I am finally sharing my first year blogging update.
First year!!
WOW!! It’s already been a year since I started my blog and I am so grateful for all the support and help I got from everyone.
Seriously, in this one year I have come to know how helpful this blogging community is and I am so thankful to be a part of it. And I am grateful to all my readers who keep sending me email messages about my posts.
Last year was a big rollercoaster ride for me right from starting my blog to making it a full-time business.
Yes, I am earning more than a full-time income from my blog within a year. I am not saying it is going to be the same for everyone, but you will never know what you can achieve if you don’t try. I took the leap, and I am super happy that I did.
Lots of things happened last month with regards to changing my ad network, starting a new course and more, I want to share them with you. Hopefully, it is going to help you in your blogging journey in some way.
If you are thinking of starting a blog, just do it. I took the leap and started my blog, and now I am making significant income from it. It took time and hard work, but it is all worth it. I have an easy step-by-step guide to start a blog even if you are not a techie. So, go ahead and start your money-making blog.
The two reasons I share my blog update and income report, first to be accountable and then to show you no matter how young your blog is, you can make money from it.
Before I started blogging, I learned a lot of things reading blog updates from other bloggers, and I want to make my blog updates useful for others.
Now, let’s get into the blog income details,
Traffic
Page views were slightly low last month which is expected during summer months. I am not hoping to see a big change next month as well.
In the first month of blogging, I got over 16,000 page views, and now I am at 124k. That’s a huge jump for me. Over these 12 months, my bounce rate has gone down and the returning visitors have gone up.
The two major factors for my blog traffic are,
Pinterest (My biggest traffic source)
Facebook
I did not focus on Pinterest till my third month, and that’s when my traffic started to climb. But the biggest factor for my traffic from Pinterest is Pinteresting Strategies. Seriously, this eBook is gold!!
I would not have come this far, if it wasn’t for manual pinning. I did a lot of testing with this eBook’s strategies and within two weeks I saw a huge rise in my traffic as opposed to scheduling.
Here are some of my previous month’s income updates,
How I Earned $7,132.88 in 11th Month of Blogging
How I Made $4,952.70 in One Month of Blogging
How I Made $5,189.08 in 9th Month of Blogging
How I Made $3,002.94 in One Month of Blogging
SUBSCRIBERS
I am happy with my list growth. I have over 2000 subscribers now. I was not very aggressive in building my list in the start but learned a lot during this one year.
If you are struggling with anything related to the email list, I highly recommend Meera Kothand’s blog. I have gained so much of knowledge related to every aspect of email marketing from her blog.
Another big thing that I worked hard last month was creating a FREE Blog course. And within one week, I had more than 300 people signing up for the course!!
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In these six months, I received many email messages from my readers with regards to different aspects of blogging. To answer all the questions and to share everything that I learned in this one year, I created this free course.
Sometimes it can be overwhelming to go through this whole process of starting a blog. This 5-day course will help you to go through different stages of blogging at your own pace and get you started with your new blog.
My Pinterest growth is going steady reaching almost 8k. In these last two months, I have spent a lot of time on updating pins, working on SEO and focusing on my Pinterest profile. It is always testing and analyzing your pins and making the changes that will get you the best results.
One important thing I have understood after starting manual pinning is that it is essential to spend time on this platform. If you want to up your Pinterest game, then I recommend Pinteresting Strategies. For me, this eBook alone has increased the Pinterest reach from 700k to over 1.6 million, and it is still growing. If you can commit to manual pinning, then this eBook is for you.
Apart from Pinterest, I have always focused on Facebook more than any other platform. For the first two months, my major traffic source was Facebook, and I highly recommend Strategies Worth Sharing eBook to get started with Facebook. I am experimenting a lot with types of posts and Facebook ads.
Now, this is the part where I have to focus a lot next year. My twitter growth is too slow, and I share mostly other’s content on this platform. As I always say, I don’t believe in working on everything at the same time. But, I might be focusing more on this social media channel going forward.
