May 2016 Online Income Report – $7,268.68

It’s time to review my online income report from last month. This report only includes income I received from the month of May. If I haven’t received the money, then I don’t put it in this income report. This is the best way for me to track how much money I am making on a monthly basis.

If you follow along on the blog, you might have noticed I literally just published my April online income report. Yeah….got a little behind on that, oops. 

May was my seventh-month of freelancing full time. It feels like a lifetime ago I quit my job, moved across the country and now work for myself. It’s a great feeling! 

Nearly a year ago, my goal was to get 5,000 monthly pageviews and had my first blog income report of $61.83. It’s INSANE how much has changed! Today I get over 200,000 page views a month and my income continues to climb. I’m constantly just like, is this for real?!

The number one question I get each week is how I get so many pageviews. I tell everyone that it’s 90-95% traffic from Pinterest – which is true. I’ve figured out how to master Pinterest for my blog and have been helping clients for several months with my Pinterest management company. 

If you want to grow your traffic or start utilizing Pinterest, my Pinterest Presence course details EXACTLY how I’ve grown my traffic.

Here’s a recap of some of my online income reports:

Each month I share an online income report from blogging. Blogging has been the best side hustle to earn extra money! I blog part time and freelance part time to earn money. Here's my latest blogging income report.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure for more info.

HERE IS THE BREAKDOWN OF MY ONLINE INCOME REPORT FROM MAY

  • $246.08 Ad revenue
  • $535 Partnerships/Sponsorships
  • $2101.15 Affiliate Income
  • $3,992 Freelancing

GRAND TOTAL: $7,268.68

This amount is the grand total before I deduct taxes. Right now I am putting away 30% of each paycheck I receive. If I break this down into sections of income I get this:

  • 54% freelance income
  • 46% passive income

My goal is to have more passive income than freelance income. I have worked really hard to grow my own brand and it’s been paying off the past couple months. 

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.

Ad Revenue

I switched over to AdThrive. This means I have a gap in my payments as I get on the new pay system. This stinks because the payment is so low this month!

Affiliate Income

My affiliate income is finally starting to roll in. Some of this income was earned a few months ago, so it can be frustrating having to wait to get paid. For the past few months, I’ve been annoyed how low my payouts have been, but it’s because it’s just been a waiting game. This is one area that will be staying the same or growing over the next few income reports!

Side Hustle Book

At the end of January, I launched my book about side hustling. I have done very little promotion of this book and still get sales. This is truly passive income and makes me so happy! 

I am in the process of moving the ebook over to Teachable so all my products can be on the same platform. I’m also adding in new information about how to side hustle and make money, and have a planned webinar to review everything coming up in a few weeks – yippee!

Freelancing

Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic to your blog. If you are worried about not having enough pageviews, learn how to get more blog traffic.I provide Pinterest management and image services to clients. This niche is keeping me busy and it’s been really growing the past couple of months. I recently stopped taking on new clients and had to put up a waiting list. Surprisingly, this has brought me in even more inquiries for help.

My Pinterest management company has recently shifted in clientele. I am working more with local businesses here in the Nashville area, as well as companies nationwide. 

At the end of April, I launched my Pinterest Presence course. I share exactly how I run my Pinterest management services, but allows students to go at their own pace.

The main reason I created the course was because I’m not able to assist every client that wants to hire me and this is the next best thing. 

In the Pinterest Presence course, I share exactly how I went from 1,000 page views a month to 160,000 page views a month, create Pinterest images, and how Pinterest drives in 90% of my traffic each month. Today I get over 200,000 page views, and my traffic continues to climb!

Consulting

This income report does NOT include any consulting income that I make that is related to my career niche outside of this blog. Even though this income is made online, it’s not really related to the blog, so I don’t share the income.

I love being able to continue to work in my field of work outside of the blog and Pinterest management company, and it’s a great balance. I’ve been in the same field of work for around 12 years (eek!) and love it. 

