I spent most of August working on digital products (there’s even a whole new one coming out in September and I can’t wait to share it). This month also involved a lot of branding work (re-defining how I wanna be seen online, who my ideal audience is and how I can best serve them and spread my message) and taking action upon it.
I’m constantly working, creating, and testing and blogging has been an amazing journey so far. That’s also why it’s the kind of business model I encourage aspiring biz owners to try – it’s not that hard, and anyone can do it with the right steps. Which is one of the main reasons why I’m focused on creating products that walk you through the exact steps from the beginning till the moment you grow your blog traffic and income, as nothing beats finding all the info you need in 1 well-organized self-paced online course.
Let’s start the August income report with some screenshots and the numbers.
Blog Income Report
I earned a total of $3,840 in August 2020 from my blogging business.
Please keep in mind that’s gross income. A lot of it goes for fees I pay to other platforms, transaction fees, paying my own taxes (close to 30% of my income), insurance and pension. You can see all income reports here.
Proof of Income
Here are some screenshots showing some of the revenue:
- Ad revenue from Mediavine
- PayPal earnings
Earnings from each income stream:
Sponsorships
Sponsored content – $2,886
*My income from sponsored content is earned through online marketplaces for bloggers and advertisers (2 examples include ValuedVoice and SeedingUp) as well as networking with brands via email.
Display Advertising
Mediavine – $737
Affiliate Marketing
Pinterest Traffic Avalanche
WPX Hosting
Total Affiliate Income: $135
Products
Total Sales: $82
TOTAL (Gross Income): $3,840
Blogging Expenses
- WPX Hosting – $0 (paid yearly)
- Teachable – $0 (paid yearly)
- ConvertKit – $0 (paid yearly)
- ProveSource – $0 (paid yearly)
- Accountant – €0 (paid quarterly)
- Mobile Plan – €27
- Health Insurance – €118,50
- Transaction fees – $137
Blog Traffic
Pageviews: 66,918
Sessions: 56,588
Users: 49,350
Email Subscribers Update
New Subscribers: 400
Cancellations: 82
Net new subscribers: 318
The report you see is from ConvertKit – the email marketing tool I use and recommend.
Blog Updates
Branding
In August, I took a branding course (by personal branding and growth strategist Brittany Krystle whom I’m a big fan of now). She’s worked for people like Gary Vee and has an amazing podcast you might want to check out – Beyond Influential.
Working on my online presence has been on my list of tasks for a long time now and I knew there was a lot I was missing out on.
I learned more about personal branding, finding clarity and positioning yourself online in the way you want to be seen by your ideal reader/subscriber/student.
Thanks to a workbook that goes together with the course, I narrowed down what success means in my business now, how my personal brand currently looks like and where I see it in 6 months, a year and 3 years.
Here are some things I did:
- Searched myself online to see if what appears is relevant – I did some searches and saw plenty of things appearing about me online which aren’t relevant anymore (such as profiles in freelance websites and my books on personal development). So I’m gonna do something about that.
- Checked out my Google Image results.
- Narrowing down my ideal audience – If you’re speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to no one! I narrowed down my ideal audience and I want to create content only for that person. It’s the one who is looking for a way to make money online, is willing to follow steps and invest in a program to help them get there, willing to give a side hustle like blogging a try so they can start earning an income from their laptop and turn it into a business.
- Updating my bios and photos.
- The overall messaging must be consistent on all platforms. – For example, there were still places where I refer to myself as a writer or a freelancer, but that’s in the past so I changed it.
- Have a one sentence clarity purpose statement. – Mine would be: I’m a full-time blogger and course creator helping people earn money online so they can quit their jobs (or just have an extra income stream) and live their best life. I provide free and paid content with the exact steps you can take because financial freedom doesn’t need to be just a dream.
New Interview
One thing I wanna do more to grow my brand is to pitch websites and get featured on other platforms. The best way for that is to tell my story and give tips on how people can achieve the same.
Last month, I got interviewed for StarterStory where I talk all about creating courses.
In this interview, I share how I came up with the idea about my course Financial Freedom Through Blogging, more about building and launching the product, growing the blogging business by selling courses, lessons learned, tools and resources I used, etc.
Read: How I Created a $5K/Month Online Course About Blogging
Maybe you’re a course creator, have your first digital product in the making, are a student or an affiliate of online courses, or simply follow some bloggers and course creators like me and are interested in the process.
In any case, it’s fun to know what goes into creating a signature program (meaning, your top product that you’ve invested so much time in and which helps your audience achieve a certain result).
Preparing for a launch
In August, I’ve been keeping myself busy with course tasks. Basically, most of my working hours this month have been invested in that (creating new lectures, organizing modules better, being in contact with students and seeing how I can help and what new content I can add to the programs, updating my signature course, adding new topics and bonuses, etc.)
I’m in creation mode now, after which it’s time for launch mode.
It’s a lot of work, but to be honest, I see this journey that started for me with freelance writing and now turned to full-time blogging, becoming a business solely focused on online courses.
It seems to be the best use of my skills and time and it allows me to reach more people and help them achieve a certain result. It’s rewarding in more ways than blogging is, and I’m willing to niche down a lot (and thus lose a big part of my current audience) only so I can stick with those I can help the most.
I shared with my audience the official date for the launch of $1K Blogger (my course for beginner bloggers looking to earn $1,000 passively and on the side).
New Content
Let’s start with the interviews I did.
Travel blogger interview
Travel might be one of the industries hit hardest by the pandemic, but being a travel blogger is still one of the careers and lifestyle choices many people dream about.
I just published an interview with travel blogger Isabel, who shares how she became a digital nomad in her 20s, how she started making money on the road to support her travel life, what challenges she had to overcome, and how she grew her travel blog to a full-time business.
She also shares how much she earns per month and in what ways, how much traffic the site gets, and some SEO and blogging strategies that we can all use to our advantage.
Interview with Empire Flippers
If you’ve heard of Empire Flippers, you might know they are the #1 marketplace for buying and selling websites.
However, they started as a VA company in the Philippines. That wasn’t such a success so the 2 founders decided to let their team build adsense niche sites instead and sell them.
Today, Empire Flippers is a business (earning $20 million a year) for buying and selling sites.
Here’s my interview with their Director of Sales, Alex, who shares more about the early days of the company, the market in general, the revenue model, what it takes to sell your blog, and more.
Other articles published in August
4 Reasons to Include Blog Posts in Your Content Marketing Strategy
5 Tools That Will Help You Profit from Your Blog
How to Turn Your Blog into a Book
5 Ideas for Your First Passive Income Stream as a Blogger
How to Promote Your Book on Your Blog
7 Creative and Easy Ways to Repurpose Blog Content
My Plan for Next Month
In September, I’ll put the finishing touches to $1K Blogger and officially release it. I’ll also be part of 2 bundles (as a contributor, yay) and am excited to partner with other bloggers and business owners to provide a product packed with value.
I’ll also continue working on another, smaller digital product that is already outlined and ready to be shared with you at the end of September. It’s more tactical than anything else I’ve created and much easier to digest.
I’ll work on branding and blog design. In fact, I’m making big changes to the blog in September.
Next month is the final chance to set goals for the last quarter of the year. I know what these are already but will work on goal setting and sharing what’s coming in next month’s blog income report. If you haven’t planned Q4 for your blog and business, now is the time to do it.