I now make over $130k+/month. See all the Shopify store income reports here.
I remember the day God convicted me to start a blog.
I thought He was nuts! I didn’t even know what a blog was! I certainly didn’t see the power of having one, nor the income it could make. Never-the-less, I jumped in headfirst, as is my way.
Within 12 months, I was making $10k/month, no joke. Within 2 years, I was at $23k/month. This, my third year, this month, I made $75k.
Blogging has absolutely changed my life forever. Not because of the money, but because of women like YOU!
Every day, I get to go online and inspire women just like YOU all around the globe to accomplish their dreams.
For some, that may mean learning how to get out of debt and save money. For others, it may be learning how to make money from home, as I’ve been doing just that for 18 years now. For you, it may mean learning more about blogging.
Blogging isn’t some get rich scheme and it’s not something you can do in a day. It’s a snowball and you have to build it up like any other thing you want to do in life. Wanna raise at your job? You gotta work hard. Same thing with blogging.
I didn’t get here over night. It’s taken a lot of hard work, but has it been worth it? Absolutely!
This month, I’m going to show you what’s possible, when you go after your dreams, follow your heart, and work hard to accomplish what you want in life.
Here’s my income report for July 2017.
Income Report – $75,226.10 (July 2017)
Network marketing – $355.95
I am a part of a network marketing company in which I quite literally do absolutely NOTHING in it all year long. That’s right, no sales, nothing. But, because I’ve been a part of the company for over 6 years now, they pay me some good money for my doing nothing (I did originally work it for a couple years). This is completely passive income, my favorite kind of income!
Affiliates – $4,137.15
Love me some affiliate income! Yes, please!!!
My favorite affiliates at the moment that I go through are…
- Seva
- Leadpages
- Amazon
- ING Image
- BlueHost
- Share A Sale
- ViralTag
- Creative Market
- Ebates
- OfferJuice
- Zyto Compass
I ALSO have an affiliate option for my store. You can learn more and sign up here. Speaking of my store…
My Store – $69,707
Last month, I made over $52k in my store, my very first month opening. This, my second month having my store, I thought there was no way I’d make that high of a sales amount again. Shockingly, I made $17k more this month than last.
The store got 8,153 in traffics this month. The biggest traffic source is direct, followed by referrals.
My biggest selling product is:
Ads – $0
On February 2 of this year, I took ads completely off my site. I felt convicted to do this for many reasons, the #1 being that ads sometimes automatically download malware to your computer. I took a $5,000/month loss in order to take the ads off, but I have a clear conscience that I’m not giving anyone viruses. It’s something that NO ONE talks about and it’s a shame. If you want to protect yourself, the best thing you can do is install an ad blocker. I use the Chrome Extension Ad Blocker Pro on my computer.
Sponsors – $0
I also don’t do sponsored posts and haven’t for years. I feel they don’t line up with my brand and I have little control over what goes into those kinds of posts. Nothing wrong with them for others; they just go against what I want my blog to be.
Misc. income – $1,026
Miscellaneous income came in at a hair over$1k this month.
Total income – $75,226.10
The one thing that you’ll notice, is that ALL my income is PASSIVE! This frees up my time drastically and allows me to be able to work on projects that are more in-depth and helpful to my audience.
My top 10 posts this month:
- The Perfect Tuna Melt
- 40+ Things to Sell Right Now to Make Money
- Top 50 Essential Oil DIY Recipes
- Household Binder
- 15 Top Articles on How to Get Your Kids to Respect You
- 2017 Calendars
- Rare Littlest Pet Shop List – Make Money on eBay
- 10 Best Ever Potty Training Articles
- 2018 Calendars
- Top 5 Habits to Create a Better Life
What I’ve been up to this month:
- I redesigned my blog (myself), which I am forever doing. I’m really huge on branding and know exactly what I’m doing. I love redesigning and it’s something I do quite often. 🙂
- Reflection. I’ve been spending an insane amount of time reflecting this month on everything. I’m starting to see some patterns. Things that are going well, and I’m making some new goals accordingly. I’m excited about the future of this blog.
