I like that kind of articles on other blogs, so I figured I could do the same thing too. On the other hand, the majority of bloggers who write this kind of blog posts have incomes in the four digits. It can discourage more than one. This is the first time I’ve been making money on my blog for over six years, so I thought I would make an income report for that occasion – and to encourage you never to give up if you want to monetize your blog!
I’ve had a blog for years, but I’ve never earned a dollar. In fact, I rather spent hundreds (server, domain names, emails…). I am still in the red, that is, my income does not exceed my operating costs, but it is already a start!
This post contains affiliate links. Clicking on these links won’t cost you anything, but it might help me to maintain this blog by giving me a small commission. You can read my full disclosure here. Thanks!
Expenses
Google Apps: $5
Namecheap: $13.04 + $16.06 = $29.10
DigitalOcean: $0 ($50 credit with the Github Student Pack! Which pays my server for a year for free)
Tailwind: 0 $ (still on free trial – used for Pinterest automation)
Grammarly: $ 92.50 (correction of my English articles)
Total : $126.60
Revenues
Grammarly: $25
Tailwind via ShareASale: $0.50
Total: $25,50
By joining the “affiliate program” of Grammarly on ShareASale, we get $25 if we publish an article by mentioning them two weeks after approval of their marketing program. As I have been using Grammarly for several months now, it was perfect for me!
If you want to start to make money with your blog, I recommend ShareASale! On the other hand, it is important only to recommend the products that you have tried and love. I only recommend those I was already using before starting monetizing my blog.
Profits
Unfortunately, this month, I lost $101.10!
Conclusion
I hope that this article might help you and give you hope that you can earn a bit of money (or at least lose a little less money) while blogging!
53 comments
Congrats on the income! It’s very very cool that Grammarly pays for the first post. Good luck in future months.
Thank you for your comment Krista! 🙂
Thanks for the Grammarly idea! I’ve been using that tool for what seems like FOREVER!
Great post, I’m going to check out Share a Sale now as I want to know more about how i can generate income through my website! Thanks a lot for your post, it’s nice to know how you start out rather than always looking at people that are wayy ahead in the game as u said – incomes in the four digits so it can be a little discouraging since it seems farfetched for someone whos just started their blog!
I’m glad I could help you! Let me know if you need any help with ShareASale, it was a little bit overwhelming at first! Thank you for your comment.
Congratulation on your first income from blogging. Thanks for sharing it. It reminds me of being patient in this blogging journey.
http://www.learn2livefully.com
Nisha
Patience is key! Thank you Nisha for your comment!
Congrats, this is awesome!! Those 4 digit income reports have to start with 2 digits!
Thanks!! And I agree with you!
Thank you for this post! Even though it was only $25, it’s still a start! Congrats on that & I’ll use this information to do the same!
No problem! I’m glad it can help you! Thank you for your comment.
Good for you for having the courage to start you income report!
Thank you. You have the right words – it DID take me a lot of courage to go put this for everyone to see!
Hey Marie, just a correction. Your total expenses are 131.60 instead of 18.04
Omg! Thank you so much! It’s crazy how many times I read this article to make sure everything was perfect but I did make a few mistakes! Thank you again.
Thanks for sharing with us your beginnings instead of only trying to impress us when you get to big numbers. The only thing I would recommend, and it has started gaining traction here, is that you put your affiliate marketing disclosure at the top of every post instead of the bottom to be most transparent.
You are right! I moved it to the top! Thanks for your suggestion, and I completely agree with you. 🙂 Thanks for you comment!
Thank you for being honest and giving us your tips!
No problem! 🙂
I have only had a blog since January and it hasn’t been all rainbows and unicorns. Thanks for the encouragement!
That’s awesome that you created a new blog! Good luck on this journey! xx
Congrats on the income! I love reading them, too!
Thank you 😀 You are like be than! haha
Hi Marie, found my way here through the Blogging Newbs group 🙂
Cool blog update!
Whilst you didn’t have a profit this month it’s great to see your traffic has been climbing (at least that’s what similarweb tells me).
How have you been increasing your traffic each month?
Now to find the right offers that are relevant and exciting for people visiting your site!
