Hi, friends! Today, I’m super excited to share with you the growth and income update from my blog for the month of January. You can check out my December 2017 Blog Income Report and Update here to catch up on how last month went. Enjoy!
January was another great month for my site and I’m excited to share that with you! This has been only the fourth month that I’ve been putting real time and effort into my online business, and I’ve seen some great results. My income has continued to increase and especially with affiliate income, which has been my main goal! Thanks to all my readers for following along this month!
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 January was honestly not the best. I had 4,758 views this month. Actually the same as December, but not as good as November. I’m not going to lie, I got a little burnt out this month. Not to mention, January was a busy month for my day job as an accountant.
I was so busy with my day job that I missed an entire week of posts… Another part that played into my lack of posts and social media engagement this month was the burn out. This month I was feeling a little discouraged with my site.
There are so many personal finance blogs out there, so I have been finding it hard to my voice. It’s easy to get down on yourself when you’re a small fish in a big pond, but I’m not giving up now! I took my week long break and am back it and ready to go!
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.
January was a great month for my online income. While it isn’t much more than what I made in December, I made significantly more in affiliate income, which has been my goal! So without further ado, here is where I made money blogging in the month of January.
Ad Revenue: $2.56
The Blog: $2.56
YouTube: $0
If you’ve seen my last few income reports, then you know that I don’t make much on ads for my site… So I’ve decided to stop putting ads in my posts for now and instead focus on getting more readers to my site! The extra $2 can wait for now until I have more consistent views. 🙂
And yes, I do have a YouTube channel. I started it over a year ago and made a little money then. In November, I met the criteria to start monetizing. But then YouTube changed their criteria again… And alas, I’m still waiting approval. You can help me out by subscribing to my channel and watching some of my videos. 🙂
Affiliate Income: $656.07
Erin Condren: $400. I absolutely LOVE my Erin Condren planner. Sign up for an account with my referral code here and get $10 off your first purchase!
Bluehost: $225. 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.
Drop: $17.19. Drop gives you points that you can redeem for gift cards when you link your card and shop at your selected stores. Sign up with my link to get a free 1,000 points when you use my code “i2jfu.”
Ebates: $9.64. Earn free cash back when you shop online! Sign up for a FREE Ebates account and earn an automatic $10 when you make a purchase of $25!
Amazon: $4.24.
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: $656.07
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!
Digital Marketing Side Hustle: $247.50
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! I am only doing this side hustle for another month. I am looking forward to spending more time on my site instead.
Total Online Income This Month: $906.13
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 in 2018!
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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