Welcome to December’s blogging income report! I’m excited to share both this month’s income AND my yearly income from the blog. Let’s get started.
If you’re new here, I’ve been sharing monthly income reports since I started blogging. My reports include both blogging income and freelancing income; but as of roughly one year ago, I decided to quit freelancing and focus more on blogging. Every once in a while a freelance opportunity pops up, and of course for the right price I will take it.
I share income reports for two reasons: 1) To keep myself accountable and motivated, and 2) To help other bloggers. It was reading others’ income reports that made me realize blogging could be profitable. For me, it’s been a slow journey, but that’s OK! Blogging is not my full-time job and I have three little kids, a house and a husband. Those are my priorities and always will be.
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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 on average). If I can do this, so can you!
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Now, onto December’s blogging income report.
December Income Report
- Blogging: $2,522.53
- Freelancing: $638
TOTAL: $3,160.53
If you’ve been following along for a while, you’ll know that my blogging income has slowly (verrrry slowly) grown. I really think I’m incredibly relatable in that sense. I’m not making five figures a month, and it took over two years to hit this month’s blog income of $2,500. I’m first and foremost a wife and mom, and I have a full-time job. Blogging is NOT something I spend a ton of time on, yet over time I’ve been able to earn quite the income. I promise you – YOU CAN TOO!!!
A big source of my income is from Bluehost and helping people start a blog. Because of how much success I’ve had with it, I created a course called “How to Make Money as a Web Hosting Affiliate” and it’s available now! The course is for ALL BLOGGERS (not just bloggers who blog about blogging) who want to increase their income! Hosting companies pay an average of $50-$65 per sale. That adds up, big time!
Having this extra source of income for my family has been huge! This month, we received a bunch of medical bills from giving birth to our third daughter. Rather than taking money out of savings or being forced to put it on a payment plan, my side income was able to cover it.
What would you do with an extra few thousand per month?!
2016 Totals: How I Made $17,000+
I just tallied up my income for the year and was shocked!
In 2016, I brought in $17,305.84.
And again if you’ve been following me for a while, I also got pregnant and had my third baby girl in 2016 🙂 My pregnancy was hard, I had (and have) a full-time job, and my other two little ones were (still are) toddlers. Life is hectic. Blogging is a passion of mine and I did it when I had time. But again, if I was able to make that much, anyone can!!
Let me let you in on a little secret about blogging:
It’s not how much you write, it’s how much you promote!
I probably averaged one post every 2-3 weeks for the year. That’s really not that much. However, I consistently promoted my posts over and over again. Pinterest is huge for me and I use Tailwind to do all of my scheduling. I can get the whole week scheduled out in about 10-15 minutes. In 2017, I’m focusing on growing other means of promoting my blog, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Google+ and more.
Blog Goals 2017
My two BIG goals for the year are:
- Make $30,000 for the year blogging
- Have 75,000 pageviews/month by December 2017
If I made $17,000 in 2016, I really don’t think it’s all that impossible to double it. I’m launching a course in a few weeks and am focusing on SEO, which I’ll talk more about below.
My smaller blog goals for 2017 include:
Regularly promote posts on Facebook/Twitter/Stumbleupon/Google+. Like I said above, I feel like I have Pinterest down pat, but other social media platforms I’m basically starting from scratch as I’ve never made them a priority. For right now, I plan on learning everything myself, but I may end up taking a course on growing my Facebook page. If I do, I’ll be sure to share!
Join more Pinterest boards. With Pinterest, group boards are huge. On a group board, your pin is seen by thousands of people. I spent a ton of time last year finding and joining group boards, but have since slacked off majorly. Since so much of my traffic comes from Pinterest, I’d like to spend 30 minutes per week joining new boards.
Launch my second course/eBook. Woot! I’m excited about this one! I just finished writing my new course – How to Make Money as a Bluehost Affiliate – and will be ready to launch it in a few weeks. I’m currently getting quotes from designers on creating the cover of my course. Stay tuned!!
Focus on SEO. I’m taking a course right now on SEO that I highly recommend if you’re hoping to grow your blog. It’s called The SEO Ultimate Guide 2017. The course will teach you everything from technical stuff to make your site run faster (it’s easy, trust me) to how to find good keywords to target to how to incorporate them correctly into your posts. It’s been life-changing for me and my blog!
