This site contains affiliate links, view the disclosure for more information.
Eekkk!! Welcome to my January blogging income report...it's my most exciting one yet!
Every month (well almost...some months I am better at writing these than others) I share how much money I have made through my blog.
Why? Because it's pretty dang impressive that in just over a year I have been able to turn this website into a business that brings me thousands of dollars a month AND that I can do it around my full-time college schedule.
Seriously, all college students should start a blog. It's the best thing I have ever done.
For those of you that are new to By Sophia Lee, I start off every income report telling you a little about myself.
If you don't know much about me, I am a junior in college studying interior architecture. I've had this website since I was 17 but basically restarted the whole website in September 2017 (sophomore in college) in hopes to generate an income from it.
I am completely paying for college on my own and knew I needed to find something that made me money and would work around my college schedule (that changes every semester and stays with me when I live at home during the summer/winter break). Let's just say, it was nearly impossible.
I stumbled upon a blog that posted income reports where the blogger was making over $100,000 A MONTH from her website. Like what?!
I knew I wanted to start a website of my own that would make me money, so that's what I did. I ditched my old blog and created a new one in September 2017.
In just a year, I have increased my income to make $9,349.60 in ONE month while being a full-time student and having a social life.
After semi-figuring out this blogging world and all it entails, I am here to tell you that ANYONE can start and be successful with a blog. It is not hard to do.
However, it took and still takes a lot of work. If you're a hard worker, you can get the same exact results as me.
It took me about 5 months after starting my blog to earn consistent money and those months were really hard.
I was constantly overwhelmed and had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I was so desperate to make it work that I continued to Google everything and anything about blogging.
Once that first $100 dollars hit my bank account, I knew that all the hard work I had been putting in was going to pay off.
Little did I know a year later, I would be making more in one month than I EVER had in a year!
Here are some of my previous income reports:
By Sophia Lee Income & Traffic Report:
The screenshot below is the exact money deposited into my account (with all the important info blocked off ). Some companies deposit into Paypal and then I transfer into my personal bank account.
Affiliate Income: $5,846.48 total
- Amazon Associates: $3,433.20
- Bluehost (check out my tutorial on how to start a blog): $75.00
- ShopStyle Inc: $60.21
- Shareasale: $69.92
- 17th Avenue Designs: $11.80
Display Advertising (through Mediavine): $5,699.47
Total Income: $9,349.60
My blogging expenses are very small right now and most of them are paid for annually. The only monthly expense I have is Convertkit (email provider) which costs me $49.00 a month. I just started using Convertkit in December and it was a huge decision because of the cost. To make money you gotta spend money!
These expenses come up once a year but I do set aside money for them monthly to prepare for when I have to buy them:
- Bluehost - hosting company I started with!
- Tailwind - the best Pinterest scheduler EVER and how I manage to survive blogging while being a full-time student (they actually gave me a free month to give my readers with this link)
If you haven't started a blog, this blog post will show you the exact way I started and designed my blog (it takes less than 30 minutes).
So, how did I do it?!
The first half of January I spent doing literally nothing for my website and the second half was spent blogging 24/7.
My hometown friends were back from college until January 14th (ish) and I really wanted to spend as much time with them as I could before they left. The nice thing about blogging is that it is almost all passive income so I was still earning money everyday even though I wasn't working.
My college didn't start until January 28th so I spent the rest of January working my butt off to make up for my non-working winter break AND preparing for my crazy school schedule to start once again.
I am trying to ONLY do things that increase my income.
Here's what I've been focusing on:
- Content Creation
- Weekly Emails/Opt-Ins
- Products
If you need help getting traffic from Pinterest, I recommend doing the following:
- Buy this course which taught me everything about Pinterest (You can read about it more on my recommendations page)
If you haven't started a blog, this blog post will show you the exact way I started and designed my blog (it takes less than 30 minutes).
Breakdown of what I am doing for my weekly emails/opt-ins:
I have been spending sooo much time making my email list something that actually brings value to my subscribers.
All the biggest bloggers that I look up to say that your email list is the most important part of your blog. After a year, I have finally decided to listen.
Since I just started focusing on email, I am still in the test phase of what I am sending them.
Here's what I have been doing so far:
- Sending weekly emails that are jam-packed with information you can't find on my blog
- Making a video of me talking about the email (youtube style...so they can see what I look like and honestly I prefer talking to them then writing haha)
- Making really valuable opt-ins so my readers want to join my email list.
As of today, I have 2,493 subscribers. By the end of February, my goal is to have 3,700 subscribers.
Breakdown of what I am doing for products:
This is my big project for February and March. I know exactly the products I am making I just have to get started.
If you read my blog, you know I am an organization FREAK! I have created so many blogging organization tools for myself that I carry in a big blue binder (seriously, you can't find me anywhere without this binder).
It has anything I have ever needed blogging and the only way I've been able to manage blogging and full-time school. Since I already have the sheets created for myself, I just need to put it together in a cute way that my readers can easily download.
I have something up my sleeve for my college readers as well but I'll announce that one later ;).
Let's Talk About This $9,000 Dollars:
Honestly, the fact that I was able to make $9,000 in one month from my blog is CRAZY! I can't even believe it.
Do I think I will be able to make this much from my blog every month? No.
Here's what I have learned so far blogging this year. Some months I will make a lot of money and some months I won't make as much. I am basically working on "commission".
Here's how I think my income will go this year:
BTW, all money I make from blogging gets deposited into my bank account three months after I make it. So, I technically made this $9,000 in October and just got it deposited into my bank account this month (January). I chose for my blog that I only want to tell you guys about income I've earned that has actually been deposited into my bank account.
January: Very high income (at least $12,000 earned that month)
February and March: $4,000 in February and at least $6,000 in March
April and May: Lowest income months of the year (hoping to make at least $2,000 per month)
June: Starts to get a little better (would be really happy making $2,500)
July-November: Very high income (goal is to hit at least $5,000 per month with two months hitting at least $15,000 per MONTH!)
December: Not as high as July-November but still decently high (maybe $3,000 earned this month)
If all goes as planned, that would have me making nearly $80,000 in one year. AS A FULL-TIME COLLEGE STUDENT (taking 18 credits per semester).
Just last year I was nannying and only making $300 dollars a month. Even my low blogging income months are more than I could have imagined!!
My Goals For February:
- Get 9 blog posts published and marketed
- Get 3,700 email subscribers (at 2,493 subscribers on 1/28/2019)
- Grow Pinterest to 8,000 followers (at 7,385 on 1/28/2019)
- Create a product
My word I wish!!!! But I’m focusing on traffic so hopefully soon! Thanks for the advice.
and you are killing it with traffic!! Still can’t believe you were able to get that many views in your first month!
Great, I really like it! Youre awesome
Wow, Sophia. You just amped it up a few notches. I’m so proud and happy for you. You are amazing and everything is going to just build on itself. Keep it up.
Aww Debbie thank you!! You have helped me SO much!!!
This is awesome!! Iād love to get to this point with my blog to help with my loans too. The college struggle lol! Do you have to be part of Google Adsense before Mediavine since they have the requirement of āgood standingā with Adsense?
Hmm…good question!! I honestly don’t know. If you’re not doing any ads I would recommend it because you could be making some money before getting onto Mediavine. I had Google Adsense before I was accepted into Mediavine. I am going to guess that you don’t HAVE to be apart of Google Adsense but it makes it a lot easier for the application process š
Wow I just stumbled on your blog, I wish my blog was making this much though. I’m going to start working harder.
http://www.giftcollins.com