How Angela Makes $10K/Month with Blogging, Pinterest & Selling eBooks
This is an interview with Angela from Stray Curls.
Hey, Angela. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do.
Hey Lidiya, thank you so much for having me here. I really appreciate it.
I’m a 32-year-old illustrator and blogger living in Bangalore, India with my 2 dogs.
I actually love creating – both drawing and writing and before this, I was a comic artist and brand designer.
I have a thing for hair so most of my comics were built on this one topic – this was what accelerated my growth on Instagram and I was able to understand what people wanted.
Right now, however, I enjoy creating content for people in different niches and that’s why I run multiple websites.
How did your blogging journey begin?
Honestly, I never intended to be a blogger.
I’m a Computer Science Engineer so I started my online business making websites.
I loved creating websites/online portfolios for companies and other bloggers. I poured myself into drawing logos and creating cute illustrations for clients with websites.
Sometimes people would see my work and commission me for a portrait of their family/pets.
All this exciting work made me want to record my progress so I started a simple blog.
I decided to name it after my curly hair comics – Stray Curls. I also have very curly hair so the name fits!
Although the blog started as a hobby, I started getting asked questions about how to make money doing what I do so I began sharing freelance tips on my blog.
That’s how it all began and then I enjoyed the process of sharing these tips so much, that I became fully invested in blogging/coaching.
What were your writing about in the early days of the blog vs now?
Earlier, I only blogged about freelancing/online business.
But as I kept improving my drawing skills and taking different courses, I started venturing out into making different kinds of websites to talk about those skills I picked up.
After I lost my mum to cancer and went through a painful breakup, I pursued my degree in Human Relationships and Psychology to understand more about relationships and grief. This prompted me to start a lifestyle/relationships website for people who were looking for relationship advice/how to deal with grief, etc.
Sharing my experiences and what worked for me to battle those heavy emotions helped me feel better – reading the comments of people who’ve been through similar ordeals pushed me to blog even more.
I also started a specific drawing website that covered tutorials on drawing cute animals/food/people.
How long did it take you to make your first money blogging?
This is where it gets tricky.
Since I was an already established artist, I was making a full-time income drawing and my website merely served as a portfolio to help me get clients.
People would see my work on Instagram/my website and contact me via DMs or my Contact Form.
I had a basic understanding of SEO, so my website got me a lot of clients. People searching for “Couple portrait illustration” or “Hand drawn logo” or “book cover illustration” would stumble upon my website because I had optimized my website for those keywords already.
So, technically, it was already helping me make a full-time income by getting me clients.
However, I found it difficult to keep up with both – drawing commissions and blogging so I slowly started shifting over to a more passive income.
I begun incorporating affiliate marketing and creating digital products to sell on my website.
As that income increased, I started taking on fewer clients.
I still occasionally take on client work – but I can now afford to be super picky because my websites are mostly running on ads (except for Stray Curls) and product sales.
How did your first year as a blogger go in terms of traffic, income, and site growth?
Back then in 2015-2016, using Pinterest to get traffic was super easy. Even Google SEO was not that hard.
You just had to think a bit out of the box and boom! You’d grow almost instantly!
Because I wasn’t using stock photos back then and only using illustrations/artwork – my blog became very recognizable and people could recognize my pins on Pinterest super easily.
It stood out.
So, within 3 months of starting, I was getting about 50K pageviews a month.
It’s not like that today. Pinterest requires dedicated pinning for a few weeks to start bringing you traffic.
How much traffic do your blogs get now? What are your top traffic sources?
Stray Curls no longer gets that kind of traffic.
The niche is very saturated because a lot of people cover blogging/seo/traffic strategies.
But because I’ve built my email list and have readers who’ve become super loyal over the last 10 years, this particular website brings me over $3-5K monthly.
I make a huge portion of my income with tripwire/eBook sales.
The other websites all vary vastly – they used to bring in traffic via Google.
But after the devastating Google Core updates in late 2023, I had to shift over to Pinterest.
I have 1 bringing me around 200K pageviews a month, the others are all growing steadily thanks to Pinterest.
