My Fourth Month Blogging – June 2018 Income Report – $158.74 + $499 FinCon Scholarship

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It’s nearly the end of July and I FINALLY got around to publishing my blog results for June. The results are in, I earned a total of $158.74 in my fourth month blogging!

I apologize for the delay – my life has been keeping me very busy. In the past 3 weeks, I defended my Master thesis, and then travelled for nearly 2 weeks. I went to Italy, the UK, and France. I also moved apartments and still don’t have Wi-Fi at home, which explains why I’m barely online anymore!

I was also a bit disappointed that I earned much less than I did last month! I thought that “the only way is up” and I even set an ambitious goal of earning $1,000 this month. Haha! But, as it turns out, in blogging, it’s more like “what goes up must come down!”

Why I publish blog income reports

The reason I got into blogging in the first place was because I was studying other people’s income reports. There was so much to learn from them. That is also why I am sharing mine. It’s a way for me to  track my progress (trials and failures) and help others by sharing my own experience.

This month I earned $40 in ad revenue (and I have Pinterest and this book to thank for bringing me traffic). I also made almost $119 in affiliate sales (thanks to this course that I love).

If you haven’t started a blog already, don’t forget to also read my guide on how to start a profitable blog!

Previous Income Reports

• June 2018: $158.74
• May 2018: $494.07
• April 2018: $4.86
• March 2018: $0

June 2018 Goals & Learnings

I purposely set some ambitious goals which I thought were doable but unlikely. I do this to motivate myself to work harder and not settle for goals that are way too easy to achieve. Here’s a review of the goals I set from last month and how I measured up!

1. Get 30,000 page views

Fail – 11,416 (-15,343 from last month)

Pinterest

Last month, this article went viral on Pinterest and I was able to get over 25,000 page views to my blog. This month, I didn’t have any viral pins and my blog traffic went down to regular numbers.

Still, I am pretty happy with getting over 11,000 page views in my fourth month blogging, without putting in much effort.

Every time I post a new article, I make a few graphics and pin them to Pinterest. I then let Tailwind take care of the scheduling and I’m still getting, on average, 380 page views per day.

This month, Boardbooster (a popular Pinterest scheduler) shut down. I was pretty bummed because I had automated most of my pinning through Boardbooster and it helped me a lot with traffic. After, I had to make Tailwind my primary scheduler.

Nevertheless, I switched to the paid version of Tailwind this month and I’m super happy with the results. Tailwind allows me to gain more insight to how my pins and boards are performing so that I can continue to increase my Pinterest reach.

If you haven’t done so already, give Tailwind a try. You will get a one month free trial through this link!

Rockstar Finance

My article, Life Lessons From A Classical Ballet Student, was featured on Rockstar Finance‘s daily newsletter this month. Rockstar Finance is one of my favourite personal finance blogs and its aim is to curate the latest and greatest posts related to personal finance. It was such an honour to have my post featured!

2. 750 followers on Pinterest

Fail – 555 followers (+162 from last month)

Again, I missed another target. I am still very happy that I gained 162 new Pinterest followers without having to follow and unfollow other accounts. I’d advise against doing that because Pinterest considers this spammy behaviour. A lot of Pinterest accounts were getting shut down for spammy activity, so be careful!

I think the secret to getting more followers is to make pretty and helpful pins. Also, it’s important to use good Pinterest SEO (key-wording) so that your boards and pins start showing up in the Pinterest search results. I’ve written a post on how to use Pinterest to get more traffic. Don’t forget to check it out!

For Pinterest resources, I recommend the following:

• Pinteresting Strategies ebook for manual pinning
• This brand new ebook/course that explains everything you need to know about setting up an account and growing your profile to 800 daily clicks! I found it super helpful even though I had already been using Pinterest for a few months!
• Tailwind for scheduling pins at optimal times and board insights

Related: How I Grew My Monthly Pinterest Traffic To 100,000 By Manually Pinning (No Tailwind or Boardbooster)

3. 100 email subscribers

Fail – 51 subscribers (+25 from last month)

I still haven’t managed to figure out how to grow my email list.

