How I Made $10,000 From Blogging so far This Year
Note: I may earn money or products from the companies, products, or links mentioned in this post.
I’ve been super excited to write this post because I just love to help other bloggers! I wasn’t able to post my income from last year, but so far this year I have more than tripled my blog income and have exceeded my personal goal of earning $10,000 by the end of 2015.
Instead, I have made that goal in the first 6 months of this year and I am excited to share how I did it and how other bloggers just like me can do the same. If you are curious as to how I make money with my blog and which sites I use to make money, then this post is for you!
Affiliate Income:
- My Recipe Magic – This didn’t make me much money, but I worked with them for a few years posting my recipes and getting paid for bringing views to their site. Sadly, they stopped this program last month and do not pay for views anymore. – $8.90
- Ahalogy – Ahalogy is a Pinterest scheduler that used to pay you for the amount of Pinterest views you brought in. They discontinued this program as well a few months ago, but their scheduler is still up and running and is one of my favorite Pinterest schedulers! – $280.01
- Amazon Associates – I can make a lot more with Amazon Associates when I put in the time and work into it, but I do love this program because it can be a real passive way to make income. Use the affiliate links in your blog, on social media, or open up an affiliate store and get people to shop there. No matter how you do it there is a lot of potential with this program. – $292.17
- Apple/iTunes – Talking about iphone apps on my blog has been profitable and makes me money several times a year. If you blog a lot about technology or have a lot of posts with app suggestions, this is a great program to become apart of. – $19.60
Total: $600.68
Advertising
- Blog Ads – This income comes from ad space sold on my site from various other businesses and bloggers. I love working with these people and love offering space on my blog to help others. – $239.15
- Google Adsense – “Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows bloggers in the Google Network to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements, that are targeted to site content and audience.” A lot of bloggers say they don’t make good money from this, but you really can do well with Google Adsense and I feel like I have the numbers to prove that. – $1,987.51
- Pad Squad – Pad Squad is similar to Google Adsense. The only difference is that it is for mobile optimization and advertising. Pad squad sets up the mobile version of your site for free and then places ads through the mobile version that are targeted toward your content and audience. I LOVE pad squad. It’s one of my favorite forms of income and the number here is only a small portion of what I’ve earned so far this year because payments are 60 days behind. – $2,169.63
Total: $4,396.29
My Book
- E-book – This includes books that were sold through Amazon Kindle and through Nook from Barnes and Noble. – $93.22
- Print Book – The book is printed through CreateSpace.com. – $243.56
Total: $336.78
Sponsored Posts
- Mom’s Affiliate – Mom’s Affiliate is a great site that offers all kinds of campaigns for bloggers. I prefer to only do sponsored posts from them and have written two for several companies so far. This site is my newest favorite to find sponsored posts from. – $225.00
- Post Joint – This is a newer website that I have found and so far I have only received three offers and accepted one. People will write articles and offer to have them published on your site. You can do it for free or send back the offer with the amount of money you want for publishing it. – $47.75
- Personal – This income is from people who have emailed me personally asking me to write a sponsored post for them. – $48.25
Total: $321.00
Social Media Shares
- This is income made from various people and businesses who pay to have their website or products promoted on my social media channels. – $136.35
Total: 136.35
Misc. Income
- Clever Girls – Clever girls is one of my favorite ways for making some extra money. They are kind of like a contractor where they get opportunities from big businesses, and then I apply to participate. If I am picked for the campaign (sponsored post, social media shares, twitter parties, etc), I earn money. I have been working with them for years and I love how they work! – $80.00
- IZEA – I love IZEA because they list out all the opportunities and campaigns and you just scroll through and bid on what you want to participate in. I’ve done a ton of Twitter shares with them, several sponsored posts, and even some Instagram posts. – $355.88
- MSB – MSB stands for Military Spouse Bloggers and I am loving working with MSB New Media this year. If you are a military spouse blogger go ahead and join now! – $177.72
Total: $613.60
Virtual Assistance
- Fiverr – Fiverr has been a big source of income for me. I am able to offer services on there and work at my own pace on my own time. I have slowed down with Fiverr however, because I wanted to be able to offer these services on my blog. If you’re thinking about joining Fiverr to make money, check out my post: How to Use and Make Money With Fiverr. – $1,256.00
- Personal Services – This is money made from services I offer on my website including: SEO services, social media coaching and management, blog and blog monetization coaching, and lots more! – $1,640.00
Total: $2,896.00
There are a few things left in the month of June, that I will get paid for soon that aren’t included here. Altogether, it will total about $10,000 or more for the past 6 months. Please let me know if you have any questions, I would love to help you out!
Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links and are shared because I love and support these companies.
You are my inspiration 🙂 I’m so thankful for the times we’ve had to chat about this, and I owe you so much for helping me monetize my blog (I keep getting surprised when I add up how much I’ve already made!!). I see a few things up there that I’m not doing, so you better believe I’m signing up for them once I have a few free minutes to do so! I’m really, really proud of you; I know this is something you’ve been working really hard on.
