How I Made $3,417.81 in My First Year of Blogging

I always knew I'd release some sort of income report for this blog, I just wasn't sure WHEN. I contemplated doing monthly ones but decided that would be pretty boring as a new blog since there's not a lot going on.

That's when I decided to wait until 2019 to release my first blog income report. This report will go through my entire first year of blogging.

So, if you're interested in seeing what a complete newbie managed to accomplish in one year of blogging, here we go…

How This is Going to Work

Before we get started, I want to let you know:

This blog income report is going to be a bit different from other income reports that you see online.

Instead of just summing up my entire year right away, I'm going to take you through my blog journey month-by-month.

I'll let you know how much…

• …I spent on my blog that month
• …money I made that month (if any)
• …traffic I got that month

I'll also let you know what I was working on with my blog that month and what was going through my head at the time. This way you'll be able to see my entire journey from the start of my blog to now.

At the end of this income report, I'll total everything up so you can see it all in one place. I'll tally up my total pageviews, expenses, and how much I earned.

To be even more transparent, I won't only tell you how much money I earned, I'll also let you know how much money actually hit my bank account in 2018.

Why do I need to do this? Here's why:

Affiliate networks all have different payout conditions, so some money I earned in 2018 won't actually hit my bank account until 2019.

Another important note:

Since I'm from Canada, I have expenses/profits that are in US dollars and Canadian dollars. To make this income report as easy to follow as possible, I'm keeping the USD and CAD separate until I total everything up at the end of the post.

Ok, that should be it. Let's get into it…

The Start of SwiftSalary.com

September 2017

My blog didn't actually launch in September 2017, but it's an important part of the backstory.

I had been thinking about starting a blog for a couple months at this point, but it just seemed a bit silly to me. I had a lot of questions:

• What would it be about?
• Who would even read it?
• WHY would anyone read it?

“Sure, ” I thought “I could start a health blog – but there are already millions of those! Who's going to listen to me?”

I basically browsed internet marketing forums all day every day at this point and I was pretty much just looking for a way to make money online.

That's when I found out about Amazon affiliate websites. I dove into that for a bit and then I discovered how little Amazon pays their affiliates, and I wasn't so keen on relying on JUST Amazon to pay me, so I continued to research.

Then I realized something:

If I'm spending all this time looking for ways to make more money, why not write a blog about that? That way I could learn faster AND I could help others who are trying to do the same thing as me.

I was set on this idea right away and I quickly started thinking about domain names. I registered SwiftSalary.com on September 23rd. 😀

PS. If you're wondering why I chose that domain name, it's because I thought it sounded like “fast money” which is sort of the niche I was going for at the time (that's obviously changed now).

September Expenses:

• Domain name registration: $26.95 USD
• Total expenses for September: $26.95 USD

Total expenses so far: $26.95 USD

October 2017

I bought Siteground hosting for SwiftSalary.com on October 3rd. I paid for an entire year of their “Grow Big” plan for $162 USD. (You can get the same plan for about $70 through this link)

Next thing I needed was a WordPress theme. I looked into a bunch and ended up going with Studiopress since their themes are built really well for speed and SEO.

The theme I ended up going with was the Smart Passive Income Pro theme, and with the Genesis framework bundled in this ended up costing me $99.95 USD.

After being all set up, I got to writing my first post and published it on October 16th.

I didn't really know what I was doing with my blog at this point, I was just writing posts about making money online so that I could learn more about it myself. I also wasn't promoting my posts anywhere so I wasn't getting any traffic at this time.

Around this time I also purchased lifetime access to a program known as Dare to Conquer, which started out as a blogging course and has since evolved into a massive online business school. This was probably the best investment I've made for my business as I don't think my blog would be earning anywhere close to what it is now without it.

