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If you’re new to Finsavvy Panda blog, you may be wondering what this Pinterest blog income is about and why I publish these reports on how I earn a full-time living online by using Pinterest.
I wanted to quit the job I dreaded so much, so when I was browsing online a few years ago, I learned that making money with Pinterest was possible. At first, I was pretty skeptical, but the good thing is I kept an opened mind and decided to try it out myself!
I started this blog income report series to keep track of my beginning Pinterest and blogging journey to show you that earning a full-time income from home is legitimate!
It’s my way to have fun with this blog by testing, experimenting, and sharing with you on what worked and what didn’t work.
By the way, YES, I did quit my job in 2019 all because I experimented with using Pinterest to drive traffic back to my blog, which allows me to earn a full-time income with display advertising and mentioning the products I personally love and use.
If you read all of my previous blog income reports, you’ll notice this is a true reflection of the journey and progress of a brand new blogger using Pinterest, me, who started with no experience – you’ll know that I’m not lying or exaggerating when you read through my blogging archive. I’m a very emotional and highly sensitive person so I wrote things that truly reflect how I felt and what I did as a beginner.
I was convinced to start a blog because it’s SO cheap to get started, and if it doesn’t work out, then oh well – that’s OK! At least I know I tried this idea without spending a lot of money.
You can also learn more about blogging for beginners and how to start a blog here in my easy step-by-step tutorial!
Update: As a brand new blogger, I started with $0 to earning my first $100 in a few months. After six months, I made my first $1,000; and within my first year of blogging, I exceeded my goal of earning $5,000 per month. Eventually, in a little over 2 years, I was able to earn over $120,000 a year with this small and personal blog, which surprises me!
Here are a couple of screenshots of the earnings I’ve made online from this website. In addition to this, I also earn a diversified income from other sources with this small blog!
Fast forward several years since I wrote this blog income report, and I started a second blog to see if I could replicate the success of my first one.
To my surprise, I was able to generate additional income with my second blog, which is an anonymous lifestyle blog on Pinterest. I earned $90,359.98 solely from display ads, without selling any products—all just from having visitors read my lifestyle blog!
Related posts on blogging and how to skyrocket your Pinterest pageviews:
- How long does it take to make money on Pinterest?
- How long does it take to get traffic from Pinterest?
- How to get traffic from Pinterest for beginners
Join my FREE Start A Money-Making Blog Course
You can enroll in my FREE 7-Day Course on How To Start A Profitable Blog here.
I started my blogging journey using the Pinterest platform to share all my blog posts and that’s how I was able to earn my first income online!
To be honest with you, I didn’t even know what “making money online” meant and the term “blogging” really caught me off guard because the last thing I thought I’d ever do was draft blog posts.
After I learned that you DON’T have to be a good writer and that you actually DON’T have to draft a blog post every day or week to earn a full-time living with a blog, I signed up on a whim!
I had absolutely NO experience in writing, marketing, tech (I’m still horrible at this stuff), and everything related to starting a blog. BUT I was willing to take initiative and invest my time in learning the strategies of what makes a blog profitable.
I really surprised myself and didn’t think I’d quit my job after making progress with the blog you’re reading now.
I’m very happy with my blogging progress and I would love to help beginners like you!
How to start a profitable blog: Many readers e-mailed me and asked me what I did to get the results I get. To help you, I created this FREE 7-day e-mail course that teaches you how to start your blog without having to be an expert at what you blog about. There has been a lot of positive feedback from many readers so I highly encourage you to join my free course if you want to learn how to start a blog and make money.
August Blog Income Report
Welcome to my second blog income report! Like my first blog income report, I thought writing this would be helpful for beginners and those who haven’t started a blog yet. This also gives me a chance to reflect back on what worked and what didn’t work. With that said, I can look back on my blog income report to see where I can improve.
Now, you’re probably wondering why I would share this private information with the public?
I was debating whether or not I should share this blog income report because I was afraid of coming off as bragging or lying — or even both! I don’t want to come off as either because my sincere hope is to help others who want to earn extra money on top of their full-time jobs
Before I started a blog, I was pretty skeptical about the idea of making money online. But after seeing many blogging income reports, I realized that it is possible!
I also remember saying exactly this in my first income report:
“I’m definitely not making a lot compared to other bloggers who are pulling in over $1,000 every month. But despite how little or much I make, I believe that everyone can learn from each other!”
