This year I’ve decided to really focus on making affiliate income. To be honest, it’s my absolute favorite way to generate income. And, after a long personal battle about what is the most ethical and least annoying approach to monetization. Now, I’m all in with monetizing my website.. And, it’s also true what they say about what you focus on will grow. My goal is to become the Black Michelle Schroeder-Gardener. Seriously, I don’t even have to change my name. In fact, I have another friend named Michelle who is also killing it. She’s in the LifeVantage space and making crazy money. So, I’m convinced that there’s something with the name. But, in all seriousness, I’ve made a few changes to how I’m monetizing my site. Now, I’m working very hard to seamlessly share resources that will help my readers. And, I think that’s it working. My February 2018 blog income report will show an uptick in blog earnings. And, I’m really happy with my results so far.
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February 2018 Blog Income Report
One of the things that may surprise a lot of people is that a lot of bloggers, especially in the personal finance space, tend to be very conflicted about monetizing their websites. And, I was one of those people for a very long time. I worried that my blog would become painfully dry and boring. There was a concern that I would share resources that didn’t really help my readers. Finally, I worried that the soul of my blog would lost.
It’s a very valid concern.
I spent most of last year rebranding and thinking deeply about how I could serve other people. By specifically focusing on the content that I share I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. Fortunately, I’ve found a happy medium. Here is my process:
- Mondays I write posts that tend to be personal in nature. If you prefer woo-woo that’s the day you should be reading the blog.
- Tuesday-Fridays-I share posts about saving and earning money, blogging, and more lifestyle related content.
- Weekends-Tend to be recipes and food related content, listicles, travel, and gift posts.
This variety of content has always been shared on my site. The big difference in what I’m doing is being a lot more intentional about the end result of the content.
- Help others save money or earn money.
- Help others find a solution to a problem.
Really, I’m keeping things that simple.
What Is in My Income Report
I should start with what I don’t include in my blog income reports.
- Freelance writing-I don’t include that because I’m focused on building affiliate, sponsored, and ad related income.
- Fun side-hustles-To be honest, I’m wrapping up side-hustles by the end of March. They have become a distraction from my cornerstone business and I’m ready to let them go LOL! But, I’ve met a crazy number of people through them. In fact, every time I side-hustle, people ask for my card. Don’t sleep on side-hustles, but-when it’s time to stop doing them, it’s time to stop. That time for me is the end of March.
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- Incomplete Earnings-This is a HUGE pet peeve. What is the point of reporting incomplete earnings? There are some affiliates that may take months before reaching the payout threshold. It makes sense to be excited about the earnings…but, until the money is in my pocket-it’s not real. In fact, right now I have several affiliates that are very close to the payout threshold…and I won’t be reporting them.
What Is In My Blog Income Reports
- Sponsored posts-I share a small number of sponsored posts.
- Affiliate earnings-LOVE, LOVE, LOVE affiliates. And, of course, I’m going to share my Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course link HERE. If you’re a blogger get this course while it’s so cheap. Be aware that it’s text heavy-no videos. Hopefully, Michelle will add videos of herself sailing in the Caribbean as inspiration. But, the content and the results are no joke. I will say that I’m also working my own strategies in addition to Michelle’s will keep you posted on my findings.
- Ad Revenue-I’m cautiously using ads sparingly on Michelle is Money Hungry. I share a lot more ads on my Colorado blog.
- Events-This year I’ve decided to produce events locally. That income will reflect sponsorships for those events.
- Electronic resources/Courses/Webinars-Second to affiliate income, I love this type of income. You can just set it on auto-pilot.
- Podcast earnings-These will most likely be single or multiple episode sponsorships. This year I’m not traveling, so I plan on really focusing on growing this revenue.
- Non-cash affiliates-Currently I’m still making ThredUp credits even though I don’t actively share my link anymore except in two or three old blog posts. In 2018, I’ve (basically) made a point of sharing very few affiliates that only give out credits towards the service vs. cash. I’ve made a couple of exceptions to this rule and will share those affiliates and my rationale in a future post.
