I’m writing this post at 4:57am. I couldn’t sleep, so I figured, why not just get up and do what I love rather than lay here thinking about it?! 😉 Man, I love blogging…

With blogging, I get to:

1. Help thousands of people with their finances each month
2. Teach myself new things about personal finance to keep this blog fresh and interesting
3. Make thousands of dollars every single year just by putting some words on a page

What’s there not to love??!!

Does blogging interest you? Then why not get started? The cost is $24 for your entire first year and there’s help all over this site (which, by the way, is why I write these posts!!) for all you that are nervous about it.

Just get started with iPage here.

That’s it. That’s all I’m saying about it.

December 2017 Blog Income

In November I was really focused on earning income with this blog. In December…I was sick for two weeks and had four Christmas parties…so I wasn’t quite as motivated. Oh, and I had that project house to work on that we bought back in October. Needless to say, I have a million excuses, which probably means that the dollars weren’t quite as stellar this past month…but let’s check it out!

• Oct 2016 Income: $293.04
• Nov 2016 Income: $589.24
• Dec 2016 Income: $1,085.98
• Jan 2017 Income: $486.76
• Feb 2017 Income: $643.34
• March 2017 Income: $1,457.14
• April 2017 Income: $752.21
• May 2017 Income: $1,300.20
• June 2017 Income: $1,190.60
• July 2017 Income: $1,040.15
• August 2017 Income: $932.36
• September 2017 Income: $1,046.27
• October 2017 Income: $1,054.20
• November 2017 Income: $1,517.68

And in December…I earned $780.56.

Alright, so I didn’t blow the doors off my previous totals, but you know what? It’s still respectable, and it’s still $780 that I didn’t have last month, so I’ll take it!

Now for all you fellow bloggers out there, let me show you how I earned this cash!

Breakdown of December 2017 Blog Income

And here we go!

Pay-per-click Ads:

• Google Adsense: $15.16
  • Not big dollars here, but I’m not surprised since I hide the ad way at the bottom of the page these days. I’d rather make a few dollars less than spam the heck out of my readers.
• MyFinance: $77.40
  • A pretty solid performance again last month. These ads are run within the heart of my articles and offer the reader quality suggestions for their wealth building journey. Love it!
  • If you want to get started with them, let me know and I’ll hook you up!

Affiliate Links:

• iPage Hosting: $105
  • One more rock star decided to start their own blog! Yes! Here’s to them and their future success! (raising my imaginary glass of oatmeal stout)
  • Want to get started with your own blog? Here’s the free tutorial to sign up in just 15 minutes.
• Wealthsimple Investing: $100
  • Have you started investment with Wealthsimple?? My investments are still jumping! I’m up 8.6% since July! BOOM!
  • Want to get started? Invest $100 and get a free $50 (only for a limited time)
• Personal Capital: $0
  • Not sure how your investments are allocated? Sign up with Personal Capital. It’s free!!
• The Stay-at-Home Mom Blueprint: $3
  • Another book sale this past month! If you want to become a Stay-at-Home-Mom, this is a must read!
• Ethos Term Life Insurance: $0
  • Ethos term life insurance is the way to go. It’s cheap, you can get insurance for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it’s quick. Get all squared away in just 15 minutes!
• Uber: $0
  • Uber is a great way to make extra money! Check them out – they now have a food delivery option!
• BillCutterz: $0
  • I love this partner, and they’ll soon be making me money – that’s for sure.
  • What do they do? They negotiate your bills for you! If they save you money, you pay them half. If they find you nothing, you owe nothing. It’s a win-win for sure!!

Direct Ads:

• Direct private ads: $480 – I accepted a few helpful direct ads this past month and turned down at least 10-15. I still made some decent money here though!

Total = $780.56

Additional Blog News

One bit of news from this past month:

1. We were featured on Rockstar Finance with this fine article – “Make Money by Taking Surveys? I Don’t Think So!” The title says it all really – just don’t mess with surveys. They’re a complete waste of time.

Blog Goals For 2017 – in Review

I had 5 goals for 2017, I hit 3 of them. Not too shabby! Here are the results

• Have one monthly income report shoot up over $2,000 – Nope, but I had a great November – almost $1,600! Close!!
• Boost my web traffic to 50,000 views per month – My absolute best month this year was January. I had 42,000 visitors. The typical month has been more like 20k-25k.
• Host a giveaway – Check! The lucky winners earned some books, a free session with me, and Financial Peace University kit!
• Increase my social media reach – here are the goals, and the actuals:
  • Facebook goal: 1,600, Actual: 1,443
  • Twitter goal: 5,000, Actual: 4,427
  • Pinterest goal: 2,000: Actual: 566 (I clearly have a lot to learn about Pinterest!)
• Revamp my website – I did make an update. It wasn’t huge, but it sure was helpful. With the new sleeker look, people are definitely hanging around longer and visiting more pages.

Bigger and Better Things Ahead!

There are a ton of things going on already this year. Stay tuned for further announcements of what’s to come! Thanks for reading, all! Have a fantastic new year!