Hey everyone! If you’re new around here, I started tracking my blogging income through these online income reports mid-2016. This is a great way for me to keep track of how I make money through M$M, and it’s also a cool way for you to follow along as well!
I can’t wait to look back on these several years from now and see the progress that the site has made.
On a personal level – life is pretty awesome right now. The traffic for the site has grown well and I am finally starting to feel comfortable that my business is sustainable. I know I’ll have ebbs and flows, but generally the direction of my income is going up.
A lot of you have wanted to start your own blogs after seeing the success that I’m starting to have, and I highly recommend it. If I hadn’t taken a shot on M$M, I would still be stuck in a career I didn’t really enjoy very much.
Pretty crazy to think about!
Have you taken my free blogging course yet?
Last month I had over 300 people sign up for my blogging course, and the reviews have been great so far! I really think I’ve been able to put together some solid information for people who are interested in starting a blog, learning more about how a blog can help your business, or pro tips for existing bloggers.
Also, take a look at my free blog setup tutorial. If you use my exclusive link in the guide you’ll get a domain name for free.
I negotiated a special blog hosting price for M$M readers!
I’m super excited about this – I had tried a long time ago to get special pricing for all of you but got turned down. Now that the site has started to do really well I finally got it!
Normal Bluehost blog hosting prices are $3.95/month, but with my new price that you can get through my exclusive link, it’s just $2.95/month (they also put a cool picture of me on the landing page haha).
Let’s get to the report…
Something to remember when you look at this income report – I’m self-employed and have to cover expenses and taxes. On the tax front, I actually did pretty well for 2016, but I did owe money for the first time ever.
I am upping my quarterly tax payments to help offset this, and my wife is changing her withholding. I also hired a new accountant, who so far has been EXTREMELY helpful for my online business and tax strategy moving forward.
Here’s how I made money online in March:
MillennialMoneyMan.com Income: $10,928.89
This is the money that I made directly from the blog, and March was my best month ever for M$M! My affiliate income was also the highest it has ever been. I made more affiliate income in March than I took home in a month as a teacher before.
Very surreal, but I do feel like the affiliate income portion is a little stagnant. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not complaining or anything. BUT, more growth would be nice.
I’d like to double my monthly affiliate income by the end of the year!
Affiliate income: $4,640.89
Bluehost Blog Hosting: $2,210 (Take a look at my free blog starter guide to set up your own site in 15 minutes or less!)LendEDU: $1,596.75 <- Over 1,000 M$M readers have used this tool so far to research better student loan interest rates for free. (Bloggers, I highly recommend that you apply to become a LendEDU affiliate here)Personal Capital: $200Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: $315.20Thesis: $223.74 (this is the blog theme that I highly recommend and used for two years on M$M)Online Surveys: $82ConvertKit: $8.70Credit Sesame: $4.50
If you are a blogger and want to figure out how to make affiliate income, you need to take the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course. This is THE most comprehensive affiliate course out there. I took this course back in August of 2016, and saw my affiliate income jump from a few hundred dollars to several thousand per month.
Blog coaching: $0
Whaaaaaat? That’s right! This was the first month since I started doing income reports that I didn’t make any money from blog coaching.
As much as I like doing this, it just didn’t make much sense for me to focus my energy there any more. By switching over to promoting my free blogging course, I think I’ve been able to help more people that way.
I didn’t promote blog coaching services at all in March!
If you are desperately wanting blog coaching from me, I would absolutely consider it. But, the price has to be right.
Sidebar Advertising/Sponsorships: $3,288.00
March was great for advertising on M$M. I will likely take a large chunk of this money and put it directly back into my site in the form of Facebook ads to keep growing the site quickly.
I’ll talk more about my Facebook strategy/new services below.
Staff Writing: $3,000
I managed to pick up a really great staff writing gig back in December. I’m excited that I’ll be doing more writing with this particular client over the next few months, and it’s awesome because they just want me to write about money.
Digital Marketing Income: $4,610.70
If you’re new to M$M, I’ll just catch you up really quickly! When I left my job a year and a half ago to start working for myself, I wasn’t making much money at all. The site itself had made around $3 when I took the leap of faith (please don’t do what I did).
A reader really liked my story and work on the site and became my first marketing client! This is a great way to make money when you first start blogging because the skill-set is identical to what you do with your own site.
I highly recommend that anyone who spends time blogging go out and try to find some marketing clients. It’s been a great experience for me so far.
Out of respect for clients’ privacy, I can’t name them on the site or list my rates for specific projects, but you’re always welcome to email me if you are an aspiring digital marketer and want tips or guidance!
New Site Design
Well…it looks good haha. At least I think so!
Actually, the feedback on the new site has been awesome so far. I think almost everyone I’ve talked to really enjoys the new layout and how easy it is to find past articles on M$M.
Once you’ve been doing this for a while, you start to realize how much content is on the site that would be useful for readers rather than just the most recent stuff I’ve put out.
I have a ton to do still as far as going back and reformatting older posts and changing pictures, but I’m not going to try to kill myself with sifting through the site all at once. My goal is to gradually get better pictures on posts over the next two months.
No more bad words (hopefully)!
I have been making a conscious effort to remove profanity from my writing lately. Some influencers out there say that it either doesn’t matter or shouldn’t be something you change if it’s how you talk, but as the site has grown I want to make sure that I’m including as many readers as possible.
