December Income report: How I made $4.25 blogging | January blog goals

2017 was a great year because it was the year that I started this blog! I have accomplished so much with it already, but there is even more that I want to accomplish in 2018! I love having this blog because it enables me to share my experiences with people while also having a place for me to look back on this journey.

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclaimer here. 

Why I’m sharing how I make money blogging

I know that a lot of people are curious as to how people can make money blogging, so I’m doing this not only to show people that it is possible, but also to be transparent about where my income is coming from.

I for one have spent so much time reading other bloggers’ income reports in hopes of finding ways to monetize my small blog. I’ve seen a lot of bigger bloggers say that you can’t make money until your blog gets a bunch of traffic, but the income reports that I have read from other small bloggers (and my own income report) prove that isn’t true. After reading other small bloggers income reports, it has made me feel hopeful for my small blog! So if this helps or encourages even one person, that’s good enough for me.

I also think that income reports are a great way to track how well my blog does over time. Without further ado, here is my December 2017 income report and 2018 blog goals!

2017 Blog income report

Money made: $4.25

Total amount of pageviews: 2,030

Programs:

Google Adsense: $4.25

So far, google Adsense has been the primary way that I monetize my blog. You just post ads on your website and generate income per view or when someone clicks the ad.

Amazon affiliates: $0

Sadly, I made no money through amazon last month. Amazon has pretty much anything anyone could ever want, and the way that the affiliate program works is you link a product in a post and get a commission when someone makes a purchase through your link. The cool thing about this program is that you get a commission from anything that the person buys within the next 24 hours, even if it’s not the product that you linked!

Awin: $0

I didn’t really spend a lot of time focusing on Awin this month, but I have heard that a lot of bloggers have had great success making money with this program. Awin is an affiliate program that features over 200 brands including Etsy, Hyatt, and HP. If you’re trying to monetize your blog, Awin is definitely a program that you should sign up for! When I put more time into using this program, I am sure that I will start making income from it.

Expenses

Boardbooster plan: $5:00

Boardbooster is a necessity if you have a blog. It has helped SO much with getting more traffic. Pinterest is the main source of traffic for my blog, and Boardbooster has gotten me from 30K monthly views on Pinterest to 80K monthly views in the 2 months I’ve been using it!

The more that you post pins on Pinterest, the more likely it is that your posts will be seen. The awesome thing about Boardbooster is that it posts pins for you. It has saved me so much time and has helped my blog traffic so much that I gladly pay $5.00 a month for it. If you click my link you can get a month free of boardbooster services! At the very least you should try it and watch how much it helps your blog. You have nothing to lose–you get the first month free! Click here to start your board booster free trail.

Overall income: $-.75

Although I’m still spending more money than I’m making with this blog, I see last month as a victory. I’ve been working so hard, and that little bit of income gives me hope for the future of this blog! It shows that it IS possible to monetize a small blog!

If you’re looking to start a money making blog, the first step is getting web hosting. I personally use BlueHost, and I love it! The service is awesome and reliable. Setting up a website using BlueHost is painless, quick, and affordable, and if you sign up using my link, you can get a free domain name! Click here to join me and the numerous other bloggers using BlueHost for their money making blogs.

Goals for January 2018

Post more 

I would really love to post more in 2018. I currently post once a week, but I would like to post twice a week. I’m going back to school this month so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to juggle it, but I’m going to do my best to post more often.

Work on affiliate marketing

If you hadn’t noticed from the income report, I made no money from affiliate marketing last month. I’m honestly not the best at selling affiliate links in my posts, I just kind of throw them in there and cross my fingers that someone clicks on them. However, this month I would really like to do some research and implement a more successful strategy towards affiliate marketing.

Create freebies for my email list

I love to create cute little quote graphics, and I plan on making some as freebies for when people subscribe to my email list. I researched how to do this a little bit last month, but I had trouble finding anything on ways to send multiple freebies when someone subscribes. If anyone knows how to do this and would like to help a girl out, please let me know!

Work on getting sponsored posts

Up until December I had never really considered doing a sponsored post because I thought that my blog wasn’t big enough. However, I found out that izea and brandbracker accept all levels of bloggers, so I immediately signed up! I haven’t gotten any sponsored opportunities yet, but I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Sponsorship programs that I’ve signed up with so far:

• Linqia
• Brandbacker
• Izea

All three of these are programs that connect bloggers and social influencers with brands for paid sponsorship opportunities. If you’re looking to make money using sponsored posts, you should sign up with as many programs as possible!

Participating in the blogging community more

One problem that I have blogging is that I have kind of secluded myself. I am super introverted so I don’t really like to go out of my way to talk to people, ask for help, etc, but I recognize that I am missing out on a lot of cool things about blogging by not participating in the blogging community. So, I’m going to work on it. I’m going to go out of my way to support my other girl boss blogger gals.

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you liked this post and would like to see my future income reports and content similar to this, be sure to click the button below to subscribe! See you next time!