How I Made $12,441 Online in One Month

This post contains affiliate links. See affiliate disclaimer here.

How I created a $10,000+ per month blog as a stay-at-home wife with NO college degree…

We were below the poverty line.

And my husband was working a soul-sucking corporate job as we struggled to get by.

To be honest, it was hard to imagine a future where we could really prosper and actually reach our dreams.

And our dreams were to travel the world full-time and see amazing sites and meet wonderful people.

We wanted to experience life outside of our tiny, dark apartment, and a car that kept on breaking down in the middle of WINTER.

My husband was searching for hours for ways to work online. There were so many ideas out there, but there were no great fits. Some of them required skills we didn’t have or VAST AMOUNTS of time to make it work… and we didn’t want to wait years.

But then it all changed. One day, my husband finally ran across an amazing interview with a blogger named Rosemarie Groner from The Busy Budgeter who was making over $5,000 a MONTH from blogging! And it didn’t take her years! In fact… it took her months.

We were immediately hooked and after 3 months of prepping and following her advice, launching our blog, and then 3 months of actual blogging…

We were making MORE than my husband’s corporate job!

$3,000 in 3 months after launching... we were stunned and we know we couldn’t have done it without God’s help (seriously). Launching a blog was one of the best things we could have ever done!

And since we’ve started blogging, things in our lives have looked completely different. We went from living below the poverty line and living paycheck-to-paycheck, to making over $10,000 a month and traveling to countries like Morocco, Japan, and France. I’ve been able to wake up when I want to and see parts of the world I would never have gotten to see otherwise.

Paris is pretty in the Fall,  you should go!

And I know that it will give YOU the ability to quit your dead end job, spend more time with your family and friends, and give you incredible time and money freedom. There are honestly so many opportunities blogging will give you.

Now Why Post an Income Report?

Full Disclosure: If you click through one of my referral links for Bluehost web hosting and make a purchase, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you. This helps me keep Chasing Foxes up and running and providing new content weekly.

For a while, we’ve seen other bloggers talk about why they write income reports, so we thought we’d share why we do it too.

Income reports were a part of our success in blogging from anywhere. They were a place where bloggers opened up about how they made their income and the steps they took to get where they were today. So instead of just keeping their success to themselves, they laid it out for newer (and not so new) bloggers. And we wanted to do that too!

They showed us how we could make income from ads and affiliates and how to easily sign up for hosting. These bloggers went out of their way to give us great tips on how to get started and what social media sites were needed to get great traffic. So of course, we wanted to show people how to have success blogging as well.

And down below, we’ll be giving you the steps and resources you need to get started!

Related Topic

How to Start Your Own Money-Making Blog

But Wait… Is Blogging for Me?

Now you might be in the same spot I was when first starting out (or something similar). Feeling desperate for a way to make money from home so that you can…

• Have more time with your children and/or spouse.
• Have more time with family and friends.
• STOP living paycheck-to-paycheck.
• Get out of debt.
• Be able to travel and work wherever you want.
• Fire your boss and work for yourself… and determine when YOU want to get up. 😉

We have SO MANY reasons for wanting to find a great way to work from home. But.. is blogging the right way for you?

Now you might have looked into other work from home options only to find they required things you didn’t have: a certain degree, specific skills, a few years of experience, hours you couldn’t work, etc.

But that’s NOT your fault! 

We all have different paths we took in life and if you decided to not go to college (like me) or the hours aren’t reasonable for you, then you don’t have to feel bad about that.

And that’s why I love blogging so much!

With blogging you’re able to set your own hours, you DON’T need a degree, and the only thing it requires to start is a computer, some writing skills, time, and a minimal investment of money.

And the best part is that YOU are in control of how much you make. There’s no boss saying how much of a raise you can have this quarter or what kind of pay you can start off with. It’s all up to you and the amount of time and money you invest into your blog.

SIDE NOTE: Also, I’m here to help you out when first getting started! So feel free to join my readership at the bottom of the page to get exclusive tips every week AND the tools I use to have a successful blog!

BUT, if writing is something you really don’t like doing, then I would definitely not start something you aren’t going to enjoy.

Also, if you’re needing to make more income very quickly, then I would not consider blogging as an option. There are companies that offer online jobs and start paying within a couple weeks.