Since I run two different websites, I plan on sharing income from both websites. Basically, I’m reporting income that arrives in my bank account overnight. Because…I LOVE passive income. Like, seriously, I love it.
February 2018: $455.42 Income Earned
This is a 433% increase from January when I made $22.84. In fact, I’m really surprised by this number and based on the pending incoming right now I should at least make $500 minimum by the end of March. One of the exciting aspects of growing passive income is that it can come from so many places. But, one of the most frustrating things about passive income is that it can come from so many places.
Here’s where the income came from.
- Ibotta $32 -I love this app. It’s Colorado based and I’ve had the opportunity to meet the CEO several times-cool guy. I still wish they would share more produce savings. Happily, we’re going into community garden and farmer’s market season so my veggies will be cheap for the next seven months. Want to start saving on: Amazon, groceries, booze, and more? Sign up HERE. You’ll receive $10 towards your first payout when you redeem your first saving as a new user.
- Amazon Affiliates $28.42-Recently I wrote a post about why bloggers need to rethink their Amazon Affiliates strategy. You can read the post HERE. It’s not a lot of money…but, this morning I woke up and saw that 41 items had been ordered overnight. As each item ships out-I get a percentage of the overall order. Winning. Don’t sleep on this relatively easy way to grow your affiliate income. That $28 is what I will use to go to Denver Restaurant week this week LOL!
- Sponsored Posts $395-This number was really surprising to me because I haven’t really had many sponsored posts in the past year.
- Pending (non-specified) earnings-March looks like a tipping point month. Currently I see earnings pending for several affiliates that will payout in a couple of weeks. I will hit a payout threshold for another affiliate by the end of next week.
I’ve set some pretty big earnings goals for March. FINALLY, I think that I’m capable of meeting those goals.
March 2018 Goal Affiliate Income Goal-$2500
To be honest, this feels a bit audacious. Given that I made less than $500 in February. But, I’m just going to focus on this goal and see what I can do. How I plan on doing this.
- Set a goal-Done! And, my stretch goals is $5,000…because, why not?
- Affiliate Strategy-Look at my different affiliates to see what will perform well on which website and the type of content that will be helpful to my readers at this time of year.
- Focus-Now that I’m not traveling for most of this year (except to see my Grandma) I’ve experienced a huge shift in my ability to focus. Wow. That’s all I can say.
- Daily Notifications Goal-I have a daily notifications goal. Basically, each day, I need to see notifications that people have interacted with my affiliate links. Currently, I’m happy to report an uptick in that happening.
By the Way
I did earn some non-cash affiliate credit.
- ThredUp $107-I don’t count this in my earnings because it’s credit towards clothes. I no longer actively share my affiliate link (accept in the old posts that it still is currently in). And, basically, I basically spend no cash on clothing and haven’t for years 🙂
For those of you growing your blog income, how is it going? What are you focusing on? I’m sending good vibes!!
Want to Start a Blog?
I love blogging! It has been an incredible experience, transformed my life, and connected me with a ton of amazing people. Blogging is a pretty cheap activity and I recommend hosting your blog with Siteground. Many bloggers have begun leaving HostGator and BlueHost and moving to Siteground. Myself included! Read why I’m leaving HostGator and BlueHost (I have 2 blogs one on each hosting platform) and moving to Siteground. If you’re a new blogger Siteground will cost around $3.95 a month (depending on the size of your audience). They have great customer service and tutorials on how to host your new WordPress blog on Siteground.
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Congrats Michelle!
Thanks Tonya!
Congrats on a great February. I know you struggled with posting your income report. I was the same way. I still won’t do it each month.
I decided that it was important to share that I wasn’t making a lot of passive income. I make other money (or I wouldn’t be living) but, really-my focus is on passive income. I think it’s very motivational. AND, this is a huge part of why I’m not traveling this year. January was harder…it was only $23 bucks LOL!
Congrats on your 433% increase! That is awesome! Thank you for sharing your very real income report. You really broke it all down well. It gives newbie bloggers, like me, lots of hope. Thanks!
This month’s report will be painful LOL! I already know the numbers…