For me to write this, it means that I was not expecting to make over $1,000 blogging in August. My goal was to either maintain it or improve it by $100 to $200. Making close to $3,000 far exceeded my expectations for August! So, seriously, if I can do it then so can you! I don’t mean to sound cliche but I really believe you can do it; if not, better than me!
For the past few months, I started reading more into other bloggers’ income reports and it taught me how to monetize my blog properly. I’m not making a killing like other bloggers, but I am learning a ton from them! From what I’ve learned, every bloggers’ income report will be different. For example, there are bloggers with fewer page views who earn more than me and there are bloggers with more page views who earn less than me.
Related blog income posts:
- How I Make $10,000 From Home Every Month Blogging (within the 2nd year of starting my blog)
- February Blog Income Report: $7,498.94
- January Blog Income Report: $6,790.93
- December Blog Income Report: $6,840.01
- November Blog Income Report: $5,532.13
- My First Blog Income Report: How I Made $703.57 Blogging in July (I struggled for so many months before this!)
- How To Make Money on Pinterest by Starting a Blog
- How To Start a Profitable and Successful Blog For Beginners
Start your blog for cheap today!
I’ve been blogging for less than a year and I feel grateful that I’ve been able to increase my monthly earnings from ~$0 (in November) to $500 (in April to June) to $700 (in July) and now $2,700 (this month) after taking a few blogging courses which I mention later.
You too can start a blog with my easy step-by-step tutorial here.
You can start a blog at a discounted price for only $2.95 a month with Bluehost using this link (that’s over 60% off). Plus, get a FREE domain name ($15 value) when you sign up through my tutorial. If you’re interested, you can read more about the details in my tutorial.
Do you want to work from home and start a blog?
Are you a beginner and don’t know where to start? Join my FREE 7-day course where I will teach you how to start your blog the right way! 🙂
Without further ado, let’s take a look at my blog income for August.
August Blog Income
In August, I earned $2,797.64. Please note that this is in Canadian dollars before any expenses or fees.
Affiliate income – $1,942.95
Money-saving resources (Checkout 51, OhmConnect, Ebates, $5 Meal Plan, survey companies, etc.) – $1,713.52
Amazon – $31.03
Blue Host – $75 USD ($96 CAD)
ebook affilaite sales – $80 USD ($102.40 CAD)
UPDATE: You can read my review and learn more about Michelle’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course that helped me get started with earning an affiliate income with my blog. I went from earning $0 to over $3,000 a month with affiliate marketing within my first year of blogging. Today, I am earning over $10,000 per month alone with affiliate marketing thanks to taking this e-course!
Total display advertising – $854.69
Aug 1 – Aug 16:
Google Adsense – $132.37 CAD
Aug 17 – Aug 31:
Mediavine – $564.31 USD (~$722.32 CAD)
Total blog income = $2,797.64
Blog Expenses:
I recently purchased a $120 USD (~$154 CAD) Tailwind yearly subscription to the Tribes PowerUp Plan. I’ve been using this feature for a couple of weeks and I don’t have any comments so far. I’ll be testing this out for the month. Hopefully, it will help improve my traffic, so we’ll see how it goes!
For now, I recommend trying the basic Tailwind service (a free monthly trial here) to see how you like it. Since I start using Tailwind in July, my traffic improved significantly!
Blog income after expenses = $2,643.64
How did I increase my blog income by 298% from last month?
I went from making $703.57 last month to out-of-the-blue $2,797.64 this month!
So, believe me when I say this… I am in serious shock right now just as much as you are!
I am super excited to share with you what I learned this month and how I was able to make close to $3,000 from my blog (unexpectedly)! I really want you to learn something and gain value out of this blog income post!
1. Traffic increase
First of all, I got accepted into Mediavine after meeting the minimum requirement of having 25,000 sessions (~30,000 page views). When I switched my ad network from Google Adsense to Mediavine, I earned over $550 USD ($700 CAD) in ad income from Aug 17 to Aug 31. While making the switch, I was still with Google Adsense where I earned $132 CAD from Aug 1 to Aug 16.
Overall, the switch to Mediavine increased my ad earnings by over 300% thanks to investing my time into learning how to use Pinterest. It took me 2-3 months (YES, it will take some time) to see significant improvement so it was definitely worth the small investment! You will see my Google Analytics results when you read this post further down!
