How I Earned $4,590 Online Last Month (+ My Business Vision)

This article contains affiliate links.

Welcome to my August blog income report.

I publish monthly reports to share the numbers (earnings and expenses) from my blogging business and the mistakes I made, the lessons I learned, and the new projects I’m about to work on.

You can find all income reports here.

I’m currently earning a few thousand dollars a month thanks to blog sponsorships, ads, and selling my course Financial Freedom Through Blogging.

Read on to see what happened in August 2019 on Let’s Reach Success and in my business.

If you haven’t started a blog yet, make sure you enroll in my free course Launch Your Profitable Blog Today:

how to start a blog in 1 day - free course

Blog Updates

Where I See My Business

Thanks to taking the new online course I’m taking, Six-Figure Blogger, I’ve been able to spend more time thinking where I want my blogging business to me.

A question Pete from Do You Even Blog asked himself in this post also got me thinking. His question is: “If you could snap your fingers and magically have your way–what would your business look like?”

And here’s what I really want to achieve as a blogger (at least at this point in my life):

I don’t dream about running a team, earning 7 figures, hiring writers to do the content creation for me, or starting to create video content. It’d good to know what I’m not interested in and not good at…

However, I do know that the blogging business model is what I created over the years and it’s worth expanding.

That means:

new income streams and mostly passive income;
reaching more people (and only the right ones who are ready to invest in a product like my premium course Financial Freedom Through Blogging);
inspiring them to take action and start a blog or another side hustle;
then helping them take the first steps with my content (and develop the mindset necessary to persevere long enough).

The ultimate goal is financial independence but in a way that allows you to use your income earned online to provide value to others and live your best life.

That’s what I’m doing in my life and that’s what I want all of you to be doing (if you’re interested and ready to put in the work, of course).

The things I’ll need to finally get done are actually what Six-Figure Blogger teaches:

Email marketing;
Creating great products;
Sales pages that actually tell a story the visitor can relate to;
Creating content that leads to taking action;
Having the perfect sales funnel;
Automating aspects of the business and sales process;
Growing a blogging business to 6 figures;
Investing part of the income back in the business.

These will all take a ton of time and trial and error. I don’t need to do it all at once. A slower pace works better for me from what I’ve seen.

However, I want to eventually step away from making money from ads and sponsored posts (which are my 2 main income streams now) and replace that with affiliate marketing earnings and selling my online course (and more courses in the future).

That doesn’t mean I’ll be working less once I get there. I’ll just be spending my time on different things than I do now, but will still be a full-time blogger.

Once a blogger makes 6 figures per year, some other things become possible. One such thing is donating the money from a certain product launch or percentage of the sales of a new product to a cause you care about. I have one in mind. It’s building schools in third world countries.

I’ve seen bloggers and online business owners do this and it really makes a difference in whole villages that would otherwise never get the chance to offer education to the local kids.

That education, I believe, can also help them understand that they are worthy of building skills and using these skills to get paid one day, which can then provide them with possibilities.

Most of us have been born with such luxury, and we know pretty well that we can achieve a lot, we’re just lazy to go after it most of the time.

That’s okay. But to never get the chance to even know you can see the world, make money, have a career of your choice, and learn different subjects… this is something that’s been bothering me for some years now which means it’s a cause I deeply care about.

One such organization is Pencils of Promise.

Just imagine creating an online business and using your reputation, audience and profits to raise money and build a school in a country like Guatemala. Then, imagine traveling there for the opening day and seeing how happy the kids are to be given that chance.

If I allow myself to dream big enough, then this would be the ultimate goal 🙂

What’s yours?

Creating Financial Freedom Through Blogging really was the right thing. Even though the product is out there, unleashing its potential will be a long journey.

It starts now by constantly updating the course with the new things I learn and sharing what I achieve as a blogger (+ giving insider tips), changing the sales page and using email marketing to tell my audience about it.

All I learn from Six-Figure Blogger can be somehow applied to my course (building a relationship with my readers and an email trust funnel, getting more people on board, publishing sales-centered content, and sharing my story in a unique way – all this leads to more people learning about my product which can change their life the same way blogging changed mine).

Pete from Do You Even Blog has this takeaway in the same post:

“Stick with one product you can gradually roll downhill–rather than pushing multiple products uphill with the HOPE that they’ll magically be the ones that roll downhill super fast.

No product is great at first.

It’s in the constant improving that pushes the ball downhill.”

And that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I believe in my product and that’s the business model I love the most (both as a student and as a creator) – a blogging business that sells online courses.

New Homepage Design

After purchasing a new premium theme for the blog (from Bluchic themes), I wasn’t sure what exactly to do with the homepage, and the header, in particular. Now, I’ve finally found something with the right colors, message and to create a good first impression.

Let’s Reach Success is now mainly about making money online (though a side hustle such as blogging) and achieving financial independence so it’s important a new reader can immediately tell that.

In my current homepage, you can see I’ve added an image (from my new stock photos from IvoryMix) with text and a button taking people to my how to start a blog guide.

New Page Builder Plugin

I downloaded a new plugin (that doesn’t happen often anymore but it was a good addition to the new theme). It’s a page builder called Elementor and it’s great.

