How I Turned Blog Sponsorships Into a Full-Time Business

I have a confession to make today. This is the real story of how I grew my business, and the role sponsored blogging played, and still plays, in it. I hope you enjoy it.

I’ve always been telling my story in one way.

It all started with a hobby blog in 2013 (when I knew nothing about blogging). I wasn’t satisfied with my life, I was so into personal growth, and I wanted a massive change.

I wanted the freedom to do what I want, I needed a creative outlet, and I wanted to write.

So, naturally, I began writing about personal growth.

It felt good and I kept going. I was writing about new habits I was building, mindset shifts, stuff I’ve read and learned, lifestyle designers I admired, personal challenges and deep realizations.

Over time, people started finding my blog and leaving comments. That felt good too.

Then I realized this could be monetized and I started researching and learning more about the business of blogging.

I finally switched to a self-hosted WordPress site, started an email list, and began monetizing.

My first income came from freelance writing, though. I used my blog as my portfolio and was creating the same type of content for clients.

I then started earning from the blog too. A few dollars here and a few there, from an eBook sold or from ads I’d placed or from an affiliate sale.

But the first real payment was for $100 and it came from a sponsored post. A brand reached out to me and I published a paid article on my site with 1 link back to their client’s site.

I didn’t know this was a thing until then. It was the quickest and easiest money I’d ever made, and it felt right. It made me realize my blog was seen as an asset and brands and companies have the budget to work with bloggers in this way.

But I didn’t do anything about it until much later. I was still earning mostly from freelancing.

Until I got more offers for sponsorships and realized this could be a recurring revenue stream for me.

I grew my blog’s traffic and authority, put so much time and effort into it for years, added it to sponsored networks, formed relationships with sponsors via email and got recurring orders.

By that point, I was also selling digital products, doing affiliate marketing and earning a good amount monthly from ads.

I also left my home country and moved to my chosen destination (the Netherlands), traveled, took time off my business whenever I felt like, had $5K months, and – eventually – replaced freelancing with full-time blogging.

That was probably my favorite milestone because it meant no one could tell me how to do my work, and I’d only create content for my platforms from then on. That’s creative freedom at its finest and I’ve been enjoying it ever since.

But here’s what I haven’t really emphasized enough on in my story. The truth is, I didn’t get to live the life I have today just because of blogging.

It’s all because of sponsored blogging.

That one income stream changed my life.

It’s what kept coming, every single month, whether it was a pandemic, whenever I did just a couple hours of work for the month while traveling, or whenever I was creating a new course because I felt like it, or whether I was obsessed with personal growth and just wanted to read books and work on my mindset instead of doing work.

No matter what, paid opportunities kept coming my way.

And over time, I raised my rates, updated my media kit, kept adding my site to more and more blogger networks and marketplaces that connect brands and publishers, and I also started teaching this business model (mostly, in my course The Blog Sponsorship Boss).

The truth is that 90% of my income comes from this, and that has been the case for almost all of the years I’ve been in business, even since I stopped freelancing.

In 2025, I removed ads from my main blog simply because the ROI wasn’t enough to keep them. Almost no earnings, and yet they ruined the user experience and slowed down my site. So I’m happy to report that now my site is ad-free.

I also follow creativity and fun in my business. Most of my work hours are actually dedicated to what inspires me, such as writing new content, doing a content audit, taking courses, creating my business vision for the next year, or starting and growing new blogs (like Blogging With Lidiya).

I can do this because of the sponsorships that are already coming every month.

It’s also what allows me to work just 1-3 hours a day, unless I feel like doing more. And it’s what allows me to skip workdays and just do something else whenever I feel like.

There might be low-income months, but even then the foundation is there.

I can pay my bills because of sponsored blogging.

I can save and invest because of it.

I’m relaxed during pregnancy now thanks to that, and I’m not even considering maternity leave to be a thing for me.

