One of the main reasons why I started this blog was to try and replace my income so that I never have to work for another horrible boss ever again! For months, I have read successful blog income reports. I was determined that I was going to be one of them! Now, I have I have a blog income report (granted it’s coffee money at this point), I feel like there is so much more opportunity!
Granted when you look at it right now, it doesn’t look like much but it’s more so of a public way to hold myself accountable and show other people the behind the scenes month to month blood sweat and tears (literally) before the promotion stage comes into effect. I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers plan out their blog a couple of months before they launch it and then show incredible results within a couple of months. I feel like that doesn’t show the truth. I want to show people the raw, “behind the curtain” truth of what it takes to get a blog off the ground and finally get out of your horrible job!

A lot of people lose hope after a couple of months because they think “everyone else did it so much faster, I guess I’m just not cut out for blogging.”   or that this is just a random fluke that’s now on the cover of Forbes magazine and now they are millionaires. Well, I’m here to tell you, this is not a fluke and I didn’t just happen to stumble upon this. Blogging is hard work!!! If you keep at it I promise you will see results! With all of that being said, start your blog today and take a look at my blog income below!!

How I’m Reporting This

It’s important to know how blogging income is reported. Based on the research that I’ve done there are two ways that you can report income:

1. Report Income As You Receive It
   • Pros-It is in your bank account and there is no waiting to see when you’ll get it. A lot of times it can take anywhere from 30-90 days to get your income.
   • Cons-It is a little more difficult to see a direct effect on different strategies that you are working on regarding promotion of your blog.
2. Report Income As You Earn it
   • Pros-It is a little easier to see a direct effect on different strategies that you are working on regarding promotion of your blog and how it affects your page views.
   • Cons-I doesn’t see a con, I have to wait for it anyways, I just get to tell the world a little earlier of how this wonderful blogging world is a viable form of income!

I’m reporting my income based off of the month that I earn it. The reason I like to do it that way is seeing how my income is progressing in correlation with my page-views. It also could potentially matter when I’m doing different promotions or what have you.

What I Learned (Accomplished, Failed, etc)  This Month….

Well, this isn’t new information, I actually already knew this just reinforced. I’m an off the charts ENFP and I love new and exciting projects (I’m actually impressed, I completed all of them)! I got really focused with my Blog Coach Christina Maloney and she helped me focus on just one strategy. So now instead of trying to do everything. Just focus on one thing and just kill it!

Also, just wanted to apologize. I haven’t really been posting income/progress report for the past two months. I’ve been trying to figure out technology and a/b testing EVERYTHING. But I’m hoping to be better from this point on. I’m definitely scaling down the education portion of my blog (these ecourses, ebooks, etc are incredibly addicting and informative).

Okay, so here’s what happened this month….

SUCCESS I put together an ebook called how to get to your first “100” subscribers (email subscribers are key to your success and viewer engagement) and distributed it for review. The results? Innovative strategies but not enough to purchase for $19 (my initial plan of action). So it’s back to the drawing board for that! I’m thinking about changing it to your first 1000 subscribers but I’m not sure.

SUCCESS I created a FREE 5-day Money Saving Email Challenge to get more subscribers (man that took forever to figure out. Technology is a beast!!) complete with a FREE Support Group for finances called Figuring Out Finances. My goal is to increase engagement and lower my bounce rate (which for those of you that don’t know that means decrease the percentage of people that only stick around for the first page). Stay tuned for next months endeavor!

SUCCESSI got accepted, wrote and turned in a major guest article to a major player in the personal finance arena (stay tuned next month to see who that is. I know I’m a stinker)! The reason why this is such a big deal is that it gives me a lot of free exposure and gives my site more credibility in terms of SEO! It’s amazing! 

SUCCESSI just implemented a new Pinterest scheduling strategy (that took me an entire week to research, implement and tweak) but now it’s going to take me a total of like 1 hour a month to maintain. I’m so excited! Scheduling posts have been a major pain point for me! Stay tuned next month for a blog post about that! 

FAIL (Or really major headache) I had some serious technical issues this month. I had a major bug on my site that took me an entire week to figure out (this is the kind of thing I’m talking about that you don’t see in income reports).

FAIL (Or really rabbit hole) You can get into a lot of “rabbit holes” in blogging. There is always some new exciting strategy, to test out. I purchased a couple of e-books regarding blogging strategies. I don’t really know that it’s a fail just something that I don’t need to focus on EVERYTHING right at this very second.  

SUCCESS AND FAIL It’s a SUCCESSAIL! Goal Pageviews: +5000 Big time fail! Try +411 (Total 1509 Pageviews) (I know I normally put fail as red but I’m putting it as pink bc I didn’t meet the goal but it’s still pretty good, so I’m putting it in a pretty color!)   But it’s a success because I WENT UP 37% IN PAGEVIEWS FROM THE PREVIOUS MONTH! I implemented a new Pinterest strategy toward the end of the month. Stay tuned for an article about that!

FAIL: Pinterest Goal 700 Followers <—-#1 Source of Traffic Fail, I got 670 (Close but no cigar!)

SUCCESS 1 Guest Post – It’s a great way to get your blog out there!

Goals for July 

Create 4 Articles for my blog (baby steps)

Finish My Guest Post that’s going to be posted on a major player in the personal finance world Making Sense of Cents! Michelle is such a sweetheart for giving me this major opportunity that is going to be released this October!

Create Net Worth Monthly article. Given the fact that it is a personal finance blog I’m going to be completely transparent about my failures, successes and what I’m going to do for the next month. It’s a weird mix of relief (that I’m telling people) and anxiety that people will know. I’m tired of people not talking about their personal finances and side hustles (as if it’s a bad thing to make extra money). I think that’s how people get in bad personal financial situations (me included). Okay, now I’m getting off of my soapbox.

(*Side unrelated note* I think it would be hilarious to have a meme of an avatar literally getting off of a box of soap).

Start and Finish Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing e-course (I’ve heard amazing things about this course). Given the fact that I know I have low page views right now relevant affiliate marketing is definitely the way to go!

Post to Facebook 3 times a week. I’m going to focus only on two different sources of page views. This and Pinterest are the winning social media outlets.

Redo opt-in. I created a 5 Day Money Email Challenge and I would like to for people to be able to see it better!

Connect to a major personal finance publication and do an article with them!

My June Traffic and Income Report

Pageviews

1509

Income

Google Adsense- $4.29

TOTAL Income= $4.29

Expenses

Canva (monthly subscription): $12.95

Canva Pictures: $10

Pinterest Ebook: $24

Google App: $5

Total Expenses: $51.95

Net Profit:  -$47.66

Wrapping Up…

All in all, it’s not that much, coffee money if you will. If you’ve read any newbie blogger reports, it’s going to be in the same range for the first couple of months. However, I’m still incredibly excited about this! I’m FINALLY at the promotional stage of blogging and can’t wait to start seeing results. This just goes to show me that it is possible! It only makes me want to work harder, be more consistent and promote more! I can’t wait to do this again at the end of July!