Sitting down to write my third blogger income report was mind-blowing. Not only because I grew my income this month but because I finally feel like I’ve proven to myself that blogging can work if you’re willing to put in the work.
And while it’s definitely a lot of work it can also become a serious passive income stream when done right. In this blogger income report I’m going to go through exactly how I made $171.50 blogging in the month of November, 2018!
Full disclosure that I’m publishing this post about a month late because I’ve been super busy with family in town and catching up from the holidays. That’s the beauty of blogging. You work on your own schedule!
For those of you who are new to my blog, I started blogging in May of 2018 which means I’ve been blogging for a total of seven whole months! That’s a long time and lots of hours hoping it would all pay off and it’s finally starting to do that. I’m pretty stoked to report that I made $171.50 this month!!!
Why Would I Want To Share How Much I Make?
You might wonder why anyone would ever want to share how much they earn as people are usually really reluctant to share this kind of information. I totally understand this but at the same time I’m very new to blogging and I’m excited to share what I’m learning as I go so you can follow along on my journey and hopefully join me as well!
I also want to share my income with my readers because it was because I read other bloggers’ income reports that I learned how blogs were actually monetized. I had no idea people even made a real living blogging and those blogger income reports I used to read motivated me to start my own blog.
Follow Bloggers Who Have The Success You Want! Read Blogger Income Reports!
One of the blogger’s whose income reports I read over and over was Sarah Titus! She’s now making well over $2,000,000.00 per year blogging and started her blog in a similar divorce situation as mine and I really identify with how she had to work, scrape and struggle. She’s simply amazing and I admire her success!
I love seeing her progress from her earlier blogger income reports through now and want to document mine as well. Believe it or not those blogger income reports are filled with many clues and actually showed me how to make money blogging by seeing how other bloggers were doing it!
Also, because part of the point of my blog is to show others how to make money online it kind of only makes sense that I show you guys how I’m doing this myself! With any luck I just might inspire you to start a blog yourself today!
Could Blogging Be Right For You?
Are you still on the fence? Starting a blog was the best decision I’ve ever made! If you haven’t started your own blog yet or if you’re having a hard time starting one please read my post on How To Start Your Own Blog Easily In Ten Minutes!
I’m also looking forward to documenting my blogging journey and being able to look back at these blogger income reports as a way to track my progress and see what’s been working for me over time. The idea that you can follow me and my steps from the beginning is awesome and I hope to inspire you and other potential bloggers to start their own blogs!
I also knew almost nothing about side hustling before I started this blog and I feel like a whole new world has been opened up to me. I want to share it with others who are seeking the same things as I am. The freedom to work for myself, from home. The joy of autonomy and eventually, financial freedom!
Starting a blog has to be one of the most low-cost and cost-effective work from home side hustles I’ve ever found. You can start a blog for as little as $3.95 per month on Bluehost which is less than the cost of one Starbucks coffee per month! And if you buy a one year hosting plan I’ll include your domain name for free – a $15 value!! Hopefully reading my blogger income report will inspire you today!
Plus, I’ll share this pro tip: wordpress.org has a 1 click install for sites hosted on Bluehost! That makes it SO easy and inexpensive! Start your blog on Bluehost today!
Why Did I Start My Blog?
I started blogging in May of 2018 after a pretty hard year and in the middle of a difficult divorce. My kids had just lost the security of their intact family. To make things worse, their Dad had been unemployed for more than a year because of some major medical issues which were causing some major life problems as well.
The divorce wasn’t my idea and I suggested holding off until life was more stable for everyone but I was stonewalled.
So, here I was being dragged through an acrimonious and expensive divorce by someone whose medical condition was literally making him less and less recognizable by the day. My former high school sweetheart and life partner as I had known him was ‘gone’ and I was advised that I was no longer speaking to ‘him’ anymore.
It was unimaginable. Our life as we knew it had gone sideways. Facing a financial meltdown I had to budget out what savings I had while I scrambled to figure things out. I cut all unnecessary expenses and looked over my career prospects.
My ex and I had worked for years in the same field but now he was making it difficult for me to find new work opportunities in the industry where I’d had the bulk of my career success.
I knew I had to take matters into my own hands and decided that I needed to focus on some kind of work where he had zero ability to manipulate or control my future or my ability to succeed. I also wanted to try to work from home so I could be around as much as possible to help my kids through this major life transition.
Blog Or Get A Job?
