In today's digital age, blogging has become more than just a platform for personal expression. It has evolved into a powerful tool for earning income and building a successful online business. While starting a blog is relatively easy, turning it into a profitable venture requires strategic planning, dedication, and consistent effort. ​

First, choose a profitable niche that aligns with your inner voice.  Selecting the right niche for your blog is crucial. There are two things that will define your perfect niche: A subject that you are passionate about, and one that has a potential audience and monetization opportunities. Invest time and energy in both.  Journal, spend time alone, brainstorm with friends, get slow and quiet enough to hear that voice of authentic wisdom inside of you.  Then, conduct thorough market research to determine the demand for content in your chosen niche.​

Create a visually appealing and user-friendly blog that provides value to your audience. Invest in a professional design, optimize for search engines, and ensure your site loads quickly. Consistently publish high-quality, engaging content that keeps readers coming back for more. While you can certainly hire someone to build you a website, I highly recommend using a DIY Website Builders, this will save you money and allow you to be in full control of content and publishing. ​

One of the most common ways to monetize a blog is through display advertising. Join an advertising network, such as Google AdSense, and place ads strategically on your blog. Focus on optimizing ad placement for maximum visibility and click-through rates while maintaining a balance between user experience and ad revenue. 

Google Adsense allows you to run ads from the Google Display network on your website. In the beginning, you can monetize your blog with Google Adsense, but you won't make much money. Your earning potential is $0.1 - $0.5 per page view/mo. 

In the event that you reach 25,000 page views a month, you can (and should) drop Google Adsense in favor of an advertising network that manages your display ads directly on your website (also known as publisher networks), ensuring you are earning the most money. Typically these networks take between 20%-40% of the display ad revenue from your website.​

As your blog gains popularity, you can attract opportunities for sponsored posts and brand collaborations. Companies may approach you to write reviews, create sponsored content, or promote their products. Typically they will offer between $50 – $1,000 to publish one of their posts on your blog.  Give intention to the partnerships, and make sure they align with your blog's values and resonate with your audience.​

Wikipedia defines Slow Living as "a lifestyle which encourages a slower approach to aspects of everyday life."  I define Slow Living as: Intentionally behaving in a way that calms my nervous system, aligns my values with my actions, and cultivates everyday joy in my life. I define it as a rebellious revolution against hustle culture.  I define it as necessary.  I define it as survival. 

Dr. Jenelle Kim says that "Slow living is a conscious approach to life that involves living slower so you can appreciate each moment and prioritize what matters in life,"   This way of living is, of course, far removed from what society has normalized.  The belief that we must work hard to be rewarded has become ingrained in us.  Slow living challenges us to contemplate life (and our intrinsic value) differently and allows us to experience ourselves, and the world around us, more fully.  Slow living is choosing our wellness, and our happiness over anything (and everything) else.  

If you're interested in slow living and the art of intentionally living your life on purpose -  join me on this journey by subscribing to my newsletter here. 

My husband and I were a couple of simple-living individuals when we were young.  Our VW Van, a cottage on the beach, and hours filled with soul-nourishing activities.  Long runs together and my husband reading novels to me as we snugged by the fire were staples of our daily life.  We clammed, we fished, we forged mushrooms, and we grew vegetables. In the summers we climbed mountains, in the winters I wrote. Simplicity ruled.  Health wasn't a struggle to achieve, because every aspect of our life supported our health. Friendships weren't challenging to maintain because there was plenty of time to nourish them.  We never even worried about how much sleep we were getting, because we rested when we were tired.  

About a year ago I suddenly looked around and realized that our life looked much different than it once had.  While our life was still amazing, it had taken on a quality of "busy" that didn't feel good.  I saw clearly that the speed at which we were living wasn't serving us.  We felt like we were chasing our health, because we never had time for exercise or eating right.  Our community had become sparse because we were both exhausted after working 60 hours a week.  We stressed out about getting enough sleep because we were always tired.  

