Christy Price joins Elwyn Davies for an ad hoc interview to discuss her new course

Why This Matters

Let’s be honest: Making decent money from your blog can feel a bit like searching for a needle in a spam-filled haystack. The advice is everywhere, most of it confusing or suspiciously optimistic, and far too many blog owners end up stuck on the hamster wheel of “post more, hope for the best.”

For freelancers and small business folk, your website or blog should pull its weight as a practical source of client enquiries, sales, or at the very least, the odd affiliate kickback to cover your coffee habit. Instead, many promising bloggers get bogged down. Weeks pass, web traffic looks stagnant, and while the “How to make £1,000/month passively from blogging” articles stack up in your bookmarks, your own site remains a charming but largely pointless journal.

Here comes Christy Price. Web designer, Texas local, and one of those rare folk who shares her real-world results. When Christy rolled out her latest course, “Make Money with your Blog,” it resonated with us at Pixelhaze. We had faced these same stumbling blocks ourselves, and even our resident tech whiz, Will Hammond, came away from the course with strategies he’s already using for our own Academy blog.

So I (Elwyn) caught up with Christy for a genuinely practical chat. There’ll be no false promises, no “explosive growth” nonsense—just the nuts and bolts of blog monetisation, how she cracked the code (and the occasional horror story about choosing the wrong shade of blue).

If you’ve ever wondered why your web copy earns nothing but polite silence, Christy’s lessons could set you straight.

Common Pitfalls

Let’s have a moment of honesty here. The route from “I like writing about this” to “people are using my advice, and I’m making money” is littered with small, avoidable landmines. Here are the ones Christy and most of the rest of us have met, face-first:

• Waiting for perfection: “I’ll launch once I’ve got it all figured out” is a recipe for eternal idling. The web is full of half-built blogging empires gathering dust.
• Affiliate link disasters: Copy-pasting random “best deals” everywhere without a plan (or understanding), then wondering why nothing works. Squarespace users especially tend to get stuck merging affiliate links and blog posts (as Christy found).
• Lack of integrity: Spraying affiliate links to products you wouldn’t buy for your mum, just to make a penny. This approach doesn’t work, and it doesn’t feel good.
• Inconsistent posting: Writing ten posts one month, then silence the next three. Spoiler: your audience (and Google) will forget you ever existed.
• Content calendar worship: Obsessing over the mythical perfect schedule, then giving up entirely when you miss a Monday.

Every one of these pitfalls delays progress, burns out motivation, and leaves you with a blog that nobody, including you, values or trusts.

Step-by-Step Fix

This isn’t a magical process. It does take a bit of a mindset tweak and some smart, honest systems. Here’s Christy’s process, as gleaned from our chat, with real battles and real wins included:

1. Start Today – Don’t Wait for Perfect

If “perfection” were a requirement, none of us would ever launch anything. Christy’s biggest golden nugget? Ignore the nagging feeling that you need the ideal setup before you begin. She told me, “You don’t have to be perfect when you start… put ‘too hard’ stuff in the ‘too hard’ pile and just get started on what you can do today.”

That’s good advice, particularly for anyone stuck writing draft after draft without hitting “publish.”

2. Build Trust Before Revenue

All the algorithms in use cannot compensate for a lack of credibility. Christy waited before adding affiliate links. She built up a regular and trusting readership over a year before including her first. When she finally did recommend a plugin she genuinely used, both the readers benefited with a shortcut, and she earned a reward.

Avoid “listicle” traps and snake-oil recommendations. Only link to products or services that you’d happily buy for your gran. “My self-imposed rule is simple: If I wouldn’t recommend it to my mum or daughter, it doesn’t go in.”

3. Make Affiliate Links Work (Especially on Squarespace)

One reason Christy’s course works for so many (including us): she solved an annoying technical block for Squarespace bloggers. Adding affiliate links in a way that survives template changes, keeps pages clean, and complies with UK disclosure rules is fiddly.

The essential part isn’t just dropping links everywhere, but weaving them naturally into genuinely helpful posts. For example, Christy’s most successful articles tackled real questions (how to add affiliate links to Squarespace 7.1), offered clear walk-throughs, and included her own “this worked for me” experience.

4. Ditch the Calendar, Find Your Own Consistency

A wall-to-wall content calendar works for some people. Christy tried it, found it unhelpful, and then returned to a system that fits her own rhythm. The real key is consistency, not complexity.

If you manage one strong post per week or fortnight, that’s better than flooding the feed then vanishing for a season. Steady content creation helps both Google and human readers. Over time, this builds authority and trust.

5. Lead with Service, Not Sales

Christy’s income grew because she served her readers’ real-world needs. Her process: write blog posts that answer the questions people are actually searching for, then sprinkle affiliate links only where they make sense. This approach establishes you as the “go-to” expert with readers who trust your judgment.

