How I earned $500 from Blogging during March
Hey there! We are back from our awesome vacay in St. Louis! We had so much fun (if you follow me on instagram–I basically bragged about it all week!) and I will have a full recap coming soon! A couple weeks ago I posted a first quarter review of my 2015 goals and in it I casually dropped that I made $500 from my blog in March and it’s my goal to average $500 a month by the end of the year. I had a few questions about HOW I went about earning those 500 big boys so I thought I would break down my income sources and process.
I have learned a lot by reading other bloggers income reports; I love those bloggers who are open enough to say here’s how I did it–you can too!
Check out some other income posts from:
Your Modern Family
Beauty Through Imperfection
The Foundation
I started Kate Moving Forward in September of 2010. It looked way different and I basically blogged about whatever. I dropped it for awhile and then picked it back up again in late 2011 when I used it as a weekly progress journal for my weight loss. From there I slowly started posting more and things have just kind of developed into the current Kate Moving Forward you see today! Last year my goal was to make an average of $50 a month from the blog, basically enough to help me break even. I reached that goal and by the end of the year I had a few months where I earned $200-$300! Â That gave me courage to dream bigger for this year!
Also, just to note I get most of my traffic from Pinterest, Facebook, and Google searches. In the first three months of 2015 I’ve averaged 16,000 pageviews a month.
Money, Money, Money
March Revenue:
Sponsored Posts: $350
Content Creation: $125
Social Media only campaigns: $25
Ads: $19.45
Amazon Affiliates: $3.60
Ebook Affiliates: $2.61
Total Revenue: $525.66
March Expenses:Â
Dollar Photo Club: $10
Pinch of Yumy Food Photography Ebook: $29
Hosting and Domain Name: $7.50
Actual Income: $479.16
As you can see most of my income comes from sponsored posts. I find them through Mode Media (my ad agency), TapInfluence, Fitfluential, Collective Bias and Clever Girls Collective. Most posts I make $75-$125. I rarely, but occasionally, work just for product if it’s something I love-love-love or someone I know with a small business I’d like to support.
My Recommendations
- Always be learning! It is so inspiring to know that there are bloggers out there pulling in $20,000+ a month from their blogs and I am all about reading and learning from others. I’ve found that not everything will work for me, my readers, and this niche, but I keep the gold and pass what doesn’t fit.
- On this note I would definitely recommend reading the e-book, Blogging on the Side (affiliate link). It has a great perspective and lots of helpful advice from ladies that have been there and are paying it forward. (Your Modern Family and Beauty through Imperfection–see their income reports above.) They aren’t in the same niche as my blog is, but I actually found it helpful to get advice from an outside perspective.
- I also have just joined the Elite Blog Academy for their spring training course. It was an investment, but one that I’m excited about! There is still time to join in and learn how to take your blog to the next level!
- I love to learn about blogging via other blogs and podcasts too! (aka FREE sources!) I have been learning a lot from the Smart Passive Income podcast and Chalene Johnson’s podcasts as well.Â
- Do what you love! I love to talk about health and wellness and I love to cook so this marries very nicely into what my blog is about. I’m also right in the trenches of parenting a little one so my blog has morphed to include that as well. I genuinely find blogging, writing, social media growth, and my blog topics incredibly interesting. We just got back from vacation, but guess what?! Even on vacation I was thinking about blogging, reading other health and fitness blogs–because I LIKE it! If you don’t love your blog, readers, and topic…people can definitely tell and they will move on!
So there you have it! How I earned $500 (plus) from blogging during March! Let me know if you have any other questions–and would you be interested to see an update like this every month?
If you enjoyed this post you may also like…
5 Ways to Support Your Favorite Blogger
5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Health
Thanks for reading, commenting, liking, pinning and sharing with your friends! YOU are the heart of this blog!
Great job on the income last month! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Rachel!
Thanks for sharing! I find it so helpful when bloggers post their income reports. You learn new ways to make money. Good for you for making your monthly goal.
Agreed! I enjoy reading them and seeing where people put there time and places I can grow.
Great job! I am nowhere near that amount but it is getting better. Some month are better than others. Thanks for sharing
That’s totally true! This is my best month so far, I’d love to see things get more steady, but there are only so many hours in the day and I think the business of blogging just has that ebb and flow to it. Thanks!
Thanks so much for sharing this!! I am really trying to learn as much as I can about monetization and I really just am starting out. I will definitely be checking out some of those links you posted for sponsored content.
My pleasure! It was a little scary putting it out there, but also good for me to review. Hope your blog continues to grow!
Wow, nice job on the consistent hard work on blogging. Before I got into blogging, I didn’t realize how much work people do put into it. Now I appreciate it even more!
