January 2017 Blogging Income Report – How I made a full-time income from my blog. What worked, what didn’t, and what you can do too!
#newyearnewyou
I love starting over again each year. New Year’s Resolutions are made and everyone seems to have a rosy outlook on life.
Just 2 years ago, I was trying to bundle my kids up during the winter so that I didn’t have to raise the heat above 60 degrees. The budget was so tight that I could barely afford the gas bill.
Last year I was ready to quit blogging. After working 40 hour work weeks for 4 months and making close to $0.17/month, I was done. I had put all of my creative energy out there and was getting nothing back. I was really spent.
And this year, I’m earning a full-time income working 20 hour weeks. My life is completely different than I ever imagined it, but it’s better than I ever could have imagined!
We went from being exhausted and struggling to pay the bills to being a 2 income household. Ever since I started taking Elite Blog Academy, my whole life changed.
I owe 150,000% of my success (every. single. dollar.) to Elite Blog Academy. That was the turning point in my blog and in my life. To date, it’s still the biggest investment I’ve ever made for my blog and it has paid for itself over and over again! Their training showed me step-by-step what it takes to be successful in the blogging world.
Related post: The Blogging Class that Made Me a Full Time Blogger
But first, a little bit about me…
A little over a year ago, I thought that it was a joke to be a “full-time blogger.” And now here I am making money from home as a blogger!
I started “getting serious” about my blog less than 9 months ago when I enrolled in Elite Blog Academy and it’s been a wild ride from there.
Thanks to blogging, I work from home between 10 and 20 hours a week. I am a homeschooling mom of 3 boys ages 5, 2 and 1. We live on one low income, and my husband works second shift. We don’t have the luxury of having help babysitting, but I still put in the hours to make this into something amazing (if I do say so myself).
If you only remember one thing about me, it’s that I’m not special… not even close.
I’m so average. I’m not a millionaire (far from it!) who can invest thousands of dollars into a blog. I don’t have the time to spend 24 hours a day working on my blog. I don’t have an English or journalism degree. And I’m definitely not a grammar pro (thanks to a free app called Grammarly, I don’t have to worry about looking like an idiot when I post things).
I do love to write and I love to help people. And I’m really good at cutting out spending and finding new ways to save and make money. Through my blog, I have a way to help people find answers to their questions about how to save money, live on a budget, and get in control of their finances.
By writing about what I love, I’m able to provide my family with a second income, while getting to stay at home with my children.
Why am I telling you about my January blogging income report?
Income reports are what finally gave me the push I needed to get started blogging. Seeing all of the income reports from other bloggers, like (my now-friends) Rosemarie from the Busy Budgeter who made $32,469 and Michelle from Making Sense of Cents who made $106,383, gave me the push I needed to get started blogging in the first place.
I had no idea that you could make money blogging. I always figured that you could make money from ads, but I never knew that it could be a full-time income, a career, or even a dream life making more than $100,000 in a month!
That’s why I share my income reports with you. Not to make you feel bad or depressed or angry, but to show you that this is a real possibility for you, too.
Ready to start your own blog?
If that sounds like something you want to do, I can help you make that a reality with free step-by-step instructions for how to start your own blog here. Because I’m a cheapskate frugalista (hair flip), my favorite part about blogging is that it’s super cheap. I mean, what other hobby costs $2.75/month and can make you $100,000? Honestly!
Side note – To anyone who was a young mom or a teen mom who was told that they’d never amount to anything, would always be on welfare, and living below the poverty line… this is something for you to remember from someone who has been there, too!