- Working on printables and two new binders. I’m working on releasing a brand new binder, Handwriting Binder. It’s perfect for back to school and I think you guys are going to love it. I’m having a lot of fun creating it. I just LOVE making printables!
- Praying. I want to make sure that everything I’m doing is exactly according to God’s path for me. I don’t want to veer from it. I want to stay smack dab in the middle of His will for this blog and my life and this month, I’ve been praying extra hard for Him to lead and guide me toward that endeavor. In my blog, I have SO many opportunities and I want to make sure that the ones I take, are the ones He would have for me to take, opportunities that best serve you and my overall goal for this blog, to help moms stay home with their kids, regardless of their income level.
What my goals are for the rest of the year:
- Create a course! I have everything all mapped out in my head on 3-4 different courses now. This month, I’ll be sending out a questionnaire to my newsletter to see which course topic you want me to start on first. I’m really excited and can’t WAIT until that time and I get to see all your answers!
- Create videos for you guys! I’m ready!
- Continue creating binders and printables, something I really enjoy doing.
- Systematize more behind the scenes blogging stuff. I want to get on with something like ZenDesk because I get a lot of the same questions in my blog email box. I think ZenDesk will be a good fit for the blog and help everything be more streamlined.
- Continue working on my store and loving on it. It’s like my baby. I love working on it and improving it, as well as creating more products to add to it.
Have you ever considered how much blogging income you can bring in? Has this post helped show you what’s possible? How does it inspire you in your blogging journey?
If you are interested in creating a blog of your own, I made a step by step video tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own on the cheap, starting at only $2.95/month for hosting (you can only get this lower price through my link).
You will receive a free domain name ($15-$200 value) if you purchase at least 12 months of hosting. Of course, you want to be self-hosted, especially if you are wanting to make money blogging and this is the most cost effective way to go.
My post here will walk you through everything you’ll need to do to get up and running in less than 5 minutes!
Are you ready to start your blog?
If you are, you’ll want to click here and sign up with BlueHost. They are the most economical with fantastic customer support you can get when you are first starting out and they make everything completely easy for you.
Yeah! Thank you for inspiring so many of us fellow bloggers with your income reports. Love the new photos (congrats on your weight loss) as well as your simplified site design! I have discovered recently that I too, really enjoy making printables.
That’s cool Cheryl. Aren’t making printables FUN?! So glad the income report is inspiring. <3
I’m always both inspired and in awe when I read your income reports. It gives me ideas for ways to earn income from my blog, and shows me there are many ways to earn income beyond the standard blog ads and sponsored posts, which is helpful. Also, knowing that you didn’t do all of this at once, but rather one thing at a time is great – I know that I can do that as well. I found several ideas I want to begin incorporating for myself. Thanks for being willing to share this information, and giving me something to work towards on my blogging journey.
So glad it’s inspiring Amy. Yes, working on one-two things at a time is so key. It’s how I stay sane! lol. I’m curious to know what you want to start implementing….
I love the fact that you do not do ads on your website. It is very interesting to me that your affiliates bring in the income they do, and the store is fantastic. I did not realize the large number of companies with affiliate programs. The article inspired me to continue growing my audience, and then to look for more affiliates other than just Amazon to provide income through companies I already like and use. I love the fact so much of your income is passive. That’s exciting! Also, I think a store would be fun to do, although that’s WAY down the road! lol
I really enjoy your income reports. Can you give an estimate of your expenses. I see the majority of the income comes from the store but your don’t report the cost of goods sold?
Thanks,
Lee
Lee, for actual cost of goods, it’s all digital products. Outside of the upfront costs to create the digital products, there’s no expenses for the store other than the actual Shopify store and apps I have. 🙂
Awesome.. GREAT JOB!
Hi Sarah, thanks for your inspiring income report! I’ve been following your blog for a while now (found you on Pinterest) and I love how open you are about following God’s plan for your blog. Your blog is your Ministry. Was really excited to find out you have your own affiliate program. Joined yesterday – excited! I featured you in this post: https://laurenkinghorn.com/do-bloggers-earn-income-blogging
And would love to feature you on Inspiring Mompreneurs.
