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May 2022 Blogging Income Report – How I Made $7389 Blogging This Month

Let’s talk money, baby!! I’m SO excited to share this income report because this is the first month that my blogging income has exceeded my freelancing income!

Just a reminder before we dive in – this is not my take-home pay. I set aside 30% each month for taxes and spend a good chunk of change on business expenses. My freelancing income still pays the bills for me, but I’m very very grateful for this extra income as well!

Also, 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”.

May Blogging Income Report

Every month, I share how much money my blogs are making me.

Why? Because income reports are what inspired me to take the plunge into blogging! I don’t share these reports to brag (it’s actually really scary to share your income on the internet), but to show you what’s possible!

My blogging journey has been filled with ups and downs but what’s 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.

You can see my past income reports here:

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 her 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 two 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 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!

May 2022 Income Sources

In May 2022 I made $7,389.89 from my blogs. It’s important to know 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.

Here is exactly where that money came from:

By Leah Claire

Total for By Leah Claire: $556.24

Secret Lifestyle Blog #1:

  • Affiliates: $1,839.84
  • Mediavine Ads: $4,993.81

Total for my secret lifestyle blog: $6,833.65

Secret Lifestyle Blog #2: $0

Secret Pet Blog: $0

TOTAL: $7389.89

May Traffic Breakdown

By Leah Claire:

  • May 2022 Pageviews: 3,554 (+2,053)
  • Pinterest Followers: 412 (+3)
  • Email List Subscribers: 199 (+5)

Secret Lifestyle Blog #1:

  • May 2022 Pageviews: 160,452 (+82,773)
  • Pinterest Followers: 3,925 (+335)
  • Email List Subscribers: unknown (moved to a new platform this month so still figuring out migration!)

Secret Lifestyle Blog #2:

  • May 2022 Pageviews: 1,928 (+1,912)
  • Pinterest Followers: 1 (+1)
  • Email List Subscribers: 0 (have not started an email list for this blog yet)

Secret Pet Blog:

  • May 2022 Pageviews: 119 (+109 although I’m pretty sure a lot of these views are bots)
  • Pinterest Followers: 0 (haven’t started a Pinterest for this blog yet)
  • Email List Subscribers: 0 (have not started an email list for this blog yet)

You may be noticing there are two new blogs on this income report. That’s right – I started two new blogs in late March & early April!

I won’t be sharing the names or specific niches anytime soon, but I will say that one is a lifestyle blog and the other is a pet blog.

I’ll be honest, I have no clue how the pet blog is going to do. Pets are an extremely competitive niche BUT I found some promising keywords with very little competition. I think it’ll take off eventually but it’ll take a lot longer to gain traffic.

I have high hopes for the second lifestyle blog. I’ve only been able to find a few other blogs in this niche, and there’s still SO many keywords that are up for grabs.

I think that this secret lifestyle blog #2 will be my fastest-growing blog ever. Of course, I’ll take you along for the ride with all of these blogs!

My Blogging Ebook

A few months ago I released my Beginner’s Guide To Profitable Blogging Ebook!

In this book, I share my exact strategies for starting and growing a money-making blog in 2022. You’ll learn how to set your blog up for success, how to find keywords that rank, how to get traffic from Pinterest and Google, and my monetization methods that bring in thousands of dollars per month.

PLUS you’ll get four bonuses that are worth over $65.

See all of the details here, and use code INCOMEREPORT to get $10 off.

Blogging Expenses

Now that I’m running my blog like a business, my blogging expenses are getting a bit complicated. I’m actually not really paying myself out of my blog income right now because I’m in a major “building” phase of my business.

Instead, I’m taking the money I’ve made and I’m reinvesting in writers, blogging tools, and courses that will help me scale this blog to eventually become my full time income.

So I’m leaving this section blank for May because it’s not really indicative of how much blogging actually costs. If you want to know how much money you’ll have to spend to run a blog, this post is super helpful.

Income Predictions For The Year

I wanted to make some predictions for what my blogging income will be in the next 12 months. It’ll be interesting to look back on these predictions and see if I’m right about them.

  • 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 more than doubled this prediction!
  • June: High income month ($3000 this month)
  • July: High income month ($5000 this month)
  • August: High income month ($3000 this month)
  • September: A bit slower than the summer months but still decent (I think $1500 this month)
  • October: Very high income month (would love to hit $8000)
  • November: I think I’ll hit around $3000 in November
  • December: Very high income month (a $7000 month I think)

If the year goes as I’m predicting it, I’ll make over $40,000 just on blogging! That would be amazing considering it’s just my side hustle right now.

How Did I Do On My Goals?

  • Make at least $3000 in May. I absolutely crushed this goal!! I made more than double what I thought I would.
  • Publish at least 5 blog posts on each of my blogs (20 posts total). I published 5 posts on this blog, 8 posts on secret lifestyle blog #1, 5 posts on secret pet blog, and 11 on secret lifestyle blog #2!! That’s 29 new blog posts in May. I also updated 8 old posts on my secret lifestyle blog #1. It was a really productive month and I’m super proud of these numbers!
  • Launch a new freebie (and possibly presets) on By Leah Claire. I didn’t get around to this goal unfortunately. I’ve been focused on pumping out the content.

My June Blogging Goals

  • Publish 30 blog posts across all my sites. This is a HUGE goal for June, especially considering I’m traveling for the majority of the month. But I think I can accomplish this with the help of some writers.
  • Make at least $5000 in June. I know I made over $7000 in May, but a lot of that was due to a seasonal post that went viral. I’m still shooting for high numbers in June but I’m honestly not sure if I’ll hit $5k this month.

When Will I Reveal My Secret Blog?

I’ve had quite a few questions about my secret blog and what it’s about. At this time, I’m not planning on ever releasing the name of the blog. I may reveal details about the niche if I ever decide to sell it.

The goal with these secret blogs isn’t to run them forever, but to build them up over the next year or two and eventually sell them. You can make a LOT of money flipping and selling blogs so I’m excited to try it out.

In case you’ve never heard of blog flipping, you can sell your blog to content site investors for around 30-45x your average monthly profit. So a blog making $3000 per month can sell for around $90,000 – $135,000.

My Favorite Blogging Tools And Resources

Over the years I’ve been blogging, I’ve spent so much time and money on blogging tools and resources. Some of them have been total wastes, while others have completely transformed my business.

Here are my all-time favorite blogging tools and resources that I would 100% purchase again.

Tools:

  • Bluehost: This is my hosting platform for my blog. If you’re looking to make money blogging, you absolutely need to have a self-hosted WordPress blog. Bluehost is super beginner-friendly and incredibly affordable for new bloggers. Use this link to get hosting for as low as $3 per month.
  • RankIQ: RankIQ is one of my favorite tools for bloggers. It gives you a giant list of low-competition keywords that you have a good chance to rank for. There’s also a content optimizer tool that’s SO helpful for writing your content. Every post I’ve written with RankIQ has ranked highly on Google so far, which is insane! Use this link to get RankIQ for 50% off.

Courses:

  • Perfecting Pinterest: About 60% of my blog traffic (and income) comes from Pinterest. I’ve taken a few Pinterest courses over the years and this is by far my favorite. It’s also super affordable so you’ll definitely make your investment back if you put the work in!
  • Stupid Simple SEO: This is the SEO course I am currently working my way through. As much as I love my Pinterest traffic, organic traffic from Google is way more valuable and stable. This was a bigger investment but it’s definitely paid for itself with the results it’s gotten me!

I hope this income report will inspire you to start your own blog.

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!

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