JANUARY INCOME REPORT: How I made $828 blogging (whilst working full-time)

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What a great start to the year!

If you’re a regular reader you’ll know I’ve been sharing blogging income reports since July 2019.

But I actually started this blog in January of 2018 (so my blog is now 2 years old. Happy blog-birthday to me!).

And when I started making money from it about a year and a half in, I was over the moon and wanted to track my income as my blog grew.

Plus, I know as someone who has blogged for more than 2 years (I had another blog for a while before this one) without making a penny that making money blogging is tough.

But now this is my 7 month consistently making money with my blog.

So I hope that by sharing my blogging income, it shows other aspiring bloggers that making money blogging can be done!

PREVIOUS BLOGGING INCOME REPORTS

If you missed my previous income reports, you can find them below:

BLOGGING IN JANUARY

So after I made over $1000 in November but just over $800 in December, I was really hoping for a strong start to the year.

And obviously, I’m a lil’ gutted I didn’t make over $1000 blogging this month.

Because making over $1000 a month is a long term goal of mine, as I really want my blog to be a secure source of income so I can work wherever I want to.

BUT if I try to think positively, whilst I’m not hitting that yet I’m still getting months of consistently earning over $800.

And this is only working part-time!

Plus, I have some really exciting news for you that’s going to massively impact my blogging income .

So read on to find out!

MY BLOGGING STATS

Before I start my income report, I always share my blogging stats.

And this is so other bloggers can see you don’t need a massive following or loads of page views to make money.

PINTEREST STATS

My Pinterest account is the main social media platform I use to get traffic.

In January, I reached:

7,531 followers (+434)
1.7 million monthly viewers (+0.2 million)

I’m pretty happy with this, as I haven’t really been focusing on my own Pinterest account very much.

But I’ve still managed to gain over 400 followers…

…Plus my reach has increased by 0.2 million.

Without me putting in much effort!

So I am very happy, but as I say every month- I need to focus on my own account more.

Because I know there is room to grow here.

MY BLOG VIEWS

A change of tune here- because my traffic actually increased!

I’m really pleased because it’s been one of my long term goals to gradually grow my blog traffic.

And this month you can see nearly all of the different channels I use to get blog readers has increased (except email… But even that is only down slightly).

MORE TRAFFIC THROUGH SEO

I’m especially happy because you can see my blog traffic from Google has almost doubled in the last 30 days.

And I have been putting effort into this (I switched blog hosting to a more expensive but faster one).

But one of the reasons my organic search traffic has increased is because I have been making sure my blog posts are SEO friendly.

So how have I done this?

Now, I was nowhere near as confident with SEO as I am with Pinterest.

So I knew I needed help.

But, SEO training online is usually hella expensive.

And that’s because SEO traffic is worth the investment- once you put the work in you can get traffic organically and consistently from Google, without even trying (because people are searching for answers on Google!).

So the quality of the traffic you get afterwards makes the initial amount you spend worth it.

Now, I was actually saving up for a course on SEO thats over $200.

But whilst I was starting to get into learning more about SEO, I came across Debbie from TheFlooringGirl.com.

Debbie is in one of the same blogging Facebook groups as me, and she really knows her SEO stuff- she gets a whopping 100,000 sessions a month from Google alone!

And when I saw Debbie had an ebook that teaches you how to write SEO friendly posts and it was less than $40?

I bought it straight away!

Because Debbie is an SEO pro, and I knew that her tips would be worth the investment (which is a very small amount compared to other SEO training)

THE SEO EBOOK THAT DOUBLED MY ORGANIC TRAFFIC IN 30 DAYS

The ebook I bought is called Easy On Page SEO.

And whilst I will say it doesn’t teach you everything you need to know about SEO (Debbie has more books that cover other SEO topics like backlinks), I was ready to buy it because it specifically teaches you how to format your blog posts so Google likes them and shows them.

I specifically wanted a book to teach me exactly that because I did NOT want to write another blog post until I knew I was writing them correctly.

Because I felt silly writing blog posts knowing they weren’t the best they could be for Google to take them seriously and show them for searches.

So I went ahead and bought her ebook.

And now I know each blog post I write is good for Google, and I can get more traffic in the long run because of it.

Plus, I think the results speak for themselves- my sessions from Google have almost doubled in a single month since I’ve started implementing her tips.

