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2017 was a big year. We can definitely say that. From the day we started blogging and now, we’ve changed A LOT. Over the last few months, we’ve shared with you our story of why we started and how we made money blogging. Today we want to share with you (with way too long overdue) the 2017 Blog Income Report, and we’re sharing with you the changes that we’ve been through in the meantime, like always.
If you’ve read our previous Income Reports than you can skip this first part if you want and get straight to the point. If not, stick around for a bit and learn something more about us, lovely dreamers.
We, being my gorgeous wifey (to be) Maya and I – being Andy, admitted from the get-go that we got into this business of blogging to make some money while we help others by sharing our ideas of self-improvement, lifestyle, and our lessons learned in the magical land of blogging.
It’s also true that I am a (very) skeptical man (everyone who knows me can attest that), and I could have never believed that we could make any money online, not to mention by starting a blog!
Apparently, sharing about the struggles of young millennials, our struggles, giving all sorts of life hacks (that actually work) – from cooking, cleaning, money making & management, fun DIY projects we’ve tried, and sharing the life lessons we’ve learned from books, movies & pop culture – and doing it all with our personal geeky twist, can actually make you money.
I sure never thought that could happen! (and now Maya rolls her eyes and smiles)
Our Blogging Story & The Big Problems
Because we love to help others, especially the ones that are younger than us, in every aspect that we struggled in our adult life so far, and because we like to teach people about what we learned from our mistakes, we could not keep it in anymore.
We had to do something.
This, added to the fact that Maya and I are driven by the idea of being entrepreneurs since we were in our teens, and her obsession with Pinterest, pushed us in the direction of blogging.
The skeptical in me was screaming “Lies! They are all liars! You cannot make so much money with a blog!“, all while Maya read amazing income reports to me, from bloggers that make over 10k$ per month to 120k$ per month.
I eventually gave in, because I realized this is not a scam, not MLM bullsh*t, not a “get rich quick” scheme. This is work, serious work – if you want to actually make money. Plus, Maya’s face lit up every time the blogging topic came into discussion.
Our first big problem was that “old bloggers”, aka those bloggers that have been doing this for years and years, they all tell you that it takes months, sometimes even years, to make a few hundred bucks online.
The relief came from new bloggers who have learned from the mistakes of others and found solutions to make it in the blogging world, much faster.
Our second big problem was that the big bloggers we follow are almost all from America, and we live in Europe. America is more open to the idea of making money online than the rest of the world.
The relief, in this case, was that there are some young European bloggers that make a nice income online, from 4k$ and up! This really helped us in the decision making process.
Our third problem was the fact that I am the only one with a job because since we moved to Spain (that area was basically a Summer Resort), Maya couldn’t find a normal job, besides freelancing as a photographer and online – and that’s not steady income.
Life in that area is expensive, especially if you’re young and broke, and we still have some debt left to pay back home, so we can’t afford to waste hard earned money, not even the 134$ we used to get us started.
After a long, 4 months debate, research and a long list of pros and cons, we finally agreed on giving it a try, on one condition – we’ll be super serious about this.
So we started our blogging journey on the 1st of March, 2017!
Maya is in charge of managing the blog, researching and creating the awesome content you all love, taking the photos and so on. I still work full-time, so my part is simple I give ideas & help with the marketing, and I have to make every Income Report.
But I have to say that starting this blog must be the best investment in our adult life so far. This is getting us one step closer to our dream, to having our own business and freedom.
You must be serious with a blog, that is true, but you must think of the blog as an important tool for your business, not a business itself.
Have you started your blog yet? if not, get our FREE e-book Blogging 101 Blogging for Profit to learn everything about the first steps in this world! Or just grab your hosting for only 3,95$ and get started now!
And now, like Maya likes to say, enough chit-chatting! Let’s get to it!
I will try to keep this as simple and on point as possible. When we first started, we got overwhelmed with the information you find out there, but we tried to apply some of the most valuable tricks learned before the actual launch.
From having a couple dozen articles pre-written, to how to set up your Pinterest, learning about group boards, SEO optimization, when to apply for affiliate marketing or the ongoing “war” ADS vs NO ADS… we researched and worked a lot!
