October 2014 Income Report: $407.32

Last month, I was really scared. I posted my first ever income report, and this little voice in the back of my head kept saying, “What if you don’t top September in October?” I was really worried that after all my hard work, my income would decrease and I would regret my decision to start an income report series. I’m overwhelmingly happy that this was not the case. September’s income was $343.55, but for the month of October 2014 I earned $407.32! I’m going to share with you just how I did that, but first let me just do a happy dance about increasing my revenue 118% in one month and exceeding my original goal (as determined by IBN’s Monetize 45 Challenge) of $109.23 for October 2014 by nearly $300.

If I can do it, you can do it, too. I’m not going to lie: it’s been really difficult for me to buckle down and get super serious about monetization. And it’s scary, but take the plunge. You’ve got nothing to lose.

In the month of October 2014, I earned income from blogging with the following programs:

1. IZEA: $4.88

IZEA calls itself the Sponsorship Marketplace, and it makes things super easy for bloggers/content creators. Although $4.88 doesn’t seem like a whole lot of income, during the month of November I’ve already made triple that just from writing a couple Tweets. I earned $2.44/Tweet and did 2 Twitter Tweets with IZEA in October. I was so excited about IZEA that I signed up for pro, which definitely increased my visibility on the site. For $5/month, you will be a preferred IZEA member and IZEA will refer you to advertisers. It’s worth it, in my opinion, but they also offer a $1/month plan and a completely free plan, so it’s definitely worth signing up and checking it out! Sign up for IZEA here.

2. Google AdSense: $22.74

So far, October was my best month ever for Google Adsense, though I hope to increase my earnings soon since October was my highest traffic month on record – a trend I really hope continues in the following months and years.

3. Amazon Associates:$6

Every dollar counts! Amazon’s affiliate program has earned me $6 in October just by placing links in blog posts to products and special incentives.

4. Linqia: $71.20

Linqia is an absolutely great ad network for sponsored posts if you blog about parenting or home/garden topics. In October, I did a sponsored post for Direct Energy and earned over $70 for the traffic driven to the post. Sign up for Linqia here.

5. Freelancing: $302.50

Although I hope to decrease this number and increase my other revenues, right now I’m putting my blogging skills to use for other blogs and companies by using my talents to produce/write blogs and manage social media for clients. This is, by far, my biggest blogging-related money maker, but it’s definitely a lot of work.

This brings my grand total to $407.32 for October 2014, and I hope I top it in November!

 

I didn’t earn from these platforms in October, but the following are worth checking out from September and previous months:

1. Influenster

Influenster allows influential bloggers to connect with brands in exchange for perks and VoxBoxes. You can email me or comment for an invite to Influenster, which will automatically add a little boost to your Influenster Impact Score, or you can just sign up on Influenster.com. My favorite Influenster perk so far has been my Victoria’s Secret VoxBox, which included $115 worth of VS Sports merchandise.

2. SheSpeaks

A great resource for female bloggers, SheSpeaks will send products in exchange for reviews/social media shout outs.

3. Diapers.com

Diapers.com and its network of affiliated sites offer referral credits in exchange for simply sharing a coupon code and posting a banner. I’ve earned almost $200 from Diapers.com to use on any of their websites, and it’s so easy to sign up.

If you want a great, fast course in monetizing your blog, I really recommend The Inspired Blogger’s Network’s Monetize 45 program. It’s what got me started and taught me everything I know about putting together a realistic plan for monetizing my blog. The best part of Monetize 45 is how quick the process is: in 45 days, you can be on the way to earning money from your blog. The course costs just $59, making IBN’s Monetize 45 much more affordable than similar courses, which run around $300-500. Check out the program and sign up here.

 

September 2014 Income Report: $343.55