January Blogging Income and Expense Reports

Wow, did January fly by or was that just me? A month into blogging and I feel like I hit some major milestones (like getting my first 350 page views) and I also missed some. I didn’t truly “monetize” my blog this month but I did set up the blueprint for monetization in February. I received approvals for Amazon Affiliates and Google AdSense and have pending approvals for Target and Studio Mommy. In addition to those, I have posts promoting standard affiliate program including Rakuten Ebates, Tailwind, and Bluehost. If you’re unsure what Rakuten Ebates is check out this article. And if you’re not sure about Tailwind or Bluehost, I mention them in this blog post.

January Expenses

So, as I mentioned, no income to truly report and that’s fine. I feel like not enough bloggers detail their “failures” which leads to setting unrealistic expectations for new or interested bloggers. I believe there’s space for everyone in even the most saturated of markets (in business not just blogging). And that is because no one shares your unique experience. Your ability to connect with people or validate their experience will always give you some type of competitive advantage.

As far as expenses go, hosting was my only true January expense as well as a blogging course I took. I do recommend taking courses in anything you want to be good at and feel like I got some good tips. But a lot of it I did already know since I originally started this blog 2 years ago. The most valuable thing from the course was being added to the Facebook groups. There, I can ask questions and get honest feedback from fellow “new” bloggers.

Expense Report

I currently use a standard Blog Income and Tax report that I will be dressing up for you guys to download for FREE, so stay tuned for that. However, pictured below is my current report with actual January numbers included.

I caution you to only trust bloggers who show you the breakdowns. A lot of bloggers with “How I made 10k my first month blogging” posts are including any side hustle income they’ve made. So if they actually use SwagBucks for anything other than Affiliate linking that inflates their numbers beyond what you can make solely through your blog. Same with Rakuten, I might get a $50 big fat check that includes a $380 Nike purchase I made and only 1 referral. In that case, you only really made $25 from your blog.

Pinterest Traffic

Somewhat unrelated to my income and expenses, I’d like to detail some of the wins I had in other areas. This was a GREAT month for Pinterest activity. My personal page has been a business page for 2 years, since I originally started this blog 2 years ago. Seeing the spike in my analytics shows growth from being an average, personal-use Pinterest-er to actually having a strategy for posting to increase traffic to my blog. The January numbers are a testament to the amount of work I put in on the back-end this month and I’m very impressed with the outcome.

February Income Goals

After reviewing January, I definitely see opportunities for growth in my blog to better monetize it. While I will continue to focus on first getting people to my content, I am also aware that my audience needs more content to appeal to their needs.

Goals:

1. Create 5-6 affiliate posts – at least 1 additional for each program
2. Obtain 1 sponsor through Instagram
3. Buy a camera – EXPENSE
4. Set Youtube up to earn income
5. Pay for Tailwind — free trial expires – EXPENSE
6. Pay for Canva — free trial expires – EXPENSE
7. Earn $100 income (not profit) for the month

Just getting started blogging? Let me know how your last month’s blogging revenue went. What blog goals have you set for next month?