Expenses:

• Siteground Grow Big Hosting: $162 USD
• Studiopress “Smart Passive Income Pro” Theme: $99.95 USD
• Billionaire Blog Club lifetime membership: $249 USD
• Content Views Pro: $39 USD
• Total expenses for October 2017: $549.95 USD

Total expenses so far: $576.90 USD

November 2017

November was a chill month (literally). Nothing too interesting happened, I was basically just working on writing posts when I could and going through courses on the Billionaire Blog Club to learn.

I also started really working on growing my Pinterest account around this time.

I only got 1 post published in November, so that was a bit sad. But, it's partly due to the fact that I tried to create another blog with my girlfriend this month, so I was trying to write posts for 2 blogs.

Lesson learned:

Work on one blog at a time!

Expenses:

• Signed up for BoardBooster (R.I.P.): $5 USD
• GSuite: $1.66 CAD
• Total expenses for November 2017: $5 USD, $1.66 CAD

Total expenses so far: $581.9 USD, $1.66 CAD

December 2017

We all know how crazy December can be. Super sad to say I didn't even get a single post published this month.

Here's what I've learned about bad months though:

There's no point in beating yourself up over them. Figure out what went wrong and improve on it next month.

Expenses:

• BoardBooster: $5 USD
• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for December 2017: $5 USD, $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $586.9 USD, $6.66 CAD

The Start of a Year of Blogging

January 2018

January marked the start of 2018 and the year of blogging for me.

I got 2 posts written and published this month, not bad.

I also referred a friend to BoardBooster this month so I saved $5. 🙂

Since I'm not super confident in my writing I decided to try out the Grammarly premium subscription so that was an extra expense. I'd say it was worth it because it catches a LOT of errors in my writing.

Expenses:

• Annual Grammarly premium – $129.95 USD
• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for January 2018: $129.95 USD, $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $716.85 USD, $11.66 CAD

February 2018

Another pretty uneventful month of just writing posts and working on my Pinterest account.

I also tried to start a side project (a dropshipping store) this month. I wanted to be able to post a dropshipping case study on this blog, but the store simply took up too much time. This is something I'd like to come back to in the future.

Good news: I Got 3 new posts published this month. 🙂

Expenses:

• BoardBooster: $5 USD
• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for February 2018: $5 USD, $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $721.85 USD, $16.66 CAD

March 2018

March marks a HUGE milestone for my blog because it's when I finally started promoting my posts on Pinterest. Up to this point, I was just writing and publishing which meant I was getting no visitors.

Side note:

This month also marks a huge milestone in my life because I quit my job working in a grocery store to work full time online. I kind of just winged it since my blog wasn't even making money at this point, but I had plenty of savings prepared for this moment.

Now, I've been doing freelance writing now as my main source of income. I can thank this blog for helping me land my first client!

Ok, back to the income report:

If you're wondering why I waited until now to start promoting my posts, it's because I originally had wanted to have at least 10 posts written before I started promoting.

I only had 8 at this point but I was really itching to start promoting my stuff on Pinterest so I just went for it, and honestly, I wish I would have started promoting my posts earlier. I'd say once you've written 5 posts, start promoting!

I also got 4 new posts published this month so that just gave me more to promote.

Traffic: 276 Pageviews

So as you can see I had 174 users and 276 page views in March. Not anything super impressive but I was happy just to have ACTUAL people on my site for once. It actually blew my mind seeing “active users” in Google Analytics.

Expenses:

• BoardBooster: $5 USD
• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for March 2018: $5 USD, $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $726.85 USD, $21.66 CAD

April 2018

April marked another major milestone in my blogging career as it was the month I finally made money with my blog.

So technically, one month after starting to promote my blog I made money. Even though I had put HOURS into writing posts and working on my blog at this point, I was extremely excited just to see the first $1 or so that I had made come in. Probably one of the best feelings ever.

Traffic: 6,449 Pageviews

As you can see my traffic increased over 10x in April. This is when I started using Tailwind Tribes and realized how powerful they could be.

Best of all, I wasn't even paying for Tailwind yet. I was still on the free plan.