I began to look deeper and notice other ways in which our life had somehow become out of alignment.  We didn't eat locally grown food, we no longer composted, instead of taking the time to fix something, we just threw it away and bought something new. Even though our family had fairly strict house rules on electronics, we still were spending more time on our phones and laptops than we wanted to.  Our time was filled primarily with work, and less time with our family and friends.  We no longer played everyday, and fun seemed to have been reserved for vacations and long weekends.   

For the majority of my life I have taken pride in living by my own rules, but as I took a deeper look, I realized that I had become a slave to cultural norms of what constituted a "good life".  I could see how the circumstances of life had slowly moved us into the "mainstream" way of living.  This awareness awoke my 14-year old hippie, dreadlocked & barefoot self.  I wasn't having it.  It was time to get back on track.

As I began to reach out to others to talk about my experience, I realized that I was not alone.  There were a ton of people that were awakened by the global pandemic.  While there were tremendous tragedies and hardships endured (many that we are still unpacking 2+ years later as mental health data continues to show alarming statistics of people struggling mentally, emotionally and spiritually), there were also gifts that came from this time.  In fact, I am wondering if the mental health data is actually a sign of increased health and wellness to come.  For when we are healing, we must go through the darkness to get to the light.   For many of us, the pandemic was a pause long enough for us to wake up - and this awakening is being seen and felt throughout the world right now.  Rather than falling back under the spell of consumerism, disconnection, and the great illusion of the hustle, I hope we (both individually and collectively) more fully embrace the discomfort of change long enough to attain the 'better' on the other side.

For my husband and me, we're all in.  We have a history of leaping and having faith that the net will appear.  It's scary, certainly, but we know how to sit with fear without moving to hide it, fade it or fix it.  We started shifting the pieces of our lives a little over a year ago, juggling jobs and wellness, kids and responsibilities, and moving forward with intention and trust.  These next few months, we are inviting bigger change around the pieces of our lives.  The momentum has caught... and the change is imminent.  We're not sure how it's going to work out, but we know - without a doubt - that if we keep our intention strong and our hearts open, there is something better than we could have ever envisioned on the other side.  

The part that has been most interesting to me, throughout these past several months, is my own inner journey.  Even parts of simple, slow, connected living that I year for are challenging to step into because over the past years, as my life has sped up, I've also attached to ideas and identities that are hard to let go of.  Busyness as a badge of honor, self-worth tied to production, always being rushed - these have become deeply ingrained in me over the years, and now I must take time and care to unweave them.  This process doesn't happen overnight, I assure you.  As humans, I feel that all of us expect something to change immediately after we think it.  It just doesn't work that way.  Thinking isn't knowing.  Knowing takes times (you can read my theory on the 3 levels of knowing here).

I'll be sharing more of my inner process and our outer process in this blog and in my newsletter (you can sign up here), and I'd love for you to join me.  For now, my heart wants to tell your heart:  Rest.  Trust the change that is happening right now, and lean into it.  Find the new version of yourself that wants to emerge by shedding away the old skin that has become stiff and suffocating.  

Hustle culture can be described as a lifestyle that touts overworking as the only path to success, self-worth, and earning respect from others. Hustle culture would have you believe that the more you do — the more valuable you are, and that in order to be ‘good enough’ you must squeeze out every last ounce of productivity from your day, often sacrificing self-care, rest, friendships, or hobbies. Hustle culture lures you with the promise of ‘having it all’, if only you work hard enough.
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The problem with the hustle culture belief system is that it doesn’t serve human beings. We were not designed to work long hours, or to be singularly focused. Research shows that human beings experience the most contentment and meaning from multifaceted lifestyles. When a person’s life is filled with varied hobbies, types of rest, exercise, friends, work, and new experiences, they report having the most joy and satisfaction in life. Additionally, research shows that a balanced life breeds more productivity. So, the question is, why are we sold all of the hype if it doesn’t work?

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