We love sharing your income reports on our blog.  This is why we have our monthly link-up, where we can share income reports.  This month, we rolled out our Time Management Course:  Blogger Vs. Time because we know that YOU want to be making money on your blog and you just might not have the time.  We are sharing the secrets to doing just that.   We love to celebrate your successes with you, whether it be time, posts or income.  Today, we are celebrating with Lena, as she shares her latest income report.

Hi guys! Lena
here from WhatMommyDoes.com – I’m super excited to share my first income report on BeckyandPaula.com today.
If you know me, you know I’m a bit of a procrastinator, so I am actually sharing my October 2015 income report in March. I almost didn’t since it was so late but I gained some insights from October that I am still excited about and can’t wait to share with you.
Here we go!

October 2015 Earnings Breakdown

My total earnings for the month were $7,495 and here’s the breakdown:

• Advertising income – $3,850
• Affiliate income – $1,933
• Sponsored content – $1,712

Highlight on Sponsored Posts

I discussed advertising income in a recent income report on my blog, so today I would like to focus on sponsored posts.
My October sponsored posts were with several agencies. My earnings were almost evenly split this month among Influence Central, MomItForward, Tap Influence, and IZEA plus a small social media campaign with CleverGirls. I had the opportunity to write about Depend Silhouette underwear (that one was really fun!), American Express Serve (debit card), Sleep Number, Sprout organic baby food, and even Back to the Future!
People ask me all the time if I like having a blog that’s about more than one topic and my answer is always YES! The mix of sponsored posts I wrote this month is a perfect example of that. I got the AMEX campaign because I have a large catalog of family finance posts and I got the Sprout campaign because my audience is mostly moms of young children.
The Back to the Future campaign wasn’t a 100% perfect fit for my blog, BUT I was able to get that campaign based on my enthusiasm for the topic. I don’t know many people who are bigger fans of the franchice than me, and I think it showed in my application. I learned this month that really pitching yourself when you apply for sponsored posts goes a long way toward you getting selected. For all the posts I was awarded this month (with the exception of Sprout which was offered to me directly through TapInfluence), I made a point to pitch my exact idea for each post and also give examples of related posts I had already written. This way, the campaign manager could know what to expect from me (the social shares I can deliver, the types of images I can create, etc).
My biggest takeaway this month other than the fact that pitches really do matter is that it pays to write about a topic BEFORE you ever get a sponsored post on that topic. If you come across a wonderful opportunity, it pays to show you have enthusiasm for a topic and that you can deliver a nice looking product.

Increase in Page Views & Income Over September 2015

Although I didn’t publish a separate Sept. 2015 income report, I have stats from that month to compare October to. September income was $3,776 and my page views were 230,000. October income was $7,495 with 316,000 page views. Essentially, my page views increased by 37% while my income doubled.
I found this very interesting and see that it was mainly two things:
1) In late September I spent a lot of time on the phone with my Media.net representative working on ad placements, sizes, and formats (cost per click and cost per thousand). We tested lots of different combinations and finally settled upon the mixture you see on my site now. October was the first full month of this particular ad mix, and I saw a nice increase in the $ earned per thousand visitors.
2) Traffic increased disproportionately to my monetized content. Many of my older posts were written with no regard to monetization – they were purely educational or meant to be entertaining. However, a good portion of the posts I wrote in the past year are all related to the various affiliate products I promote. And those are the posts that picked up traction this month, directly affecting how much money I earned.
Seeing these overall trends encouraged me to sit down and think through a more comprehensive affiliate strategy and also work harder toward driving page views.
When I look at my overall earnings per thousand visitors for 2015 up to this point, there is a cleear correlation between blog traffic and income potential. I have consistently earned between $16-$20 per thousand visitors. So more visitors = more income.
Seeing as my income is disproportionately earned from highly monetized posts, I realize I need to go back through my archives and link up my older posts to newer ones with better monetization strategies tied to them. It’s April now and I have had this on my to do list since October – I’m hoping I’ll get to it by this summer! 🙂

New Things I Learned in October

1) Sponsored posts are a funny thing. Earlier this year, I was wishing and hoping that I would even get one sponsored post per month at $75. This month I had to turn down some opportunities and not apply for quite a few because I couldn’t feasibly complete them all. I feel like 300,000 monthly page views was some sort of sponsored post sweet spot! I raised my rate this month across the board, and it has slowed down the offers and also ensured the ones that do come through are worth my time.

