Hello beautiful people and welcome back to my favourite corner of the internet! (Is that vain? It feels vain.) Today, I wanted to peel the hood back off my blog and talk about one of my favourite aspects of blogging: money. In particular, how much money I made last month, how I made it – and how you can too!
First of all, our second favourite d word: disclaimers. This post isn’t a brag. I’m by no means rich off my earnings. I’m definitely not earning lots of money from my website and your girl still holds down a real-world job. In fact, the reason I wanted to share this post with you is because if my blog generates revenue, yours 100% could too.
I don’t have an insane amount of followers or views – I don’t sell e-books, courses or any kind of products. In fact, I wasn’t blogging for most of July due to my laptop breaking. So this income is pretty much passive. Which is a nice treat for the ole’ bank account, am I right?
Okay, but enough fluff – how much did we earn?
HOW MUCH MONEY MY BLOG EARNED IN JULY
AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
Shopstyle Collective – £35.16
AWIN – £59.75 (if you want to sign up to AWIN, use my link here. And if you sign up and refer other content creators, you’ll earn $30 for any that earn revenue!)
Amazon UK – £4
Amazon US – $50 (USD)
Aliexpress: $21.64
TOTAL: £165.91 (with rough conversions, anyway)
If you want my tips on how start earning as an affiliate, read my post here!
Papaya Art Fireweed Sketchbook – Amazon US – $25.50
If you guys are unfamiliar with affiliate programs, here’s what they are in a nutshell: you refer a product via a link, someone purchases it and you earn a small percentage of the order value. (Normally 1-5%.) For example, that link I just included to that Papaya notebook – affiliate link! This is a really easy way to naturally earn off your blog. You write reviews? Why not drop an affiliate link in?
ADS:
ADSENSE: £98
The only ad network I currently use is Google Ads and it’s working pretty well for me! Unfortunately, you do need to be self-hosted to take advantage of Google Ads. Is it worth making the upgrade? Well, I was on WordAds and earned, literally, $2 a month. So I say a big yes.
OVERALL TOTAL EARNINGS: £263.91 (so around $520AUD – and my rent is currently $525AUD!)
All in all, I’m definitely not going to be quitting my day job any time soon (I wish!) – but considering this is pretty much passive income, how could I complain?
Ways I’m Going To Increase My Blog Earnings:
1. Referral Programs
One thing I want to start using more is referral programs – where you receive an incentive for encouraging other people to join something.
The most recent referral program I’ve been trying is for Rakuten Cashback. It’s actually really useful – it’s a cashback app that hits all the big stores like Ebay, Amazon, Urban Outfitters, etc. (If you’re unfamiliar with how cashback works, essentially you install a plugin to your browser. When you purchase through participating stores, the cashback merchant will give you a percentage of the order value back – usually 1-5%.)
If you sign someone up, they get a free $10 and you earn $25 (if they spend $25). If you want to start earning cashback or promoting this referral program, join through my link here.
Referral programs are great because they typically pay higher – and you’re normally promoting a useful service, rather than a product. Another example of one I love is VIGLINK; VIGLINK is an affiliate program with a twist.
Rather than having to manually apply and be approved by merchants, Viglink have existing relationships with 70,000 merchants (big names like Amazon, Nike and Ebay, too!) and automatically convert outgoing links to affiliate links. Especially if you have an established website, this saves you the hassle of having to go through all your posts and monetise all your links. Even better? You get 35% commission for the first year of any referrals.
(You should of course sign up to VIGLINK via my link here.)
If you guys would like a list of programs that pay for referrals, let me know and I can write one up!
2. Open A Shop
The keen-eyed of you all may have already noticed this big change to my website . . . but your girl is running an online store! It’s definitely not going to be my main hustle, but I figured a good way to earn some extra cash could be to sell crafts that I make. That way, if you love the look of something I craft, you can have it with minimal effort.
WANT TO CHECK OUT WHAT’S FOR SALE AT THE MOMENT? CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT!
I feel like this could be a fun way to earn more money and naturally get do more of my favourite content – DIYs! As much as I love a good affiliate sale, they’re generally pretty low payout. (Especially from Amazon – I can earn as little as $0.20 per sale.) Even just selling one or two products a month could be a great boost to the ole’ bank account.
3. Increase my views
I’ve touched on this in my August Blog Goals post, but now that I’m earning through Adsense your girl is going to be focusing on ramping up that view-count. My main tool for this is Pinterest. I’m in the midst of a month long challenge where I post a video pin per day, so I’m excited to share the results of that next month and see if anything comes of it!
4. Freelancing!
This is a really new thing, but I’ve recently been accepted onto Upwork and connected with a few businesses looking for DIY writers. Hopefully something comes out of this . . . it could be a fun way to earn some extra money!
At the moment, those are my main focuses in terms of moving forward with my content and earning that cash money! Are any of you guys monetising your websites? What are your favourite avenues for earning money? And have you checked out my shop yet? Let me known your thoughts down below!
Peace,
Instagram // Twitter // Bloglovin’ // Youtube // Pinterest
I wish I could say the same 🤪
I’ve tried several times with Google AdSense but they don’t approve or they say they’re too busy at the moment to check 🤪 which is very strange….self hosted you mean not by WordPress?
