Best Blogging Courses & Resources That Help Me Make Over $100,000

Are you looking to grow your blog and make more money blogging? Then you need to check out the best blogging courses and resources to grow your traffic and income.

Since I started my blog 10 years ago, I have earned over $5,000,000. I have also helped countless people improve their financial situation, make extra money, travel more, pay off their debt, and more.

Blogging changed my life for the better, and it allows me to earn thousands of dollars a month, all by doing something that I love.

The funny thing is that I created my blog on a whim after reading about a personal finance website in a magazine.

At first, my blog was just a hobby to track my own personal finance progress.

I honestly didn’t even know that people could make money blogging when I first started this site back in 2011.

My interest in blogging quickly grew, but like I said it was all just a hobby. I wanted a space to write about my financial situation, have a support group, to keep track of how I was doing, and more.

I did not create 1 Dollar Financewith the intention of earning an income, but after only six months, I began to make money blogging.

I now earn a great living from Making Sense of Cents, and it all started on a whim and not even knowing that blogs could make money.

While I have learned a lot about blogging through trial and error, I have also taken many blogging courses over the years.

The best blog courses helped me grow my blog’s income and page views by learning specific strategies that have worked for other bloggers.

Many of you have wondered about the tools and resources I use to improve my blog. I believe that in order to be a successful blogger and to learn new ways to make money blogging, you will need to invest in learning new strategies, such as through ebooks, webinars, courses, and more.

Over the years, I have been asked about the best blogging courses, and I finally decided it was time to put together a list of the blogging resources, including courses, worksheets, and more.

This article will go over resources, courses, guides, and so on that will help you learn how to grow your blog’s traffic, how to grow your blog’s income, and more.

Related content on how to grow a blog:

Here are the best blogging courses and resources.

 

How do I start and grow a blog?

Before we begin, I highly recommend reading What Is A Blog, How Do Blogs Make Money, & More. Here, I answer questions such as:

• How do I come up with a blog name?
• What blogs make the most money?
• How do you design a blog?
• How many views do you need to make money blogging?
• How many blog posts should I have before launching?
• How do I get my blog noticed by Google?
• How long until a blog makes money?
• How do blogs make money?
• How do bloggers get paid?

And more.

Other blog posts that I recommend reading include:

 

How To Start A Blog Free Course

First, if you don’t have a blog, then I recommend starting off with my free blogging course How To Start A Blog FREE Course.

Here’s a quick outline of what you will learn in this free course:

• Day 1: Reasons you should start a blog.
• Day 2: How to determine what to blog about.
• Day 3: How to create your blog. In this lesson, you will learn how to start a blog on WordPress. My tutorial makes it very easy to start a blog.
• Day 4: How to make money blogging.
• Day 5: My tips for passive income from blogging.
• Day 6: How to grow your traffic and followers.
• Day 7: Miscellaneous blogging tips that will help you be successful.

I’m a little biased (obviously, haha!), but this is one of the best free blogging courses you can take. It’s delivered directly to your email inbox, and you will learn how to grow a blog from scratch.

You can sign up for free in the form below.

 

Design your blog with an easy WordPress theme

Designing your brand new blog is probably one of the hardest parts about starting a new website.

But, it doesn’t have to be.

So many brand new bloggers get overwhelmed in this stage, but I recommend simply purchasing a theme and moving on.

There are WordPress themes that will make it very easy for you to design your blog. That way, you can spend more of your valuable time on other important things.

If you are looking into the actual design of your blog, Kadence and Astra seem to be the most popular currently.

Or, there are free themes through WordPress you can use too. Just go to “Appearance” on the left-hand side when you are logged into your WordPress website and click on “Themes,” then activate whichever one you are interested in testing out. By doing this, you can start designing your website easily!

Another option would be to buy a premade blog design, which you can find on Etsy or searching on Google.

 

Earn affiliate income – the best way to make money blogging

This is my favorite way to earn money blogging.

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is my affiliate marketing for bloggers course, and I have already had over 8,000 students take my course.

I have earned well over $1,000,000 over the years through affiliate marketing on Making Sense of Cents, and I share my exact strategy and tips in this very informative online course. If you’re a blogger, then this is one of the best blogging courses on affiliate income.

I show you exactly how to make passive income from blogging, even while you’re sleeping.

 

Form sponsored partnerships with companies that you love

Making Sense of Sponsored Posts is one of the best blogging courses for learning about sponsored partnerships.

I launched this course with my sister, Alexis of Fitnancials, to help bloggers earn money through sponsored posts. Between the two of us, we often earn around $20,000-$30,000 a month from sponsored posts.

We teach finding sponsorship deals, maintaining partnerships, and how to always make sure that you are helping your readers.

 

How do I increase traffic to my blog?

This is a really common question because increasing traffic to your blog is extremely important  if you want to make money blogging. Fortunately, some of the best blogging courses focus specifically on traffic growth. 

I am all about diversifying my traffic sources. It’s best to have a balanced approach and not rely on one source of traffic. That way you’re protected if one source drops.

For Making Sense of Cents, I receive page views and readers from Pinterest, Facebook, SEO (Google), features in media publications, and more. I also have a good number of readers who come back every day as they are loyal subscribers, which is an amazing thing.

