March 2017 Blogging Income Report – What does it take to be a full-time blogger? Learn all of the tips & tricks for growing your blog and making more money.
Today I want to share my March 2017 blogging income report. My hope is that you know that this is a very real way to make money from home and that you find inspiration to start your own blog.
You can read all about how to start a profitable blog the easy way here (even if you stink at computers)! Or you can jump into the free 7-day blog startup e-course for more specific help!
Why do I share my income with you?
Sharing income reports is something that (mostly) personal finance bloggers do to give you a glimpse into their lives. For me, I do it so that I can show other stay-at-home moms but there is a very real way that you can earn quite a bit of money.
I’m not special. I’m a just a stay-at-home mom who took the leap, tried something new, and it’s been paying off in dividends. I could never have done any of this at all if it weren’t for Elite Blog Academy; the class that taught me everything there is to know about blogging.
Not too long ago I had no idea that there was such a thing as a full-time blogger. I had no idea that there was any way that you could make money off the internet. I mean, I knew that you could money from ads on a website but that was about it. So imagine my surprise when I find out that you can earn money from a literal boatload of other things!
My hope for you is that you find ways in this income report to start making more money on your own blog.
The biggest lesson from March was to never underestimate affiliate marketing!
In March from just regular promotions and no real crazy sales, I earned the most money percentage-wise. I absolutely love to watch my affiliate marketing income grow. I am so glad that this course that I took really has paid off and helping me grow my affiliate income!
Things I learned.
There are good months and there are bad months.
As far as traffic goes, this was a bad month. I spoke with so many other bloggers who saw their traffic take a serious nosedive in March. (If you were one of those bloggers, it’s not just you! It’s everybody!)
Pinterest changed its algorithm and “look” of pins (again!) and now we all have to cope and reassess with all of the changes. It’s a learning curve, but it has only proved the importance of the next point!
The importance of email.
If I didn’t invest a really amazing email provider, I don’t know where I would be. Thanks to my email list and my automatic sequences, no matter what my traffic is, I can still make money because of my list.
Your email list as a blogger should be the one thing that you focus on the most. [clickToTweet tweet=”No matter what changes in algorithms, your email list will always be your constant. They are YOUR people.” quote=”Because no matter what kind of changes in the algorithm that Pinterest or Facebook can dish out, your email list will always be your constant.”]
They are your people.
If you have not started growing an email list and are focusing on other things in your blog and marketing plans, stop everything that you’re doing and get those amazing emails going. Because from the looks of it, everyone’s traffic is going to continue to go down as Pinterest continues to change their algorithm. Facebook still doesn’t like bloggers quite a bit. So the only thing that you can really control is your email list.
Making more freebies!
I love a good freebie! There is nothing to me that is more compelling than being able to sign up for someone’s email list when they offer is very compelling opt-in. This month I wound up making 3 new options for my email list. I got leave pages and I really started to use them for their intended purpose.
I got Leadpages last month and my conversion rates went from between 2 and 28% to a crazy 68-74% (all that means is that more people are signing up for my email list and freebies)! The thing I love most about Leadpages is how easy it is to make forms. I’m really enjoying it!
You can check out all of the freebies that I started offering here:
Making friends and not making potential contacts.
One of the biggest things that stuck out to me this month was that one big blogger mentioned that you shouldn’t always be looking for new ways to ask bigger bloggers to promote your content.
This really stuck out to me as I am just a very social person. I genuinely love to interact with people on a very personal level and it absolutely scared me to bits and pieces thinking that maybe these people who I was genuinely trying to be friends with were thinking that I was just trying to use them for a leg up.
It’s not necessarily that there’s anything wrong with self-promotion every once in a while. But when you’re trying to leverage yourself with other people for the sole intention of using them as a springboard for your own platform, that makes me really sad, guys.
Trust me when I say that people would much rather you be there friend then just keep trying to find a new way to use them for your own benefit. At least, I know that I would!
Getting my schedule back on track.
Crystal Paine has a course that I absolutely love about getting your schedule back to where it should be. I take this course every time that I find myself slipping on my schedule. This is absolutely the kick in the butt that I needed to get myself back on track.
I was really letting myself be very down about my pageviews being less than usual. And that wasn’t doing me any favors. Wallowing in self-pity doesn’t actually solve anything. So I decided to take the course again to give myself the kind of pep talk that I needed to get out of my funk and to get everything together.
What didn’t work?
Oh my goodness, where do I begin! Just because I am not making a full-time income from my blog does not mean I have it all together!
Facebook ads.
I have a love-hate relationship with Facebook. Yeah, I said it.
I have been regularly posting things and sharing things and liking things it still doesn’t like me. So I decided to go ahead and try out Facebook ads. I use them in February for the amazing sale that I love and they had worked pretty well for me then.
So I had started Facebook ads for one of my email opt-ins. Well, wouldn’t you know it… they kept claiming that I was getting clicks and I wasn’t seeing them being recorded on my site. I checked with both my email provider and Leadpages to try to see what was going on. And neither one of them so any problem on their end.
So it’s leaving me to wonder if maybe, just maybe, Facebook wasn’t being very truthful about the clicks…? I don’t know. But I will not be doing a large promotion on Facebook for a while now. I’m going to stick to my very small budget for my opt-ins.
Checking pageview stats.
Yeah, I see you over there refreshing your “site stats” page over and over again. Honestly, I still struggle with that too.
Stop doing it (and I had to stop, too) for 2 big reasons:
- Your time is valuable! Don’t waste it obsessing over that.
- Pageviews don’t define you. The only thing you should be thinking of when it comes to pageviews is “how many email subscribers can I get today?”
