I can’t quite comprehend what happened in October.
I’ve been blogging for just 8 months. I’m doing lots of it wrong.I’m still breaking a bunch of the “rules”, because I honestly don’t know any better. And yet, I’m making money.
More money than I have ever made at any other job in my life. And I’m doing something that I love to do.
So I just can’t quite comprehend it.
Last month,I mentioned that I felt weird and hesitant about posting my income online, and decided to do it anyway. I still feel weird and hesitant about it.
But the feedback from the report in September was 100% positive, and you guys encouraged me so much… I decided I would do one this month too.
The truth is, I would never, ever, have started this blog if it weren’t for other blogger’s sharing their income reports.
I am 100% not special or in any way more qualified to do this than you are, and I want to be encouraging to you, if you are trying to make money blogging. Or if you are justthinking about starting a blog and wondering if it’d be possible for you to make money blogging. I’d have to say, based on my experience, that the answer is YES!
Actually, I’d have to say DO IT! DO IT NOW!
(THIS POST PROBABLY CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS. OUR FULL DISCLOSURE POLICY IS REALLY BORING, BUT YOU CAN FIND IT HERE.)
Related:How to start a Blog for Profit and Work From Home
UPDATE: If you enjoy my income reports, I want to let you know that I have decided not to post them publicly anymore for 2017. I recognize that they’re an awesome learning tool, so I have decided to continue sharing them with my blog email list. Get access here:
LEARN HOW I MAKE MONEY WITH MY BLOG
GET ACCESS TO MY 2019 + 2020 BLOG INCOME REPORTS
I don't post these publicly anymore - for many reasons - but I'm making them available to subscribers to my newsletter, because they're solid proof that you CAN hope to earn a decent income with a blog in 2021!
we do not spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime
October2016 Blog Income Report (& Traffic)
(I am reporting in Canadian dollars at the exchange rate for today of 1.3396 USD to 1 CND. Some of the money comes to me in CND and some comes in USD, but it all ends up as CND dollars in my account.)
Total OctoberIncome: $5035.17
Adthrive Ads – $2802.73
Travel Hacking book affiliate program– $0
BestMark affiliate program – $13.40
Cj.com affiliate program – $354.97
Shareasale.com affiliate program– $15.00
Elegant Themes affiliate program– $0
Ultimate Bundle affiliate program– $1413.15
Amazon affiliate program- $293.28
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing affiliate program- $90.54
Transcribe Anywhere affiliate program- $52.10
OctoberTraffic: 168,754 users & 229,874 page views
WOOHOO!! 229k pageviews in month 8! I am totally having a party here. (Yes, despite my gross bounce rate and terrible session duration. I don’t even care. You can’t win ’em all and it’s. month. eight. I’ll work on those things.)
Related:September 2016 Blog Income Report
Despite the awesome page views and income, October was really, really hard for me.
Not just blog-wise, but life-wise. I’m 8 months pregnant now, and sitting at the computer is a special kind of uncomfortable. There is SO much I want to get done before the baby comes, but just keeping up with the day to day has become overwhelming.
I didn’t accomplish ANYTHING I set out to accomplish this month on the blog. (And yet I still had an amazing month. I’m trying not to lose sight of that.)
My unfulfilled plansfor my blog included getting 2 months ahead in my posts (so I could take a break when baby gets here), getting my pinterest ebook formatted for amazon and for sale on my blog (UPDATE: Book is finally for sale! Check out Pinteresting Strategies: how I went from 0 – 200k page views in 6 months) , and getting serious about Facebook and Google+ (using the tips from Lena Gott’s freaking amazing book, theTraffic Transformation Guide.) I did NONE of those things.
I DID manage to make sure that between sessions of crying in the bath tub and eating mini mars bars (thank you Halloween), I still pinned for at least an hour per day and posted in mywork at home series at least once per week. (We’ll call that basic blog survival.)
It makes me wonder what I could have accomplished in October if I had been able to really commit and to blog harder. It makes me insanely hopeful (andcautiouslyexcited) for the futureof this blog.
LEARN HOW I MAKE MONEY WITH MY BLOG
GET ACCESS TO MY 2019 + 2020 BLOG INCOME REPORTS
I don't post these publicly anymore - for many reasons - but I'm making them available to subscribers to my newsletter, because they're solid proof that you CAN hope to earn a decent income with a blog in 2021!
we do not spam, and you can unsubscribe anytime
Looking ahead to November and December
I don’t expect the next two months to be any easier. More blog survival is on the table. (I do have a few minor goals, like decreasing page load time and getting at LEAST a couple weeks worth of posts pre-written for baby time.)
I know that I won’t be able to make as much money in the next two months as I made in October, largely because there’s no ultimate bundle to promote nowand a good chunk of my income came from the ultimate bundle sale. (The sale did go one day into November, but that’s it.)
But I DO expect to make at least $2000 / month.
If a newbieblog in survival mode can make me a couple thousand dollars per month, I. am. totally. thrilled. with. that.
It gives me the confidence to say this: if you are thinking about starting a blog for profit DO IT. Just do it the right way. I attribute the success of this blog to three things: much prayer, much effort, much investment in blog education.
If you are at all serious about making money with your blog, you need to be asking the question:
Where should I start with my blog education?
If you’re a newer blogger (or an about to be blogger):
First of all, if you don’t have a blog yet but you’re ready to start one, here’s an easy to follow tutorial on how to start a blog for profit.
Then I suggest you take some great blogging courses – The Best Courses for Bloggers (in 2023)
If you have some blogging experience but you aren’t “getting anywhere”:
If you already have a blog up and running and are struggling with getting page views, I just read Lena Gott’s book,theTraffic Transformation Guide, and she talks about strategies I have never even heardof before. I can not WAIT to start implementing them.
How was October for you? Do you have big blog goals for November and December? Did you share a blog income report (link to it in the comments so I can check it out!). (And are we putting out Christmas content already? I started last week… I’ve read that Christmas pins need a good 6 weeks to really gain traction. What do you think?)