If you’re interested in learning more, get our free (&no opt-in!) e-book Blogging 101 from our Resource Library!
Today we’re also going to talk about some important stuff, like what investments you should make when you have a new blog, or if you’ve been blogging for a while and are in big need of help or a change.
Of course, we’re sharing all that we’ve been through since the start, what changed, how do our stats look like now for our blog and social media handles, and some new and interesting stuff. But more on that in a minute.
2017 Blog Income Report and Views
On the blog
Total earnings: 410.48$
Total investments in the blog: 361.62$
Pure Profit: 48.86$
Blog views: 43260
Pintrest&Talwind + Social Media
Pinterest views:
The maximum we’ve reached was a little over 1 Million. 1,041,930 views to be exact, in July. We kept an average of over 450.000 since August when we screwed up “a little” and totally messed up our pins.
From Tailwind, on the other hand, our maximum was in October, when we accumulated 7.700.000 views from Tailwind Tribes, and since then we’ve been going up and down about 400,000 views each month.
Followers count at the end of December 2017:
- Pinterest: 1431
- Facebook: 171
- Instagram: 127
- Tweeter: 64
- Google+: 2
Top 5: Our most popular articles of 2017
1. Top 5 Free Essential Photography Courses that will make you Shoot like a Genius
2. September 2017 Income Report – How we made 58,46$ this month with our blog
3. 20 Genius Last Minute Halloween Costumes for Couples
4. 20 Brilliant Smartphone Photography tips that you need to know NOW
5. An introvert’s secret – the perfect side hustle for every wallflower
How did we make our money in 2017
This year, our revenue came mostly from ads, but there were some affiliates as well. In the lines that follow you’ll clearly see where we got our money from and how much, form everyone.
ADS $
– AdSense(for Google) – 49.18$
Again, kind of disappointed in AdSense, but it’s still better than nothing.
– Media.net( for Yahoo and Bing users) –279.73 $
On the other hand, Media.net never seizes to amaze us in a good way. That is more than 5 times the amount of AdSense, and guess what? They’re not even that picky when it comes to joining their program!
Affiliates $
Even if this year we’ve grown our affiliate list with a few new and great additions, so far we’ve only gotten a lot of clicks, and just a few sales. This made us think of the big mistake we’ve made by not showcasing them to you through these income reports because they really are some very useful tools for you, (with the bonus of extra revenue for us).
To change that, here’s a list of all of our affiliates, and why we recommend you try them ASAP:
Hosting service – Bluehost – 0$
Even though some trolls might say that they are not trusting, or expensive, or whatever they might, so far we’ve been very pleased with their services.
They are affordable – dude they’re 3,95$ per month!– we’ve never had problems with our blog, their platform is easy to use and if you have any questions, their customer support will do their best to help you (and they are really nice and understanding!).
Blog theme – Themeforest – 0$
This is one of the new additions to our list for this year. If you’ve been with us for a long time, you might have noticed a change in our blog’s appearance. This was something that we’ve had planned for a long long time and just had to do it.
We’re so glad we did it! our blog now truly looks professional!
If your blog is in dire need of a change, start looking through Themeforest. There are so many themes to choose from, and prices range from 2$ to whatever your budget is! Our blog theme did cost 59$ (before taxes), but damn it! It’s worth it!
Scheduler – Tailwind – 15$
If you didn’t know, Tailwind, aka our Visual Marketing *secret* (not so secret) weapon, has an amazing affiliate program on ShareASale and they love rewarding bloggers that share about them.
Through ShareASale, they offer recurring 15% sales commission, that means, for example, if someone signs up for a monthly Tailwind plan through your awesome link, you will receive 15% commission every month!
If you’re already a Tailwind member, they offer special commission bonuses for writing reviews, creating videos or having case studies about them. Crazy!
Also, you can make 0.5$ per lead commissions and if they like what you say about them, they will actually help you promote those articles!
Grab your FREE Tailwind trial, promise you will not regret it! Also, make sure to check our article Tailwind 101: All you need to know, to learn more!