While I absolutely recommend starting a blog I don’t recommend starting it under major financial pressure like I did. Blogs monetize at different rates and you will need to take your own life circumstances and budget into serious consideration.
Most of the blogger income reports I’ve read do show steady progress and I’ve seen lots of bloggers can earn between $100-$500 per month after several months of blogging. Some can even earn as much as $1,000-$10,000 during the last few months of their first year blogging (if they’re blogging full-time and really grinding and this usually doesn’t happen until the 9th-12th month.) I’m working towards the goal of earning $1,000 per month by the end of my first year blogging. Who’s with me?!
Blog!
I opted to blog as hard as I could!
Depending on how quickly my blogging income ramps up or not I may still need to get a day job and blog at night. And if it comes to that it does. My blog is mostly built and I just need to keep creating content and pins and managing my Tailwind and keep working on my SEO efforts to keep growing my blog.
It will definitely be more challenging to work by day and blog at night but at least I have gotten it this far! And by the way, if I can do this and get to the point where I’m making an income and writing my third blogger income report then so can you!
I know it seems like I’m too excited to have made just $171.50 but I’m TRULY EXCITED ABOUT IT! I’ve proven making money blogging is real to myself. My income potential is unlimited and I’m excited about my future!
My Blog Stats
Each month I plan to report on the following stats for tracking and goal setting purposes:
Traffic and Page views
Subscribers
Expenses
Income
Net Income
Goals For Next Month
Traffic And Page Views
As per Google Analytics my blog received 6,386 page views for the month of November which is dip from my October page views. I’m working on growing my traffic and figuring out how to get my page views back up to the 8,500-10,000 range for December.
This month I had SO much going that took up the bulk of my attention on but the wonderful thing about blogging is that my blog was making money and working for me even on the days when I wasn’t able to sit at my laptop. The work I had done in the previous months is online and paying off 24/7!
Subscribers
I have been using Mail Chimp to collect emails for about three months and I have 49 subscribers! I had 42 last month so even though it’s not huge gain, at least that’s moving in the right direction! Again, I’ve had some issues with Mail Chimp and because I’m on their free plan I have no access to customer service which means I will be switching to Convertkit the first moment I can.
Expenses
I have expenses I’m carrying over from starting my blog which I first outlined in this post so going into November I was already carrying a negative of $1,570 and I spent $75 on a traffic consult call to help get my blog’s traffic back on track. So, I’m at a total of $1645 for my blogging investment. Again, I will continue to show these figures until I’ve paid myself back.
Total Spent On My Blog So Far = $1,645.00
Again, I look at this as an investment in my future. I will be carrying my expenses forward as a negative in my next income report until I’ve earned them all back and I’m actually earning money free and clear.
I’m not worried about it because I can already see the potential ahead. Besides, what business that has this kind of potential can you realistically start for less than $2,000?! None that I’ve found so far. Blogging is still one of the least expensive startup or side hustle where you can work from home that I know of.
Income
THIS is the exciting part! My income goal for this month was $200 and although I fell slightly short of that I’m still very happy with myself. Here is where my income in November came from.
Affiliates:
Bluehost: $130 I had two sign ups!! (one in July and one in August)
Survey Junkie $25.50 (this paid survey site converts pretty well for me!)
How To Make Your First Affiliate Sale In 24 Hours! By House Of Brazen $16.00 (I actually made my first sale with this during the first week I started pinning for it so I’m really pleased with those results.
Ads: (nothing yet but I started with Monumetric this month and it’s already working and I should be getting paid in February!!)
It’s really important for me to mention here that I would be NOWHERE with my affiliate marketing strategy if I hadn’t taken Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner. Her class has definitely paid for itself and the knowledge I’ve gained will continue to make me money well into the future! If you haven’t already taken her class take it today! Not joking, it’s SO worth it.
Net Income Results
$1,645 (expenses) – $42 (September income) – $42 (October income) – $171.50 (November income) =
= *-$1,389 *this is the negative balance I will carry forward until my next blogger income report in January, 2019 and I will carry it forward until it has been paid back to myself. I hope to have paid myself back for the investments I’ve made in my blog by April of 2019! Then I’ll be into fresh cash!
I’m not worried about earning the amount I’ve invested into my blog back because I am already seeing promising results and because I’ve seen a similar pattern in other blogger’s income reports. They start making trickles around this time and by their 8th – 12th month and then they’re on their way.
