If you would have told me two years ago that I would be working from home full time on a blog, I would have laughed out loud!
Literally told you that you were crazy…
But here I am…
Writing this blog post and searching for funny gifs from my fancy new home office which is a bit sparsely decorated…
Back story time…
2 years ago I was laying on the floor next to Sawyer hoping he would finally fall asleep…
For whatever reason he hated laying there by himself so I would lay on the floor next to him scrolling through Facebook.
While laying there I was constant hit by Facebook ads… over and over and over again from some internet dude talking about how he paid off all his student loans on a teacher salary…
I’ll admit his posts were entertaining..
I found myself stopping into his website from time to time and read them.
One faithful day I stumbled upon his income report!!! Ahhhh!
This dude was making 8 grand a month BLOGGING!
Are you serious right now?!?
(By the way… that internet dude was Bobby Hoyt from Millennial Money Man… one of the most down to earth bloggers you would ever meet. )
From that point, I spent every moment I had learning about blogging, how to grow a site, how to monetize, etc.
I would love to tell you that I was the next overnight success…
That I hit it out of the park and was making bank at month 3…
The truth is.
I didnt.
Making money online is possible but it’s not “easy”…
Over the next 2 years the blog grew slowly…
Any income that the site made we poured into paying off our student loans.
Michelle and I worked our tails off paying off our student loans…
Last August we did it…
We finally paid off all of our student loans!!!
The weight was finally lifted off our shoulders…
At that point we had a decision…
What next?
The blog was beginning to pick up momentum and my “real job”… well…
It paid the bills and I worked with some amazing people but…
There was just something missing…
I can’t explain it but the idea that I was going to keep doing that job for the next 20 years was numbing to me.
Michelle and I made an unconscious decision to save like crazy for an escape fund.
I say unconscious because I don’t think either of us actually talked about it. We just began to build a savings fund.
We didnt touch it.
We just saved like crazy.
Fast forward to June of this year…
Michelle I don’t think I can do this job anymore
Her response was short and confident…
Then quit, run your blog, we will be fine.
I would be lying if I said that was the first time I thought about it… it wasnt.
But this time it was different… We had a fully funded escape fund and we were ready.
In August of this year I walked in with my resignation letter and handed it in…
It has been almost a month to the day since I quit my job to blog full time.
Reason for sharing my blog income
Some of you may be thinking I am nuts for sharing how much the blog is making…
Well you are probably right but for me it’s an accountability tool.
It will allow me to look back at the progress of this adventure to see where we started and how it went.
Additionally I hope these blog reports help others.
- Help others realize that you can make money online
- Show others that there are other options than the typical 9-5
- Provide a summary of what I have been working on and accomplished this month
How I made $3,399.06 in August 2019
- Traffic Ads: $1674.06
- Marketing: $1250.00
- Affiliates: $475.00
Traffic Ads: $1674.06
Yes… I am aware that they are annoying… but they help pay the bills… Once the site hit 25,000 sessions we applied to Mediavine and honestly they have been great!
We never used google ads and I wouldnt suggest it.
I would wait until you have enough traffic to make it worth it.
Marketing: $1250
Blogging is just one way to make money online. I am also working with local companies to increase their sales using facebook ads.
Additionally, we are also looking for bloggers who would like to grow their site using Facebook ads. Using Facebook ads is the secret weapon that I used to build my site traffic from 4000 page views a month to over 30,000! We now no longer need to use ads and our traffic hit over 80,000 page views last month. Email me here: [emailprotected] if you are interested.
Affiliates: $475.00
Our two most popular affiliates this past month was of course:
- Bluehost
- SurveyJunkie
Bluehostis a great hosting platform for new bloggers. They are cheap, comes with a free domain plus SSL!!
SurveyJunkie is a great way to earn a couple extra bucks while standing in line at the grocery store, sitting on your couch, etc. Are you going to be a millionaire? Nah! But you will be able to make enough to go on a nice date once a month…
Sign up give it a try.
September goals
Well we are already a week into the month… but…
My goals were a bit disrupted due to Hurricane Dorain. While it didnt hit us, having the boys home caused the work flow to slow to a crawl… haha.
But for the rest of the month:
- Increase blog revenue to $3500
- Build out digital product for new niche site
- Write 2 articles a week for High Five dad
August Final thoughts
Taking a leap 2 and a half years ago has changed Michelle and my life… If I hadnt started the blog then, I would still be working at a job that wasnt fulfilling.
Will this little adventure fail?
Possibly.
But I know that I couldnt keep doing was I was doing anymore.
So I took control.
Maybe this sounds familiar…
If so, start today.
Do something to change your trajectory!
Let me know your thoughts in the comments
