How I Earn Money Blogging: Blogging Income Report
Have you ever wondered how bloggers make money online? Or, to be more specific, exactly how much money you can earn as a blogger?
I get these types of questions every day from my 1-on-1 blog coaching clients who want to know not only what are the best ways to make money blogging, but also exactly how much they can expect to earn, and how quickly.
While these numbers are going to be different for everyone (depending on factors such as their blog traffic, email list size, audience engagement, monetization strategies, the time they dedicate to work on their blog and so on), I wanted to share with you what this looks like for me.
So I’m sharing a breakdown of how I made my first $50,000 blogging (while only working as a part-time blogger) and a few lessons I’ve learned along the way.
Haven’t started your blog yet?
If you’re reading this and toying with the possibility of starting a blog (either as a side-hustle or as a full-blown blogging business), then you need to check out my article on what I would do differently if I had to start a profitable blog today – from scratch – but with all the experience I have now.
And if you need more support in setting up your blog and what that looks like step-by-step, join over 1,300 students that have taken my free course below:
But I’d like to encourage you to give it a try! I am so beyond thankful for the opportunities that my blog opened up, and if I made it happen while studying full-time, working part-time and raising a puppy, you can too!
Why do I write blogging income reports?
As a blogging strategist, I always test out what I teach on my own blog first, and then I unpack the results. In other words, I practice what I preach.
I test out social media and online marketing strategies all the time, and I constantly analyze what’s working and what’s not. A big indicator (but not the only one that matters!) of my blog’s growth is my income.
And because I’m transparent about everything else, it’s important to me to also be transparent about this.
As an added bonus, I love the fact that my blogging journey has inspired bloggers all over the world to realize that their work is important and that they deserved to get paid for the hard work they put into their content and platforms.
I also think that, as my income reports get “bigger”, the earning breakdowns can serve as a guide for established bloggers who want to scale their blogging business and grow their income, as I drew a lot of good advice from income reports created by my peers along the years.
Before I begin, I’d also like to mention that:
- This is my blogging income, and not all of it is profit. For the purpose of these milestone income reports, I share my blogging revenue, but I also have expenses and taxes (like any business). I would say that about 80% of my income is profit however (not including taxes), because the upkeep of a blog is quite inexpensive.
- Up until this point, I haven’t blogged full-time. I think it’s important to note that I’ve been a full-time student and worked a full-time job (that then transitioned into a part-time) for the past 2-3 years. While I did take a gap year from University to focus on my blog last year, I’ve never blogged full time (I still had my job), so the time I dedicated to working on my blog was never 100%. Considering all that, I’m still amazed by all that I’ve achieved because this is proof that blogging can be profitable even as a side-hustle.
- I do not have a huge following or a lot of website traffic. I want to clear up a misconception that you need a lot of social media followers or website traffic to “make it” as a blogger. You don’t! While my numbers have grown since my last income report (my email list is at 7,500, my monthly traffic peaked at 30,000 page views and I also grew my Instagram and Pinterest), I still consider these to be relatively low numbers compared to the “big guys”.
- I rarely pay for advertising. A lot of people are skeptical of income reports because they don’t show the expenses. (I guess it’s easy to make a lot of money when you spent a lot on ads.) But I rarely invest in ads (over the past 3 years, I’ve spent just under $600 on Facebook and Instagram ads – that’s it!), and most of my income, sales, and traffic come from organic sources.
In the name of transparency, I’d also like to mention that this blog post contains affiliate links. Any sales made through such links will reward me a small commission (at absolutely no extra cost for you), that help me cover my blogging expenses.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my past income reports to see exactly how I got started, and what changed over time:
– How I Made My First $100 Blogging
– How I Made My First $1,000 Blogging
– How I Made My First $10,000 Blogging
– How I Made My First $25,000 Blogging
– How I Made My First $100,000 Blogging
– How I Made My First $150,000 Blogging
– How I Made My First $200,000 Blogging
How I Made My First $50,000 Blogging
But let’s get to what you came here for – my breakdown of exactly how I earned my first $50,000 blogging, how long it took me to do it, and what changed since my last income report.
