February 2018 Blog Income Report

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I am so excited to share my very first blog income report! I’ve been blogging for years, but I always shied away from doing one so I am really happy I decided to do it this year. There’s so much freedom when you’re working for yourself. I’m able to work from anywhere and spend as many hours as I want each day on my blog. If you’ve had a 9-to-5 job for years but want a stronger income, working online is the easiest way to start.

I’ve got some big goals for 2018 and so far, I feel like I’m right on track with my income goal.

Why I’m Posting an Income Report

I decided to start posting income reports because I feel like my journey to financial freedom was made possible by other bloggers posting their own income reports which inspired me to give it a try. To be honest, I wanted to start a year ago, but I just didn’t have the confidence. I felt that my blog wasn’t a success story because I wasn’t achieving big numbers as those other bloggers.

I later realized that it’s not about making 5 or 6 figures each month. It’s about exposing my growth to new (and not so new) bloggers each month to show that it is possible to make an income through hard work and determination. The fact that I make any sort of money from my small blog is a SUCCESS!

Reading bloggers income reports also made me admire how transparent they were and truly laid it out for newbies. They showed me how I could make income from display ads, sponsored posts and affiliates and how to easily launch a blog. They also shared blogging and traffic tips that’s been most beneficial on their own sites. I wanted to do that too so I hope my income reports will help you on your blogging journey.

Now About Me…

How I Made $10,000 6 Months After Blogging Full-Time 

I started this blog in 2008 as a hobby. I had just graduated from college at the time and started working full-time at an advertising company. Blogging was something I did part-time and I didn’t treat it as a business. I was more focus on my career and moving up the corporate ladder. In 2011, I got accepted to a Masters program in Integrated Marketing Communications to help me get ahead. While in school, I started thinking about turning my blog into an actual business. I mean I already had some monetization in place (primarily Google Adsense) but I didn’t put much strategy and effort into it. I eventually got my Masters in 2013 and at this point, I had an even stronger desire to turn my hobby blog into a business and make a full-time income with it.

I heard about people starting a blog as a side hustle and making 4, 5 and even 6 figures a month. It was around this time I came across income reports from top bloggers. I read them and I was inspired. Then one day, I got an email from a newsletter I’m subscribed to offering ways to make a full-time income from blogging and introduced a course created by Ruth Soukup called Elite Blog Academy.

I read the email and knew that I needed to try it or I would regret it later. I took money in my already tight budget and enrolled in the course. Working at an advertising company left me exhausted emotionally and physically. I wanted a change and I thought that if I can get this blogging thing going and gain real income, the initial investment would be worth it.

The Elite Blog Academy course literally changed my life. It’s packed with so much information on how to get started. I took the class everyday and implemented every action step. I also invested in other products as a supplement to EBA. Within the first five months, my blog traffic exploded (over 80,000 page views) and I made close to $8,000! A year later, I was making more than my advertising job.

Note: The only downside to Elite Blog Academy is that it opens only once a year for five days; however, enrollment will begin in early March. You can still sign up on the waitlist and receive free valuable blogging information through email by clicking here. 

Today, I make anywhere between $3,000 to $6,000+ a month blogging. I do this full-time now (yay, no more corporate job!) and I’m loving life. I can work from anywhere which allows me to travel, spend more time with my family, and just enjoy life.

Want to Start Your Own Blog?

Blogs are popular because they are informal and more personal. You can earn from your blog, particularly if you have gained a good following. It will take a while to get your blog to make money but if you truly enjoy what you are doing, it will be worth the effort. I made 4 figures a month in 2017 from blogging but it didn’t happen overnight. Luckily, starting a blog is relatively easy thanks to blogging platforms such as WordPress that come with tons of plugins and features. You can create your own blog here with my easy-to-use tutorial. You can start your blog for as low as $3.95 a month through Bluehost and you’ll get a free domain if you sign up through my tutorial. I have a free blogging course you can join too that will help you start and launch a successful blog!

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Bluehost, and will receive a commission if you sign up through my referral link. There is no additional cost to you, and you’ll get great pricing and a free domain name as a bonus through my link.

February 2018 Blog Income Report

With the holidays over and the start of the new year, my traffic went back down to normal; but, I still had a terrific income month.

