A $50 Blog That Is Making $2,000 Monthly

Making $2,000 monthly from blog that he started with just $50

Author

Indie Hustle
August 12, 2023

Making $2,000 monthly from a blog that he started with just $50

“My expenses are just the yearly domain, SSL, and hosting fee, which is about $200 a year. “

Hello! Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your business?

Hey entrepreneurs! My name is Safwan Khan, I currently live in Pakistan but have also lived in the US, UK, and Dubai.

I am the founder of Startupily. I write business, entrepreneurship, and personal development articles for Thrive Global and Influencive, and I recently published two self-help books on Amazon called Mind Influence & Eternal Wisdom.

Startupily is a blog for entrepreneurs seeking useful business articles, resources, and tools to start and grow their businesses.

Besides working I like to travel, meet new people, exercise, write articles and books, read about psychology and mind sciences and play chess.

How did you start this business? Take us through the process.

I started Startupily when I was looking for a job and desperately needed to earn some money.

Back in 2016, I read several articles and watched YouTube videos on how blogging was the new trend and a great way to earn a side income. It has the potential to turn into a full-time job so I decided to take the risk and start my own business and startup blog.

Initially, when I started Startupily the platform was for interviewing entrepreneurs from all around the world (Providing PR Services) publishing their interviews on my blog, and promoting them on my social media networks.

I did not know how to make a WordPress website and instead of paying a developer to do this I watched YouTube tutorials till 5 in the morning every day and learned the entire process by myself.

Not being technical savvy it was a difficult task but I still managed to get my site up and running within 3 months. When I look back the first version of the website was horrible. Yet, I still went ahead with it knowing over time I would improve upon it.

Initially, I only spent $50 for the hosting and domain name. Rest was my time and sweat to create the site.

"You can accomplish absolutely everything and anything if you put your mind and heart into it. This was the first time I experienced accomplishment. It is the greatest feeling ever"

How did you get your first initial customers?

I got the idea of Startupily when I joined this networking app in 2017 called DUST - It was created by Mark Cuban.

Most of the people on the app were small business owners and they were not knowledgeable enough in marketing and promoting their business. They were also looking for different platforms to market themselves besides the traditional FB, Twitter, etc.

Over time I spoke with them about their pain points and none of them ever did any PR campaigns because it was expensive and they didn't know what platforms to promote themselves on.

I found a problem that small business owners were having so I created a solution for it. The solution would be my website platform where I could promote these business owners for free.

My initial concept of Startupily was to interview these business owners publish their interviews on the blog and promote them on social media daily and business groups I was a member of on LinkedIn and other platforms. The business owners would also promote it amongst their followers and this would help my site get more traffic. It was a win-win deal.

Once Startupily was up and running I contacted everyone on the DUST app asking if they would like to interview and promote their business on my blog.

Within the first 2 months, I interviewed around 90 startups from different countries. I was surprised to see the positive response and the scope of growth this platform could have.

After interviewing the entrepreneurs I would promote it on my social media networks and business groups that I was a member of every single day. This got me lots of traffic and people started appreciating the service I provided.

Over time I expanded my blog by publishing business articles to educate entrepreneurs. I added business plan templates, business worksheets, and other documents business owners would need to get started.

Since launch, what are your marketing strategies or channels to get new customers?

I have been using several marketing strategies to promote Startupily and to increase traffic.

The usual social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (now known as X). The best platform for promoting my blog has been Linkedin and the business groups I am a member of. The majority of the traffic comes from there.

For the past 3 years, I have also been promoting Startupily by writing for other blogs like Influencive, Thrive Global, and a few others.

I started using Quora about 3 years ago and it has been amazing in getting new traffic and helping people out by answering their questions.

The first 2 years I used it I answered people's business and marketing questions about 7 hours a day.

Initially, this didn't help me much but after 5 months I saw my Quora profile viewership skyrocket to almost a million views per month and generated traffic to Startupily.

How does your business make money?

I monetize my blog in several ways:

1. Google Adsense

2. I charge $60 for interviewing entrepreneurs or publishing an article about their business.

3. I charge $60 for promoting the articles on my social media networks and business groups that have over 5 million members.

4. I charge $50 for adding a link to their business in my articles

5. I work with several content marketing agencies that send me 3-5 articles per month to publish on Startupily and I charge $50-70 for each article.

6. I work with a few individuals who send me articles, links, or infographics for publishing. The price depends on the amount of content they send me.

7. I also sell advertisement space on my blog's main page header banner, and article banner. The price ranges from $300-$500 per month depending on how long they require the banner.

The amount of money I make from Startupily really varies depending on how much time I spend on promoting it. It can vary from $1500-2000 per month.

My expenses are just the yearly domain, SSL, and hosting fee which is about $200 a year.

My goal is to increase my monthly revenue to $3000 per month in the next few months.

Take us through a typical day in your life running the business as a solo founder

I also run a men's health care clinic so that is my main focus during the day time.

However, if I am free and don't have any clients then I work on Startupily.

My average day begins with checking my emails to see if any new clients have contacted me to publish any article or for backlinks. Usually, I will get 1-2 backlink clients which takes 5 mins to do. If a client wants to publish an article I will publish it for them which could take 20 mins and then promote it on my social media would be another 30 mins.

I like writing articles as well so if I am feeling inspired to share some new insights and knowledge I will write an article and publish it.

I just published an article today after 6 months of not writing any myself. It is called "Embracing Silence and Its Impact on Mental Peace".

You can read it here.

Before you go, what advice would you give to another who wants to start a business like yours?

My advice for aspiring entrepreneurs:

First work on your mindset. You need to focus on having a strong & positive mindset. It is a challenging journey. Are you strong enough for this journey? You need to overcome fear - Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of negative thoughts, fear of people criticizing you, fear of regrets, fear of losing your investment, and fear of not being able to achieve what you have dreamt of.

Skills you need to learn while on this journey - be passionate, you need to build patience because it will take time for you to start and grow your business, perseverance, and work smart. These skills are key to your entrepreneurial success.

Make sure the business idea is a solution to a problem lots of people have. This way you will be able to scale the business.

A list of my favorite Quotes that will Inspire You: “Failure is inevitable, a true entrepreneur will prevail over adversity” “We all have dreams but to make dreams come true, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort” ‘Don’t fear the intensity of the opposing wind O’Eagle. It only blows to help you fly even higher” “Power alone is rigid but if you can bend with the wind you'll never break”

You're being encouraged to take the leap of faith and step into the new version of yourself that you're becoming.

Allow your imagination to be free, and your childlike curiosity to stay alive while you stay receptive to each moment as an opportunity for growth and rebirth.

Where can we go to lean more about you and your business?

Here are some links you can go to learn more:

Startupily: www.startupily.com