12 MONTHS BLOGGING – AM I MAKING MONEY?
12 months blogging wow! I can’t believe it’s been a year already. It has been an amazing rollercoaster and such a huge learning curve for me.
I have been self employed for the past 15 years, you can read more about my story here. During that time, I’ve done lots of different things to make money, sometimes with flexible hours and sometimes working from home.
When I read that you could make money blogging, I was intrigued and excited but I wasn’t technical AT ALL (I’m still not)! I had no experience of running a website or a blog, let alone setting one up. I decided to learn how, so I read all I could and set up this blog to share my experiences of money making and money saving all whilst balancing family life.
The idea was to work on it in my spare time around my existing income streams, which include, but are not limited to:
I also decided that I would give it 6 months and if I wasn’t making a penny by then, I would give up. Not because I’m a quitter, trust me I’m not, but because in the time I’ve been working for myself I’ve done lots of things to make money and some I have wasted a lot of time on. I didn’t want to waste time, I wanted results.
So, the question, did I make any money?
My First Bit of Blogging Income
The very first bit of income I made was through affiliate marketing and it came in my second month of blogging. It was only about £10 but that was all I needed to prove to me that this blogging business worked. So, I stuck at it and each month I made a bit of money, £10 here, £30 there.
Why I Thought About Quitting
In my 6th month I had a bit of a wobble and wondered whether I was doing the right thing. I was so worried about wasting my time doing something for little return. I kept reading about bloggers who were making thousands of pounds but many of them were working more than 40 hours a week on their blog and I knew I didn’t have the time to do that and to be honest I didn’t want to.
My priority has always been family time. After all, that’s why I originally gave up my career in the first place. I didn’t want to spend all my time working and have no proper family time. A work, life balance has always been important to me and I wanted to keep my blog as a part time thing that I did in my spare time around my other work.
Everyone who has been blogging for a while says to give it time and I was really enjoying writing and being part of the blogging community so I decided to carry on.
How My Income Increased
I’m sooo glad I stuck at it. In my 8th month of blogging, during October, suddenly things started to turn a corner. I received my first sponsored opportunity and my income that month hit nearly £200. For me, this was exciting. Although it wasn’t a massive amount, I was happy with it as an extra income stream on top of what I was already doing. This gave me the belief that I could grow my blog into something bigger.
Having the belief in my blog gave me the confidence to invest in Pinteresting Strategies. This is an e-book that I had my eye on but again, wasn’t sure whether it would be worth the small investment.
Let me tell you, it so was! After reading the book, my blog traffic tripled and my income began to rise even further.
If your blog traffic isn’t where you want it to be, I can’t recommend this book enough. Carly writes in so much detail about how to drive traffic to your blog through manual pinning on Pinterest and it all makes so much sense. As a result of using these strategies her blog traffic rose to 200k! It’s written so simply, which I really love. You can implement the strategies in stages and the results start to show within a day or two. I am excited to see my blog traffic growing each day.
My Best Blogging Income
So, 12 months blogging and this has been my best month so far. In February my blog has earned me £443. Now, if you follow any of the huge bloggers this amount may seem tiny. But I’m not a huge blogger and I don’t work a huge amount of hours on my blog. I take my son to school and i’m there to pick him up each day. My blogging fits totally in my spare time around my existing business and other work from home that I do.
(UPDATE 2021 – SINCE STARTING THIS BLOG, I NOW EARN A STEADY PASSIVE INCOME EVERY MONTH FROM MY BLOG, IN ADDITION, I’VE JUST EARNED £130 FOR JUST 2 HOURS WORK FROM SPONSORED POSTS WHICH IS BASICALLY COPYING AND PASTING)!
I think it’s worth mentioning at this point that before I started my blog I also read Blogging Your Way to Riches. This is a great book if you are new to blogging. It explains in a simple way how you can make money from blogging. The writers are living proof that you can run a successful blog around your family life. If that is your goal, you need to listen to these ladies because they have done it!
What Next?
My income at the moment comes mainly from sponsored posts and affiliate marketing. So what next?
Related: How Does Affiliate Marketing Work Step by Step
Well, my traffic is continuing to rise so my plans are to increase that further using Pinterest and the strategies in Carly’s e-book. I also need to learn a lot more about SEO so more people can find me through Google.
I’ve also recently started to put ads on my blog so I’m hoping that will earn me a little bit of passive income too. I need to find the right balance with this as I don’t want to plaster my blog with advertisements but I do want to test if it is a viable source of income for me.
My main goal is to increase my affiliate income. Affiliate Marketing can provide a passive income and that is my ultimate goal, so I will be learning more about how I can implement it more within my blog.
Don’t forget to follow my journey and i’ll let you know how it’s all going!
I have to say I LOVE blogging. I write about money making, money saving and getting organised because that is what I enjoy doing myself as well as talking and writing about it but you can blog about almost anything.
