This is my third year blogging now. The first year, I spent much of my time on traffic generation, a lot of Pinterest. 🙂 My second year, I spent a lot of time on affiliates; trying to give me something that is passive income while I could take some time in the background and work on products, which is what THIS year is ALL ABOUT.
My first year blogging, I was already making $10k/month by month 12. My second year, I hit $23k/month, but this year, wow, I hit $57k/month and I know it’s only the beginning.
It’s still kind of crazy for me. A little surreal, I guess. See, before I started blogging, I was only making $18k/YEAR. Yes, a year. Not a month. A year. 🙂 Other than buying a new car when my old one kicked the bucket, and moving into my beautiful dream home, everything else in my life is the same.
I’m not a fancy girl, I never will be. I love rocking my PJ’s. After all, I am a single mom here…I ain’t got no one to impress. 🙂
My journey has been pretty crazy. In three years, going from $1,500/month to $57k/month. And it all started with a simple blog.
I believe EVERY MOM should start a blog. Whether it be a hobby blog and you get everything out that’s on your mind (which was mainly what my blog was the first year – dealing emotionally with my ex-husband abandoning us…again) OR you want to have a money-making blog and help your family financially.
I believe that EVERYONE has SOMETHING valuable to say.
But so often, we don’t know what that is. I had no clue I was even GOOD at saving money ’til everyone told me. I just did it out of necessity. I didn’t want to be on welfare (though there’s nothing wrong with being on welfare for a time, when you need it; that’s what it’s designed for) and I wanted to stay in my home. I wanted to be home with my kids and not leave them with a babysitter to raise after my ex-husband left.
My ONLY dream, my BIGGEST dream was to just STAY a stay at home mom (SAHM). It was simple.
But MY dream is also so many of YOUR dreams. And the world shoves down our faces that we CAN’T make it. That we are stupid for even wanting to try. That, we have to work outside the home. “Get a job. Help your family,” they yell. “Be equal to a man,” they scream. But you know what. You don’t HAVE to work outside the home to make money and you don’t have to work to be equal to a man. God created us the same. Yes, He has different ROLES for us, for sure, but that doesn’t mean we’re not equal!
So, instead of listening to all that garbage and taking on WAY MORE than we have to as women, we can do something from home and make money online just the same- WHILE being there for our family and kids.
If I can do it, don’t tell me that you can’t! Because you can!
This blog is my life, my story, my dream. It’s how I started out, a nobody that no one would listen to, to becoming a respected voice in my community and online.
I want for you to have what I have. I want for you to live a life of freedom and not be worried about if you can afford to pay your rent this month. Because I was there (tears). I know what it’s like. And I know what it’s like to be completely debt-free, your own boss. For many women, that journey STARTS with starting a blog.
How much extra would you need to make in order to help your family? $500/month? $1,000/month? $1,500/month? That is SOOOOO possible if you are willing to step out in faith and not let the world try to put you in a box and conform you to some standard you had no control setting up. It’s THEIR standard, not yours and it doesn’t fit everyone.
For those, that standard DOESN’T fit, I’m here. My little corner of the blogosphere, showing you that YOU CAN make it if you really try. It’s not an illusion. It’s not some false hope. I stand here to prove it’s real. No, I’m not saying you will for sure make $50k/month, but I AM saying that you have a voice. A special, unique, God-given voice and that voice needs to be shared and heard from people all around the world.
It’s about helping others find THEIR voice. Getting your own voice out there. Making a difference to many. And yes, being compensated well for it.
When I started my blog as a beginner, it was rough. I already HAD a full-time job (selling on eBay) and I didn’t have a lick of money to invest. I made it work and so can you. Whatever obstacles you THINK stand in your way, you need to push them aside and not let them control you.
Here’s what I’m doing, just three years into blogging. And if you want my first and second year income reports, here are those links:
Here’s my first year income report…
and here’s my second year income report.
I love having them available and looking back and seeing the growth I’ve made. I hope it inspires you!
My third year income report for one month (June 2017)…
Income Report – $57,213.24 (June 2017)
Network marketing – $314.93
First, right off the bat, 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 – $2,689.27
Love me some affiliate income! Yes, please!!!
