How I Made $4,612 In 1 Month Blogging

How I Made $4,612 In 1 Month Blogging

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission for purchases made through these links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I started this blog in 2013 for fun. I never thought I’d make any money from it. 

In 2016, I decided to take this blog seriously. It wasn’t easy. In fact, blogging has been one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had. I’m my own boss which has a lot of responsibility attached to it. I worked for free for a long time before I ever made any real money.

I’m happy I stuck it out for the long haul because I’m now a full-time blogger. I was even recently featured on Forbes for my unique story. I made $80,000 my senior year of college with blogging and side hustles.

Before we get started, make sure to sign up for my free resource library and get access to exclusive printables all about saving money and building wealth, meal planning, and more.

Previous income reports:

How much time do you spend on your blog?

I spend around 20-30 hours a week on my blog.

When traveling, the hours tend to be all over the place.

During Fincon, I only spent maybe 5-10 hours on my blog due to being at the conference all week.

I also bought my pass for #Fincon18 in Orlando, which I’m super excited about!!

How to make money blogging

There are many ways you can make money blogging. Some of these are:

  • Sponsored posts
  • Affiliate income
  • Ad revenue
  • Creating and selling your own products

How much did you make in October of 2017?

Sponsored posts: $2,178

Affiliate Income: $859

Virtual Assistant: $900

Ad Revenue: $675

My first product: Making Sense of Sponsored Posts 

Learn everything there is to know about sponsored posts with my course Making Sense of Sponsored Posts.

Sponsored posts helped me become a full-time blogger and is my favorite way to make money blogging!

Over 600 students have taken my course so far and have landed major brand sponsorships, charged 3x what they’d usually charge, and worked with brands multiple times.

You also get access to a private mastermind group where you can ask any blogging questions and get help from me and other successful bloggers.

Take action now: Before we begin, get access to How To Send An Email Pitch To Land Sponsorships checklist. This quick checklist will help you stand out from other influencers and increase your brand sponsorships. 

Top affiliate companies

Are you interested in making money on your blog but not sure how to get started? Grab this free eBook called Affiliate Marketing Tips For Bloggers that shares the best affiliate marketing programs, how bloggers get paid with affiliate marketing, and the best tips for making money with affiliate marketing.

What worked

  • Creating infographics and savings plans have been a game changer for Pinterest. My most seen pin (very different from most clicked on, but regardless, great for my Pinterest profile) is a travel savings plan which has been doing amazing for months.
  • Creating a free resource library has increased my email list dramatically. People love free stuff! I add printables to this monthly, and they’re also a lot of fun to make.
  • I also created a How To Start A Blog free email course, which has done tremendously well, too. This email course is my highest converting opt-in on my blog.
  • I also decreased the number of ads that are on my blog. My website has too many ads, and I feel like this is hurting my affiliate income. No idea if this helped, but my ad income almost tripled, which is awesome!
  • My Instagram is improving! I am now posting an inspiring quote every 3rd picture, along with my fitness and travel posts. Follow me here!
  • I also added a Pinterest sidebar to my blog, which (I believe) has helped me increase my followers! You can follow me on Pinterest here.

What failed

  • I’ve been wasting too much time on Twitter. I’ve been attempting to gain traction on this platform, and it’s proving to be useless, haha. I have 4,000 followers, yet my views from Twitter are very little. I think this is because people don’t usually go on Twitter to read articles, but instead read tweets.

What I’ll be working on next month

  • I also started a free Facebook community. There are currently around 70 members, which is awesome! However, there is very little interaction between readers, and I need to work on this.
  • My affiliate marketing strategy needs some work. Though I managed to double my affiliate income this month, I still believe there is a lot of work to do in this area.
  • My digital product is finished, and now I need to create a sales page for it. Super excited about this!
  • A few of you have been telling me to create a digital product related to scoring sponsored posts. I’ve been considering this, so I might start working on it!

Blog related posts

New posts from FITnancials this month

Future Plans

  • Since I started full-time blogging, I made approximately $30,000 in the past 12 months. I’d love to double that income to $60,000 in the next 12 months. I’ve been making a steady $4-5K the past few months, so I feel good about this!
  • Work more. Yep, you heard that right! I need to work on being more productive. I’ve only been working around 20 hours a week. Although, I dedicate the entire day of Monday to school work and that burns me out pretty hard.
  • Stay above 100,000 page views. I just hit 100,000 page views last month, but I know keeping it up is going to be hard!
  • Improve my Facebook strategy. I’m stuck at 3,000 likes and would love to increase this and reach more people.

Tips To Become A Blogger:

Are you not sure where to start on creating a profitable blog? I recommend checking out this course roadmap to figure out where you should get started first!

I recommend the Pro Blogger Bundle which includes 4 of the best blogging courses. I’ve personally taken all 4 courses and they’re exactly what took me from newbie blogger to full-time business owner on Fitnancials. I was getting little page views before one of the courses called Pinterest Traffic Avalanche. Now I’m getting enough traffic from Pinterest alone to make my blog a full-time career. You learn absolutely everything you need to know to start and run a profitable blog and business. These 4 courses were created by bloggers who made $100,000+ in their first year running a health and fitness blog.

Are you not sure where to start on creating a profitable blog? I recommend checking out this course roadmap to figure out where you should get started first!

Recap

I hit over 107,000 page views this month, which is soooooo awesome!

I also just got back from Fincon. Fincon is a 4-day conference targeted to online influencers in the personal finance niche.

I met so many people that I’m going to miss SO much over the next 11 months.

If you’re in the personal finance niche, you must go to this conference.

This was a great month for me and I’m loving where the blog is headed. I also feel like I’m in such a good place mentally.

Conclusion: Start a blog that makes money

If your dream is to become a full-time blogger and start a blog, I recommend starting a blog with Bluehost.

I started this blog in college and graduated my senior year making $80,000 a year. Now, I work from home, spend time with my family and dogs, and I get to take my family on nice trips and donate to my favorite charities. 

Bluehost has 24/7 support, a money-back guarantee, and makes it as easy as possible to start a blog. 

Start a blog today for just $2.95/month with my step-by-step tutorial here. It’s easy, painless, and takes less than 20 minutes to start a blog of your own. With my link, you get a discount from $7.99/month to $2.95/month.

If you need a little more help starting your blog, I even have a free How To Start A Successful Blog quick 5-day course that shows you step-by-step what to do AFTER you started your blog. This quick course is filled with a TON of value giving you everything you need to get started the best way.

What to read next: How I Made $80,000 My Second Year Blogging Full-Time In College

What else would you like to see in my next blogging income report?

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This Post Has 21 Comments

  1. Natalie Say 11 Mar 2020 Reply

    What are the requirements to have sponsored posts on my blog? Do I need to hit a certain threshold or milestone (say, 10,000 visitors per month)?

    Do you reach out to people or do they come to you for sponsored posts?

    Thank you for the transparency and for sharing your income. 🙂

    1. Alexis 12 Mar 2020 Reply

      Hey Natalie! There are no set requirements and it truly depends on your niche and the brand you want to work with. For example, a major brand like Target will want someone with a massive audience, while a smaller, newer brand will be open to working with brands with a small audience.

      I reach out to brands for sponsored posts, but many brands contact me.

      You’re welcome! 🙂

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