I keep doing some work now in my 9th month of pregnancy, and if necessary, I will take some time off after baby arrives. But if I have the mental clarity and knowing that my partner will be at home with us for 5 weeks in the beginning, I feel excited about going to my home office for an hour or two some days postpartum and doing my thing on my laptop.

What a privilege that is!

And while so far I’ve been saying it’s because of blogging, well actually it’s because of sponsored blogging.

It’s the one thing that actually worked for me, and kept working.

I’ve landed 4-figure paid collaborations, I keep finding new blogger networks and adding my sites to them, and I also keep getting invitations via email for marketplaces I haven’t even heard of.

I get to raise my rates whenever I feel like and negotiate. I set my own terms. I get paid in advance.

And this kind of work takes me little to no time.

I’ve learned how to set boundaries and which clients I can trust and which ones I can’t.

I’ve created my own strategies for pitching brands as well as turning guest post outreach emails into paid collaborations. 

I’ve discovered specific things I can do to get discovered by brands.

I get paid for my old articles.

I had a $7K month earlier this year thanks to 2 sponsored collaborations.

I know how to follow up, how to be assertive in emails and when to reject a new order.

I also like to get creative with the packages I offer, to use ChatGPT to make sponsored blogging easier, and find overlooked sponsored blogging opportunities.

You can find all this, and more, inside The Blog Sponsorship Boss, by the way. I keep adding new lessons to it too.

So, why am I telling you all this?

Because for a long time now I’ve been pulled in a new direction online. 

Not totally new as I’m already teaching sponsorships and have free and paid offers about that and am known in the blogging industry for it. But I’ve felt the pull to really focus on this as my ONE THING.

Online business these years is all about authority. Search engines, social media and people want you to be an expert on one subject.

You have higher chances of growing an audience, forming relationships and seeing traction if you really show expertise and cover that one topic you know best in detail.

And here’s the truth:

I’ve been teaching all aspects of blogging for a long time (blog traffic, SEO, WordPress, affiliate marketing, creating and selling digital products, Pinterest, etc.)

But I’m no expert on these.

The one thing I do feel most experienced in, and which others in the industry have confirmed multiple times, is sponsored blogging.

I know no other person who reveals that much about it or who teaches it in such a detail. And I have a looooot more to say.

So a new era is around the corner. I’m still a blogger myself, and I still teach blogging, but I’ll just double down on blog sponsorships.

That means:

My brand will become mostly about that.

You’ll see this first in my bios on socials.

My other paid offers will still exist but will be de-prioritized. They will be more like supporting programs.

Unrelated freebies will be de-prioritized too. And in terms of email marketing, my goal will be to quickly introduce new bloggers to the idea of monetizing through sponsorships (even if they just started their blog through my free blogging course).

My freebie on sponsored posts, though, (which you saw earlier on this page) will be the priority and it goes together with a nice email sequence on the topic.

My product suite will evolve too next year, and that might include new offers on sponsored blogging, while I’ll keep adding new lessons and updates to the Blog Sponsorship Boss.

My free content on socials will be mostly on this topic too.

And as for this blog, well, the Make Money Blogging category will be all about sponsorships.

This becomes my core focus, the main theme of my content, and the one thing I teach best.

If I can help you in any way online, this is it.

By showing you how to turn your blog into a brand that attracts paid sponsors.

That also means The Blog Sponsorship Boss becomes my signature program.

I might also create more low-ticket offers, as well as higher-priced ones that will offer more 1:1 support from me and done-for-you services, all related to blog sponsorships so you can start earning from them sooner rather than later.

And if I get to it, I’ll also do something I haven’t done in many years – guest posting. I’d like to share my tips on how to earn from sponsored posts on other sites.

You may know I also often participate in bundles for course creators. From now on, my goal would be to only contribute with products related to sponsorships.

Basically, my world (the blogs, socials, email list and products) becomes the go-to place for anyone who wants to learn about sponsored blogging (whether that’s a brand new blogger, or one who’s reached $10K months but wants to scale with sponsorships). 

And that’s it. That’s my business journey so far, and what lies ahead.

What do you think?