How I Make Money From My Blog (and Online)

I was taking part in a Twitter chat a couple of weeks ago and one of the things we were talking about was making money from blogging. I saw that a lot of people assumed that by being a full time blogger and making income from it, all of the money you make must come from the blog itself. I don’t really think that’s true for any full time blogger, and I don’t think it’s safe to think that you should put all of your eggs in one basket and rely on your blog alone to generate income for you. Most bloggers that I’ve come across make a good chunk of their money from other projects and services offered or advertised through their blogs.

I just finished reading through my friend Melyssa’s post about where her money comes from, and I was curious to try this out myself, so I decided to give it a go!

These graphs should give you a better idea of where exactly the majority of my income comes from and how I generate it.

I’ve taken the past three months and split them into three categories:

  1. Blog – This contains all money earned specifically from my blog alone, including ads, sponsored posts, and affiliate commissions
  2. DFC – Dana Fox Creative. This is my passive income business in which I create and design products, such as apps, books, blog templates, and phone cases.
  3. Other – This is my random income category. Money from small jobs I do for people or sales of closet sale stuff.

 

April was the month that I launched my Get Noticed blogging course, so a good majority of my DFC income came from that. If I hadn’t have done this, a pretty big chunk of this category would be sliced off. In fact, 33% of my DFC earnings were from that course alone.

March is probably a more accurate representation of my average percentages of earnings. I didn’t launch anything or do anything special this month.

In February I had a pretty good month in terms of Blog related income because I did a couple of sponsored campaigns.

Why am I sharing this?

I want you to know that the thing about blog income is that it’s unpredictable. You could make great money one month from ads, sponsored campaigns, and affiliate networks, while the next leaves you high and dry. This is why it’s best to not rely entirely on ad or affiliate revenue and (like I said above) not put all of your eggs in one basket.  By focusing on DFC as my main source of income, I am able to live comfortably without worrying about ad revenue or sponsored posts. However, without the blog, I wouldn’t be able to use it as an outlet for my other projects, so the two go hand in hand.

I also want you to realize that there are so many other opportunities aside from ad networks that can help you turn your blog into a legitimate business. Or rather, create a business and use your blog as a platform to launch and grow it.

The unique thing here is that my efforts sort of dictate how much I will earn in each category. For example, my income doesn’t decline if I made less in the “Blog” category. Instead, if I had been focusing more on the “DFC” category, the overall earnings would even out. Perhaps I sold more blog templates and didn’t have time to dedicate to a paid blog campaign. I’m taking from one pie and putting it on top of another. Does that make sense? Each month I am able to meet my target goals and watch my overall income grow without worrying too much about each category, simply because I haven’t put all of my faith into just one avenue.

I am sharing this because I thought it was an interesting read, and also because I want to encourage you to think outside of the box… or rather, think outside of the blog. Our blogs are great platforms that allow us to expand our reach and try new things. So take advantage of that if you want to make a living online too!

If you have any questions about making money online or through blogging, feel free to leave them below and I’ll do my best to answer them if I can help!

P.S. Watch my video where I share different ways to make money blogging and turning your blog into a business!

P.P.S. Sign up for my Get Noticed course if you’re ready to learn more!

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By Dana Fox

Founder of the Wonder Forest blog and brand and bestselling author of the Watercolor With Me book series.

3 comments

  1. Nice post! Thanks for sharing. My brah prefers to use in his workflow Instagram and 777spinslot for msking money. It’s not easy to gain success in social networks, but but he certainly will rise to the occasion.

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