The First Pay Day I Got From Blogging
It finally happened! I had my very first triple digit payday from blogging! Precious, right? I know! I could’ve hugged that $148 Adsense check! My focus is not necessarily on the numbers themselves, but on the percentage increases.
Ready for some hardcore math here?
I made a total of $23.97 from Adsense between August and March, bringing my average monthly Adsense total to a whopping $3.43. Now… I made $3.43 before I even woke up today!
Now… I made $3.43 before I even woke up today!
That’s a whole lot better! Like, a million times better! (Ok, I’m not a mathematician… but I know it’s a whole lot better!)
Before you go and read this I want to make something very, VERY clear:
PLEASE don’t compare yourself to me! If you just started blogging yesterday, please don’t read this and think “I’ll never be able to get there,” or even worse “this happens overnight, right?!”
I want to be very, VERY honest with you, ladies (and gentlemen), here’s the one thing I wish someone had told me about blogging: it’s more than writing posts. It actually is! I mean, you have to like to write and you have to write well, but overall, you have to do more than JUST write if you want to blog for profit.
That said, here’s the month of May in a nutshell.
What worked:
I’d like to thank the Academy!
The Elite Blog Academy, that is! Without the Elite Blog Academy, I’d still be trying to figure out how to make a blog profitable all on my own. That said, I probably wouldn’t have seen a paycheck for another few years. So the number one credit here goes to Ruth Soukup and her Elite Blog Academy!
If you want to learn some more about the Elite Blog Academy read more about it here, or feel free to email me! I could talk all day about how much the amazing information I’ve learned from it has really made it possible to profit from my blog!
Always keep learning and read more books!
Abby Lawson’s Building a Framework is amazing!! I can’t get over how much I love it! This is a resource that every blogging newbie must have when you’re starting off. (Especially since Elite Blog Academy is only open twice a year!) Abby spills her secrets about going from a hobby blog to a six-figure income in less than 2 years! It’s 35 chapters long, and it contains everything you’ll need to get started.
Brittany Ann has this amazing ebook for a killer Facebook strategy that helped her get from 2,000 Facebook likes to 100,000 in five months! I’m already having a few of those “why didn’t I think of that?!” and “I’ve been wasting my time on Facebook before this!” moments… and I’m only on chapter 2! Get ready, y’all! A Facebook revamp is coming!
I downloaded the Overdrive app (totally free for both Android and iOS), which lets you rent ebooks and audiobooks from your library straight from your phone. I listen to audiobooks when I’m at the gym, and one of them was Carrie Wilkerson’s The Barefoot Executive. I’d never heard of this book, but it sounded like it was something worth trying. And I’m so glad that I did! If you’re looking to start your own blog for profit or even your own business at all, you need to go and read this book! It gave me the motivation that I needed to stay on track on the bad days!
I subscribed to my favorite bloggers’ email lists and they send out webinars to help get started blogging, to learn how to grow your email subscribers, make great Pinterest images, and lots more! Here are my favorite bloggers to subscribe to:
- Ruth Soukup – Elite Blog Academy (she offers free ebooks and guides all the time)
- Crystal Paine – Money Saving Mom
- Abby Lawson – Just a Girl and Her Blog
- Rosemarie Groner – The Busy Budgeter
- Beth Ann- Brilliant Business Moms
- Amy Lynn Andrews – The Useletter
Never stop trying!
Don’t stop… BELIEVIN’! I’m my toughest critic. I always have been and I likely always will be. But even on the day when my traffic barely broke 3,000 and I wanted to give up, I kept my eye on the prize and kept going. And you know what? I had my first 10,000 pageview day 2 days later. The internet is a weird place, sometimes!
Board Booster
BoardBooster still for the win! In April, with the help of Boardbooster, I was able to schedule pins all the way from 100 pageviews a day to 7,270 a day! And in May, I’ve had more than 175,000 pageviews (WAY up from the average 3,000 a month that I was getting before)! If you need a scheduler, Boardbooster is the way to go! (Plus, you get 3,000 free scheduled pins through my link!)
Pinterest Group Boards
Before I even got BoardBooster, I started joining Pinterest group boards to get my pins seen by a huge audience. Last month was the first time I was really putting my group boards to good use!
**UPDATE: My friend Rosemarie has a Pinterest Cheat Sheet that is amazing that will show you everything you need to know about getting started with BoardBooster and getting into the best Pinterest group boards.
ConvertKit
My new favorite thing for my marketing strategy: Convertkit! It’s email marketing specifically made for bloggers, and I love it. With ConvertKit, I can make amazing landing pages, customized subscription boxes, email courses, and everything in between with just my ConvertKit subscription. It basically 3 services in one, but better!
What didn’t work:
Being too hard on myself
Fluctuation happens! I had been sitting pretty at 7,500 daily page views and more each day! Then suddenly 3,500. What?! Nothing changed! Just not as many people were buying what I was selling on that day. Apparently fluctuating is totally normal!
Especially for blogging; summer apparently means low traffic. Some of my more experienced blogger friends told me to take this time to work on building my email list and work on my products and courses, and that’s what I’m going to do!
Goals for next month:
Make a new email course
It’s coming! It’ll be my first course, and you’ll want to sign up to make sure that you don’t miss out on it!
Relax!