What’s your current content strategy like?
I used to do extensive keyword research when SEO made a difference.
I’d answer specific questions like:
- How to dye hair red without bleach
- How to draw a kawaii labrador
- How to get over a breakup when it’s killing you
But of late, SEO doesn’t matter. So, now I have more freedom to pick what I want to write.
I look at Pinterest and study trends. I also do keyword research using a Pinterest Keyword Tool.
I study what posts are bringing in traffic and replicate those by making many similar posts.
For instance, if I notice a post like “African braid ideas” doing well, I’ll cover each type of braid and twist on my hair blog by dedicating one entire post to each category.
I spend most of my time planning.
This means I plan what to write each day – this helps me save time writing.
If I notice a post doing well, I’ll go back and update it by making it more relevant.
Most of my topics are evergreen so I don’t need to go back and update them.
What SEO strategy has worked best for you?
SEO used to work till last year. I’ve been doing it since I started my website. I always knew that just posting on my blog wasn’t enough – I needed people to find me.
And the only way they could was to enter keywords that matched with the words on my website.
SEO was truly a salvation for so many years.
But it stopped working for most bloggers. Because I still coach bloggers on the side, I can say for certain that no niche was spared.
I’ve seen all kinds of blogs (travel, food, fashion, religious, art/diy, lifestyle) being affected.
And almost all of them are now trying to work on social media and build back their website traffic.
But when SEO did work, I would use a tool like ahrefs to look at long-tail keywords that were easy to rank for.
If I noticed blogs of low-domain authority ranking for long-tail, high-volume keywords, I’d immediately jump on that.
I knew I’d be able to rank for those so it was a good strategy while SEO worked. =)
How have you grown your email list?
I just create a freebie (that’s super relevant to my niche and very quickly consumable) and offer it for free all over my website.
I then drive traffic to those posts. As simple as that.
On Stray Curls, I give away either a free blog planner or an email course – email courses have worked beautifully for that website.
What are your top tips for bloggers who want to see more traffic coming from Pinterest?
- You need a keyword tool. It’s absolutely essential in 2025 so that you don’t waste your time writing about topics that won’t get views.
- You have to write more – quantity matters. So, it’s essential to constantly publish posts because Pinterest loves new URLs.
- Study extensively what is working and what isn’t by going through your Analytics and seeing what posts are bringing you the most impressions/clicks.
- Focus on the 3 main ranking factors: Clicks, Saves and Impressions. If you notice your save percentage is slow, make more visual pins so that you can increase your saves. You will automatically boost your account and find your pins getting more impressions and views.
- Study pin anatomy. If you don’t have a background in design – take some time to study making pretty pins. This will help you get the click!
I actually have a book on Pinterest right here that I’ve just published covering all the tips and strategies that I use for my websites/clients’ websites.
How much are you currently earning as a blogger?
This number varies a lot and I genuinely blog/draw because it’s my passion.
It’s upwards of $10K but nothing is in stone.
Sometimes, I do blog audits or work on a heavy illustration project. I recently worked on illustrating a children’s book so I earned a pretty penny.
If I decide not to take clients or run a sale, that number will change.
Sometimes, I get a huge order of merchandise on nomnomkawaii.com (I sell hand drawn stationery on that website).
So, it’s very difficult to put a definitive number on my income.
A large portion of my income comes from display ads since most of my websites run ads.
The rest comes from product sales on Stray Curls, and the smallest percentage comes from affiliate marketing since I don’t do much of that.
I also have no plan on growing bigger or earning more money because I don’t really need a lot to maintain my lifestyle.
Apart from paying my rent, buying books, splurging on good ingredients (I cook a lot), and pampering my pups, I don’t really have a lot of expenses.
I never plan on having children (I will keep adopting/rescuing animals for as long as I live). After my monthly expenses, I donate the rest to animal shelters and push the remaining amount to my savings.
Are you in business full-time? If yes, how did you transition?
Yes. I’ve never had a job. The second I finished my degree, I got a dog. This is something I’ve always wanted to do.
