July Blogging Income Report: $1,923
Excuse me while I throw a little party over here. This happened! One year after I published my very first “Hello World!” post. 4 months after “getting serious” in March. I made $1,923. Just from blogging.
July was my second-lowest traffic month since April when my traffic took off, but I made more than I ever had before. Proof positive that an amazing Ad Network and learning how to use affiliate marketing actually work!
First, a little bit about me:
A year ago from this post, I thought that it was a joke to be a “full-time blogger.” And now here I am making money from home as a blogger! I started “getting serious” about my blog less than 5 short months ago when I enrolled in Elite Blog Academy and it’s been a wild ride from there.
I work from home between 10 and 20 hours a week. I am a homeschooling mom of 3 boys ages 5, 2 and 1. We live on one low income, and my husband works second shift. We don’t have the luxury of having help babysitting, but I still put in the hours to make this into something amazing (if I do say so myself).
If you only remember one thing about me, it’s that I’m not special… not even close. I’m so average. I’m not a millionaire (far from it!) who can invest thousands of dollars into a blog. I don’t have the time to spend 24 hours a day working on my blog. I don’t have an English or journalism degree. And I’m definitely not a grammar pro (thanks to a free app called Grammarly, I don’t have to worry about looking like an idiot when I post things).
I do love to write and I love to help people. And I’m really good at cutting out spending and finding new ways to save and make money. Through my blog, I have a way to help people find answers to their questions about how to save money, live on a budget, and get in control of their finances.
By writing about what I love, I’m hoping to be able to provide my family with a second income, while getting to stay at home with my children.
Here’s the month of July blogging income report.
- Affiliate Income:$1,171
- Ad Income: $752
Total: $1,923
Going off of that final number, my “hourly pay” is somewhere between $24 and $48. Not too shabby for 10-20 hours a week!
My July blogging income report is $637 more than I made in June, and June’s $1,286 income report was almost $900 more than I’d made in May. That’s some substantial growth!
Affiliate breakdown: Total – $1,171
Amazon: $338
Amazon for the eternal, perpetual WIN. I made my post about essential oil rollerball recipes back in October and have been getting steady affiliate revenue from Amazon ever since. No, it’s not a high commission rate, varying between 4-7%, but it’s been a steady stream of income.
Ebates: $165
I love, love, LOVE Ebates. Not just because they give me cash back almost everywhere, but because they also have a killer referral program that’s just too great not to share. The buyer gets a $10 gift card to Paypal, Target, Walmart, Home Depot… almost anywhere… just for signing up, and I get a $5 commission per referral. This was a hot month for Ebates, thanks to back to school shopping!
Swagbucks: $55
Swagbucks has been another slow and steady earner for me. I’m so glad other people love Swagbucks as much as I do!
Bluehost: $ 260
I love blogging and I want everyone else in the world to start their own blog. That might sound silly, but I mean it! It’s been more than I could have ever even asked for. It’s not just about the money (although, I mean… it’s pretty cool, right?!). It’s about helping. It’s about sharing your voice, your life, your experiences. It’s about helping out that one person who was looking for exactly what you have to offer.
So I’m so happy that my ShareASale commission with Bluehost has been helping other people get started for themselves!
SendOwl: $240
This covers my affiliates for Abby Lawson’s Building a Framework, Rosemarie Groner’s Pinterest Strategy Guide, and Brittany Ann’s Strategies Worth Sharing. They’re all amazing resources and have been really good to me when it comes to affiliate earnings!
Make Over Your Morning: $112
Crystal Paine’s e-courses are always a crowd-pleaser. Everyone wants a better day, so this course isn’t just for one type of person.
Ad Network Income: $752
AdThrive is amazing! I joined them halfway through June and it’s been oh so wonderful since then! Even with my lower pageviews, this month wasn’t a total wash in ad revenue. I’m super excited about that, for sure!
Don’t think that’s all “take-home money,” though! I have operating expenses and taxes that need to be taken care of before I cash out and roll around in singles.
Expenses (totally worth every single penny!):
- BoardBooster (the amazing Pinterest scheduler): $50
- ConvertKit (the amazing email tool) : $79
- Elite Blog Academy (the reason I’m making any money at all blogging) : $49
- Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (the reason I’m making more money blogging) : $199
- Virtual Assistant (the amazing friend helping me focus on writing and less time on small tasks) : $100
Total: $477
I have to put away 30% of the remaining income after business expenses for taxes: $434
My “take-home” when it’s all said and done is $1,012. Still, not too shabby!
