How I Made Money in My First Month of Blogging

Blogging is a lot of work, but it’s fun. And you can make money from blogging. I don’t know why I didn’t start sooner. I’m going to give you all the details about how I made money in my first month of blogging so maybe it will help you if you’re just starting out or thinking of starting a blog. Here is my September Blog Income Report.

{ Post contains affiliate links }

I actually started my blog on August 22 which is also my anniversary! But I’m going to count the two weeks of August with September for my first month of blogging. When I started my blog, my goals were to:

1. Give myself a creative outlet.
2. Generate content that is useful and enjoyable.
3. Make money.

Now obviously I don’t plan on quitting my job anytime soon. Sure, my dream is to make $100,000 a month like some of the top bloggers, but I’m realistic. I know that they took years to get to that point. They also may have had some luck involved so it may not be entirely possible for me. But that’s ok as long as I continue to make at least some kind of profit.

And guess what! I am!

So I’m going to share with you how much money I made from each source. I’m also going to give you some statistics about how much traffic I got and where it came from. So let’s get to the good stuff.

Income

Ads: $0 because I haven’t joined any ad networks yet.

Sponsored Content: $0. I haven’t accepted any offers yet. I did receive a free subscription to an app for Toot worth $25.

Affiliates: $230. This is where I made all of my money. I’ll break it down for you.

• Zazzle: $83 (Please note that I’ve been on Zazzle for years so this isn’t specific to my blog. I’m including it because I have had a lot of traffic from my Ultimate Guide to Earning Extra Money with Zazzle post.)
• Bluehost: $130
• Amazon: $11
• Ebates: $6

Expenses

Hosting: $35 (This is for the whole year but I paid it all up front)

Tailwind: $109 (This is also for the whole year. This is the original price minus a $15 credit. You can get the same credit here.)

Facebook: $6. (I stupidly paid for Facebook ads that did next to nothing for me.)

Totals

Income: $230

Expenses: $150

Net Income: $80

Not bad for only doing this for about 6 weeks. Next month I may not have any expenses at all since my hosting and Tailwind are paid for the year. My initial investment has already paid off so even if I quit right now, I’m $80 ahead. I’m probably going to reinvest that $80 into my blog whether it’s paying for blogging courses or advertising. I’m thinking of trying sponsored pins on Pinterest since that’s where most of my traffic comes from. Speaking of traffic…

How much traffic did I get?

Sessions: 2,657

Users: 2,100

Pageviews: 3,520

Where did it come from?

Social: 85%

• Pinterest: 53%
• Facebook: 28%
• StumbleUpon: 14%
• Twitter: 4%
• Instagram: 1%

Direct: 13%

Referral: 2%

Organic Search: 1%

Top Posts for September

1. Ultimate Guide to Earning Extra Money with Zazzle
2. Educational TV Shows for Toddlers
3. 9 Mom Hacks to Make Shopping with a Baby Easier
4. 5 Things I Couldn’t Live Without – Newborn to 12 Months
5. How to Start Blogging Right Now

I didn’t expect the post about tv shows to be as popular as it is. My Zazzle post was by far the most popular because a couple of really popular finance/frugal bloggers repinned it. I’m planning to write an ebook expanding on the post since it’s so popular. My goal is to have it done by the end of the year. Ideally, I’d like it to be done by the end of October.

Goals for October

• Join 4 more Pinterest group boards
• Have a rough draft of my Zazzle ebook done
• Gain 1000 Twitter followers
• Publish 2 quality posts per week on Mondays and Thursdays
• Increase pageviews by 50%
• Update all of my unbranded images to match my new style
• Comment on at least two other related blogs per week (setting the bar low here)

Next month I will update you on my progress and whether I’ve met my goals or not. I think they’re doable. The only one I’m actually worried about is increasing my pageviews. I think I can do it but I’m not entirely certain it’s going to happen. I can only hope and try as hard as I can!

Ready to start your own blog?

If you’re completely new and don’t understand some of the terms, start out with Basic Blogging Terms for Beginners.

If you want to give it a go check out How to Start Blogging Right Now.

Already a blogger? Feel free to take a look at my Blogging Resources for everything I highly recommend.