Blogging Income Report: October 2016

How is it possible that October is already over?! October was a great month – and I’m not just talking about income. We welcomed our third baby girl into the world on October 24, 2016! Hallie is amazing and an absolute dream baby. My older girls love her so much and she is just the perfect addition to our family. I’ll probably do a whole post on her soon, so stay tuned.

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Alright, let’s dive right in to my October blogging income report.

If you’re new here, I share monthly income reports to track my earnings through blogging and freelancing. I’ve been freelance writing since May 2012 but don’t do too much of that anymore. For now, my focus is on earning and income through my blog. And, I’m happy to report that so far, so good.

I started this blog in Sept 2014, so exactly two years ago. It took me five months to make my first $100 blogging; and now I’m consistently making over $1,000 per month.

If you’re interested in starting your own blog, check out my tutorial on How to Start a Profitable Blog. Blogging will not make you money right away, but I truly believe that if you stick with it for a good year, you’ll start to see your hard work pay off (big time!). Right now, I’m spending just 10 hours per month on my blog (and again, I’m making over $1,000). If I can do this, so can you!

*If you do decide to start a blog through my Bluehost link, you’ll receive a special discount from Bluehost for my readers only! And, I’ll send you my blogging ebook – The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging – for free!

Already have a blog name in mind? See if it’s available here:

Now, onto October’s blogging income report.

October Blogging Income

Total: $1,763.60

Income Breakdown

• Freelancing: $0
• Blogging: $1,763.60

Last month, blogging was right around $1,000. This month, I’m over $1,700! Next month, my income should be over $2,000 🙂 I’m definitely liking this upward trend!

Blogging Income Breakdown

• Ads: $184.26
• Book sales: $44.60 (You can view my blogging ebook here)
• Affiliate sales: $1,534.74
• Sponsored posts: $0

Those are the four ways I make money through my blog. I did do a sponsored post last month, but won’t be paid on it until this month or next.

My favorite way to make money is through affiliate sales! Basically, if you make a purchase through a link on my blog, I get a kickback at no extra charge to you. I promote various freelance writing courses, blogging tools and more on my blog. It doesn’t matter what “niche” your blog is in; you can definitely find products or services to promote as an affiliate and start making money!

Need profitable blog post ideas?! Sign up for free here!

Maternity Leave

Since baby Hallie is here, I’m officially on maternity leave from my full-time job! Definitely one of the biggest perks of working full-time for someone else is the benefits. I have 8 weeks off and plan to use them wisely! Of course, my main priority is snuggling my baby girl and trying to manage life with three little ones, but I also do plan on getting my blog back to where I want it.

How I Make Money with a Small Blog

My pageviews currently sit around 40,000/month. While this isn’t bad, I know I can do better. *As a side note, I’m proof that you don’t have to have a ton of pageviews to make a good income! I’m currently making $1,700 per month; if I doubled my traffic, I would be making closer to $4,000!!

The main way I get traffic is through Pinterest. I use Tailwind to schedule my pins and have joined a ton of Group Boards. You can follow me on Pinterest here. I pin a lot – I’m talking 100+ per day. You have to belong to a good amount of Group Boards to pin that much, though, or else you’re just pinning your content over and over again to the same board (s). So, the first thing you need to do is look for Group Boards. I do this by going to Pinterest and searching for something, say, blogging, and then clicking “Boards” at the far right. Usually you just have to follow the board and the owner and then email the owner asking to join. Easy peasy! Here’s a Group Board I created if you want to join mine! Mama Entrepreneurs. Just email me and I’ll add you 🙂

So, that’s how I generate the majority of my traffic. Now, how exactly do I make money? The easiest way will be through ads. I’m pretty sure I’ll make close to $350/$400 this month in ads and that truly is passive income. You can do Google Adsense, Monumetric or AdThrive (AdThrive does require 100K+ pageviews, just an FYI).

The next best way to make money is with affiliate sales, which I mentioned earlier. Some courses that I recommend pay out $40-$100 per sale, so even though my sales aren’t super high, I’m able to make a decent amount of money each month on just a few sales. My advice is to try to have at least one affiliate mention in every single post. Then, focus on growing your blog. Combining those two tips is the best way to make a killing online (in my opinion, of course).

Well, it’s back to snuggling little Hallie. How was your October?! Did you meet your goals? Share in the comments!