One of my goals this year was to start making money from home.
I left this goal pretty open-ended and have tried many different things. I even almost got scammed by some kind of money laundering scheme through a freelancer website!
It’s been exciting stuff guys, and not for the faint of heart. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions. I’ve been discouraged, excited, overwhelmed, and stressed, among other emotions.
I started blogging in January of this year. I have tried to approach it more as a job than as a hobby, though my motivation for starting was mostly to have a creative outlet. I have posted three times per week almost every week since I started. I have made small amounts of money here and there, but not much.
In August, I finally started to see the money-making potential in my blog and made some income. Just over $900 before expenses and taxes! That’s some pretty legit money, ya’ll.
Now, I don’t talk about blogging stuff on the blog very often, and I don’t plan to. However, if you’re curious how bloggers make money or what’s working for me, I wanted to give you a peek behind the scenes at what I’ve been doing to make money from my blog.
I’m not planning to do monthly income reports or talk about blogging stuff very often, so I’m going to squeeze in as much information as I can into this post. If you’re not interested in blogging stuff at all, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming soon.
Update: Don’t miss this mini-guide about how I nearly quadrupled my blogging income in one year! You’ll be able to apply 5 income-boosting tips to today!
Income Breakdown
Total: $940.70 (!!!)
Affiliate Income
Bluehost $70 – I use Bluehost to host this blog and have no reservations recommending it to others. If you’re thinking about starting a blog, you can read why I think you should do it (plus a few reasons why maybe you shouldn’t). There’s also a tutorial on how to get set up.
Ibotta $770 – If you’re looking to save money on fruits, veggies, and even store brand items, Ibotta is the way to go. You can check out my tutorial here. I talk about Ibotta way more than any other company, so I’m sure that’s why most of my income came from them.
Flex Offers $2.80
Amazon $74.57
Ads
Google Adsense $23.33
Page Views
My page views actually dropped significantly in August compared to July.
I had 45,920 page views in August, down from 67,450 in July. So that’s proof that your income isn’t completely tied to your traffic. Of course, more traffic isn’t a bad thing and I am working on getting my traffic up again.
Make Sure To Read These Posts Too:
5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Blogging
The Only 3 Blogging Courses You Need to Take
Recommendations (scroll down to the section on blogging)
Best Blogging Resources
As I’m starting to see an increase in my blogging income, there is also an increase in my expenses.
Some of these are more technical things, like paying for a social media scheduler and email service. Another expense comes from paying for courses and books to learn how to improve as a blogger.
There are so many different things to learn about blogging and there is always room for improvement. I’ve been seeking out courses to take and books to read to become a better blogger and it has helped me so much.
I want to be able to connect better with you (my reader) and provide helpful information for you, and I’ve learned so much already on how to do that. And the better this blog gets and the more helpful it is, the more my income increases as well, so it’s all good stuff.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course
As you can tell from my income breakdown, almost all of my income came from affiliates, aka the places that give me some kind of compensation when my readers sign up for their services. There’s a good reason for this!
Over the summer, I went through the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course, created by Michelle from Making Sense of Cents.
Michelle made over $90,000 last month from her blog. Crazy, right? Most of her income comes from affiliates and she created a course to teach other bloggers how to increase their affiliate income as well. Basically, if you’re going to learn about affiliate income, she’s the person you want to learn from!
I learned a ton from this course and obviously it shows in my income, which is so amazing. I made this cool infographic to show you all of the things you will learn if you decide to go through the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course:
Strategies Worth Sharing
I just finished this ebook about succeeding with Facebook.
Facebook is really tricky to figure out. It can feel like Facebook is hardly showing your posts to anyone and growth is super slow.
Strategies Worth Sharing is written by Brittany, the blogger behind Equipping Godly Women. She grew her Facebook following from 2,000 people to 100,000 in five months, so she clearly knows what’s up.
She shares all of her strategies, which can all be done without paying for ads or to boost posts.
I’ve learned a lot from this book. You can purchase the workbook to go along with it, which I definitely recommend. It really helps you apply everything you learn.
UPDATE: I now highly recommend that you take Elite Blog Academy (make sure to get on the waiting list ASAP) and Pinning Perfect. As a full time blogger, these two courses, along with Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, have made the biggest difference in my blog. Read more about each of these courses here.
⇒ Since I don’t blog about blogging very often, here’s your chance to ask me any questions you have in the comments. If you’re a blogger, I’d love to read what courses or books you have learned a lot from recently…
Omg!! Congratulations! It does feel good to make money from your blog! But question: how do you get you pageviews so high?! I struggle to get 100 views a day! Lol Do you have like a marketing/ promotion plan?
Thanks Ana! I participate in a few FB group to promote posts, but post of my traffic is from Pinterest. I’ve focused on creating pin-able images and joining group boards to help promote. The affiliate marketing class I mentioned also includes a section on killing it on Pinterest, which was super helpful.