But What if I Have Time Constraints? 

Well that’s why blogging is so amazing! There’s NO ONE telling you at what time to start and stop; your schedule and pace is all up to you!

And one of the best parts is that I’ve seen single mothers like Sarah Titus start a blog and start making $10,000 A MONTH IN A YEAR! She decided that she wanted to work later hours so that she could get to a higher income faster. And it just goes to show you that no matter what your life circumstances are, there are always ways to make it work.

PS – Even if you shoot for $10k/mo by the end of 12 months and work hard, but don’t make it, think of where you’ll be! Will you STILL be making a full-time income of $3,000 or $5,000 a month with your blog?

Now onto March’s income report!

Previous Income Reports

How I Made $3,000 From Home Last Month

How I Made Over $11,000 Working Online

How I Made Over $19,000 in my 8th Month of Blogging

How I Nearly Made $15,000 in My 9th Month of Blogging

Thoughts on March

Now March was a much better month. In February, Silas was bedridden for almost the entire month with some tropical illness he got in Bali (Then he caught my cold afterwards while his immune system was weak). And during that time, our site had gone down due to technical issues with our domain name provider. It was down for around 4 days which means that we lost a good amount of income and pageviews. 

Our numbers for the month could have definitely been higher. But since we didn’t have enough content going out there because I was taking care of Silas and the Pinterest’s algorithm had hit us hard due to our site going down, we’re still working to get it back up.

Now I’m definitely not complaining! We have so much to be thankful for. We get to travel full-time and meet amazing people and see amazing things in so many parts of the world. Yes, certain setbacks will happen, they’re to be expected when running a business.

Last Thought: So when you’re starting your own blog, don’t get discouraged when things don’t always go right. Every business has its high and low months, but if you continue to work, you’ll can make things bounce back.

Now Back to the Income Report

Income and Traffic

With us both being really sick in February and the technical issues of the site going down, our numbers took quite a dip. However, we were still very happy and grateful for what we made. It’s amazing that we were able to make over $10k that month and we feel very blessed to make that sort of income.

It also just shows you that when you put the hard work in early on, it’ll perform for you on your off months.

March Pageviews: 1,168,696

Income Streams:

Mediavine: $9,596.55

Bluehost: $2,520

Amazon Affiliates: $324.49

Total: $12,441.04

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Side note, here’s a quick list of the tools I used to make $10,000+ a MONTH with my blog:

If you want to quickly start up your own blog for a cheap price (only $2.95/mo through my special link here), then I would definitely recommend Bluehost. It’s what I used when I first started out, and you need a hosting service if you want to make money through your blog more easily.

Check out my step-by-step guide here that shows you how to sign up quickly.

One of the BEST ways to make money blogging is with affiliate marketing. Basically, you recommend a product you love and when they click through your link and make a purchase, you get a commission at no extra cost to them. And a great place to learn is with the online course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. The creator, Michelle, makes over $50,000 a MONTH through affiliate marketing, so she definitely knows what she’s talking about. 

Read my review of the course here to learn more!

Also, you can check out my interview with Michelle here.

If you want a course that will take you by the hand and teach you how to become a full-time blogger, then I would definitely recommend Elite Blog Academy (or EBA). They only open up once a year though (in early March), so it’s best to sign up for their waitlist here and they’ll let you know as soon as the cart has opened.

Read my review of Elite Blog Academy here.

One of the most important things you can do as a new blogger is to start up your email list right away. It’s what I wish I would have done when I first started out because then I would have a LOT more subscribers (and having an email list is the biggest way to make money blogging). 

The email provider I use is Convertkit since they’re SUPER easy to use and give you 1 FREE month to try it out.

Read my Convertkit review here.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is one of the most important ways to get traffic to your blog. It’s basically optimizing each blog post so that it shows up in people’s search results on Google. And if you’d like to learn more on how to do that, then check out Stupid Simple SEO. It’s a course that opens up a few times a year and has REALLY helped us out!

Read the review of the course here!

If you’re new to creating images for your blog, and don’t have the money for Photoshop, then I would definitely recommend PicMonkey.com. I started out with it when I was a new blogger and still use it to this day! Also, the monthly price is the same as just a couple Starbucks drinks. 

