February 2023 Income Report – How I Made $8,641 Blogging This Month

Let’s go over how I made money blogging in February 2023.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you.

In case this is your first time seeing my income reports, I first just want to share WHY I even post my income publicly.

Because the point is never to come across as bragging or trying to show off. I started sharing my income reports when there wasn’t much to even brag about (read my first one here).

The reason I share these is because income reports were the whole reason I started blogging in the first place. If I never saw what was possible with blogging, I never would have started and I wouldn’t be where I am today.

So hopefully these income reports will serve as inspiration for you to pursue that semi-passive income stream you’ve been wanting to start. Whether it’s blogging or doing something else!

Also, keep in mind that what you’re seeing now is a product of LOTS of hard work with very little pay at the beginning. If you’re just starting out, these numbers may seem pretty far off to you.

But just know that if you stick with it, it WILL start to pay off. There’s a quote that goes something like “the harder you work, the luckier you become”.

My previous income reports will show you that it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. You can see my past income reports here:

My Blogging Journey Through The Years

My blogging journey has been filled with ups and downs, but what has always kept me going is seeing other bloggers’ progress. An income report from a fellow blogger is actually what got me started on this journey in the first place.

If you’re new here, my blogging journey actually started about 6 years ago. I created a travel blog in college as a space to share my travels.

I knew that other bloggers were making an income online, but I never took the steps to learn how to properly set up a blog or monetize it.

(p.s. want to start a money making blog? I have a blog post that tells you how to do that!)

Of course, that first blog failed miserably. I put a ton of time and money into it but I never made a single penny (and I’m pretty sure my dad was the only person who read it).

In the summer of 2020 I stumbled on an income report of a blogger who was making $30k+ PER MONTH on their blog. I decided to start a new lifestyle blog as an experiment and actually learn how to monetize it this time.

I taught myself everything I possibly could about SEO, affiliate marketing, and ad networks. And since I was blogging anonymously, I had so much freedom to play around and make mistakes with it.

Now, only 2.5 years after launching this brand new website, I’m making thousands of dollars per month just off of blogging alone. I’ve also launched two new blogs and have hired on some part-time writers.

Reading income reports from other bloggers was SO helpful when I started out. Not only was it insanely inspiring, it also gave me a glimpse at where my stats needed to be before I could earn serious money with this website.

I’m sharing this income report to inspire you and show you that anyone can make money blogging!

February Blogging Income Report

February 2023 Income Sources

In February 2023 I made $8,641.08 from my blogs. However, it’s worth noting that that money won’t actually hit my bank account for a few months.

Most programs have wait periods of 30-90 days before they deposit the money into your accounts. So this is just the money I earned, not the money I’ve received yet.

As I mentioned before, I also set aside 35% for taxes and around 10% for business expenses.

Here is exactly where that money came from:

By Leah Claire:

Number of Page Views: 38,276 (+357 from last month)
Blogging Affiliate Commissions: $4,791 (-$2,741.41 from last month)

Travel Affiliate Commissions: $67.47 (+$32.82 from last month)
Display Ads: $297.18 (-$106.94 from last month)
Digital Product Sales: $579.80 (-$502.20 from last month)

Total for By Leah Claire: $5,735.45 (-$3,317.75 from last month)

RPM (income per 1000 page views): $149.86

Total without blogging products: $364.65

*It’s important to note that a big chunk of the income this month came from a viral reel and the launch of Blogging Freedom Academy. This was definitely not a typical month for By Leah Claire.

Secret Lifestyle Blog #1:

Number of Page Views: 116,550 (-9,926 from last month)
Affiliate Commissions: $424.59 (+$202.50 from last month)

Display Ads: $2,438.30 (+$157.09 from last month)

Total for my secret lifestyle blog #1: $2,862.89 (+$359.59 from last month)

RPM (income per 1000 page views): $24.56

Secret Lifestyle Blog #2:

Number of Page Views: 10,539 (-1,597 from last month)
Affiliate Commissions: $8.99 (+$8.93 from last month)
Display Ads: $33.15 (-$8.56 from last month)

Total for secret lifestyle blog #2: $42.74 (+$0.97)

RPM (income per 1000 page views): $4.07

TOTAL: $8,641.08

Total without blogging products: $3,269.31 (+$285.45 from last month)

I recently put a poll on my Instagram stories for whether or not to include my income from blogging products. The majority of people said they would like to see my “blogging about blogging” income included in these income reports.

However, I just want you guys to know that this was a really unusual month for my blogging income.

Typically, my lifestyle blog makes up the large majority of my blogging income. And for that site, I don’t promote any blogging products whatsoever.

I had a couple of social media posts go viral for my personal account, which resulted in a huge influx of blogging product sales.

But I think it’s important to note that it IS possible to make thousands of dollars a month blogging – even if you’re in another niche or not using social media!

