Blogging Goals + Income Report For July 2017

Blogging is such a great gig because you get to help solve people’s problems, build a community, and make money in the process!

Many bloggers who I follow and admire are transparent about their income. I periodically share an income report here at The Frugal South in an effort to be transparent as well, and to answer the #1 question I get asked about blogging: How do bloggers make money, anyhow?

Keep in mind that I’m only able to spend about 5 hours per week on this little blog since I am a full-time mom and watch other kiddos in my home.

So here’s some insight into my goals for the blog and the income I made in July. If you are interested in starting your own blog, all you need is a hosting provider to get started. I use Bluehost and recommend them without reservation.

2017 Blogging Goals

1) Freelance writing for another site

Lots of bloggers branch out and write not only for their blog but for other sites. Michelle at Making Sense of Cents shares lots of great advice for getting started freelancing on her site. 

Currently, I’m writing one to two articles per month for ResalesDVC’s blog as a freelancer. I love creating content for this fantastic company!

If you are interested in writing for another site, I suggest sending them an email with links to some of your best posts and ideas for 3-5 articles you could write for their site.

2) Increase Email Subscribers

This year I began offering a freebie to encourage visitors to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter. Since most readers end up here looking for help planning their Disney world vacations on a budget, I created a PDF guide with some of my best Disney planning tips that is available for download after subscribing.

I started the year with about 600 email subscribers and am now approaching 1,800 subscribers, which means I have tripled my subscribers in just six months! Creating something of value to encourage my visitors to subscribe has been tremendously helpful in growing the blog.

3) Guest Post On Two Largers Blogs

I’ve been slacking on this goal. Guest posting is a great way to get exposure for your blog, but I haven’t made time to write and submit an article yet. At least I have a few blogs and articles in mind for the second half of the year!

4) 100,000 Pageviews in One Month

Well, I hit this goal in March of this year. Having this excellent traffic has helped me get into a better ad network and secure some partnerships for the site. But, as Ruth from Living Well Spending Less says, you can’t eat pageviews!

I’m now working on making the most of the traffic I am currently getting (which is now 85,000 pageviews per month on average). I’ve realized that lots of bloggers with fewer pageviews are making a full-time income by maximizing their affiliate and product sales.

So I’m now less concerned with pageviews and more concerned with what I’m doing on my pages that are getting the most traffic.

5) Earn $1,000 Per Month

Based on the growth I saw last year on the blog, I estimated that by the end of 2017 I could be making $1,000 per month. I’m so excited that I’m on track to meeting this goal!

A big boost to my income starting in October will come from joining a new ad network, Mediavine. I’ve been squeamish about putting more ads on the blog since I didn’t want them to negatively affect my readers’ experience.

I had to remind myself that readers are used to ads on other sites and that sometimes the ads may prove helpful to my readers. I also dialed the ads down to the lowest setting and hope that they aren’t too disruptive. What do you think about the new ads on the site?

July 2017 Income

Affiliate Programs: $145.64
(includes payouts from Amazon, Commission Junction, and Ibotta)

Disney Dining Plan eBook Kindle Royalties: $44.70

Adsense Revenue: $162.75

Freelance Income: $200

TOTAL: $553.09

I actually didn’t have any expenses this month, since I pay for my hosting yearly and didn’t need any other support this month.

For the roughly 20 hours of work put in, I made $27 per hour from the blog this month, which is on target for what I’d expect to make per hour. I only include income that actually hit my bank account this month, so much of this income was actually generated in previous months.

If you are interested in starting your own blog, you can get hosting from only $2.95 per month from Bluehost, my recommended hosting provider

Do you have any questions about starting a blog or how to make money with a blog? Please leave a comment below or send me a message through The Frugal South’s Facebook page!