Stray Curls

I Have Started 2 More Blog Sites And Generating $5-6K/Month From Ads [Update]

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Angela Mary Vaz

Founder, Stray Curls

$4.5K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Stray Curls

straycurls.com

from Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

started January 2018

$4,500

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

ConvertKit

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WordPress

design

Canva

Procreate

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Freepix

seo

Ahrefs

Discover what books Angela recommends to grow your business!

The One Hour Content Plan: The Solopreneur’s Guide to a Y...

10x Marketing Formula: Your Blueprint for Creating 'Compe... Garrett Moon

Want more updates on Stray Curls? Check out these stories:

1. How I Started A $4.5K/Month Blog Helping Young Women Build Creative Online Businesses (2020) ➜

This is a follow up story for Stray Curls. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 4 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

My name is Angela Mary Vaz - I’m a 30-year-old Blogger and Illustrator currently living in Bangalore, India with my 2 gorgeous dogs whom I love to the moon and back.

In my earlier days, I created comics for companies and clients, websites for bloggers, and even sold physical merchandise online from the comfort of my home and I’ve been doing this since 2015.

You can read my whole starter story here .

I would get a lot of inquiries asking me for help so I started Stray Curls to help women build online businesses that they loved.

I filled my blog with illustrations and mild humor to stand out from the crowd - and it worked!

I tried to keep things simple - I strongly believe that anyone can make money online with a laptop and internet connection.

However, 2020 was a bad year for me business-wise and personally.

Google - they switched their focus to niched blogs. At about the same time, Pinterest stopped working that well for me too.

The pandemic happened, my mum was diagnosed with 4th stage cancer and I was at an all-time low.

After she passed away, I was in this lull and I took a long break.

I couldn’t write like before.

This meant a huge drop in revenue for Stray Curls.

It also meant I had to come up with a plan.

I had quite a few emails from ad networks asking me to put ads on my website and even write some posts on products I didn’t quite fancy, but I refused because Stray Curls was too close to my heart to do that.

Which was fine - I knew I had to pivot. That’s the risk we take being in online businesses.

This inspired me to create another blog (more niched and focused).

I wanted to blog about personal development and relationships - but it would be unwise of me to start this blog without some sort of degree - so I pursued my degree in Human Psychology and Relationships (I took a course online while my blog remained pretty stagnant) and once I got my degree, I was comfortable writing blog posts.

I used my own experience and pain to write extremely detailed posts. I put a little bit of myself in every single post I wrote.

And I started experimenting heavily with my SEO strategies.

Simultaneously, I shared those findings with my Stray Curls Blog - this helped my readers with their blogs.

I also started doing blog coaching and blog audits to help my readers get more perspective - and this helped me understand how different blog niches grow.

Once Mind Space Cafe started making me over $1K a month with ads (it took me 1 year exactly), I knew I could repeat the process.

Because I enjoyed blogging so much, I started 2 more blogs last year - and another hair blog (name to be revealed later since it’s brand new).

Draw Cartoon Style makes me over $500 a month (with ads) and it’s exactly 1 year old. It is taking longer to pick up because each post requires me to complete a drawing project.

So, I need to invest a lot of time in this blog.

Stop spending time designing your blog - it needs content. Focus on content and nothing else - just write. Every post you write has the potential to get so much traffic!

The hair blog (about 6 months old) has just been monetized and is bringing me over $200 (with ads and affiliate marketing). I know I can get it to $1K per month within a year’s time.

This gave me the confidence to teach people how to grow a blog to $1K in a year - since I’ve been able to do it by writing only 5-10 blog posts a month.

This eBook focuses on the exact steps I’ve used to grow blogs to $1K a month.

Anyone who wants to start blogging will find it useful because I break down my SEO strategy that I’ve used for multiple niches.

This is currently the best seller in my shop and it’s updated for 2023.

Honestly, I’m not afraid of the future - I know that blogging isn’t going to go away anytime soon (even though AI has made incredible progress over the last few months). People still want to read human-written content.

And I do believe that everyone has a unique voice that is not replicable by AI.

I currently make about $5-6K a month.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?

I honestly love looking at my site’s analytics and seeing what posts are doing well. I feel it’s very important to just push out content in the first few months and write with blinders on.

It takes a bit to know what your readers want from you and more importantly what Google ranks you for.

Once you begin to understand that, then, you can publish more similar content and replicate your success.

One of the best decisions I’ve made in the last 2 years was to start more blogs. This has given me the confidence to understand several niches and experiment with various SEO strategies.

For me, increasing revenue has never been my primary goal - it’s always been about touching people’s hearts and making some sort of positive difference.

Teaching people to recover from a breakup or teaching people to draw gives me immense joy and satisfaction - that’s what pushes me to keep creating.

I’m also lucky to live in a country where I can make investments and live off those investments. I’ve started multiple savings accounts and my monthly interest covers my cost of living expenses.

So, whatever I earn from my blogs is a bonus.

I do this for the thrill of creating.

