Can You Make Money Blogging? Let Me Show You How I Made Over $20K Last Month!

Welcome to June’s online income report where I show you how I made money online last month. It’s time to look at this month’s update and track how I did.

If you’re new here, you may be wondering why I would want to publish my online income report each month. You can simply skip to the next section if you are not new here.

This all started out as my extra income report because in the beginning it was all about the money I was earning from my side jobs. In my side income reports from the beginning, I included all of the income I made except for what I made at my day job (that was a fixed amount).

However, I left my day job as a financial analyst in October of 2013 and now my monthly income reports consist of the many ways I make a living each month.

Many people have asked why I would ever want to publicly post my income each month. Some think I’m crazy, and some are glad I’m open about what I’m doing. Whatever you think, I enjoy publishing my monthly online income reports and I share them publicly for three main reasons:

• 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 through raises and promotions at your full-time job. If it weren’t for others publishing their monthly income reports each month, I don’t know if I would have ever tried side hustling. I want to help show others the positives in side hustling and how it can change a person’s life. There are many different ways to make money online, and I like to share my story each month to help motivate others to improve their financial situation by making more money.
• Secondly, I like to publish my income reports because it’s a way for me to look back, learn from my mistakes and see what areas need improvement. I use my monthly income reports as a way to track how I’ve done, sort of like a journal.
• Lastly, I like to show others that making side money is possible and that there are many legitimate ways to make money from your home. If you are looking for information on the many ways to make money online, I published the article Monthly Income Report Roundup – My Favorite Income Bloggers that showcases many awesome bloggers who are kind enough to share their income with the public each month. I often get asked by readers “Can you make money blogging?” Yes! Just a few years ago, I didn’t think making money online was possible at all. Now, I realize that it’s possible and I’m here to show you how I do it.

I know I say this every month, but it’s the truth. Life is great now that I’m my own boss. I look forward to each and every day and it’s a wonderful feeling. I truly love waking up each and every morning.

Above are just a few of the reasons for why I enjoy publishing my monthly income reports. I like to show others that you don’t have to hate your job and hate your life. You can make changes to your life and make money in a way that allows you to truly enjoy the life you are living. I’m not saying that you have to LOVE your job, I’m just saying that your job should at least allow you to do what you like to do outside of work (whether that be spending time with loved ones, painting, hiking, etc.).

 

How was my online income in June?

June was another great month for income and my second highest month for income ever. The summer months are always supposedly a little slow so I’m interested to see what the fall will bring since the summer months have been great for me despite this.

June was a very busy month though. I had a few trips in May that caused me to fall behind a little bit in June. This then spilled into June and is spilling into July as well. I’m hoping that this month I will get ahead again. I really need to sit down, eliminate any distractions, and get as much work done as I can.

Like I say every month, the business is going well and I am very happy with it. Things around here seem to be improving significantly, both in regards to income as well as work/life balance.

I’ve always been very excited about my business, but I am more excited than ever for the future. I have so many plans and everything is going very well.

Anyway, in June I earned $26,171 in business income, before expenses.

If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own for cheap, starting at only $3.49 per month (this low price is only through my link) for blog hosting. In addition to the low pricing, you will receive a free blog domain (a $15 value) through my Bluehost link if you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting. FYI, if you are asking yourself “Can you make money blogging?”, my top tip is to be self-hosted. This is essential if you want to monetize your blog as you will appear more professional and this will help you monetize your blog tremendously. My blogging income did not take off until after I switched to self-hosting.

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The number above is for the month of June and before any fees and expenses (some fees and expenses that lower the amount above total around $2,700, which include virtual assistants/staff writers for my other websites, technical assistance on my websites, newsletter expenses, PayPal fees, etc., however, this does not include taxes) being taken out. After expenses and fees, I made approximately $23,471. 

Below are some of my other monthly side income reports. I publish an online income update every month but only included some of them below as it would be a very long list. If you head on over to my extra income page you can find all of my monthly income reports from the past few years.

 

Blog news.

1 Dollar Financeis still doing well and I still enjoy blogging.

Page views are beginning to increase again and I received around 210,000 page views in June and I expect to be at around 250,000 in July.

I still need to go through many of my posts here on 1 Dollar Financeand fix the formatting, change the pictures to Pinterest-worthy images, and more. I have only done around 15% of my posts so that means I still have a lot more to go! I actually didn’t work on any of this in June as I forgot yet again. I really need to sit down and dedicate a few hours to this each week as it is most likely holding me back by not doing it.

