How I Turned My Love of Crafts and Baking Into Profitable Websites (and How You Can Too!)

If you’ve ever dreamed of earning money from your creative hobbies, this post is for you. Whether it’s sewing, crafting, baking, photography, or writing, you can absolutely earn money online doing what you love. Blogging has enabled me to earn an income while working from home in my spare time–and you can learn how to do the same!

Please note that this post contains affiliate links which allow me to earn a small commission when a purchase is made at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Read more here.

For the longest time I dreamed of earning an income doing what I loved. Whether it was baking or sewing or just doing DIY projects around my home, I wanted to turn my creative hobbies into my job. If you are reading this, I’m guessing you’ve felt the same way!

Is that even possible? Yes! So here’s the scoop on how I turned my hobbies into profitable websites that pay bills and help support my family (and my craft habit!).

How I Earn an Income from Blogging

I knew back when I started blogging in 2016 that it was possible to earn money blogging, but it took me a long time to figure it all out. I tried different strategies and finally realized success boiled down to:

1. Creating helpful content
2. Sharing that content
3. Consistency (posting at least 2x a week is essential, especially for new blogs)

When I discovered SEO that changed everything! SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s basically the practice of optimizing your website and content so that search engines (like Google) and can understand it and provide it in response to searchers’ queries.

Suddenly I was writing about things I enjoyed, but also writing for what other people were actively searching for on the web. When I started writing helpful articles (instead of just musings about home décor and paint colors), people started to find my website and try my tutorials and recipes.

Knowing what to do also helped me be consistent. The consistency of posting 2x a week (though I’ve often gone through seasons of far less!) helped grow my website substantially. Growth meant traffic, and traffic meant consistent and predictable monthly income.

The success of my first website pushed me to create another website devoted to dessert recipes, Elle Makes Dessert. Though I don’t even have 100 posts on that site yet, it’s been so fun to use what I’ve learned and watch it grow.

Blogging has changed a lot over the last two years. With the advent of AI and the crazy things it can do, it might seem like there’s no room left for actual humans to share their ideas with the world.

But that’s just not accurate! The world of blogging has changed a LOT, that’s undeniable. But, humans crave connection and connecting online with other real people who are creating recipes and crafts in real life truly has no substitute. So don’t give up!

Now, let’s talk about you, your creative passions, and how you can start earning money from what you already love to do!

Step 1: Start a Website That Showcases Your Creativity

If you want to build a business off of a favorite hobby, you need to start with a “home base”. While social media is great for building an audience and marketing your content, algorithms can change overnight. Not to mention the dangers of hacking or locked accounts.

Start with a website that is your home base for writing, sharing, growing an email list, and even selling products one day. Starting a website might feel a little overwhelming, but it can be done easily with the right tools–so don’t worry about that part of it yet!

Because AI is so prevalent, it’s even more crucial that your website reflects YOU. It should showcase your work and reflect your personality. It also needs to be functional so readers can navigate easily.

Something you don’t want to skip is getting on the right framework so you can run ads (a huge way to earn!) and promote products you love. Go with a self-hosted Wordpress website and skip all other alternatives–even if they sound appealing.

If you want a website that is ready to start earning income from day 1, you should start with a beautiful easy-to-customize WordPress theme from Restored 316. Lauren at Restored 316 is incredible (don’t miss reading her story) and I have loved supporting her business over the years.

Her themes are what will organize your content and make it beautiful (here at Bellewood Cottage I’m using Create!). All you have to do is choose a theme and it’ll be ready for your content. You even have perfectly-paired fonts already selected and a variety of color palettes to choose from to suit your style.

A good theme makes it easy to share your photos and articles quickly and efficiently, without spending long frustrating hours trying to get things to look good. You just write and add photos and go!

Lauren’s designs are made especially to support women in creative businesses. This includes bloggers, crafters, recipe developers, coaches, writers, small business owners and more. Whether you want to share your novels or write a food blog, she’s got an affordable website theme for you. All you need to do is add your content.

Each theme runs on the Kadence framework, which might sound like one more thing to figure out, but really just means you can easily adjust your fonts, colors, and layouts with just a few clicks. It’s SO much easier than the early days of blogging!

Step Two: Share What You Love and Help Others Learn Too!

When I first started, I thought of my blog a lot like a journal. Journal-style blogging is a beautiful way to share your story, keep up with family, or just a cathartic hobby.

But it’s not the best way to earn money.

Instead of journaling, think about how your unique expertise can help others!

One way to do this is keyword research. I use Keysearch to find out what my audience needs as well as low-competition keywords I can rank for easily.

Pro tip: Keysearch is a tool that is helpful before you even start your website. Use it to help you see if your chosen niche has enough traffic to sustain a website.

Once your website is set up, focus on creating helpful content. Share what you know and teach what you love.

One quick way to start a website is to imagine teaching someone how to start your hobby. This exercise will give you a great starting point. Just imagine walking a friend through the basics and organize each skill or “lesson” into a new post on your website.

People love connecting with creators who feel real. The more you show up authentically, the faster your audience will grow. An engaged audience leads to income opportunities down the road. This is where using social media can be helpful too!

Pro Tip: Choosing your niche or blog topic focus can be hard. Choose something you are passionate about and that has a lot of interest online. Start your site with a very specific niche and then branch out as you start to grow. Choose a site name that will grow with you.

Step 3: Add Income Streams

Blogging has been a gamechanger for me for several reasons. One of the primary reasons is that because of the incredible flexibility, I can stay home with my babies (now kids–so bittersweet!) as well as homeschool.