2. Better opportunities for affiliate marketing
Secondly, this e-course by Michelle, who consistently makes over $100,000 every month from her blog, helped me earn over $1,500 USD in affiliate marketing this month!
Again, I’m just a new blogger learning new things through trial and error. So, here’s the juicy story of how I increased my affiliate earnings for this month!
Go grab some popcorn and a glass of wine while you read the next section!
Implementing one of Michelle’s secret tips from her e-course
For about a month (mid-July to mid-August), I realized that I had a few of my posts “go viral.” I had no idea why they were getting SO many page views, but I just shrugged and ignored it.
One day, I was in the office at my desk eating my lunch.
All of a sudden, it just hit me! I was thinking about my top posts and thought: “Holy crap, what the eff am I doing? I remember reading a bonus section in Michelle’s e-course many months ago, 9 Things You Need To Do When Your Post Goes Viral.”
Yeah, seriously… AFTER a month of getting consistent traffic from a few posts, I finally woke up and smelled the coffee! #FML!
I know, I left a lot of money on the table for an entire month! But oh well, it’s never too late!
So, during my lunch break, I immediately referred back to Michelle’s bonus section, 9 Things You Need To Do When Your Post Goes Viral and I implemented one of her affiliate marketing strategies RIGHT AWAY.
I logged into my WordPress and made minor changes to the posts that were bringing in the most traffic. I followed a few of Michelle’s advice below:
- Review and make updates to your most visited posts no matter what!
- Think about products that will add value to your readers and add those affiliate links in your post. Make sure they are related affiliate links.
- Go back and change some affiliate link placements.
- Try not to bombard your new readers with too many ads.
- Less is more: remove affiliate links that may annoy your readers.
- Don’t be afraid to promote it!
There’s SO much more she talks about! But just implementing those small changes made a HUGE difference to my blog income for the remaining days of the month! It took me literally less than 30 minutes to make those tweaks (26 minutes to be precise)!
I honestly didn’t expect much to happen…
But HOLY MOLY!
I was REALLY shocked by the results! I went from earning $3-$4 USD per day to over $30-$45 USD per day consistently from August 9th to August 31st! That’s over 800% increase in earnings from one affiliate network!
Yes, I made this small change during my lunch break on August 9th and that’s what happened!
Here’s one of my affiliate network examples in my screenshots for proof!
BEFORE: I passively earned $30.80 within the first 8 days of August with this affiliate network called Awin. Not too shabby, huh?
But check this out…
AFTER: This is what happened when I implemented one of Michelle’s strategies on Aug 9th. I passively earned almost $300 within the next 8 days (Aug 9 to Aug 16) with this very same affiliate network, Awin!
Surprisingly, the results got even better within the next 8 days (Aug 17 to Aug 24)!
For the entire month, I made $952.60 USD ($1,219.33 CAD) from Awin affiliate!
This proves that Michelle really knows what she’s talking about when it comes to affiliate marketing! She is seriously an expert at teaching you her strategies in her flagship e-course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing! I am SO confident to say that you could be leaving money on the table if you haven’t considered taking Michelle’s course!
You can learn more about Michelle’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course by visiting the website here.
To be fair, I was lucky enough to generate a good amount of traffic to my blog. More traffic translates to higher earning opportunities and that’s why I truly believe in investing in the right blogging education to make that happen!
I will be trying my best to maintain my current traffic, but of course, traffic will be volatile for every blogger. With that said, I am ready for any downtrends because I know that blogging isn’t always going to be rosy. And to be honest, I don’t expect to make as much for September. My aim is to just continue learning by testing different strategies! It’s important to be hopeful but at the same time, I want all of us to be realistic about our goals.
Again, these resources really changed both my strategies and blog income:
- The Treasure Map To Blogging Success in 30 Days – Because I get asked SO many questions about setting up and creating a blog, I created this ebook JAM PACKED with loads of information to teach brand new bloggers EXACTLY step-by-step on how to set up their blogs from scratch by navigating WordPress, how to install your blog theme, how to create a blog logo for free, where to find free stock photos, how to create content, what types of content to write that would generate an income blogging and many more valuable information all in one spot! A ton of brand new bloggers who invested in this affordable low-price ebook found it extremely helpful in guiding them toward the right direction of creating a profitable blog. This resource is perfect for you if you are a brand new blogger who has no clue what to do or where to go after starting your blog. You will feel so relieved and much more confident about your blog after going through this ebook!
