This article contains affiliate links.
Welcome to my November blog income report.
I publish monthly income 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.
The month was different than previous ones. Here’s what’s new in a nutshell:
- For a start, traffic was down a bit.
For the first time in a few months, I’m below 100K monthly page views. That’s fine as it’s due to the holiday season and in these months, people are shopping online and looking for deals and my blog can’t really offer them that.
- I took an SEO course and already started making some serious changes.
I deleted over 150 blog posts (old ones that were short, off topic or that didn’t provide any quality). To make sure no broken links appear, I redirected them (with most, I added the content to other articles on the same topic to have 1 page containing this info on my site and allow it to rank higher) and replaced all internal links on the site pointing to the old blog post to the new one.
- I also spent more on my blogging business than usual, mainly due to yearly payments such as ConvertKit (email marketing software) and Teachable (where I create and sell my courses).
Together with the SEO course I purchased, these 3 were pretty expensive things but also a good investment.
- I also started a new online side hustle.
Diversifying my blogging income is a big goal of mine but it happens slowly over time. Just this year I began making money from selling my courses and from affiliate marketing, as well as earning consistent passive income from ads on the site.
My new business idea is quite practical, easy to implement and if done right, can lead to passive and regular income after some time. It’s a digital product I’m selling on Etsy – printables for bloggers.
Read on to see what happened in November 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:
Blog Updates
Started an SEO course for bloggers.
I knew for a long time which online course I’ll invest in. It’s an SEO course all bloggers are going crazy about by Mike Pearson. Even 6-figure bloggers are taking it because most of their traffic is coming from Pinterest and they want to pay more attention to SEO and get organic traffic to Google.
And that’s the main idea behind Stupid Simple SEO. Pinterest changes its algorithm and while it means quick traffic and potentially income, you never know till when.
With SEO, however, things are exactly the opposite. You do the work in the beginning and reap the benefits forever.
Once you start creating content that ranks high, re-organize your site categories and do link building like a pro, magical things begin to happen and Google sends you the traffic you deserve.
While I’ve managed to reach 100,000 monthly page views on my blog without any professional SEO knowledge or any help, I knew it was time to take the next steps.
There are still things I didn’t do right such as not doing any link building at all. I also knew I had to update the way my site is structured and only cover a few main categories so Google can know what the site is about.
I’ve only just enrolled in Stupid Simple SEO and here’s what I’ve changed on my blog so far:
- Deleted over 150 blog posts
- Started re-thinking the architecture and relevancy of my site
- Updated the blog categories and menu
- Created my first silo pages (custom category pages) and redirected my blog category pages to them
- I’ve made SEO a priority by setting goals and tracking the results.
One of the main reasons why a course like that is a good investment is that once you pay for it, there’s nothing else you can do but actually go through it. Once you do, many things become clear and you’re given a sure roadmap for SEO success.
Stupid Simple SEO is only open 4 times a year so that makes it an even more valuable product. You can join the waiting list here to be the first one to know when it’s open again.
Spent over $1,300 on my blog.
You might remember that I switched from MailChimp to ConvertKit just recently. I tested it and it all went smoothly so I was ready to pay the annual fee for a ConvertKit membership instead of having that as a monthly expense. Even for my small email list, that meant nearly $500.
The other big expense is the annual Teachable fee.
I use Teachable to sell my courses and to offer my free ones, as well as to take courses and be an affiliate for some. In other words, I have a lot going on there and I’m just beginning to see some good income come out of it.
It’s an amazing platform for course creators and I can’t imagine replacing it. Nearly 4,000 students have enrolled in my 3 free courses and I have an idea for another big course to sell in 2020. So all the Teachable features I’m paying for come in handy.
Traffic Update
Pageviews: 91,905
Sessions: 76,988
Users: 66,159
Email Subscribers Update
New Subscribers: 113
Cancellations: 30
Total list size: 2,244
Content Update
I published a total of 26 blog posts on Let’s Reach Success. Here’s some of the best content.
A profitable side hustle, such as starting and monetizing a blog, can take you from being in debt to reaching financial independence in as little as 2 years and becoming your own boss. And in November, I shared another amazing story with you of someone who did exactly that.
Read my interview with Debbie Gartner, who was once struggling to manage her money and get out of debt, but who turned to blogging and now earns over $22K/month from her website in the Home Decor niche.
I also republished another interview with the creators of the finance blog DollarSprout which has become one of the top sites in the niche. Learn more about how they started and grew it in this article: How This Blog Gets 1 Million Monthly Page Views and Earns $200K/Month
You can check out my income and updates from last month in the October blog income report here.
I’m a big fan of Pinterest as a blog traffic source and took a course earlier this year to master it. So I decided to make a list of the top Pinterest courses for bloggers so you too can explode your traffic and income in 2020. Here it is.
I mentioned creating silo pages on the site. That’s my cornerstone content and something worth linking to whenever that topic is covered in another blog post. So here are the top pages so far, which I’m hoping to rank high for certain keyword phrases:
- 180 Legit Ways to Make Money in 2020
- 67 Best Side Hustle Ideas to Make an Extra $1000 a Month
- How to Start a Blog in 2020 and Make $1000/Month
- How to Make Money Blogging
- Monthly Income Reports
Now, let’s move onto the numbers from last month.
November Blog Income Report
I earned a total of $5,834 in November 2019 from my blogging business.
That’s gross income, though. 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.
Blog Income Breakdown
Sponsorships: $4,302
Ads: $1,279
Affiliate earnings: $218
WPX Hosting (web host)
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (course)
Books: $35
TOTAL (Gross Income): $5,834
Blogging Expenses Breakdown
Stupid Simple SEO Course – $297
ConvertKit – $490 (paid yearly)
WPX Hosting – $0 (paid yearly)
Teachable – $348 (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 – $196
TOTAL: $1,492
What I’ll Be Working on in December
December will include some traveling back to my home country Bulgaria where I’ll spend time with family. That means more celebrations than usual and less focus on work.
I’m excited for my annual income report I’ll be able to share with you in the beginning of the new year. That will be just the second one I publish. The last one is from 2018 and in it, I break down the income from each month as well as what I worked on.
It’s a great opportunity to look back on what was done, what I could have done differently, how income and expenses were, as well as to get motivated for what can be achieved in 2020.
2019 is the year I invested a lot in my blogging business, purchased courses from other bloggers and even made money by being their affiliate. I also launched my huge premium blogging course Financial Freedom Through Blogging and took email marketing to the next level.
Now, I’m tackling SEO thanks to the course Stupid Simple SEO.
These are all big things I’ve been postponing for years now. But this blogging journey got to a point where there’s no need to wait for things to happen anymore because the next steps are obvious.
In December, I’ll keep making SEO changes on the blog including:
- Creating more silo pages;
- Removing old content;
- Learning more about link building;
- Analyzing the most popular content on Let’s Reach Success.
I’ll also create more printables for my Etsy shop and will start promoting them. That will include Pinterest graphics and visuals for the blog so I can insert them in relevant blog posts.
