How This Mom of 8 Earned More Than $36,000 In Her First Year Blogging

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January was a fairly laid back month for me. A huge win was actually getting my taxes together and seeing where I ended up for the year 2016. With it being my first year as a professional blogger, the whole idea was a bit overwhelming. I was unsure of whether I wanted to see the actual numbers.

I had an idea, but I really had no idea.

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I am very careful about keeping track of all of my income/expenses during the year, but I really don’t want to know much about the final numbers. Of course, I know if my bills are being paid, but I don’t want to know how things are shaping up in January until January is over. Likewise, I didn’t want to know about 2016 until it was over.

First of all

I have to say that none of this would have been possible had I not taken Elite Blog Academy. I started the course only a few months after I really got serious about blogging, not really even understanding what a gold mine it really was…until I got to about the second week. It was about that time that I knew my life and the life of my family was forever changed because of EBA.

These days, my blog and my writing supports our family of 10 entirely on its own. Seriously. When I started out, I had no idea that people really could earn a living as a blogger, but I wasn’t very far into Elite Blog Academy before I started to see how it was all possible. It is because of EBA that I took my income from $0 a month to more than $5,000 a month. Because you can only join EBA once a year, you better get on the waiting list if you might even want to think about it. You can do that HERE.

Why do I share my income report?

I went back and forth on this for months. I have a list of bloggers and potential bloggers who I send a series of tips and information to via email (you can join that list HERE), and they have been asking me for this for quite some time.

While it kind of makes me uncomfortable, I know that it is only because other bloggers shared their income reports that I even knew making money while blogging was possible. It was their income reports that inspired me to start. In the beginning, my goal was to earn $1,000 a month so we could take a vacation once a year. Seeing others who were doing this encouraged me.

Because I have people asking me to share, and because I would love to inspire others to take the leap as those people did for me, I am sharing my blogging income reports.

One of the best things about being a blogger is how bloggers are largely more than willing to help bloggers in any way possible. And it is for this reason that bloggers share their income reports – it’s to show people like you what’s possible.

But who am I?

I am a busy, homeschooling mom of 8 who has been writing professionally for more than eight years. I have lived a unique life because we have a large family, and for this reason, I became really good at things like budgeting, home management, time management, organization, and things like this.

As a blogger, I am not good with technology or even computers for that matter. I’m not really anyone special. But I love helping others with what I’ve learned, even the really hard things I’ve learned in life. And, as I do that through this blog, I’m able to support my family, too, which is pretty amazing. In fact, I was supporting my family through my writing after I had been blogging about a year. We do live debt-free, but most would consider even this income from my first year to be a nice part-time income.

Like I said, pretty amazing.

Do you feel passionate about inspiring, encouraging, and teaching others? Maybe blogging is a good fit for you. Finally, you can actually find this out. Go HERE and take this assessment to see whether blogging could work for you!

My 2016 year end stats and income:

2016 Page Views: 2,948,785

Annual Writing Income: $36,435.42

The bulk (65%) of this income was earned in the last quarter of 2016. Moving forward, this income should be somewhere between doubled and tripled for 2017 based on my income for January and the amount of work I already have lined up for the first quarter and projecting that forward.

Think it’s impossible? It’s not, check it out!

Income Breakdown (approximate):

Additional writing off my blog for others: $16,000

Ads: $12,000

Affiliate sales: $6,000

My Own Products/services: 4,400

Here are the things that make blogging possible for me:

Education:

You truly can’t expect to go anywhere if you’re not willing to invest in education. I spend about $5,000 a year in education, but I also more than earn that back in applying what I learn.

Elite Blog Academy. You’ve heard me talk about EBA. This is a game changer. Period. Go HERE to check it out.

Working With Brands. A course from Jenny Melrose, this course taught me and gave me the confidence I needed to reach out to the brands I actually want to work with. Go HERE to check it out.

Inspired Bloggers University. I am a lifetime member of IBU, and it is worth its weight in gold. As a lifetime member, I have unlimited access to countless classes both now and in the future. Created by Tabitha Philen, IBU is also an invaluable piece in my blogging journey. Go HERE to check it out.

Tools/services:

IMark Interactive. This is Grayson, the amazing guy who handles all my tech stuff. This is the FIRST thing I invested in every month, and it is the last thing I would ever give up. Don’t like tech stuff? This will be the best investment you make in your blog every month. It is in mine. Go HERE to check it out.

Tailwind. I use Tailwind to schedule my Pinterest pins. I couldn’t live without it. Go HERE to check it out.

Convert Kit. This is the mail service I use. It’s pure awesomeness. If you are wanting to take your mail service to the next level, CK is amazing! Go HERE to check it out.

Send Owl. This is where most of my products are stored and purchased. Go HERE to check it out.

Teachable. This is where my e-course is hosted. I don’t have to mess with my own site for my courses. They handle everything. User-friendly, affiliate options, and amazing customer service, it’s awesome! Go HERE to check them out.

There are so many different programs out there, but in an effort to keep costs low, I only use what I absolutely must have. If you are looking to keep your costs low as I am, these are the things I am willing to spend money on, everything else I look forward to investigating more in the future 🙂