Updated my Teachable School

Teachable is where I create and see my courses and I made some changes to the school so it resonates with the blog and brand.

For a start, there’s the homepage which can be accessed directly from the menu on Let’s Reach Success.

Once you enter the school, you can see an image and big text, below which are all courses with the featured ones showing first.

I played a lot with the colors too.

Updated Financial Freedom Through Blogging sales page

The next still I did, still in Teachable, is updating my premium course’s sales page. Now it has:

Better sub-headline
New featured image
Bigger font
Better images
Added live chat (for free by PureChat)
New bio section

I did it by using tips from Six-Figure Blogger and also by checking out other bloggers’ sales pages.

Traffic Update

letsreachsuccess blog traffic august 2019

Pageviews: 119,209
Sessions: 98,318
Users: 85,368

August was another great month for Let’s Reach Success in terms of traffic. I reached almost 120K page views and couldn’t be more grateful for having the chance to present my content to that many readers.

If you’ve been following my income reports for a while, you’d know I reached 100K thanks to some strategies I’ve been implementing in the last year.

Content Update

39 blog posts were published on Let’s Reach Success in August. Here’s some of the content worth checking out again:

Interviews

I published 4 great interviews that are sure to inspire you.

1. The first one is with Elna Cain, a big name in the freelance writing and blogging communities (these are her 2 businesses).

She runs blogs and manages a freelance writing business (which was her first side hustle and a pretty successful one) while raising her twins. She’s a real Mompreneuer and you can learn more about her journey and best blogging tips here.

2. The next interview is with Sara of GatheringDreams.com, a lifestyle blog that quickly grew thanks to Pinterest and her awesome content.

In this post, Sara shares how she earned her first $1000 blogging, how she went from 10K to 180K monthly page views, and her best Pinterest tips.

Read: How This Lifestyle Blogger Grew Her Blog to $3,878/Mo in 3 Months

3. Then, there’s Megan who started making money from Pinterest in just 1 month.

Check out her interview to learn how she became a full-time Pinterest Manager, what a Pinterest Manager actually does, the course that helped her start this business quickly, and how she landed her first big client in 30 days.

4. The next story is with female blogger Tiffany from Beautiful Dawn Designs, who started making a living online selling her designs and then got into blogging.

In this interview, she shares how she started and how she used Pinterest and SEO to TRIPLE her blog traffic and income.

July Income Report

My income in July was the highest ever in terms of traffic and revenue and I’m truly grateful I had the chance to see my blogging business get to this point.

I know many bloggers never get to these numbers and give up, but please don’t forget it took me A TON OF time and mistakes and doubts and disappointment in order to see these numbers now.

You can see my July income report here.

Blogging Resources

I try to publish more content for aspiring and newbie bloggers and turn LRS into a resource that can help them begin making money online with that side hustle. Here are some of the pieces from last month:

8 Tips for New Bloggers Guaranteed to Make Your Blog Profitable

6 Free Online Resources to Help You Become a Better Blogger

8 Writing Tips for New Bloggers Who Think They Can’t Write

August Blog Income Report

This is How I Became a Top Rated Upwork Freelancer

I earned a total of $4,590 in August 2019 from my blogging business.

Please keep in mind that’s gross income.

After extracting fees I pay to other platforms, transaction fees, paying my own taxes and insurance and covering my pension as a solopreneur in the Netherlands, there’s much less left for me to spend.

You can see the progress here together with all other income reports.

Blog Income Breakdown

Sponsorships: $3,172

Ads: $1,041

Courses: $197

Financial Freedom Through Blogging

Affiliate earnings: $95

WPX Hosting

WPForms

Books: $45

Freelancing: $40

TOTAL (Gross Income): $4,590

Blogging Expenses Breakdown

WPX Hosting – $0 (paid yearly)

Teachable – $0 (paid yearly)

Tailwind Plus – $0 (paid yearly)

Tailwind Tribes Max – $0 (paid yearly)

Accountant – €0 (paid quarterly)

Mobile Plan – €27

Health Insurance – €118,50

PayPal fees – $151

Teachable fees – $16

Upwork fees – $5

TOTAL: ~$332

Helpful Blogging Resources

Courses:

Financial Freedom Through Blogging – My Ultimate Course for Bloggers Looking to Start, Grow and Monetize a Blog and Become Their Own Bosses

Launch Your Profitable Blog Today (Free Course for Beginner Bloggers Looking to Quickly Set Up a Blog)

Make Your First Money Online Freelancing [Free Course] – I created a free course sharing my journey to making more than $4,000/month blogging. It all began with freelancing and you can use this course to follow the steps I took to become a freelancer with no experience and earn my first income online.

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (The Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Course for Beginners, Created by Michelle from Making Sense of Cents Who Earns $100K/Month Blogging)

Pinterest Traffic Avalanche: A Solution for Beginner Bloggers to Drive 10,000 – 100,000+ FREE Monthly Visitors to Your Blog – on Autopilot!

The Passive Income Boss (Free Course on How to Earn Passive Income from Your Blog)