November 2017 Online Income Report – $41,502.90

ByKristin Larsen

Here is my November online income report. November was anther busy month for my blog and business!

I’ve been in a great mental space lately for my blog and business. I had some slumps at the beginning of the year, and as we approach the end of 2017, I’ve definitely hit my stride with work and a healthy life balance. I’ve been really energized with my blog and online business. Things are going great!

If you are new to reading blog income reports, here’s a quick refresher! My most popular income report is still my very first one! In April 2015, I published my first income report proudly stating how I made $60. My first income report is still incredibly relevant! If you are a new blogger, you should definitely read my first income report to help you make money online! I have now been publishing income reports for two and a half years. Time is flying by!

If you haven’t started blogging, this blog post will provide you with a list of blogging ideas, tips and teach you how to set up your blog in 15 minutes. Read the post here.

It took me about four months to earn any income from my blog. That was the hardest four months ever because I was so new to blogging and wasn’t sure what I was doing. Earning that first paycheck was the best feeling ever and confirmed that my hard work was starting to slowly pay off!

Since I started blogging and reporting my income reports, my income has overall steadily grown from the previous year. I’m at an exiting point with my income reports because I can look back at 2015 and 2016 and compare how much my income and expenses have changed.

I consider my overall experience with blogging and my online business totally worth it. I also am glad my income reports are fairly personal. I really like going back through all of my online income reports to see what worked, what stressed me out and what big decisions I was making at the time.

I also love the shift my blog and business has made.

For example, most of my income in the early days came from freelancing.I have always used ads and done sponsored post when I felt it was a good fit for my blog.

Today it comes from affiliate income and my own products and courses.  It wasn’t an easy shift – it took a large part of 2016 to accomplish this – but I am so glad I documented the journey!

There has been a lot of momentum building online as we enter the holidays and the end of the year. I feel some pressure to work harder and accomplish more, but overall I am focusing on a better work life balance. I have realized that it’s not healthy to work 24/7!

I am more focused on my blog and online business when I have time away from the computer! By taking some time off, which is usually the weekends and most evenings, I feel refreshed starting work on Monday morning.

It took me a while to realize that this is work – I will never get everything done in one sitting! I will always have a to-do list, have emails, have projects to work on, etc., and these are all blessings! This means my business is thriving.

Now that I have adjusted to this new attitude, I look at things differently! No more stressing that I am going to fall behind if I don’t work on something right away or experience FOMO (fear of missing out, ha!).

Overall, I am very happy with my work and life balance. One tip that has really helped me during the workday is taking mini breaks. Throughout the day, for about five minutes at a time, I will get out my yoga mat and meditate and/or stretch. It really helps me step away from work for a few minutes and zone out 🙂

Here are some previous online income reports:

This is my online income report. I started sharing online income reports over two years ago and my income has grown steadily. I learned how to start a blog so I could make money online as a side hustle. Check out this income report to learn how I have grown my blog!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure for more info.

Here’s the breakdown of my November online income report

Grand Total: $55,482

If you want to keep track of your online income (which I highly recommend) check out Freshbooks! It’s what I’ve used to track business income, expenses, invoice clients, and more. Click here to learn more about Freshbooks.

November flew by real quick! It was a busy month for my work life and personal life.

Here’s a few things that happened with my blog and online business:

  • Handled business stuff. Aside from working my my accountant on a monthly basis, I’ve started working with my lawyer for my new side hustle project. I needed help understanding trademarks and that kinds of stuff, and he is awesome to work with. Don’t worry – I plan on sharing more next year about this new side hustle project on the blog 🙂
  • Continued to work on new workbooks for my courses, products and freebies to offer.
  • Flew to Vegas to meet-up with Gina (my course partner) to re-film sections for Become a Pinterest VA TODAY!
  • Launched a brand new surprise product called The Pinterest Post for Black Friday.

I highlighted my 2015, 2016 and 2017 November online income reports to showcase my progress!

