My second blog income report – I have been blogging for 7 months.
SO. It’s been a month since I received my first real “paycheck” (as in, deposited money into my bank account) that was earned through my blog (read my August blog income report here).
I haven’t even been able to bring myself to transfer the money into the checking account, because I am so certain it can’t possibly be real. (Also since I’m still at my day job for another month and a half we aren’t desperate for the money yet. So better to save it until we are. Because I feel certain that the blog can’t possibly continue to earn money… that would be… just. I can’t even imagine it.)
This is what it feels like to earn money doing something you love. FROM HOME.
It feels pretty good.
I started my last blog income report by saying I had no qualms sharing my income, and that was true then. But the 483 bucks in August felt a little like coffee money. I was proud of it, but the way that you might be proud of “side hustle” (I HATE that word) pocket money. Alot can change in a short time, apparently. I am definitely hesitant to share this income report. Because this time, I haven’t made pocket money. I have made real money.
(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS REALLY BORING, BUT YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)
And it feels weird to write your real income down for everyone to see.
UPDATE: This is still true, so I have decided that I will no longer share new income reports for 2017. Because I understand the value of income reports as a learning tool, I am still sending these reports out to my blogging email list. Get access here:
LEARN HOW I MAKE MONEY WITH MY BLOG
GET ACCESS TO MY 2019 + 2020 BLOG INCOME REPORTS
I don't post these publicly anymore - for many reasons - but I'm making them available to subscribers to my newsletter, because they're solid proof that you CAN hope to earn a decent income with a blog in 2021!
we do not spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime
But the truth is, if it wasn’t for income reports like this one, I would not have started this blog. Flat out not. I am the most skeptical of the skeptics and I don’t believe anything worth having comes easy. I don’t believe in get rich quick schemes and I don’t believe everyone has what it takes to make aliving by blogging.
But there were things in other blogger’s income reports that I read that showed me that I could make a living at blogging. That made me think “why NOT me?”
I want to share this informationwith you because maybe you will read something here that makes you think “why NOT me?”. (Or if you’re already blogging, but wondering why it’s not going the way you hoped it would, hopefully this will steer you in the right direction!)
I don’t know right now if blog income reports will be something that I’ll be doing in the future. (To be honest, I’m still struggling to believe I willearn blog income like this in the future. It’s unfathomable.) But for this month, here’s September’s income and traffic report. I’m reporting differently this month. This is the income I EARNED in September, not the income I received. (I’ve decided It makes more sense to report income + traffic for the month it happened, as I do think income is directly related to traffic.)
September2016 Blog Income Report (& Traffic)
(I am reporting in Canadian dollars at the exchange rate for today of 1.3297 USD to 1 CND. Some of the money comes to me in CND and some comes in USD, but it all ends up as CND dollars in my account.)
Total SeptemberIncome: $3365.39
Adthrive Ads – $2203.31
Travel Hacking book affiliate program– $0 (Maybe no one plans holidays in September?)
BestMark affiliate program – $6.65
cj.com affiliate program – $448.78
Shareasale.com affiliate program– $21.26
Elegant Themes affiliate program– $205.44
Ultimate Bundle affiliate program- $271.05
Amazon affiliate program- $208.90
SeptemberTraffic: 150,250 users & 194,574page views
If there had just been ONE more day in September, I could have had 200k page views! (Not that I’m complaining. Just saying. It would have been pretty awesome.) I’d say 200k can be my goal for October, but I’ve never been a goal setter and I don’t mean that in a lazy way. I mean, I choose to live each day as though doing my freaking best is my goal. If page views fall by 50% in October, it will not have been for lack of having a goal or for lack oftrying really hard. It also won’t mean I’ve failed.
So what happened for me that made this the month that I made real money from my blog?
I think it was a combination of things. (The most important being that I pray constantly for God’s blessing on this venture, and He seems to have been answering those prayers with a “yes”.)
I think blogging income is something that just takes time. Your posts need to be out there circulating, you need to be learning constantly and you need to give it time.I think if you put in the effort and wait for the time to pass, it will come. The time has finally passed.
Secondly, I had great page views which resulted in great ad income. There is no doubt in my mind that this is due to much prayer and to my (totally unique) pinterest strategy. I don’t use a scheduler to pin. I haven’t ever seen my exact strategy described anywhere online, and I am currently writing itup as an ebook. This strategy took me from 0-194k page views in 5 months (and 9.1k pinterest followers as of today!) The ebook will be available by the end of the month is now available for a limited time! Check out Pinteresting Strategies here!
(Or if you feel like you already have a solid grasp on Pinterest but need help getting traffic from OTHER sources, Lena Gott’sTraffic Transformation Guideis hands down my favorite blogging book ever and goes over TWENTY-ONE strategies she uses to get over 400k page view per month! This book is pure BLOGGING GOLD.)
Third, I implemented the techniques I learned in Michelle Schroeder’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course. $1160.00 earned this month was earned through affiliate sales. Michelle breaks affiliate marketing down into practical and actionable steps,and it would be difficult to fail at affiliate marketing if you take this course. (Learn more about Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing here.)
What has to happen for YOU to earn real money blogging?
(Well, for starters, you need a blog. A properly hosted blog. I have a simple to follow tutorial complete with pictures. It’s right here – How to start a blog.)
Once you have a blog, I firmly believe that it takes these things to make money blogging:
Time and Effort. With a capitol T and a capitol E. I have put in at least 40 hours per week for months, on top of my day job. (Probably far more most weeks. I am able to do less hours now.)I don’t watch TV, I don’t go on Facebook, I don’t clean my house as often as I used to. I have stared at my computer screen at a total loss for what to do next, and then decided that I would not stop today until I figured it out. It has been totally, completely worth it.
Perseverance and Patience.It is hard. You might want to quit. People will make you feel bad, because some people are mean. Your family and friends might not understand what you’re doing. But keep going.
USEFUL content. Thishas to be said. If you are writing an online journal (or primarily about your feelings / hopes / ideas), without providing content that solves a problem or addresses an issue, it will be hard for you to make money. Even inspirational content, while it CAN be monetized, is harder to make money from than content that readers find useful.
Willingness to invest in your blogging education. This might be the number one this you can do, and it is ESPECIALLY TRUE if you’ve been blogging for a while and not getting anywhere. I have spent hundreds of dollars on courses and books that have taught me how to make money blogging. (I have made all my money back and much more.) The internet is full of free information, but if you have to spend the time picking through what’s good information and what’s not, what’s current and what’s outdated, it will take you YEARS to get ahead. The reason that people want to be paid for the information available in courses is because the information is valuable.
Find all my recommendations here – THE BEST BLOGGING COURSES for 2023.
That’s about it for this month’s blog income report. Maybe it will be my last report? I don’t know. I’d love your feedback – are blog income reports something you find useful / interesting / inspirational and would continue to read? Is it tacky or weirdto share my blog income this way? Either way, thanks for reading – I wouldn’t have a blog without you♥
(PS if you want to work from home, but not sure if blogging is for you, check out 3 real work from home options for people who are serious about escaping 9-5.)