Top new posts on 1 Dollar Financelast month:

 

Should I add a staff writer or two?

I have been toying around with possibly hiring a staff writer or two. Currently, 1 Dollar Financeis just in my voice and I’m afraid to change that.

However, having more voices with more opinions may allow 1 Dollar Financeto grow more, so it’s something I am thinking about.

What do you think?

 

Featured Question: How do you build websites up to sell them?

For this monthly income report and all future income reports, I will be including at least one featured question from a reader. Please leave a comment below if you have a question you would like me to include.

I have had many questions related to the websites that I sold. Many of you have asked “Can you make money blogging by selling websites and how do you build them up?

In the past few months, I have sold three websites for a total of $30,000. So, yes, a blog can be built up and sold. Many blogs and websites are sold every day and I know of other bloggers who have made a profit the same way as I did too.

I had it a little easy with the websites I sold. I sold all three of them to the same person, and it was actually a freelance client of mine. So, I didn’t have to do any marketing or anything like that.

However, I did build one from the ground up and I bought the other two and built those up as well. I worked on them for about one or two years each, employed some of the main actions I take here on 1 Dollar Financein order to grow them, and so on. It wasn’t easy work but it was doable and well worth it.

Some of the things you can do to build websites up in order to sell them include:

• Improve the layout and design of the website. The two websites I bought and improved on my own didn’t have the best designs or layouts. I changed many things around so that the websites were more user-friendly.
• Publish high-quality content. Many websites that are for sale out there for cheap don’t have the highest quality content. If you want to build a website, publishing quality content that ranks well in search engines and makes readers want to come back for more is important.
• Increase engagement and social media numbers. Another important area to work on is to increase the amount of engagement that the site receives such as through comments and social media interactions.
• Improve and increase the website’s income. If you want to build websites in order to sell them for top dollar, then you will want to increase the amount of income that the site makes. For the two websites I bought, the websites were bringing in nearly no income but towards the end were earning much more each month than what I even bought them for. This helped me sell them because it showed that the income was growing, even with minimal work.

 

My plans for my website, online income, and making money online:

• Create a product to sell – I am slowing preparing to create an ebook. This summer is a crazy one for me though, so I will most likely not be able to devote time to it until the fall of 2015.
• Promote more – Pinterest alone brought around 65,000 clicks to my blog just in the month of June. This amount is starting to grow again (after months of being flat) and I estimate that July will bring around 75,000 clicks from Pinterest.
• Accept more interviews. – I took on a few interviews in June but not as many as I would have liked. The summer has been insane but I’m trying to say yes to as many of them as I can!
• Stop being shy – This is one of my goals for 2015. I am such a shy person, and it’s something I need to work on if I want to grow my business.

 

Staff writing, blog, and social media management.

I worked on two staff writing gigs last month and I have one more that I just signed on for in June.

June was my highest staff writing month for income in awhile and I expect July to be somewhat similar, but it could possibly be lower. This is because I worked ahead a decent amount in June and my newest gig hasn’t started yet. It may start in July but I am not positive.

Blog and social media management is still a service I enjoy providing to my clients. I plan on keeping the clients I currently have but I am no longer expanding this service to new clients due to time constraints though. Many contacted me last month which made me want to reopen this service but I am trying to focus on what is currently on my plate, while also managing a good work/life balance.

My goal right now is to further grow the sites I currently manage and own, spend more time on my blog/website coaching service, and grow my income here so that I can be more of my own boss. This will mean that I will be less diversified as most of my income will be coming from this website and related services, but I do think this is what I am truly after with my business.

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Affiliate income.

The somewhat passive income that I’ve been making this year has been pretty wonderful.

I earned around $10,000 in affiliate income in June. May was definitely better, but the summer months are usually a little slower according to my affiliate managers. I am told that affiliate income usually increases in August and September.

I won’t see the payments I earned in June until 60-90 days later for most of the affiliate programs I am in, so you won’t see those amounts reflected in my monthly income reports until then.

My main form of affiliate income is through Bluehost with my How To Start A WordPress Blog On Bluehost tutorial. However, I am looking to diversify my affiliate income and I have been researching other affiliate programs so that everything isn’t so reliant on Bluehost. I have been doing somewhat well with diversifying my affiliate income so far though, with around $3,000 last month coming from other affiliate programs.

 

 

This post contains affiliate links. All opinions and statements are 100% mine and links are only placed to help you with your own blogging journey.