And yes – these are all money that I’ve actually been paid and that already landed in my bank account. (A few affiliate programs that I am in have either a payout threshold or a waiting period before they pay you. I have NOT included those earnings or any other unpaid funds in this report.)
This income report also includes the earnings that I already broke down in previous income reports, but I’ll reflect on the difference and growth as best as I can, to illustrate how and if my strategy changed over time.
For each method, I will include some resources you can check out to learn more about how it’s done and some general takeaways. I hope those are helpful in helping you decide if you want to monetize your blog a certain way.
⋆ You can also take this FREE quiz to find out what the best way to make money from your blog, if you’re struggling to narrow down your focus and earn a profit from your blog. (It’s free, quick and incredibly fun!)
💎 Affiliate Marketing Sales: $22,035
(+ $8,470 since the last income report)
Despite not focusing on it too much for the past year, affiliate marketing remains one of my top earners, proving, once again, that passive income is possible, once you put in the work.
If you’re not sure how affiliate marketing works, and how you can incorporate it on your blog, be sure to check out my take my free Affiliate Marketing course for bloggers.
But basically, I make affiliate commissions by promoting products, services, online courses and even physical products, and get a small cut of the profit whenever someone makes a purchase through my links.
Because I want my audience to trust me, and to know that I would only recommend products that I can 100% back and support (which hasn’t been the case when I got started, because I would just say yes to everything), I actually began being a lot more selective when it came to choosing what to promote.
In time, I’ve narrowed it down to a selection of 10-20 tools and resources that I wholeheartedly believe in, and I started championing them a lot more, including them in my content, speaking about them more on social media and even offering free trainings on them.
So if you’re struggling to grow your affiliate income, stop joining new affiliate programs, and start cherry-picking and championing the ones that have worked the best for you so far.
But if you are new, and looking for options, check out my list of 25 high-paying affiliate programs above (it’s free to grab).
Another big change that I made is that I started putting a lot more focus into promoting online courses, or digital products that would pay me $50+ per affiliate sale, and this list will help you find programs like that!
Make Money Blogging Through Affiliate Sales
If you want to incorporate affiliate marketing into your blog monetization strategy and increase your passive income, here are a few resources that I wholeheartedly recommend:
- My Free Affiliate Marketing Course – if you’re brand new, and haven’t made your first affiliate sale yet, this is for you.
- My list of 700+ High-Paying Affiliate Programs for bloggers and content creators
- My Affiliate Marketing Training Bundle – if you haven’t made your first $1,000 in affiliate sales, and you’re still struggling to crack the code of affiliate marketing, this is for you.
- The Lasso Affiliate Plugin – a tool that I pay for myself, and that makes me money back every day! It draws attention to your affiliate links by creating stunning display boxes, comparison tables and more!
- Carly’s Affiliate Marketing – Everything You’re Missing course – if you’re stuck at earning under $500 a month from affiliate marketing, and you’re getting enough clicks but no affiliate sales and conversions, this is for you! (I actually paid for this course myself and it was so worth it! It’s one of my favourite courses for advanced bloggers.)
- My 14-Days Affiliate Challenge – this is meant for more advanced bloggers, who have started seeing affiliate income trickling in, but it’s random and you can’t depend on it. If you want to learn how to make sales on autopilot, I’ll teach you how to increase your clicks and conversions in this course.
💎 Digital Product Sales: $24,201
(+ $16,013 since the last income report)
My digital product sales have tripped since my last income report (so in only 8 months), dethroning affiliate marketing as my top earner, which is something that I am so excited about!
As you can see on in my digital shop, I have 3 eBooks and 3 other digital products for sale that I’ve created and that sell on my own website, and only one of the eBooks (that I’ve recently released) is sold exclusively on Amazon. (You can check it out here!)
Launching new digital products has definitely been a major part of increasing my passive income, but believe it or not, it’s my eBooks (specifically my Pinterest eBook that is priced at only $35) that are bringing me a large chunk of this income.
What this tells me is that it’s way more profitable to focus on creating at least one lower-priced digital product first (under $40-50), and learning to sell that really well before exploring the option to create online courses (which take way more time to put together, and actually cost more to make and maintain – take is from someone who just created one).
