My First Blog Income Report- Ways I Earned $100

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

All those late nights, all the hours spent writing and re-writing and editing, and designing and posting pins, and keyword researching, and baring my soul have finally paid off! The business is officially 7 months old and I’m here to post my first income report. Actually it may be my only one, who knows, depending on how this goes! But if for nothing else, I wanted to share it with you guys as a source of inspiration to you to keep going and to maintain transparency.

Disclaimer, if you purchase a product through some affiliate links in this post, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you—which helps keep this blog up and running, so thank you for your support!

Now, don’t get too excited, it’s not like I made anything that significant like most bloggers that post income reports– it’s not like I’m going to be rolling around in it on my bed or anything. (one day, one day maybe!)

I’m also not going to be spending it any time soon– I’ve got some goals I’m saving for, first and foremost getting a new computer.

Yes, I’m typing right now on a computer that doesn’t even have a battery pack so it works only when plugged in. I have tape on some of my numbers key to keep them there. And I have a version of Windows that’s so old, they sent me a message recently letting me know they were no longer going to support any maintenance on it even, by the end of this year.

So yeah, maybe it’s not and I’m not glamorous or flashy or even that impressive to you (yet)– but it’s a huge milestone to me! Because it really does represent the beginning of my business and what I eventually hope it will become.

I’m building this business out of love for so many things, but chiefly, helping other women do the same thing I’m trying to do. Get out of the 9-5 and be able to live your life on your terms.

Namely, to help you become a full-time business owner too! That’s my goal, and if it’s yours too we might just be great friends.

Whether that’s going to be through a blog and selling courses or digital items, maybe you’ll have an Etsy shop and sell goods that you make, or maybe you just want to become a full-time writer for a site like Medium and get paid for your writing.

I believe you can do it. I’ve seen too many people succeed at it. There’s so many great bloggers out there, go check out sites like Jenna Kutcher, Making Sense of Cents, Neil Patel, Cristian Mihai and so many more I can’t name them all here.

How Much Did I Make?

Okay, here’s the big reveal! My first AdSense payment was $120.52!!! I’m so excited about it!

I do also want to clarify, I didn’t even ad AdSense to my blog until January of this year, and the bulk of this payment came from one blog post that went mini-viral in March, the majority of that payment was earned that month.

Now, if I can only figure out how to replicate that again…hmmmm??

I didn’t really have any expenses this month either, I’ve already paid for my website and platform through Bluehost for the year. I’m not doing any other ads or paid anything.

I just knew that I wanted to share this first income report with you, to help you see that it can be done! It’s dependent on a lot of things, but if I can do it, holy heck, so can you.

Writing & Earning on Medium

The other cool thing is that I started writing on Medium. It’s an online publishing platform that was launched in 2012. Wikipedia states that it’s essential “social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishes on Medium.”

In other words, you can write about almost anything you want, and self-publish it on the site. There are “publications” you can join to become a “writer” for them.

Which means when you write an article or something relevant to that pub’s theme or audience, you can request they add it and then all those who are subscribed to that publication can see it. It’s just a way to get more visibility into what you write.

And the cool thing is, you can join their “Partner Program” which puts your articles behind their paywall, so when your articles are read, and people like it by “clapping”, you make money!

I made money my very first month writing on Medium, almost $10! (Which is A LOT for a new writer I’ve been told.) I like it because I can write about anything there and it doesn’t necessarily have to fit into my blog’s niche. It also keeps me exercised in writing because you have to post there a lot to make anything.

You will also have to attract “followers” too, which can really affect how much your stuff gets read, so it does take some time to get going, but I’m not slowing down there either. I hope you’ll at least check it out, and you’ll find that I do publish some of the same articles from my blog, but many that I do not.

But either way, I’m going to keep blogging, here on my site and on Medium. I may or may not publish another income report, but I hope to! I also hope you’ll join me in my journey, follow this blog, and let me help you in yours if I can!

My first month of being on Medium’s Partner Program was February, so my payout was in March. That first month of publishing stories led to a payment of $9.74!! I was also ecstatic to make that. Granted I am paying a $5 per month membership fee, I still made a tiny profit of $4.74.

My second payout was $13.27! Again, profit ending up at $8.27, which is still almost double what I made the month before right? Pretty good for just writing about what I want and doing a little networking!

I’m on track this month to be about the same as last month I think, but won’t know for sure until this coming Wednesday, as that will account for this last week’s reads and claps.

UPDATE: Sept. 2020– Medium now pays out on “reading time” per article vs. by claps given. Lots of folks had a hard time with this transition because it generally decreased income. But, I’m okay with it and have not written that much this year anyway!

Conclusion

Here’s what I made for my first income report:

• 3rd month on AdSense- $120.52
• 1st month on Medium $9.74- $5= $4.74
• 2nd month on Medium $13.27- $5= $8.27
• TOTAL so far= $133.53

I am not saying that it’s going to be EASY to make money blogging or writing on Medium. It really is a lot of hours spent writing, designing, posting, pinning, contacting other blogs, reading and commenting, trying to network on other sites like Quora, Reddit, and even Bloggers Traffic Community.

It’s going to take a lot of hard work, for little reward, especially at the beginning. And no, maybe I’m not growing as fast as some on Pinterest would lead you to believe that they did, but I’m growing a little more every month.

My email list is adding new members every week, which to me is also extremely exciting! Everyone says the money is ultimately in your email list. Those are the folks that really care about what you have to say, long term. Or at least you hope they are.

So that’s it, my first income report, I hope you enjoyed! Drop me a line and let me know how your income is doing and what you need help with.

Cheers!

Clarrisa Lee

Clarrisa Lee is a blogger, writer, and small business entreprenuer. She runs 3 successful Etsy shops, plus she's a pro-seller on Poshmark. She loves helping others learn how to get out of debt (like she did!), make more money, and learn how to start their own small business' too! She is happily married (unfortunately with no kids yet!) and currently lives with her husband in Wichita, Kansas.