How I Made $853 In My Fourth Month Blogging
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If someone told me that I was going to make $2,544 in my first fourth months of blogging, I probably wouldn’t believe them. Because four months ago, I had no idea that you could make this kind of money from a brand new blog!
I made $853 blogging in September. And, I am so proud to say that my blog is now my second biggest source of income, next to freelance writing!
Sometimes I can’t help but ask myself: why didn’t I start blogging sooner?
Seriously, don’t let that be you! If you’ve been thinking about starting a blog, now is the time to do it! Open up my guide on how to start a successful blog in a new tab. Keep reading to find out how you can monetize it from the very start.
The month of September mostly consisted of me driving through the East Coast of Canada and as a result, I spent less than 10 hours a week working on my blog. I only posted 3 times! That goes to show the power of passive income. And let me just say, it feels pretty darn awesome!
But, enough chit-chat.
Let’s get to the good stuff.
Here is a breakdown of my achievements, blog traffic, income, expenses, and future goals!
September Achievements
1. Social Media Growth: I’ve been traveling for most of August and September and as a result, I haven’t spent as much time on social media as I would have liked. In fact, I barely even touched my Twitter all month! But, I still saw some impressive growth on social media channels last month.
Facebook Page Likes: 625 to 749
Twitter Followers: 1,685 to 1,988
Instagram Followers: 4,167 to 4,566
Pinterest Followers: 757 to 1,016
2. Meaningful Connections: Thanks to my very own Facebook group, The Blog Nest, I was able to meet and become friends with some amazing bloggers! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that I created such an engaged and friendly little community. In September, The Blog Nest grew from 95 members to 194! And I would love to see it get even bigger in October!
3. My Features: This past month, I was featured on a few different blogs! It’s such a rewarding feeling to have another blogger reach out and ask you to be a part of their content. I was interviewed by a lifestyle blogger for a series, featured by an ex-pat living in China as a helpful resource for making money while living abroad and another lifestyle blogger mentioned my SEO tips for beginners.
* I have removed the links for my Facebook Page, Facebook Group, and Twitter Account as I no longer use these social media platforms. The featured posts are no longer active and have been removed as well.
Blog Traffic Breakdown
Despite the fact that I made more money blogging this month, I actually had fewer page views than last month! In September 2017, I had a total of 5,707 page views on my blog and around 3,600 unique visitors in total.
As always, the majority of my views came from Pinterest and Facebook, which brought in 1,730 and 1,247 visitors, respectively. I’m happy to report that I saw a big spike in organic traffic this month and had 463 views from search engines! The rest came from social media.
My most popular posts in September:
Pinterest Strategy: 1,259 views
Third Income Report: 1,201 views
How to Start a Lifestyle Blog: 771 views
How to Land Sponsored Post Opportunities: 601 views
* Both the “Pinterest Strategy” and “How to Land Sponsored Post Opportunities” posts have been removed as I felt they were outdated and no longer relevant to the direction of my blog.
Blog Income Breakdown
It’s been so interesting to see how my blogging income has changed every month. In August, I made more money through my services, and in September, I saw a huge increase in ad revenue.
Let’s take an in-depth look at exactly where I made money this month:
Adsense: $135.06 | Towards the end of August, I made the switch from MediaNet to Google AdSense. That was definitely the right choice. From an ad on my sidebar and one or two in each post, I was able to generate $135.06 from Adsense.
Bluehost: $340 | This month, I had 4 people sign up for Bluehost using my affiliate link, which brought in a total of $340. As of 2022, I use Squarespace to manage my blog - it’s an all-in-one platform that includes your domain, hosting, website design, and eCommerce. Couldn’t be happier with it.
Ebates: $50 | Thanks to an extremely generous referral bonus period, I was able to earn $50 from just 2 referrals on Ebates in September.
Fiverr: $75 | This month, 5 people visited Fiverr through my referral link and hired a freelancer from the site. When I first started as a freelance writer, I worked exclusively on Fiverr. It makes me happy to see freelancers and online entrepreneurs supporting one another.
Freshbooks: $14 | I mentioned Freshbooks in a post and several people signed up for a 30-day free trial through my link.
Grammarly: $0.80 | Four people signed up for the free version of Grammarly through my link, earning me $0.20 each!
Linqia: $80 | Earlier this month, I published a post that detailed how to land sponsored post opportunities and in it, I mentioned Linqia. I had 16 people sign up for Linda through my referral link from that post!
Tailwind: $45 credit (+ $25 Amazon gift card) | I mentioned Tailwind in several of my blogging-related posts and had a lot of readers sign up for free trials through my referral link. 3 of those readers ended up buying a paid version of Tailwind. As a thank you for referring a total of 5 customers, Tailwind sent me a $25 Amazon gift card.
TrustedHousesitters: $8 | I talk about TrustedHousesitters in some of my travel guides as a way to travel on a budget and this has generated several leads to their website, earning me $8 in September.
Swagbucks: $15.40 | This past month, 7 people signed up for Swagbucks through my link, earning me just over $15.
Services: $90 | At the beginning of this month, I changed my brilliant blog audit price from $25 to $30, which definitely resulted in less interest. In total, 3 people purchased this service, earning me a total of $90 in September.
Total Income for September 2017: $853.26
Blog Expenses Breakdown
In last month’s income report, I mentioned that I wanted to invest more in my blog. And I didn’t accomplish that in September. I really want to purchase a course or ebook that will help me with my blogging strategy. So, if you have any suggestions, please let me know!
But, I did have one big-ticket purchase related to my blog this month:
Blog Hosting: $94.80 | Earlier this month, I renewed my blog hosting with Bluehost for another 24 months. In 2022, I moved my blog from WordPress to Squarespace - which is an all-in-one platform that includes your domain, hosting, and website design.
October Goals
Be more active on Twitter. Last month, I wanted to be more active on Twitter and Facebook. And while I was definitely more present on Facebook, I barely logged on to my Twitter account this month! I find it really hard to be consistently active on all social media platforms! And this month, I’m at least going to try and tweet once a day.
Comment on more blogs. And reply to more comments on my own blog. Basically, I want to be more engaged in the blogging community. I need to remind myself to comment on blog posts that I find interesting. And in October, I'm going to try my very best to reply to every single comment on my blog.
Create a free course. This has been something that I’ve thought about doing for a while. I want to create a free email course for new bloggers! I’m in the very early planning stages and I don’t want to give anything away just yet. But in October, I definitely want to get the ball rolling on this!
Final Notes
Well, that's a wrap on my blogging income report for September 2017! And thank goodness for that, because my fingers were starting to get sore!
If you’re feeling inspired to start your own blog, feel free to check out my tutorial here. This is centered around Squarespace, which I highly recommend for new and seasoned bloggers alike. It’s an all-in-one platform that includes your domain, hosting, website theme, and everything in between. It’s a lot less expensive than WordPress too.
Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or let us know how you plan to make money online this year!