Hi! Yes, my traffic has been increasing, and in all honesty, I am hoping to reach 5K page views for the first time ever this month (April)! Also, I have not done any promotion in a little more than a week because it was my finals exam the last 10 days! I’m still on the right track to reach 5K and that makes me very happy haha 😀
How? I’ve been doing a lot more promotion on Facebook group and on my personal instagram. I’m more consistent as I created recurrent tasks on Todoist, which I wasn’t using before. 🙂
I love your last sentence a lot, it’s exactly what I’m aiming to do more and better next. 🙂
Thanks a lot for your comment and hope to see you here again! xx
Great job Marie! I’m glad you’re sharing your income reports from the early stages. As you grow it’ll be great for people to see where you started. Often times you don’t see income reports until later on and there’s a real disconnect between that and where they came from. Best of luck moving forward!
I completely agree with you! It was hard to publish a blog post like this one, as you need to be honest and lay out everything, if that makes sense! But I’m glad I did, and I’ll be able to look back at this in the next years! 🙂 Thanks for your comment!
Keep going!
I will! Thank you! 🙂
I love that you posted this. Really helps to keep my motivation as I wait for my blog to grow.
No problem! 😀 Good luck with your blog!
good information, i’m pretty new to blogging. Thanks
Thanks for your comment, I’m glad you liked it ! 😀
Thank you for posting this! Like you mentioned, we always see income reports from people making a lot more money and its discouraging for us bloggers that are barely starting out! I enjoyed reading this and congrats on earning some income this month! I hope it continues to grow!
Thank you so much! 🙂 I hope so too!!
Thanks so much for sharing. I have been debating on whether I should share income reports on my blog. And now after realizing how much I love to read them I definitely want to do them.
Haha! YES! That’s exactly why I created them. When I first published this post, I have to admit I was very shy and scared. But WHY should I be? Let’s be honest about it. 🙂 Looking forward to reading yours! Thanks for your comment! xx
Good for you! I’ve made like 10 bucks with my blog haha but I would love to turn it into more of a side hustle someday. At the very least anyway it’s a fun hobby that I really enjoy.
Thanks! I had a blog since 2009 and earning money was never in my mind either! I just figured, if I can and it doesn’t bother anyone, why not? 🙂 It will help me pay the coffee when I go writing in coffee shops lol! Thanks for your comment!
Woah, you’re using a $5 DO server for this site. It’s loading fine for me. What do you think about DO compared to other hosting?
Haha, yes! I think DO is pretty complicated if you are not a web developer or if you are not already pretty good in servers etc. I’m learning a lot and that’s why I made the switch from OVH to DigitalOcean, but it’s not for everyone!
Good to hear. Just made the switch from a shared hosting to DO as well. I’m running it through ServerPilot.
Never heard of ServerPilot before, looks handy!
Hi Marie!
I’m thrilled for to know that is working just well with you , and glad for your courage to share with us about this post.
I also am looking forward to such an experience . My blog is just 6months+ old and it would be a great honour to working with you as my mentour on this blogging journey as we share some common interests on things we both write.
Please do check out my blog and advice me on what I should improve on. Let me know also what you think about my blog as overall .
Here is link to blog.
https://codezcube.wordpress.com
Thanks
Hi! I would be very happy to act as your mentor. Just email me and I’ll be glad to help you with whatever you might need 🙂
Good luck in your blogging journey!
Congratulations, Marie!!
Thank you!!!
Hi Marie, thank you so much for sharing the idea. We have been struggling to find ways how to earn a bit from blogging. Usually we read those who already made 3/4 digits in a day! It’s somehow discouraging but with your sharing, the spirit is up again. Thank you and wish you all the best! 🙂
Hi! I had fun writing this post. Let’s hope I earn money again soon so I can write another Blog income report! LOL! 😉
Good luck on your blogging journey!
Marie
Thank you Marie for reminding me blogging is more of a journey than a destination. I appreciate your sincerity.
You are right! Thanks for your comment!
Marie
Hi Marie,I have a silly question.I don’t understand these 2 :
Google Apps: $5
Namecheap: $13.04 + $16.06 = $29.10
Can you explain for me.
1.Why are you using Google Apps?I think google app is free to download apps.Am i right?
2.NameCheap domain domain cost for first year is only $10 ,Why $29?
Hi! No silly questions here.
Google apps: I have an email marie@girlknowstech.com. We need to pay to have a “custom” email address with my domain name! For namecheap, I bought two domain names : girlknowstech.com and girlknowstech.ca!
Don’t hesitate if you have any other question
Marie