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“I picked the topic of guitars because it's just something I liked. I'd advise doing a lot of research up front. That way, when you get started, you can be confident about the monetary value of your topic.”
Bobby Kittleberger loves to play guitar, but he never planned on a music career. Instead, he built one as a systems administrator for a law firm, teaching guitar part-time and writing his own music on the side.
In 2012, a friend told him about a simple way to make a little money online: writing movie reviews on a blog and referring readers to Netflix subscriptions for a small commission. Bobby didn't care about movies, but he cared about guitar, so he built the same kind of site around his own hobby. He started it on Blogger.com and called it Guitar Chalk.
He began with the basics of guitar playing, aiming to build enough Google traffic to earn affiliate commissions through Amazon. His first sale had nothing to do with music: a reader clicked through to Amazon and bought a ceramic chicken, earning Bobby a commission of 17 cents. It was proof the model worked, so he moved the site to its own domain, GuitarChalk.com, and kept building.
He focused on evergreen content instead of chasing news, organizing the site into four categories: guitar lesson reviews, gear, education, and music production. He recruited other musicians and guitar enthusiasts to contribute, which built credibility and brought in links from other sites, both of which helped his Google rankings. It took four years, until 2016, before Guitar Chalk had its first $1,000 month. Revenue grew after that, especially once he shifted from promoting Amazon products to online guitar lesson affiliate programs with higher commissions.
Today, Guitar Chalk brings in an average of $7,000 a month, though it swings up and down depending on the month and on how his older content is ranking in Google. For Bobby, the money is a bonus. The bigger win is the creative outlet the site gives him outside his day job.
His advice: "I picked the topic of guitars because it's just something I liked. I'd advise doing a lot of research up front. That way, when you get started, you can be confident about the monetary value of your topic."
