Blog Income Reports From A Multi-Million Blog (My Real Reports!)

If you’ve ever wondered how I make money, then this is for you – it’s dedicated to my blog income reports!

I absolutely love blogging, and I am so glad that I randomly started this site a little over a decade ago. Blogging has taught me so many things, and I have helped countless people improve their finances.

Plus, I have been able to earn a great income doing something I truly love to do!

One of the things I started doing in the early days of Making Sense of Cents was to publish personal finance blog income reports. They were a monthly breakdown of how much money I made and where it came from, such as affiliate income, sponsored posts, etc. I also answered FAQs and talked about different things happening in my life and business.

If you’re interested in blogging or simply want to learn more about my site, my income reports include a ton of information.

I’ll explain more shortly, but I no longer publish my income. However, I still have a lot of people asking where they can find my old income reports. That’s why I decided to put together this page. 

My income reports started because I wanted to share how much money I was earning from my side jobs, which included blogging at the time. These reports included all of the income I made outside of my day job. This included income from mystery shopping, answering surveys online, selling items on eBay, and more.

Eventually, I quit all of my side jobs and focused solely on Making Sense of Cents. That’s when my reports really changed, and they became blogging income reports and showed the many different ways that I earned money from this site.

My Making Sense of Cents income reports have sparked a lot of questions and comments over the years!

Many thought I was crazy for publicly sharing my income, but there were a lot of people who really appreciated how transparent I was about my business. 

However, I had three main reasons for writing my income reports each month:

1. Before I started blogging, I knew nothing about side hustling and making money online. I didn’t think side jobs were worth the effort, and I thought the only way to significantly increase your income was by getting a raise at your full-time job. If it weren’t for others publishing their monthly income reports, I don’t know if I would have ever tried side hustling. I wanted to show others the benefits of side hustling and how it can change your life. There are many different ways to make money online, and I enjoy sharing my story because it motivates others to make more money and improve their financial situation.
2. Secondly, I liked to publish my business blogging reports because it was a way for me to look back, learn from my mistakes, and see where I could improve my blog. I used my monthly blogging reports to measure my success, and they held me accountable.
3. Lastly, I shared them to show others that making extra money is possible and that there are many legitimate ways to make money from your home.

Honestly, I really enjoyed writing my income reports too!

The reason I quit publishing my income reports is because they put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself to keep earning more and more money every month. What I realized was that my income was just a number, and it couldn’t quantify my quality of life. I also felt like I was repeating the same thing month after month about my income. 

Having more privacy became more important to me too. People can be really weird about money, and sharing such personal details about my financial life started making me feel unsafe.

I would love to find a way to bring back some form of my income reports, but I’m still trying to figure out the best way to do that. Let me know in the comments below – what would you like to see?

Before I share links to my income reports, here’s a little more information about my blogging journey:

How much have I earned over the years from my blog?

Here’s a quick summary of some of my income years:

• In 2013, my business income totaled $116,519. This was the year I quit my job to become a full-time blogger.
• In 2014, it totaled $163,929. This was my first full year of self-employment, meaning I had no day job.
• In 2015, I made $320,888. I think this was the year where I “fired” all of my freelance clients and started working only on my blog. This significantly helped me grow my income because I was FOCUSED!
• In 2016, I made $979,321. This is the year where I created my first product (Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing).
• In 2017, I earned $1,536,732.
• In 2018, I earned over $1,500,000 (as of November 2018, I had earned $1,510,040).

 

How To Start A Blog Free Course

If you don’t have a blog, then I recommend starting off with my free blogging course How To Start A Blog FREE Course.

Here’s a quick outline of what you will learn in this free course:

• Day 1: Reasons you should start a blog.
• Day 2: How to determine what to blog about.
• Day 3: How to create your blog. In this lesson, you will learn how to start a blog on WordPress. My tutorial makes it very easy to start a blog.
• Day 4: How to make money blogging.
• Day 5: My tips for passive income from blogging.
• Day 6: How to grow your traffic and followers.
• Day 7: Miscellaneous blogging tips that will help you be successful.

I’m a little biased (obviously, haha!), but this is one of the best free blogging courses you can take. It’s delivered directly to your email inbox, and you will learn how to grow a blog from scratch.

You can sign up for free by clicking here.

 

How did I build a million dollar blog?

I created my blog on a whim after reading about a personal finance website in a magazine. At first, it was just a hobby to track my own personal finance progress. When I started in 2011, I honestly didn’t even know that people could make money blogging!