If you're a new blogger struggling to get traffic, I highly recommend using Pinterest with Tailwind. You can get a free trial here which gives you access to tribes, and you'll also get a $15 credit for using my link (I'll get some credit as well, thanks!).

PS. If you want to learn some basic Pinterest tactics, take this free 5-Day Pinterest Bootcamp.

Expenses:

• BoardBooster: $5 USD
• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for April 2018: $5 USD, $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $731.85 USD, $26.66 CAD

Earned:

• ShareASale: $2 USD
• FlexOffers: $9 USD
• MaxBounty: $12 USD
• Total earned in April 2018: $23 USD

Total earned so far: $23 USD

May

May was an exciting month because I got my biggest affiliate sale yet! It was a $50 sale for HealthyWage.

Here are a couple things I got done in May:

• Created my Start Here page
• Got 3 posts published

Traffic: 7,655 Pageviews

Expenses:

• BoardBooster: $5 USD
• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for May 2018: $5 USD, $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $736.85 USD, $31.66 CAD

Earned:

• iBotta: $5 USD
• $5 Meal Plan: $5.40 USD
• ShareASale: $50 USD
• FlexOffers: $14.60 USD
• MaxBounty: $16 USD
• Total earned in May 2018: $91 USD

Total earned so far: $114 USD

June

June was spent working on posts and keeping my Pinterest account active. I only got 1 post published which is bad but I got a couple of drafts written so it's not all bad.

Something funny happened this month as well:

I had recently switched from Mailchimp to Mailerlite. Anyway, I forgot to switch out my opt-in, checked my MailChimp account and I had 8 subscribers on there!

Here are some other things that happened:

• My Tailwind free trial ran out, so I bought an annual plan
• I purchased a Freepik annual plan (this is where I get the little graphics for my post thumbnails)

Traffic: 6,125 Pageviews

June is when I finally started getting some traffic from Google (about 400 new users in a month), which I was really excited about! My SEO work was finally paying off.

Even with the Google traffic though, I still had fewer pageviews this month than last month. That's because my Pinterest traffic fluctuated a bit.

Expenses:

• BoardBooster: $5 USD
• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Tailwind Plus (annual plan) – $89.88 USD
• Freepik Annual Plan – $62.99 USD
• Total expenses for June 2018: $157.87 USD, $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $894.72 USD, $36.66 CAD

Earned:

• FlexOffers: $9 USD
• MaxBounty: $38.80 USD
• 5-Dollar Meal Plan: $3.00 USD
• Mylo: $5 CAD
• Total earned in June 2018: $50.80 USD, $5 CAD

Total earned so far: $164.80 USD, $5 CAD

July

I published my 25th post in July which was a nice milestone to hit.

I also added quite a bit to my resources page this month (if you haven't checked it out, it's got a bunch of great tools that I use).

On July 28th I left for Osoyoos for a family vacation that had been planned for quite a while. I brought my laptop with me to get work done though!

Traffic: 9,013 Pageviews

My traffic from Google doubled this month and I almost hit 10,000 page views!

Expenses:

• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for July 2018: $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $894.72 USD, $41.66 CAD

Earned:

• ShareASale: $0.20 USD
• FlexOffers: $5.30 USD
• MaxBounty: $51 USD
• OfferJuice: $6.00 USD
• 5 Dollar Meal Plan: $1.50 USD
• iBotta: $5 USD
• Mylo: $60 CAD
• Total earned in July 2018: $69 USD, $60 CAD

Total earned so far: $233.80 USD, $65 CAD

August

You know how I said I brought my laptop to Osoyoos so that I could work on my blog while I was there? Yeah well… I kind of was having too much fun and didn't get anything done.

However, I also had my biggest income month ever! How is this possible? Well, it's an interesting story:

On April 26th, I published a post reviewing an app called Mylo. Each time I refer someone to Mylo, we both get $5 added to our accounts. Pretty awesome deal right? It gets better:

In June, Mylo had a special referral bonus: If you referred 10 people, you get $5 per referral, plus a $1,000 bonus.