Blog traffic guide – The She Approach to Boosting your Blog Traffic – 0$
This is one of those other gems out there that must be seen by everyone. If you’re new to blogging, this is for you. If you’ve been blogging for a while and are kind of got lost in all the madness (like we were) then this is for you.
For a detailed review please check our article: The She Approach to Boosting Your Blog Traffic – Honest E-Book Review
And also, if you’re super interested in upgrading your affiliates game, make sure to check out her new bundle!
Monetizing your Pinterest – How to make your first affiliate sale in 24 hours using Pinterest – 20$
If you’re new to the affiliate marketing world, or are just starting out with Pinterest and want to make some extra cash with it and don’t really know how to do it, or where to start, then this e-book is absolutely perfect for you.
For more details about it, make sure to check out our review: How to make your first affiliate sale in 24 hours using Pinterest – honest e-book review
Affiliate Marketing Network – ShareASale – 26$ ( for Tailwind)
Aka the place where you can go and find affiliate programs for merchants from all around the internet, like Tailwind, Print All Over Me, SmugMug, Etsy and much more! This is a great place to start with affiliate marketing, for any blogger.
We even got our first 26$ from affiliate marketing from them!
Earning Cashback – Ebates – 35$
Here’s a BIG SECRET we only shared once before. We got into Ebates right before purchasing our domain name through Bluehost. Why? Because of the 10$ cashback that we earned and the 10$ BONUS given by Ebates.
Basically, when we started blogging, we made 20$ in return, without even having the blog set up yet! Crazy! Since then, we were hooked on Ebates. Now every time we browse and shop online, we make sure to check the Ebates button for that cash back.
Amazon Associates Program – 0$
We joined the Amazon Associates Program because of the need to make our DIY articles easier for you, in terms of where to get the materials needed, but this can be taken to a whole other level, with articles dedicated to showcasing different products sold on Amazon.
The changes through the year of 2017
Personally
From changing two countries and switching our life from the hot and humid Spain to the cold and humid Scotland, from Maya being jobless and me being the one working 6 days per week, to both of us having jobs, getting back to school and trying to fit in this new world, we’ve been through so much.
Now we’re actually glad everything is smooth, at least a bit.
Professionally
Since all the madness in our personal lives has calmed down, these past months we’ve been more focused on the e-book and on our other future projects.
We’ve said before that we were one step closer to releasing our very first e-book, and now the time has come to do just that, in 2018! This madness of an e-book will be a detailed, step-by-step guide to visual marketing, photography for business and, of course, Pinterest for business.
The e-book will have everything you need to know about getting started, lots of do’s and don’ts, and it will be filled with tips, hacks, bonuses and secrets that we haven’t shared with anyone ever before!
We wanted to release it back in December, but the time just wasn’t right. Our gut was telling us to wait and start the new year properly. Plus we haven’t figured out then the ideal price and affiliate percentage for the ones that would want to join our affiliate programme and make their money back (and more).
What the hell are we going to do next
Release the e-book, already! Because it’s super important for us to help turn even the most confused (geeky) dreamer into a Pinterest know it all! Maya and I really want this product to help you on your journey and reach Pinterest success.
What you need to learn from our 2017 Blog Income Report
The Good:
– blogging is a fun, everchanging journey
– you can learn A LOT, especially from doing, not only reading other people’s experiences
– we actually made money in 2017 from blogging so it can be done!
The Bad:
– blogging is not as easy as most bloggers say, especially not the making tons of money with it part
– it takes up a lot of your time – if you’re into having quality articles and products featured on your blog, as you should
– it’s important to keep yourself open to social media and interact A LOT, in order to “find your tribe”, and for an introvert, it will be a little strange
The Ugly:
– if you’re not careful, you’ll get burned by the stress and overwork
– your lifestyle will surely change, but it might not be as good as you think: we’re talking here of long sleepless nights, your diet going out the window, and forgetting to keep your body active
– it’s a lonely business, even though you’re having constant social media discussions – your real life friends & family may not understand and support you on this journey, so be prepared for that.
Aaaaaand, that’s all for today, lovely dreamers! If you found any value in this post, be sure to pin it, share it on Facebook, and Tweet it, of course! We won’t stop you!
Our question for you is: What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in 2017 from your life?
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