Pageviews and Income

• Pageviews: 154,710
• Income: $6415.18

Income Broken Down

• Sponsored Posts: $3600.00
• Display Ads: $1427.85
• Affiliates: $1,387.33

(further breakdown of my strategy for each category is below)

Thoughts on February

Traffic: February traffic was higher compared to January and this time last year and that’s all thanks to Pinterest. Since September 2017, I really stepped up my Pinterest game. I bought Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course and it taught me new techniques on how to drive traffic to my site. The tips I learned has been working for me and each month I see my Pinterest traffic grow. In February 2017, I had 35,861 monthly views coming from Pinterest. In February 2018, I received 79,720 monthly viewers. That’s more than double the traffic! Overall, my traffic is growing steadily again and that’s good!

Blogging Email Course: I relaunched my blogging email course this month. The goal of this course is to walk you step-by-step on starting a profitable blog. You can sign up here.

It’s a FREE 5-day long course that’s perfect for people who want to get into blogging. It took me a week to complete but it was well worth it.

What worked this month

Pinterest: Again, I’m rocking it on Pinterest. Since taking the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course in September 2017, I’ve seen an increase in traffic growth each month. Pinterest is my biggest driver of social media traffic, so I’m extremely happy to see that growing!

What didn’t work this month

Twitter Ads: I tried Twitter Ads the last week of February for my blogging email course. It hasn’t been profitable or scalable for me and that’s mainly because I’m totally new to it and I still have a lot to learn. I don’t want to pull the plug on it just yet. So, I’ll continue to test it for the next couple of weeks and see what happens.

My Income Strategy

I earn income in three major categories with my blog. Below, I go over each one:

Display Ads: The more pageviews my blog gets, the higher the earnings potential. Display advertising is the easiest and fastest way to start making money on your blog. I’ve been using Adthrive since February 2017 and I absolutely love them. My RPM (the ad revenue you get for every 1000 views) is usually between $8.30 and $14.00 depending on the season. During the holidays (November – December 2017) I was averaging between $13-$14. On some days, my RPM went as high as $25.00 which is unheard of unless you’re part of this ad network!

Adthrive requires you to have at least 100,000 pageviews a month, so once your blog traffic passes that number, I highly encourage you to apply (Note: They have a long waitlist so don’t be surprised to hear from them after a few months). If you’re a newbie blogger, I suggest you sign up to Adsense. It’s run by Google and there’s no threshold of monthly views to sign up to which is why it’s popular amongst bloggers new and old. It was the first display ad network I used to monetize my blog.

For a full list of display ad networks, read this post and look under the banner advertising section.

Sponsored Posts: Since the start of the new year, I’ve been getting loads of sponsored campaigns. So far, the majority of them aligned with my brand and I’ve used or currently use their products. Just so you know, I don’t reach out to brands. They reach out to me or through brand networks I’ve signed up to (places like Linqia and Tapinfluence).

I got paid this month for several collaborations I did in December and January. I also completed a few last minute collaborations earlier in the month. I’m always picky about which brands I work with; but so far, most of the brands that have reached out have been a good fit for my blog.

For a full list of brand networks, read this post and look for the sponsored post section.

Affiliate: Affiliate income is one of my favorite ways of earning a living online. Affiliate marketing is when you place an affiliate link in a blog post and try to earn money from people buying the product through your link. It’s an effective way to make money because if there is a product out there that you love, all you have to do is review the product and hopefully others will be interested in buying it as well. That means you can earn money while you’re sleeping, out on vacation, and more.

I have my core group of affiliates that I focus on. When I started affiliate marketing, I struggled a bit. I got sales like $50 or $75 a month and to me, that’s not much. A couple months ago, I started taking Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing from top blogger Michelle of Making Sense of Cents and my income results have been stellar (I’m now making between $800-$1500/month). She’s making over $50,000 in affiliate marketing and her course shows you how to successfully promote products to your audience and earn an income while still being honest and genuine. Honestly, if you’re a blogger, you NEED this course!

So that’s it for my February 2018 Blog income report!  I hope you follow along each month with me as I detail my money-making efforts on the blog. Don’t forget, this is something that YOU can duplicate too. Blogging SUCCESS doesn’t happen overnight, but if you have a plan in place and put a lot of effort into your blog, financial freedom is within reach.

Have you started your blog yet?

If not, then check out my step by step tutorial to starting a successful blog and/or sign up to my FREE 5-day Start a Blog Email Crash Course.

Until next time!