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Impressive Blog Income Reports
Blogging can be a much more lucrative business than you think it is. Just check out these 20 monthly blog income reports from January 2017. These are real people, who are making real money. We'll show you some of the high-profile bloggers ($10000+), the mid range ($1000-$10000), as well as the low income bloggers (up to $1000).
Even if you only blog to share your home-made quinoa pancake recipes, you should still take a look. It might spark some sudden urge to take up blogging professionally.
Remember, all these bloggers started out just like you. They started blogging for fun, or as a “side-hustle”. Now, they are not only making a full-time income; some of them are making tens of thousands of dollars per year.
Different Sources of Income
Bloggers can and should monetize their website in different ways. After analyzing the blog income reports of these professional bloggers, we present you the 6 main categories of making money with your blog.
- Affiliates: single product/service affiliate programs as well as affiliate networks (e.g. Amazon).
- Sponsorships: sponsored posts as well as any other sponsorship revenue.
- Ads: advertisements such as Google AdSense.
- Products and Services: bloggers that sell their own product or service.
- Freelancing: coaching, training, consultation that a blogger gives.
- Other: all other income sources.
Related article : 5 Blog Monetization Methods to Help You Earn Money Today
Top 6 High-Profile Bloggers
Let’s take a look at the top 6 high-profile bloggers. These following income reports are based on statistics from January 2017. It’s based on January because all data are complete for that month. Some bloggers lack data from February or March.
Revenue | Expenses | Income | |
Smart Passive Income | $157,131.95 | $36,636.00 | $120,495.95 |
Entrepreneur On Fire | $182,662.00 | $66,235.00 | $116,427.00 |
So Over This | $32,052.00 | $2,099.00 | $29,953.00 |
Matthew Woodward | $24,955.75 | $367.81 | $24,587.94 |
Believe in a Budget | $26,288.57 | $5,525.00 | $20,763.57 |
Rosevibe | $13,362.07 | $19.95 | $13,342.12 |
Top 6 high-profile bloggers sources of passive income:
We can see from the blog income reports of these top 6 bloggers that they get their passive income from a variety of sources.
1. Smart Passive Income
The number 1 in this list is Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, and he’s killing it! He is well-known as the passive income guru, and he’s been featured in Forbes magazine. In January 2017 he made $120,495.95. And in March 2017, he made an astounding $258,737.45. All of his income reports can be found at his website.
He started out in 2008. When he got fired from his architecture position, he created a website that helped him pass an architecture exam. As it turned out, the website was receiving thousands of visitors each day. He decided to create an ebook study guide. In the first month, he received $7,008.55 from selling that ebook alone.
He got so excited that he started to share his knowledge and experience on online business education online on SmartPassiveIncome.com. He started to accumulate a huge following and, fast forward nine years, is now making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
When you read his blog, you can see that he is truly passionate about his work, and that he genuinely loves to help people make passive income. For him, one of the biggest income sources are his podcasts, used by more than 10 million people.
2. Entrepreneur on Fire
Also featured in Forbes magazine, John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire creates podcasts and runs a blog about entrepreneurship. He helps people developing online businesses.
EOF started in 2012, with podcasts and projects such as “The Freedom Journal” and “The Mastery Journal”, to help people set and reach their goals. He launched both projects on Kickstarter to fund them. It became the 6th most funded publishing campaign on Kickstarter.
3. So Over This
Justin from So Over This is a finance blogger and shares his personal journey about debt, financial chaos, making money and how to make money from your own website. He works in the finance sector at day, and runs the blog at night. In 2013, he bought the website So Over This from Andrea, who started it in 2011 to share her personal story about how she dealt with debt, bankruptcy and finally financial freedom.
Justin makes gets most of his passive income through affiliate marketing and advertisements. His and Andrea's stories about financial chaos, and how to deal with it, are very personal and in detail. It's not only dry advice; they actually share their own emotions and life stories, which makes So Over This so appealing to the many readers who are dealing with the same issues.
4. Matthew Woodward
Matthew Woodward is an internet marketing blogger. He's 28 years old and has been making a full-time income living online for many years. He started when he was 13 years old, writing games reviews for a website. Internet is his passion, and he worked as head of online marketing for one of the biggest distributors in Europe.
He quit 3 years ago to start working for himself. On MatthewWoodward.co.uk he writes about how to create link building, traffic generation, social media and monetizing your website. He set up the website to share his own experience and he offers advice and tutorials. His biggest (and technically only) source of income is affiliate marketing.
