Welcome to my second income/traffic report for my photography blog (not this blog). I will be sharing at least one income report at the start of each month. I run two blogs, so I’ll most likely share the one with the most significant updates.
My other income reports:
– First Month Photography Blog Income Report (DEC 2020)
As with the last income report, not much happened in January 2021, and I’m entirely okay with that. I’m not making thousands of dollars with the blog and booking dozens of clients, but it’s about the marathon, not the sprint.
Before I blogged, I was always super interested in income reports and making money online.
I always knew that I would be my own boss one day. I’m not trying to sound cocky; it’s always just been gut-feeling. Although I have not made that happen yet, I plan to work super hard in 2021 to make my goals become a reality.
This isn’t a regular monthly blog income report where I’m making $3000 on my second month of blogging. It’s quite literally the opposite. I hope you stay to get some real insights into how being a blogger is like in 2021.
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 2 blogs. I will also use this report as a way to set goals for the future. I’m excited to revisit these initial income reports at the end of 2021 to see how much has changed.
- Inspiration: I started this blog as a way to teach blogging + money tips & tricks. Income reports are an excellent way to show people that there is still money to be made in blogging and you aren’t too late to get started. Income reports are one of my favorite things to read from bloggers and they can give you a much-needed boost of inspiration.
- Transparency: I want to be transparent with my earnings with you. As you will learn in this income report, it’s pretty abysmal, 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 January 2021.
Blog Income Report – January 2021
During the second month, my only ‘option’ of income was affiliates. Like the first month, I didn’t want to implement Google Adsense to sacrifice a few cents for optimized page speed.
GROSS INCOME: $0
Affiliates: $0
– Amazon: $0
– Cloudways: $0
EXPENSES: $16.10
– Cloudways: $5 (I run 2 blogs on the same server; otherwise, it’d be $10/month)
– Tailwind: $0
– WP Rocket: $0
– Adobe Creative Cloud: $11.10
Most of these are paid in advance for a yearly purchase (why there are $0 listed).
NET INCOME: -$16.10
This number is probably highly disappointing to you, but I think it’s super-valuable as a new blogger.
Blogging is about the long game. If everyone could make a full-time income in their first month, everyone would be a blogger.
I kind of got sick of reading income reports of how bloggers are making $58,000+ in a single month. It’s really motivating, but it’s so not true for 99% of bloggers. I hope you understand where I’m coming from and can get real insights into being a blogger in 2021. It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows; it’s challenging.
Although I want to get to the point where I’m making decent money, I thought I’d create these posts as a way to look back on how far I’ve come as a blogger.
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Analytics
Here are all the analytics from my second month of blogging.
In January, I published 8 new blog posts. I’m happy to set a personal goal of posting twice a week and staying consistent with that number.
I got 147 page views, which was about 100 less from month one.
I really focused on optimizing my posts for SEO and doing keyword research. I kind of took a slight step back from Pinterest as well. There’s no particular reason for this; I just wanted to focus on a few other things first. I’ll get back into it more in the upcoming months.
There’s a decline in page views from my first income report, but I’m really not worried. I’m still in the early stages of blogging, and I can’t get too hung up on numbers. Blogging takes its time.
I didn’t hit my traffic goal of 250 page views, but I want to make sure you know that blogging is a marathon, not a race.
At the end of this month, I got the idea for this new blog, the one you’re reading right now. I bought the domain on January 26th. I plan to have launched it on the 22nd of February (I actually launched it on February 19th).
You may be wondering why it’s taken so long to launch. It’s because I’ve been on holiday for about 2.5 weeks now. I’ve got my trusty 7-year-old MacBook and am getting posts queued!
I’m really excited to broaden my horizons as a blogger, and I hope you love this blog as much as I love writing on it 🙂
I had to take a small step back from my photography blog in February. I’ve been super focused on pumping out high-quality content for this blog that I haven’t found much time to dedicate to it. Once about 20 posts are published on this blog, I’ll focus an even amount of time on both of them.
Below are resources I use and love with my blogs, as well as two blogging takeaways I learned in my second 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 second-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. Most 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.
Tailwind:
Automatic Pinterest post scheduler that helps you to gain your first thousands of viewers.
We all know that Google’s SEO takes months to optimize and work. Tailwind in hand with Pinterest can accelerate your blog’s growth by automatically scheduling and posting weeks of content (pins) in advance.
You can also join groups (or tribes) with other well-established Pinterest accounts that can re-pin your content and grow your blog.
Try Tailwind For Free (no credit card required)
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.
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!
Second Month Blogging Takeaways
I learned a lot in my second month of blogging, especially optimizing my affiliate links and learning about SEO.
I knew I wouldn’t be making money in the first few months of my photography blog.
Below are 2 blogging tips I learned in my second month of blogging.
Blogging Tip #1: Don’t look at analytics so often
Blogging is exciting, and you will find in the first few months, you will be looking at the number of page views to see it go up and down.
I highly recommend not looking at your analytics often. Yes, looking at your page views at the end of every week is perfectly fine, but falling into the habit of checking them 1 to 5 times a day is terrible.
Also, when not looking at your analytics so often, you can spend that 5-10 minutes doing keyword research or writing.
From one (basically beginner) blogger to another, do not stare at analytics and get sad/happy in the small peaks or drops. It’s perfectly fine to check your Google Analytics every so often, but daily is not good.
Blogging Tip #2: Read Other Blogs
I love to read blog posts. It’s essentially what made me start blogging. I wanted to fill gaps in the niches that I loved.
My second and final tip from my second month of blogging is to read other bloggers & blog posts.
I love to spend some of my spare time just reading blog posts. I learn how others write, how they incorporate affiliate links/ads/promotions into their posts. It’s an excellent way as a newbie blogger to figure out how to write your first blog posts.
It’s also so much fun to support other bloggers. I love to comment on their posts, buy through their affiliate links, and sign up to their email lists. More often than not, I also shop through affiliate links because I know it costs literally no extra money, but I can support bloggers.
I really love this whole community of bloggers & I reckon you will too.
Reading well-established bloggers allows you to learn characteristics of what makes them successful in the blogging world.
Conclusion
So there we have it, my January 2020 income report for my photography blog.
I know I didn’t make any money or have tens of thousands of page views, but it’s something you need to learn to accept as a new blogger.
Hopefully, this post inspires you as a new blogger to never give up and enjoy the process. I write these income reports as they would have resonated with me at the start of my blogging experience 🙂
What was your favorite piece of advice from this blog income report?
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– 17 Highest Paid Bloggers in 2021 [Super Rich Bloggers]