Hi, everyone! Welcome to our May 2018 Income Report – this is the place where we share with you our blogging journey. All the ups and downs, twist and turns, wins, lessons and of course how we eventually made money from blogging.
Now, this is actually our first ever Income Report. I wanted to write one for a while now but I was always holding back – thinking that since we were not really making a large amount of money and we were just starting out, it wasn’t really that relevant to share it. But that is where I’m completely wrong.
WHY WRITE AN INCOME REPORT
After reading a few income reports myself (from small to big bloggers) I’ve realized that it doesn’t really matter how much money you’ve earned from doing it. Income Reports are a form of motivation; they give us that extra push every time we feel like we can’t make it. They remind us, readers, that everyone started in the bottom and with hard work, determination and faith, we can also achieve success.
And that is my purpose for writing this, to inspire all those bloggers who are just starting, thinking that you are not seeing any progress or even for those who are planning to start a blog – I tell you, making money from blogging is definitely possible.
Plus, Income Reports are also a great source for learning new tips on how to increase blog traffic and revenue. But before we get into that, let me tell you a little back-story on how we started.
HOW WE STARTED
We launched our blog on the 3rd week of March. It was a dark time in my life. I considered it as one of my lowest points. I had to quit my job, I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, and I had panic attacks. I had zero savings, no backup plan what so ever. I was a mess.
I was lost, stuck. I didn’t know what to do next. I had no idea what path to take but I knew I wanted more.
After coming across an Income Report on Pinterest (see, Income Reports are inspiring) I had this sudden rush of wanting to start my own blog. You know the feeling of having butterflies in your stomach – I felt that but it was the good kind.
So, despite of having very limited technical knowledge on blogging, I decided to dive right in. I bought my domain with Bluehost.
A quick side note:
If you are planning to start your own blog and you’re debating on whether you should invest in a self-hosted site, I strongly suggest that you do. If you have plans of monetizing your blog, self-hosted site is the best way to go. It will be so much easier for you to be accepted to ad networks and it just gives you more security and flexibility.
And I seriously suggest going with Bluehost, its super budget-friendly – I haven’t seen any better offers and they are helpful, they will guide you with the process if you ever have any troubles.
Get started with Bluehost using this link
I didn’t want to spend too much money on my domain (I’m broke) so, definitely Bluehost was a great choice and I asked my sister and boyfriend to join me.
We published a total of 25 articles, since we wanted to put as much content as we can to get faster ad network approval. We knew that we wanted to monetize our blog from day 1, so, we automatically applied for Adsense. And the number of articles must have helped since we got the approval after just a few days (yey) – that was definitely a win for us.
Now here comes the hard part, we knew that starting a blog was not easy but we never expected it to be that overwhelming. We were so lost; we didn’t know how to start promoting or what to do next. There was just so much to do and we didn’t know where to begin.
And you know how frustrating it is when you’re just starting out and you’re hopelessly seeking for great answers but unfortunately, you’d realize that all great answers comes with a price. And since we literally didn’t have any money to spare – enrolling on a course or even buying an e-book was no option (It was just sad)
That left us so discouraged and demotivated to even continue what we’ve started. We ended up taking a break from blogging for almost the whole month of April (I know, we were demotivated that fast) we didn’t do any promotions; we didn’t post any new content – no form of any effort at all.
Luckily, we found our stride back before the month of April ended. We made a pact that no matter what happens, we will continue to do the best that we can.
And just when we started to take things seriously this happened (ah, life)
Our Pinterest account was suspended for no reason (Imagine the frustration). All the group boards that we have been accepted to, the few followers we’ve collected – gone.
After about 4 long emails to Pinterest and 3 whole days – thank God, they finally fixed it! They reactivated it!
So, we basically started promoting and trying out different strategies on Pinterest around thesecond week of May (after the issue was fixed) and I tell you, hard work and determination really do pay off.
Take a look at how we did overtime:
As you can see, we jumped from only getting 1,057 page views from March and 1,474 for April to reaching 22,217 page views in May. Now, that may not seem like a very large number for some but for us, it’s definitely something that we are proud of.
Here’s an overview of our income trends overtime:
April – $2.27 – Adsense
May – $108.73 – Adsense
Total Income: $111
We were so thrilled to earn our first $100.
And this is all thanks to Pinterest!
We did not invest in any scheduling tool – we did all these through manual pinning.
We wrote an amazing post revealing our Pinterest Strategies. You can check it out here.
WHAT WE’VE LEARNED
Consistency
We’ve realized that consistency is really the key. Especially, if you are using Pinterest as your main source of traffic. When we took that 3 week break last April, the views that we were getting from Pinterest sunk.
We were getting around 50-80 views from Pinterest before we took that break and when we started pinning again (second week of May) we started from the bottom. We were only getting 10-12 views.
It always pays to be consistent.
Creating pinnable images
If you take a look at our previous images on Pinterest, the designs were all over the place. It was too crowded. It was not appealing at all.
So, we decided to simplify it.
And it worked. We were getting more repins from those new pins.
It’s always best to experiment with your pins. Check what’s working and what’s not. If it’s not working don’t hesitate to change it. Remember, if it didn’t work the first time – it probably won’t work the second time.
GOALS FOR JUNE
- Reach 25,000 sessions (crossing our fingers on this one)
We want to be able to reach 25,000 sessions so we can apply for Mediavine. So far,for the month of May, we only ended with 16,804, we were short 8,106. We are really hoping to fill that gap this June.
- Get 35,000 page views
- Reach 1,200 followers on Pinterest
- Get our first affiliate sale
- Grow our email list
FINAL THOUGHTS
I know we are just starting out and we may encounter more challenges in the coming months but looking back at how we’ve made this possible – I ‘am definitely glad to say that we are proud of what we have achieved.
I was a mess. I still probably am. But creating this blog, being able to share my story and help people, gives me so much joy.
I hope that this report can also inspire you to pursue your blogging dreams and for anyone out there, who feels discouraged and overwhelmed, please know that you will make it through. Whatever struggles you’re facing just continue to push forward and you will make it.
That’s it for this Month! Stay tuned for our June Income Report! Thank you so much for reading.