Here’s my January Blogging Income Report
Affiliate income: $2,086
- Bluehost (check out my tutorial on how to start a profitable blog) – $675
- Amazon – $378
- Swagbucks – $250
- Ebates – $105
- Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course – $97
- Survey companies – $95
- Digit – $85
- Core Affiliate Strategy to Make More Money Blogging – $65
- The Ultimate Pinterest Strategy Guide to Get Seen by 4 Million People/Month – $50
- The Ultimate Guide to Building a Profitable Blog – $50
- The Best Freezer Cooking Class Ever – $49
- My favorite course for productivity – $49
- 17 Strategies Used to Go From 17K to 350K+ Page Views in 9 Months – $35
- How I Grew My Facebook Page From 2,000 to 100,000 in Five Months – $32
- Izea/SponsoredTweets – $27
- Real Life Money Plan – $22
- ConvertKit – $22
Ad Revenue: $1,095
Pageviews: 125,734
Total January Blogging Income Report: $3,181
I have expenses that I need to account for:
- Convertkit: $99
- BoardBooster: $40
- Elite Blog Academy (still worth it, always worth it!): $49
- Haute Chocolate stock photo subscription: $25
- Big Scoot (I changed my site host and couldn’t be happier): $13
- Facebook ads: $35
Total expenses (excluding taxes): $261
Making my pre-tax take-home income $2,920.
Previous income reports:
- December Income Report – $5,333
- November Income Report – $3,292
- October Income Report – $2,668
- August Income Report – $1,987
- July Income Report – $1,923
- June Income Report – $1,286
What worked:
Affiliate Marketing.
I’ve always just said that I stink at selling and that I’m just doomed to a life of sucky-selling forever. I guess that can’t be my attitude anymore! And for that, I have to thank the best affiliate marketing course that I’ve ever had. If you’re like me and are constantly thinking that you just can’t sell no matter what, this is the course for you.
I used this strategy to really narrow in on my affiliates that worked and eliminate the ones that didn’t. This has helped me spend my time wisely. The worst thing to do is spend hours and hours working on promotions for a sale only to have it sell one copy or even 0!
My Free eCourses.
My free eCourse, Side Hustles That Work, has been so great! I love sharing the ways that I’ve found to make money from home. We’re growing a little Facebook Community that you get access to through the group and it’s been so great! I’m loving being able to help other people in such a specific way!
I’ve even added a new eCourse to the rotation: 7-Days to Start a Profitable Blog the Right Way. This is a course that covered a little bit of everything about starting a blog the right way. This course is curently helping 2,000+ readers this month alone build a blog the right way!
Mindset Shift.
My goal shifted this month thanks to a mind-blowing realization from my friend, Rosemarie from the Busy Budgeter. She had mentioned that the goal of traffic isn’t to have the highest number. It’s to get people on your email list. Mind = BLOWN. That said, my focus this month wasn’t to obsess over my
That said, my focus this month wasn’t to obsess over my pageviews, but to focus on my email list. That’s why I love Convertkit. The email opt-ins that I can make from them are just amazing. It’s an expense I highly recommend as a blogger!
What didn’t work:
Not outsourcing.
I’m a cheapskate. I just am. I could be making millions of dollars and still be asking myself if I really need something.
Well, I really needed something and I didn’t ask for help and it was a pain! I love designing graphics and all, but when it comes to making cute PDF printables, it’s just not my thing. But, being a pain in the neck that I am, I decided to keep trying.
Instead of going to Fiverr, I spent probably 3 hours trying (in vain, by the way) to design a printable workbook.
Fail. Fail. Epic fail.
Lesson: pay the stinking $5 and get a pro to do it!
Taking on too much.
Trying to do everything at once is my weakness. I have at least 5 different thoughts in my head all at the same time and, if I don’t focus myself, I wind up with 5 half-done projects.
It wasn’t until shamefully late in the month that I realized that I was doing too many things and that I needed to focus on one task before moving on. Lesson learned moving forward!
February goals:
- Launch my first paid course (already done – Pinterest Group Board Master! Check it out here!).
- Do a better job at record keeping for my business throughout the year and not just in a mad dash at the end of the year!
- Get better at delegating and ask for help when I need it!
- Start a soft launch for my new blog name (coming soon!!!!).
This is arguably the coolest thing that I’ve ever done! You guys… I make money from the internet. Like, it’s my JOB! How crazy is that?!
And I mean it when I say it: if I can do it, anyone can do it! All you need is the right guidance and a whole lot of determination!
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