The funny thing is… I didn't even know this offer was a thing. I had no idea it even existed.

Then, as I'm sitting in Osoyoos, I get a notification on my phone. Mylo's chief marketing officer had messaged me through the app telling me that I had qualified for the $1,000 bonus.

This was definitely the coolest moment of my blogging career. My blog had earned me $1,000 while I was chilling on vacation. Amazing.

Traffic: 11, 123 Pageviews

My first month with over 10,000 pageviews!

Expenses:

• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for August 2018: $5 CAD

Total expenses so far: $894.72 USD, $46.66 CAD

Earned:

• FlexOffers: $5.30 USD
• MaxBounty: $42.80 USD
• 5 Dollar Meal Plan: $1.50 USD
• EBates: $25 USD
• Mylo: $1,005 CAD
• Total earned in August 2018: $74.6 USD, $1,005 CAD

Total earned so far: $308.4 USD, $1,070 CAD

September

September was a weird month… it was my highest pageview month ever, but I made barely any money.

Looking back I'm still pretty surprised at this, maybe September is just a slow month for blog revenue? I'm interested to see what September 2019 will be like.

One good thing that happened in September is that I published my 9-Day Money Mastery Email Course. This course covers the basics of personal finance and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Traffic: 14,156 Pageviews

Expenses:

• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Siteground Renewal: USD $255.35
• Pinterest Ads: $10 CAD
• Total expenses for September 2018: $255.35 USD, $15 CAD

Total expenses so far: $1,150.07 USD $61.66 CAD

Earned:

• ShareASale: $0.40 USD
• FlexOffers: $1.60 USD
• MaxBounty: $10.40 USD
• 5 Dollar Meal Plan: $1.50 USD
• Total earned in September 2018: $13.90 USD

Total earned so far: $322.30 USD, $1,070 CAD

October

October is probably my favorite month of the year, but it was a pretty uneventful month for my blog. I spent time working on posts and figuring out some new changes that Pinterest put in place.

Traffic: 17,949 Pageviews

Expenses:

• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for October 2018: $5 CAD

Total expenses so far:  $1,150.07 USD, $66.66 CAD

Earned:

• FlexOffers: $5.30 USD
• MaxBounty: $31.30 USD
• iGain: $1.20 USD
• 5-Dollar Meal Plan: $1.50 USD
• Sweatcoin (read my full Sweatcoin review to learn more): $200 USD
• Mylo: $60 CAD
• Total earned in October 2018: $239.3 USD, $60 CAD

Total earned so far: $561.60 USD, $1,130 CAD

November

Another standard month here, by now I was in a pretty good groove just slowly growing my blog. With all the other work that was going on this month, I only managed to get one post published.

Traffic: 17,621 Pageviews

Expenses:

• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Total expenses for November 2018: $5 CAD

Total expenses so far:  $1,150.07 USD, $71.66 CAD

Earned:

• FlexOffers: $1.60 USD
• MaxBounty: $48.30 USD
• iGain: $8.00 USD
• Mylo: $35 CAD
• Total earned in November 2018: $57.9 USD, $35 CAD

Total earned so far: $619.50 USD, $1,165 CAD

December

The last month of the income report! I'm happy to report that this was my highest pageview month and my highest earning month.

Funny enough, I didn't get any posts published this month, just like last December.

One thing that helped my income a lot this month was Mylo. In November they held another $1,000 referral bonus and they paid it out this month.

