Blog Income Report: $352 in September 2020
This income report is coming quite late in the month, and honestly that’s because it’s a pretty disappointing one!
I didn’t even want to share this income report, but the whole point of me publishing them is to show the reality of what it’s actually like to run a blog. And some months (like September) are just disappointing.
Luckily, since I am publishing this so close to the end of October, I can say that this month has been MUCH better (which you’ll soon see in my October income report) but I definitely hit a major slump in September, which surprised me.
In case you’re new around here, I started sharing income reports for this blog in order to show that it’s possible to make money from a new blog, even if you don’t have much time to work on it. (I run two other blogs in addition to this one, and I only spend a couple hours a week working on this blog.)
Read on for my September 2020 blog income report!
Are you interested in starting your own blog? It’s a great way to make money online and anyone can do it if they’re willing to put in the work.
The only cost associated with starting a blog is web hosting (I recommend Bluehost because they offer web hosting for $3.95 a month and a free domain name) and the optional cost of getting a premium WordPress theme for your blog. (I use a theme from 17th Avenue Designs.)
If you want to start your own blog, be sure to read my guide on how to start a blog for beginners for a step-by-step tutorial on how to get started.
Now let’s get into my blog income report for this month!
Previous Income Reports
Looking for my previous income reports? Here they are:
- April 2020: $33.47
- May 2020: $205.42
- June 2020: $681.50
- July 2020: $1,254.74
- August 2020: $1,000.18
Traffic Breakdown
September 2020 Blog Traffic:
- Pageviews: 20,360
My traffic continued to drop this month to a very disappointing level. I attribute this to the fact that most college students have already gone back to school in September, so traffic to my popular back-to-college posts dropped off.
September 2020 Email List:
- Subscribers: 890
My email list growth also stagnated this month, because the free college packing list I offer is not seasonally relevant right now. I honestly don’t do much with my email list on this blog, and until I have a solid strategy in place, I’m not going to worry too much about growing my list further.
Income Breakdown
September 2020 Blog Income:
- Amazon: $84.06
- Mediavine: $240.27
- Amazon ebook: $28
Total: $352.33
Amazon
Pretty terrible month for Amazon affiliate sales!
Like I said above, I think the reason for this is that most college students were already back in school by September, and no longer shopping for college and dorm things (which had been making up most of my Amazon sales!)
I am not too worried about the coming months because I have a LOT of seasonal content already published (for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) that should bring in a high volume of sales.
Mediavine
Between low traffic and low RPMs, my ad income from Mediavine was also very disappointing this month.
October, November, and December should be much better, because as I said in my last income report, Q4 is when RPMs are typically highest. This is because advertisers are spending the most during the holiday season. So I am looking forward to seeing an increase in this income stream again!
Amazon ebook
This month, I did make two sales for Maria’s great ebook about how to make money from the Amazon affiliate program. (Ironically in the month I did pretty terribly with the Amazon affiliate program myself!)
However, despite my slow month, I highly recommend this book and I learned a lot of great strategies for maximizing my earnings as an Amazon affiliate.
Blogging Expenses
Once again, I did not have any blogging expenses this month.
The only recurring expense that I have for this blog is web hosting through Bluehost, which is something I pay for annually.
I am on a web hosting plan that costs $170 a year due to the fact that I host multiple blogs. However if you are just starting one blog, you can get web hosting from Bluehost for just $3.95 a month.
Blogging Goals
My two blogging goals from last month were to publish three new blog posts and to come up with a strategy for my email list.
I achieved my first goal, publishing exactly three new blog posts in September.
As for figuring out a strategy for my email list… no.
I’m not going to set any goals for October, because as I’m writing this, the month is almost over, and I didn’t even think about it until now!
What Worked This Month
Obviously, this month was disappointing when it came to income.
However, I can’t complain too much since what I did earn was all passive income and I only spent 8-10 hours the entire month working on this blog.
One thing I did do was spend some time making pins for my Halloween content, because I wanted to start driving traffic to it. And that definitely paid off, as you’ll see in my October income report!
Want to Learn How to Start a Blog?
Starting a blog was by far the best decision I made in college!
I now earn over $5,000 a month between my three blogs, and this is still something I do only part time!
You can read more about how I started blogging, along with the step-by-step guide to start your own blog, in this post.
Basically, it boils down to the following steps:
- Decide what you want to blog about (AKA your blog niche.)
- Choose a name for your blog.
- Get your domain name and web hosting through Bluehost. (Your domain name is FREE and web hosting with them is only $3.95 a month.)
- Choose a WordPress theme. (Mine is from 17th Avenue Designs.)
- Write your first blog post!
Starting a blog is actually really easy and something you can do today. You don’t need any experience. My biggest tip is just to get started and learn as you go!
Click here for the full step-by-step guide on how to start a blog.