Focus on helping your audience get useful results. The rewards will follow.

6. Don’t Be Afraid to Raise Your Rates

A happy side-effect of writing valuable, targeted blog posts: you attract better clients. As Christy discovered, once her reputation was established, demand increased beyond her available hours. This allowed her to charge what her expertise was worth.

There’s a significant difference between clients who see you as a checklist-ticker and those who call you an expert and trust your guidance. Your blog can help attract the right kind.

What Most People Miss

Many guides about blog monetisation overlook the importance of building trust. Quick fixes and magic-bullet lists frequently drown out the reality that blogging for income is a marathon, not a pub sprint.

Treat your blog as a portfolio of service. Over time, the right posts (well-signposted, regularly updated, and rooted in genuine experience) become magnets for ideal clients and steady, sustainable affiliate income.

One of Christy’s enduring mantras sums it up: “If you don’t know what to do next—just do the next thing you can do. You can always patch the cracks later.” This practical mindset encourages steady action instead of waiting for perfect plans. Progress matters more than perfection.

The Bigger Picture

When you get this system ticking along, something interesting happens. Your blog becomes a useful record of your expertise, and much more than a sales megaphone.

You:

• Fill your digital shopfront with practical proof of your expertise
• Attract readers, and importantly, clients who actually value what you do
• Stop scrambling for pocket change and start watching the “affiliate” line item nudge upward each month
• Build a reputation for helpfulness rather than hustling, earning you a real seat at the table in your field
• Create teachable moments for your own future self—every solution you share can help someone (often you) again down the line

The result is simple: You spend less time dithering and more time helping. Your visitors get more value, and your pocket does as well. No magic here. Just practical, honest craft.

Now that Christy’s course lives inside the new Pixelhaze Academy Campus (with a member discount), you get both the know-how and the backing of a community that has dealt with the same challenges.

Wrap-Up

If you’re tired of watching your blog languish, or you keep hearing that affiliate income is out of reach for “real people,” follow Christy’s lead. Get started with whatever you’ve got. Solve someone’s actual problem. Keep turning up, staying consistent even if it’s not perfect. Let the process guide you rather than chasing unattainable perfection.

For more proven tools and genuinely practical guidance, Christy’s “Make Money with Your Blog” course is now available to all Pixelhaze Academy members inside our Campus, with an exclusive rate for paid members.

You’ll find:

• Real, step-by-step walk-throughs for affiliate systems that work (even on Squarespace)
• Honest advice about choosing which products deserve your recommendation
• Simple routines for writing blog content that actually earns respect and revenue

Don’t stay stuck. Take your blog forward and join the Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership. Your future blog and your bank balance will thank you.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I actually add affiliate links in Squarespace without it buggering up the layout?
You’ll want to use text or button blocks and ensure you’re following both Squarespace's and your affiliate platform’s best practices. Christy’s course covers specific walk-throughs that cut through the fog, showing what works right now (especially in version 7.1).

Do I need a big audience before starting affiliate marketing?
Not necessarily, but it helps. Christy had an established trickle of regulars before she added her first affiliate link. Her key was prioritising service over cash grabs, so when links did appear, readers trusted them. Even a smaller, engaged audience can be enough to see your first sales.

What topics actually bring in both visitors and income?
Topics that answer specific, real-world problems for your ideal audience. If your blog post solves a pain point and the product or service you recommend genuinely helps, both traffic and revenue tend to follow, albeit with a bit of patience.

I can’t keep up with a regular posting schedule. Does that mean I’ll fail?
Regularity matters, but rigid calendars aren’t required for everyone. As both Christy and countless Pixelhaze members have discovered, building a system that works for you—batching posts when possible, jotting down ideas as they come—is more valuable than some colour-coded spreadsheet you quietly ignore.

Jargon Buster

• Affiliate marketing: Earning a commission for promoting products or services you have used and trust.
• SEO: Making your blog posts easier to find in Google and co.
• Content calendar: A planning tool for what you’ll post and when. Some love it, some rebel against it.
• Engagement: Reader actions such as comments, shares, and emails that show you’re hitting the mark.
• Niche: Your blog’s area of focus, whether that’s recipe hacks, bee-keeping, or web design for the left-handed.
• Monetise: Turning your blog into a modest (or mighty) source of income.

Related Posts from Pixelhaze

• Elwyn Davies joins Christy Price for a quick interview in her Creator Spotlight series
  Earlier this year, I sat down with Christy to talk web design, business growth, and why being helpful always wins.

• Our Mid Wales recording studio is live and ready to roll!
  The behind-the-scenes slog and triumphs of building a teaching studio on a windswept Welsh farm.

• More on practical affiliate marketing and blog systems
  Real, grounded advice from the trenches—including more member stories and brutally honest post-mortems.

Want more helpful systems like this?
Join Pixelhaze Academy for free at https://www.pixelhaze.academy/membership.