Last Updated on August 5, 2020 by ellduclos
If you struggle when it comes to setting and actually achieving your blog income goals then this post is for you! I started my first blog back in April 2017 and my first full year blogging I was able to make $40,000. I break this income down in this post. The following year my blog income for the year went up only by a few thousand. For 2020 I made it a goal of mine to try and double my blog income and make my first 6 figures blogging.
It is now August 2020 and I have passed last year’s blog income with 5 months left!
This doesn’t include direct payments to my bank account. The reason I was able to double my blog income was because I actually focused on setting blog income goals and took the proper steps to achieve them!
I went from having $2,000 – $3,000 months to $8,000 – $10,000 months.
It’s the first week of August and I have already made almost $8,000
You might be thinking okay quit bragging. I am not sharing this to brag in any way. The reason I share this is so that you know it’s possible and that I am not full of sh*t. There are tons of bloggers out there who will lie to their audience to make a quick buck. I believe in being transparent.
Keep in mind before I started my blog I had no previous knowledge. I was a full time server and college dropout. Just your average broke girl who was trying to dig herself out of debt.
In this post I am going to share with you exactly how I set and achieve my blog income goals. I hope you find these tips helpful.
Disclaimer: Affiliate links are used. You can read my full disclosure policy here.
Step One: Fix your mindset
If you want to increase your income and crush your blog income goals you need to first change your mindset. Many times we have mindset blocks without even realizing it.
Some popular mindset blocks I often see bloggers have:
- My blog content isn’t good enough to make money
- I need to blog about blogging to make money
- Wanting to make money blogging is selfish
- My niche is too saturated to make money
These are all negative mindset blocks that are keeping money from flowing to you. I challenge you to write out your negative mindset blocks that you have related to your blog and REFRAME those mindsets.
Reframing negative mindsets:
- My blog content is worthy of making money
- I don’t need to blog about blogging to make money instead, I need to take the time to learn how to monetize the niche I do have.
- Wanting to make money blogging isn’t selfish. I am thankful for the opportunities my blog brings me.
- My niche isn’t too saturated as long as I market my content and be myself, my audience will find me.
If you struggle to create a money mindset then you need to read this post.
Step Two: Brainstorm ways to make money blogging
Before you set your blog income goals you need to make sure you have an idea of how you want to make that income. There are so many ways to make money blogging.
The top ways that I make money from my blog are:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Digital Products
- Offering Pinterest Managing
- Mediavine ads on both of my blogs
You can also reach out to brands for paid sponsorships. I personally don’t enjoy working with brands so this isn’t my focus BUT, there is nothing wrong with doing so! This is a popular way to monetize as a blogger.
Affiliate Marketing
When it comes to affiliate marketing I suggest pulling out a notepad or your phone notes and brainstorming a list of brands you use and love that you would like to be an affiliate for! Then take your list and google the brand’s affiliate program.
Here are some affiliate programs I use:
- Shareasale
- Amazon
- Target
- Shop Style Collective
- Siteground
- Tailwind
- Pixi Stock
- Ivory Mix
- Styled Stock Society
- Podia
- Mailerlite
- Hautestock
- Legal Bundle
- Awin
- Flex Offers
- Presets
- Email Marketing Bundle
- Sendowl
- Teachable
- Canva
Digital Products
When it comes to digital products a lot of people think you can only create courses. This isn’t true! There are tons of digital product ideas you can create. Yes, courses are popular but that’s not your only option.
Also note that if you do create a course, it doesn’t need to be about blogging. You can create a mindset course if that’s something you are good at or a productivity course. When creating digital products, GET CREATIVE and create products that relate to your niche.
Here are some digital product ideas:
- Courses
- Ebooks
- PDFs
- Printables
- Templates
- Journal/Planning pages
- Digital Graphics
- Themes
- Stock Photos
- Membership Sites
- Webinars
Create a service
Another great way to make a blog income is by offering a service. This service should be something that you are a “master” at. For me, I offer Pinterest managing because this has always been something I am genuinely good at.
