$100,000+ Per Year From Her Free Printables Blog

Kelly Crean is the founder of Pjs and Paint, a printables blog…

Free printables perfect for celebrating holidays, entertaining kids at home or in the classroom and so much more!

💬 In a recent interview, she reveals…

In quarters 1, 2, and 3 I make around $5,000-$9,000 a month from ads. Q4, however, is a money-making season and I’m thrilled to say that last Q4 I made an average of $16,000 each month.

That adds up to $100,000+ per year 🤑

Kelly graduated with a degree in Fine Art but realized she “did not want to become a teacher or gallery artist.”

So she taught herself graphic design and started freelancing in 2013…

[The freelance business] was very successful and I was making 6 figures and working with pretty high-profile clients.

😕 But…

In 2018, my first son was born. I quickly realized that working from home while having a newborn was very, very difficult.

Kelly tested out a few different business ideas around this time, but her printables blog proved to be the big winner…

Pjs and Paint is by far my most profitable and enjoyable business endeavor. However, it took me quite a long time to settle on the idea. 

In addition to my blogs, I had multiple Etsy shops, where I sold everything from handmade jewelry to custom social media icons, and also web design clients.

Amazing that she managed to build up her blog while juggling several other business pursuits and being a new mom 💪

And worth emphasizing that Kelly tried several different ideas before hitting upon one that really worked.

She adds…

Just under a year after I started Pjs and Paint, I was accepted into Mediavine. It was such an amazing accomplishment and motivated me to put even more time and effort into making my blog a business.

I continued my freelance design business for about 2 years and kept working on Pjs and Paint part time.

Finally, in 2021, after my second son was born, I felt confident enough with my Mediavine income that I quit freelancing and poured all my attention into my blog.

📧 Kelly’s newsletter is her #1 marketing strategy…

On days that I send out email newsletter, my traffic and income easily triple. I currently have about 106,000 active email subscribers…

I think something unique that I do that helps grow my business is to include a free printable in every post. It gives people an incentive to read my posts and also sign up for my email list in order to get the free download.

And while Kelly’s printables business might sound simple, there’s actually a lot to it…

Something I wish I had known when I first started out was that building a blog is a lot more work than you might think. The internet, social media, rules, and regulations are always changing and it’s something you have to learn to be flexible with and be able to pivot as things change.

That’s the nature of online business: things change fast and you have to keep learning and adjusting 🛠️

But Kelly’s story shows that you can earn a good living online if you’re willing to work hard and test out your ideas.