Such a great post with lots of wonderful info that I really needed. Congrats on making money from your blog. I haven’t yet but my page views are really low. I need to figure out this pinterest thing for real
Pinterest is where it’s at, for sure! The affiliate marketing class I mentioned also includes a section on killing it on Pinterest, which was super helpful.
Congratulations! Awesome job! My page views actually decreased from August to July too. People must be trying to get off the computer and enjoy the last part of summer 🙂 Great info about the affiliate course, and that Facebook book sounds awesome too.
Thanks Shann! My page views are still down for this month too, which is a bit discouraging, but I’m sure they’ll be back up again. It’s a bit of a roller coaster.
Congrats to you on a great month! I’m a mostly hobbyist blogger and the money I make primarily just goes towards blog expenses (including craft supplies). I’m always interested in seeing how monetization is working for other bloggers so thanks for sharing what has helped you!
Thanks Erin!
Thanks for the boardbooster tip. I need to get on!
Absolutely! It makes a big difference for me!
Thank-you for sharing your blog income report. I am struggling to keep up my blog traffic as well.
Must be the time of year or something!
WOW!!! Congrats!! It sounds like you’ve been working really hard and thank you for all of the links. I’m checking them out now. My goal has been to start earning more with my blog but I’ve been too behind to take that leap and dedicate the time. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Kristin! It’s definitely exciting to see your hard work pay off!
Congrats, I’ve never thought of making money from my blog as I use my blog to push my services as a coach/consultant. But, this definitely gives me ideas as I do put a lot of work into creating value in my blogs. Thanks for your tips!
Yeah, I bet you could do both. Especially if you found some affiliates that would make sense to promote along side with your services.
Eeek! Yay! Congrats! I can’t wait until I can brag about making that much money! My best month so far I made just over $14. One of these days I’ll start seeing the money!
Absolutely! It’s hard work, but it’s really exciting to watch things grow. You can do it!
I too thought your page views are awesome. I think I should get traffic from pinterest, but maybe there’s stuff I need to improve.
Thanks Charlotte, there’s always more to learn. I’ve found that it’s really worth it to pay for ebooks and courses from some of the best bloggers, like the ones I mentioned. I’ve learned a lot my making it a priority to invest in myself and my blog.
Congrats on a great month! I have never heard of Ibotta before, but I’m definitely going to check it out!
I love Ibotta! Gotta love saving money on healthy groceries!
Congratulations!! That’s an awesome accomplishment.
Congratulations! I was expecting you to say something like $50, but wow! Good for you. And um…not so shabby with your “lower” page views either 😉
Thanks! I’ve had some smaller incomes along the way, but this was the first really significant amount and it’s crazy exciting!
Congrats! I’ve heard a lot of great things about affiliate marketing – I need to try it more!
Absolutely! The Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course really brought it all together for me and helped a ton.
Way to go Christine! I’ve been trying to come up with some strategies on my own about how to grow my blog and make some money but what I should really be doing is just putting out a little money to learn from those who know their stuff. I’ll definitely be checking out the affiliate marketing course and the facebook course!
I totally understand. When I first started I was hesitant to pay for ebooks and courses, but there is so much to learn and it makes so much sense to learn from the best! They’re obviously doing things right that I’m not doing ????
I love reading others income reports because it always gives me great ideas on how I can improve myself. Thanks for sharing!
Me too!
This is so inspiring for a new blogger like me! Your ibotta income is amazing…definitely checking out your tutorial.
Thanks Amber! My Ibotta income is from helping other people sign up for it through my affiliate link.
This is amazing, Christine! My question for you is how do you drive so much traffic to your site? I understand consistency is a big part of it, but besides that, what do you do?
Thanks Erin! I participate in 2 FB groups to promote my posts. I focus a lot on making good Pinterest photos for each post as well. Most of my traffic is from Pinterest and I’ve learned a lot from the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course on posting more effectively on Pinterest, which includes becoming a part of more group boards. I share all of my posts on Stumble, but I don’t think it does much.
Yay! Congrats! Feels great doesn’t it? 🙂 I didn’t monetize my blog at the get-go but when I started my first month’s earnings was $0.99 and I was over the moon LOL! I have a long way to go. But I find that while it’s important to approach it as a business, personally it helps me to also remember why I started the blog in the first place (otherwise I will go insane).
Thanks so much Jolina!
Thanks for these resources! I’ve just started making a little money from my blog, and I’m excited to keep the momentum going. I’m never really sure where to start with all the information out there! But even $900 a month, which seems like a totally reasonable goal, would be huge for me. So thanks for this post!
You can do it Lola! I’m not doing as well this month, but just seeing that it’s possible is so motivating and gives me hope.
Wow! Amazing! Congratulations! I need to learn a lot!
Thanks for sharing.
Rita | http://www.styleroundtheclock.com
Thanks Rita! You can do it! I just try to focus on learning one new thing at a time.
Congratulations, Christine! Your hard work is really paying off! I love reading inspiring blog income reports like this. Great job!
Thanks so much Julie!