It is work and does take time! Which is why I feel proud of what I’ve earned–it’s not easy money, but it is a lot of fun earning it!
Nice work on the extra income!
Thanks Margo!
I contemplated signing up for the blogging course too, I feel like there is so much to learn. Maybe in 2016 I’ll have more funds available for that – I can’t wait to see what you learn though! Best of luck and hoorah for your income!!!
I went back and forth for days!! Finally my husband really encouraged me to go for it and that tipped me over. I looked at it last year too and somehow it just felt right–I’ll keep ya posted on how it goes!
I love reading blogger income reports. They inspire me to monetize my blog even more!
Yes! Me too! I know that affiliate sales is something I can really grow in, but finding that right mix of products takes time. (Which is always hard to come by!)
Great job, Katie! You’ve worked hard to get here, and I’m glad it’s paying off! I don’t think people realize that blogging (especially for income) takes a lot of time, research, and intentionality!
Thanks! It is a lot, but at least it’s fun (most of the time)! 😀
Thanks this is great. I’m going to pin so that I can dig into it further at a later date. Thank you for showing us how to make money on our blogs. Helps to take the mystery out of it.
You are welcome! The first one I read I was floored by how helpful it was and just cool to know that there are folks out there making money whilel doing something they love!
very cool! Thanks for the great tips, and congrats on reaching your goal!
Thank you! 😀
Great job on setting a goal and conquering it. Love to read success stories.
Thanks Shonda! It’s a good feeling!
HOw nice to earn money from your blog!
It is definitely nice!
Great job on your income last month, and thanks for the helpful tips! :]!
Thanks Farrah!
Great post! Thanks for sharing your experience. I think even if someone is not looking to turn much of a profit off of their blog, it’s always nice to break even after paying for hosting fees and such.
Yes! Break even was definitely the goal for awhile there. And I’ve definitely been putting money back into my blog with better services, redesign, and now this blogging course.
This is awesome! I need to start applying to more things. I just get lazy filling out my blog numbers OVER and OVER again haha. But I do want to start making more of an effort to monetize my blog.
That is seriously #THEWORST! Haha! The social fabric ones (and maybe a few others too..) you upload a tracker to your site so it does all the calculating for you which is genius! You do always have to apply and pitch yourself which is cool because then it isn’t always about the numbers, but about who is passionate, articulate and a good fit for the brand! Finding the hours in the day is the hard part…it’s way more fun to bum around pinterest in my online time! Ha!
Congrats and thanks for sharing.
Thanks! I love your post on getting noticed by brands–you’ve got a sweet thing going on wiht Mizuno and they clearly LOVE working with you!
That is really great!!!!! 🙂 I keep thinking I need to work harder on this…and admit to doing the free products when perhaps I shouldn’t so much. It can feel so overwhelming, and half the time I can’t even keep my twitter, pinterest, and facebook passwords straight, haha.
Yes, time is a factor and it has definitely forced me to be more organized and plan ahead with my blogging schedule and to prioritize my time online. I’m still working part time for a nonprofit and am a stay at home mom so I’ve got a lot going on–which is actually why I stopped (mostly) doing unpaid reviews, it just wasn’t worth the time unless, like I said I really really love it or it’s a great small business. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this post! I am new to all of this and one of my big goals for my blog is to make money but have no idea where to start! I am a stay at home mom so if I could get to the point you are that would be amazing! I love to write, share hope, and encourage women who are in the trenches of hard life! I hope you will stop by and find some hope when you are down sometime! Again I can’t thank you enough for giving me some great tips!!
Laura, I’m so glad this post encouraged you! It wasn’t long ago where making money from my blog was still peanuts or nonexistent! I’m thrilled to pass on what I’ve learned. 🙂
That’s awesme! Blogging for free is hard work so way to go doing it well enough to get paid!! 🙂
Thanks girl!!
Great post Kate. Now I’m off to check out blogging on the side. Thanks.
It’s a great read! And I appreciate the out of niche perspective.
Wow, great job on your blog income last month! Very inspiring!
Thanks for the tips! I’ve been working on developing a monetization strategy for my blog but figuring out the ins and outs of ads and where to find ops it’s hard work!
Yeah, ads are not the most profitable for me, but I’m hoping as I grow that will change. I’d love to grow some different areas of my income as well. There is always stuff to do! You have GREAT content so you are in a good place to start!
Thanks for sharing! It’s good to set big goals for yourself. You’re obviously having success and continue to grow so keep it up!
Thanks Stephanie!
You are such an inspiration! Wow… $500 in one month?! I have so much to learn. Thank you for sharing your blogging wisdom and your progress!