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November 2021 Income Report: How I made $1172.58 Blogging

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.

My November 2021 income report will show you exactly how I made $1172.58 on my blogs this month.

November 2021 Income Report

First of all – why am I even sharing my income with you?

My blogging journey has been filled with so many ups and downs but one thing that has always kept me motivated is seeing other bloggers’ progress.

My journey actually started 5 years ago. I created a travel blog in college and spent years (and lots of money) on it and never made a single penny. Looking back, I realize my first blog failed because I never took the steps to learn how to properly monetize it.

Flash forward to the summer of 2020 and I started seeing income reports from other bloggers show up on Pinterest and Youtube. I found people my age and younger who were making $10k, $20k, and even $75k+ PER MONTH with their blogs.

I decided to start a new lifestyle blog and learn how to actually monetize it. 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 a year after launching this brand new website, I’m making $500-1000 per month just off of blogging alone.

Reading income reports from other bloggers was really 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!

Past Income Reports:

November 2021 Income Sources

In November 2021 I made $1172.58 from my blogs. Here is exactly where that money came from:

Secret Lifestyle Blog:

  • Affiliates
    • Amazon: $219.29
    • Skimlinks: $10.50
  • Ads
    • Ezoic: $52.57
    • Mediavine: $337.87

Total for my secret lifestyle blog: $619.94

By Leah Claire

TOTAL: $1172.81

I’m very happy with my income on both blogs this month! My income always drops in November for my secret lifestyle blog so I was very glad to break the $600 mark for the month. I also changed ad networks halfway through the month so my ad income was much lower than usual due to a few days of being offline.

I was also super thrilled to have income coming in on this blog for the first time! The $550 from Bluehost was due to getting some signups after promoting their Black Friday sale. I definitely don’t expect this number to always be so high but it was a nice little supplement to my income this month.

November Traffic Breakdown

Secret Lifestyle Blog:

  • November 2021 Pageviews: 27,382 (20,836 sessions)
  • Pinterest Followers: 2,842
  • Email List Subscribers: 255

By Leah Claire:

  • November 2021 Pageviews: 1,022 (637 sessions)
  • Pinterest Followers: 394
  • Email List Subscribers: 38

Traffic on my secret lifestyle blog absolutely PLUMMETED this month. The explosion of traffic in October was due to some Halloween / fall themed posts going viral. The major drop off in November tells me I need to focus more on content that will rank year-round. This will definitely be my main focus moving forward.

The other major change in my analytics was the drastic drop in email list subscribers for this blog. Don’t worry, I didn’t just get 300+ people unsubscribing. I actually decided to start over completely with my email list and focus on building a super niched-down subscriber list.

Blogging Expenses

It doesn’t take very much money to start a blog but there are some minor expenses.

Bluehost: $6.95 Bluehost is the hosting platform I recommend for all new bloggers. It’s insanely cheap (under $3 per month with my link) and the customer support is incredible. I pay a little bit more because I run multiple blogs.

Tailwind: $9.99 I HIGHLY recommend Tailwind if you have a blog. It saves me so much time on scheduling pins and gets me a ton of Pinterest traffic every month.

Canva Pro: $12.99 I use Canva Pro for both of my blogs, Pinterest, Instagram, and even for my social media clients. The free version is great but I use lots of the features in the Pro version so it’s worth it to me.

RankIQ: $29 I’ve been using RankIQ for a few months to stock up on low competition, high volume keywords. I originally was going to cancel my subscription but I decided to just downgrade instead. I find that all of the posts I write using their keywords rank really quickly so it’s definitely worth the cost!

Six Figure Blogger Course: $234.21 Every few months I like to sign up for a new blogging course. I 100% swear by courses as the reason I’ve been able to grow my blogging income so quickly. I’ve been eyeing this course up for awhile now and I wanted to wait for Black Friday to get a good deal on it.

TOTAL EXPENSES: $293.14

What Worked This Month?

November was a pretty bad month for my secret lifestyle blog. Traffic was low, affiliate sales were low, and ad income was low due to switching providers.

The only thing that really saved my income this month was the fact that I made several sales for Bluehost for their Black Friday sale. That $550 really boosted my income and it was so easy to do because I genuinely really love Bluehost and have no problem recommending it to my audience!

How Did I Do On My Goals?

  • Hit $650 in November. Obviously I accomplished this one! I am so thrilled to have made what I did in November.
  • Publish 3 blog posts on By Leah Claire. I published 2 blog posts on By Leah Claire in November (not including last month’s income report). I didn’t hit my goal but I’m still proud that I’m getting more content up on here!
  • Publish 5 blog posts on my secret lifestyle blog. I got 8 posts up this month on my secret lifestyle blog! I PUMPED the content out this month because I know I’ll be really busy with the holidays in December.
  • Get at least 2 brand deals on Instagram.  I didn’t accomplish this goal but honestly I’m not too upset about it. The whole reason I want to focus more on blogging is so that I can move away from income that isn’t passive (like sponsored posts and freelancing). I still like doing sponsored posts once in awhile but they’re definitely not the best way to spend my time.

My December Blogging Goals

  • Hit $1500 in December. With Christmas around the corner, I’m really hoping my blogs will make at least $1500. RPMs are usually pretty high this time of year so I think the majority of that money will come from ads.
  • Publish 3 blog posts on By Leah Claire. I have so much content to write from my trips to Mexico and Europe. I really want to get more travel-related content up in December.
  • Finish my ebook. I’m writing an ebook all about starting a money-making blog and I’m really hoping to finish it in December. Sign up for my email list if you want to be the first to know about my blogging ebook (and get a crazy discount on it!)
  • Publish 4 blog posts on my secret lifestyle blog. I really want to publish more evergreen content (content that will rank year-round) and some seasonal content for Spring.

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.

I have considered starting a third blog from scratch to take you through the step-by-step process of starting and building a profitable blog. I don’t have the time right now to do that, but I’m definitely open to it if that’s something you guys want to see!

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:

  • Tailwind: I use Tailwind to schedule all of my pins on Pinterest. It saves me SO much time and energy on my Pinterest strategy. I recommend Tailwind for all bloggers and businesses that utilize Pinterest.
  • 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.

Courses:

  • Perfecting Pinterest: About 80% 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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