Check it out here!

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A Quick Note on Making Over $10k a Month

I just wanted to say that I know it’s so easy to look at other people’s income and wonder how you’ll ever get there. But I need you to know that I started out at $0 with this blog. I didn’t have thousands in the bank when it began, but through hard work and the steps and tips I give you, I was able to start making over $10k a month.

And when you put in that hard work, you’re investing into your financial future. You can so do this!

Want to start your own blog? I created a free tutorial to show you exactly how to start and set up your blog on a budget (and in minutes!)  You can start yours for just $2.95 per month (you can get this lower price through my special link) with Bluehost. Also, if you’re wondering if you actually need hosting or if you could just make money on free blogging sites like Blogger, I’d seriously recommend going with sites like Bluehost. Free blogging sites can delete your blog at any time. It happened to Michelle from Making Sense of Cents when she first started out. It’s also the only way to actually start making income too since you’ll only get accepted with advertisement and affiliate companies if you’re hosted. 

How I Make Money Blogging

Now if you’re curious about the different ways I (and other bloggers) make money, I created a list that goes into detail on each category.

So if you want to learn more on that, then definitely check out my post on the 5 Ways to Make Income Blogging.

How to Start a Profitable Blog – A Step-by-Step Guide

Now here’s where I get into the steps of how to start a money making blog.

Starting a blog and making money sounds like something only outgoing people and social media experts do. But to be honest, I’ve known so many bloggers who started theirs in the middle of a divorce so they could stay home with their kids, and I’ve know some who started a blog just so they could travel full time. So starting a blog to create income doesn’t have to be a famous person’s thing, it can be your thing. It can be your project. And to be honest… it definitely beats the 9 to 5 job (maybe that’s an understatement).

So here are the steps we took for starting a blog and making money fast (or at least faster than a year).

Step 1: Hosting

Now many people think that they can easily start a blog for free on WordPress.com or Blogger. But you DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS. If you start a blog on a free blogging site, you won’t be able to make income from them. Signing up for ad networks and affiliates will be impossible.

So what do you want to do? You want to sign up for hosting. Hosting is basically like renting a space on the internet so you can have your own site. It allows you a lot of flexibility to work with companies and not have to worry about a site like Blogger kicking you off for no reason at all (I’ve known bloggers who’ve had this happen to them).

Bluehost is what I use, and I wouldn’t recommend them if they weren’t a good company. They’re helpful and will guide you through the process if you have any trouble. Also, they have a special deal for $2.95 a month, which I haven’t heard of anywhere else. It’s really awesome!

Now some people might be worried that they have to pay for hosting because they’re on a tight budget. I was at the exact same place when I first purchased hosting with Bluehost. But I realized something; if I put money in now, I was going to be able to pay myself back multiple times over later. And I have; because I went with Bluehost for my hosting, I can now make enough to support two people and travel full-time.

You can sign up for Bluehost here and get hosting for just $2.95 a month.

PS – If you want a step by step tutorial for setting up a blog with Bluehost, then check out my post that’ll show you exactly how. It’s super easy!

PPS – There’s a video tutorial in there if you’re a visual learner!

 Step 2: Do the Work Before

I can’t tell you how MUCH this helped us. What I mean when I say “Do the work before,” isn’t the obvious “find a niche,” “create a catchy blog name,” or, “figure out your audience.” Yes those are all important, but you can read that from so many other bloggers out there. What I mean is, once you’ve done all that, start creating content for your blog before it launches. Say.. 25-50 blog posts, so that when it does launch, people have more than just a couple of articles to read on your site.

There’s also another reason for this, but I’ll get into that in step 4.

Step 3: Picking a Theme

Now whether you’ve heard about WordPress (a blog platform used by many) or not, Bluehost let’s you install WordPress. Once you’ve done that, you can choose one of their themes, but just make sure to choose one that’s very visually appealing. It probably goes without saying, but the better looking your blog is, the more viewers are going to see it and come back because you look legitimate.

Step 4: Sign up for Adsense and Amazon Affiliates

In my post on how I made $500 in May, I give a rundown on what both of those two things are. They’re both free and once you understand them, I suggest signing up for them as quickly as possible. Especially Adsense since it’s probably going to be your top money earner.