Traffic: 18,488 Pageviews

Expenses:

• GSuite: $5 CAD
• Pinterest Ads: $63.95 CAD
• Mailerlite: $10 USD
• Total expenses for December 2018: $10 USD, $68.95 CAD

Total expenses so far:  $1,160.07 USD, $140.61 CAD

Earned:

• ShareASale: $50 USD
• FlexOffers: $19.48 USD
• MaxBounty: $33.90 USD
• Magic Ears: $50 USD
• VIPKid: $130 USD
• Mylo: $1,055 CAD
• Total earned in December 2018: $283.38 USD, $1,055 CAD

Total earned so far: $902.88 USD, $2,220 CAD

First Year Blogging: Ultimate Totals

Total Traffic: 108,855 Pageviews

Hitting over 100,000 pageviews in my first year of blogging makes me pretty happy! I remember getting my first 100 pageviews and being extremely excited.

Total expenses: ~ $1,679.62 CAD

• Siteground Hosting & Domain Name: $444.30 USD
• Studiopress “Smart Passive Income Pro” Theme: $99.95 USD
• Dare to Conquer lifetime membership: $249 USD
• Content Views Pro: $39 USD
• BoardBooster: $35 USD
• GSuite: $66.66 CAD
• Annual Grammarly premium: $129.95 USD
• Tailwind Plus (annual plan): $89.88 USD
• Freepik Annual Plan – $62.99 USD
• Pinterest Ads: $73.95 CAD
• Mailerlite: $10 USD
• Total: $1,160.07 USD | $140.61 CAD

Based on today's exchange rate (January 13, 2019) – $1,160.07 USD = $1,539.01 CAD + $140.61 CAD = $1,679.62 CAD

Total earned: ~ $3,417.81 CAD (In the bank: $3,003.49 CAD)

Since every affiliate network has it's own payment schedule, some of the money I earned in 2018 won't actually hit my bank account until 2019.

So that you can see what I mean, I've written down how much has actually hit my bank account next to the total amount I earned.

• ShareASale: $102.60 USD (In the bank: $52 USD)
• FlexOffers: $71.18 USD (In the bank: $46.48 USD)
• MaxBounty: $284.50 USD (In the bank: $277.70 USD)
• iBotta: $10 USD (In the bank: $0 USD)
• $5 Meal Plan: $14.40 USD (In the bank: 14.40 USD)
• Mylo: $2,220 CAD (In the bank: $2,220 CAD)
• OfferJuice: $6.00 USD (In the bank: $0 USD)
• EBates: $25 USD (In the bank: $0 USD)
• iGain: $9.20 USD (In the bank: $0 USD)
• SweatCoin: $200 USD (In the bank: $200 USD)
• Magic Ears: $50 USD (In the bank: $0 USD)
• VIPKid: $130 USD (In the bank: $0 USD)
• Total: $902.88 USD | $2,220 CAD

Based on today's exchange rate (January 13, 2019) – $902.88 USD = $1,197.81 CAD + $2,220 CAD = $3,417.81 CAD

Total Earned After Expenses: $1,738.19 CAD

I'm really happy with this number, but I think I could have done better if I had been a bit more productive and better at time management. I'm working on that for 2019.

Keep in mind that all of this income was earned from April-December which is actually only 9 months.

Why I Love Blogging

I started this blog because I wanted to learn more about how to make money online. Not only have I learned more about it… I've DONE IT!

I've also learned more about personal finance and money management which has been extremely interesting and useful as well. All the knowledge I'm gaining through writing this blog has been huge.

On top of that, I've also:

• Become a better writer
• Become a better marketer
• …and improved so many other skills!

Running a blog has also changed my life in ways that I couldn't have even imagined. I've developed a ton of amazing habits like writing in a journal every day, writing down goals, eating healthier, meditating, and so much more.

I would have never imagined that simply starting a blog could have changed my life in so many ways.

Things I Would Do Differently

Not Worry About Perfection

I waste a lot of time worrying about my posts being perfect before I hit the publish button. I proofread them over and over again and end up wasting a lot of time.

Now don't get me wrong:

I think proofreading posts is important and I want to publish the highest quality content possible. However, I overdid it and ended up wasting time because I wanted my posts to be perfect.

Here's the thing:

Once something is published, you can still go back and edit it. You can improve it, fix mistakes etc. Things don't have to be perfect the first time you publish them.

