This post may contain affiliate links. FinanceSuperhero only recommends products we know and trust ourselves.
Welcome to the FinanceSuperhero August 2017 Blog Income Report. In this post, I will be outlining exactly how I made money on my blog last month.
Though I had very little time (only a few hours for the entire MONTH – more on that later) to devote to the blog in August, it was still a decent month.
If you’re new to FinanceSuperhero, you may not realize this is the fifth income report I’ve ever published. And if you’re new to bloggers income reports in general, you may be scratching your head and wondering, “Is this really a thing?!”
Related Reading:
April 2017 Blog Income Report: How I Made $1,070.40 Blogging
May 2017 Blog Income Report: How I Made $975.87 Blogging
June 2017 Blog Income Report: How I Made $473.04 Blogging
July 2017 Blog Income Report: How I Made $841.81 Blogging
When I started earning money through my blog – a few cents and dollars here and there – I started an ongoing internal debate with myself about whether or not I should post income reports.
On one hand, I’ve always felt that some (not all) income reports read a little bit like bragging (it is my sincere hope that nothing in this post will come across that way).
But on the other hand, I’ve always admired the honest transparency of bloggers who post income reports and detail exactly what is working for them.
From reading others’ income reports, I have learned a lot about the ins-and-outs of how to blog for profit while still staying true to my beliefs and values as a blogger. After much reflection, I decided that it was time to pay it forward, so to speak, and share how I am earning money through my blog.
Why Do I Share a Blog Income Report?
To anyone wondering, “Why on Earth would anyone want to share their income publicly for all the world to see?“, I have 2 main reasons:
- First, my long-term goal is to begin earning enough money through FinanceSuperhero.com to replace my current teacher salary (and my wife’s salary, as well, not too long after). Just over a year ago, I had no idea that blogging could provide a viable living. Others’ income reports helped me see that it was possible. I hope that my reports will help others see that it is possible to earn money while helping others through blogging.
- Second, I believe very strongly in the power of goals and accountability. These reports will be a very public way to hold myself accountable for working to grow and build my business. To be honest, it is scary and intimidating to be accountable to thousands of readers and blogger friends, but I know it will be good for me.
At this stage, I know I’m still in the early stages of my growth as a blogger. Plenty of bloggers, even dozens in the personal finance niche, dwarf my monthly earnings every single day. This blog is still a small fish in a mighty large pond.
But to earn significant income in only a few hours per month is honestly exciting.
Related: How to Build a Blog and Get Noticed – a Comprehensive Guide
If you’ve been pondering making the leap yourself, please let me encourage you: now is the time to start your blog!
Fall is here, and people are about to resume spending significant time indoors and online. The summer slump seems to be ending a bit late this year, but I’ve heard from others that it varies a bit from year to year.
As a FinanceSuperhero reader, you can start your blog with Bluehost for only $3.95 per month and receive a FREE domain for one full year (a $15 value).
If you follow my step-by-step guide, you can have your new blog up and running in a matter of minutes. Once your blog is active, I’ll even walk you through the most important steps to take to write content that will get noticed and shared regularly!
Click here to start your blog now!Income Report – How I Earned $688.42 Blogging Last Month
Each monthly income report on this blog will track all blog income on an accrual basis (i.e. income will be accounted for when it is earned, not necessarily when payment is received).
On to the details!
How FinanceSuperhero Became August’s Casualty
In the month of August, to say that life became hectic would be an understatement. In addition to heading back to my teaching job full-time at the start of a new school year, I also logged an additional 35-40 hours per week for showings, paperwork, inspections, open houses, lease signings, and client meetings for my real estate business.
Yes, I worked 75-80 hours per week in August.
Fortunately, I came out of the frying pan unscathed, healthy, and happy. And I still managed to spend a great chunk of time with my wife and friends!
FinanceSuperhero was definitely an after-thought throughout the month, and it showed, as I only was able to publish a few articles during the entire month.
