Welcome to my first-ever blogging income report for July 2023!
Hey everyone!
I remember reading those income reports that say they made $10,000 this month and $50,000 next month and thinking to myself “How the fu** did they do that and who can show me how?”
But the truth is – they spend hours and hours of work in a single day stressing over if they are making the right choice on headings or if this word was right or not.
So yes my income was right for that month and everything I said in it is true but I wanted a separate post for the people who are still in year one stressing over why they are not making as much or close to the amount they want.
The truth is I worked my A-S-S off to make that $400 and it was not “over night.”
Sometimes income reports can feel very motivating but other times they can get you down so I wanted to share my all-time income. Either to make you feel better or to relate.
Here is a list of my income from the very start:
July 2022: $0
August 2022: $0
September 2022: $7.08
October 2022: $199.72
November 2022: $-19.47
December 2022: $17.33
January 2023: $12.95
February 2023: $19.06
March 2023: $52.00
April 2023: $24.37 I rebranded this month so everything went back to 0.
May 2023: $37.42
June 2023: $90.87
July 2023: $403.47
As you can see my income increased a lot from June to July and that was from a few new things I tried like using Tailwind and sticking to a specific strategy.
For instance, I plan posts 3-4 months out to give Pinterest enough time to show my content, and that worked wonders for the month of October.
Oh also in the first year, I focused a lot of research and more research. I couldn’t afford to take a course so I spent my free time on YouTube and learned everything I possibly could.
What I noticed from the first two times I did a blog to now was how much more knowledgeable I am in SEO, ROI, Pinterest, and many other things. I honestly could not tell you what those were a year ago. So if you feel lost, trust me you will understand them soon!
Last May I started watching YouTube videos on how this person was making an extra $5k a month or someone else making $30k a month. I thought let’s try it again but actually treat it like a business.
Honestly, I probably spent 1,000 hours on pure blogging research. (I knew there were blogging courses out there but I was dead broke!!)
So if you can’t afford it either, I highly recommend going down the rabbit hole on YouTube and even reading other income reports on Pinterest!
July 2023 Blogging Income & Traffic Report
(I am only reporting income that was made in July 2023. Due to most of the programs I am making money from taking around 60-90 days to be deposited into your bank account, I will post the proof of income when it is deposited.)
Proof of income:
In July 2023, I made $403.47 from my blog. Here is the breakdown of where that money is coming from.
- Affiliate Income – $403.47
- Amazon Affiliates: $403.47 (I’m in others but I haven’t made anything from them.)
- Advertising – $0
- Google Adsense: I honestly dislike Adsense. You have to make more than $100 to pull out your money and they ruin the layout of the post so I just stopped using it.
- Exoic: Same with Google Adsense.
- Mediavine: So many bloggers talked about this so as soon as I hit 50k+ I’m going to apply.
Page Views: 22,528
TOTAL: $403.47
Expenses:
(Most of these can come a lot cheaper but I had to upgrade every single one when my views went up! Plus I didn’t upgrade till about 8-months in so these don’t charge me again for a little.)
- Bluehost:$179.76/year
- Tailwind: $479.88/year
- Active Campaign: $588/year (i LOVE active campaign so I was willing to pay!)
TOTAL First Year Income: $-385.51
My thoughts on the Stats:
The total may not seem good but I am so HAPPY about it.
You’re probably thinking I’m crazy or bad with money but let me explain.
Tailwind continues to save me SO much time and has increased the amount of views on my blog by a lot. So I’m happy to pay for it.
I also LOVE Active Campaign! I tried a few other email campaigns and honestly didn’t like them. With ActiveCampaign, I can automate all of my emails, and love how I can customize my emails.
I also upgraded them really late in the year so I have a few months before they charge me again.
Now the views…
So YAY my views are up but not in the way that correlates to increasing my income.
I rebranded my blog in April so all of my views on Google and Pinterest basically restarted to 0. I knew this would come but I def wish I had waited until I was accepted into Mediavine.
The blog also had a post blow up on Google (like got to the very top spot!) so that helped the views but it didn’t have any affiliate links or ads on it.
What did I do to Grow my blog…
(I have a blogging newsletter where I share tips and go over what we’re doing right (and wrong). You can find the link here!)
Phew!
I have done SO many things the first year that I’m honestly scared to write this section.
A year might not sound like a long time but when you know barely anything, you are always fixing or changing something. So that’s exactly where a majority of my time went.
I started this blog in July, the summer before school started and I had a lot of time on my hands. At that time, I posted 1 post every single day and then brought it down to 2 posts a week once school started. I’ve been doing that ever since.
I’m thinking about upping it to 3 when I expand this blog or when I hire an employee but right now, just 2 a week.
I also learned how important it is to set up a post and exactly how to market on Pinterest. Once I did that, I started ranking on Google pretty fast and my Pinterest pins got more views.
Summary of what I did on Pinterest:
- Keywords & More Keywords
- Looking at Trends
- Make Ugly Pins
- Used Tailwind (I scheduled out about 500 pins in a few hours and “forgot” about it.)
Summary of what i did on the blog side:
- Keywords & More Keywords
- Looking at Trends & Posting Months Out
- Updating Old Post
- Make My Blog Look Professional
- Make Sure Everything Is Linked For Affiliates
- Focus on SEO
What I Want To Focus On For Year Two
- Get more email subscribers. I have been told over and over again how important an email list is cause it’s the only thing you “own.” So I fully jumped into it a few months ago and I want to continue it.
- Hire an assistant. As my blog grows, the more I have to do WHICH I’M SUPER GRATEFUL FOR but I could really use the help so I can grow other parts of the business.
- Maybe make a course? My friend wants to start a blog and she recently reached out to me for help. A lot goes into the first year and it would take me hours to explain it. So I’m thinking about starting a very simple but comprehensive course for bloggers who want to start one.
- Make $2000 before the year is over. This goal seems very possible with the incline my views have been going and getting into Mediavine.
- Keep up with making posts WAY ahead of time. In June, I made a huge batch of posts scheduled out months in advance and honestly helped me feel less stressed. Plus I used Tailwind so I don’t even have to think about a post after it’s done.
Okay, that was it for year one! I’m thinking about doing these every month so let me know in the comments if you would like that.
Have questions about something I wrote or a particular blogging question? Email me at hello@wereadulting.com! I would love to talk to you about it.