I decided to try to start making money with my blog in 2013. I shared a bit about how I went about building up my pageviews and start to earn money, but I’ve never really shared the numbers. Here is a little timeline of how things happened.
January 2013 – Beauty Through Imperfection re-brand and the attempt to make my blog a business became. Goal was to earn $1,000 for the year.
January, Febuary, March 2013 = $0 earnings, working on building up my page views (this is what I was doing).
April 2013 – First blog earnings, $50 for syndicating a post on blogher.
May-June 2013 – $56 Affiliate sales
In July I decided to officially start to focus on monetization. The prior months I was only taking whatever income happened to come my way and not seeking anything out.
July 2013 – $544 total income
- $260 – sponsored posts (3 posts – one was $200)
- $12 sponsored tweets
- $186 Affiliate sales
- $51 ads
- $35 freelance writing
August 2013 – $516.14 total income
- $145- sponsored posts (3 posts)
- $20 – freelance writing
- $83.54 – ads
- $10.60 – sponsored tweets
- $257 – affiliate sales
September 2013 – $1,135.90 total income
- $767 – sponsored posts (8 posts, paying from $12-$250)
- $17.83 – sponsored tweets
- $115.71 – ads
- $235.36 – affiliate sales
October 2013 – $1,044.25 total income
- $567 – sponsored posts (8 posts, paying from $12-$150)
- $70 – sponsored tweets
- $230.25 – affiliate sales
- $177 – ads
November 2013 – $984 total income
- $412.60 – sponsored posts (4 posts, paying from $50-$157.60)
- $65 – sponsored tweets
- $185.65 – affiliate sales
- $321.63 – ads
December 2013 –$1,345.22 total income
- $534 – sponsored posts ( 5 posts, paying from $75-$150)
- $17.37 – sponsored tweets
- $258 – affiliate sales
- $535.85 – ads
Total income for year – $5,675.51 *quite a bit better than my goal of $1k!
2014 income to date
January 2014 – $1,225.99 total income
- $389.60 sponsored posts (4 posts, charing $75-$14)
- $105 – sponsored tweets
- $326.39 – affiliate sales
- $106 – ebook sales
- $299 – ads
February 2014 – $1,124.49 total income
- $585 – sponsored posts (8 posts, paying $65-$75)
- $317.34 – affiliate sales
- $34.15 – ebook sales
- $188 – ads
March 2014 – $1,255.17 total income
- $579 – sponsored posts (6 posts, paying $75-$154)
- $382.27 – affiliate sales
- $58 – ebook sales
- $235.90 – ads
April 2014 – $1353.47 – total income
- $697.60 – sponsored posts (5 posts paying $75-$278)
- $50 – sponsored tweets
- $294.75 – affiliate sales
- $36.54 – ebook sales
- $274.58 – ads
May 2014 – $ 1,381.41 total income
- $720 – sponsored posts (6 posts paying $50 -$175)
- $25 – sponsored tweets
- $261.16 – affiliate sales
- $33.89 – ebook sales
- $341.36 – ads
June 2014 – $1,091 total income
- $600 sponsored posts ( 5 posts, paying $75-$150)
- $2.56 – sponsored tweet
- $218.34 – affiliate sales
- $55.93 – ebook sales
- $214.23 – ads
July 2014 $ 1,854.88 total income
- $1,215 – sponsored posts (7 posts paying $75-$300)
- $100 – sponsored social media shares
- $277.80 – affiliate sales
- $59.94 – ebook sales
- $202.14 – ads
August 2014 $ 2,640.47 total income
- $2,001.56 – sponsored posts (10 posts paying $97.56-$350)
- $29.28 – sponsored tweets
- $265.57 – affiliate sales
- $50 – syndication on blogher
- $39.06 – ebook sales
- $25.83 – paperback book sales
- $229.17 – ads
September 2014 $2,950.59 total income
- $1,625 – sponsored posts (8 posts paying $100-$300)
- $152.92 – sponsored social shares
- $543.38 – affiliate sales
- $62.33 – ebook sales
- $29.52 – paperback book sales
- $150 – freelance writing
- $360.13 – ads
- $27.31 – the blogger network
October 2014 – $3,316 total income (Pageviews currently around 170,000 a month)
- $1,515 – sponsored posts
- $145 – sponsored social media
- $262.67 – affiliate sales
- $81.50 – ebook sales
- $89.88 – paperback book sales
- $450 – freelance writing
- $135.77 – ads
- $ 637.43 – the blogger network
There it is, from beginning until now. Starting out I had no idea what I was getting myself in to, but we’ve been able to buy our house three years before we thought it would be possible and we are well on our way to paying it off before we are 30…because of my blog.
If I can do this, at home with my crazy kiddos. You can definitely do this!
— For more info about my stats and growth you can start here – how I grew my blog in a year
Wow!Thank you so much for the transparency. It is awesome to see your site grow! Definitely gives me (and I’m sure others) hope that with hard work and dedication it can be done!
🙂 You can do it!!!
What were your page views when you started? Had you already built a pretty big platform and you were just monetizing it?
They were about 300 a day. So definitely nothing huge 😉 I had been blogging for ages, but as a “journal” not as a business.
Okay, that is very encouraging! I’m between 400-500ish? right now and just starting to monetize.
This post is a huge inspiration!
Would you mind sharing some information about your page views and followers when you started monetizing? I’m not sure when to take the plunge and I’d love to hear from your point of view!
I have a little series about it — YOu can start here:
http://www.beautythroughimperfection.com/grow-your-blog/
and there are links in the post that will take you through exactly what I did to build pageviews and monetize 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing! I love these posts. They’re so helpful and inspiring. Do you get most of your sponsored post opportunities through IZEA or somewhere else?
Izea, social spark, social fabric, sverve, people emailing me directly, tap influence, linqia … I just keep my hand in a lot of pots and grab whatever seems to fit for my audience (and what I get accepted to) each month
Thanks so much for sharing! Very encouraging. I’m also curious what your pageviews were through this process.
Hey Paula,
This is great! Thanks for sharing. I am starting to make some money through advertising and affiliate sales. Since we are in Japan via a military move, my sponsored post options are limited. I would love to hear more about how you earn as much as you do through affiliate sales! Do you have a post on that?
Lauren
How inspiring!!! I am due to have a baby anytime (ahh!) so I will be adjusting to life with a toddler and a newborn over the next few months, but come 2015, I really want to begin to grow and monetize. Thank you for sharing and encouraging us!
Thanks for sharing this Paula! I have only been blogging since June and have already made a little money, so this is very encouraging. I don’t know that I will be able to come as far as you have….but I sure hope I do!
Wow Paula! Thanks for sharing!
HEY, I do these, but it’s REALLY interesting to see yours. Thanks for doing them! 🙂
AMAZING job, paula! when you say ads, which networks do you use? xo
She uses the blogger network & google adsense.
What affiliate sales do you use? I’d love any tips having to do with that–mine have always dribbled in. Thanks so much for your transparency!
What do you mean by “affiliate sales”?
Affiliate sales are companies that you work with & sell something for them.
SO- for an example… I have two books and each of my books has affiliates, so if they sell my Potty Train in a Weekend book (listed at $9.99), they are going to make 50% of the sale, because they sold it on their page with their link. You can be an affiliate of amazon, etc… so anytime that you post their product with your link (that they give you) you are going to make a % of the sale- usually around 4-10%.
Now, many people earn money from online. Especially, the moms earn money from online. They can’t leave their children alone in the home., Thus, they start different business and earn money from affiliate sites. I really appreciate it.