 

  • November 2015, I made $2,007.31
  • November 2016, I made $10,736.55
  • November 2017, I made $55,482

November online income report expenses

As I mentioned in last month’s income report, I was ready to switch from paying monthly subscription price to an annual subscription. There’s a few reasons I decided to do this with all of my expenses:

  • Most annual subscriptions will save me more an average of two to three months of payment, which in some cases is a saving of over $300 per subscription.
  • I only have to make one payment per year vs every month.
  • As my income has grown, I feel comfortable paying for services and subscriptions up front. As a new blogger, I would not have been able to do this with all of my monthly expenses.

Here are my expenses in November. No shock here – this was my most expensive month ever as a blogger!

I purchased annual plans on as many monthly subscription services as possible. While this was a big chunk of money to put down, I am saving money in the long run. I also don’t have to worry about these expenses for another twelve months, which gives me plenty of time to save and put money aside for the following year.

Moving forward, here are some of my regular monthly expenses:

  • $10 Google Apps
  • $1,460 VA work + professional services
  • $283 Facebook ad
  • $0 Quickbooks Self Employed I currently have the Quickbooks Self-Employed version and it has worked out great as a new business owner. The self-employed version is perfect for someone who is a sole-proprietor or a single person LLC.
  • $0 Tailwind  I pay for this annually. Tailwind is the scheduler I use when I do all my pinning on Pinterest. It’s my favorite scheduler I use for myself, recommend to clients and for my students.
  • $0 Bluehost. I pay for my hosting annually. This is the company I used when I first started my blog and still use today! I was able to buy my domain name for FREE and use Bluehost to host Believe In A Budget.

Gina (my course partner for Pinterest VA) and I also paid out affiliates and we have to pay fees from every purchase that we make, whether it’s for our joint business or my own business. This is taken out automatically with PayPal or Stripe and it around 3% of every sale. Also, if an affiliate of mine receives credit from a sale, that has to be paid out as well.

Total expenses: $12,404

I also have to pay taxes, which is not included in the above. That’s usually around 30% of my income!

November highlights:

November was busy as expected. I’ve been working hard! I definitely went through phases this year where I worked fewer hours during the week. Right now that is not the case at all! I feel like I am working a steady 40-hour work week and juggling a few different things at the same time:

  • Believe In A Budget
  • Pinterest VA
  • My new secret side hustle project that requires a lot of my time upfront!

You can also check me out on the Chain of Wealth Podcast, where I talk about blogging and making money online. It was really fun to share my story about how I got started side hustling, which lead to creating my blog and where I am today.

All in all, this was a fast moving month!

Blog topic: Blogging 101

I can’t believe I have been blogging for almost three years! I have really grown a ton in the past few years. I receive emails all the time from people about blogging. Some of their questions are:

  • I’m really scared to start a blog, do you think I should try it?
  • Do I have to tell my friend or family about my blog?
  • Do you think _______ is a good idea for a blog?
  • and the list goes on!

I usually reply with a lot of optimism because I totally understand why they are nervous. I debated starting my blog for months! Looking back, I should have just started and stopped worrying so much about things.

Blogging has changed my life for the better. If you find yourself asking these same questions, I want to share a few blog posts to help you start a blog!

  • First, you can learn more here about the common fears of starting a blog. I shared why I was so scared to start my blog and I bet you have some of these similar fears. Learn how to stop being scared to start a blog and go for it!
  • Second, once you are ready to start a blog, this blog post will help you figure out a domain name (there’s tons of ideas listed!) and a tutorial to walk you through how to set up your blog.
  • Third, here is my first blog income report to inspire you! It’s never easy to make your first dollar blogging and I was super excited when my blog made $60!

 

Thanks for reading this online income report! I hope this income report and tips help you start a blog today!

Hi, I'm Kristin! When I made my first $60 online, I was sold on blogging. After only 10 months, I quit my day job as an interior architect & designer to blog full time about personal finance. I share tips on how to save money, make money and start a blog! 💗

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