Want to learn how to make money blogging? You can blog part time and make over 5 figures your first year blogging.
I launched this blog a little over a year ago and it has been quite the journey. I never expected to make 5 figures in my first year blogging, especially since I was only blogging part time.
Blogging is a small part of my growing entrepreneur life. I work a full-time job, which consumes most of my time. But I also have another side hustle; I make money pinning on Pinterest. So I track all the money I earn from these two side hustles separately.
I’m only able to work on my blog part time and I’m not able to work on it every day or even every week. I blog when I have time and I was still able to bring in over $10,000 from blogging.
While I’m not making a full-time income from blogging, I was able to make 5 figures in my first 12 months blogging.
So I can see the potential to make even more over the next 12 months.
If you are new a blogger or you have been thinking about starting a blog, then this post is for you. I am going to show you it is possible to make money blogging, even if you are a beginner and even if you do it part time.
WHY DO I WANT TO SHARE MY BLOG INCOME ONLINE?
To be honest with you, I’m not very comfortable with sharing my income. I’ve learned your income is personal, and not something you should share. So it feels very strange that I am writing a report about my income and sharing it with the world.
Despite how strange it feels, I feel it’s important to share how a beginner made money blogging in their first year.
Before I started blogging, I used to read other bloggers income reports. Many of them were were making over 5 figures a month. I would always see pins on Pinterest that said “How I made $100,000 a month blogging” or some ridiculous number.
I seriously doubted bloggers could make THAT much money until I followed them more closely.
I started to see their numbers weren’t ridiculous. They are just established bloggers who are making a ton of money from blogging.
Now that 12 months have passed since I launched this blog, I thought I would share my journey on how I made $10,000 in my first year blogging.
TOTAL INCOME REPORT FOR THE LAST 12 MONTHS
As I mentioned earlier, I make money online through various channels, but this report will only show the money I made directly from blogging.
Everything I am showing in my report is money I have actually received or spent since I started this blog.
BLOG INCOME BROKEN DOWN
- Ads: $7429.40
- Siteground: $150
- Affiliate Marketing: $3182.23
Total Income $10761.63
EXPENSES
- Courses – $76
- Siteground – 170.15 – I purchased a 3 year hosting Contract, my domain, and domain protection.
- Tailwind – $74.88 – Tailwind normally costs $119.88/yr. I received referral credit which lowered my yearly cost.
- Theme: $31
Total Expenses: $321.03
TOP POSTS
- HOW TO MAKE MONEY PINNING ON PINTEREST
- HOW TO MAKE A PINTEREST PIN GO VIRAL
- HOW I MADE MY FIRST AFFILIATE SALE ON PINTEREST
- HOW TO INCREASE YOUR PINTEREST FOLLOWERS
- HOW TO FIND KEYWORDS TO USE WITH PINTEREST
- HOW TO GROW YOUR PINTEREST ACCOUNT
THINGS I DID
Pinterest was the biggest thing I focused on when it came to my blog.
Pinterest has always been my main source of traffic.
Before I started blogging, I studied Pinterest for well over a year and learned how to make money from pinning on Pinterest.
I started a brand new Pinterest account and within one year, I was able to grow my Pinterest account from 0 to over 10,000 followers and over 6 million monthly viewers.
Things with Pinterest hasn’t always been smooth. I watched my monthly viewers go from over 10 Million and dropped down 2 Million. I am currently hovering around the 4.5 million monthly viewer mark. I know monthly viewers are not that important, but it is just a reminder that Pinterest has not been stable.
Ever since Pinterest went public, they have been all over the place with their updates. They keep introducing new features and then removing them weeks or months later.
Pinterest has also been randomly marking accounts as SPAM.
So if you have a seen a drop in your Pinterest Traffic, then you you need to check out this post: WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR PINTEREST TRAFFIC IS DROPPING
I know a ton of bloggers who were affected, but luckily, all of them were able to get their accounts re-instated. Thankfully it hasn’t happened to me but watching Pinterest over the last 3 months has opened up my eyes since I heavily rely on Pinterest.
If Pinterest just dies one day, my blog would take a serious hit. So that is why it’s important to focus on various channels that can drive traffic to your blog,
SEO
I know I cannot always rely on Pinterest to drive my traffic. So I’ve been focusing on SEO.
SEO is search engine optimization.
SEO is the process of optimizing your website for organic traffic from search engines. Organic traffic is stable and converts better.
I recently purchased Debbie Gartner’s Easy On Page SEO and Easy Backlinks for SEO. It is the perfect introductory SEO book. SEO takes time to see the results, so I’m working on optimizing all my old posts with all the tips she shares in your books.
If you are looking for help on SEO, I highly recommend checking out Debbie Gartner’s Easy On Page SEO. Her book was easy to follow and implement.
INVESTING
I have always tried to keep my expenses low while increasing my income. I didn’t want to invest in any courses because there was so much information out there for free. So, I did a lot of reading about blogging.
In the end, I should have invested more in blogging. If I did that, I wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to figure it out on my own.
Since I blog part time, I know I still have a lot to learn but most courses other bloggers highly recommend appear to be geared for those just starting out.
I now realize it’s important to invest money back into your blog if you want to be serious about growing your blog and making money blogging. Now I’m looking to invest in specific things to help maximize my blog.
So if you have a great resource that you absolutely love, leave a comment and let me know so I can check it out.
GOALS
I want to keep on growing my blog, my traffic, and my income. So I’ve set some goals that I hope to achieve over the next 12 months.
INCREASE BLOG TRAFFIC
My main goal is to increase my traffic.
I want to apply to a different ad network, but I need to increase my traffic first. So, I’m aiming for over 25,000 sessions.