Plus, being obsessed with your pageviews can honestly make you really depressed if they dip for some reason! It’s not a big deal. I promise. There are so many changes that happen all the time with different social media platforms. Fluctuations are normal, but if seeing your pageviews a lot lower than you hope they are really affects you, then just don’t check them.
March 2017 Blogging Income Report
Affiliate Income – $3,575
- Bluehost (check out my tutorial on how to start a profitable blog) – $700
- Amazon – $462
- SiteGround – $450
- Building a Framework (best blogging course available right now) – $398
- The Best Freezer Cooking Class Ever – $298
- Swagbucks – $250
- Ebates – $215
- Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course – $97
- Survey companies – $92
- Digit – $90
- Ultimate Bundles – $68
- 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
- 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 – $28
- Izea/SponsoredTweets – $25
- Real Life Money Plan – $22
- ConvertKit – $22
- Others – $109
Ad Income – $1,378
My own products – $1,684
Pinterest Group Board Master eCourse – $970
Frugal Living & Homemaking eBook – $714
Total Income: $6,637
Expenses
Oh yes, there are expenses! I always thought it was silly for bloggers to show you what they make without showing you what they spent to make their money.
I am very cheap (but you already knew that), so I have very low expenses (for the most part). Because of that, I don’t have a staff and I don’t hire people for much more than little Fiverr gigs. I like to keep my expenses low month-to-month so that I can save up my business income for important things to me like conferences, training, and for a Mastermind group I’d like to join in September.
Month-to-month expenses – $372
- Convertkit: $149
- BoardBooster: $30
- Haute Chocolate stock photo subscription: $25
- Big Scoot (I changed my site host and couldn’t be happier): $13
- Facebook Ads – $155
Special expenses this month – $312
- Hotel stay for the FOCUSED blog conference inRichmond, VA – $202
- Travel for the conference – $110
Total expenses (before taxes) – $684
Total revenue – $5,953
Goals for next month.
- Work through Elite Blog Academy and really focus.
- Master Tailwind and join Tailwind Tribes.
- Figure out Facebook and how to make it like me (I’m contemplating offering brownies as bribery… maybe that’ll do it).
- Spend more intentional time learning and growing my business.
- Set aside more time to work without interruption.
- Don’t check site stats all month! (One day at a time with this one!)
Related resources to help you with blogging:
- How to Start a Profitable Blog the Right Way
- The Blogging Class that Made Me a Full Time Blogger
- The First Pay Day I Got From Blogging
- Here are great blogging freebies!
- 5 Signs Blogging Isn’t for You (& 1 Sign You Should Start Today!)
- Surefire Ways to Promote Your Blog and Grow Your Audience
- How to Rock Affiliate Marketing When You Stink at Sales (Plus an Interview with Michelle Schroeder-Gardner)
- How to Start Using Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers
- Best Tips for a New Blogger From a Blogging Pro
- Don’t Let Fear Stop You From Starting Your Blog!
What’s your biggest lesson from blogging this month?
Start a Profitable Blog - The RIGHT Way!
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I love the look of your site! So cute. I need to try the lead pages approach because I get low sign-up on my email opt-ins. I also use Big Scoot for my hosting provider and recommend them. Do they have an affiliate program?
Julie @ Millennial Boss recently posted…20 Top Travel Quotes for Adventurous Women
Hey, Julie! Thanks so much! 🙂 I love your site, too! Here’s the direct link to the BigScoots affiliate program: https://www.bigscoots.com/portal/affiliates
Hey Caroline! Thanks for the in-depth look at March. I have to say that I love how well your re-brand came together. The theme, structure, and color scheme are awesome. And of course, the content is still great, too.
Like you, I’m trying to keep plowing my way through EBA and Making Sense of Cents Affiliate Marketing at the same time. I’m a teacher, and with the school year ending here in just over two more weeks, I’m about to have a lot of time on my hands. I’m excited to finally have the time to see what it’s like to treat blogging like my full-time job and not just dream about that day.
I just launched two opt-in offers last month and have gained about 700 new subscribers, but you made me realize that I’m not even tracking my rates – oops! Thanks for the great tip!
Congrats on a great month! I’m working on getting there one day. I think there’s a lot to learn from you!
Thanks so much, Lisa! 🙂 This is one of those “if I can do it, I know you can do it too” things! You’ve got it! 🙂
Last week I deleted the Google Analytics app off of my smart phone, along with the Pinterest. I was checking stats and follower counts way too often! I also have a tendency to log in and look for affiliate income too often. Trying to break those bad habits.
Yes, Holly! I’m right there with you! I deleted the WordPress app off of my phone too ages ago when I realized that I was on my phone just checking stat numbers. It was a problem. Yes! Break those bad habits early! 🙂
Caroline – Those are some awesome results. Congrats. I need to get back to all my blogging (and promoting your new course). I’ve had several personal things going on that side tracked me. Just wrote a post this week (finally). So much to do and catch up on.
Congrats! So good to see you making moves blogging. EBA is great, right?
So great, Aja! 😀
Caroline this is AWESOME! You have done an amazing job and I signed up for your newsletter! I am EBA student as well! 😀 My blog is only 3 weeks old. Just out of curiosity how long have you been blogging for??
Yay! Congrats, Melissa! 🙂 I “got serious about blogging” in February 2016, but I launched my blog in August 2015. 🙂
Thank you for your great post! It is always interesting and inspiring to read blogging income reports and it seriously helps bloggers such as myself stay motivated to keep going! Congrats on your success!! I’m going to work on that constant page view checking as well!