Here are some services you can offer:
- One on one strategy calls
- Social media managing
- Virtual assistant
- Coaching
- Digital graphic design
- SEO services
- Ad services
- Web Design
If you are looking for a course that teaches you strategies to increase your affiliate, digital product, and services sales:
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- how to properly price your digital products
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Step Three: Setting your blog income goals
Now that you know how you want to make your money blogging, it’s time to set your blog income goals. When it comes to setting blog income goals I like to create one big goal and break that goal down into more obtainable goals. I find that if I focus on just one big income goal I get overwhelmed.
Breaking down my main goal is easier for me to work with.
For 2020 I had set a yearly blog income goal of $100,000. This is a HUGE stretch for me since the previous year I made $50,000 blogging. This meant I needed to DOUBLE my yearly blog income if I wanted to reach this goal.
I broke this down into 12 monthly goals. I needed to make $8,333 every month in order to obtain this goal.
WELL, the first few months of 2020 I didn’t reach $8,333. These are my monthly stats not including direct deposits.
- January: $4,297.02
- February: $7,345.92
- March: $5,533.53
- April: $5,398.19
- May: $6,486.67
- June: $9,589.49
- July: $9,553.52
- August (so far): $7,945
Just because I didn’t reach the $8,333 every month I didn’t let this defeat me. Now I know that I CAN have $10,000 months and if I continue this, I can still reach my goal of $100,000.
I took my $100,000 goal and subtracted the income I made so far this year which is estimated $56,149 and divided that number by 5 months that are left.
I would need to make at least $8,770 in August, September, October, November, and December to reach my $100,000 goal.
This seem doable knowing that I just had 2 $10k months in a row and almost made my $8,770 goal in August and it’s still the first week.
The next step of my blog income goal process is breaking down my monthly income goal.
I need to make $8,770 each month so what I do is I break this down into weekly and daily goals.
Weekly: $2,192.55
Daily: $313.22
Now that I have my daily income goal set up I figure out how many affiliate sales, digital products, and clients I need to have to achieve this goal.
For my Pinterest managing it’s currently $300 a month. With the new Pinterest algorithm changes I don’t like to take on too many clients at once as it’s extremely time consuming.
If I take on 5 clients a month that is $1,500. I aim to have 5 clients each month which is doable for me since most of my clients have been with me for a year now.
$8,770 – $1,500 = $7,270 is how much I would need to make in affiliate, digital product, and ad revenue.
Usually I make at least $1,000 from ads monthly so now I have $6,270 I need to make in just affiliate and digital product sales.
This comes out to about $209 a day. When you break your income goal down into daily income goals it seems more doable.
My number one selling course is my Pinterest course which is currently $39. If I sell 5 courses a day I can easily reach this goal with 1-2 affiliate sales a day.
This is the strategy I use to figure out my blog income goals and how many sales I need to make to obtain that goal.
Related: How I Had My First $10,000 Month Blogging + Where That Income Came From
Step Four: Implementing sales strategies
Now that you have your blog income goals set and you have an idea of how many sales you need to make daily and monthly, it’s time to create a marketing strategy.
I know I need to make at least 5 course sales a day so, how can I achieve this?
- Tweet about my course
- Create a post in my FB group
- Create pins that link to my sales page and market those pins with Pinterest marketing
- Email marketing strategies
- Mention my products in new blog posts
- Create a tripwire and market that landing page
- Create landing pages and market those
I try to keep track of what I do to market my products and affiliate links so I can reflect at the end of the month on what WORKED and what DIDN’T work.
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It’s clear you can see that monthly income as a blogger can fluctuate. You will always have to adjust accordingly. Just because you don’t reach your monthly blog income goal doesn’t mean you can’t make up for it the following month.
IN CONCLUSION:
- Be consistent
- Reframe your mindset
- Break down you main goal into more obtainable goals
- Continue expanding your knowledge
- Implement marketing strategies and reflect on what works and what doesn’t work
- Don’t get discouraged
Hopefully this post of me showing you how I break down my own monthly income goals helped inspire you to do the same! Would love to hear from you in the comments!