Wow, that post was so helpful. I’m reading it now and it’s so full of great info. Thank you so much for featuring me! <3 Sharing your article now on social media.
Thanks so much Sarah! Thrilled to hear you liked my post and thanks a million for sharing.
It was a pleasure featuring you.
I’ve been reading your blogs for a few weeks now. Your story is very inspiring. But in my opinion, successful bloggers happen in the USA and not in Canada. I don’t believe the same rules would apply when it comes to affiliate programs, ads, eBay’s and all the other good things you mentioned. I’d like to find a real and honest Canadian successful blog, but so far all that come up in my search are successful US bloggers.
I know MANY Canadian bloggers who do very well. Don’t lose hope Lily. The tendency for us ALL, is to say, “Well, THAT won’t work for ME. They don’t know MY situation.” The truth is, there are people just like you, rocking it. One of the examples off the top of my head is MrsJanuary.com, who is in Canada. 🙂 Many bloggers don’t put where they are from for security reasons. It’s really hard to tell sometimes. But if you ask around (or even ask Cassie from MrsJanuary.com), you’ll find many.
Thanks for sharing your income reports! It’s so inspiring. I LOVE the Honest Blogger’s Bundle and have already recommended it to several people!
So glad you like it Amy (that means a lot to me!) and thank you for recommending. <3
Wow, you continue to be such an inspiration to so many of us Sarah! Your store is amazing! Is there a reason you decided to do Shopify vs. Etsy? I’m in the process of opening an Etsy store right now (to sell faith based tees & printables) but I’m once again overthinking everything and it’s taking me forever to get it all set up. I’ve toyed with the idea of Shopify as well, but driving my own traffic kinda scares me. I just need to stop thinking and DO IT! Do you have a VA helping you with all this? You are so productive! Would love any tips – thanks so much!
Christy, great question. The number one reason I chose Shopify over Etsy or any other marketplace is because while I don’t know Etsy, I DO know eBay very well. I’ve been selling on eBay for 20 years now! And the one thing I’d say is that, I HATE rules! I HATE being boxed in. I’m on THEIR platform, it’s THEIR rules. They change their rules ALL. THE. STINKIN. TIME. and I have to comply. I want something that is MY OWN! I’m a leader. I’m a control freak. I don’t wanna live in a box of someone else’s rules. It’s just not me. I want to drive my own traffic, because it’s MINE. Because I’ve been blogging three years, I know how to drive traffic. In fact, my very first month opening the store, I got 7,233 in traffic to the store. I think it’s really good, and each month it just goes up. I have a lot of plans to do in the Shopify store. I have TOTAL CONTROL of it. I can implement certain things, ideas, etc. It’s mine. And I want something that is mine. I do not have a VA (at least, I do not consider them VA’s). I do have two personal assistants. The main reason I’m so productive is b/c I don’t allow myself to get entangled into trivial things. Most bloggers get caught up in a tailspin of doing meaningless tasks. They are stressed out, always feel behind, and not getting anywhere. I’m really good at time management and organizing my blog (through my Blogging Binder as well as through my organizing projects system). That’s how I get ahead so quickly. That system will teach you everything you need to know to get ahead, but feel free to ask any questions you want on that post after you’ve read through it. <3
I’m so impressed with your store products designs, Sarah!
Congratulations on your store success!
A couple of silly questions from absolute beginner:
How did you come up with such beautiful designs? Did you sketch them up and then hired a professional freelancer?
After you started and blog’s traffic increased did you have to upgrade to more professional hosting server at some point?
Veronica, I’m not sure what designs you’re referring to specifically? Coloring sheets, printables, photography, etc.?
Yes, I did upgrade to a pro-hosting company called Agathon Group. If you have over 200,000 pageviews/month around about, you’ll want to upgrade. Before that, I recommend BlueHost, as I have BlueHost on my niche site as well as all my friends go through them. Either company is fantastic. Agathon Group is a Christian-based company!!! 🙂