Some changes I made this month are that I added more opt-in forms on every post. I’m also emailing my list more often now. I’ve added a resource library for subscribers to lure more readers to my list. My list is still quite tiny at the moment but it’s getting a lot of engagement which is great.

If you haven’t done so already, sign up for my newsletter for the latest and greatest blogging tips!

4. Write 10 blog posts

Success – wrote 12 (+2 from last month)

I’ve decided to slow down with the blog posts and be content with posting 2-3 times a week rather than aiming for 5 times a week. It was burning me out!

This month, I published the following articles:

• How I Got My Blog Post to Go Viral On Pinterest
• How I Increased My Blog Traffic To Over 25,000 Page Views In My Third Month Blogging
• 62 Ways To Save More Money
• 5 Reasons Why Every Girl Should Date A Foreign Guy
• The Quick and Easy Way To Start A Budget
• 5 Reasons Why You Need To Start A Budget Today
• Interview with Indian Girl In Germany (interview)
• How I Graduated Debt-Free After 6 Years of University
• 17 Quick & Easy Ways To Make Money In The Peer-To-Peer Marketplace (guest post)
• The Complete List of Essential Things You Must Do Before You Move Abroad
• My Net Worth Report – May 2018 – $759,228
• My Third Month Blogging – May 2018 Income Report – $494.07

My blog posts are now taking me, on average, 30-60 minutes to write! Before, they used to take me hours!

5. Make $1,000 from my blog

Fail – I made only $158.74

Last month, I earned nearly $500 from my blog. Since it was only my third month blogging, I thought, why not aim to double that?

This month, I finally learned that it’s not so easy to make money blogging. At the beginning, it’s important to hustle and try as many streams of income as possible. I think my problem was that I got lazy/complacent and thought that I could continue making money without putting in the effort! What a huge mistake!

Related: How Blogging Is Ruining My Life (And What To Do About It)

My Blogging Goals for July 2018

1. 30,000 page views
2. 750 followers on Pinterest
3. 100 email subscribers
4. Write 10 blog posts
5. Make $1,000 from my blog

I missed nearly every goal from June so I will keep them the same for July. Let’s see what happens 🙂

Related: Resources to Grow Your Blog and Income

Revisiting: To Do List for June 2018

Let’s revisit what I had put on my to do list for June. I love to-do lists and apparently I am not that great at following through on all my tasks 😉

1. Add more freebies for my blog, one related to moving abroad (checklist) –> Fail I didn’t add anything!
2. Add more blog posts about how to save money to buy a house and how to go to university for free –> 1/2 done. I wrote a post about how I graduated from university debt-free
3. Update older posts with sleeker graphics –> Fail but I don’t actually think this is so important. As long as I make new pins for my old posts and keep pinning them to Pinterest, I’m good.
4. This might have to wait another month but I’d love to redesign my blog (still looking for the perfect theme) –> Fail. Going to wait a few more months before I worry about a redesign.

Related: Blogging for Profit: How To Start A Money-Making Blog

To Do List for July 2018

July is another busy month for me. Here are the major things I want to get done next month:

1. Add more freebies to my resources page
2. Start thinking of a product to sell

Key Stats for June 2018

• Page views: 11,416 (down from 26,759)
• Twitter Followers: 407 (up from 350)
• Pinterest Followers: 555 (up from 393)
• Email subscribers: 51 (up from 26)

Overall, I’m still pleased with my traffic but I would love to have more.

Related: How I Increased My Blog Traffic To Over 25,000 Page Views In My Third Month Blogging

June 2018 Blog Income Breakdown: $158.74

• Income: $158.74 (down from $494.07 last month)
• Hours spent blogging: 28.25 hours

Income breakdown

Ads: $39.49

My traffic is down this month which is why I earned less than half of what I earned in May. Ad income isn’t the bulk of my focus right now but I’m still happy to see a few dollars coming in. Every penny helps!