- The Golden Compass To Pinterest Traffic – After gaining several years of experience in blogging and due to the numerous requests I’ve received from people, I created another product. This is the ultimate Pinterest traffic guide that teaches you how to skyrocket your Pinterest traffic from 0 to over 100,000 monthly pageviews by consistently implementing all the strategies taught.
- Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
If you followed my blog from ten months ago, you will know the struggles I went through. Seriously, just read my last blog income report and you will see that I was in the exact same position as you are in right now.
In fact, I’ll even repeat myself again:
My blogging income was ~$0 when I first started
I’ve mentioned before that I wasn’t making any money with my blog when I first signed up. I started this blog under a year ago on a whim and I had NO CLUE what I was doing. To be honest, making money wasn’t my top priority because I was focused on learning how to use WordPress. Until this day, I’m still not proficient with WordPress, but I know that I will learn more as I move forward. 🙂
As I’m writing this right now, this month has been my highest blog income so far. I don’t know what to expect in the months ahead, but what I do know is that I’m not ready to give up despite the volatile blog income and traffic. I’m in this for the long-term and I’m even ready for any sudden drop in traffic and earnings.
Let me tell you my story.
In my first four to six months of blogging, I was earning close to nothing! If I could remember correctly, I had a BIG SMILE on my face when I earned my first $1.45 from Google Adsense in my first month of blogging. I thought “Woo-hoo! I made my first dollar online!”
I was in the same spot as you are in now.
After many months of blogging, I saw almost no results. I kept wondering how other bloggers were able to earn over $1,000-$5,000 per month in their first, second, and third month of blogging! Just like you, I felt really sad and discouraged. Gosh, I thought it would even be nice to make $100 a month!
Not to mention, I wasn’t able to generate much traffic either. It’s something I’m still trying to improve on!
At the beginning of my blogging journey, I was trying SO hard to increase my traffic because I knew I wanted to eventually make money from my blog. I heard about Pinterest and how it’s a crazy traffic driver for most bloggers, so I decided to give it a shot!
Despite doing all the right things in Pinterest such as joining group boards, making new personal boards, inputting relevant keywords, making many different pins, and pinning like a freaking madwoman, I just couldn’t increase my Pinterest traffic! Like you, I was frustrated and didn’t know what to do because I thought I tried everything! I also did everything that Pinterest asked their content creators to do (at least that’s what I thought).
This is how my traffic looked back in November of last year. 1,059 sessions and 3,773 page views.
This is how my traffic looked in August. 71,415 sessions and 88,536 page views.
In fact, here is how my traffic looked throughout the months. Despite the dips, I just kept swimming. During the May period, I invested my time on Pinterest and my traffic suddenly spiked in a few months after implementing some strategies!
Sessions | Pageviews | % Change | |
Feb-18 | 6,643 | 9,333 | |
Mar-18 | 20,370 | 26,685 | 185.92% |
Apr-18 | 18,956 | 24,573 | -7.91% |
May-18 | 11,133 | 19,599 | -20.24% |
Jun-18 | 13,325 | 17,307 | -11.69% |
Jul-18 | 34,426 | 43,226 | 149.76% |
Aug-18 | 71,415 | 88,536 | 104.82% |
Results from using Pinterest
I truly believe that taking small steps and learning at your own pace is key. But, of course, you need to learn from the right course instructors! Investing in the right blogging education such as The Golden Compass To Pinterest Traffic course helped me get:
- from 3,773 to over 80,000 monthly page views in less than a year. (No, I’m not here to sell you “how I went from 0 to over 100,000 page views in three months!” I am telling you a more realistic story and something that’s more achievable!)
- from 1,500 (back in November of last year) to over 500,000 monthly viewers on Pinterest (as I’m typing this, I’m at over 800,000 monthly viewers, but I don’t know how this will look in the future).
- from earning ~$0 to over $500 per month blogging in less than a year (over $2,500 in August)!
Investing in Blogging Education Helped Me!
Investing in the right blogging resources here helped me during my blogging journey and I am confident that it will help you too!