If you’re not seeing any results with affiliate marketing, it might be because your audience comes to YOU for your advice and support, and you keep sending them away to someone else. If that’s the case, I highly recommend writing an eBook.
To help you get started, I’ve put together a list of every single tool that I used to write, design and sell my eBooks. And if I can write 3 eBooks while only blogging part-time, you can make this happen as well!
I also want to add that one of the reasons why my eBook sales have been going up this year is because of my amazing team of affiliates. If you didn’t already know, I have an affiliate program that is open to the public and that allows other bloggers to earn affiliate commissions for the sales they bring in for my digital products.
So if you already have an eBook, course, printable or any other type of digital product for sale, but you’re just not generating the passive income that you expected with it, consider starting an affiliate program for it.
Make Money Blogging Through Product Sales
Speaking of amazing resources for digital product creators, here are a few more tools & trainings that are going to help you make more money blogging through creating and selling eBooks, eCourses and so on:
- My blog post series on how to write and sell your first eBook:
- My new online course, teaching you how to launch a bestseller eBook:
- Ebook Bestseller Bootcamp captures everything that I’ve learned from writing and selling not 1, but 3 eBooks, and is designed to help bloggers and first time authors self-publish an impactful eBook (that’s also going to help them make more money with their blogs/businesses)/
- Other useful tools & resources
- SEND OWL – The software I used to sell my digital products + host an affiliate program for them
- THRIVECART – Where I moved all my eBooks and courses. I use this as a cart system now and it’s amazing. No selling fees or monthly fees once you get it.
- AMAZON EBOOKS FREE COURSE – If you have an Amazon eBook, or you’re planning to launch one soon, this course will teach you how to run effective Amazon ads and make more sales.
One of the reasons why I’m so passionate about what I do is because earning an income blogging can change people’s lives, even if it’s small ways in the beginning, and I want that for you as well!
That being said, I believe that one of the best ways to monetize a blog or a new online business is by creating and selling a digital product (such as an eBook). Have you ever considered creating and publishing an eBook?
The reason why I’m asking is because my new course, Ebook Bestseller Bootcamp, and I think it would be the perfect fit for you if:
- You want to learn how to write and eBook quickly, self-publish it and get sales for it every single month
- You don’t seem to make any affiliate sales because your audience would rather buy something that you’ve created, then buy other people’s products or services
- Your audience is too small to work with brands that actually have the budget to pay you for your hard work (and publishing an eBook is a great way to actually grow that audience!)
- You don’t want your website to be filled with annoying ads, because you want to make money online while staying true to yourself and providing your readers with real value (instead of trying to trick them to click on your ads for a few pennies)
If that’s you, I really think that you should consider creating a digital product of your own!
An eBook is a great start because it’s easy to make and doesn’t require a big investment (my course will even teach you how to publish an Amazon eBook for free!).
Even if you have no idea what you would write your eBook on, or how to choose a topic that people will actually pay for, when you enroll in Ebook Bestseller Bootcamp, you will get access to my A to Z framework for coming up with the perfect eBook to making it a reality.
💎 Coaching Services: $2,848
(+ $870 since the last income report)
While the demand for my 1-on-1 blog coaching services has gone up without a lot of effort on my part (I get leads organically through my email list and website visitors), I had to shut down my services and waitlist potential clients for a almost half a year, because I was dedicating all my time to writing my dissertation and finishing final projects for University. (I’m about to get my degree in Media & Communications – yey!)
On top of that, I was also working on my online course and trying to keep up with my blog, so I had to prioritise, and couldn’t afford to trade hours for money anymore.
So since my last income report, I’ve only worked with 2 clients, but as I’m transitioning into a full-time blogger, I am now opening more coaching spots. If you need guidance and support in your blogging journey, check out my blog coaching packages here.
(As planned, my rates have recently gone up, and that’s mostly because I’ve learned so much over the past year, and I think that knowledge is worth a lot more. But I will always strive to keep my prices affordable enough so that new and aspiring bloggers can work with me.)
NOTE FOR COACHES: If you’re thinking of offering your own coaching or consulting services, make sure to have a Coaching Contract in place. This will not only build trust with your clients but you will also protect yourself legally and set clear boundaries.