Create longer content. Part of my strategy for 2017 is to create longer, more useful content that has a specific keyword that I’m targeting. While last year was profitable, I was sort of all of the place with content and didn’t have a specific strategy other than to grow my blog, help readers and make money. With longer content, my posts will both be more helpful to readers and help me rank higher in search engines (Google likes long content!).
Make better images. I’ll admit, creating images is my least favorite part of blogging. I’m just not good at it naturally nor do I enjoy it. But, you have to have images in order to promote your posts. I’ve learned a ton and think my images have improved significantly over the past two years, but this year I really want to focus more on creating eye-catching, clean images to go along with my posts.
If you want to start earning an income online, check out my ultimate guide to making money online in 2017!
And if you already have a blog but need ideas on how to monetize it, get instant access to “5 Blog Post Ideas That Will Make You Money” for FREE!
Did you have a good December? What are your blog goals for 2017?!
It’s fascinating you’ve achieved this income with 3 kids and a full-time job!
I’m lacking promotion skills in Facebook, Pinterest and other networks, so I’ll follow your next reports with great interest. Keep up the good work!
Congratulations on reaching such an incredible income number! I loved reading your story and seeing how you got to this number.
However, I also wanted to mention that the font you use on your blog makes it INCREDIBLY hard to read your content. I’m sure I’m not the only one experiencing this!
Oh yikes!! Thanks for sharing!! Do you mind me asking what part is hard to read?! The font size? Color?? Thank you!!!
It could be because it’s a sans-serif font. Mine is too. My recollection from design classes in college was to use serif fonts for body text and sans-serif for headlines. Maybe we should both make the change!
Thank you for sharing your income and goals. I can relate to trying to focus on one social media platform at time. I am still figuring out Pinterest. All other platforms will be taking the back burner for me in 2017.
That’s amazing, I have been following your blog for now. Looking forward to your new success for 2017.
Divine
http://www.ladiesmakemoney.com
That’s amazing, I have been following your blog for now. Looking forward to your new success for 2017.
Divine
http://www.ladiesmakemoney.com
That’s awesome! I know you will crush your new goal!
What an amazing year! Congratulations 🙂 I’ve just started blogging and am in my first pregnancy. You’ve totally convinced me to take Pinterest more seriously, and you’ve got me considering Tailwind. Thanks so much for sharing your journey with us!
your reports are always insirational thanks for sharing.
Wow! Goals!!! I’m a new blogger and need to take some tips from you!
WOOHOO!! I seriously don’t know how you do it all with your blog, a job and kids! CONGRATS on a great year!! I am so excited to see what you accomplish this year : )
Good for you! Congratulations. Thank you for honestly sharing that it took awhile to make a good monthly income. I am just now monetizing my site and I get so discouraged by the “how I made $35.000 a month blogging” articles. Yours is very refreshing. (I’m in NC too! Love it here!)
Thanks for Sharing! One day I hope to earn income from my blog. Congrats on your successful 2016 and I wish you an even more successful 2017!!
Congrats! I so, so believe that if you truly LOVE blogging, it absolutely can be a money maker and become a primary source of income. You are rocking it! It just takes that mindset to make it happen, so I totally believe you’re going to double your number (or more!) in 2017! You go girl!
xx
http://www.sweetsuccesssociety.com
You are truly an inspiration. I’m just starting out in the blogging world and it’s so refreshing to read your open and honest posts about how you balance your passion of blogging with being a mom, working, etc. Thanks so much for sharing!
Congratulation!! I would really like to try to monetize this year, but I just never feel like I have time. I’m going to pin your guide, and hopefully, when things settle down here in a few weeks (big work deadline coming up) I will be able to check it out!
Love seeing how you managed to do it ALL! Way to go! Love it! I love working from my laptop, especially since we just relocated. It gives us a freedom that it priceless. I was able to take my parents to doctor’s visits and carry my laptop with me. Thanks for sharing. Working online is truly a blast and I’m grateful too! Keep on inspiring!!!
Joining Pinterest group boards is a great way to be seen by thousands. Since joining a number of group boards myself, I saw a huge increase in traffic. Nice to see that others love Pinterest group boards just as much as me.
To get more viewers from Pinterest i’m going to try Tailwind. Hopefully, it works out!
x
http://www.lovelytwenties.com
Woooohhhooo!! On all your success!! I signed up for blue host through your link I think (I know I clicked your links first). How do I let you know that for your book?
This is my favorite blogging income report I ever read. It was super helpful. Wow you really only spend 10 hours a month on your blog. That’s amazing to have such great results. I can’t wait to read more of your blogging income reports.