My lifestyle blog has brought in $10,000+ months just from ads and affiliate links to lifestyle products. And that’s without the use of any social media platforms aside from Pinterest!

What Happened In February?

February was another unusual month because I launched Blogging Freedom Academy. And with that launch I posted a lot more content surrounding blogging and making money online.

That content resulted in a lot of sales of blogging related products, which once again made a big impact in my income ratios.

However, I’m SO happy that my blogs made over $3,000 in February without including blogging product sales.

February is typically an extremely low month on my sites (last February my sites only made $630!), so to 5x my income in a year is amazing.

Blogging Freedom Academy

If you’re interested in making money blogging, I highly recommend getting on the waitlist for the next round of Blogging Freedom Academy.

In this course, I share my exact strategies for starting and growing a money-making blog in 2023.

You’ll learn how to set your blog up for success, how to find keywords that rank, how to get SEO traffic from Google, and my monetization methods that bring in thousands of dollars per month.

Blogging Expenses

Now that I’m running my blog like a business, my blogging expenses are getting a bit complicated.

I pay for hosting, SEO tools, email marketing platforms, etc.

Here are the big expenses from February:

Hosting

I now use BigScoots on my main website because it gets a ton of traffic. However, I don’t recommend it for beginners because it’s a lot more expensive (I pay $55 per month!).

If you’re just starting out, I would recommend using BlueHost. They’re SO affordable (only $2.95 per month with my link) and they have great customer service.

I used BlueHost for the first year and a half of blogging and I had very positive experiences with them. I still host my smaller sites on them because they’re so affordable!

Once you start getting hundreds of thousands of page views a month, you can switch to a premium host like BigScoots that is more equipped to handle large sites.

Canva Pro

I use Canva Pro for sizing all of my blog images, creating graphics for Pinterest, and creating digital products like my ebook.

I also use their premium stock photo library all the time on my lifestyle blogs. It’s $12.99 per month and it’s definitely worth it for my needs.

Honestly though, the free version is incredible if you’re just starting out and can’t afford to upgrade.

RankIQ

RankIQ is one of my all-time favorite tools for finding blogging keywords. They do all of the keyword research for you and provide you with low-competition keywords that you can rank for in Google.

I like to use RankIQ to fill in the gaps on my keyword research. They often suggest keywords that I never would have thought of or been able to find myself.

This tool is super affordable and my top recommendation for new bloggers. You can use my link to get 50% off the monthly subscription price.

Reflecting On 2022 Income

At the start of 2022 I made some income predictions/goals for each month of the year. Here are those predictions and how my income actually went each month.

January: ~~Very low income (maybe $600 earned this month)~~ $1674 earned in January

February: ~~Extremely low income month (hoping for $500)~~ $630.30 earned in February
March: ~~Average income (around $1000 this month)~~ $992.54 earned in March
April: ~~Average income ($1000 this month)~~ I earned $3,454.86 in April

May: ~~Higher income month ($3000 this month)~~ I earned over $7000 in May
June: ~~High income month ($3000 this month)~~ I more than doubled this prediction!
July: ~~High income month ($5000 this month)~~ I earned $7,780.66 in July

August: ~~High income month ($3000 this month)~~ I earned $7,569 in August
September: ~~I think $1500 this month~~ $6119 earned in September
October: ~~Very high income month (would love to hit $8000)~~ Can’t believe it but I surpassed this prediction by more than $4k in October!

November: ~~I think I’ll hit around $3000 in Novembe~~r I earned over $8k in November
December: ~~Very high income month (a $7000 month I think)~~ I made $16k this month!

It’s crazy to see that I made more than predicted 11 out of 12 months last year! Some months were even double what I thought they would be. So wild!

Total blogging income for 2022: $80,052

2023 Blogging Income Predictions

Here are my blogging income predictions for 2023. As I’m writing this income report, it is already May lol. BUT I haven’t actually gone back and added up my income for each month yet, so I’m still making these predictions somewhat blindly.

My main lifestyle blog tends to do pretty poorly in the first few months of the year, and then really pick up the pace in the late summer/fall. It also has a pretty big boost around the holidays because I’ve written a lot of seasonal content on there.

For the most part, my goal is to just double my income each month from what last year’s was.

January: ~~$3,000~~ (obviously this ended up being $11,598!)
February: $2,000 (even without any blogging product sales I surpassed this goal!)

March: $2,000
April: $5,000
May: $10,000

June: $12,000
July: $12,000
August: $14,000

September: $12,000
October: $25,000
November: $16,000

December: $22,000

I hope this income report helped inspire you to start your own blog. Blogging has seriously changed my life and my financial situation and I want the same for you!

Do you have any questions about blogging? Feel free to send me an email at [email protected] and I’d be happy to help you!

February 2023 Income Report – How I Made $8,641 Blogging This Month

My Blogging Journey Through The Years