Spend Less Time on Design

In my first year of blogging, I spent a lot of time working on the design of my blog. I'd come up with something, change it, change it again, etc.

I really like working on graphics and design so this was fun for me. However, it used up a lot of time that I could have spent writing posts.

If I were to start over again, I'd make a simple design, then I'd focus all my attention on things that make me money. Eventually, I'd have enough money from my blog to simply pay someone to design it.

Promote My Posts Faster

When you're just writing posts and publishing them without promoting them anywhere, no one is going to see them. Promotion is key to getting your blog found.

Like I said above, if I could go back I'd start promoting my posts on Pinterest once I had 5 written. I think I would have started earning faster if I had done that.

Lessons Learned

Things Fluctuate

When my blog first started getting traffic and earning money, I started checking my analytics pretty often to see how many pageviews I had. Whenever my views went down, I'd freak out and try to figure out why.

The truth is, traffic doesn't just go up and up forever. Some days it goes down, some days it goes up (Pinterest traffic is like a roller coaster).

What I learned from this is:

Don't obsess over the stats. If your traffic is generally improving in the long term, you're on the right track. The same thing goes for income.

One Post Can Change Everything

If you check my income above, you'll notice that over half of my income came from one source: Mylo. Almost all the money I earned from referring people to that app came from my Mylo review post.

When I was writing that post, I had no clue that it was going to make me so much money. It probably took me less than 5 hours to write. One post like that can be a game changer.

The lesson here:

Keep publishing content! You never know when you're going to strike gold.

Blogging Ain't Easy

When you're running a blog, you have to do everything for it. That means:

• Content creation
• Email marketing
• Promoting content
• SEO
• Creating graphics
• Designing
• …the list goes on

This is a lot of work, and you have to sacrifice some free time if you want to be successful.

You also have to be willing to be patient:

I worked on my blog for months before I even saw any money come in.

It could take over a year before you see any income from your blog. It probably you won't take that long, but you have to be mentally prepared for it just in case.

You Need to Invest in Your Blog

I'm fortunate that I learned this lesson early on, but I know many people are skeptical to invest in their blog.

Here's the deal:

Your blog is a business. Businesses need money to grow.

Sure, you could put the bare minimum into your blog and only invest in the essentials but if you want to grow quickly and start earning money fast, you shouldn't be afraid to invest in at least a blogging course.

For example, investing in a lifetime access membership to Dare to Conquer at the beginning of my blog journey was probably the best decision I ever made.

If it wasn't for Dare to Conquer, this income report probably wouldn't even exist. Heck, this blog might not even exist.

Anyway, I won't go on and on about DTC but if you choose one thing to invest in for your blog, I highly recommend it.

Blog Goals for 2019

• Get into MediaVine (need 25,000 PV/month) – I hate ads and I don't want to ruin my blogs user experience with them, but I could use the extra income. I don't plan to run ads on my site forever though.
• Grow my Pinterest more – This is a pretty general goal, but I'd like to get my Pinterest traffic to around 20,000 PV/month. This would help massively with the above goal.
• Make $1,000/month with affiliate marketing – I've already had a couple of months where I've hit this goal, but I want it to be consistent.
• Make $2,000 in one month – Having my blog generate $2,000 in one month would be pretty insane to me.

Do You Want to Start a Blog?

It's not the FASTEST way to make money online, but it's definitely one of the most rewarding. If you stick with it, you'll:

• Meet like-minded people
• Learn a TON of new skills
• Gain a ton of knowledge on your niche (I've learned so much about personal finance and making money)
• Create an amazing asset and online resume
• Make extra money each month (potentially thousands)

Here's the thing about blogging though:

Like I said above, it takes time. The earlier you get started the better. It's sort of like they say about planting a tree:

The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The next best time is today.

If you want to start a blog, start it today and a year from now you'll look back and thank yourself.

Check out my how to start a blog guide.