Hey, yall! This is my first year blogging income report where I break down how much I got paid in September 2022.
I’m so excited to share my first-ever income report. It’s been months in the making for this blog, but years overall with me blogging. I’ve always seen bloggers share their income reports, and I made it!
Finally making an income that I can use to go back into the blog is both so liberating and motivating! I remember reading all these income reports as a college student and being like, “Ugh, I can’t wait until I reach that level of blogging.” And guess what? I did.
This first blog income report is going to be a little underwhelming yet realistic for most beginner bloggers.
If you’re interested in how to start a blog that earns money, check out my blog post on how to create a blog where there is a discount code for hosting! This guide will help you start a side hustle and realistically begin your blogging journey.
This blog post companies my previous blog post where I gave an update after my first year of blogging.
If you want an update blog income report: here is my first 1k a month blogging income report.
How I Got Here:
I want to also call out/disclaim some things before sharing my blog income report. I want to mention that I’ve been blogging since 2020. I had a previous college niche blog that I sold. I also have a background in social media marketing/journalism, so writing and digital media are pretty simple to me. I just am lazy when it comes to my own social media. I admit it, lol.
My blog also got tons of views early on. My success skyrocketed in January of this year after only being a three-month-old blog. I used what I learned from THESE TWO COURSES: By Sophia Lee’s Perfecting Blogging and Not Your Average SEO Course by Sarah Chetrit. These two courses taught me how to use SEO to rank on the FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE with a new blog.
If you’re wondering why I haven’t made more money earlier, then it’s kind of easy to explain….
I was making some amounts from affiliate marketing BUT I barely reached the threshold or it wasn’t anything consistent or substantial.
As far as Ads, I was on Google Adsense at the beginning of this year and quickly left due to how difficult it was to make any kind of money. I made barely $15 after 2-3 months on Google Adsense. Literally making cents each day despite having thousands of views.
Then, I was also having issues with setting up with SheMedia. I was severely delayed with setting up with them. When I got approved almost a year ago, I was in the process of selling my other blog AND SheMedia was in the process of updating their system. It was honestly just bad timing for both of us. I finally got set up with them and had ads rolling at the very end of June.
Now, I juggle blogging part-time ish. Lately, I’ve even myself a break and some well-deserved self care after a year of working hard. I’m ready to get back on my schedule.
Read more details about my blogging journey in this blog post.
Anyway, here is what you came here for:
My First Year Blogging Income Report: July 2022
The Breakdown:
- Amazon Associates: $46.61
- SheMedia Ads: $67.98
= $114.59
The two main streams of income I have for this blog are affiliate marketing and ad revenue. Nothing else.
Another thing I need to mention is that: blogging money takes time to come. Companies often wait 60-90 days before paying you your money because of return policies, especially for affiliate marketing.
Overall, the month of July was a big month for the blog. College is one of the niches on my blog that does well and a lot of people spend money during this time. It is also my first time getting my ad revenue payment.
I still have tons of money still on hold from various affiliate programs because it still needs time to finalize or it hasn’t reached the payout threshold.
I know for sure that I won’t be spending most of this money. 30% of it will be going to a separate account for taxes.
Ads:
Let me clarify that I’m new to having ads and getting money from them. My first college blog had a crappy ad program that barely helped me place my ads. I WISHED I knew about SheMedia wayyy earlier. I remember being so confused about how I’d have way more pageviews than what I have now, yet make less than Google Adsense.
The only thing I must say is that ad revenue is somewhat unpredictable yet predictable if that makes sense. After a few months at a consistent pageview pace, you can gauge how much you’ll make. It also depends on when companies are putting money into their advertising budgets. My RPM goes up and down every day. I think for the next few months around the holidays, my RPM will go up, but I also am working on getting more pageviews and sessions.
Affiliate Marketing:
This income stream is honestly the most volatile due to how it solely relies on people spending money in a specific time period.
It amazes me how I will have tons of clicks for products yet not a sale for a few days. I honestly might take a course on affiliate marketing from an expert because it’s one of the areas I see that I’m lacking in compared to others.
Amazon is my number one affiliate yet I’m also in Skimlinks, ShopStyle, Teachable, Awin, and with Lyrical Host (my blogging host). I have so many programs because so many of my favorite stores are not on the same one. I also find that people are more likely to spend money on Amazon compared to other stores, like Target or even Teachable.
How I grew my blog in July to make my first income report:
Focusing on content that’s relevant for this season. That’s mainly it. I was late to the game with college content, WHICH I REGRET. Seasonal content is something I learned about in Perfecting Blogging and kind off forgot about the details behind it.
The main blog posts that were popular in July were also shoppable and more e-commerce related.
Click here to learn more about this AMAZING blogging course that helped me make my first blogging income.
My Blogging Goals:
I’ve touched on this a little in my previous blog post about my 1 year update on blogging. But this is more about the path I’ll be taking in the next few months.
- Niche down: College content did well during the summer. And from what I learned from By Sophia Lee’s Perfecting Blogging course is that I need to focus on my ROI. I’m technically an expert on college living since I graduated. I’m going to continue writing more content and see where that takes me. College isn’t going to be the only thing I write about, but I’ll also continue my self-care content.
- Spend time updating blog posts. I have over 50 blog posts on this website. It’s hard to keep up with everything by myself, especially if a blog post isn’t doing well. Some blog posts flop but I can’t tell until months later.
- Get more pageviews. This means maybe pushing myself to either hire someone for Pinterest or get back on it myself. I think I’ll look into more in the next year but for the remainder of 2022, I’m going to focus on SEO and clean up blog posts.
- Increase income. I don’t know what exactly a realistic goal is yet for my blog income since this is my first blog income report. I’m hoping to eventually hit $500 by the summer, so I can start outsourcing some tasks and focus on branding.
This wraps up my first year blog income report! If you want any tips on growing your blog or want to connect comment below!
Before you go, make sure to check out my other blogging content:
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