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Money Tamer
Finance B2C

Money Tamer is a personal finance blog and digital products business founded by Steffa Mantilla in 2018 that helps families save money and get out of debt.

herpaperroute.com · Founded 2018 · 18 public sources · Updated about 1 hour ago

Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 18 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →

How Money Tamer Grew

Her Paper Route: personal finance and lifestyle blog with courses and newsletters

How did Money Tamer grow?

Summary of the sourced claims below

The source describes a content strategy focused on SEO, with keyword research done on posts and product names so they could rank organically. Once SEO started to take effect, a steady stream of affiliate sales followed. As traffic grew, email address collection began through two opt-ins, one for each of the two main categories covered on the blog.

Channels

16 channels · grouped by how Money Tamer grows

  • Email List Growth

    · 6 mentions · 6 sources
    “As my traffic grew, I wanted to start collecting email addresses. I took a slightly different approach because I only wanted to email people about a select few topics that are covered on my blog. Instead of having email opt-ins on every blog post, I created two tested and high-converting opt-ins,...”
    high
    Show 5 more quotes
    “Get My Weekly Love Letter: Money + Sales”
    medium
    “But the biggest thing was from day one, I focused on growing an email list. So I had some freebies, free PDFs that just shared a little bit more information than the blog post did. So you get down, finish the blog post and you can read more just sign up and here's the rest of it. So that really h...”
    high
    “Once they are subscribed to your list, you can keep bringing them back to your blog over and over again via your newsletter, and build a deeper, stronger relationship with your readers.”
    high
    “Be sure to put some effort into your lead generation strategy, and how you plan to grow and nurture your email list. This is essential to flipping an online business. Additionally, being able to sell your social accounts and email list, alongside the sale of your blog is another thing that buyers...”
    medium
    “you sign up for a email service provider, you write a newsletter. Okay. There's some work in that, getting your funnel set up and lead magnets that takes some time.”
    high

  • Organic social media

    · 6 mentions · 6 sources
    “Usually, website flippers are people who are looking to buy websites with high potential, which they can add value to through design updates, SEO and content creation, and then sell the site for a profit.”
    high
    Show 5 more quotes
    “Chelsea’s TikTok and Instagram accounts under the @herpaperroute handle are a mix of lifestyle content, travel inspiration, and creator business growth tips.”
    medium
    “So I was writing the blog posts and promoting on social media and really just applying everything that I was learning along the way to both the job I was in and my own business that I was just starting.”
    high
    “Linking to it from your social media profiles”
    high
    “But I too am using social media to then drive people to my blog where then they can sign up to my newsletter. That's how I've been building community one way.”
    high
    “Pinterest now drives the majority of her traffic, how lifestyle blogs are outperforming traditional niche sites”
    medium

  • Pinterest

    · 4 mentions · 4 sources
    “And I know that because my Pinterest account that used to be so great has now tanked. So I'm right there with you, but there's still ways now and now if you're working with a little bit of a budget, I would say absolutely look into promoted pins because it is pay to play nowadays. I really do thi...”
    high
    Show 3 more quotes
    “Social Warfare Pro is the #1 social share plugin, which also includes features to aid your Pinterest marketing efforts, too.”
    medium
    “What I've always done for my own niche sites is been very focused on Pinterest and newsletters for traffic and engagement and community building.”
    high
    “she pivoted her business after losing $90K/month in revenue due to major Google updates. She dives into why Pinterest now drives the majority of her traffic”
    medium

  • SEO

    · 4 mentions · 3 sources
    “So when I was growing my own blog, that's when I started to learn about SEO...SEO is the most important thing of any content site, any niche site. SEO is so important...SEO is playing the long game and that's what we want. We want our content to rank for a long time and send traffic for a long ti...”
    high
    Show 3 more quotes
    “I’ve always focused on SEO. My niche doesn’t do well on Pinterest. The Facebook and Instagram algorithm changes made it not worthwhile to invest a lot of time there. All of my posts and even the product names have had keyword research done so that they could have the best chance of ranking organi...”
    high
    “With my content strategy, I’ve always focused on SEO. My niche doesn’t do well on Pinterest. The Facebook and Instagram algorithm changes made it not worthwhile to invest a lot of time there. All of my posts and even the product names have had keyword research done so that they could have the bes...”
    high
    “Usually, website flippers are people who are looking to buy websites with high potential, which they can add value to through design updates, SEO and content creation, and then sell the site for a profit.”
    high

