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I’m excited to be back today to share my October 2015 income report.
If you’re thinking, “Why in the world is she sharing such personal information?” Trust me, I’m right there with you. I’ll be honest, it’s uncomfortable to put this info out there. I know some people may be surprised that a blog can actually make money while others may be thinking, “That’s all she makes?!” Sharing these definitely opens me up to criticism and questions, but my hope is that they’ll ultimately be helpful.
I did my first income report last month, and I explained my reasons then too, but just in case this is your first time stopping by or viewing an income report, my reason for sharing is simply that I want to help others who are interested in earning a living through blogging. I have been so inspired by the income reports that I’ve read. They’ve shown me exactly what’s possible in blogging, and given me ideas on how to improve, and I’d be thrilled to help someone else build and grow their own blog with a little glimpse behind the scenes of mine.
October 2015 Blog & Income Report
This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosures page.
Income
- AdThrive – $1,734
- Adsense – $316.53
- Printables (This Organized Life printable set and my Etsy shop) – $831
- Sponsored Posts – $325 (Plus approximately $375 in free product)
- Bluehost (from my How to Start a Blog post) – $0
- Amazon Associates – $19.08
- Paid guest post – $35
Total Income: $3,260.61
Expenses
- Synthesis hosting – $0 ($127 for next three months paid in Sept. 2015)
- Mailchimp – $105 (though I’ve recently switched to ConvertKit)
- ConvertKit – $0 (last month of a free trial)
- Tech support – $45
- Co-schedule – $0 (paid $108 for the year in February)
- Tailwind – $0 (paid $120 for the year in June)
- BlogVault – $9
- Instapage – $0 (paid in Sept for 12 months)
- Etsy expenses – $56.60
- Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers ebook – $0 (purchased last month, but I’m still working my way through it)
- PO Box – $0 (paid $62 for 12 months in February)
- PicMonkey – $5
- Gumroad Transaction fees – $24.45
Total Expenses – $245.05
September 2015 Profit – $3,015.56 (plus $375 in free product)
Top Posts for September 2015
- The biggest decluttering mistake you don’t know you’re making
- Creative Halloween Treats
- 1 Simple trick for hiding cords and wires
- Free Printable 2016 Monthly Calendar
- Ideas for Creating the Perfect Playroom
Traffic Overview
In September 2015 I had 239,628 pageviews, which was my best month to date. Very exciting. 🙂 Then in October, I reached a new milestone and had 300,163 pageviews!
Now I can already tell you that November won’t be nearly as high because I took some time off and scaled back (a lot!) on promoting. We even took a little (much needed) family vacation! To tell you the truth, I think I burned myself out a bit by posting every day in October, but it’s exciting to see my pageviews for all that work. As I shared in my last report, I only broke 100,000 pageviews for the first time five or six months ago so I’m still kind of pinching myself.
Email Subscribers
New subscribers: 2,481
Total subscribers: 12,631
I started transferring all of my subscribers from MailChimp to ConvertKit at the end of October/early November, and so far I’ve been pretty happy. I really haven’t used it as much as I should’ve because I’ve taken a lot of time off this month, but I have no complaints.
Alright, just a couple days, and it’ll be time to get November’s report ready! I can’t believe it’s already the holiday season, and 2016 is just around the corner. #kindoffreakingout
Thanks so much for reading, and for all your kind comments after my first report. If you have any questions about anything I’ve written, please let me know.
I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. I’m going to close up my computer and run to the kitchen to get some things prepped for my favorite meal of the year!