However, congratulations 🥳 😉
Happy blogging 😉🌸
I’m kind of self-hosted through WordPress – I have the business plan 🙂 And I had the exact same thing too – if you try shooting them an email, that might help! It turned out the page I had sent them to inspect was under construction and didn’t have content, hence why it got declined initially x
I have a business plan too but I’ll try to send them an email 😊 Hopefully they’ll look into it 😉 Thanks 😊
It’s amazing that you have earned from your blog, it’s always such a big achievement! And I’m loving the tips and tricks, this has totally inspired me to step up my game 😍
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
Thank you, Anika! I’m definitely trying to keep it consistent – I used to get most of my earnings over Christmas, so getting some throughout the year is a nice treat xx
That’s really good just from affiliate sales and ads! Well done!
Thank you, Lauren 🙂
Well, I’m still starting out and trying to get a hang of blogging😅. I don’t know if I’d ever upgrade (I hope I do) but right now, I don’t have the means to. I’m pretty much broke broke and still hugely depend on my parents. Opening a shop seems like something I could try but I don’t have that much of an audience. Can I use Affiliate links even when I’m not upgraded?
That’s totally fair! I’d say open a shop on etsy to start bc they promote for you (if that’s the route you wanted to take). You definitely can promote via affiliate earnings without being upgraded though x
Okay, thank you so much😊
Wow, this is totally incredible! Thanks for the tips hun!
xoxo
Lovely
http://mynameislovely.com
Thank you so much, Lovely, I’m glad you found it useful! xoxo
Thank you for sharing! I have never really considered monetising my blog until recently since it is only something that I used to do as a hobby but as I am getting busier (and my free time is getting less), I have been considering trying to figure out ways to monetise so that I can justify blogging to myself and as an incentive to keep it up. xx
Thanks for reading, Hannah! I definitely recommend giving it a go – your reasoning is a really large part of why I monetise my website too. Love spending time on it & taking photos & writing posts, but it’s SUCH a time commitment it’s definitely worthwhile getting something out of it too! xx
This is amazing and has really inspired me to keep pushing and do better on my blog! So happy for you & thanks for sharing 🙂
Mish | https://latteswithmish.com
Thank you so much for reading, Mish! I hope it all goes well for you 🙂 xx
This was so informative! It’s so fresh to see someone actually be open with what income they are making from their blog and how. Thank you for sharing! 💜
Thank you for reading, Calluna – I’m glad you enjoyed 🙂 <3
It is amazing that your blog paid your rent!! Pretty cool that you have different streams of income. You don’t rely on just one source. Pretty cool that ads paid off. Thanks for sharing some insights!
Nancy ✨ exquisitely.me
Thank you, Nancy! x
Oh this is amazing !
Thanks you so much for your transparency and all theses useful informations.
xx
Margot
https://troughthepasturesofthesky.com
Thank you so much for reading, Margot – I really wanted this post to be helpful, so I’m glad you thought it was xx
This was incredibly informative especially the tip about being self hosted so you can use Google Adsense. Thanks Mia, I look forward yout Pinterest video pin post!
https://kerielaine.com
Thank you, Keri! You can still monetise with affiliate links on hosted which is great, but it’s SUCH a big difference in terms of payout if you can make the jump to Adsense x
Those are some really helpful tips! Thanks for sharing them <3
I’m glad you found these helpful – thank you for reading <3
Congrats beauty! The way I look at it, is that blog money just helps fuel my caffeine addiction (and love for clothes lol) you posted some great tips also eeekkkk!!!! I am so frickin excited for your shop! Seriously you are insanely talented and I can not wait to peruse <3
hehehe that’s such a good idea! I do tend to put my earnings aside and say “okay this is the amount you’re allowed to spend on crafting this month – use it wisely!” And THANK YOU KATE! It’s pretty bare bones atm but I have some cute stuff in the works 😉 xx
That’s so amazing that it will pay your rent! It’s kind of crazy there are so many ways to monetize online now! I need to explore more of them myself!
Cheers,
Eileen | yesmissy.com
Thank you, Eileen! xx
This post highlights how good it is to have different income sources – it shows that there are many different ways to earn income from blogging. With your Amazon, do you use the Amazon one link program or have you signed up separately to US and UK accounts? (if you don’t mind me asking!). Having a shop is a lovely idea. You put together beautiful craft ideas. xx
I’m actually signed up to the seperate locales – I need to look into the one link program to be honest! & Thank you so much 🙂 xx
This was really helpful ,thank you for sharing 💕
Thank you for reading, Anna, I’m glad you found it helpful! xx
Such an inspirational post, love it! 😍 If I go self hosted one day then I would love to earn some money while blogging. I also would love to do some freelance work. They say its hard to earn money while writing but nothing is impossible, right?! I love writing. I’m happy for you 💕 xxx
This was so helpful! My Adsense earnings aren’t as high as yours, I’m glad to see you doing well with it!
I love your posts about blogging! You’re so transparent and open about money, I really like that, and it’s super useful! Thanks for sharing 😘
Love this. I’ve considered monetizing my blog too but I feel like I dont have much to bring to the table lmao. I just really need to spend some time and look into it but I also dont have the money to spend on my blog at the moment unfortunately so I still only have a free blog for now 😪
I thought about opening up a shop too but have no idea what I could even offer. 🤷🏻♀️
Thank you, Rossy! Do you use affiliate links? They’d be a super natural fit with all your beauty content 🙂
I do not unfortunately 🙁 I do wish I could be a bit more proactive when it comes to affiliate links but I had never looked into it. I did take some tips from this post though and will look into some things. I am hoping that once we get settled and figure out how much money we need for rent and bills each month, that I can set some money aside to finally upgrade my domain (even if I’m not completely self-hosted, can’t afford that yet). 🙂
Either way, this post helped a bunch and I have also been thinking of other ways in which I can create my own business 🙂
This is such a helpful post, I will definitely be checking out some of those affiliate programmes! Congratulations for making so much money on your blog!