Jessica, I’m so glad that I could help! I love helping other bloggers and seeing them get ahead. I’m so glad you are doing well, and I think you will be making even more good money in no time at all! And thank you for noticing, I have been working so so hard on this so that I can help our family. I love it and it makes me feel good to be able to help some.
I am working a full time job and looking to compare hours spent. How many hours do you spend per week that helped you get to this point?
AWESOME! You are an inspiration. Not only have you achieved your 2015 Income Goal but you have moved across the country, resettled your household, reestablished doctor/specialist care for your kids and worked on line. Terrific accomplishment and I am glad you shared this with us. : ) Ruth
Ruth, when you list it like that I look back and can’t believe how I did it all! LOL Thanks for all your encouragement along the way. I know that working together we can get your blog there too!
Pad Squad sounds interesting, I’ll have to look into that.
Sounds like it’s been a great year for you!
YES, it’s one of the best programs I’ve ever joined and I heard about it form another blogger. I am big fan of your blog and know your site would do well with it. Good luck!
Like the others said, you are an inspiration! Thank you for sharing your success tips with us so that other bloggers can succeed too! That’s one of my favorite things about blogging is that we work to lift others up; we want everyone to succeed.
Thank you Kathy, I appreciate that, but really it’s just lots of plain old hard work! I’m glad to help, I really love helping other bloggers find success. Been blogging for 7 years so I feel like I have a lot to share. 🙂
It’s fascinating to me how people are able to monetize their blogs. I’ll be saving this to refer to later when I decide to do the same. Thank you for sharing. 🙂
It is to me too! I love reading other income reports and tend to study them as well. Thanks for reading!
I’ve been looking into getting more involved with my blog and attempting to get a little income from it. This gives ideas and just a general idea of what direction I should go in, thank you 🙂
Glad to help and good luck!!
This is great thanks for mapping out all of the options! I want to focus more time on monetizing my blog and this is a great tool!!
No problem! I really like to break things down and make it easy for people to understand. Good luck!
you do an amazing job and deserve all the wealth that comes your way!
Thank you Catherine, appreciate that!!
Wow! You are doing great! I’ll have to keep trying with Amazon Associates. I haven’t had a ton of luck there.
Thanks! Amazon is tough to get started, but once you work at it, it’s great. Try making lists of things and use products and things from Amazon: favorite books, products, etc., gift list ideas with links to amazon products. Post the links to some of your favorite products on social media, or open an Amazon associates store. There are tons of ways to monetize with Amazon and that’s what I love. 🙂
What great news! Love that you’re sharing with other bloggers. Pinned!
Thank you and thank you for sharing!
This is absolutely 110% the most helpful “blog monetizing” post I’ve ever read (and there are so many out there). This is such a practical list that bloggers at any stage can apply, and I feel totally empowered after reading this! Congratulations on so much success!
Erica, I am so glad I could be of help! I study a lot of income reports from other bloggers and the ones thing that I dislike is how they break it down (if they even do). I like to know the nitty-gritty so that I can apply it to my blog. That why I broke everything down so that others could know exactly how I was making money. It’s a lot of work, but totally worth it! Good luck and let me know if you have any questions.
This post is amazing!!! I’m so beyond inspired knowing bloggers can really make this money. I’m definitely signing up for some of these that I haven’t already joined – thank you so much for this!
Adriana
Daily Dose of Design
I’ve been slowly getting into the monetizing part of my blog and it’s a bit overwhelming and nerve-wrecking. But I would love to get to the point of where you are today or at least near it. I’ve been blogging for years and am slowly getting into this consistent flow of managing it. I like that I’m able to be at home and do all of this, ultimately that’s what I want in whatever I decide to do long term. Enjoy what I do at home and if I make a little money on the side, that’s a bonus!
Thanks for this post and the inspiration!
Thank you for this post and I am excited to look at some of these resources. I would have to recommend Shareasale and Clickbank. I just started in December and will stay focused on building my knowledge and blogging effectively.
You just introduced me to a few new companies to check out. I’m terrible at keeping track of which ones I’ve signed up with and always forget to go check out current offers. Sounds like I need to get organized to see the cash roll in. Thanks for the reminder and a little kick in the pants.
Great Post!! Such great information.. Thank you for this amazing post.
Thanks so much for this post Kathryn! This is such helpful info and I’m already implementing! Your blog is awesome and I’m very inspired by all the ways you diversify!
Heather =)
Heather! This is so fun. I went to college with Kathryn, and small group with you. Small world! 🙂
Thanks for awesome post Kathryn, this has been a true inspiration to me. I have started and stopped blogging for a few years now because I get depressed to quickly. But this last blog I started I said to myself that I was going to give it a solid year of effort before I even think of giving up. I feel blessed to be reading awesome stories like yours to keep me motivated. I thank you!!!!
I loved how you broke everything down piece by piece and listed the resources. This is something I’m already working on, will check out the resources you used. Great post!
This is mega helpful! Thank you so much and wow good job!
Thank you! That was only for the first half of the year, here’s the rest: https://singingthroughtherain.net/2016/01/blog-in-2015.html
This is awesome! Thank you! I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with my google Adsense for mobile! Another option is awesome!