2) I feel like I got a little bit better at selling without being “salesy.” It’s always been a huge turnoff for me to try to get my readers to sign up for something without feeling like I’m being pushy. This month I found myself going to a more “soft sell” approach where I write a lot about a topic and give the reader the option to take advantage of an affiliate offer or continue to more related content without taking action. This has helped my page views overall and also made me feel better about my monetization efforts.

3) The best thing that happened this month is my blog earnings allowed me to invest in a friend’s business when they needed it most. The money we earn from my blog is extra in our eyes. We tithe on the earnings and then use the rest for non-essential expenses like vacations, home repairs, and investing. It was so nice to be able to help a friend in need and put our money into something we believe in.

What’s Up Next

Well that’s it for now – I hope you liked this summary of October 2015 on WhatMommyDoes.com. Maybe Becky & Paula will have me back in a few months to recap December or January…that’s when I introduced my fourth income stream to the mix. It’s from my own product….an ebook about blog traffic strategies. I went through a lot of trial and error in 2015 to take my blog from 17,000 to 350,000 monthly page views, and this book details my journey so you can follow along and try what I did!
If you would like to check it out, you can find it here:

How I Went from 17K to 350K Monthly Page Views in 9 Months

MORE POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE:

Today’s blog income report comes from Kathryn at SingingThroughTheRain.   We have known Kathryn for many years, in the blogosphere, and we are excited to have her sharing this with us today!

How I Made Almost $30,000 on my Blog in 2015

I’ve been asked so many times, “How do you make money with your blog? I didn’t even know that was possible!” But when I set a goal for my blog in 2015, I never in a million years expected to make almost triple that!

Since so many people and other bloggers like to know how I do it, I like to do 1-2 posts a year with a detailed look at what exactly I did to make money. I’ve been told people love how detailed my reports are so I hope this helps YOU too!

*******   CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER & NEVER MISS A POST LIKE THIS ********

Affiliate Income:

• My Recipe Magic – This didn’t make me much money, but I worked with them for a few years posting my recipes and getting paid for bringing views to their site. Sadly, they stopped this program early this year and do not pay for views anymore. –  $8.90

• Ahalogy – Ahalogy is a Pinterest scheduler that use to pay you for the amount of Pinterest views you brought in. This program was discontinued as well a few months ago, but their scheduler is still up and running and is one of my favorite Pinterest schedulers! – $280.01

• Amazon Associates – I can make a lot more with Amazon Associates when I put in the time and work into it, but I do love this program because it can be a real passive way to make income. Use the affiliate links in your blog, on social media, or open up an affiliate store and get people to shop there. No matter how you do it there is a lot of potential with this program. – $620.71

• Apple/iTunes – Talking about iPhone apps on my blog has been profitable and makes me money several times a year. If you blog a lot about technology or have a lot of posts with app suggestions, this is a great program to become a part of. – $53.99

Total: $963.61

Advertising

• Blog Ads – This income comes from ad space sold on my site from various other businesses and bloggers. I love working with these people and love offering space on my blog to help others. –$376.60

• Google Adsense – “Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows bloggers in the Google Network to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements, that are targeted to site content and audience.” A lot of bloggers say they don’t make good money from this, but you really can do well with Google Adsense and I feel like I have the numbers to prove that. – $3,215.51

• PadSquad – PadSquad is similar to Google Adsense. The only difference is that it is for mobile optimization and advertising. Pad squad sets up the mobile version of your site for free and then places ads through the mobile version that are targeted toward your content and audience. I LOVE Pad Squad. It’s one of my favorite forms of income and the number here is only a small portion of what I’ve earned so far this year because payments are 60 days behind. – $9,405.35

Total: $12,997.46

My Book

• E-book – This includes books that were sold through Amazon Kindle and through Nook from Barnes and Noble. – $307.82

• Print Book – The book is printed through CreateSpace.com. – $611.16

Total: $918.98

Sponsored Posts

• Mom’s Affiliate – Mom’s Affiliate is a great site that offers all kinds of campaigns for bloggers. I prefer to only do sponsored posts from them and have written two for several companies so far. It seemed to fizzle out early in the year and I have not had any more opportunities since then. – $225.00

• Post Joint – This was a new website I found this year. People will write articles and offer to have them published on your site. You can do it for free or send back the offer with the amount of money you want for publishing it. –$85.75

• Clever Girls – Clever girls is one of my favorite ways for making some extra money. They are kind of like a contractor where they get opportunities from big businesses, and then I apply to participate. If I am picked for the campaign (sponsored post, social media shares, etc), I earn money. I have been working with them for years and I love how they work! – $130.00

• IZEA – I love IZEA because they list out all the opportunities and campaigns and you just scroll through and bid on what you want to participate in. I’ve done a ton of Twitter shares with them, several sponsored posts, and even some Instagram posts. – $947.64

• MSB / TapInfluence – MSB stands for Military Spouse Bloggers and I am loving working with MSB New Media this year. If you are a military spouse blogger go ahead and join now! – $1,213.17

• SITS Girls / Massive Sway – $575.00

• iConnect – I also did one sponsored post with iConnect this year. I think they use to be named something else, but I’ve loved working with them thus far. – $77.39

Total: $3,028.95

Social Media Shares

• This is income made from various people and businesses who pay to have their website or products promoted on my social media channels. – $195.46

Total: $195.46

Misc. Income

• Christmas Gift Guide – $271.82

Total: $271.82

Virtual Assistance

• Fiverr – Fiverr has been a big source of income for me. I am able to offer services on there and work at my own pace on my own time. I have slowed down with Fiverr however, because I wanted to be able to offer these services on my blog. If you’re thinking about joining Fiverr to make money, check out my post: How to Use and Make Money With Fiverr. – $1,365.00

• Personal Services – This is money made from services I offer on my website including: SEO services, social media coaching and management, blog and blog monetization coaching, and lots more! – $8,813.00

Total: $10,178

Grand total: $28,554.28

Most of you know that we have started something new on BeckyandPaula.com – we are asking OTHER bloggers to share their income reports here!   We already share our blogging income reports, so it is your turn.  We would love for you to have a place where you feel comfortable sharing (I don’t like to share my reports on my own YourModernFamily page, so that is how we got started sharing them here.)
If you are interested in sharing your income report, just send an email to bloggingontheside@gmail.com or yourmodernfamily@gmail.com and title it INCOME REPORT.  

Ok… Time to get started!!!

Hello! I’m JoAnn and I’ve been blogging for two years over at A Whimsicle Life.  I help moms raise kids while keeping their sanity – what may seem as an impossible task. I’ve been sharing my income reports since March on my site and I am super excited to share October’s report here! Here is my monthly rundown of what went well, what tanked and what I’m working on in the future. This report focuses on prepping a product for launch and how I maintained my blog during that time.

Prepping a Product

Last December, I coordinated a project involving over 70 bloggers called Countdown to Christmas. Because of the large number of participants, I split the group into three. Starting December 1st and leading up to Christmas, three bloggers shared their own Christmas related craft, activity or recipe. I chose my favorites from that project and compiled them into a book called “Christmas with Kids” – with permission of course.

Since I had never created a product before, nonetheless a book, I felt that a collaborative book would be a great place to start. I thought, most of the material is already written, all I have to do it put together and make it pretty. Easy, right?

No. No, it’s not easy. This book has consumed my life since June. Between learning the in’s and outs of publishing software (I compiled the book in Scrivener and formatted in Word), developing a marketing plan and then coordinating between twelve other people without stepping on toes – easy does not at all describe it.

But, I had fun and if nothing else, this has been a huge learning experience. Here are my three takeaways:

It’s Hard to Promote a Christmas Product in October

I started promoting my launch email list on October 1st by purchasing an ad on Facebook. I set my budget at $5 a day and let it roll. By the end of October, my launch email list had 50 subscribers.  That number disappointed me.