I am not just saying this to encourage you to buy into some random blogging resources. I really do, sincerely, mean what I say here.
One thing that held me back at the beginning was my fear of wasting money on blogging courses. Initially, I was skeptical of paying for these e-books and online courses because I was afraid of being scammed by what people call them “online salespeople” (which isn’t true BTW). I was also afraid that the strategies in the courses might not work.
I’m sure that’s exactly how you feel, right?
Despite that possibility, I took the plunge because I knew that there’s no such thing as free lunches. I will be honest and tell you that some of the material in paid courses can be found for free online. But, do you really have that much time to dig and search through millions of articles out there? Plus, for some of the stuff, you wouldn’t even know what to Google search for in the first place!
I’d rather take the shortcut and optimize my time by investing in the right blogging courses and learn from the experts. All that time you spend weeding out free (and potentially useless) information could have been better spent optimizing your earnings strategy.
As the saying goes:
“You gotta spend some money in order to make money!”
Believe me, don’t be afraid to invest in the right blogging material! I’m really glad that I did!
Blog Income Results from 99% Pinterest
I would like to point out that I’ve only been focusing on Pinterest to grow my traffic and that’s where all my blog income comes from. I learned from established bloggers that it’s okay to focus on one thing at a time.
Jeff from Breaking The One Percent (and Dollar Sprout) personally told me:
“By focusing on Pinterest and SEO (in that order), you are definitely on the right track!! Slow and steady wins the race! :)”
After about nine months of blogging, I have NOT focused on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Gosh, I just opened a Facebook account last month and I’m still not using it! Those were never my priority because I didn’t want to stretch myself thin. Who has time for all of that when you’re working a full-time job?
With that said, I will continue to implement these Pinterest strategies while learning how to increase my traffic through other means such as Google SEO. Yes, learning and implementing SEO will be my next step and I admit that I’ve put this on the back burner for a while now. Not to mention, it’s very important to diversify your traffic. But again, I’m taking this slowly and won’t be comparing myself to other bloggers who are making it big on every platform.
How I Exploded my Pinterest Traffic Using Tailwind
This Pinterest Tailwind scheduler app has changed my life! I don’t pin manually as much anymore and it has saved me SO MUCH time! I’ve only been using Tailwind for 3 months and I see a huge improvement with my traffic! The app has some limitations and it’s not perfect, but it sure saves a ton of time because you can schedule your pins to pin throughout the day! Plus, it’s the only pinning scheduler available that most bloggers use.
You can get a FREE one month trial plus a $15 credit with Tailwind by using my link here.
I don’t want to overwhelm you with too many blogging resources because I believe in quality over quantity. I’ve been blocking a lot of noise and just focusing on a few resources for help. As a result, all of this has helped me generate some blog income outside of my full-time job. It hasn’t been easy and it won’t be easy, but I believe you can do it when you stay focused on YOUR own goals. Again, don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle. Instead, be inspired and learn from them.
Over to you — How has your blogging journey been? Do you share your blog income report? If you’re not a blogger, do you plan on starting a blog today? 😉
Other Blog Income Reports:
- How I Make Over $120,000 Per Year With a Small Blog as a Full-Time Blogger
- How I Increased My Affiliate Blog Income to $10,000 Per Month
- December Blog Income Report: $6,840.01
- November Income Report: How I Made $5,532.13
- October Blog Income Report: How I Made $4,798.01
- September Blog Income Report: How I Made $4,509.50
- July Blog Income Report: How I Made $703.57
- How To Make Money On Pinterest For Beginners
Enjoyed this post? Don’t forget to share it and follow me on Pinterest! 🙂
krishna
Your article have been really helpful so for in getting my blog up and running. Thank you so much.
Hakan Yerlikaya
Hello Ling,
Always a great read.
Incidentally I am right now trying to establish the best day/time for my posts.
I read somewhere that Monday morning wasn’t the best time. So i think I can understand why you may have found that Tuesday morning works.
In fact I think thanks to this post, I already have my answer now as to the best day/time for my weekly posts. I had earlier experimented with Friday evening but that didn’t get many engagements.
Thanks once again for these awsome posts and your great insights.
Ling
@Hakan – that sounds great. I’m glad you enjoy my posts!
Aziz benhaida
Great motivation and tips. Well done on your progress.
Ling
Thank you! 🙂