If you are interested in setting up your own blog, I wrote full instructions here of how to get started. If I can do it I believe anyone can. You’ve got nothing to lose by trying it. I’m so glad I did!
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18 comments on “12 Months Blogging – Am I Making Money?”
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This is inspiring!
I’ve been blogging for 7 months now and maybe made £100 in total. Not much. Some people pitch me for sponsorships but the guest posts they send in are pretty much useless. I bought a Pinterest course from Breaking the One Percent and implemented their strategies but honestly haven’t seen much growth (I already knew most of the strategies anyway).
I’d really love to earn £500 a month from the blog but I don’t see where to get started. All I want to do is write content and not have to deal with rest haha
Anyway, congrats on earning money! Wish you the best of luck for the future!
Aaah thank you Araminta for your lovely message. I’m glad you found it inspiring. I think it’s so important for new bloggers to read about the smaller realistic earnings as well as the huge, amazing ones! It’s the smaller and newer bloggers that really inspired me and gave me belief that I could achieve an income from blogging. Sorry to hear that your Pinterest course didn’t work. I honestly have loved Pinteresting Strategies but it is manual pinning so can be time consuming. So worth it though. I know what you mean about creating content and not having to deal with the rest…that would be so nice :).
There are lots of Facebook Groups for bloggers to join for support and paid opportunities so if you’ve not already joined them, it’s certainly worth taking a look. Stick with it, you’ll get there.
Great post..congrstulations on your bloghing income the only way is up. And thanks for the mention of our book💜💙💜
Glad you’re enjoying it! I’m almost at 2 years now…jeez can’t believe it’s been that long!!
Great work Michelle!! I read Carly’s book yesterday – how funny is that! You’ve inspired me to do a year report when it’s my birthday too 😉
Keep up the good work!
Such an inspiring post, you are doing so well and you are honest which is refreshing!
Hi Michelle,
You’ve done amazing.
All the bloggers “making thousands” started out slow, but kept going, and going. Learning all the time.
I’ve been blogging (trying to) about the same amount of time as you, but only managed 15 posts! There’s so much to learn, not just on the blogging itself, the images etc but each different social media.
All your channels seem to be falling into place.
Can’t wait to see what you are earning this time next year. I’m sure the first £1000+ a month isn’t too far away.
(I get my inspiration from bloggers like yourself who are starting to see success, so please keep it going 🙂
Thank you Lynn and you’re welcome, great book!
Wow, two years already! Look forward to seeing your update 😉
Thanks Emmma. How funny! It’s a great book isn’t it. It’s completely changed my blog traffic. I look forward to seeing your birthday report too :).
Thank you so much Emma, that’s lovely to hear and thanks for a great book!
Thank you so much Adam! I’m glad i’ve inspired you :). I love reading about newer bloggers succeeding, it somehow feels more real doesn’t it. You’re right, there is soooo much to learn all the time. I think it’s really important to not get carried away with it too much and make sure you keep the right balance. I look forward to sharing in your success too :).
Hi Michelle,
I just popped by your blog for the first time because your headline caught my eye on the Feb/Mar best money blogs page. It’s wonderful to hear of your success with blogging so far, and gives me hope that I too will eventually start to earn some money! I started my blog in July last year, although it’s only really this year that I’ve started being consistent with it. I’ve not made any money yet, but I’m confident that it will come with time! I’ll be checking out both books you recommend (thank you), and I’m also working my way through Emma Drew’s Turn Your Dreams Into Money course.
Good luck for the next year!
Corinna
This is really inspiring. I’ve been going a few weeks and I’ve only earnt £25, but spent £40 – I don’t know if I’m over stretching myself with one money site and one blog – I’ll see. But it is refreshing to see that I could grow in time – £400 in a month would be halfway to where I need to be.
Hi Corinna, thank you so much for popping by and for your good wishes! I found it really helpful during my first year to read about newer bloggers which is why I published it. It’s nice for us to help each other along the way and realise that with a little patience and consistent effort, this blogging thing does work! I’m confident the books will help you to achieve your blogging goals. My traffic is continuing to rise so i’m feeling very optimistic :). Good luck to you too!
Aaah thank you Jenny that’s lovely to hear, i’m so glad you found it inspiring! Making money in your first few weeks is a really great start. It does take time but with consistent effort you should see results like I did. Keep going and good luck with it!
Hiya, you have really inspired me to keep going. I started blogging at the beginning of this year and ive learnt so much. Im aiming to upload a post once a week as im a busy mummy of two kiddos. I say all that to say thank you.
Hi Vanessa, thank you for your lovely comment, i’m so glad I’ve inspired you :). It’s really early days for you. Blogging does take time to build and posting once a week is a sensible plan when you are a busy Mummy! So many people try to do too much in the early days then burn out. Keep going, be consistent and it really does all start to come together. I look forward to hearing where you are a year from now :).