That is true as long as they kept at it and don’t give up too soon. The trick now is not to give up. I’m going to keep on keeping on. And like I mentioned above I already know of another $200 which has already been earned which I will be reporting on as it hits my bank account. I’m very excited about that because it means the work I’ve done and the courses I’ve taken have been sound choices.
Goals For Next Month!
Traffic and Page views: Again, I’m hoping I get to 10,000 page views on my blog – I should be able to do this!
Subscribers: I am re-setting this goal to hit 60 (currently at 49)
Expenses: I am not planning on spending any money on my blog in December.
Income: $ 200
Other Goals: I’m also planning on joining and ad network called Monumetric and implementing an affiliate network I’m really excited about called Skimlinks!
My Third Blogger Income Report!
I’m so glad I’ve made it this far and I can hardly believe I’m already writing my third blogger income report! I know I’ve only made a total of $255.50 blogging but this is only the beginning. I’ve put so many new affiliates and things into place this month and I’m SO excited about how those are going to perform in the coming months!
My objective with these reports is to give you a real picture of my blogging journey from these early days of all work and tiny income to when things really start to move forward.
I know if you see my struggles and my hard work and then later you see my success you will know that the steps and path I took and am recommending are real and could also work for you.
How is blogging going for you? Comment below and let me know!
Some Of My Favorite Resources…
*This page contains affiliate links which means that if you click on a link I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend things I personally use and like. Thank you for supporting my blog!
If you need to make some quick cash I recommend Survey Junkie. It’s free and is something easy and quick that you can do from your laptop or smart phone or even possibly on the go in your spare time to make some extra cash quickly. Just give them your honest opinion and earn money! Try Survey Junkie and earn $10 just for registering today!
Inbox Dollars pays up to $35 per poll and will give you a $5 bonus just for joining today! They pay you cash (not points) for taking surveys, playing online games, searching the web and more! Check out Inbox Dollars and start earning side hustle money today!
Vindale Research is another great survey site where you can answer market research questions about new products which are going to be released soon. You will not only make side hustle money but you’ll also be getting to learn about brand new products before everyone else does. Sign up with Vindale Research today!
Honey is my favorite new way to save and earn! I love it because it automatically applies the best coupon code to whatever I’m buying online! How great is that? I’ll never have to search for another coupon code while I’m checking out again. It’s a simple browser extension and I already used it to save money on an Amazon purchase I just made. And, it’s free! And for the side hustle aspect, for everyone you refer to Honey via a link on your blog or social media with your link you will earn $5! Now that’s awesome! Try Honey today!
Another great way to get cash back for your everyday shopping is Ibotta. Just do your normal shopping, scan your receipt in their easy to use app and Cha Ching! Cash back! It’s basically free money. And just for signing up with my link you’ll receive a $10 bonus! Sign up here today!
Blogging Resources
Blogging is one of the best side hustles I’ve found. It’s low-cost, can be done remotely and when you put the work in, it can provide passive income that comes in even on days when you can’t make it to your laptop! The first day I made an affiliate sale on my blog I was sitting on the beach with some friends in town! That was THE BEST feeling EVER! Start Your Blog Today!
To help you start your blog today, here are some of my favorite blogging resources…
Bluehost: I’ve been with them from the beginning and have had nothing but a great experience. You can self-host your blog for as little as $3.95/month plus with my link you’ll also get a free domain ($10 value!)
Tailwind: My go to Pinterest scheduler – oh where would I be without you! Tailwind has automated my pinning and I simply couldn’t live without it! I started with the basic plan and have since upgraded to their unlimited tribes power up so I can make the most of my tribes and their reach to grow my traffic!
Fiverr: Freelancers can be invaluable to bloggers. Finding someone in a pinch to help you with an aspect of your blog can save you time and make you money!
Skimlinks: This is one of the easiest ways to get started making money in affiliate marketing before you even take a course and it’s *free*. Skimlinks uses the content you already have on your blog! You get paid for links you already have and they take a small cut. Saves you time and tons of work and is perfect when you’re just starting out. Best part is they leave your already generated affiliate links alone. Plus they have an affiliate program so you can also make money when others try it for their own blogs. Try Skimlinks today!
You can also find a full list of my favorite resources and online tools here!
*This post may contain affiliate inks which means if you click a link on this page and make a purchase we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products we use and love. Thank you for supporting our blog! Our polices page can be found here.
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Thanks for reading my Second Blogger Income Report! I hope it was helpful to you on your blogging journey!