This was interesting, but I have a question. Most businesses take yearly expenses,like the Instapage expense,and spread them out over the 12 months. I am making this confusing, so I am sorry, but what I am trying to say is shouldn’t you count those things as a monthly expense? Obviously, you can do it any way you like, but it can be misleading to people. This isn’t meant to be negative or a criticism, just a statement. You are doing your best and I really am interested in the post, but others might read this and say wow, she made $3000 this month and not notice that you’ve already paid several costs that aren’t reflected here. From one “no MBA in business “to another. cdahlgren at live dot com
I really think it’s a personal preference to tell you the truth. I, personally, find spreading the costs out to be rather misleading when that’s not how they’re being paid. My goal in sharing these posts is to show the actual money in/money out situation so some months will actually look really low when I have large expenses (like Sept when I had to pay 3 months of hosting at once), but then this month looks a little better when it looks like I’m not having to pay any hosting at all because I didn’t. This is why I’ve also noted when something is at $0 when it was paid and for how much. To me, spreading costs out over time when they weren’t actually paid that way feels like playing with the numbers a little, which is why I chose not to do it that way. I really wanted to be as transparent as possible so when I pay something, whether it’s just for the month or the entire year, I’ll reflect it in my report when it’s paid. I hope that makes sense. Like I said, I really think it’s personal preference because some months will look higher or lower based on when those larger payments are made. No MBA here either though so maybe someone else could explain it in a different way that would convince me otherwise. Thanks for the question, Cindy! 🙂
I’m so happy for you! All of your hard is paying off! You are definitely an inspiration to me!
Thank you, Jamie! That’s so sweet. Yes, finally, after years and years my husband can start taking what I’m doing somewhat seriously lol
Congratulations, Emily! Can’t imagine blogging with the frequency you do — I can barely manage my weekly (every Thursday) blog post!
Thanks, Jean. Some weeks are better than others, that’s for sure. There are some people who blog everyday all year long. I can’t imagine keeping up with that.
I love reading these income reports! It’s so interesting to see how other bloggers are making money. Congrats on the new page view record!
Thanks, Tricia!
Thanks for sharing, I loooooove reading income reports, they’re so motivational and there’s always something to learn! Keep rocking it 🙂
Thanks, Jesica! They’re addictive, aren’t they. I’m always fascinated with the many different ways people are able to make money.
Thanks so much for sharing this, Emily! I really is encouraging to see how your blog is growing and what’s working for you. You may have said this before here, but how long have you been blogging? It’s great that you broke your pageview record-super exciting! Keep up the good work!
It’ll be three years mid-January. I did it on and off as a hobby for the first year and a half and started to get serious about it in September-November 2014.
Wow! You have really good page views! Do you mind my asking where the majority of your traffic comes from? I’ve been blogging for nearly 4 years and love to hear other blogger’s stories. 🙂
Thanks, Melissa! Most of my social traffic comes from Pinterest. Most of the rest come from regular visitors, people who subscribe to my newsletters, and facebook.
Thank you for sharing. I have been developing my blog and I have been looking for something exactly like this- a blogger who is sharing their experiences from the very beginning. Very helpful!
I would be interested to know what you did before your first income post and how you built your blog to make it to the first month of 100,000 traffic milestone!
Thank you,
Maria
http://www.musicteachingandparenting.com
What I did before my first income report… lots of slamming my head against the wall and crying! lol Just kidding (for most days, anyway) I’m actually working on sharing this right now! I hope you’ll stop by again when it’s finished.
I sure will ! I love reading your blog!
I was also wondering- how long did it take you to get approved by Ad Thrive from when you signed up to when they started working with your site?
I think I waited 4-5 weeks after applying to get the e-mail that they were ready to start working with me. Unfortunately, I was changing some things on my blog (moved the sidebar from the right to left and a couple other tweaks) so I had to wait another 3 weeks until the design changes were in place, but AdThrive has been wonderful to work with! They are more than worth the wait. I hope that helps! If you happen to be in that waiting stage just know it’s totally worth it.
How do I get started?
Hi Nikki! Are you interested in starting a blog? I share all the details on starting in this How to Start a Blog post. If you have any questions, please let me know. You can comment on the post or email me at myloveforwords@gmail.com 🙂
I love seeing income reports! I am SO trying to complete EBA and get my blog really going. I have a hard time building my email list. My main income is from freelance work that I get b/c of my blog but my hope is to build the blog more!
Thanks for your site. Found you in the EBA Pinterest. Will be checking back. So hopeful too make income from home. We are waitlisted to adopt our first child and I’ll be at home full time when it happens! Trying to grow this thing now! 🙂
Congratulations on your upcoming adoption, Kelly! I hope you don’t have to wait much longer to have your sweet little one in your arms.
Blogging is such a great job to do from home. You can totally do this!
hello, I was amaze how you earn that income, currently i am new to blogging and i just started this month, but I am still learning things at this moment. You are my one of my inspirations. Thanks for the blog
Congratulations on your new blog!!