I’ve already made back the money I spent from ads on my blog, thanks to the organic search traffic I am getting since reading her ebook.

And I am closer to my long term goal of getting over 10k sessions a month from Google.

So for me, it was totally worth the investment.

And I do really recommend her ebook if you are a blogger.

Because SEO is seriously worth putting your effort into as it means long term consistent traffic.

So if you’re writing blog posts but know you need to learn how to make them SEO friendly, please check out her ebook below.

It’s inexpensive and you will learn a lot from it!

>> CHECK OUT EASY ON PAGE SEO HERE

MY EMAIL STATS

This has been a much better month for me in terms of subscribers:

I gained 119 subscribers in total (including new subscribers and unsubs).

And whilst that does not sound like much, I don’t really do much to gain these subscribers.

It’s all automatic.

So to gain 119 subscribers in a single month, by the end of the year my email list will have grown by 1,400 subscribers.

And that’s without much work- hopefully if I work on my strategy I will gain a lot more than this!

So not amazing, but a definite improvement from December for sure.

MY BLOGGING INCOME

So here it is: a breakdown of my blogging income for January!

(Side note: this is income before expenses. Some affiliate products have a 30-day refund policy, and this is income earned for the month, not necessarily paid out).

January 2020 Blogging Income report

Blogging Her Way (affiliates)	$24.00
Bluehost (affiliates)	$170
Tailwind (affiliates)	$35.96
Bluchic (affiliates)	$15.80
Easy SEO ebooks (affiliates)	$12.95
Advertising income	$130.02
Product sales	$103.03
Services	$336.70

Total	$828.46

Here’s a closer look at each of my 4 income streams:

AFFILIATE MARKETING

So check out all the screenshots of my affiliate earnings for the month below…

You can see I’ve made just over $250 from affiliate income this month, which I am pretty happy with.

BUT, as I say every month, I have so much room to grow here.

Because I have loads of blog posts where I just haven’t utilised affiliate links for the blogging products I love as much as I should.

And I have emails that generate affiliate sales, but these need to be automated as soon as I can to make sure my affiliate income is more consistent.

So I’m thankful for the extra $250, but it’s still a long term goal to up my affiliate marketing game!

ADVERTISING INCOME

You guys know how much I love my income from adverts on my blog, because it’s completely passive.

Meaning as long as people read my blog, I make money.

I’m really pleased to have made $130 without doing anything.

HOWEVER, I am a bit annoyed that despite gaining a lot more pageviews for my blog than last month, but my income is still practically the same.

And I know that the more traffic I get, the more money I can make (especially as I can move to a better premium ad network that pays more money!).

So a sort of win (because any money made without trying is a win), but room to grow here too.

PRODUCT SALES

Now I’m a little disappointed with this one.

Because I earned less than half the income I did from product sales last month (where I made $220).

But thinking positively- in December I held a lot of sales and promoted my products to my email list much more.

And this month I literally said nothing about my products at all.

So to have made over $100 without really promoting any of my stuff is a definite win!

But again, there is definite room to grow here too.

SERVICES INCOME

Now this is where I am absolutely chuffed with my blogging income from this month, and to be honest I am seriously still in a slight state of disbelief.

Because as you might already know, I’ve been a Pinterest manager for a few months now.

As I love getting results for my own blog using Pinterest (AKA consistent traffic, sales, etc), and I wanted to help other bloggers and small business owners get the same results as I have.

So I decided to become a Pinterest manager…. And after struggling for a few months, I finally landed my first client in October 2019.

Now, it was my long term goal for throughout 2020 to get to around 4 clients. As my client income is one of my favourite ways to make money, as it feels very secure and I am confident in what I’m doing (plus I love helping people).

But I knew how difficult it really was to get clients, as it had taken me longer than I’d expected to get my first one.

And even though I felt a lot more confident branching out and finding more people who might needed some Pinterest magic from me (as I’d gotten my first client some really good results!), I was still aware of how long it might take me to reach that goal I’d set myself of 4 clients.

So, I would have called you a liar if you had told me in December how many clients I would gain in the next 30 days.

Because believe it or not, by the end of January I had gained not 1 client…

…Not 2…

But 3 clients. In one single month.

So I am now up to my goal of 4 clients. And it’s only January!!