My favorite affiliates at the moment that I go through are…
- ConvertKit
- 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 Shopify Ecommerce Store – $52,060
This month, most of my free work time went to the opening and learning of my new store (I always just work 1-2 projects at a time). Since I’ve been selling on eBay for 18+ years, outside of learning fundamentals of the platform itself (I go through Shopify), I know exactly how to set up and rock a shop, and it shows in my income and traffic. The store got 7,233 in traffics it’s first month opening (6,686 unique visitors) and made $52,060 in revenue.
Conversion rates this month were between 8%-23% on the promotional emails I sent. One email, believe it or not, got 1,524 clicks and 1,399 of those clicks, purchased, which comes out to be a 91.79% conversion rate, so I will DEFINITELY be playing around with why that email got such great conversions and testing more emails like it in the future. Seriously 91% conversion rate, that’s like unheard of! Average conversion rates are between 1%-3%! Obviously, I priced the product too low 😛 and have upped a few prices in the store already by a little bit. After I upped the prices, they are still selling like normal, so feel I’m still really fair in prices. 🙂
My two highest converting products:
Ebook Sales – $278.04
I have a book on Amazon, How to Become Financially Free, that does very well for me and has hit Amazon’s #1 Best Sellers list.
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 – $1,871
Miscellaneous income came in at over $1k this month, which is about $800ish more than usual.
Total income – $57,213.24
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
- 2017 Calendars
- 8 Ways to Be a Frugal Camper
- Rare Littlest Pet Shop List – Make Money on eBay
- 10 Best Ever Potty Training Articles
- Top 5 Habits to Create a Better Life
- How to Make $10,000/month Online
What I’ve changed up this year:
- On 4/29/17 I changed my URL permalink structure, so all shares were wiped clean and I have to start over. To say it totally sucks, is a huge understatement as ONE of my posts had, no lie, 787,000 shares! Since my social proof is gone, some of my traffic also is gone. Links on Pinterest that were popular, are all the sudden, “new” links with no proof. All of the three years I worked hard to create is now gone, and I’m not happy about it. Actually, the day it happened, I cried! I’ll be honest…I cried like a baby. 🙂 BUT…I know it’s God’s will for this blog. And if it’s His will, then He has a reason for it, and instead of belly-aching about it, I need to trust Him and have faith. He knows what He’s doing! I can’t say I’m not tempted to go back every now and then, but I’m holding strong to a conviction. If you’re just starting a blog, I’d highly encourage you to NOT have dates in your URL permalink structure.
- Started up a store. 🙂 It’s not doing too bad for itself! Over time, I just foresee it doing better and better and I love the idea of selling my OWN products. I’m a creative being in that way. I like to create. Make something up out of thin air and sell it.
- Got on Instagram. As for traffic, it’s not doing so well, but I am just starting and eventually, I want to really invest the time into figuring out those secrets, like I did with Pinterest, back in year one.
- Redesigned the blog to make it more modern and user friendly. I really like the new design!
- Removed all ads from my site! It’s a HUGE money income loss ($5k/month), but I felt convicted by God for a long time to do this and I finally took the leap of faith and took them off. No looking back!
- Started going with ConvertKit and wowzer. I saw some patterns in my email list and I tried out some things. Now, I get between 8k-12k signups a month! It’s insane. This month (July 2017), I have a sneaky suspicion, I will get between 15,000-20,000 sign ups! I am literally obsessed with ConvertKit!
- Started doing more of what I love about blogging. Started writing more blogger-type posts and doing more printables. Another thing I’m completely obsessed about! 🙂
What my goals are for the rest of the year:
- Create a course! I have everything all mapped out in my head and have already begun working on it in the background. I’m SOOOO excited about it!
- Create videos for you guys! I’m ready!
- Create more binders, something I really love doing. I’m working on a new one as we speak!
- Systematize more behind the scenes blogging stuff. This month, I’ve been working on transferring my entire email platform over and hiring a couple people to help go through the spam emails. I want to get on with something like ZenDesk too. I think they will be a good fit for the blog and help everything be more streamlined.
- Get a new affiliate program system. Currently, I’m with LeadDyno and I hate it. The customer service is fantastic, but the system itself is wonky, makes no logical sense for navigation and getting around, and doesn’t have modern options, like paying your affiliates automatically. Plus, they are just way too expensive honestly. I don’t mind paying for something, but it needs to be worth it and make my life easier, not harder.
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?
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