|

September 2022 Income Report – How I Made $6,119.22 On My Blogs This Month

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.

September 2022 Blogging Income Report

It’s time for another income report!! Every month I like to share my blogging income report as a way to keep myself accountable and share my progress.

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 percentage on business expenses 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”.

My Blogging Journey

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 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 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!

You can see my past income reports here:

September Blogging Income Report

After a few months in the $7k range, my blogs only made $6,119.22 in the month of September.

It’s never fun to see a decline, BUT I actually made a lot more than I thought I would in September.

My secret blog is very seasonal, and summer is a really great time of year for income on that site. It always slows down in the early fall and then picks back up again when the holiday season starts.

At the beginning of the year, I made income predictions for how each month’s income was going to look. I had predicted September to be a $1500 income month.

So with that in mind, I’m actually so happy with where my income was at in September!

Here’s what my blogging income has looked like each month since I started:

September income report

September 2022 Income Sources

In September 2022 I made $6,119.22 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.

As I mentioned before, I also set aside 30% for taxes and around 30% for business expenses.

Here is exactly where that money came from:

By Leah Claire

  • Affiliates: $30.72
  • Ezoic Ads: $63.65

Total for By Leah Claire: $94.37

Secret Lifestyle Blog #1:

  • Affiliates: $631.06
  • Mediavine Ads: $5,160.78

Total for my secret lifestyle blog #1: $5791.84

Secret Lifestyle Blog #2:

  • Affiliates: $3.23
  • Ezoic Ads: $229.78

Total for secret lifestyle blog #2: $233.01

TOTAL: $6,119.22

You may have noticed that I stopped including digital products, reels bonuses, and sponsorships in my income reports. I really want people to know that you can make a significant income online without any type of social media following!

All of this income comes from my actual websites, not from Instagram or TikTok.

What Happened In September? (+ Google Algorithm Tips)

As you can see from previous income reports, this is the lowest month I’ve had in awhile.

Like I said, I’m still very happy with these numbers. September is a rough month because everyone is back in school and the summer spending slows down quite a bit.

There were also some Google algorithm changes in September, although those don’t seem to have hit my sites in any significant way.

Even if my sites were hit by algo updates, I still wouldn’t change my strategy much.

A lot of bloggers will lose traffic and immediately freak out and change a bunch of stuff on their websites. This is the WORST things you can do because you have no idea why your sites were penalized or if they’re going to recover on their own.

If my traffic ever takes a hit, I’ll likely wait a few months and then start testing different tweaks to see if anything helps improve my rankings.

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 pay for hosting, SEO tools, and I pay some writers to help with content. I still write about 95% of the articles on my sites though, so my content expenses are very low.

Here are the big expenses from September:

Hosting: $54.85

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.

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.

Once you start getting hundreds of thousands of page views a month, you can switch to a better host like BigScoots.

Canva Pro: $12.99

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.

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

Content: $501.87

I outsource a few articles every month across my websites. While I do like to write most of the content myself, I find that it really helps me to have a few quality writers take some of the burden off.

I have found some incredible writers on Fiverr, but there are definitely a lot of low-quality ones there too so it’s hit or miss.

Ahrefs: $99

I use the lite plan of Ahrefs to do a lot of my keyword research. Keyword research is SO important when it comes to ranking your articles on Google.

I may not pay for Ahrefs every month, but they were running a great deal where you got a free month for every $100 you donate to a Ukrainian charity. So I donated a couple hundred dollars and got a few months paid for.

RankIQ: $49

RankIQ is my all-time favorite tool for finding under-served keywords. They do all of the keyword research for you and provide you with low-competition keywords that you can rank for.

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 who aren’t professional SEOs. You can use my link to get 50% off the monthly subscription price.

Total Blogging Expenses For September: $717.71

This brings my total profit for the month of September to $5,401.51. Not too bad for a side hustle!

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.

If the rest of the year goes as predicted, I’ll make almost $60,000 just on blogging! That would be amazing considering it’s just my side hustle right now.

Blogging Goals

How Did I Do On September’s Goals?

  • Publish 20 blog posts across all of my sites – I published 27 posts on secret site #1, 3 on secret site #2, and 2 on By Leah Claire. So a total of 32 posts – not bad!
  • Send out two emails on each of my blogs with email lists – yeah this didn’t happen lol. I don’t know why I can’t get the hang of email!
  • Make at least $2500 – more than doubled this prediction!

My October Blogging Goals

  • I REALLY want to hit $10,000 on my blogs in October. I’m really not sure if it’ll happen this month but October tends to be pretty crazy for my income so we’ll see!
  • Publish 15 posts across all of my sites – I spent the first 11 days of October traveling (which is why this income report is so late), so I’m lowering my post goal a bit this month.
  • Start writing an outline for my course – Surprise! My goal for 2023 is to launch a blogging course. Blogging absolutely changed my life and I want to create an incredibly detailed course to help others do the same. A lot of blogging courses are outdated or made by people who haven’t actually achieved impressive results themselves. So I want my course to be GOOD! Sign up for my email list if you want to be first to know when my course launches.

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!

Similar Posts