This is absolutely insane, and I am beyond thrilled.

Because these new clients will mean that I will consistently be bringing over $600 a month in from my blog.

And considering how long it took me to just get 1 client, to have secured three this month is amazing.

I am honestly so happy I could cry!

So whilst I have room to grow in some areas, I am beyond thrilled with this income stream.

BUT, I am now not looking to take on any more clients.

Because I want to focus on these clients and get them the results I know I can deliver.

And I don’t want to take on anymore whilst I’m still working 40 hours a week!

So I’ve increased my rates, and I’m not actively looking for any clients right now (although if someone shows interest I will be open to taking them on, depending on their situation!).

But to summarise, services has been my top income win for the month!

BLOGGING INCOME REPORT: EXPENSES

I always hate this bit, but here are my monthly expenses:

Blog Hosting	$34.95 p/m
Tailwind	$19.92 p/m
Mailerlite	$15 p/m
SendOwl	$15 p/m

Total	$84.87 p/m

So these are quite high expenses for a blogger.

And whilst some things I absolutely need, others I pay extra for.

These include:

BLOG HOSTING: I couldn’t run my blog without this, but I recently paid for more expensive hosting to make my blog load faster. Blog hosting is definitely an essential expense, but you can start a blog for under $4 a month by following my start a blog guide here.
TAILWIND: I love Tailwind so much that I bought a plan with more features, which has helped to increase my reach. But you don’t need to spend almost $20 a month on it- you can schedule 100 pins for free.
SENDOWL: This is the platform I use to sell my guide on. I pay $15 a month to have the option to add more products and sign up affiliates, but the basic plan allows you to sell 10 digital products for just $9 a month.
MAILERLITE: Email marketing has become essential for me, and I wouldn’t be able to make money blogging without it. I recommend Mailerlite because you can add images to your email. Whilst I pay for mine, it’s actually free for up to 1000 subscribers. Plus you can get a $20 referral fee when you sign up here.

So realistically if you were looking at expenses for a new blogger, whilst I pay almost $85 new bloggers would spend less than $20 a month (as Tailwind isn’t even a necessity! And you would only need SendOwl if you wanted to sell a digital product).

Plus some payments are annually, not monthly (I pay for Tailwind up front for the year for example).

BLOGGING REVIEW: WHAT WORKED

There were some definite wins for me this month! Which include:

Earning from different affiliate programmes: It feels good to diversify where I get my income from.
Gaining new clients: This is a massive win that I am absolutely over the moon about!
Growing my blog: It’s nice to see my traffic increase (especially from SEO, as this is a long term goal of mine).

BLOGGING REVIEW: WHAT DIDN’T WORK

Of course, some things didn’t work:

Engaging my audience: this month I sent quite a few emails, but not as many as I had planned.
Making more money blogging: Obviously I’m thrilled to be making at least $600 from services going forward, but I want consistent $1k months!
Product sales: I suppose this could be a win when you consider I made $100+ from sales passively, but I want to make more sales each month.

BLOGGING GOALS

I like sharing my long term blogging goals, so one day I can look back and hopefully see how far I’ve come!

Have consistent $1k – $2k months. I still can’t believe I’ve had a month earning over $1k, and over $800 the next two months. But eventually I want months consistently earning that as a minimum amount.
Gain 4 MORE Pinterest clients. It was my long term goal originally to gain 4 Pinterest clients, which I’ve now done! And as making money through Pinterest management is one of my favourite ways to make money, growing my client base would really make sense.
Gain 10k sessions from SEO. I’m getting close to this now that I’ve started taking it seriously, but I have a long way to go.
Reach 50k sessions a month. I just really love the idea of making money passively from ads!
Become THE website for blogging ebooks, courses and resources. I really want to be the best place for aspiring bloggers to visit and learn how to build their blogs!

BLOGGING INCOME REPORT: FINAL THOUGHTS

I hope you enjoyed my January blogging income report!

As they do take me a will to write, so I hope they are proving useful for those who read them.

EXTRA BLOGGING HELP

Remember if you need more help making money with your blog:

You can sign up for my free course Easy Passive Income to learn how to make money with your blog
Check out Easy Pinterest with Emily to start getting serious blog traffic using Pinterest
And join the Easy Blogging Facebook group to get even more support!