You can mooch around Google for a free version but I love this coaching contract template from The Contract Shop. It’s an investment, for sure, but it’s key to protecting your coaching business, your clients and your time. (Not to mention this template has been drawn up by an actual lawyer!)
💎 Ad Income: $810
(+ $290 since the last income report)
In my last income report, I explained my decision to downsize my ads and keep them to a minimum, to avoid disrupting readers.
That is still the case today, as I want readers to focus on clicking on my affiliate links or check out my digital products, rather than to click on ads (which will only earn me a few cents) or get bombarded by them.
While my blog traffic has also been slowly increasing, it’s amazing to me that with the right strategy (focusing on affiliate income over ad income for example), you can double your earnings without having to work non-stop to increase your page views.
To find out more about how this works, and how you can get paid for displaying ads on your blog, read my post on How To Get Your First Google Adsense Payment.
💎 Sponsored Posts: $697
(+ $80 since the last income report)
While I rarely seek out sponsor posts opportunities, I do have a few brands contacting me, asking me to promote certain resources or tools.
Since my last income report, I have only accepted one such collaboration (as I mentioned, I became really picky at what I choose to share with my audience) for a graphic design tool that I love.
Writing new blog posts (sponsored or not) really took a backseat for me in the last year, as I feel like I’ve built a pretty good foundation of blog posts (a lot of which I still need to update), which goes to show once again, that passive income streams (such as writing eBooks and affiliate marketing), don’t always require you to be at your computer.
So use this as a permission slip to focus on what actually brings you money in your blogging business, and stop trying to do everything, all at once.
But if you are the type of blogger who would love to work with brands and get paid to write sponsored posts or create sponsored content for social media (which is something that I think can be quite profitable if you’re in the right niche and you have brands with an advertising budget), then check out this super affordable course on How To Find and Pitch For Sponsored Posts.
💎 Freelancing and VA work: $176
(+ $0 since the last income report)
When I started my blog, I wanted to experiment with every possible way in which you could make money online, so I offered my services as a Pinterest VA (I did one hour of work haha) and by doing weird little tasks on Fiverr back in 2017.
While I think that offering services and becoming a part-time virtual assistant or freelancer can be a great way to make some guaranteed money (especially if you need to make them quick), this wasn’t for me and I haven’t accepted any client work since.
You can earn up to $500/month by helping others with their Pinterest account, and I know this because I actually hired a Pinterest VA myself and helped my sister get started as a social media manager over at Incoming Success (<- if you need a VA, check her out!).
TOTAL: $50,767
TIME ELAPSED SINCE LAST INCOME REPORT: 8 MONTHS
TIME ELAPSED SINCE BLOG LAUNCH: 2 YEARS + 6 MONTHS
📌 PIN THIS POST FOR LATER
Final Blog Income Report Thoughts
If you look closely, you can see that it took me 1 year and 10 months to make my first $25,000 blogging, and only 8 months (which is less than half of that time) to double that amount and make my first $50,000 blogging (in total).
Considering that I’ve also been working on final University projects and on my dissertation for the past year, I consider that to be a major win and a testament to the fact that one you put in the work, passive income can happen.
Can you really make a living blogging?
Now, don’t get me wrong – I am not over here drinking Mai Tais on the beach, constantly living the “laptop lifestyle”, but my blogging income still allows me to do some pretty incredible things: such as cover my bills and allow me to take a full month off work to go back home and visit family, which for me is the ultimate dream.
It’s also important to note that my growth over the past few years happened mostly organically. I put out good content, I promote it on Pinterest (which continues to bring me passive traffic, and allowed me to focus on the creation of digital products – check out my Pinterest eBook if you want to be able to do the same), I collaborate with other bloggers and I got Google to trust my website and send more organic traffic over.
All that, paired with the time and effort that goes into growing a dedicated audience (for me that translates into an engaged email list) takes time.
⋆ I want this post to encourage you, because – yes! you can totally make money blogging and you can do it on your own terms – but if you want to build something that will last, it will take time!
Take my free course and learn how to build the foundations of a profitable blog.
Blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It doesn’t work like that and I believe that you need to be truly passionate about the topic of your blog if you’re going to stick around long enough to make a profit.