So, from the day I got that little pup, I started making websites for a living.
I joined Facebook groups and took on clients. I even arranged for meetings with local restaurants and bakeries and offered to build them websites for as little as $40.
I needed to get the ball rolling.
Those were the days when I was focused on just saving enough money to pay my rent and utility bills.
My mum (who had an amazing job and worked in a very big company) financed the rent of my tiny apartment for 6 months and by then, I was paying her back and saving for a drawing tablet.
My life has always been about the loves of my life – my dogs. I don’t leave the house much and they’re always by my side.
So, going out to work was NEVER an option.
I currently do this full-time. =)
If you have ads, what ad network are you using and why?
I love SHE Media for when you’re just starting out because their ads are quite pretty and their customer service is lovely.
They’re very responsive and I feel their pay-rate is good!
But after you cross 50K sessions, it’s better to migrate to Mediavine! They’re the best for large websites.
Also read: How Kylie Got into Mediavine in 1 Year & Makes €5K/Month from Her Blog
Do you accept sponsored posts on your blog?
No, I have never accepted sponsored content for my blogs.
I have no issues with it (it’s a good monetizing strategy) but I like writing for my own websites – so I’ve never needed to accept a sponsored post.
When did you start selling eBooks?
I started about 1 year after I started my website.
And what I love most about it is teaching a whole bunch of people in one go. I love drawing, writing, and educating people.
I love breaking complex strategies down – teaching is seriously fun for me.
I also take almost a year to release an eBook because it involves so much research. I test the strategies on my own websites and write down what brings me the best results.
Do you use AI tools as a blogger in any way?
I do use it for idea generation.
It’s also a handy tool for analyzing anything and writing a comprehensive answer.
For instance, if a post does well on Pinterest, I’ll plug it in ChatGPT and ask it to come up with similar ideas so I never run out of post ideas!
How have the recent Google core updates affected you?
All my websites except Stray Curls and NomNom Kawaii were affected.
I’ve never implemented keyword research and SEO on either website. The traffic on there was completely organic or from Pinterest.
Even on Nom Nom Kawaii, there are no blog posts.
So, from my understanding any website that primarily functioned as a blog that deep-dived into keyword research and exploited long-tail keywords was affected by the core updates.
Online commerce websites were mostly untouched by the updates.
It was definitely disappointing and frustrating – pouring years of SEO into those websites and seeing them crash 1 by one. But it taught me to focus on other ventures.
That’s why I shifted to Pinterest.
What do you do if you notice a significant drop in your blog’s traffic?
Nothing at all.
I take it as it comes and try not to panic.
Being in an online business, you have to be prepared for the ebb and flow of traffic.
And this is a very versatile field. So if something stops working, you just try to find something else that works.
Do you think Pinterest traffic is better than Google traffic?
As of now, yes.
Google no longer likes bloggers or single publishers. They’re only ranking forum websites or websites run by super big companies.
Pinterest on the other hand allows people to post pins that can bring traffic to their websites for a long time.
So, it’s much more lucrative.
How do you see the future of blogging?
I always try to diversify as much as possible.
So as of now, Pinterest and building an email list is the way to go.
People are also using AI mercilessly to crank out as many blog posts as possible so I don’t want to use AI to create my content.
Writing and drawing are very important to me. The whole purpose of creating is to put your heart and soul into it and let people fall in love with your work. AI definitely has its place, but relying on it 100% is kinda risky – we never know when social media will suddenly say, “We don’t want AI content.”
It’s very difficult to predict what will work or what will happen in the future. Nobody knows for certain.
The only thing we can do is focus on what is working at present and use that to our advantage.
What’s next for you and Stray Curls?
Apart from growing the websites I own and posting consistently, not much really.
I do want to start more websites in the future. I do love board games and gaming online – so perhaps something along those lines?
My whole world currently revolves around loving my pups, reading, and exploring different cuisines.
I have the best job ever – to write and draw from home and connect with so many people so I don’t think that will ever change.
Sometimes I do want to slow down.
But creating gives me so much joy – I don’t think that will happen for a while. =)