The income earned every month is deposited at different times depending on holding delays for each income source. The below earnings do not reflect the exact amount of income earned, but it does represent it as close as possible for the month shown.
In this income report, you'll see what I earned in January 2020, including what expenses I had.
I'll also let you know about any changes/updates since last month worth mentioning.
So Why Do I Publish Income Reports?
I know some people can think publishing income reports is kind of bragging, but for most people, it gives a little inspiration when getting started out their blogging journey.
I'm sure if you're here then you want to read this!
If you're still working things out then don't worry.
I know what it's like to be a total newbie to blogging and the initial struggle to get momentum going.
It's always a mental battle when creating an online business as you don't know for sure if your hard work will pay off.
With blogging, you don't tend to see the rewards right away so it's good to read other people's successes and struggles to help inspire and motivate you to keep going.
It's also good to see what works for others and what doesn't so you can't learn from their wins and losses to help you reach your business goals sooner.
Also, by writing these income reports it helps keep me motivated and on track as I strive to do my best.
You reading these reports is a bit like having an accountability partner. It keeps me in check.
It's not all plain sailing as I've had plenty of struggles and I still do!
But I feel I am getting somewhere now and I want to share that journey with you.
Create Your Own Freedom Through Blogging
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How Much Money My Blogs In January 2020
If only it was this easy 🙂
Just so you know, I don’t reveal every blog (yet) and the affiliate products I promote as I want to limit the competition as I have worked hard to find some good products to promote which are not overly saturated.
However,
I will let you know what niche each site is in, and the type of products I promote.
Site 1: Earnings January 2020 – $989.05
Niche: Metaphysical/spiritual
The earnings from this site came from 2 sources. Ad revenue and affiliate revenue.
My ad revenue was $643.32 and my affiliate revenue was $345.73
I am with Mediavine and ad revenue took a bit of a dip this month as January isn't the best month for advertising.
It's the same most bloggers out there.
They call it the January blues.
The Mediavine RPM for me in January was $13.65 RPM which isn't actually that terrible.
In case you don't know what RPM means, it just means Revenue Per 1000 Impressions. (The M stands for Mille which is Latin for 1000).
From now on out hopefully, it should start creeping back up.
Affiliate sales weren't fantastic either, but at the same time, they weren't terrible.
I did play around with the affiliate offers and try some new ones but that didn't do that great.
They just didn't convert to sales so I swapped back to what I had after a few weeks.
The affiliate offer I've been promoting before I tried anything else had done so much better than the new ones I tried.
The reason I believe is that they do email follow up.
Rather than link directly to an affiliate offer, I link to an optin and they do the follow-up marketing.
So all in all, $1000 again from this blog ain't to bad!
I'm super happy about that.
I remember when $1000 a month from a blog seemed so far away and now it's here I feel like this blog has soo much more potential if I start building a list and doing email marketing.
I really like to keep it passive though which is why I've been putting off building a list as I'll have to go through a new learning curve.
And I really don't like writing emails as much.
In the next 3-4 months I will get round to it. Hopefully!
Or maybe I'll outsource it at some point!
Also just so you know, the affiliate earnings on this site are from just ONE product that I promote via some banners that I’ve added to the site.
That's it.
I've got a few simple banners in the posts and one in the header and that is all.
I like to keep simple!
Maybe to my own detriment.
Site 2: Earnings January 2020 –$505.73
Niche: Health Related
The earnings from this site came from 1 source. Affiliate revenue.
The revenue was £387.46 which is roughly $505.73 with today's current exchange rate.
The revenue went back up this month after December's terrible dip in commission.
Last month being the Christmas period I think buying supplements was the last thing on people's minds.
It's good now Christmas is out the way as people are looking to become more healthy and get stuck into their new years' resolutions.
Hopefully, it should come up now over the coming months.
We'll have to wait and see how it goes!
Halfway to that $1000 mark is still good considering I've only been monetizing this site for a short amount of time with relatively low traffic.
And in case you're wondering,
What I’ve done on this site to monetize it, is to create some info articles on a specific topic then I linked to an article on my site that offers a discount code to a product which ties in perfectly to the information they were looking for.
For example, if I was promoting a health supplement that helps with say arthritis, then I would create info articles around that topic then in those articles, I would say…
“hey if you looking for a product which helps with arthritis then check out this product which I love and you can get a discount code as well.”
Obviously, it’s done better than that but you can see how I do it. And just so you know the product I promote isn’t for arthritis 🙂
I've just started adding some review articles to this site to see how that goes.
I'll also be adding more info content as I find those pieces of content are easier to rank for and can still be monetized with ads.
Also, the product I promote is a physical product with a 15% commission.
I do prefer digital products for affiliate marketing as the commission is usually a lot higher, but hey I'm not complaining as the physical product I promote on this site is doing pretty well.
Site 3: Earnings January 2020 – $763.01
Niche: Make Money Online
The earnings for this site came from affiliate revenue.
Even though earnings are a little lower compared to last month for this blog I'm still happy.
On this site, I promote a few products via reviews and discount code articles. I also have info articles that I link to related articles that promote various products.
I also just added Google AdSense to this site which bought in an extra £64.54 (roughly $84.19).
Here's how the earnings are split across the different sources for this site.