Now in step 1 I told you that there was another reason for creating content beforehand, and this is why. Adsesne is Google’s ad service. They’ll display ads on your site for people to see. And when those ads are on your blog, you’ll start to gain income from them. However, Adsense can be picky about who they accept, so you’ll want to have some good content on your site before you sign up. That way they can see that you’re legitimate, not just some person who started up a blog, threw a few posts up there, and then never did anything with it again. They want real traffic seeing their ads, otherwise it’s useless. So make sure you have enough content up so Adsense doesn’t turn down your blog.

Step 5: Make a Pinterest Account

I learned that Pinterest was my secret weapon. Here’s why: sites like Facebook are made for socializing with friends (hence why it’s called social media). However, Pinterest is almost strictly used for finding content. So if you’re in need of a recipe, you go to Pinterest, not Facebook. And this is why Pinterest is great for bloggers (you’ll want to get a free Pinterest Business Account), you can get blog posts seen WAY more easily, unlike Facebook where you now have to pay for your page to be found.

Group Boards: If you don’t know about group boards on Pinterest yet, then you should definitely keep on reading. Group boards are where someone invites others to share content on their board. And guess what? If you’re on a group board, the pins from your site get seen by all of their followers. So if the host of the group board has 50,000 followers, a lot of those people are going to see your content.

If you want to find group boards in specific niches, head on over to Pingroupie and check them out! The best way to apply for a group board is to find the host of the GB, which is the first person in the list of contributors, and email them through the given email in the description or on the site that’s linked to on their profile description. You’ll then want to send them a very polite message letting them know that you love their content and would love to contribute to their board.

LASTLY! Don’t be intimidated by the size of their board, even when you’re first starting out. If I had told myself to stay away from the big boards early on, I wouldn’t have had the reach for my pins that I have today.

Pins: I’m not tech savvy, but I make pins EASILY with Picmonkey (a free online photo editor). Now there is a membership program that gives you a ton more options, and it’s only $4.99 a month or $33 a year. That’s like… a few Starbucks drinks, and it’s seriously worth it! Check out this tutorial on how to use Picmonkey to create pins here!

Step 6: WIIFM

Now this may be my last point, but it’s definitely not to be overlooked. WIIFM stands for “What’s In It For Me?” And you have to act like every reader has this written on their forehead. Because if you’re not writing something that helps them in some way, they’ll scan over your pin like it was never there.

You have to write and create titles for your pins that solve the readers’ problems NOW. It has to let them know that you’re actually answering something they need help with and it has to be a subject that answers a wide range of people’s problem. You don’t want to put out your personal life stories (at least not until you become known and you have readers who care about you) on Pinterest.

So for instance, you don’t want to write about “How to be a Cat Whisperer” (even though that does sound kinda cool), you want to write about “5 Beyond Easy Ways You Can Save $2,000 Per Month.” Again, this is just an example, but you really want to find what other people are posting on Pinterest (in your niche) that’s doing well.

Step 7: A/B/C/D and D Testing

For those of you who don’t know what that is, when you create a post and then create a pin image for the post, you create two of them to see which one does better. For me, I do a/b/c/and d testing. I make multiple because you never know which title or which image is going to do better and then make that pin take off like wildfire.

I can’t tell you how many times where I thought one pin would do better than the other, but I let them both run for about a week or two and it turned out that the other one did way better. You have to test, otherwise you’ll never know if your post had real potential or not.

Step 8: Email List?

Many people wonder if they should start their email list right after they launch their blog. But guys… those first few subscribers are the most important ones you’ll have. It’s been shown that the ones that stick with you even when you’re just beginning will be your most loyal readers and they’ll be more likely to buy from you when you offer them a product.

So Which Email List Builder Should I Use?

Well you could use a free service like Mail Chimp, but there’s a couple things you should know.

First, there have been so many times where I’ve heard bloggers complain about how they regret starting out with free services like Mail Chimp. Because when they decide to switch over to a more efficient email list builder like Convertkit (Oh also, you’ll get a free 1-month trial), it take hours for them to transfer their entire list. It’s a complete headache and takes DAYS to do.

Now the reason why I suggest Convertkit is because their services are SO EASY to use! I am not tech savvy… at all. In fact, I get seriously frustrated when something takes way to long to figure out. But with just one video tutorial, I was able to easily understand everything. Convertkit is seriously intuitive and simple.

