2018 Income Report

When I started this blog in 2012 it was sort of like a diary of me trying to replace my day job income with freelance work. I did an income report every month which would detail what I made freelance writing, being a virtual assistant, and blogging.

And I did more than double what I used to earn at my day job with my online work.

Then in May of 2017 I had my third baby. After that I stopped freelancing and then stopped doing income reports. Honestly, at that point growing my income was no longer my priority. Staying home with a baby was. (And if you’re wondering if that decision adversely affected my income…well, it did. But we’ll get to that in a minute.)

Now that the baby is a toddler I finally felt okay getting some help. She’s started going to a babysitter. (She goes 3 hours per day 4-5 days per week. And is only a mile away!) And now, I can finally get back to feeling like a semi-productive adult.

Since I have more time to work and income reports have always been favorites I thought I’d bring them back.

Here are some previous income reports you can check out:

• 2017 Year End Income Report
• 2016 December Income Report
• 2016 November Income Report

All of 2018…

I’m going to be completely transparent with these. Income for 2018 has been ALL OVER THE PLACE. My monthly income has been as low as $2,300 and as high as $12,000. (This isn’t accounting for expenses though.)

I have earned less this year so than I have the prior three years and it’s no surprise, because I haven’t worked that much!

All the income from 2018 is from the blog. And as far as hours go, my guess is I’ve worked maybe 20 hours per month. (And I know that makes me seem super lucky but I put in hundreds of unpaid hours when I started this blog. And yes, sometimes I still feel a little weird about the fact that I no longer have to struggle to make a decent income.)

Here’s a month-by-month breakdown:

• January – $2,318
• February – $3,080
• March – $4,501
• April – $5,233
• May – $4,842
• June – $12,216
• July – $4,043
• August – $4,104
• September – $5,192
• October – $3,621
• November – $2,636
• December $3,394

That makes for a grand total of $55,187.

All 2018 expenses totaled to $10,243 making my 2018 net profit $44,943.

Where Did the Money Come From?

In my prior years a good chunk of my income came from freelancing. However, since I put a pause on freelancing all this year’s income is strictly from this blog. (And if you’re wondering how I learned how to make income from my blog it’s because of this course I took several years ago.)

Here’s a breakdown:

Affiliate Commissions – $31,764

As an affiliate you can link to products you recommend and receive a commission if the person who has clicked your link decides to make a purchase.

Ad Networks – $21,598

I mainly use Google Adsense as an ad network. I used to use a different one but all of a sudden the pay went WAY down. I replaced with Google Adsense which I seem to do pretty well with.

You can read all about earning with ad networks here.

Sponsored Posts – $1,825

This number could be higher but I don’t accept many sponsored posts. I only like to work with sponsors who I think fit well with this blog.

Blog Help

If you’re a new blogger or just haven’t been able to gain much traction here are some resources that can help you:

• SEO for Bloggers: What Really Works
• 120 Awesome Blog Post Ideas
• How to Make More Money from Ad Networks
• Blog Post Promotion Checklist
• 20 Free WordPress Plugins

Blogging, for sure, is not a quick or easy way to make money but if you put in the time and hard work upfront it allows a TON of flexibility.