5. Believe in a Budget
Kristin Larsen also blogs about money and how you can monetize your blog. When she posted her first monthly income report two years ago it was $60. By diversifying her income streams, and changing promotional strategies, she significantly increased her income, making $20,763.57 in the month of January.
6. Rosevibe
Suzi from Rosevibe started out as a part-time beauty blogger in 2014. Now, she is a full-time blogger and shares her blogging journey on Rosevibe. On Rosevibe, she blogs about turning your passion into a business and on making money from your blog. Her passive income is generated by affiliate marketing.
Midrange Bloggers
Making under $10.000 in the month of January, but still generating a royal full-time income are these following bloggers.
Revenue | Expenses | Income | |
The T-Shirt Academy | $6,205.48 | not specified | $6,205.48 |
Tara Tierney | $5,764.10 | $251.30 | $5,512.80 |
The Girl on Bloor | $8,775.00 | $3,568.30 | $5,206.70 |
Easy Baby Life | $4,821.00 | $257.00 | $4,564.00 |
One Hour Professor | $4,664.49 | $1,224.06 | $3,440.43 |
The Endless Meal | $3,605.54 | $706.39 | $2,899.15 |
Lisa Tanner Writing | $3,385.00 | $556.87 | $2,828.13 |
Women Winning Online | $3,205.99 | $474.96 | $2,731.03 |
Recipe This | $3,013.72 | $297.50 | $2,716.22 |
It's Vicky | $2,389.73 | $125.50 | $2,264.23 |
Midrange bloggers sources of passive income:
We can see from the blog income reports that these midrange bloggers also get their passive income from a variety of sources.
7. The T-Shirt Academy
Christian Heidorn set up The T-Shirt Academy to teach people how to create a successful t-shirt business. He writes about everything related to the t-shirt business, from branding to social responsibility. All of his income comes from selling his products (t-shirts) via various sale channels.
8. Tara Tierney
Tara Tierney runs 3 different blogs, of which Taratierney.com is one. She self-taught herself to professional blogging. She started in 2013, learned everything she knows about blogging and passive income by reading (blogs, ebooks, books), watching online videos, courses, and learned a lot by trial and error. Tara writes about health, fitness, self-help topics, and monetizing your website. She gets all of her passive income through affiliate marketing.
9. The Girl on Bloor
Taylor Stinson writes about food and recipes. She gets most of her income through ads and sponsorships. Companies pay her money to promote their brand through posts on her website or social media. She also has a small section on her website where she talks about how to monetize your blog. Currently, she’s developing a blogger crash course to generate more passive income.
10. Easy Baby Life
Paula Dennholt has a blog about parenting, baby care and pregnancy. She started ten years ago and is now a full-time blogger. It was not until a little more than a year ago, that she realized she could make way more money by diversifying her income streams.
In the beginning of 2016, it became apparent to me that I really had to do something about my blog earnings. I had been working with the same advertising networks for several years, and some just didn’t perform at all anymore. While searching for new options, I tried several – and became really disappointed most of the time. I also found a couple of good ones.
BUT the searching also took me to several blog income reports, and I read them with great interest. Gah, some bloggers earn so much money. And with a lot less traffic than I receive. I’ve been so very lazy. Or focusing on the wrong things. And thereby losing out of substantial amounts of money probably. Not fun to realize after 10 years of blogging. – Paula Dennholt
She now makes 6 times more than what she did at the beginning of 2016.
11. One Hour Professor
Ron Stefanski is a college professor that teaches people how to create and market online businesses. He generates most of his passive income through Adsense. He’s learned that making money from your blog comes from hard work, picking a specific niche, and promoting your content like crazy on social media networks.
It will take a lot of hard work and patience to achieve your goal. I know you can do this because I’ve done it myself, but you need to realize that it won’t happen instantly. In fact, it could take you months of hard work before you see your first few dollars rolling in. But once you start that stream of income, all you need to do is continually grow it and that day will come if you're patient and work hard. – Ron Stefanski
12. The Endless Meal
Kristen is a food blogger. She writes about food, recipes, sells cook books, makes YouTube videos and also sells a “start your own blog” course. The Endless Meal was established in September 2011 and has since grown into a community of nearly 400,000 engaged monthly readers.