However, to look up at the end of the month and see that I earned $688.42 in only a few hours of work is a great testament to the power of passive income!
Monthly Page Views
August was a slow traffic month on FinanceSuperhero. As you can see in the graph from Google Analytics below, the blog received 42,918 unique page views for the month. Most bloggers notice a dip in traffic during the summer, and I didn’t escape that trend. Even so, I continue to believe that page views are primarily a vanity metric.
That said, I am continuing to press on with my goal of increasing page views to 100,000+ per month for a few reasons:
1.) I would like to join the AdThrive network, which is reserved for sites with 100,000 minimum monthly page views. I love MediaVine, my current network, but growth is always good.
2.) More visitors to the site will continue to convert to more subscribers.
I fully believe the secret to solid blog traffic is Pinterest. If you’re a blogger who is serious about growing your reach, you need to develop a Pinterest strategy NOW. My biggest regret as a blogger is that I ignored Pinterest for nearly my entire first year.
The secret to my Pinterest traffic is two-fold: joining high performing group boards and regularly pinning content to them using Board Booster.
Thanks to Board Booster, I spend only a few minutes per day on Pinterest to perform minimal manual pinning, yet my content is still seen by thousands of people each day. If you’re looking for a good tutorial or guide to getting started with Board Booster and Pinterest, I recommend checking out the video below from Rosemarie Groner, the mastermind behind The Busy Budgeter.
Board Booster Tutorial – Setting Up Your Group Boards
If you’re interested in taking your Pinterest game to the next level, Board Booster is a serious game-changer. Get started with BoardBooster here!
If you have any questions on my strategy or how to use Pinterest or Board Booster, send me an email – I’d be happy to help you!
Subscribers
If you’re a blogger and you’re not actively seeking to grow an email list, now is the time to change that! I waited far too long to grow my list, and I’m still playing catch-up as a result.
I use MailChimp and the FREE MailMunch plugin to offer free resources to readers, as seen above and below.
These two free resources help me connect with hundreds of new subscribers each month. Today, my subscriber list has grown to 2,100 subscribers.
Income Report Breakdown
As previously mentioned, I earned $688.42 through blogging in August. Below is a breakdown of how I earned this income.
Affiliate Marketing
If you’re newer to blogging, you may or may not have heard of affiliate marketing. Essentially, affiliate marketing is the process of earning commission by promoting products and services. Each time a purchase or sign-up occurs, an affiliate marketer receives a portion of the profits based on a negotiated agreement.
I only recommend products and services which I feel will genuinely help readers Take Back Control of Life and Money. In the past, I have turned down several opportunities to form affiliate partnerships simply because the product or service did not provide a high value.
The biggest cause of my ongoing growth in affiliate income is the lessons I learned from the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Michelle Schroeder-Gardener, the creator of the course, is an affiliate marketing expert who earns over $100,000 per month – yes, six figures – on her blog.
I haven’t even finished implementing all of her strategies and tips and I have already earned back my investment of $197 in the course.
If you’re looking to up your affiliate marketing game in an ethical way and build trust with your readers, you need to sign-up for Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Michelle offers a risk free refund, so you literally have nothing to lose. Sign-up below by clicking on the link.
Sign-up for Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing and take your affiliate marketing income to the next level!That said, here is a breakdown of my affiliate income, sorted by partner:
ImpactRadius: $0
ImpactRadius is one of my favorite affiliate programs. Currently, I’m partnering with them to help readers make extra money by driving for Uber and UberEATS and saving money on insurance with Allstate.
I did not actively promote these services this month.
FlexOffers: $22.15
FlexOffers is one of the most well-known affiliate programs for a reason. They offer great value, are a pleasure to work with, and have a great offering of affiliate programs for all niches.
If you’re a blogger, you should definitely sign-up with FlexOffers. You can click here to get started today.
iGain: $2.25
I joined the iGain network after discovering that they offer high value survey opportunities for readers. There are many poor survey offers out there, but iGain offers many of the highest payouts for those who are interested in taking surveys.
If you’re looking for an opportunity to earn more than $200 per month by taking simple surveys in your free time, check out the post below:
The Best Survey Sites to Make an Extra $200+ Each Month
$5 Meal Plan: $9.90
Meal planning is a surprisingly simple key to maintaining a healthy grocery budget. $5 Meal Plan removes the hassle and frustration by doing the planning for you. I’m proud to recommend them because they offer a tremendous value at a very low monthly price of only $5.
Zaycon Fresh: $15.00
For most families, meat is the most expensive category in their grocery budget. Zaycon Fresh is on a mission to change that by offering farm-fresh meat at a fraction of the cost of your local grocery store. They work with local supplies to provide the highest quality meats directly to you while helping you save hundreds or even thousands of dollars each year.
You can sign-up for Zaycon Fresh and begin receiving offers in your area here.If you are a blogger and would like to join the Zaycon program as an affiliate partner, you can sign-up here using my link.
Budgeting for Budget Haters: $0.00
My friend Adam Hagerman, CFP, has put together the best interactive course on budgeting I’ve ever seen. If you’ve tried everything and still can’t seem to create a budget that works for your family, I recommend checking out Adam’s course, Budgeting for Budget Haters. It even has a risk-free, money-back guarantee.
Click here to sign-up for the Budgeting for Budget Haters course. You literally have nothing to lose! This is one of the few $98 investments that could change your life forever.
Total Affiliate Income: $49.30
Display Advertising
I used three types of display advertising on FinanceSuperhero: MediaVine, Smart Asset Captivate, and MyFinance. They produce fairly unobtrusive ad blocks and do not seem to take away from the user experience. In fact, many readers seem to value the supplementary content provided by MyFinance based on the number of daily click-throughs.
MediaVine: $334.39
MyFinance: $175.73
Smart Asset: $50.00 (estimate, as final figure was not available)
Display Advertising Total: $560.12
Sponsored Posts and Mentions
Each month, I receive many requests for sponsored posts and turn down nearly every proposal. However, when a quality proposal comes along, I am always happy to provide value for readers.
In June, I turned down over $1,200 of sponsored post offers. Yes, you read that right.
In July and August, I did the same.
Why would I turn down guaranteed money? The answer is simple: I am committed to only working with brands which align 100% with my financial values and beliefs.
The bottom line is that I won’t promote junk just to make money. I care about you, the reader, way too much to do that.
If you are a sponsor looking for opportunities to work with me, please review our Media Kit and contact me via email.
Sponsored Posts/Mentions: $0.00
Odds and Ends
From time to time, I like to recommend products and apps to help people save money without doing anything extra beyond normal day-to-day life. Ibotta is one of those apps.
Ibotta is one of the best tools available to help families save money on groceries without clipping coupons. It coordinates with your local grocery store and learns your shopping habits, then provides money-saving offers. You can sign-up here.
Ibotta: $79.00
Copy work: $0.00
Last month, I picked up a job out of the blue editing and reviewing copy for another website. And in August, I agreed to work with a few more websites.
It looks like these will probably be long-term arrangements; however, I didn’t end-up having much time to take on optional projects in August, as I went back to my day job as a full-time teacher and also worked close to full-time hours in my real estate business.
Odds and Ends Total: $79.00
Wrap-up
When I started blogging, I had no idea that I would make money after just one year blogging. It goes without saying that I would love to see my income trend upward, but as in all things in life, there are no guarantees. However, I am thrilled to be doing what I love – helping people gain control over their life and money – and earn an income at the same time. And to think that I did it all in only a few hours this past month is surprising!
How was your August 2017 income? Do you have an interest in starting a blog or monetizing your current blog?
What questions do you have? Let me know in the comments section below.