Blogging As A Career – Successful Blogger Income Reports

Have you ever wondered how much money bloggers make each month? Or what blogging niches are most profitable? If so, look no further! I’ve put together a list of the best blogging income reports showing you exactly how much and how bloggers make money online.

I’ve always found income reports written by bloggers incredibly inspiring, and reading them from other successful bloggers have sparked ideas on how to monetize my website over the years.

Documenting my own blogging journey – from how I made my first $100 blogging all the way to how I generated $100,000 as a blogger – has also helped me narrow down what’s working for my niche, allowing me to focus my efforts in order to scale that income.

Because here’s the truth – no two bloggers will have the same exact strategy or income streams. You need to find out what works for you, for your audience, industry, the type of content you create and so on.

So whether you are a beginner, curious about how much bloggers make online, or an intermediate blogger hoping to work your way to a full “blogging salary” and go-full time, income reports can serve as awesome guides to what’s currently working for other people.

And they showcase the very real possibility that blogging can be a very profitable venture.

Blog Income Report Tracker

P.S. If you need help tracking your monthly blogging income and expenses, check out my blog income tracker and get $5 off using the code “TSA5OFF“.

Best Blogging Income Reports 

To help you better understand how to make money off a blog, I’ve put together an epic list of milestone and monthly income reports, showing you blogging earnings shared by bloggers of all sizes and in all niches.

From food blogger income reports, to fitness and travel bloggers, I’ve tried to include a diversity of content creators, for you to draw inspiration from.

But it’s important to note that not all bloggers are comfortable disclosing their earnings and most non-business related blogs (so bloggers who don’t blog about blogging) have no reason to share their numbers publicly. That doesn’t mean they are not earning a good sum thought! 

For example, Pat Flynn stopped sharing his monthly income reports once he reached a certain number. His last public income report (November 2017) showed him earning $213,212.64 – in a single month! 

And while that’s what we all aspire to with our blogging business, that takes time to build. Which is why I’m including below a few realistic income reports from bloggers who a) are still in their first few years of blogging and b) don’t have an entire team behind them. 

The point I’m trying to make: blogging can earn you way more than a simple side-hustle could. It’s proven to be a profitable career path for many, but to get to that level, it takes time and a lot of determination. That’s why I want you to also pay attention to small beginnings and draw inspiration from smaller income reports.

Without any further ado, here are a few blog income reports that are worthy of being examined, that you can draw inspiration from:

How I Made My First $100 Blogging With Affiliate Marketing

The breakdown of how a single blog post earned me over $100 in affiliate commissions, in my first 5 months of blogging – and why it took me so long to start making money as a new blogger.


How This Mom Blogger Earned Her First $200 

A promising start for a new blogger, that has reported making a lot more since writing this income report – all by using her blog traffic to display ads. 


How This Newbie Finance Blogger Reached Their First $500 Month

A story of small beginnings with great potential, showing you how Jessica earned $513.06 In January 2020 with her budgeting & finances blog.


How I Made $1,000 Blogging With Ebooks, Affiliate Sales & Freelancing

A breakdown of how I went from $100 to $1,000 in earnings, simply by diversifying my income streams and writing and launching an eBook, all in the first 10 months of starting this blog.


How This Finance Blogger Earned $4,789 In One Month

How Virginia leveraged her pageviews to get paid by ad networks (specifically Mediavine) and went from earning $20 per day to earning $100+ per day, just by displaying ads on her blog.


How I Earned $10,000 With A Small Audience – Honest Blog Income Report 

The story of how I grew my income from $1,000 to $10,000 and started seeing real profit from my blog by focusing on my email list – showing that you don’t need heaps of blog traffic to “make it”.


A Blogger & Vlogger’s Income Journey To $10,000


How This Beauty Blogger Earned $17k In Her Second Year Of Blogging

How Delilah earned $16,987 by leveraging her blog traffic, SEO and the Amazon affiliate program and used her beauty blog to build an empire.


How This Couple Made $22,000 With Their Side Hustle

An affiliate marketing success story showing you that sometimes all you need is one brilliant affiliate partnership and patience, to start seeing results with your blog.


Blogging Income Report: $25,000 In Less Than 2 Years

How my income doubled from the previous year, despite only blogging in my free time, working a full-time job and also going to University. And more about the power of selling digital products.


How One Blog Earned $30,423.77 In One Month

A detailed breakdown of how Lucrezia earned over $30,000 (out of which over $17,000 is pure profit), including her biggest income streams revealed and her monthly expenses shared for reference. 


blog income journey

Earning $50,000 From A Small Blog – Blog Income Report 

How I leveraged my affiliate sales and grew the sales for my eBooks (and other digital products) to create passive income streams that allowed me to travel and still earn from my blog.

At this point, my blog was still getting under 20,000 pageviews a month, proof that when you know what you’re doing, you do not need huge numbers.


How This Mom Blogger Earns Money Blogging

How Crystal makes money as a mommy blogger by diversifying her income, recommending mom products, sharing coupons, working with brands and more.


How I Made $100,000 Blogging – Blogging As A Career

The breakdown of how I was able to quit my job, double my blogging income and make a living doing this full-time. The secret sauce? Selling eBooks and affiliate marketing! 

PIN AND READ LATER 📌

Blogging Income Report - How much do bloggers earn salary?
Blog Income Report - How much do bloggers make?
Blog Income Report - How much do bloggers make?

And these are just a few of many success stories! But if you’re reading these as a new blogger, don’t get fooled. Not all of this reported income is profit, and sometimes, for the first months at least, you’ll be spending more than you earn to set up your blog – just like in this realistic breakdown showcasing a first month blogging income report.