CONSISTENCY
Another goal I have is to create at least one post every week.
Currently, I haven’t been consistent with posting new blog posts. I’m now working on a blog schedule so I can stay consistent with posting new blog posts.
SEO
As I mentioned earlier, I’m focusing on SEO.
My goal is to go through all my old posts and optimizing them for SEO. I know it will take time to see the results but I’m hopeful it will pay off so I can start seeing more organic traffic.
BUILD AN EMAIL LIST
I haven’t put much effort into building an email list but surprisingly, I have 117 subscribers. I definitely want to work towards building a larger email list as well as a landing page, freebies, and newsletter.
FINAL THOUGHTS
After reviewing the last 12 months, I am very proud of this blog and everything I have accomplished to date. I never expected to make this much money in my first year blogging, especially since I blog part time.
There have been many ups and downs when it comes to blogging, but I never gave up. Blogging is hardwork and I have always kept pushing forward.
I can now see that all my efforts are paying off, literally. I was able to make $10,000 my first blogging.
So, If you are thinking about a starting a blog, there is no better time than the present.
I personally recommend that you start a blog with Siteground so you can customize your blog the way you would like. They have cost effective plans, so it will only cost a few dollars a month and their customer support has been amazing. They are always available to answer all my questions.
I really hope this inspired you to start your own blog and show you that it is possible to make money blogging, even as a beginner.
Head over to my blogging group, Bloggers Growing Together or leave a comment below and let me know where you are on your blogging journey!
I love my blog, and there is so much more to it than just writing! I just launched an online course about it all, and to help others not make the same mistakes that I did. It is always a learning process, and I love that. My favorite phrase is “new stop learning.” I love reading income reports like this, because it is inspiring. It is absolutely possible to make great money being a blogger. I can’t see myself doing anything else now, because I love it so much! Thank you for sharing something so personal and inspiring others to keep working hard and pushing to be successful.
Kudos to you for launching an online course! I eventually hope to create one too. I’d love to check yours out.
I am typically skeptical of any numbers I read from people online when it comes to what they made blogging but kudos to you on the success. One year in and five figures is an achievement. We are one year in and not even close to that.
Keep working at it and you’ll get there.
That is amazing, good for you! I started my blog around the same time and have not generated a single dollar from it lol Although that was my initial plan to have it make money I just cannot seem to nail down Pinterest and get those monthly views one needs to generate money. I will take your tips and suggestions into account and then maybe I can get something working for me too!
Keep working at it and you’ll get there. You should also look into incorporating affiliate marketing with your blog so you can start earning something.
Thank you so much for sharing this post with such encouraging information. I have been a sporadic blogger for years but now I’m hoping to grow two new blogs to the stage of making an income from them. Like you did, I’m learning all I can from online research and facebook growth groups. I am working on consistency and have joined a few affiliate programs, but I’ve not really plugged them into my blogs as yet because my posting is sporadic at times. I think this post will give me the push to go at it harder as you’re not a blogger guru trying to peddle anything, you’re just sharing your experience as an ordinary blogger. Thanks so much!
Check out Tailwind! I always make sure Tailwind queue has pins scheduled to go out for the next 3 weeks out so I can keep the traffic coming when I don’t have much time to blog.
Thanks for sharing your tips on how you monetized your blog! Your reminder to focus on SEO is helpful; definitely something I need to work on.
Thank you for sharing these tips. I’ve been blogging for awhile and I feel like I really need to step things up.
Thank you for sharing how to monetize a blog. I’m a beginner blogger and hearing about your growth and success inspires me to keep working hard to improve mine
wow! very well done! Congrats! In just one year you made it grand! your tips are always exellent!
That’s awesome! I have never focussed so much on pinterest. I would have to checkout your pinterest posts. Thanks for sharing this dear! 🙂
Definitely check out Pinterest – it can help grow your traffic
Wow! I’m impressed. I’d love to take a few courses, but really haven’t found the time. I need to do this because it probably would make life (and SEO) easier.
I completely agree, hard to find time. Let me know what courses you end up going with. I’m on the hunt for new ones.
I need to keep this post handy and come back and really comb through it. That is a very impressive figure for year #1. I think I will make $1000. My first year ends in September. I was hoping for way more, but I’m just now getting this whole tangled blogging web figured out!
That’s awesome progress! Keep pushing forward and it will be worth it in the end!
This post is very encouraging! I’m a fairly new (serious) blogger. It’s nice to see someone be honest and say they made only $10,000 in their first year instead of in one month. I’d like to get to the ones who make $10,000 in a month…but any income is income! So I really appreciate this blog post. I have been starting to work on my Pinterest and SEO more and I think it is starting to pay off. I get about 2,000 visitors a month and my next goal is 4,000. Thank you for this post!
Great post. I’m a new blogger, but also trying to focus on SEO in the very beginning that way I’m not totally relying on Pinterest. I keep reading that they are always changing. Very inspiring post. I’m almost one month in and about to make something, not much but it’s a start!
Every little bit helps. Keep going and it will be worth it.
Thanks for your honest numbers!
Wow that is a very impressive first year blogging report, you have done a great job. I completely agree about not relying on one channel to drive traffic to your blog, especially when it comes to social media. I have to say that SEO is something all bloggers should work on!
Thank you for sharing and being comfortable enough to post about your blog income online – definitely not an easy thing to do for us folk who were taught to never talk about money and consider it an uncomfortable topic in social settings!
I’ve been on my own blogging journey for about a year now and haven’t even made close to $10000 yet haha.
Thanks for the tips. I am very new to blogging. I have only been blogging for almost a month, but I’m in the process of monetizing my blog and im very excited. Its amazing that you can do all that part time. Great post.