Affiliate income: $119.25

I’m currently earning affiliate income from the following programs/products:

• ShareASale: It’s my favourite affiliate network.
• Amazon: Every time I recommend some household products, I go to Amazon!
• Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: This course taught me everything I know about affiliate marketing.
• Bluehost: This is the host I am using for my blog and I’m super happy with it. I wrote a post about how to start a blog and some people have followed my advice and started a blog of their own. I am so happy that I’m helping someone out!!! Thank you for the support 🙂
• Pinteresting Strategies: This ebook has been great in helping me build up my Pinterest profile through manual pinning.

FinCon scholarship: $499

I haven’t included this in this month’s income but I won a free scholarship to attend FinCon in Orlando, Florida (a $499 value). Thank you Rockstar Finance for your generous support 🙂

I’m so excited to attend this conference in September so that I can meet other personal finance bloggers and learn more about blogging! If you’re also attending, please reach out, I’d love to meet you 🙂

[EDIT]: I went to FinCon. Read about my experience here.

Related: Is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Worth The Money? An Honest Review

Time spent blogging

Last month, I spent 31.25 hours blogging. This month, it went down to 28.25.

These hours include time spent writing 10 blog articles, commenting on other blogs, responding to blog comments, a mastermind group call (1 hour), and taking courses. I am currently enrolled in Elite Blog Academy and Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.

This month, I purchased a bunch of new courses and I am slowly going through them. They are:

List Love: This is a great course for learning how to build your list. Jennifer Maker grew her list to over 10,000 subscribers in just 6 months.

The Pinterest Launch Plan: This is an ebook (which includes videos) that was just recently launched by Jennifer Maker. She’s one of my favourite bloggers ever. Her courses are so clear and she’s super helpful in her private Facebook group. In April, Jennifer ran an experiment on Pinterest and launched a brand new Pinterest account for a secret blog. Within a month, she grew the page views to 800 per day. This is probably the best resource I’ve used so far for Pinterest and I highly recommend it to anyone!

Billionaire Blog Club: I heard so many great things about this course and decided to buy in. I’m very happy with the course, even though it’s a bit pricy. It’s really worth the money though because you get  in-depth information on Pinterest, SEO, affiliate marketing, email marketing, and more.

Hourly rate

This month, I basically earned $5.62/hour blogging. It doesn’t feel like much but I like to think that all the time and effort that I’m investing in now will pay off in the future.

Related: How To Choose A Profitable Blog Niche

June 2018 Blog Expenses: $553

Tailwind: $119

I prepaid for for one year of Tailwind this month.

Boardbooster: $10

I paid $10 for Boardbooster but they shut down this month.

Billionaire Blog Club: $397

An amazing blogging course that is totally worth the money! Scrivs is moving this course to a new platform next month and he will be increasing the price to over a thousand bucks. It’s better to lock in this low price now!

The Pinterest Launch Plan: $27

Seriously I think Jennifer is undercharging for this ebook because it is so jam-packed with great advice for Pinterest. Totally worth my $27!

Other

I already prepaid for 3 years of hosting with Bluehost so I’m not including it in this month’s expenses. If you haven’t started a blog already, you can sign up through my link and get a free domain! Learn how to start a blog with my free guide.

Related: How To Pick The Perfect Blog Name

June 2018 Net Profit: -$394.26

I am still at the starting up stage of my blog and I want to learn as much as I possibly can. That’s why I’m experimenting a bunch with Pinterest and paying for blogging courses. It feels like I’m wasting money sometimes when I don’t really see a return right away. However, I am CONFIDENT that I can grow my blog income to a full-time income eventually and I’m starting off with all the right resources 🙂

Recommendations for you

• Free Guide to Starting Your Own Blog! - This is a free guide I wrote to help you start your own blog!
• Free Resource Library! - I started this library for subscribers and I will be adding more to it every month. Free downloads for blogging, budgeting, moving abroad, etc.!
• Ebates - Get cash back for shopping online! Get $10 back when you spend your first $25!
• Airbnb - I love Airbnb and it's how I afford to travel so much without breaking the bank! Sign up for $40 off your first trip!

Free workbook!