How I Made $11,716 Last Month from my Blog

This post contains affiliate links. See affiliate disclaimer here.

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After a few months of working hard and taking a break on income reports, I’ll be catching up on where I left off. Feel free to leave me any questions you have; I’m happy to help!

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Whether you’ve been working a regular nine-to-five job for years or you want to bring in a stronger income, working online can be a great way to do it.

I honestly believe that finding a way to work for yourself can bring so much freedom. It can bring financial freedom, time freedom, and location freedom. There’s no one telling you how many hours in a day you can spend with your family or when you should wake up.  And there is literally nothing holding you back from seeing the world.

And once we found a way to make money outside of the corporate and retail world, we wanted to share it with others. Finally finding success that seemed so far out of our reach made us want to show others how to do it too.

So down below we’re going to tell you how we did it and give you the guiding steps to get started.

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.

Income reports were a huge part of our inspiration in learning to blog and get our dream life; living anywhere. They were a place where bloggers opened up about how they made their income and the steps they took to get where they are today. So instead of just keeping their success to themselves, they laid it out for new (and not so new) bloggers.

They showed us how we could make income from ads and affiliates and how to easily sign up for hosting with sites like Bluehost. 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 a success blog as well.

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

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Related Topic

How to Start Your Own Money-Making Blog

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Now About Us..

How We Made $3,000 in 3 Months After Launching

In early 2015, my husband Silas and I were broke newlyweds (very broke). We had heard about creating a side hustle (a job apart from your 9 to 5) from many online entrepreneurs. There were TONS of ideas, but nothing really seemed to quite fit (especially since we weren’t tech savvy at all).

That is until we listened to the The Side Hustle Show (a podcast) which interviewed Rosemarie Groner from The Busy Budgeter… on blogging.

Now we had never wanted to blog. Everyone kept on saying that it would take years to gain any kind of real income. But Rosemarie had gone from just blogging about her passion for fun to blogging full time and making $5k a month. And she had done this in just a year.. but we wanted this sooner.

My husband had been working plenty of energy draining and soul sucking jobs (no joke), for a number of years and I was tired of seeing him coming home exhausted emotionally and physically. We both wanted change, and this podcast (which you can listen to here), literally changed our lives. It was packed with so much information on how to get started that without it, we’d probably be in the same place we’d always been: stuck.

And 3 months after launching the blog… we were making more than my husband’s corporate job. Just from using Rosemarie’s advice and some newfound ideas that we discovered ourselves.

And down below, we’ll give you the guidance you need to start a blog yourself and tell you what we did in September to get the numbers we have.

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Thoughts on October

The previous month was a bit hard for us (you can read about it here), but October was definitely better.

We spent some time in quite a few places (4 in all!). We were first in Morocco, which to be honest, is a love it or hate it country for many people, but we found a lot to love.

It was filled with many mysterious alleyways, lots of cats, and beautiful architecture.

And then next came the US. We had to go back for a couple weeks to be with a family member that wasn’t doing well. But thankfully they got better and it was good trip.

Once we left the US, it was back to Morocco for a couple week and then Paris!

I had always wanted to go to there guys, so finally making the trip was exciting. And guess what? The people are actually pretty darn nice. We had heard (a lot) that Parisians were rude to Americas, but we kept on running into super helpful and kind people in Paris.

So I’d say definitely go! The food is amazing (of course), the people are awesome, and it’s stunningly beautiful!

And lastly, London for a wedding! And tons of exploring, but I guess that’s a given.

It was pretty darn brisk, but we had some great sunny days for sight seeing. Also, I don’t care what people think, I actually liked English food. 😉

Income Report

While ad revenue dropped for September, things rose this month. And I expect it to continue rising as we branch off into other income streams.

Income Streams:

Mediavine: $7,691

Bluehost: $3,780

Amazon Affiliates: $202

Convertkit: $43

Total: $11,716

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 very good money.

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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 sixth time we’ve done this, and it’s been pretty fun so far!

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

Is it hard to create an online course for my blog?

One of the best pieces of advice I got when it came to making a course was, if you see that you’ve gotten a specific question more than 5 times, you need to make a product.

And that’s how I made my free 15-day email course!

I had so many people asking me how to get started when it came to making a blog, so I made a product for it!

Now is it hard? To be honest… it wasn’t really that hard at all!

Of course it does require your time, but if you create your own course on something you know a lot about, chances are, you’ve already written content for most of it.

So let’s say you have a blog on living a healthy life and losing weight. You’ve probably written dozens of blog posts on the topic.

Now let’s say you get the question, “So where do I begin on my weight loss journey if I only have ‘x’ amount of hours in the week to work out?” If you’ve already written on how to start a healthy lifestyle and you’ve also written on how to be healthy throughout the week, even if you’re busy, then you can pair both of the posts together to create a course that’ll guide them through it day-by-day (along with added tips and pieces of advice that weren’t given in those blog posts).

And once you’ve gathered that information, created a course (or even an ebook), you can start promoting it to your readers!

Next Month’s Featured Questions!

Email or let us know in the comments down below which one you want answered for next month’s income report!

1. Why do I need to create an email list?

2. How do I figure out what affiliates are right for me?

3. How do I write a good blog post?

Past Featured Questions

How can I get started on networking with bigger bloggers?

How do you come up with blog post topics?

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

 How do I write (potentially) viral blog posts?

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

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?

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