I AM SUPER HAPPY! I have finally crossed 900 followers on Instagram. I use this platform to share my travel and photography posts. Well, that’s the biggest plus by working online, right?!! This platform has inspired me a lot to work on my photography skills and I will work more on this next year.
Now for the income report, last month my income was $4,541.57 and most of it was from affiliate marketing and display advertising.
INCOME REPORT
Affiliate Income
Survey Affiliates (iGain, Maxbounty, Panthera) – $2,216.75
Bluehost -$720
Bookkeeper Launch – $131
30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success – $49.60
Pinteresting Strategies – $12.80
Amazon – $4.81
Grammarly – $0.20
Ads –$1,406.41
EXPENSES
Boardbooster – $15
NET INCOME – $4,526.57
The income figures were low because of the decrease in traffic. I will be working more on diversifying my income from next year.
I started with $300 in the 3rd month, and now after 12 months, I have earned over $36,000. I couldn’t be more happier about this growth. This increase might be different for everyone, but one thing that’s common if you want to make money blogging is that you have to invest. Invest in learning new things, strategies and work on them to get the results you want.
I was a total newbie when I started blogging, but Michelle’s course was something I needed to make money from my blog. If you are thinking of monetizing your blog, then you need to take this course.
Things I Did
This one year has been a big learning experience for me. I did a lot of experimenting, learning and analyzing. These three things have given me the results that I have today. So, don’t be afraid to try to new things with your blog, it might work out for you.
Last month two big things happened, I changed my ad network to AdThrive. I have heard many amazing things about this network, so finally got a mail from them last month. There is usually a big wait before you get accepted. They also require you to have minimum 100k page views to get approved. Now, I am hoping to see a rise in ad income.
It was also a special month for me as I released my first free course. I have poured everything that I learned into this FREE blogging course and hope to help others who want to start blogging to earn an income from home.
What I learned
Blogging is such a great thing where you learn something new every day, and you get a chance to implement it as well.
Here are some of my takeaways from last year,
Give it a try – Starting a blog was on my mind since 2008, but I actually took the leap in 2016. If you don’t try, you will never know.
You will have to work hard – Though the flexibility and the freedom you get from blogging cannot be matched, it requires a lot of hard work. If you are thinking of starting a blog, write about your passions or your interests. That way you never get exhausted of giving good content to your audience.
Making MONEY FROM A BLOG IS POSSIBLE – I have said this earlier, and I say this now, you can make money from your blog no matter when you get started. I earned my first income in the 3rd month. It depends on your hard work and your willingness to learn and implement new things.
What’s Next
There are many things I am looking forward to next year. I am hoping to create more useful freebies for my readers. I am also going to explore more options of working from home and other side hustles.
I will also focus on giving more in-depth reviews for my readers.
Traffic
I know the page views might be slightly low even next month, but I am hoping to push them back up by September.
Income
I always love to see some income progression every month. I will be happy if I can grow the income figures more than this month. Breaking the five figures would be great next year!
Subscribers
I will be working more on growing my list next year. I have many ideas to create more useful freebies for my readers.
Update: All the below resources have helped me immensely to reach to this point in this one year of blogging. I highly recommend them, and they can be quite helpful no matter at what stage of blogging you are.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – This is by far the best course I had ever taken, and it has helped me in many aspects of affiliate marketing. This course is a must for anyone who is serious about making money from a blog.
Pinteresting Strategies – Carly’s Pinterest strategies helped me grow my traffic exponentially and in turn my income. I have tested them, and they work.
Facebook GPS – Tracie is a pro when it comes to Facebook strategies, and her course is a complete guide to growing your Facebook growth. My reach is increasing every day as I keep implementing tips from the course.
Traffic Transformation – I love Lena’s eBook for the fact that she dives into the areas of getting traffic from less frequently used platforms like Stumbleupon and Google+.
Strategies Worth Sharing – An eBook which I bought even before starting my blog, and it helped me to reach 700+ likes on Facebook. With Facebook being the second biggest referral for traffic for many bloggers, you need to invest in this to grow your traffic.