My interest in blogging quickly grew, but like I said it was all just a hobby. I wanted a space to write about my personal finance situation, have a support group, keep track of how I was doing, and more. I did not create Making Sense of Cents with the intention of earning an income, but after only six months, I began to make money blogging.

A friend I met through the blogging community connected me with an advertiser, and I earned $100 from that first advertisement deal.

That one deal sparked everything. It made me want to learn more about monetizing my blog and to take my blog more seriously.

I now earn a great living from my blog, and it all started on a whim and not even knowing that blogs could make money.

I recommend reading How I Successfully Built A $1,000,000+ Blog to learn more.

 

How did I make money by creating and selling my own product?

I created Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, my first online course, in July of 2016. Since then, I have helped over 8,000 students and have earned over $1,000,000 from it.

This was without any webinars, Facebook Lives, any guest posts, a “launch” period, or anything else. It’s an evergreen course that has mainly spread through word of mouth.

I recommend reading How I’ve Made Over $1,000,000 From My First Course Without A Big Launch to learn more.

In that blog post, I share exactly how I’ve earned income through my course.

 

My blog income reports from over the years

As I said earlier, I have published many, many income reports over the years.

In my monthly income reports, I wrote about what I worked on that month, exactly how I earned money (and the sources), what my business goals were, answered common questions, and more.

I started publishing blog income reports back in 2012, all the way through 2019. You can find them below:

• $672 extra in May 2012 – This is my very first month blogging income report!
• $994 extra in June 2012
• $1,425 extra in July 2012
• $1,603 extra in August 2012
• $3,275 extra in September 2012
• $3,700 extra in October 2012
• $5,114 extra in November 2012
• $5,770 in Extra Income in December 2012
• $6,523 in January 2013 Extra Income
• $5,983 in February 2013 Extra Income
• $7,862 in March 2013 Extra Income
• $7,859 in April 2013 Extra Income
• $7,641 in May 2013 Extra Income
• $10,192 in June 2013 Extra Income
• $11,117 in July 2013 Extra Income
• $9,554 in August 2013 Extra Income
• $12,334 in September 2013 Side Income
• $11,927 in October 2013 Business Income – I Finally Left My Job
• $13,387 in November 2013 Business Income
• $12,160 in December 2013 Business Income
• $12,640 in January 2014 Business Income
• $13,454 in February 2014 Business Income
• $12,100 in March 2014 Business Income
• $13,493 in April 2014 Business Income
• $12,747 in May 2014 Business Income
• $12,787 in June 2014 – Site Redesign and More Motivation
• $14,937 in July 2014
• $15,272 in September 2014 Online Income – Outsourcing and Passive Income
• $14,136 in October 2014 Income
• $14,534 November 2014 Income
• $13,673 December 2014 Income – My Monthly Online Income Report and 2014 Wrap Up
• $15,396 in January 2015 Income
• $23,758 in February 2015 Income
• $15,151 in March 2015
• $32,474 in April 2015
• $20,635 in May 2015
• $23,471 in June 2015
• How I Made $25,138 Online In July 2015 Plus My 4-Year Blogiversary
• Monthly Online Income Report – $23,992 In August 2015
• September 2015 Online Income Report – $31,030
• October 2015 Online Income Report – $33,482
• November 2015 Online Income Report – $30,569
• How I Made Over $320,000 Blogging In 2015, Plus My December Income Report
• January 2016 Online Income Report – $44,782
• February 2016 Blog Income Report – $49,607
• My March 2016 Blog Income Report – $72,196
• My April 2016 Blog Income Report – $71,761.30
• My May 2016 Blog Income Report – $69,085
• My June 2016 Blog Income Report – $68,440
• My July 2016 Blog Income Report – $112,594
• My August 2016 Blog Income Report – $90,188
• My September 2016 Blog Income Report – $102,911
• My October 2016 Blog Income Report – $99,607.18
• My November 2016 Blog Income Report – $106,383.89
• How I Made $979,321 In 2016 – My December Online Income Report and Annual Wrap Up
• My January 2017 Blog Income Report – $139,233
• How I Made $160,211.27 in February 2018 Blogging
• How I Made $130,856.35 in March 2018 Blogging
• How I Made $131,448.35 in April 2018 While Traveling Full-Time
• How I Made $120,104.93 In May Working From Home
• How I Made $121,861.28 In June While Sailing to Beautiful Islands
• How I Made $110,897.33 In July 2017 Blogging
• How I Made $135,110 In August 2017 Blogging
• How I Made $113,267.08 In September 2017 Blogging
• How I Made $136,829.30 In October 2017 Blogging
• How I Made $110,656 In November 2017 Blogging
• How I Made $1,536,732 In 2017 – My December Online Income Report and Annual Wrap Up
• How I Made $114,812 In January 2018 Blogging
• How I Made $179,139 In February 2018 Blogging
• How I Made $241,649 In March 2018 Blogging
• How I Made $104,065 In April 2018 Blogging
• How I Made $136,807 In May 2018 Blogging + Tips For The Summer Blogging Slump
• How I Made $100,324 In June 2018 Blogging
• How I Made $113,235 In July 2018 Blogging
• How I Made $110,284 In August 2018 Working From Home
• How I Made $104,814 In September 2018 Working From Home
• How I Made $145,319 in October 2018 While Traveling
• How I Made $159,592 Blogging in November 2018
• How I Made Over $1,500,000 In One Year
• How I Made Money And Traveled Full-Time In January 2019
• How I Made Money And Traveled Full-Time In February 2019
• How I Made Money Blogging From Home In March 2019
• How I Made Money Blogging From Home In April 2019
• How I Made Money Blogging From Home In May 2019
• How I Made Money Blogging From Home In June 2019
• How I Made Money Blogging In August 2019 + My Top Blogging Mistakes
• How I Made Money Blogging In September 2019 + Best Ways To Grow A Loyal Audience
• How I Made Money Online In October 2019
• How I Made Money in 2019 With My Blog – Annual Wrap Up