Here are some of the best blogging courses to help you increase traffic to your blog:

• Traffic Transformation: 21 Strategies I Used to Increase My Monthly Page Views from 17,000 to 400,000+ in 10 Months is a great guide full of actionable strategies that you can put into place on your blog right away so that you can learn how to increase your blog’s page views. If you are feeling stuck or if you are a new blogger, check out this resource!
• Pinterest Pin Templates – If you want to make beautiful eye-catching pins, I recommend checking out these pin templates. I recently started using them and they look very nice, plus they are easy to use. Here, you get access to 30 different pin templates so that you can create pins easily.
• Six Figure Blogger – This is more of an advanced and complete blogging course, but it has many actionable strategies that you can apply to your blog right away. This course will teach you how to earn over $100,000 from your blog.

 

Grow through SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) is how you get organic traffic to your blog. It’s a traffic strategy, and it’s so important that it deserves its own section.

Learning SEO is a complete game changer for a blog, and I highly recommend you learn more about it.

Here are some of the best blogging courses for learning about SEO:

 

Improve your site speed

This is one of THE BEST blogging courses for site speed. Your blog’s speed is extremely important, as it can impact your SEO, how long readers will stay on your site (no one likes to read a slow website), and so on.

You can learn more about the Site Speed Course here.

 

Build an email list

If you don’t have an email list for your website, I highly recommend that you stop whatever you’re doing and start one right now.

Unlike social media websites like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook, your newsletter and email subscribers are all yours, and you have their undivided attention.

You don’t have to worry about some social media algorithm not showing your content to your readers because they are your email subscribers. That means you’re not fighting with anyone else or an algorithm to have them see your content.

Your email list is where your loyal subscribers are at.

By having your own email list, you are in control.

The company I use is Convertkit. Convertkit has great customer service and a free trial for new customers too.

 

Where to get your blog photos from

Putting pictures in your content is important.

Images can help you explain your story better and break up text to make your articles easier to read.

Now, you can’t just do a Google image search and use the pictures you find, and the same goes for images and pictures you find on Pinterest. Doing those things may get you in trouble with the person who owns the photos. Similar to how you wouldn’t want someone to copy and paste a blog post of yours, you shouldn’t take photos without permission.

Currently, I source the pictures I use from three main areas:

1. My own photos. These are usually found in my travel-related content and Instagram. I use both my cell phone and my super old DSLR for pictures. Photography is an area that I’m still looking to improve, so I mainly use the following option for the majority of the pictures I publish directly on Making Sense of Cents.
2. Ivory Mix. I absolutely love IvoryMix. They have great stock photos that fit perfectly with the vibe of Making Sense of Cents. They add many, many photos each month, and you can use them on your blog, social media, and more. Plus, Ivory Mix comes with unlimited download access.
3. DepositPhotos. DepositPhotos is an affordable place to purchase photos. They usually have a deal for around 50 or 100 photos, and it’s one of the places I purchase photos from.

 

Website legal templates

This is the side of blogging that most people don’t publicly talk about, but I receive a ton of private emails about it.

If you are looking for legal templates, I recommend checking out the Website Legal Templates Bundle. It includes:

• Privacy policy template
• Terms and conditions template
• Disclosures templates
• Affiliate terms and conditions template
• Cookie policy
• Earnings disclaimer
• Sponsored post disclosure and more

You can learn more at 3 Super Common Legal Mistakes Bloggers Make (and How to Fix Them).

 

Free blogging resources

If you already have a blog or if you are thinking about starting one, I recommend checking out the following free blogging resources.

These resources will help you create a successful blog, and I promise you will learn a lot along the way!

I receive so many questions about blogging, and the resources below will answer many of the most common blogging questions and help you in so many different areas.

1. Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet – With this time-saving cheat sheet, you’ll learn how to make affiliate income from your blog. These tips will help you rapidly improve your results and increase your blogging income in no time.
2. 8 Easy Tips To Make Money From Sponsored Posts On Your Blog – Sponsorships on your blog are a great way to earn a living online. Learn how I made my first blogging income and how I now make $10,000-$20,000 a month with sponsored partnerships! This is a free cheatsheet.
3. The Free Blogging Planner – The Blogging Planner is a free workbook that I created just for you! In this free workbook, you’ll receive printables for starting your blog, creating a blog post, a daily/weekly blog planner, goals, and more.
4. The SEO Starter Pack (FREE Video Training) – Level up your SEO knowledge in just 60 minutes with this FREE 6-day video training.
5. How Anyone Can Create an Online Course That Sells – In this free training, you will learn the 7 step process to create, market, and launch a profitable online course.
6. Pinterest Image Guide – This guide will teach you how to create the best pins for your blog posts.
7. Pinterest Keyword Guide – The ultimate guide to understanding, finding, and using keywords on Pinterest.
8. Convertkit – A great email marketing company to check out is Convertkit. They have great customer service and a free trial for new customers. I personally use Convertkit for my email list and I highly recommend them.

 

What is the best blogging course?

The courses and resources above are all some of the best out there, and I recommend all of them.

Choose one or all, they are all some of the best blogging courses and resources for improving and growing your blog.

 

Are blogging courses worth it?

Yes, the best blogging courses and resources are definitely worth it.

They can help you save a lot of time. Instead of guessing what your next step and strategy would be, you can take one of the blogging courses and resources above and know exactly what you should do.

The courses and resources above will show you how to make money blogging, start a new blog, take your blog to the next level (such as if you want to start making over $100,000 a year), and more.

Do you want to learn how to grow your blog? What tips do you have?