March 19, 2018

Building a Million Dollar Blog in Your 20’s – with Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Create a Solopreneur Life, Invest for Family Financial Independence

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In 2011, Michelle Schroeder-Gardner started a blog called Making Sense of Cents as a fun hobby. After finding some early financial success with sponsored posts and affiliate marketing, she decided her little blog could actually become a viable business.

Fast forward to today, Michelle now makes over $1.5 million per year from her blog and continues to see massive success with her overall online-based business. Not only has she gone from $0 to $1.5 million incredibly fast, but she's done it all in her 20's.

What are we covering today?

Michelle and I discuss:

How she got her start blogging
The ways she's specifically making money
Advice for others who are looking to have a fraction of her success

Even if you’re not into blogging, Michelle’s straightforward advice on building a business and creating time freedom is extremely motivating. You’re not going to want to miss this one.

About Our Guest: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner is the founder and creator of Making Sense of Cents. On her blog, she helps readers earn more, save more, and live more, and also documents her monthly income of over $100,000.

Her writing and advice have been featured on sites such as Huffington Post, Forbes, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Zillow, US News, NASDAQ, MSN, and more.

When she's not blogging, you'll find her exploring in her RV with her husband and her two dogs. They sold their house in 2015 and have been traveling full-time since.

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s RESOURCES

Website: MakingSenseofCents.com

Michelle's Affiliate Marketing Course: Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

Carpe Diem Quote

“Follow your passion; it will lead you to your purpose.”

– Oprah Winfrey

What is your passion? Are you pursuing a million-dollar blog?

Please let me know in the comments below!

Andy Hill

Andy Hill, AFC® is the award-winning family finance coach behind Marriage Kids and Money - a platform dedicated to helping families build wealth and happiness. With millions of podcast downloads and video views, Andy’s message of family financial empowerment has resonated with listeners, readers and viewers across the world. When he's not "talking money", Andy enjoys being a Soccer Dad, singing karaoke with his wife and relaxing on his hammock.

7 responses to “Building a Million Dollar Blog in Your 20’s – with Michelle Schroeder-Gardner”

Amanda Jenks

May 31, 2025

Michelle’s journey from side hustle to million-dollar blog is incredibly inspiring! Her dedication and transparency motivate me to pursue my blogging dreams with the same passion. I’m eager to apply her insights and build my own success story!

With so many voices out there, do you think new bloggers can still break through like you did?

Reply
Ti.

March 25, 2018

Blogging can truly be a very powerful way of getting a message accross and attracting an audience that may end up buying from you. I remember that the first time I got approximately 100 visitors in a dayw ith free traffic was through blogging.
Blogging and affiliate marketing seem to be combined well. But, recently getting videos to millions of views with facebook has also been a nice experience to me. I was thinking about working on a blog recently. The results you have mentioned can be motivating.

Reply
1. Andy Hill
  
  March 25, 2018
  
  Completely agree – driving traffic for your business through a blog is an excellent idea. It not only provides your readers a sense of your experience and opinions, it’s also a great way to keep your site fresh with new content.
  
  Reply
Troy @ Bull Markets

March 25, 2018

Michelle’s story is really inspiring, and I do remember following her for a bit in 2014. It’s crazy to see how far she’s come in the blogosphere. Who knew there was so much money in blogging.

Reply
1. Andy Hill
  
  March 25, 2018
  
  Her results are amazing. She truly put in some major work to get where she is today and now she’s an affiliate marketing leader.
  
  Reply
Money Beagle

March 20, 2018

Maybe I had it wrong but if memory served, a lions share of Michelle’s income came from referral fees for web hosting. I still never figured out how that came to be. I know then she started selling courses which I thought was interesting because a few big areas seemed to be areas that didn’t seem repeatable on a broad scale. I’m curious how many were to truly repeat or even come close to Michelle’s success.

Reply
1. Andy Hill
  
  March 21, 2018
  
  I do recall her making a good chunk of money partnering with Bluehost or Siteground (not positive which one). What I appreciate about Michelle’s work is her transparency. She openly shares her income reports and strategies for success. As a student of her affiliate marketing course, I’ve learned a ton about blogging, income strategies and social media strategies.
  
  As far as others who’ve been successful to her scale, names like Ruth Soukop, Rosemarie Groner and Pat Flynn come to mind.
  
  Reply

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