Sometimes, I just open my blogs to look at them and I feel proud of having created them. They’re like my little virtual babies that have slowly taken flight.

I get emails and comments from people all over the world every single day from my blogs and I spend a lot of time answering them. I reply to every single comment and email - my business has always been about human connection.

The only thing that has worked for me in terms of traffic growth has been excellent keyword research and writing like a human being.

Too often I find posts written in a mechanical voice - and I can see why they have trouble growing.

I feel that having an edge and finding your voice is what will ultimately help you rank - that and keyword research of course!

Because if you build a brand that people remember, if you touch them with kindness and understanding, they’ll come back to your blog - they’ll remember you.

I have emphasized this a lot on Stray Curls as well.

I don’t use social media (except a little Pinterest when I’m bored because I’m a very visual person) because I honestly cannot keep up with algorithms and I find it exhausting.

I prefer writing and using my blog to reach people directly.

Google has been good to me. I will ride that wave till I can.

I’m currently working on a new eBook that teaches everything you need to know about starting a blog in 2023.

I thought about everything I’ve learned in the last few years and decided to write an updated version of everything I do before, during, and after starting a blog.

That’s where this eBook differs from the others.

I plan on including my stats from my blogs so that people can see that it can be done!

I also want to include a publishing plan for anyone who starts a blog so that they have a plan for the next 2 years after starting.

What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?

I was very worried about AI because I did feel that we’d lose considerable traffic.

Writing has always given me so much joy - so I was curious to see if blogs would lose a lot of traffic this year.

So far, I’ve seen only increases all across the board. None of my websites have been affected so far - touch wood.

I genuinely believe that people still love reading human content so let’s say the worst happens - I know I’ll have to pivot.

Perhaps I’ll start a shop where I sell cute clipart and I’ll focus on only drawing.

That doesn’t sound too bad - it might just be a lot of fun!

I feel as online business people, we need to be prepared to roll with the punches - that’s the risk we take starting online businesses.

It’s still fun and beats working in Corporate.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

I think I have shiny object syndrome. I’m always wanting to start new things and I have to bite down my tongue to not do that. Because it slows me down terribly.
I’m also terribly anxious - it’s something that has gotten better over the years, but I continue to think of things that can go wrong. Sometimes, things get better too.
I think one of the best decisions I’ve made in the last 2 years was to start more blogs. This has given me the confidence to understand several niches and experiment with various SEO strategies. What I’ve picked up so far is that every niche is different. The same technique will result in a 30% traffic increase for one blog but only a 5% traffic increase for another. It’s very important to understand your blog niche when you’re working on growing your blog traffic.
I have decided to stop worrying about the future - if and when I do lose my blog traffic, or the day comes that blogs are no longer viable, I’m going to pivot then. But until then, I’m going to write and milk this blog traffic while I still can.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

I genuinely try to not think too much about the future.

Because every time I’ve thought too far ahead - my projections have either never happened or changed course entirely.

Nobody knows the future. Everything we say is simply speculation at this point.

I believe in living day by day.

At the moment, I enjoy creating content for my 4 blogs. I love waking up and cracking my knuckles before I write because I try to write at least 2-3 blog posts a day - this doesn’t involve all the drawings I have to do.

Although I don’t know where my business will take me, I know that I will be a content creator for a long time.

What’s the best thing you read in the last year?

I love to read. I split my time between fiction and non-fiction books because I’m a sucker for learning.

When I’m not reading books, I’m watching Youtube videos, reading Medium, or watching documentaries.

I only wish I could retain every single thing I’ve read and watched - I’d be a genius!

Edith Eger - The Choice (A book written by a holocaust survivor who taught me that no matter what is happening around you, nobody can take away from you what you’ve put in your mind.)
Newsletters from Jon (Fat Stacks), Niche Site Lady, Anne (Yeys), and youtube videos by Matt Diggity for all things blogging.
Dear Reader - Cathy Rentzenbrink (A book about books - quite literally)

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

Don’t fight Google, join it. Pick 0 volume keywords and write posts for those. Are they ranking? Good. Now pick 10 volume keywords. Keep increasing the volume till you find that you get stuck - this is where Google needs to trust you. So, write more and more. I’ve found that on Mind Space Cafe, I can rank easily for any keyword with a 600 search volume. Anything above that, and it takes a few weeks to get on the top 3-6.
Stop spending time designing your blog - it needs content. Focus on content and nothing else - just write. Every post you write has the potential to get so much traffic!
Be patient - just like learning to be fit takes more than a bit, so does blogging. It’s something you learn as you do and you get better as you keep blogging.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

At the moment, no.

I’ve made the choice personally to not work with anyone - I have a pretty active social life and I spend every single minute not working or not talking to people - with my dogs.

I don’t want to grow to that stage where I’m delegating and I’m managing more than working hands-on.

So, I could never delegate content writing.

Perhaps the day will come when I do feel like outsourcing but at the moment - I’m comfortable doing this by myself.