How I Make Money Blogging
Welcome to my first income report!
I am very excited to be doing this post, and kind of answering some of the questions that I have gotten about how my blog actually makes an income.
Making money from a blog is very possible, and you can make it a real job!
Income reports are a great way to be inspired, and I want to help others realize that it is possible to even now to be a professional blogger.
My blog income from the first quarter of 2020 was $991.12, just to be clear I did round up. Back when I first started looking into blogging, I didn’t think it would be possible to make REAL money from it.
Boy, I was wrong.
Here I am, 2 years into it, and my blog is a real business, making us a real income.
I don’t blog about blogging, solely.
A lot of people think you can only make money blogging if you blog about blogging.
But nope! My blog is a health and wellness blog.
No products that I currently sell are about blogging, and my income is mostly derived from my health & wellness niche pages and articles.
Being that this is Jan-April 2020, this income report could have looked a lot different. But even with the world how it is today, we are still able to make money from my blog.
Keep reading to see exactly where the money comes from!
(This page probably contains affiliate links, if you want to read more about that check out our disclaimer page)
This report is to show what I made financially during this period of time. There is no guarantee your success or lack thereof will be the same or similar to mine.
Keep that in mind! All work that you do, and the money you make blogging is up to you, and cannot be guaranteed by me or anyone else.
Why I decided to do an income report…
I remember being new to the concept of blogging and being super skeptical that anyone could make a solid income from it. Knowing that there were bloggers out there that made money wasn’t enough though.
I wanted PROOF.
I also wanted out of my 3pm-12:30am office job, and badly.
Income reports show new bloggers that there is hope, and that it is still possible to be a professional blogger. If you are willing to put in the work, it will pay off greatly.
2020 First Quarter – Jan-April
Ad Networks
Google Adsense: $138.87
I was part of Google Adsense for Dec 2019-Feb 2020.
They are okay as far as Ad payments go, and good for beginner bloggers that don’t have enough traffic to use the bigger ad networks yet.
That being said, I was stoked when I got my first payment from them!
Mediavine: $103.59
Mediavine is where it’s at as far as ad networks go, and I am honored to be part of their program.
This payment was for the last 2 weeks of February, so it’s a tad smaller than the rest of my payments will be.
Mediavine pays you after you are with them for at least two months, and then they start paying you monthly after that.
Related Content: Why I QUIT BlueHost and switched to this BETTER hosting company.
Page Views January-April 2020
In 2020, my blog’s traffic has been higher than any other year so far!
If you look at the image below, my traffic for the year of 2019 was 141,550, and this year SO FAR, my traffic has been 104,720!
And that is just for Jan 1st-May 16th, 2020.
My first year blogging, my traffic was… not great, as you can see.
But I did something.
In 2019, I did a Pinterest Marketing course by Create and Go, and it completely changed my blog traffic.
If you are relying on ad income from your blog, you NEED to have good traffic. The best traffic for your blog will be from Pinterest, 90% of the time.
In this quarter, Jan-April, my traffic was 93,675 views to my blog.
Related Content: My Honest Review of Pinterest Traffic Avalanche
Affiliate Marketing
If you are new to blogging, your may not know what affiliate marketing is.
Basically, it means that I am promoting someone else’s product for them, and after I make a sale, the owner of the product gives me a cut of their profits.
This process doesn’t cost the customer anything extra! It just gives me a commission for promoting someone else’s products for them.
ShareASale: $400.00
I use ShareASale for various product partners, including WPengine. (Like this link for 30% off your annual hosting!)
This website is like a go-between for companies so that it makes it easier to work with them.
Teachable: $236.40
Courses that I promote are typically hosted with Teachable, which is a great platform for anyone wanting to create their own courses!
Related Content: 5 Blogging tools I use everyday as a pro blogger
Creating Products
As a blogger, you need to create your own products.
This will give you a way to earn money, and get the entire cut instead of a percentage. It also gives you the freedom of having a very passive form of income!
Freelance Work: $35.96
I did a little freelance work creating pin images for other blog’s, and this made me a little over $35 at the beginning of the year.
Digital Products: $76.30
This is all sales from my two eBooks!
I currently have two eBooks on my online shop page, 30 Days to Inner Peace and Easy Minimalism (no longer available)
These are both eBooks that I published on my site, and when people buy them I get paid through Paypal or Stripe.
These transactions are no longer things I have to work on to make income but work for me.
Total income for the first quarter: $991.12
My income for the first few months of 2020 was $991.12!
That is almost $1,000 in extra income that helped us pay bills, buy groceries and diapers, and get us by.
With my income from my blog increasing and normalizing, I will be doing another income report in August to let you know how much more it has increased.
Thank you for sticking with me, and reading my post!
