Monday marked 5 years since my very first blog post. It’s a little crazy to think I’ve been doing this for 5 years already, but I also feel like it’s been a part of my life forever. The past two years or so I really got serious about the blog and started publishing 4-5 posts a week, making some money off of it but also investing almost as much into better blogging tools, and trying to grow and improve it as much as possible.
I don’t always get super personal on the blog and I try to keep things positive (it’s Disney, after all!) but like many things in life I struggle sometimes and feel like what I’m doing isn’t “good enough.” I won’t lie, there are lots of Disney bloggers out there. Lots of people doing what I’m doing, and it’s hard not to compare. It’s hard to see other bloggers getting invited to private media events, getting lots of sponsored posts, even making a living off of it. Why can’t I do that?
Sometimes I wonder if I would want to do this full time. And I think, if I was making a steady income, I probably would. I absolutely love Disney, and I love writing, and I love writing about Disney and creating a community. But I also don’t want to come off as too “self-promotional” or “salesy.” It’s a hard balance, and since the blog isn’t my income right now I can be comfortable making a little less money.
That being said, sometimes it is necessary to advertise. I’m always surprised when people say “I didn’t know you were a travel agent!” or “I didn’t realize you designed t-shirts!” But hopefully if you’ve read this far you won’t mind me sharing some of the ways I do make money off of what I do and how you can support me in both monetary and non-monetary ways:
Ways to support me!
- Advertising. Most of the money I make through the blog is from ads. And all you need to do to support that is visit the blog! Clicking the ads is nice, of course, but just getting them viewed helps me.
- Travel Agent. Are you planning a Disney trip? Booking through me comes at absolutely no extra cost to you (I get paid through commission from Disney), and I can help you with personalized recommendations, making reservations, etc.!
- Affiliate Links. I love to feature some of the stuff I purchase, whether it’s from Etsy, Amazon, or ShopDisney. When I link to something it’s called an affiliate link, and if you purchase by directly clicking that link I get a few extra cents (again at no additional cost to you).
- RedBubble Shop. I’ve started designing t-shirts, bags, phone cases, etc. – so if you’ve got a trip coming up and you’re looking for a shirt, maybe check out my shop!
- An Educational Guide to Walt Disney World. I love to write and wanted to put together a full book. My Educational Guide is hopefully interesting and useful. And if you’ve read it, a review on Amazon helps too!
- Sharing. This is one of the biggest ways for my blog to grow (and costs nothing!) So if you like something you read, sharing it to facebook, twitter, or Pinterest is a huge help.
- Commenting. I love comments. Leaving something on a blog post I wrote helps me realize people care, and gives me a little extra feedback.
- Follow on social media. The reality of today is that most people are very active on social media, so following me there helps me get more exposure for new readers as well as share things.
- Signing up for my email newsletter. I send out one email a week (at most – sometimes it’s every other week) and it’s very helpful for me to reach people and share special offers I don’t do anywhere else!
I hope I give back in a lot of ways to you as well – I try to offer advice, recommendations, or just my experiences so we can live vicariously through each other! On my email list I sometimes offer discounts from companies, tips not on the blog, etc. But I like to do actual “giveaways” sometimes as well!
So in honor of my 5th blogiversary I’m giving away a copy of my book, An Educational Guide to Walt Disney World, as well as a Toy Story sticker from my Redbubble shop. All you need to do to enter is join my facebook group, “Put A Little Disney in your Day,” and comment on the giveaway post. It’s a great group with a community of Disney fans to talk about anything and everything Disney!
Click here to join Put a Little Disney in your Day!
Thank you for reading and helping Disney in your Day exist for 5 years!
Leave a Reply