Money Manifesto Blogging Income Report May 2017

Welcome to another edition of the monthly Money Manifesto income report.

I don't share these income reports to brag that I'm making money online. This is my primary source of income.

I share my income reports to help keep myself accountable. My monthly minimum income goal is $3,000 per month, although I hope to grow that this year.

Sharing these reports helps me to make sure I'm doing everything I can to hit my monthly income goals.

I also share these reports to show others what is possible when it comes to making money online. I want to be real and show you that it isn't always smooth sailing.

There are great months and awful months, but overall, earning income online is totally possible.

Hopefully this inspires you to start making money online if that's something you have always dreamed about like I once did.

What I Learned About Self-Employment This Month

April was the first month I can remember when I didn't hit my monthly income minimum of $3,000.

One of my clients unexpectedly ceased all communications with me, so it took me a couple weeks to realize I probably won't be writing for them anymore. That meant April was a miserable income month.

As soon as I figured out that I probably wouldn't be writing for that client any more, I went looking for new work.

Luckily, I was able to land a new writing position very shortly after I had started looking. I'm excited about this new client and can't wait to get started writing for them.

What I learned about self employment in May is nothing ever goes as fast as you hope it will when things aren't going your way. While I would have loved to have had my income rebound immediately in May, that wasn't the case.

The onboarding process took longer than I would have ever imagined, which means I didn't actually start writing for my new client in May.

I'm hoping I should be able to turn in my first assignment in June which will help show an increase in my income numbers.

Thankfully, these couple low income months shouldn't last forever. Yes, it isn't ideal. However, the extra freelancing client and work I'll be doing behind the scenes on Money Manifesto should help bring my income back above my minimum in a month or two.

May Blogging Income – $2,159.38

May was another low income month. I'm not happy about it, but as I mentioned above, I have new work in the pipeline that should lead to increased income over the next couple months.

The main reason I decided to work from home rather than work a day job was to help raise my son. We didn't want to send him to daycare right away, so my main priority is taking care of my son while my wife works.

That means I haven't had as much time as I would like to dedicate toward making money online.

A my son gets older, I've been able to figure out ways to get more work done. I hope this trend continues and will give me more time to focus on earning more over the coming months.

Freelance Writing

Freelance writing is usually a stable source of income for me. However, when you have a client unexpectedly stop assigning you projects, it does cause your income to drop.

Thankfully, there are plenty of websites that need writers to produce personal finance content. I found one of those websites and should begin writing for them in June.

If you want to make money online by writing, it's totally doable. I never intended to be a freelance writer until someone representing a website emailed me and asked if I'd like to write for them.

I welcomed the extra income and gave it a shot. Now I make a decent amount every month by freelance writing.

If you don't want to learn by trial and error like I initially did, you should check our Holly Johnson's Earn More Writing course.

It teaches beginners how they can start writing. It also teaches people who have been writing for years some tips and tricks to help improve their writing business. I've easily learned enough to pay back the price of the course multiple times.

Traditional Advertisements

Traditional advertisements bring in a small amount of income, but every little bit helps. I did some experimenting in May to see if I could increase this income a little bit.

The results aren't conclusive yet, but I will continue to try to optimize this source of income. Tweaking advertising only takes a few minutes. What takes a while is letting the result play out to see which advertisers work best.

Affiliate Income

Affiliate income is probably my ideal way to make money online. Companies pay me money when I send customers their way. The best part is, the products and services I recommend cost you the same amount of money. In some cases, you might even get a better deal.

Affiliate advertising is win-win-win. I earn income for my work here on the blog, you get a great product or service and the company gets more sales. Unfortunately, affiliate marketing is difficult to figure out.

That said, I'm still trying to learn. When I get to the appropriate portion of the blogging course I'm taking, Elite Blog Academy, I will also take another highly recommended course by my fellow blogger, Michelle Schroeder.

Michelle almost made $1,000,000 blogging last year and has put together a course on how she does it called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I look forward to learning from her.

If you're a blogger interested in the course, I've heard great things about it so far.

Branded Content

Branded content continues to make me money here and there. Essentially, branded content is when an advertiser wishes to sponsor an article. They want to share their product or service with the Money Manifesto audience.

I get at least 50 to 100 requests per month for branded content. I turn down 99 percent of those requests. Instead, I only select the branded content requests that are a good fit for Money Manifesto readers. If it isn't a good fit, I won't run it.

Every once in a while there is a company that wants to sponsor an article that has a great product or service I'd share with Money Manifesto readers anyway. When those opportunities arise, I am happy to allow a piece of branded content on the site.

I'm not looking to grow this area right now, but if an opportunity lands in my lap, I'll definitely take it.

Focusing More On Money Manifesto

Over the last couple years, Money Manifesto has been plugging along. I update with new posts and do a little promotion here and there, but it hasn't grown much.

Recently, I've made an effort to change that. I want Money Manifesto to grow again.

Growing Money Manifesto won't be easy, but I believe it is completely doable. One way I plan to grow is by completing Elite Blog Academy. This self paced course helps turn a regular blog into an extraordinary blog.

I haven't devoted a ton of time to it yet, but I'm slowly working my way through the course. By the time I'm done, I hope to see great growth both in the website and in my income.

You Can Make Money Blogging If You Put Your Mind To It

It's still amazing to me that I can make money blogging. I remember sitting in my living room years ago reading income reports from other bloggers. I thought it'd be awesome if I could make money blogging, too, but didn't think it'd ever happen.

Then, one day I decided to start my blog. It's the best thing I ever did.

If you're like I was and wanted to start a blog but didn't think it'd ever turn into anything, stop doubting yourself. Instead, get started building your blog, your audience and your income. Everyone has their unique story to tell.

If you do decided to start a blog, which I hope you do, you'll want to start the right way. That means getting a self-hosted WordPress based website.

Why A Self-Hosted WordPress Website Is The Right Move

Why? Nothing looks more unprofessional than having a blog at a free blogging service. People wonder if you'll still be blogging in a few months and the website address isn't your own.

Instead it you'll have a web address of something like YourBlogName.freeservice.com. To make things worse, you have to play by the free blog service's rules, too. If you don't, they could delete your blog.

It's so much better to have full control and simply have your own website address.

My personal recommendation is to get hosting through SiteGround. SiteGround offers affordable hosting at reasonable prices with great performance and customer service.

While other big name bloggers recommend BlueHost, their customer service and performance has gone downhill over the last few years.

Those big bloggers only recommend BlueHost because of BlueHost's name recognition. They also recommend Bluehost due to the high affiliate payouts the bloggers receive for sending a large number of customers BlueHost's way.

If I had never taken that leap of faith back in 2012, I wouldn't be working for myself full-time today. I wouldn't be able to stay home to raise my child.

I don't want to imagine living in that alternative reality.

I'm always here to answer any questions you have. If you have questions about blogging, my income reports or just personal finance in general, leave a comment below. You can also send me an email.

Source: Money Manifesto Blogging Income Report May 2017