Now the monthly cost for Convertkit is $29.99 a month which is basically 5-6 Starbucks drinks in a month. I get it, it’s so much easier to sign up for something free when you’re first starting out, but the ease of using Convertkit is so worth it (and you won’t have to deal with moving all your subscribers over later)!

ALSO, if you click through my special link for Convertkit, you’ll also get a a FREE 1- month trial!

PS – Feel free to check out my post on how to start an email list! It’s super important for having a successful blog!

Step 9: Prayer

Now this may turn some of you off if you don’t believe in God, but we seriously couldn’t have gotten as many page views without his direction. In so many moments, he helped us realize what we could do better and what we could do differently to get more traffic. We know without a doubt that he’s helped us get the income we needed; he’s beyond blessed us. And that’s why I say prayer has definitely helped us with our blog taking off. If you believe in Him, then I suggest making him apart of the process.

Lastly, Remember Two Things

Apart from the methods I’ve used in the last few months, those are the only things I’ve done differently to actually make a change and increase my viewership and income.

Now this may be overwhelming for those of you who are new to the idea of blogging, but I promise you that if you put the work in, really pay attention to what is and isn’t working, and follow my tips and strategies in this post and others, you’ll be able to work from home too.

And even if you feel like it’s a lot of work (it is), just remember 2 things:

1. Putting a lot of work into a blog definitely beats working a nine to five or not making any location independent income at all. Seriously, I had to tell myself this when I was tempted to get a stupid part time minimum wage job (Remember? I don’t have a college degree), and it’s paid off in a huge way.
2. In a year from now, you’ll wish you had started today. That was a bit of advice I had read and took to heart. Even now I wish I had started a year ago.

Featured Question of The Month!

We’ve decided that for every monthly income report we do, we’ll be featuring a blogging question from you guys. This is the forth time we’ve done this, and it’s been pretty fun so far!

For this month, you guys wanted me to answer the question…

What’s the best way to get accepted onto a group board?

So here we go!

When you’re asking to get accepted onto a group board, it’s not what’s in it for you, it’s what’s in it for them. They don’t know you and they don’t know your blog, so why would they add you to their group board?

I’ve seen so many people craft a very polite message to a group board owner saying “Hi, I’m {insert name} and my blog is {insert blog name}. I love your content and would love to be added to your group board. Thank you!” Now this seems fine, but even after you introduce yourself, this person still doesn’t know a thing about you. So you have to hit them with WIIFM. What’s In It For Me.

Now if you read some of my other posts on blogging, you’ll notice that I talk about this a lot. And it’s for a good reason! You have to act like everyone has WIIFM written on their forehead. So when crafting your own personal message to bigger bloggers with group boards, you’ll definitely want to let them know that you love their content, who you are, and what board you’d like to join. BUT, you need to let them know that you’ve read the board rules and will follow them. And on top of that, make sure you tell them that if there’s anything they need, you’d be glad to help them. This shows them that this isn’t just some one-way street. There’s some give and take on both ends.

Many times you’ll be turned down or you’ll never get a response because they get too many emails a day from their own readers.  But you’ll also get way more yes’s than no’s if you apply WIIFM.

Next Month’s Featured Questions!

Let us know which one you want answered for next month’s income report!

1. How do I manage the time I work on the blog when most of it’s already taken up by a full-time job and/or kids?

2. What’s do I do if a group board says it’s closed to new contributors?

3. Is it hard to travel full-time and run a blog?

Past Featured Questions

How do I find the best group boards on Pinterest to join?

How do I save up for starting a blog when I hardly have any money?

“What if the niche I want to do is already done by so many other bloggers? How will I get people to see my blog and even take an interest in it?

Now if You’re Still Worried About Working Online

Lastly, just remember that in a year from now, you’ll wish you started today. This is something Silas always reminded me of when we were first starting out. So where do you want to be in a year from now? Would you rather be surfing Facebook or watching Netflix to unwind after a hard day of work at a dead end job, or would you rather be bringing in a new income stream and working from home?

You may think that you deserve to relax after working so hard at your job, but what you really deserve is to work hard now so that you can have time and financial freedom later.