On this podcast episode of The Dietitian Side Hustle, Katie Dodd talks about how she parlayed her expertise as a dietitian into creating a very profitable blog.  

Ms. Dodd seemed to have started making money pretty fast. What’s intriguing about her story is that she was making decent money by the end of her first year and even more so two years in. That’s the hope for a lot of bloggers, but she actually accomplished it. 

A component of her success was that she blogged about something that was within her expertise as a dietitian. Specifically, her expertise is in working with geriatric patients; thus, the name of her blog, The Geriatric Dietitian. Presumably, her mastery of the subject and interest was evident in her writing, leading to a trusting audience and consistent traffic. It seems evident to me that to build a profitable blog so rapidly, she had to have had some well-established systems early on. I would be interested in learning more about that aspect of her blog’s growth. 

Based on her own account, she had exponential earnings. Maybe, by the sixth month, she made $60. Then, it doubled the next month. By the end of the year, she was making decent money from the blog. I apologize for not having the exact amount. I think you can only have that kind of growth, though if you’re really following a playbook. In other words, she had to have known what she was doing and had some good information. 

Factoring into her income generation was having multiple streams. She monetized her blog by having ads, participating in affiliate marketing, selling digital products, creating her own and selling an ebook, and having a course. When she had enough traffic, she signed up for Media Vine, which apparently has a better payout than Google Ads.  

Having sold digital products early in her blogging career, I would be interested in learning how she determined what products she would make and how she made them. To note, though, it seems like the bulk of her revenue came from ads and sales of her ebook. She seems to have an interesting story, and I wouldn’t mind learning more.