Woo-sah… re-center and focus on writing great content, interacting with more people in the bloggiverse (yes, it’s a real thing), and just enjoying it all! That’s the beauty of being your own boss: you can go as hard as you want. I have a “go hard or go home” mentality, so taking a step back and not obsessing over blips in the fluctuation of pageviews is really great.
Interact more with everyone on social media
I’m starting my first interactive challenge on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for my #saveupforsummer spending freeze! I can’t wait to interact more with my followers and get to build a more personal relationship!
Get started with the Ad Networks
I got accepted to the Blogger Network and AdThrive! I needed 100,000 plus pageviews a month to get accepted and it finally happened! June will be the first month of actual implementation of the big boy Ad Networks and I can’t wait!
Refine my pinning on BoardBooster
I changed up the way that I’m pinning on BoardBooster so that I don’t need to spend as much time pinning every new post to all of the group boards that I contribute to. Here’s hoping that it saves me a ton of time and that it works well!!
So that was May in a nutshell! It was the first “real blogger” month that I’ve had and I’m looking forward to many, many, MANY more!!!!
How long did it take you to get your first “real” blogging paycheck?
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It’s so exciting when your blog starts making money! Congrats! I made my first $100 through blogging this month. It’s nice when hard work pays off 🙂
Yay!!!! Congrats Jen! Isn’t it so exciting when you get to actually see the pay off?!
Yay!!!! Congrats Jen! Isn’t it so exciting when you get to actually see the payoff?!
Such great info and tips! It is so hard to go from newbie blogger to….well, anywhere. (And new is a relative term. I’ve been at this for awhile). One of the best things I’ve done recently is let go. It’s funny. I know there are so many great resources out there, but I was drowning in them…and never putting them into practice. I’ve made a list of what I have and set a schedule for when I’m going to do each one. It’s helped so much! Thanks for the tips. Can’t wait to add some to the list!
It’s so true, Becky! I felt like I was just surrounded by ideas everywhere, especially on Pinterest! But it was the idea that blogging was always made out to be this great get-rich-quick thing that got me down the most. It’s really NOT a quick way to make money at all! You really can’t rush it. But taking things one day at a time and focusing on content has been the best thing for me!
Still waiting but I keep reminding myself it’s not all about the money. I truly enjoy blogging and I’m still paying around and having fun.
Mother of 3 recently posted…My Summer Reads
I’m right there with you! I love every second of it! I heard it put really well once: blogging is the basically-free hobby that you can wind up getting paid for. I’m just really enjoying the community! 🙂
Wow, awesome links, thank you! Am clicking on each one right now. Go, blogger, go!
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing.. this sure gives me hope 🙂 I hope that by the time EBA comes around next year I’ll have made enough to afford it!
Definitely go for it! They have monthly payments, Leah! It’s absolutely well worth the investment in your blog if you’re hoping to get serious! 🙂
Aw this is great! So was the cheque all from adsense? I’m such a newbie I’m on the fence about whether to put ads on yet or not.
Yay! Congrats on starting, Francesca!! 🙂 Yes, it was all from Adsense! I say go for it with ads! Adsense will only let you post a few ads (I think it’s either 3 or 5) per page, so you don’t have to worry about the “spammy” factor. You can also control the types of ads that you do or don’t want on your page. I don’t want anything “adult” in nature, gambling, or credit cards (being a personal finance blogger, and all), so I could control that from Adsense. It’s really nice and easy to use and control. 🙂
Hey there!! I’ve been blogging for about 6 months now and I’ve just started boardbooster. I’ve been using it for about a month now but I’m not seeing very high numbers. I was wondering if you prefer scheduling to campaigns. And about how many pins do you pin each day? Thanks so much!!! I don’t want to seem spammy by pinning too much, but I’m just not seeing much return for the investment right now. Wonderful tips!!! I can’t wait to have enough saved for EBA. But I did buy Building Your Framework. Amazing!!!!
Love your post! I’ve been blogging for awhile now, but I’m just now getting serious about trying to earn some extra income. I can’t wait to make my first $100. I checked my Adsense account and I’m at a little under $30. So it’s coming! I just started using a Pinterest scheduler and I’m excited to see the results.
Thanks, Meredith! And congrats on your Adsense account!!! That’s so exciting!! 🙂
I am just starting EBA, and I love it! I am still a bit low on posts, so that is where i am focusing right now. At the end of August I am planning on diving in more with an email list and stuff like that. Thanks for the encouraging post!
Congrats! This gives me hope. I started 2 months ago and it’s very slow moving but I am learning so much! Hope I feel like you by the beginning of next year. That’s my goal 🙂
Keep it up!
As yet holding up yet I continue reminding myself it’s not about the cash. I really appreciate blogging despite everything i’m paying around and having a ton of fun.
elitepersonal finance recently posted…How to Automate Your Monthly Saving
Fantastic to read your story Caroline, especially about how you were so excited to see $3 in earnings just as you woke up. Adsense can be fantastic way to earn money once you get to a certain point. But the getting there is tough.
I am sure your post would have motivated many to not give up their blogging efforts, if not delve deeper into it!
Thanks, Allen! Blogging really is a long term game! It takes a long time to build up. But it’s still exciting to get that first affiliate commission (even if it was a $.06 commission from Amazon 🙂 ).
This is such great info, thank you! I REALLY want blogging to be my full time job but it seems like I’m getting no where. I’ll definitely be following your tips though!
Hi,
I am planning on diving in more with an email list and stuff like that. Thanks for the encouraging post!