Hey, Scott here.
This is the last income report I’ll be publishing. See my note below.
If you are new to my site and wondering what the heck this page is, here’s the deal:
I started my personal finance blog in March 2015. I never intended to make money with my blog. I wanted to work on my show, write books, finance courses, do some public speaking, and maybe someday write some kick-butt piece of software.
I published an average of two articles per week on my blog, never once focusing on making money. One day (September 2016) I realized how my website had grown over the past seventeen months. I spent some time optimizing my blog to make money and made $11,400 in less than three weeks.
That was crazy (it still blows me away), so I started blogging about blogging. I write these reports for a few reasons:
- To encourage and help you start your own blog or side hustle if it’s something you’ve been considering. By writing about what I’ve learned works and doesn’t work, you get the benefit of that knowledge. You can also avoid all the crap products I’ve wasted money on.
- To prove there is room for new bloggers to make money. I started in 2015 – which is pretty late to the game.
- Because I love talking about websites. Almost as much as I love talking about personal finance on my show, or my cats.
I hope you find these reports helpful. Let’s dig in…
Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links. All of the products listed below are products and services we’ve used before. If you have any questions about any of the income or expenses you can leave a comment and we’ll do our best to reply.
Product Income – $1,147.00
Affiliate Income – $39,413.20
These are some* of the affiliate programs I participate in and earn money from. They are listed in alphabetical order. The reason I don’t break out the income for each affiliate is because my business is different than yours.
*In December and January I added 50+ new affiliates. Some of the increased income this month came from expanding the affiliate programs I participate in. I didn’t list every affiliate here because again, my business is different than yours.
This list gives you an idea of the types of companies you can earn money online from through affiliate sales.
- Amazon Associates
- Betterment
- Bluehost (click here for my tutorial on how to make money blogging)
- Cardpool
- GotoMeeting
- Lead Pages
- Long Tail Platinum
- Optin Monster
- Social Warfare
- SumoMe
- Survey Companies
- Theme Forest
- Udemy
Total: $40,560.20
Expenses – $2,920.58
- Contractors and Staff – $1308.00
- MailChimp – $115.00
- Microsoft Office 365 – $10.81
- Adobe Creative Cloud – $32.46
- Long Tail Platinum (keyword research) – $37.00
- Speak Pipe (leave voicemail via website) – $7.00
- Dropbox – $10.65
- Libsyn (podcast hosting) – $30.00
- Google Business – $16.66
- Facebook Ads – $1,225.00
- AWS – $21.05
- Adobe Stock Photography – $20.35
- Geolocation WP Plugin – $44.00
- DollarTree (notebooks) – $8.60
- ManageFlitter (Twitter maintenance) $12.00
- Kiplinger’s Magazine – $22.00
Net Income: $37,639.62
Note that doesn’t include taxes or health insurance which I have to pay myself for being self-employed.
During December and January I added many more affiliate links to the site and signed up for more affiliate programs. I mean a lot. There are somewhere over 50 new affiliates. That’s one of the reasons January was such a massive month.
Signing Off
This is the last income report I’ll be publishing. I’ve always felt weird doing it. Some people find them inspiring, some people think it’s bragging. I think it’s just weird. Here in America we don’t talk about our incomes openly – even among family members.
But I did want to show what can be done, even by new bloggers. In case you missed it:
$125,000+ in 4 1/2 months
After expenses and before taxes it was around $120,000. That’s insane and I really can’t believe it. And my blog isn’t even two years old, and I work on it part-time.
The path I’m going down with my business there is no place for sharing revenue sources. I never intended to be a blogger or to blog about blogging. I like talking about blogging and websites, but I’m not out to be known as a blogging expert or create some type of blogging course. While I am an expert at making money online, if I’m going to spend my time doing something it’s teaching others about personal finance. At this point in my life it’s more rewarding to me to help others get out of debt, maximize their investments, grow their relationships, and all that other good stuff that leads to a rewarding life.
How To Get Started Investing
The international bestseller by CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Scott Alan Turner. Choose the right accounts & investments so your money grows for you – automatically. No jargon, confusion, or pie in the sky promises. Just a proven plan that works.