More importantly, over and over again, I see new bloggers getting STUCK in a particular place: the ad income place. If you really want to monetize a blog early on, you need to focus on engaging your audience.
You might even feel like you ARE trying to engage your audience by posting amazing content! Well, that’s not quite how it works. But by following the guidelines laid out in this training, you should be able to grow an audience of raving fans that will take your blog to the next level.
What can you take away from my income report?
If you’re reading this and not sure how you can apply my experiments to your own blog or business, allow me to break down some conclusions that I’ve arrived to after looking closer into how I made money blogging.
- FOCUS ON WHAT WORKS – One of the simplest ways in which I grew my income was by focusing on what works. Instead of trying to do it all, and monetize in ways that seem to be popular for other bloggers, I stuck with what worked for ME – focusing primarily on affiliate marketing and digital products.
- LEVERAGE ORGANIC GROWTH – While I did experiment a little bit with ads, one of my goals is to keep my blogging expenses as low as possible. So I made sure to leverage social media platforms and my affiliate programs and learn and improve my website’s SEO to gain more organic and free traffic + leads.
- GROW YOUR VISIBILITY + CREDIBILITY WITH EBOOKS – Writing and launching eBooks has been a game-changer for me. Not only was I seen as an expert in the field, but I reached an entirely new audience and that’s all due to my digital products. After the launch of my Amazon eBook, for example, I’ve been invited to speak at 4 online summits and appear on several podcasts, and that was in the first few months on 2019 only. If you’re considering writing an eBook, I map out my exact game plan for creating and marketing one in Ebook Bestseller Bootcamp.
And there you have it! This is how I make money blogging, and it’s all out on the table for you to dissect, interpret and replicate. I think that there is plenty of success to go around in the blogging community and I cannot wait to see more bloggers doing well.
Are you earning money from your blog yet? Let me know in the comment section below.
READ NEXT – USEFUL BLOG POSTS:
- 7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Blogging
- How To Start A Profitable Blog
- How To Make Your First $1000 In Affiliate Sales
- How To Properly Disclose Your Affiliate Links
- How To Make Money On Pinterest (And Become A Pinterest VA)
- How To Get Your First Google Adsense Payment
- Getting Started With Pinterest – A Guide For New Bloggers
- How To Automate And Grow Your Twitter Account
- 65+ Ways To Promote Your Blog Posts
- How To Start, Manage And Grow An Email List
Wow, I have been reading a lot about blogging in the last few weeks, I have a chronic illness and working a regular job is not an option. I’m working hard to launch my blog this year, so reading posts like this are great to keep me motivated.
Thanks to http://www.bloggingbabe.co, to bringing me here. I think I’m staying 😉 Also, I love that Angela from http://www.straycurls.com did the illustrations to your books!
I feel like I am moving around a very special and warm circle of small bloggers.
So glad you found this motivational – I always get my inspiration from income reports too!
There are definitely too few comments on this post. It really is encouraging to see that people do make money from blogging
Thank you, Wilson! I think blogging can offer some really incredible opportunities too.
Ana
Aww, thank you! I had a tech issue and my comments were turned off for ages without me realizing :P.
Excellent post, Ana, and very encouraging to those of us just getting started. You have worked hard for your success and done it the right way, and it’s paying off. I really appreciate how transparent and honest you are; I never feel like you are hyping us, like some other promoters do. Thanks for sharing these reports with us.
Wow, thank you so much for this lovely comment. Means a lot!
Love the amazing effort you invested, keep up the great work.
Thank you so much!
Hey Ana!
I’m so excited after reading this income report of yours. This, definitely has given me a lot of great ideas for start making money from my blog. I have read all of your income reports as these give me inspiration to work more. Thanks for sharing!
Love the transparency and authenticity you bring to each blog post, Ana. And who doesn’t love income reports?! This is really encouraging and insightful. I think you’ve done a great job consistently showing up creating high-quality content that provides value to us as your readers. Keep up the great work!
https://rhyskeller.com
Thanks for sharing this useful information! I have started my blog recently, and I’m doing my best to learn about the right things to do, and what not to do as well. The ideas you present are very interesting to me. In fact, I thought about writing an e-book, but it’s just an idea for now.