From feeling trapped to living the life of her dreams - how Sharon Gourlay blogged her way to financial autonomy - Episode 41

Today I am joined by Sharon Gourlay from Digital Nomad Wannabe about how to gain financial independence through Blogging. Sharon Gourlay is passionate about working online and helping others to follow in her footsteps. She left Australia with her young family at the end of 2014 determined to grow an online business. She succeeded and now supports her family of 5 to live their dream lifestyle.

In this interview we cover:

• Her blogging journey from a hobby to a full time blogging business
• How she was able to sell her travel blog, even with her name on it
• Whether it is still viable to have an online business now or is it too crowded
• The difference between a hobby blog and having a financially successful blog
• How to get started with a blogging strategy
• Traffic generation strategies she now focuses on to build successful niche and authority sites
• How affiliate marketing works
• Key skills when starting out to be a commercially successful blogger
• The importance of treating your blog like a business
• The small investment you need to make when starting your blog
• The biggest commitment to building a profitable blog is time
• The number 1 tip when starting out
• The importance of clear goals so you know what to chase
• Understand your traffic and what key metrics you need to measure
• The importance of rankings and SEO for building a successful blog
• Knowing the engagement of your readers and understanding what behaviours they do on your side
• What programs she uses to track your blog engagement and activities of her readers
• What would she do differently if starting out again and her changing definition of success
• How she balances her family and work life
• The non monetary benefits of what blogging can do for you

Links mentioned in the show

Digital Nomad Wannabe

DNW Facebook group!