May Blogging Income Report
Welcome to my May Blogging Income Report! When I started blogging I had no idea people actually made money at it. I mean, maybe some people, but not people like me. I’m blessed to be able to make a little money at something I love to do! You may notice a slow-down in posting frequency over the summer….do not be alarmed. I am busy slowing down and soaking in summer and I hope you are too.
I had 19,200 pageviews in May and I’m thrilled with that! Thanks for reading, sharing and overall being awesome! It’s a bit less than April, but in April I had a sponsored post get paid promotion on Facebook by the advertiser and that brought a big boost in my traffic. So no worries.
May Revenue:
Sponsored Posts: $397
Content Creation: $125
Social Media only campaigns: $0
Ads: $15.29
Affiliates: $0
Total Revenue: $537.29
2015 Average monthly revenue: $438.46
May Expenses: You got to spend money to make money, or at least that’s what they tell me.
Dollar Photo Club: $10
CoSchedule: $5
Tailwind Yearly Subscription (Scheduling for Pinterest, I was previously paying monthly): $119
Hosting and Domain Name: $7.50
Total Expenses: $141.50
Income less Expenses: $395.79
As you can see most of my income this month came from sponsored posts. Some of the sponsored promotion I did this month also included product compensation, but I didn’t include that in my numbers. The networks I work with to get sponsored posts are Mode (my ad network), Collective Bias, TapInfluence, Fitfluential and Clever Girls Collective. Also, this is what I earned this May, but it won’t all get paid out until the end of June or even July.
This Strawberry Rhubarb Baked Oatmeal was my most popular post in May, for good reason!
I’m currently working through the Blogging on the Side course and I am learning a lot. One of the things that class has taught me is that I need to build my email list so that I have a direct channel to you my audience! So I would love-love-love it if you could go up to the top of the page and subscribe to my newsletter. I will be sending the occaional, never-spammy, bonus email of awesomeness to you folks, so you won’t want to miss it! I’m also working on a short e-cookbook which I’m very excited to share with you too!
This is a new graphic that I updated for an old post on Fit Date Night Ideas. I’ve been doing lots of updating to old posts this month behind the scense too!
I’m not entirely sure what my “end game” is with this whole blogging thing. If I could grow it into a combination of the empires of Chalene Johnson and Ree Drummond with a side of Jojo Gaines with just a lick of Beth Moore that would be spectacular. I don’t want much.
So I guess my big question is…what do you want from Kate Moving Forward?
What is your favorite type of post to read: recipes, fitness tips, heart to hearts, product reviews, Â motivation? Or something else?
What is your favorite way to receive information? Blogs, videos, podcasts, forums, books?
Thanks, as always, for being a part of this journey with me. I’m so thrilled you are here!
I loved this! Thank you for sharing. I just started my blog in Feb. so I’m a small blog too growing with each day! I appreciate hearing the things you are doing and companies you are using to monetize. It seems like its hard to get ad companies and others to sponsor you when you are small. Any suggestions there?
Hi Emily, Almost two years ago I started doing sponsored reviews in exchange for product (that I liked and was a good fit for my audience). I did that for about a year and then moved to doing only paid sponsored reviews and posts. I think building into it was important and it established I could work professionally with brands. Frankly, I also had a baby so I had less time on my hands and started treating my blog like a small business and not a hobby. You may need to wait to apply for an ad network and just use adsense in the meantime, depending on your numbers. I feel like right around 10,000 is the least many like for you to have. I have written lots of pitches that were turned down and never replied to and applied for numerous campaigns with the organizations I work with so don’t give up! And stay true to your message and brand–that counts with your readers.
This is great, Katie! Good for you for working so hard and thanks for sharing your info! Just curious – what does content creation stand for as an income source? Content creation for your blog or other websites? Thanks so much!
Other websites! I always get asked this so I need to find a better way to phrase it. 😛 It is a project where I curate content for Mode.com.
Thanks for sharing these! I love getting an inside look at how people are blogging and making money. I’m very back and forth about the different ways to make money (some months I make a bunch, other months very little) so I like to kind of get that insider’s view for what other people are doing.
Quick tip I learned from Laura Fuentes from Momables.com about email newsletters: she suggests having like five different places on any page at any time to sign up. So, like in addition tot he Hello Bar up top (which looks great!) she would also use a text link in your actual post where you ask people to sign up, and maybe another text link if you talk about emails and then something in the sidebar (which you have also!) and maybe even a graphic you can click at the bottom of every post that looks different, but clicks through to the sign-up page. It looks like you’re already doing a bunch of those, but it helped me to think about how many places I could slip that into the blog for people! I’m signing up now. 😉
Thanks Kristen! That is super-helpful! I like the idea of doing a clickable graphic at the end of each post…I’m going to explore that further. I definitely want/need to open up other avenues of making income besides sponsored posts, I’m grateful for them but I see a need to diversify.