This third-month blog income report is for a photography blog I run.
Welcome to my third income and traffic report for my photography blog. I will be sharing an income report at least once a month from either of the two blogs I run.
My other photography blog income reports:
– First Month Photography Blog Income Report (DEC 2020)
– Second Month Photography Blog Income Report (JAN 2021)
This was a super exciting month for my photography blog (and blogging journey) as I finally made my first ever affiliate sale!
I’ve always been so excited to read other bloggers’ income reports and make money online. I write these income reports to show new bloggers that it is possible to make money blogging in 2021.
I have to warn you that I didn’t make thousands of dollars or get 20,000 page views, but I want to show you the practical side of blogging and what you can achieve (as a complete beginner like I am).
If you’d like to learn how to start your own blog for only $20 today, read this step-by-step guide on how to start a blog.
Why I publish income reports
I am publishing income and traffic reports from my 2 blogs for these 3 main reasons:
- Accountability: This income report is a way for me to look back in the future and see the growth of my two blogs. I can’t wait to read these posts in a year or two and see my growth in the online world (and I hope you are excited too!)
- Inspiration: I started this blog as a way to teach blogging + money tips & tricks. Income reports are one of my favorite things to read from bloggers and they can give you a much-needed boost of inspiration if you’re feeling stuck or confused as a blogger.
- Transparency: I want to be transparent with my earnings with you. As you will learn in this income report, it’s pretty lame, but that’s my main goal. To show the audience (you) that I’m not trying to show off my income, just to document my slow growth as a blogger.
Okay, let’s actually get to the numbers and how much I made as a blogger in February 2021.
Blog Income Report – February 2021
During my third month of blogging, I chose to stick with affiliate marketing (I’ve had problems with my Google Adsense account and need to fix it).
GROSS INCOME: $2.09
Affiliates: $0
– Amazon
– Cloudways
EXPENSES: $68.10
– Cloudways: $5 (I run 2 blogs on the same server; otherwise, it’d be $10/month)
– Tailwind: $0
– WP Rocket: $0
– Pinteresting Strategies: $52 (I bought Carly’s course and absolutely loved it, more on it below!)
– Adobe Creative Cloud: $11.10
Most of these are paid in advance for a yearly purchase (why $0 listed).
NET INCOME: -$66.01
You’re probably thinking to yourself, ‘yikes that’s terrible,’ but I’m really proud of making $2.09 in gross income this month.
I made my first ever affiliate sale through Amazon! Woohoo 🙂 This was purely through a review I did on a product with an organic click from Google. I was honestly expecting nothing this month, but this was a fun tiny amount I made.
Like I say in all my income reports, blogging is about the long game. If everyone was able to make money in the first few months, everyone would be a blogger.
Although I’m super excited to get to the point of making a lot of money with this blog, I know it will take me a lot of time and effort to do so.
Analytics
Here are all the analytics from my third month of blogging.
In February, I published 1 new blog post. This poor effort of posting was a combination of being on holiday, starting up this blog, and getting content written for this blog.
I got 55 page views, which was about 100 less than the prior month.
I was utterly shocked logging into my Amazon Affiliates dashboard and seeing a green commission line. I had such little traffic this month that I wasn’t expecting anything.
It took me 71 days (from launch) to make an affiliate commission from this photography blog.
I would’ve posted my usual 2 posts/week, but I was really focused on this blog you’re reading. It’s bizarre having 2 blogs as you don’t know where to focus your time and energy.
I aim to publish about 20 or 30 posts on this blog before starting to slow down and spend an equal amount of time on the two blogs together. I’ve posted 8 blog posts in 2 weeks and am continuing to pump them out.
Blog posts I’ve published in 2 weeks:
– 59 Inspirational Make Money & Save Money Quotes
– 107 Blog Post Ideas That Will Attract More Readers
– How to Start a Blog in 2021 – Easy to Follow Guide for Beginners
– First Month Photography Blog Income Report (DEC 2020)
– How to Save Money Fast | 50 Easy Ways to Save Money
– Second Month Photography Blog Income Report (JAN 2021)
– Shopback Review: How to Shop Online and Earn Cash Back
Below are resources I use and love with my blogs, as well as two blogging takeaways I learned in my third month of blogging.