I’m not guaranteeing that you won’t see anything ever again…but I’m really trying to tone this down moving forward. I just feel like it’s the right thing to do.
Also, I’ve always heard that the most talented comedians are the ones that can get through a routine without relying on profanity for laughs, so I guess I’m drawing a parallel and challenging myself to have the same impact without the four lettered stuff. 🙂
Courses for the site?
There are a lot of things I’ve wanted to do over the past two years that readers have asked me about (podcasts, forum on the site, maybe MillennialMoneyGal.com for Coral to manage), but I haven’t done them yet.
Believe it or not, I’ve decided to wait to do all of those things. I want to avoid stretching myself too thin on a bunch of projects and not really mastering any of them.
So, I am going to be patient and play the long game here. M$M is still a very young website, so I’m not in a hurry to push anything out! I’m just enjoying the growth and success I’ve had so far.
But, I am interested in creating a course to sell on M$M. I’m just not sure what would be the most valuable to all of you, or if it should be a blogging related course or a financial course.
Can you take a second to click on an option below and let me know what you think I should do? I’d really appreciate it!!!
Thanks for checking out my March 2017 income report. As always, thank you for reading and please please please reach out and let me know what cool stuff is going on with you!
Whether it’s student loan payoff stories, accomplishments with your business or blog, or anything else…I love to be a part of it. 🙂
You can take a look at all of my income reports here or check out the latest below:
Awesome job again on income this month! I can only dream that my website would bring in this much! I took the course that you sent me and it was a wealth of knowledge! You really should charge a small sum for that guide! Nice and simple actionable steps.
Excited for the change in the language! While I do not think it probably will affect the site heavily it will sound more professional. Just make sure to not lose your voice or tone of writing as I love that style of knowing what you’re talking about but still being laid back having some humor.
Once again great job!
Yeah I am leaving some money on the table with the course. Maybe I’ll charge for it someday, who knows? I do like all the positive feedback I’ve got from it and have gotten to know some readers better because of it.
I think I can keep the tone the same (at least I hope so haha)
Wwwwwooohoo! Great job with that online income, M$M. 🙂 Your site will keep growing, especially after the cool redesign. 🙂
Thank you! Yeah I really feel like the site is set up for longer term success now that it looks kinda cool haha
Congrats on the big month!
I was surprised to hear you are investing back in Facebook ads and even more surprised they are just 3-4 cents a click! Do you think the particular niche is a reason it is so cheap? Meaning if you took what you know to other industries, what would you expect to change?
I like the new site design. I would have expected to hear the money was reinvested in things like designers, coders, and hiring more help to accelerate things.
It’s a combination – the niche, finding the perfect target audience, the right ad creative, etc. For other clients I’ve worked with it just depends on the industry and how competitive it is. Jewelry for example has a ton of competition so the cost per click is higher, (20ish cents depending on the ad).
Believe it or not this site is super easy to manage on my own. I have a developer now that I ask for little things here and there, but he did such a killer job on the site that I don’t have to do much at all.
Very impressive. I’ve done a little bit of wealth and location targeting on other projects, but need to get back in there and keep tweaking things to drive the click price down. This inspired me to take another look.
This is the first time I am commenting on your blog, although I am a regular reader. You inspire me. And congratulations for your hard work. I wish I could also earn some money from my blog. I am following your tips they are simple and actionable.
Thanks
Thank you!
As a college student trying my hand at finance blogging, it’s incredibly motivating to see how your monthly income has grown. I hope to one day reach an audience as significant as yours.
Rule #1 – you CAN’T stop! 🙂
Impressive M$M. May your website continue to grow and prosper. Would always appreciate your tips on improving my blog.
Thanks! Have you taken my course yet?
Wow, great job. A couple of cents per click on Facebook is impressive. You have some secret sauce there for sure. Sounds like a good idea for a course or E-book to sell on the site. just a thought.
Great job.
Yes I think so!
Great job once again Bobby! I’m having a hard time improving my facebook audience. It’s definitely a complete beast by itself compared to other networks, and I have not even started facebook ads yet, which I guess should take some time too 🙂
I actually sent out a great recommendation of an ebook for growing your Facebook audience (if you took my free blogging course you would have gotten it today)!
Thanks for being an inspiration, Bobby! My business partner/friend and I just started our own small business and with that, a blog. I signed up for your blogging course and can’t wait to see what all you have done to be so successful. Congrats on such a great month!
Awesome Lauren1 Let me know if you have any questions 🙂
Another solid month! I enjoyed many of the insights you gave in your free course. I’m looking forward to implementing them once I get my life back (after Tax Day). Thanks again!
Ryan
Thanks Ryan – so glad you liked the course!
Nice job learning Facebook Ads. It definitely has a big learning curve. I tried using facebook ads to grow my failed e-commerce business “Bedroom Sports Fan”. Did not give it enough time and had the wrong niche. Always trying to learn more about facebook ads, it’s incredible.
Would love to learn more how you get small business clients you work with and what services you provide them.
Hi Bobby!
Just found your site a few weeks ago and it’s very impressive – your future looks crazy bright.
Quick question – how do you find staff writer positions? Do people reach out to you or do you actively pursue opportunities? Apologies if you’ve answered this already.
A new fan,
Nick
This staff writing position actually came to me – the bigger the site gets the more offers you tend to get like this. For freelance work I would recommend Upwork.com!