How to Read This Income Report
Every month, we share our blog’s income in posts like this one. We do this to motivate and inform you. If you’re ready to start a blog of your own, click here and follow the steps to get started.
These reports will include money earned and expenses from the given month. Some affiliate income gets adjusted due to returns, but usually by the end of the month, it’s been worked out. We also take the difference out of the next month’s affiliate income on the next report.
Also, the number you see in the title is our take-home amount after expenses. Most income reports you see with a big number in the title is a number that comes before expenses. We feel this is misleading, so we don’t do that. Please also note that none of this money is taxed yet. We make monthly payments to the IRS based on our income and tax projections and recommend all bloggers making thousands per month do the same.
Important Happenings This Month
This month and the next are basically described as a whirlwind in our lives. We spent most of March closing on a home loan and getting ready to move. We actually closed on March 30th!
We didn’t let the distraction and business from buying a home have too much of an impact on our business. We actually stepped up out sponsored content game this month, so that provided a nice boost to our income. This also meant more work, more late nights and substituting date nights for photoshoots and writing blog posts, but we were doing all of that together, so it’s all good! 🙂
One small note about our Amazon commission- a change in the bounty (they lowered the amount) for registry signups will permanently reduce our Amazon income by 10-15% every month- so that sucks. I imagine there are a lot of people making a lot more money from these bounties who were very seriously impacted by this, which also sucks. That said, it’s a good lesson to not rely too much on one income source and to always be looking for ways to diversify your income.
The Report
The links below are affiliate links. When you click them and make a purchase, we earn money. Thank you so much for all of your support!
LIFESTYLE BLOGGING REVENUE
- Sponsored Instagram posts – $550
- Retail affiliate income (Nordstrom, Shopbop, Macy’s and other affiliates. We love VigLink for beginners) – $18,101.27
- Amazon affiliate income – $444.70
- Sponsored blog posts – $2,800
REVENUE EARNED FROM BLOGGING CONTENT
- HostGator (start a blog today!) – $9,400
- Studiopress – $340.15
- Aweber – $26.90
- Covertkit – $0.00
Total Revenue – $31,663.02
EXPENSES
- KnownHost – We started with HostGator, but outgrew them after a few years. $55
- Aweber– the best email service for creating, building and managing email lists! – $29
- Social Media Advertising – $7063.94
- Developer Costs – $100
- Giveaway prizes (this falls under our marketing budget) – $50
- PicMonkey – the best online image creation and editing software – $5.00
- Long Tail Pro – keyword research software that helps us show up better in Google. $25
- Optin Monster – create beautiful optin forms to collect email addresses – $9
- US Global Mail – online PO Box to use with our email service so we don’t have to use our personal address – $10
Total Expenses – $7,346.94
TOTAL PROFIT – $24,316.08
This was an incredibly strong month at just the right time. Nothing eases our minds after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house like having the best month of the year!
If you’re feeling motivated after reading this income report, head over here to get your blog started right away!