Disclaimer: Some links below are affiliate links, where I may receive a small commission on purchases at no cost to you. All of the tools are ones that I thoroughly recommend for all bloggers. You can read my full affiliate disclosure here.
RECOMMENDED BLOGGING TOOLS & RESOURCES
Hopefully, you’ve learned a lot about my third-month photography blog income report.
It’s entertaining to take a peek behind the curtains and to see how much bloggers can make. I’m also all about sharing the tools that helped me along the way.
Below are the tools I use and love with blogging. A few of these have special discount codes if you purchase through the links 🙂
Cloudways:
My #1 hosting recommendation is Cloudways. These are the perks of Cloudways:
- Free SSL certificate
- 1-click WordPress installation
- 24/7/365 customer support
- Automated backups
- Free migration from another web-host
- Multiple websites on 1 plan (I run 2 websites on Digital Ocean’s $10/month plan with zero issues)
The plans start at $10/month but are billed month-to-month, meaning you won’t get charged until next month (most other web hosts charge the plans in total).
Try Cloudways Today (7-Day Free Trial)
If you’d like to learn how to start a blog with Cloudways, read a step-by-step guide on how to start a blog today.
WP Rocket:
A caching plugin for WordPress that speeds up your website upon activation. It turned my 5 second page load time into 1 second. I cannot recommend it enough.
Why I love WP Rocket:
- Speeds up your website by applying 80% of the best web performances straight away
- Simple set up for beginners
- Trusted by over 1.4 million websites & counting
- 14-day money-back guarantee
A slow site = a high bounce rate & fewer page views.
Below is a screenshot of the speed of my blog for proof (my previous income report). I absolutely love WP Rocket!
*I still have quite a bit of optimizing to do, I’m only in the second week of this blog, so I’m happy with the outcome.
Grammarly:
The #1 writing tool I use for every blog post. Grammarly will fix your grammar, spelling, style & tone.
The free version is perfect enough for getting a basic spell and grammar check. It’s used and loved by 30+ million people. The chrome extension can also help you on any website!
Pinteresting Strategies
A manual pinning course for Pinterest that will help you drive traffic to your blog. I absolutely loved Carly’s course on Pinterest. She explained everything so clearly and gave super helpful tips and tricks on how to drive as much traffic to your blog.
If there’s one course I’d recommend taking as a new blogger, it’s this one. I wish I had bought it months ago. If you’d like a discount code, use PINNING5 at the checkout through the link below for $5 off your purchase!
Third Month Blogging Takeaways
I learned a lot in my third month of blogging + creating a second blog. I launched strivingblogger.com on the 19th of February, about 25 days after buying the domain.
Below are 2 blogging tips I learned in my third month of blogging 🙂
Blogging Tip #1: Do keyword research
Although I didn’t post much this month, I was still doing keyword research for this blog.
I’d advise you as a blogger to do keyword research. We all think that people will read our blogs because we like a particular topic, but it’s just not the case.
For the one blog post I did post, it actively started to rank on page 1 of Google and is driving a few clicks here and there.
Using a free keyword research tool like Wordtracker is an excellent way to ensure people are searching for a topic.
You may enjoy writing about specific topics, but you won’t get traffic if no one searches them. It’s as simple as that.
Blogging Tip #2: Taking a step back isn’t bad
Blogging can be rough; if you need a little time for yourself (or have hit a creative block), take a step back.
This month, I took a step back and learned that traffic and people will still come to my blog even if I’m not actively posting on it.
I also learned that I can earn a passive income from my blog with zero effort.
So, my advice to you is to remember to look after yourself. As a blogger, you never want to get burnt out to the point of never posting again, so treat yourself and take a step back every now and again.
I’m super duper excited to get back to posting content on my photography blog again. After not posting for nearly a month, I’m ready for it!
Conclusion
So there we have it, how I made $2.09 with my photography blog in February 2021.
Hopefully, this income report inspires you as a new blogger to never give up and just to enjoy the process of writing. I would have loved to read these realistic income reports, and I hope they resonate with you too!
How long did it take you to make money from your blog?
Read next:
– How to Have Fun Blogging [5 Easy Ways]
– 70 Blog Post Ideas for Beginners