Monthly Expenses

These are my May expenses:

  • $85 VA work
  • $73.07 PayPal fees (I’m so over this; recently I switched to FreshBooks to save money)
  • $29 Teachable
  • $80 Rental space for webinar, business coaching sessions

TOTAL EXPENSES: $284.02

My expenses were around 4% of my budget. I’m still a DIY blogger for the most part, so I’m pretty budget conscious with my expenses. I expect the following month to be crazy expensive, so I am enjoying this low number while I can.

Using ConvertKit and LeadPages together has been amazing. I’ve created some really great newsletters, course sequences and sign up forms, and LeadPages has skyrocketed my email subscriber list.

*Please note, I don’t include Tailwind or Bluehost in these expenses as I have prepaid for the year. Tailwind is the scheduler I use when I do all my pinning on Pinterest.

If you are thinking about starting a blog, this tutorial will help you start a blog today. You’ll also get a FREE domain name for a year! I was able to quit my job and blog full time, all within my first year of blogging. I am really glad I took a chance and started a blog! I invested around $100 to start my blog using Bluehost, and I made $13,000 in 6 months of blogging. That’s the best return of investment ever! 

Start a blog on Bluehost

Pinterest course

Pinterest Presence A 300 x 600I am most excited about my brand new Pinterest Presence course. 

It’s an in-depth 3 part course that is geared towards bloggers and businesses that are interested in learning how to create better images, effectively use Pinterest and learning how to schedule pins in under an hour a week.

I’ve already been getting feedback from students that are starting to see results and that makes me so happy!

I want everyone to rock Pinterest and drive traffic to their blog, and Pinterest is one of the best ways to do that.

Since launching the course, I’ve already held a webinar and Blab on how to use Pinterest as well.

Because of the high demand, I’ve even scheduled a second webinar for my audience, which makes me super excited.

Readers are really into Pinterest, and I’m excited to keep sharing my tips and strategy.

{Resource: 10 Ways Your Blog and Business Can Benefit from Pinterest}

Do you have a blog? Have you thought about earning extra income through blogging? 

Similar Posts

20 Comments

  1. Hi! My new year’s goal is to start my blog. I’m worried I’m too late in the game! Is it too late to start blogging and earn income? I’m not hoping to make a ton of money, I’d just love some extra money for side things!

    Any advice for a newbie???

    I’m excited to use your blog as a reference.

  2. Hi! I love reading your blog & posts about your monthly income. I have been doing so much research, as I have started a health & laughter blog — Thank you for sharing! If you ever want to smile or need some advice on natural remedies/health — come over to me 🙂 Congrats to you and I hope it only becomes bigger and bigger for you! xo

    1. Hi Tracy! Thanks so much – good luck with your blog!!

  3. i have dealt with affiliate stuff on my website and nothing is making me money. I NEEEEED a quick start. I have a dead beat ex and am about to lose my home. i would be happy if I could just pay my house and car payment.

  4. Congrats for making money & Thank you for sharing income reports to keep that in transparency. that inspire me to start a blog 🙂

  5. I’ve been looking into staring a blog and reading from all the experts. At 50+ years old, I’m so done with working for someone else! From only this one page of yours that I have read, I can tell you will be one of my favorite resources! Thank you for sharing. Now I’m going to read more of your posts!

    1. Oh you are so nice Cheryl!

  6. #Girlboss,

    I so needed to read these posts – it helps motivate me – I feel like I need a “how to ear money with a blog for dummies”! This was awesome, and helpful! 🙂

    1. Thank you! I always get so inspired reading other blog income reports because I like to see all the different ways people can earn money. I think it’s great there’s no one way of doing things.

  7. Thank you for so much great information!! As a beginning blogger, details help! ?

    1. Thanks Kyleigh 🙂 You can always email me if you have questions!!

    1. Thanks Francesca. Yes just from ads on my site!!

  8. Congrats on another great month Kristin! I love how your income is evening out.

    1. Thanks girl! It’s been a slow and steady climb, that’s for sure!

  9. Uh-May-Zing!!! (haha get it?!)

    I love seeing your growth and watching you crush the online world. You are a rockstar already and I cant wait to see what the future holds for you.

    🙂

  10. This is great motivation for a new blogger (read:me!) Thanks for sharing!

    1. Thanks Jax. You can do this!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *