Welcome to another monthly online income report! You might be here because you wondering, “how much money do bloggers make” or, “how I make money blogging”, which is what I am going to be talking about today.
I’m calling it an online income report since it not only incorporates the blog income but also YouTube earnings. Having several sources of online income growing at the same time makes sense to me in case one ever disappears.
Motivation to rebuild my online income is at an all time high after going back to work after having my baby. I’m not sure I’ll ever stop working a regular job, but having income coming in from other sources gives me many more options!
Why Share An Online Income Report
A couple months ago I decided to take my blog seriously after years of just being a hobby blogger.
During that time of blogging on and off I watched other bloggers like Pinch of Yum, Busy Budgeter, Just A Girl And Her Blog, post monthly blog income reports where they grew from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars a month. I realized if they could do it, why couldn’t I? Even if I only made it to a couple of thousand dollars a month, how would that change our lives?
Currently I’m nowhere near a full time income. I started tracking my income with a rough monthly range of $300-$500 per month and hope to grow that amount to better help support my family.
This is a process for me as I reorganize, refocus, and build from a place where my blog was abandoned for a couple years. If nothing else, I want to see what I can do.
I don’t know how long I’ll be doing these, but I’d at least like to chronicle the experience while I’m focused on earning enough extra income to pay for new expenses like daycare!
Previous Income Reports
If you’re interested in past income reports, you can see my last few here:
- July 2018 Online Income Report: $584.16
- August 2018 Online Income Report: $353.44
- September 2018 Online Income Report: $309.49
October Online Income
Here’s my earnings broken down by type with the sources listed below:
Total Income: $558.70
I hit my goal of $500 earned for the month!
YouTube Earnings
My goal at the beginning of the year was to earn $600 a month on YouTube between my two channels.
My YouTube channel outperformed all expectations I had for income this past month. I earned over $90 from my channel which blew me away! I’ve been grinding away making videos whenever I had time around my work / baby / social schedule so I wasn’t sure how much more I’d earn now versus when I was monetized before. Apparently the answer is 5 times more!
It’s nice to see that the work I’ve been putting into videos and my channel has started to pay off. It makes me want to double down on the Youtube channel because I know if I can earn $90 and have $10 days then I really can earn $600. Or more. I see the huge potential there as a content platform.
I also watched my niece watch YouTube videos one after another after another last night. She could do it for hours. I have no doubt that because kids love YouTube so much that the platform has a bright future. Perhaps all these little ones growing up on the site will eventually hop over to my adult content and learn a little bit about budgeting and living a healthy,
What Didn’t Work Well
I didn’t focus on consolidating my outdated defunct blogs as much because the work is tedious and doesn’t thrill me. I know I need to move the content over but it’s not as much fun so I keep pushing it off.
I also didn’t do much with Pinterest. I know that Pinterest can be key to a bigger source of traffic but it’s just so mysterious to me in some ways so I keep putting it off. I did make a Pinteresty type image for a couple posts.
What Worked Well
I ran a very loose content schedule for the month and that helped with video production especially. I definitely moved things around as I went but having a basic structure helped immensely so I knew which videos I needed to work on and when. I’m thinking about buying another planner to try and stay more organized with my content creation in 2019.
Amazon income was up for the month thanks to improved website and YouTube video search rankings. I’ve been low key focusing on fixing SEO problems and improving what I can with minimal effort. With affiliate income I’ve noticed you don’t need huge amounts of traffic, you just need the right traffic. So focusing on SEO and improving the searches that bring people in is helping connect those people to the products I use.
I also focused on registry bounties on Amazon and that source of income has been consistently growing. I’d like to find more ways to implement this since I personally use a ton of Amazon services in my own life.
My A Merry Life youtube channel has also grown and the first month of remonetization was quite exciting! I did not expect to earn over $90 but it seems that some of my recent content about budgeting has hit with an audience. I know I personally like watching videos about money and budgeting so maybe I’ve just found my people! The growth of the channel seems to be continuing so I’m focused on making several videos each week.
Goals For November
What I’m planning for November:
- Make 3 videos for YouTube per week
- Comment on an average of 3 other channels
- Create at least 1-2 blog posts per week
- Work on Pinterest strategy! Do it!
- Earn $500 for the month in extra income
Popular Posts & Videos
Content creation has gone well despite limited time! I managed to write a number of posts and create YouTube videos every week.
Posts published in October:
Personal finance posts:
- October 2018 Budget With Me
- October Paycheck To Paycheck Budget & Cash Envelopes
- October Paycheck to Paycheck Budget & Cash Envelopes #2
- October Mid-Month Budget Check In
- September Online Income Report
- Our House Price & Mortgage Details | Buying Our First Home
Life posts:
- Detoxing and Decluttering 3 Areas Of Life
- 60+ Fun Fall Things To Do (Fall Bucket List)
- Whole30 Thanksgiving Recipes
- My Mom’s 5 Year Cancer Update
Listing out all the posts I did in October reminds me that I actually did create a decent amount of content!
Popular posts on A Merry Life last month:
- Healthy Eating Snack Ideas
- 50 Motivation Quotes For Your Motivation Board
- How To Deodorize Smelly Shoes
- The Best Thing I Ever Did For My Anxiety
- Baby Shower Brunch Food & Drink Ideas
Popular YouTube videos on my channel last month:
- October Paycheck to Paycheck Budget & Cash Envelopes
- How to get FREE Baby Stuff in 2018
- DIY Tile Coaster Tutorial
- What I Packed For An Alaskan Cruise (who is going in October?!?! I hope you are preplanning!)
Want to start a blog and earn money too? Check out these posts:
- How to start a blog
- How to monetize a blog
- How to make money blogging
- How to earn $40k a year from blogging
- More blogging how-to posts
Want to start your own blog?
Blogs are popular these days. There are so many people now making hundreds to thousands to even tens of thousands of dollars a month from blogs they started. It’s truly a limitless opportunity.
Starting a blog is incredibly easy and very budget friendly these days with cheap hosting and WordPress.
You can create your own blog with this easy-to-use tutorial.
I’ve got a whole section on this site that helps answer blogging questions and talks about making money blogging.