The good news though? As my income reports and the ones above have shown it, it’s really easy and 100% possible to earn back the money you invest in starting your blog. 

Take it from someone who has started multiple online businesses – the cost of starting a blog, in comparison to a brick & mortar business, an eCommerce business, a coaching business and so on, is much lower and practically risk-free!

Here’s what I would do differently with starting a blog in order to monetize it, based on what I’ve learned over the past 4 years, and how blogging evolved in time. Give it a read if you’re just starting, or enroll in my free course below! 

What is the most profitable blogging niche?

A big part of starting a profitable blog is choosing a niche that has potential. That means blogging about something that a particular group of people has a vested interest in, and not about your life. 

When we’re talking about blogging for profit, this automatically excludes “diary” type blogs where your content is all about you – what you like, what your problems are, what you are up to.

Lifestyle bloggers often fall into that category, because they fail to narrow down who their readers actually are – and therefore, fail to provide them with value.

That being said, there are a lot of niches and sub-niches that do surprisingly well and that is because they monetize according to their niche and content. 

How to Make Money From a Blog- New Blog's Income Report Study in 7 Niches. How new blogs start making money using ads, affiliate marketing, their own courses and freelancing or services

Source: Make Time Online

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, a lot of bloggers (think DIY bloggers, beauty, fashion, pet bloggers, health & fitness ones and so on) very rarely share their income publicly. So unless you know what you’re looking for, it’s hard to gauge how they earn money blogging.

What’s important to note is that they adapt popular monetization strategies to fit them – they don’t just copy/paste what works for popular bloggers. And this will often vary from niche to niche.

Mike from Make Time Online analysed a few popular income reports, and spoke to bloggers from all over the world and discovered a few interesting things:

  • Food bloggers make the most by monetizing with ads
  • Health & fitness blogs diversify a lot (they include ads, affiliates and their own products)
  • Marketing & business blogs thrive in affiliate marketing and by selling their own products, and very rarely are successful (or prioritize) ads
  • Finance blogs profit the most from smart affiliate marketing
  • Travel blogs use a combination on ads & sponsored content 

These of course are generalisations based on about 60 bloggers who shared their income, and it doesn’t mean there isn’t opportunity outside of these.

As Mike points out in his article (linked above), food bloggers can easily fill in the gap and create their own digital products to supplement their ad income.

And I know a recipe blogger that makes over $15,000 a month just by selling $10-20 digital cookbooks to her engaged email audience.

So don’t knock it until you try it, but start off with income streams that have proven easily successful in your niche.

How Do Bloggers Make Money & Earn A Blogger Salary?

How much you can make blogging is totally up to you, and it usually depends on a few factors, such as your website traffic, where that traffic is coming from, email list size, social reach, content etc. 

In general, new bloggers make anywhere from $500 to $2,000 per month, while more seasoned or experienced bloggers can easily reach between $10,000 to $40,000 monthly.

And there are always a few highly-paid PRO bloggers who earn well over $100,000 per month. (These tend to be star bloggers who have a well established team.)

But these bloggers that are earning a full-time salary blogging?

The one thing they all have in common is that they diversify their income (implementing a few different methods), and then they get really good (and I mean REALLY good) at at least one or two things. (Don’t try to do it all!)

For me that was selling ebooks and affiliate marketing. 

Not quite sure what you should focus on? here are a few articles to bookmark for later:

How to get paid for blogging?

How bloggers make money - affiliate marketing free course

I want to clear some of the confusion about making money blogging. You don’t get paid to blog per say.

Not even if you’re the best writer in the world.

No one pays you just for writing stuff and putting it out there.

But content is a big part of earning money! Here’s a few way you can use it to generate income online:

  • You can write about sought after topics, drive traffic to your website and get paid for displaying ads. Depending on the ad network you are registered with, you will earn a certain amount for every thousand impressions that an ad gets.
  • You can post problem-solving content, that recommends specific physical or digital products (anywhere from diapers to online courses) and get paid commission for each sale you make – given that you’ve signed up to the right affiliate programs first.
  • You can use your blog to grow an audience and an email list that you can then monetize by selling digital products – such as eBooks, courses, printables and so on. 
  • You can grow and leverage a readership, and then partner up with brands to create sponsored content, promoting their products to your readers in the process.

How long does it take to start making money blogging?

According to the income reports above, and my own personal experience, it can take anywhere between 4-8 months to start making consistent money blogging (and at least $500 per month) and anywhere from 1 to 3 years to earn a full-time income, depending on the time & effort you invest into growing your blog. 

This of course is just a rough guideline and it can take more or less – but that depends on you!

Investing in blogging courses or hiring a blogging coach usually speeds up the process, as it eliminates a lot of the guesswork and provides you with an easy to follow framework. 

When I first started my blog, I only managed to work on it in my spare time for the first 2 years (I had a full-time job and was in full time education), and that showed. My blog’s growth was painfully slow at the time.

As soon as I took a gap year from University and cut back on my hours for my day-job, and I was able to focus more on my time on The She Approach, and my income doubled month after month!

So once again – the time you are willing to invest, especially in the beginning, on working on your blog and constantly learning about ways to improve, are going to have a direct impact on your blog income! 

I want to know – how long have you been blogging for, and how much do you earn per month? Leave a comment below and tell me: what do you think it’s stopping you from earning more?

Article last updated: July 2020

Blog Income Reports – How Do Bloggers Make Money

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