never see as much success on any one particular platform. 
• When creating an online course, I find it easiest to break the projects into deliverables as opposed to timelines. When you impose a strict deadline on yourself to finish a course, you might get overwhelmed as the tiny tasks pile up and you can't see an end in sight. But if you can break up the course creation project into pieces, then tackle each piece at a time, you'll find the whole process is way easier. 

Conclusion: Yes, You CAN Make Money Blogging! 

Lena Gott has created an income that meets her needs and allows her to put her family first by offering what she’s learned to help others make money online, too. She uses her talents and past experiences not only for blogging ideas and writing topics, but also to share her knowledge with beginners.

Did you know that Lena has a free mini-course available? In Traffic Blast, you’ll learn how to rank high in Google and Pinterest searches, bringing new traffic to your blog. See if Lena’s SEO style can help you make more money blogging, too.

Are you feeling more confident that you can earn enough money blogging to create a steady income? Do you have questions or comments? Drop us a line below!