Happy New Year!
I hope your Christmas and New Year were just as good as ours. Even though I’m a bit sad that’s it all over and that my kids have gone back to school, I can’t help but feel excited about what the New Year will bring.
How This All Started
If you’re new here I’ve posted income reports ever since I started this blog three years ago. I initially had goals of making a few hundred dollars a month and slowly growing that amount over time. Luckily, that’s what I’ve been able to do.
Also, when I started this blog I was a single mom but I got remarried in 2015.
I was working low paying jobs and since I live in a small town and don’t have a college degree I knew the only way that I was ever going to earn a decent income was if I took things in my own hands. I started experimenting, had several failures, and eventually fell into freelance writing.
I built an emergency fund and grew my freelance writing income big enough to replace my day job at the time. (Which was only around $1,800/month.) After that I quit my job and started working from home full time. (Here’s how to find freelance blogging jobs if you’re just getting started.)
Since then I’ve also been able to generate income from this very blog which you’ll see below.
December 2015 Income
December’s income ended up being a few hundred dollars more than I thought it would be thanks to an extra payment I didn’t expect to receive until this month.
In December I made a total of……………$5,564.27
Just as a reminder this is for income actually received in December.
The income came from:
- Freelance (Writing and Virtual Assistant Work) $1,420
- Ad Networks $2,179.31
- Affiliate $1,420.96
- Other Advertising (like sponsored posts, other small sources, etc.) $400
- Misc. $144
The misc. is just a program where I referred other bloggers (not directly related to this blog) and wasn’t sure what else to label it.
Overall December was a pretty good month and ended up being a little more than I expected.
My Biggest Lesson From the Year
Looking back over the past few years it’s crazy to see how far I’ve come. Not just income-wise but how my entire life has changed for the better.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned (by far) is how incredibly important it is to work on your mindset.
I used to believe that I would never make more than $30,000 in a year. When I went full time with my online business I was stuck at the $2,500/month mark for a long time. I’m fully convinced this was due to the fact that I had placed this limit on myself that I wasn’t worth anymore.
It took some confidence building and learning from others before I started seeing the possibilities and in 2015 I was able to earn double that $30,000 mark.
Now, I’m not suggesting that if you just believe you’re worth more it will magically come to you. Only that, when you place limits on yourself it’s hard to bust through them.
I know this might sound a little fluffy or woo-woo (and I’m not normally that type of person) but you’ve got to stop it with the limited beliefs.
Do yourself a favor and get out of your head. Nobody else is any better than you are. You are worth it. You are awesome. You can do it.
Whatever your goals for 2016 are, go out there and make them happen. Don’t say that you can’t do something, instead you need to figure how you’re going to make it happen.
When there’s a will there’s a way.
Top Five Posts Written in 2015
And with that I’ll leave you with the top five posts written in 2015. Two of them were guest posts!
# 1 – I’m Barely Scraping By. What Should I Do? – I wrote this post in response to a social media message someone had left me. I wasn’t quite sure how to answer at the time and after thinking about it for a bit this post was the result. And I almost didn’t publish it because I wasn’t sure how it would be received. I’m glad that I did!
# 2 – Work at Home Typing Jobs – Even though I personally think it’s much better to get started working online in some sort of freelance role most people like to apply for online jobs with already established companies. This post also came from reader emails.
# 3 – How I Went From $0 – $4,000 per Month in Less Than 6 Months as Freelance Writer – This post written by Gina was very inspiring and was loved by Pinterest users.
# 4 – The Top 5 Ways to Make Money at Home with Amazon – Another guest post! This post by Angie covered all of the ways (that I know of, at least) to earn an income with Amazon.
# 5 – Top 10 Easiest Ways to Make Money Online – Because everyone likes easy!
Do you have any big goals for the New Year?
Congrats on a great 2015! I’ve been one of your readers since ( almost) the beginning and it thrills my heart to see your success! You’re 100% right about changing your mindset. I know that I’m totally my own worst enemy. I wasn’t raised in a real ” positive attitude” type of family, so as I’ve gotten older it’s been a real challenge for me to overcome. I’m working on it, though! 🙂
Thank you for always reading, Carrie! Definitely work on your mindset. I think we are all are own worst enemies and doing things to build confidence (even little things) is monumental in reaching goals.
P.S. Looks like your affiliate income is really taking off too. Way to go! Have you been trying new strategies with that income stream or just putting more focus on it overall?
I’ve done a little experimenting but want to put more focus on it this year. I have a few ideas to try but so far the main thing has just been going back through old posts and inserting affiliate links where relevant. Affiliate income has been hard for me because I haven’t found many things I’m comfortable with promoting.
Awesome job, Alexa!! Your income reports are one of my favorite to read 🙂 I totally agree that earning potential has a lot to do with your mindset. That’s why I’ve set a goal to be making $10K per month by October! 🙂
Thank you for sharing these with us readers. Hope you have a wonderful day!!
Thank you Sarah and good luck hitting the $10k/month mark. That would be amazing!
I am so happy for you! You are very helpful and inspirational. I set my goal higher this year too and I know I can do it. I think letting my insecurities get in the way was what was holding me back.
Yes, you can do it! It does seem like over the past year you’ve let some insecurities go which is so great to see 🙂 You’re going to do awesome in 2016.
Great job on the income mark and a wonderful year. I’m excited to follow your 2016 journey!
You are one of my favorite bloggers-probably because I was the kid with divorced parents and lived with my single mom…I just got where you were coming from. It has been such a joy to watch your progress, cheer you on, and congratulate you as life got better. I cannot agree enough with the idea that mindset is the #1 stumbling block for most people and one of the biggest issues I had to work on personally. Fantastic, fantastic post!
I just re read the ” Barely Scraping By” post. I had forgotten how good it is.
My biggest goal for 2016 is to keep myself positive always, then I want tosave more, have a more frugal life sill having a good social life:P
You’ve done an awesome job of growing your business and diversifying your income! Here’s to another year of growth in 2016
Awesome job! I agree, your success is definitely dependent on your mindset.
Another great month! Thank you for sharing Alexa!
I’ve realised that you are using The Blogger Network (TBN). It’s being very popular recently, that’s why I’ve applied and now I’m in the acceptance period. My website is having 250,000 page views per month more or less, hopefully I’ll be accepted.
My question is, how much are you making from TBN? I ask you about CPM or money you receive every 1,000 impressions.
Also, I’ve updated your income report on The List of Bloggers Income Reports that I created in October but that I update every month with the new incomes.
Have a great day!
Hi Alexa!
Wow! That’s so great. I haven’t gotten into the whole ads on my blog and affiliate marketing, but I think for 2016 I’ll look into that. It’s good to know that you can really make money passively!
Having the right mindset is totally the secret of many successful freelancers and people in general! Way to go and I love reading your income reports.
Congrats on a great 2015! I’m a firm believer in mind over matter, so I’m doing the best I can in 2016 to change my mindset from “This is impossible” to “I can do this.”
Wow, over $5k in a month! Keep up the awesome work and wish you the best on your continued growth in 2016!