 

What blogging courses do I recommend?

While I have learned a lot about blogging through trial and error, I have also taken many blogging courses over the years.

The best courses helped me grow my blog’s income and page views by learning specific strategies that have worked for other bloggers.

Many of you have wondered about the tools and resources I use to improve my blog. I believe that in order to be a successful blogger and to learn new ways to make money blogging, you will need to invest in learning new strategies, such as through ebooks, webinars, courses, and more.

Blogging courses can help you save a lot of time. Instead of guessing what your next step and strategy would be, use one of the resources below to learn more.

Some of my favorite blogging courses include:

• Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – This is my affiliate marketing for bloggers course, and I have already had over 8,000 students take my course. I show you exactly how to make passive income from blogging, even while you’re sleeping.
• Making Sense of Sponsored Posts – Here’s one of the best blogging courses for learning about sponsored partnerships. I launched this course with my sister, Alexis of Fitnancials, to help bloggers earn money through sponsored posts. We teach finding sponsorship deals, maintaining partnerships, and how to always make sure that you are helping your readers.
• Traffic Transformation: 21 Strategies I Used to Increase My Monthly Page Views from 17,000 to 400,000+ in 10 Months – This is a great guide full of actionable strategies that you can put into place on your blog right away so that you can learn how to increase your blog’s page views. If you are feeling stuck or if you are a new blogger, check out this resource!
• Pinterest Traffic Avalanche – This is one of the best blogging courses on Pinterest traffic! You can learn how to get 10,000 to 100,000+ free monthly visitors to your website through Pinterest with this course.
• Stupid Simple SEO – This is my favorite overall SEO course, and one of the most popular for bloggers. I highly recommend taking it. I have gone through the whole course, and I constantly refer back to it.
• Easy On Page SEO – This is an easy to follow approach to learn on-page SEO so your articles can rank on Google. I have read this ebook twice, and it is super helpful.
• Site Speed Course – This is one of THE BEST blogging courses for site speed. Your blog’s speed is extremely important, as it can impact your SEO, how long readers will stay on your site (no one likes to read a slow website), and so on.

I recommend reading Best Blogging Courses & Resources That Helped Me Make $100,000+ to learn more.

 

Do you have more questions about blogging?

If you want to learn more about blogging, I recommend reading What Is A Blog, How Do Blogs Make Money, & More. Here, I answer questions such as:

• How do I come up with a blog name?
• What blogs make the most money?
• How do you design a blog?
• How many views do you need to make money blogging?
• How many blog posts should I have before launching?
• How do I get my blog noticed by Google?
• How long until a blog makes money?
• How do blogs make money?
• How do bloggers get paid?

And more.

 

Blog income reports summary

I am so glad that I published so many of my income reports over the years. It allowed me to see exactly what I was working on each month and reflect on the previous month’s work.

I definitely believe that it helped me to grow significantly over the years and helped to keep me motivated.

Plus, I know that my blog income reports have helped so many people over the years. I have received countless emails from readers who personally benefited from my income reports and found them helpful.

Do you want to make money blogging? What do you think of blog income reports?