What worked:
Elite Blog Academy
Every single one of my income reports is thanks to the Elite Blog Academy. I enrolled in the course at the end of February this year and my life as a blogger hasn’t been the same.
The course doesn’t open up again until February 2017, but the free resources, ebooks, and webinars are a great way to start getting yourself and your blog moving in the right direction.
If you only ever invest in one thing for your blog, make it the Elite Blog Academy.
I really started automating my emails with Convertkit and it’s paid off! I’m so excited to see it working. I’m in the process of making an email course about budgeting and one about starting a blog. Which I’m very excited about, to say the least!
More so than just the automation, I started working on building a connection with my email list. I hear over and over that my email list is my best asset as a blogger. And I haven’t used that to its full potential. So I started sending out emails 2 or more times a week just to pass along some helpful tips, or my favorite way to make money this week, and the response has been amazing!
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
I’m not a salesperson. I’ve said this over and over again, and it’s true. But I realized I wasn’t living up to my own earning potential and that if I wanted to get serious about blogging, I needed to get my butt in gear and learn how to use affiliate marketing to its full potential.
I signed up for the course by Michelle of Making Sense of Cents, who regularly posts income reports of $50,000 a month or more. Yeah, it’s like that. So far, I’m basically in love with the course! It’s going on my blogging resource guide, for sure!
Stock photo membership
I got a membership to Haute Chocolate and their amazing gallery of photos. I just love the photos so much! Finding free stock photos of feminine desks or laptops was absolutely impossible. I was sick of using the same boring images as everyone else on Pinterest with a laptop at a desk. So I paid the tiny monthly membership fee and got me a membership. She also sends out monthly free photo packages!
Making my own little ebook
No, I didn’t have a launch and you missed it. I quietly released my own little essential oil ebook this month that covers everything that I know about essential oils. It’s a personal passion, and not really in line with my niche. But my first post to go “mini-viral” was my essential oil rollerball recipe post. Crazy, right?
I finally took the plunge, made the ebook, designed the cover, and put it up for sale. Granted, I did this on July 30th, so I’ll be seeing the income from the sales in August but I’ll still count this as a July win!
Getting an extra set of hands to help out on the blog
I made my first “hire” this month! I brought on my bestie to help me with Facebook stuff. She’s going to start in August, too. But I’m so excited for her to help me out. Facebook is still driving me crazy, so I decided that it’s still just not worth my time right now. So she’ll be helping me schedule posts, interact with people, and be more involved on Facebook.
Pretty Link
This is my newest plugin that I’m obsessed with. Instead of those ugly bitly links or the super long shady-looking affiliate links, I now have links that use my own link and then send the clicker over to the affiliate site.
I’m so glad I found this! It makes a big difference. I mean, which would you feel more comfortable clicking on: cowcountryhousewife.com/bluehost or http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-7915348-10388577-1463421254000 ? The one with the not-crazy link, of course! That’s why I’m excited to have and use Pretty Link!
SumoMe
That nifty little bar at the top of the screen asking you very nicely if you want my free printable is from SumoMe. Since all I’m (currently) using it for is this one little bar, I’m only using the free version. Eventually, I’ll upgrade. For now, it’s working just fine for me.
Plus, it’s more than quadrupled my normal monthly subscribers!
What didn’t work:
Focusing too much on numbers
I’m told that this is a slow time of year for bloggers, so being number-obsessed wasn’t helping much. I get freaked out seeing numbers dip, but it all ended happily!
Facebook (UGH!)
I got sick at the end of the month (who gets a sinus infection in July?!) and missed out on Facebook scheduling for 3 days (dun dun DUN!). Suddenly, my impressions and engagement that I had been working so hard to keep increasing… had dropped to almost nothing. I hate you, too, Facebook!
Other than that, I really didn’t have something that didn’t work this month! July was a good month for business but a tough month for me to personally work on getting over lower numbers. But I’m told that since summer is over, the blogosphere is gearing up for the crazy season!
And guess who’s excited for that!?
I can’t wait to see what next month will hold for Cow Country Housewife!
Carolyn says
Way to go. I would definitely call that a successful month!
Carolyn recently posted…My Little Girl’s Pink and Blue Bedroom – I Ordered Everything Online!
marisa says
Caroline I love your blog and this report is amazing! Good for you! One question, what were your pageviews for July? I know you say they were a bit down. Just curious! 🙂
Caroline says
Hi Marisa! They were down from 93,000 in June to 81,000 in July.