  • Affiliate program

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “Something I am seeing in 2025 more than ever is people getting into affiliate marketing actually on Pinterest. Now you can tag products on, if you have a popular, or it doesn't even have to be a popular pin, it can be any pin. You can tag other products, other images, and you can use an affiliate...”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “And how I monetized it was with affiliate marketing. So all of the products that I talked about, I partnered with the brand. I did a lot of subscription box reviews as well for talking about beauty boxes that had cruelty free products ... So that was really how I grew it in that first year.”
    high
    “Improve the products that are there, and add new ones Add more affiliate links Reach out to your affiliate managers and negotiate a higher commission rate”
    medium

  • Facebook Community

    · 3 mentions · 3 sources
    “I manually went into Facebook groups. I went into vegan beauty enthusiast groups, clean beauty groups, makeup, subscription box, fans, things like that. I went into all those groups, ones that allowed you to promote or share your link. I just went in and I talked to people. If I had a new blog po...”
    high
    Show 2 more quotes
    “Come say hi on Instagram, or inside our Facebook Group.”
    medium
    “Promote in Facebook Groups”
    high

  • Newsletter

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “What I've always done for my own niche sites is been very focused on Pinterest and newsletters for traffic and engagement and community building.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Chelsea also shares her strategy for building community through newsletters and virtual events”
    medium

  • Word of mouth

    · 2 mentions
    “chances are good that they will start to share your blog, lead magnet and individual blog post links within their circle. Since everyone has social media profiles these days, that could amount to quite a bit of new traffic for you.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Once SEO started to kick in, I was getting a steady stream of affiliate sales. As those ramped up, I was able to cut my hours pet sitting. Once COVID hit, I was thankfully at the point of self-sustainability since pet sitting has dried up for the foreseeable future.”
    medium

  • Email marketing

    · 2 mentions
    “Commit to writing and publishing your newsletter consistently. It doesn’t matter if it’s once a week, more or less, so long as you pick a schedule that works for you and stick with it.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “Initially, I focused on the affiliate marketing side of the business. As my traffic grew, I wanted to start collecting email addresses. I took a slightly different approach because I only wanted to email people about a select few topics that are covered on my blog. Instead of having email opt-ins...”
    high

  • Weekly newsletter

    · 1 mention
    “that's how I've been building community one way. The other way is with virtual events, really going in on creating very specific virtual events that are targeted to my audience. That has been something that has really been a game changer for my business is to be able to create an event. I've been...”
    high

  • Partnerships

    · 1 mention
    “As well, I host a community for website flippers and online business owners, where I offer helpful training and live workshops, as well as members-only special events. Come and join for free here!”
    high

  • Online Community

    · 1 mention
    “As well, I host a community for website flippers and online business owners, where I offer helpful training and live workshops, as well as members-only special events.”
    high

  • Webinars

    · 1 mention
    “As well, I host a community for website flippers and online business owners, where I offer helpful training and live workshops, as well as members-only special events.”
    high

  • Side project marketing

    · 1 mention
    “When you write an article for another blogger as a guest blogger”
    high

  • Leveraging existing platforms

    · 1 mention
    “Or you can buy a starter website that has only been set up, and then improve it, add a lot more content and digital products, and then proceed to sell it once it’s profitable. ... So you can see why it pays to buy an established site that is already profitable.”
    high

  • LinkedIn

    · 1 mention
    “There's ways to go into Facebook groups and find people to come and check out the things that you're selling, the things you're blogging about.”
    medium

How 3,299 businesses grow

Of businesses with mapped growth channels, the share using each — Money Tamer’s highlighted.
  • Social media
    64% ◀
  • Referral/Word-of-mouth
    63% ◀
  • Search/SEO
    58% ◀
  • Email
    47% ◀
  • Community
    37% ◀
  • Content/Inbound
    35% ◀
  • Partnerships
    32% ◀
  • Events
    24% ◀
  • Paid ads
    23%
  • Outbound/Sales
    19%
  • Press/PR
    17%
  • Marketplaces/App stores
    12% ◀
  • Podcasting
    4%
  • Influencer partnerships
    3%
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