I have very full days now so I can’t always blog as much as I would like. But, it is amazing to be able to bring in an income even when I have random margins of each day to work.

I even save daycare costs which has made blogging comparable to more traditional jobs for me simply because I can blog in the early mornings and late evenings without requiring childcare (naptime is also a productive time!).

Now, here’s the nitty-gritty of how I actually earn money with a website:

Ad Income

This is my favorite way to earn, though you shouldn’t depend on it exclusively. I suggest starting with Mediavine Journey and working as hard as you can to get enough traffic on your blog to “graduate” to the higher-earning Mediavine (there are minimum traffic requirements you need to meet to do this).

It took me a long time to get into “real” Mediavine because I didn’t really know what I was doing at first, but once I made it in it was an income game-changer.

You earn ad revenue totally passively, so even if you have to take a few weeks (or months) off of blogging, your income should stay consistent so long as your traffic doesn’t drop.

The key is building a huge repertoire of helpful posts–so start writing!

Affiliate Marketing

My next favorite way to earn is affiliate marketing. This is ideal for those who love to post on social media and send emails to their audience.

Basically you are recommending products (using your affiliate links!) that you already use and love. When someone uses your link to purchase, you make a small commission. These amounts can be very tiny, so you should be savvy about finding programs that pay larger commissions.

Everyone loves to buy online, but reviews are critical to making decisions. People are far more likely to buy when someone they trust makes a recommendation.

Utilizing video for affiliate marketing is a great idea. I don’t usually have much time for video, but it’s something I plan to do more of eventually.

Don’t forget! Always disclose your affiliate relationships and learn the FTC guidelines. Also remember that honesty is the best policy. Don’t recommend products that you found to be subpar and don’t imply that you’ve tried something that you haven’t. You’ll notice my affiliate disclosure at the top of this post reminds readers that I am using affiliate links throughout.

A great place to start is Amazon (though it’s hard to make much unless you have a huge audience) as well as LTK.

One of my first posts that received a huge spike in traffic was a roundup of affordable farmhouse décor on Amazon. It was so exciting to see readers actually visiting the post and purchasing the recommendations. It inspired me to keep going with affiliate marketing!

Even if you aren’t making a lot from each post, over time the volume of high-quality posts you’ve created will earn a more substantial income. Consistency is key!

Choosing a niche: When you are choosing a niche, don’t forget to consider what kind of affiliate opportunities (or lack thereof!) your chosen niche could provide. Affiliate marketing is a great income stream to add to your blogging toolbox.

Digital Products

Another great way to earn. This is ideal for crafters because you can package and sell your patterns, templates, SVGs, ebooks, and more.

Recipe bloggers tend to have a hard time figuring out what type of digital products to sell, but creativity is key! Find a pain point in the lives of your audience and see if you could solve it with a product.

If you are a little nervous to learn how to put products on your website, you could start with an Etsy shop, but having your store right on your website is ideal. Before you launch your website, consider using the Boutique Wordpress theme which does the hard work for you so you can get back to creating.

Courses or Workshops

You can provide “lessons” or similar on Youtube for ad income. Or you could write a course. You would film videos and instructional materials and then provide it for sale. Selling an in-depth course works best with an established audience who may have purchased smaller products from you before and is ready for more.

Step 4: Keep It Professional

It’s okay to take your time and start small, but you will grow faster when readers see your site as professional and trustworthy. Part of this is appearance, but the other part is providing a large library of content for readers to browse and learn from.

I suggest writing 10-20 blog posts as fast as possible to build momentum on your new site. You can write these one-by-one or write them and then publish them all at once when your site is live. Aim for a goal of 100 high-quality posts by the end of your first year.

Always prioritize quality over quantity. If you can only write 50 blog posts per year that serve your audience detailed and helpful content, then do that. It will take longer to reach your goals, but you will retain your audience if you are serving the best content you can produce.

Pro tip: One of the things you’ll need to begin blogging is a host for your website. It’s tempting to go cheap, but if you can spend just a little bit more every month you will reap the benefits! A faster site with support from real humans can’t be beat. I use BigScoots and love it. Whenever I have a technical question or problem they help right away. Recommend!

Another aspect of keeping things professional is the overall appearance of your site. You should choose a theme that is ready to go from the start. Add your own photos and you are set to go.

Don’t choose a theme from Etsy or other places where you might not be able to get help if you need it. This is another reason why I suggest Lauren and her Wordpress themes. She offers support while you get started and her themes are top-notch quality.

Don’t clutter your site with a bunch of popups and signups and promotions. Offer your email signup (start your list right away) and keep things simple.

If you add in ads one day, try to keep them minimal so that visitors can access your content without frustration.

• Choose a blog name and sign up to host your website with BigScoots.
• Check out Restored 316 WordPress Themes (Kadence versions) to get inspired for what your website could look like. Browse the themes and envision your crafts, recipes, writing and more presented beautifully on a website of your own.
• Need more flexibility? Add Kadence Pro to unlock more design potential and create the website you’ve dream of.
• Write your first 10-20 blog posts as quickly as possible and then stay consistent as you work towards 100 posts.
• Monetize your blog with ads, affiliate links, digital products, or even a course.

You can absolutely build a profitable website around your creative passion. If you start, I’d love to hear from you. Just drop a comment below!

There is SO much more I could add to this post, but I don’t want to go on forever. If you have specific questions, reach out. I’m happy to help as I can!

Blessings on your journey!