Carly says
Hey Caroline! Love your blog – and you’re totally inspiring me with your income reports 🙂 I am hopeful to get adthrive set up here in the next couple weeks, but affiliate marketing is proving much harder than I thought it should be… As far as I can tell I’m doing everything right and still failing haha. Can you tell me, how much more is Michelle’s course than the the Chapter Ruth has in EBA? No one else has been able to give me a solid comparison of the two… I’d really appreciate it! Thank you soooo much!
Caroline says
Hi Carly! Congrats on AdThrive!! They’ve made a huge difference for me. Michelle’s course is $199, but you can pay it in over 2 months (if that helps!), but it’s a really detailed resource. I’m still very early in the course, but even in the “beginner” sections, I feel like there’s so much that I didn’t know. I love EBA and still think that’s the best investment for your blog, but Michelle’s course is the supplement that the affiliate section needs to really kick your blog into gear. Anyway, EBA costs $500. Last year, Ruth rolled out the monthly payment option which is the only way I could make it happen at the time. So it winds up being $49 per month. Again, absolutely worth the cost. Even if you don’t think you’ll buy it, their free resources on their emails and webinars are what got me hooked. I hope that helped! 🙂
Carly says
Hi Caroline! Thank you so much for getting back to me – I should have mentioned, I am already enrolled in EBA and I do love it… and I do think it was worth the investment. I’m just wondering if there is MORE to learn that Michelle’s course can provide as to affiliate marketing that Ruth’s doesn’t? Or are they sort of similar creatures that way?
Caroline says
Oh wow, I feel silly! 😀 I think that Michelle’s course is much more in-depth than the affiliate section of EBA. Sales has never been my thing so I decided that taking the class would be worth it for me to learn how to add affiliate income to my income strategy. I think it’s worth it! And, if I’m not mistaken, Michelle offers a refund policy if you’re not satisfies with the course. I hope that helps! 🙂
Carly says
O no don’t feel silly! Thank you so much! That does help I think. I just am so hesitant to invest that much more into blogging… I’ve only been at it for 6 months and I don’t even know if I’m remotely on the right track. My niche is all over the place, my bounce rate is gross and I can’t bring myself to trust pinterest schedulers so I keep my traffic up by sacrificing the rest of my life to pin lol. That said, I’m seeing the potential to make real income, since I’ve only been at it 6 months, my niche is all over the place, my bounce rate is gross and I’m STILL making a little money LOL – do I sound like a mess or what?!
Carly recently posted…7 Ways To Make Your Blog Look Less Like A “Newbie Blog”
Caroline says
Oh my gosh, you sound like me! Haha! I only trust BoardBooster so much because I’ve seen it work. (Of course, with the new algorythm, there are some days that I feel like there’s no way that my stuff was pinned at all judging by my numbers!) But if you have the money, I totally say go for it! I’m really excited about Michelle’s class! Obviously, it’s as a supplement to EBA, but between Rosemarie’s Pinterest cheat sheet and Michelle’s class, I think that about covers everything that needs to be addressed in more detail from EBA 🙂
Carly says
LOL I love that we are never alone with blogging! I haven’t seen the wonders of boardbooster / tailwind personally, despite trying them both. But somethings gotta give it’s probably pinterest cus I’m wearing out :p I think I’ll probably go for the course, I want to be on track to know what I’m doing by the time the next ultimate bundle is released. Do you have an affiliate link for it (or is it somewhere up there and I missed it)? I’d be happy to click through you!
Caroline says
Isn’t is great that there are so many of us out there?! I love all of the different perspectives and help! And you’re so sweet! Here’s my link: https://www.carolinevencil.com/makingsenseaffiliate. I’m hoping for the same thing with the Ultimate Bundles coming up! Those are amazing!
Carly says
Fantastic! I’m gonna discuss it with my husband but I’m pretty sure I’m gonna go for it. lol thanks so much for answering all my silly questions!
Carly recently posted…To the Woman Who Invented Pooping (& All Other Internet Trolls)
Summer says
I just saw this post on Pinterest and let me say, it is encouraging. I know that a full-time blog and being a stay-at-home wife (eventually mom) are in my future but I need my blog to make a decent amount first. I have started writing posts but have not set up my blog yet so I wasn’t sure how quickly I could make an income from my blog. This post is extremely encouraging and lets me know that I can do this! Thank you!