Affiliate product 1: $400.52
Affiliate product 2: $169.5
Affiliate product 3: $108.80
Google Adsense: $84.19 (£64.54)
The affiliate products that make the bulk of the earnings are for online software.
This month I still haven't added any content to this site.
I really need to get motivated to do more on this site but like I said in previous posts, I've just fallen out of love with the topic.
As I write this I'm thinking maybe I should outsource some content.
Who knows, I need to do something as I feel like it has the potential to earn a lot more if I could get motivated to add more content.
I'll have a think and let you know if I do add more content.
Site 4: – Earnings January 2020 – $-4 .33
Niche: Home And Garden
The earnings from this site came from 1 source. Affiliate revenue.
I actually had minus earnings for this site in January.
Someone refunded on something bought in late December and it made my earnings go minus $-4 .33
Apart from that, there's no point in telling you any more about this site as I'm not doing anything on it.
I think I might even exclude it from any new income reports until I decide if I going to do something with it.
Maybe I can sell it as a website that's had time to get out of the so-called google sandbox.
We'll wait and see.
The affiliate earnings(or lack of) from this site are from the Amazon affiliate program.
So let's talk about other revenue.
Other Revenue January 2020 – $513.56
This isn't 100% blogging only revenue but it’s still online income.
I have a Youtube channel that brings in commission from products that I link to and also I earn ad revenue.
The YouTube ad revenue was the highest I've ever had which has inspired me to keep creating value pack videos!
If you're not a subscriber yet then head over to my Youtube channel here.
The income works out as $414.56 from Youtube ad revenue and $99 from affiliate products that I link to from my channel.
Some of my videos I put in my blog posts so I could say it is somewhat blogging revenue but I do track sales from YT by using tracking links so it is still separate.
It's still online income so it's still worth adding here.
Wanna See Some Proof?
Here are some screenshots of the bigger payments from my blog earnings.
Sometimes it helps to see a bit of proof.
This image is the earnings from Mediavine on site one for the month of January.
These earnings are from the affiliate product I promote on site one.
The earnings from the image below are from the affiliate product I promote on site two.
It shows the payments were in Feb but they were earnings from January just paid a day into February.
This next screenshot is of one of the earnings for software I promote on site three.
Again, the payment is on February 5th but it was from the commissions earned in January.
This payment is also from site three.
Earnings from January.
This is another screenshot from January earnings on site three.
The reporting facilities on this one aren't as great but this is a screenshot of the earnings tab.
Here are the Youtube earnings for Jan.
And here is the income from the one affiliate product that I made money with on Youtube.
There you go.
Hopefully, that’s enough proof for now.
Anyway, so now we’ve covered earnings,
Let’s talk expenses!
Expenses January 2020 – $1252.87
Here is a list of expenses form Jan 2020.
Hosting With WPX: $59.99
Writers on Upwork: $688.46
Canva Pro + Unlimted Images: $22.95
Key Search: $17
Tailwind: $244.15 (that's for a full year up front)
Training courses: $118.82
Domain renewals: $11.99
Products for review articles: $89.51
That’s my total expenses for this month.
Expenses are still high but that's down to me paying for blog content on Upwork as I want to outsource as much as possible.
I want to get to the point where I will outsource most of the writing on my other blogs so I have more free time.
It's all about the FREEDOM!
Also I paid for a year on Tailwind. Using tailwind tribes and the scheduler is such a time saver.
It helps my business so much.
At least I'm paid up for a full year now and don't need to worry about it for 12 months.
If you want to try it out then get a free trial here and see what you think.
I'm sure you will LOVE it.
Most people running a blog will spend a lot less on expenses as I do, but as I’m trying to grow my business I am willing to invest back into it.
When I first started I had hardly any monthly expenses.
But like I said, I want to invest back into my business to scale up faster so I don't mind seeing less of my income to help to get that faster growth.
By the end of 2020, I aim to get my blogs earning over $10k per month.
With hard work, focus and consistency and I know it's possible to get there.
It just about doing more of what’s working.
Anyway, here's the figures that matter:
Gross Income – $2767.02
What matters most though is the net income.
(Gross income $2767.02) – (Expenses $1252.87) = Net Income $1514.15
Not as high net income as last month but ups and downs are expected.
January is notoriously a bad month for ad revenue and affiliate income.
Next month I'm sure it will be up! Fingers crossed!
Updates From Last Months Income Report
Last month I said I wanted to add 90 new articles to my sites in the next 90 days.
So how am I progressing?
I added 14 new articles.
But I still have 5 I need to publish so I'm at about 19 when I hit publish on those 5. I just need to add some images and they are good to go.
I didn't want to spend too much in January so I slowed it down on the outsourcing.
I'll see how my income goes next month and will use some more money to outsourcing more content.
Recently Published Content:
Here's some content I added on my Youtube channel you may find helpful.
How To Make Your First $500 Per Month Blogging
How To Drive Traffic to Your Website or Blog With Pinterest In 2020
Anyway, that's it for this month's income report, I hope you found it helpful.
Start Your Own Freedom Creating Blog Business
If you want to start your own freedom creating blog and avoid all the beginner mistakes most people make when setting up a blog then get my jam-packed FREE eCourse where I take you step by step to creating your own blog even if you don't know what you want to blog about.
Sign up to the free eCourse here.
If you feel I can make these income reports better then let me know in the comments.
👉Related Post: Income Report December 2019
