Happy New Year, friends! Today, I’m super excited to share with you the growth and income update from my blog for the month of December. You can check out my November 2017 Blog Income Report and Update here to catch up on how last month went. Enjoy!
December was a great month for my site and I’m excited to share that with you! This has been only the third month that I’ve been putting real time and effort into my online business, and I’ve seen some great results. Thanks to all my readers for following along this month!
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Why I Share This Update With You
Transparency
If there’s anything I’ve learned in this realm of personal finance, it’s that people like to be very confidential. And rightfully so. Your finances are personal for a reason, and by no means do you need to share your financial situation with others.
But I like to be transparent with my readers. We have shared our personal finances with you to encourage and show you that financial freedom can be obtained even on entry-level starting incomes like us. A lot of people have found it strange that we have shared such personal information with the world, but I don’t mind. I’m glad we get to for my readers’ benefit.
Blogging As An Income Is Possible
An additional reason for sharing this information with you is to show you that blogging for an income is totally possible. I honestly didn’t think it was a real possibility until October 2017. Since then, I have been learning how to make money blogging and applying it to my site.
Blog Traffic Growth Update
My traffic for December was good. Not as great as November (I was featured on a lot of other sites in November which drove traffic), but it’s becoming more consistent. My subscribers have also increased by 50% this month! Thanks to all of my faithful subscribers who have been following along!
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Income Report Update
A couple months ago, I wrote a post about how to make money blogging and shared the 4 ways that it can be done. It took me some time to fully realize the income potential, but I have since been looking into how I can maximize revenue with each of these income streams. So without further ado, here is where I made money blogging in the month of December.
Ad Revenue: $5.72
The Blog: $5.72
YouTube: $0
I signed up with Sovrn as my ad company for my blog. I have been happy with the service I have received so far and will continue to work with them.
And yes, I do have a YouTube channel. I started it over a year ago and made a little money then. But in the spring, YouTube changed its rules and only allows you to monetize once you have 10,000 views and your channel has been approved.
On Thanksgiving day, my channel hit 10,000 views and they started the review process. I was told it was supposed to take a week, but it’s so far been 5 weeks and I’m at 20,000 views… So I’m still waiting to get approved so I can start monetizing my videos. Once I go get approved, I want to be able to create more video content!
Affiliate Income: $456.96
Erin Condren: $290. I absolutely LOVE my Erin Condren planner. Sign up for an account with my referral code here and get $10 off your first purchase! We’re in the middle of 2018 calendar season!
Ebates: $90.56. Earn free cash back when you shop online! Sign up for a FREE Ebates account and earn and automatic $10 when you make a purchase of $25!
Bluehost: $65. Hosting through Bluehost is the way to go if you’re wanting to start a successful blog. For just a few dollars a month, you can run a site that looks like mine! Learn how to start a blog here.
Amazon: $11.40.
Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing: $0. Learn how Michelle earns $50,000 a month from affiliate marketing alone with her amazing course.
LendEDU: $0. Use this free rate finder tool to look for a better student loan interest rate (bloggers, look into applying to become an affiliate with LendEDU here).
Total Affiliate Income: $456.96
A couple months ago, I signed up for the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course and owe my affiliate marketing income all to this class! While this course does have a cost associated with it, I have already made more in affiliate marketing in the last two months than I paid for the cost of the class. If you are wanting to make money blogging, I truly can’t recommend this class enough.
You’ll notice that I don’t have income from a couple of my affiliates yet. They are new affiliate partners that I just started with and I highly recommend their services. To see more of what I recommend, check out my new recommendations page!
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Digital Marketing Side Hustle: $378.00
As an additional side hustle to my blog, I provide some digital marketing services to a small business in my area. I get to do this work from home on my computer, which is also an amazing benefit of this side hustle!
Total Online Income This Month: $840.68
All in all, it’s been an amazing month for the blog and I’m so thankful for the success of my site in terms of site traffic and income. I’m excited to see what is next for my blog as we head into the new year!
All this to say, thank you so much for following me on this journey of blogging and financial freedom. I absolutely love what The Budgeting Wife has become and my dream is that I get to share this information with others who are wanting to win with money. Thanks for being my support and encouragement!
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