Word is not the best for formatting

While I enjoyed working in Scrivener because I could easily move whole chapters and re-organize sections with ease, I grew incredibly impatient with Word.  Christmas with Kids contains a lot of pictures. Many of the chapters contain step-by-step tutorials where I wanted pictures in a specific place on the page. I created a few Word hacks to work around some spacing difficulties, but overall I wanted a lot more control over my layout. For my next book, I plan to learn InDesign.

Talking to a Lawyer is Invaluable

Throughout my creation process, I often wondered if I was protected – particularly since I used so many other people’s work. Of course I had permission through email, but never any contract. Luckily, I attended a conference in September and got the opportunity to talk to a lawyer familiar with bloggers: the wonderful Sara F. Hawkins.

She suggested I draw up a simple contract detailing what I’m using from each blogger, how they will get paid and that the copyright of the book will be in my name.Copyright?!? What? I need to copyright the book?

Yes. And it was an incredibly simple process. I logged onto the Library of Congress website, uploaded my book and paid the $55 fee. Done! The copyright is in my name because if any legal dispute arises, I won’t need 13 different people to sign off on paperwork. I would represent the work as a whole.

Keeping the Blog Going

I noticed a dip in social shares this month since I didn’t spend much time on social media during the month of October. While I still tried to publish 2-3 posts per week, the volume of shares was less. My most popular new posts this month were:

How to Tell if Your Child is Getting Bullied – 122 shares

I wrote this post for one of my friends who was worried about her son.  He didn’t talk about friends at school or playing with people at recess and she wondered if other kids were bullying him. I researched this for several days and compiled my findings in this post along with a personal story of my own bullying.

When I posted this on my Facebook page, a lot of people shared their own bullying stories in the comments.  I loved the response. Although writing this post was extremely emotional for me, I saw how sharing my heartache could inspire community and help others feel less alone.

Trick or Treat Glitter Pumpkin Stack (Sponsored) – 96 shares

I needed a way to display Hershey’s candy in a fun way. I thought of how we always lack someone at home on Halloween to pass out candy and pitched this pumpkin stack to Social Fabric.

Talk Like a Pirate Treasure Hunt – 120 shares

Arizona has a wonderful community of bloggers! One amazing blogger started a group called Blockbuster bloggers where we all brainstorm a recipe, craft or activity that relates to a movie coming out. We then all publish our posts on that’s movies release date and promote each other like crazy. This post was for the movie Pan.

5 items you can Toss Out of Your Closet Right Now – 57 shares

I have a popular post called How to Create a Small Wardrobe that I’m always looking to spin off. Elaborating on a popular topic is difficult. I always have trouble thinking of an idea that is similar to the topic yet different. My husband actually suggested this post topic to me and I ran with it.

The Stats

Income

• Adsense: $7.74
• BlogHer Ads: $55.51
• Affiliate Income: $359.66
• Sponsored Posts: $1410 (I got paid!!)
• Total: $1832.81

Expenses

• Pinterest Ads: $33.00
• Props for photos: $5.80
• BoardBooster: $19.35
• Library of Congress (copyrighted book): $55.00
• Facebook Ads: 131.19
• E-Junkie: 5.00
• Dollar Photo Club: $10
• Ultimate Photography Bundle: $67.00
• Total: 326.34

Total Profit: $1506.47

My profit is huge this month in part to two three-post sponsored series getting paid. Oh happy day! Also, my affiliate income is larger than normal due to an awesome flash sale of Elite Blog Academy (of which I’m an affiliate). Usually my blog profit falls within the $10-$20 range.

Page Views

Total page views for October: 23,o82,

Oh, it’s always heartbreaking to see page views go down. I live in Phoenix, AZ.  Every school break, I publish a list of places to take kids in Phoenix. I link it to posts I’ve already written in my blog and the post always blows up. It’s spectacular. The peak at the beginning of October was from my fall break post. As you can see, the page views go down as soon as fall break ends.

Sad? Yes. I’m still struggling with ways to raise page views. Although I experience brief successes, I would love to have my views be more consistent. I am still learning.

That is my rundown for October. Next month, I’ll let you know how the book launch went and how many copies of the book I’ve sold.