13. Lisa Tanner Writing
Lisa Tanner runs a blog on how to balance family time and business time. She helps people to become more efficient so they have a better work/life balance. She offers her writing services online as well. Lisa’s income report of January made her realize the importance of diversifying her income streams.
14. Women Winning Online
Jen Snyder is a house-wife, mother and business owner. She writes a blog, and sells online courses and tutorials, for women who want to learn how to run an online business to improve their work/life balance. Her income solely comes from selling her products and services online.
15. Recipe This
Dominic and Samantha Miller run a blog on food recipes. They market themselves as very family oriented and show their whole family online, post pictures of them, and run it as a family business. They provide food recipes, give cooking tips through the blog and podcasts, and also provide advice on how to start a blog. Their income comes from affiliate marketing, ads, and sponsored posts. They also receive free products in exchange for promotion.
16. It’s Vicky
This website also provides advice on internet marketing, and on how to make money from an online business or blog. Vicky, the owner, is not the only one writing, she also outsources reviews and articles. Outsourcing articles and content scheduling is an important aspect of professional blogging. Her income comes only from affiliate marketing. She’s learned in January that she needs to schedule her content 1-2 months ahead.
Low-End Bloggers
Although these following four income reports might not “blow your mind”, they still serve as a good example to show that anyone can make money from a blog.
Revenue | Expenses | Income | |
Digital Nomad Quest | $1,100.00 | not specified | $1,100.00 |
My Path to Passive Income | $1,068.18 | $19.00 | $1,049.18 |
The Wandering Gourmand | $701.00 | not specified | $701.00 |
A Fresh Start on a Budget | $150.00 | $108.00 |
$42.00 |
Low-end bloggers sources of passive income:
On contrary to the top and midrange bloggers, the low-end blog income reports show that these bloggers rely mostly on freelancing activities and affiliate marketing.
17. Digital Nomad Quest
Sharon is a girl who shares her journey to becoming a digital nomad. She isn’t getting that much passive income yet; most of her income comes from freelancing activities. But, she is working towards it and it’s quite interesting to follow her on her journey. She has written some ebooks and sells those online, and has some bigger projects for the future. Recently, she quit her job so she can focus more on building up her website and developing her other activities.
18. My Path to Passive Income
Esteban is a young guy who also shares his journey on the path to passive income. He still does it part-time as he isn't making enough money yet. He mostly uses affiliate marketing.
19. The Wandering Gourmand
Bryan Richards writes about beer, travel, food and blogging. Not a very specific niche, but it is an interesting combination. He makes all of his money through affiliate marketing. He’s learned that prioritizing income generating goals is important if you are not (yet) working as a full-time blogger.
20. A Fresh Start on a Budget
Karissa has a website on which she talks about money, organization, parenting and marriage. She also helps working mothers to get a better work/life balance. She offers online social media courses for online business. Karissa learned that she needs to create better quality content, and educate herself more on SEO writing and how affiliate marketing works. She’s not making a lot of money yet, but it’s interesting to see where she will get if she continues her work.
Conclusion
That doesn’t mean that bloggers who blog about other topics aren’t successful. It just means that these bloggers are the ones that published their blog income reports online. It all started with Pat Flynn who started publishing his income reports in 2008, and then a big bunch of other bloggers followed suit.
But, there are many other successful bloggers out there who are making the same or bigger amount of money, who don’t publish their blog income reports.
Again, let’s summarize the best lessons learned from all of these bloggers:
- You’ll never know until you try and take action.
- Start your blog while being employed so you minimize risk.
- Prioritize your income generating goals, don’t try to do everything at once, if you are not (yet) working as a full-time blogger.
- Build your website and blog on your own platform instead of a using a free service so you have more control.
- Be passionate about what you’re blogging about and create high-quality content.
- Choose a specific audience.
- Set up a blog schedule and stick to a consistent posting schedule.
- Learn how to write good SEO posts
- Typically, 75-80% of your website traffic goes to the top ten most visited pages. Optimize those pages for the most success with your website.
- Use quality photos.
- Get the word spread on Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter) and promote, promote, promote.
- Diversify your income streams.
- Don’t be afraid to fail, everyone does. Learn from inevitable mistakes, understand what went wrong, and then do it better.
What's Next?
Now, if you are feeling that urge to start a blog and learn how to monetize it, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s start your own blogging career. Join our FREE 30 Day Blog Challenge where we give you a simple task every day and by the end of the next 30 days you will have built the foundation for your own successful blog.
Happy hustling!
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