This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.
Hello and welcome to my blog income report series!
Today, I’m going to show you how I made $22,343.23 last month, and $64,612.37 in the last 3 months with my small blog.
If you’re new to Finsavvy Panda blog, you may be wondering what this blog income is about and why I publish these reports.
I started this blog income report series to keep track of my blogging journey as a new beginner and to show you that making money online from home is possible.
It’s my way to have fun testing, experimenting, and sharing with you what worked and what didn’t work.
UPDATE: You can also check out the most important blogging lessons that I’ve learned here along with how I made $27,689.76 in my latest income report.
All my previous blog income reports are a true reflection of the journey and progress of a brand new blogger, me, who started with no experience with Pinterest, any social media platform, or blogging – 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 started this blog because I wanted to share with my readers how I went from living paycheck to paycheck in a low-income family to growing my income and saving my first $100,000.
I know personal finance and money is a struggle for many people, so I share my struggles and stories here on this personal blog to show how I made extra money on the side of my 9-5 job. This extra income allowed me to save more for vacations, experiences, retirement, and the things I value in life.
I also won’t hide the fact that I started a blog because I thought it would be nice to earn extra money doing something that’s fun, new, and exciting.
From earning extra money in my first year of blogging, this little blog of mine eventually allowed me to quit my job because of the full-time income it generates. I was quite surprised and never imagined this small blog to earn over $10,000 every month in less than 2 years.
Now, I am earning over $20,000 per month blogging from home, which I will talk more about below.
One of the greatest things about blogging is it becomes passive over time after putting in the upfront work.
Today, I spend only 1-2 hours a day maintaining this blog, which allows me to spend more time on things that are more important to me such as focusing on self-care and family – things that I wouldn’t have been able to do if I continued working at my 9-5 job!
Once your blog grows into a more passive mode, you can choose to cruise or continue to grow – it is your personal choice! I personally chose to relax more! 🙂
Start Your Blog and Make Money Online With No Experience!
In the very beginning, when I had absolutely no experience, I told myself that it’s SO cheap to start a blog, and if it doesn’t work out, then so be it. At least I know I tried it without investing a lot of money.
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 writing helpful content for my readers.
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.
You can also learn more about how to start a money-making blog for beginners here in my easy step-by-step tutorial here!
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.
November 2020 Blog Income Report
Wow, I can’t believe Finsavvy Panda is now 3 years old!
The last time I published a blog income report was at the beginning of last year February where I made $7,498.94 in one month from home with this small blog.
I also posted another blog post in the Spring of last year where I logged my progress and showed you how I became a full-time blogger earning over $10,000 per month in 18 months of starting this Finsavvy Panda blog.
During that time, I was a novice and new to the blogging world.
You can find my previous blog income reports here when I was still a complete beginner.
In my last blog income post, I said that I was stopping all my blog income reports because for one, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to relate to beginners who just started their blogs or those of you who haven’t started yet.
Secondly, creating these blog income reports takes a long time since I am not the best nor fastest writer.
A lot has happened over this time frame and I was pretty darn sure that I wasn’t going to write another income report.
Well, if you know me by now, I am “on the whim” type of person, so I decided to have an update on my blog income.
This is due to the heavy requests and emails I receive all the time from my long-time fans and loyal readers asking to please write another blog income report because you find this very helpful and insightful when you read about my personal experience along with tips and recommendations for beginners.
For the longest time, I made a mistake and didn’t realize that I wasn’t listening to readers who have been following me for a while.
One valuable lesson I learned after 3 years of blogging (that I unknowingly neglected for a while) is that you actually have readers who are very loyal and follow you to the tee, and it’s VERY important to give them exactly what they want!
So, here you go – I am going out of my comfort zone and listening to my readers because I care about those of you who are following me.
Now, before we dive into my blog income and how I made $22,343.23 blogging last month (and overall, over $20,000 per month in the last three months totaling $64,612.37 in a quarter), I want to answer one question I often get from my readers about starting a blog, especially when the pandemic started.
Along with answering that question, I will be providing my top 3 blogging tips for beginners and for those of you who haven’t started a blog yet.
Is it still possible to make money blogging at this time and year (even during the health crisis)?
Yes, you can bet it is absolutely possible to make money blogging at this time and year!
This blog, along with my second blog, is generating a healthy income from home even during the Covid times!
If you followed me in my beginning journey, you may know that I lacked a lot of confidence and had a lot of self-doubts. But that has changed in the last couple of years and I have grown and developed so much as a person all because I started my first blog!
This first blog of mine, Finsavvy Panda, has taught me a lot about myself, along with the endless possibilities of earning an online income, which I wouldn’t have learned if I stayed at my 9-5 job.
The great thing about starting a blog is it’s super affordable and the potential to earn money online has NO limit.
I am SO confident with this blogging idea that I even went ahead to start a second blog in the last quarter of last year – which means my second blog is officially over 1 year old!
Starting another blog was a great way for me to diversify my income and to prove that it is STILL possible to earn an income with a new blog this year and beyond.
My second blog is a great additional source of passive income, which is focused on earning from Mediavine using display advertising along with partnering with affiliates. You can learn more about how to make money blogging for beginners in this post here.
If you are a total beginner, I highly recommend focusing on the basics first which is learning how to make money using display advertising on your blog before you jump into affiliate marketing or creating your own products to sell.
Having ads on your blog is one of the most passive ways to make money, and it is much easier for you, as a beginner, to earn your first income online compared to other monetizing methods like affiliates, sponsorships, and selling digital products.
With my second blog, I signed up for the basic Bluehost plan here, which works out to be only $2.95 a month. That’s an upfront investment of only $36 for the entire year, which is 60% off regular pricing!
If you are ready to sign up for a cheap web hosting plan, then you can check out this step-by-step tutorial on how to start a profitable and successful blog for total beginners.
I also documented my experience and all the steps I took to set up my second blog PROPERLY in this affordable ebook called The Treasure Map To Blogging Success in 30 Days. I admittingly made many costly mistakes starting this first blog, Finsavvy Panda, and these are all the tips that I wish were taught to me right off the bat when I first started!
This ebook is perfect for beginners who are brand new to the blogging world and have just started their blogs. It’s also the perfect guide for you if you have NO experience in blogging and not tech-savvy at all.
Despite earning over $20,000 blogging each month, there are things I realized and learned in my 3 years of blogging experience.
Here are the tips I want to share with you.
Blogging Tip 1: Learn and focus on ONE thing at a time.
It becomes OH-SO overwhelming with so many things going on and when different bloggers start talking about their different monetizing strategies.
You become paralyzed and unsure of what to do, or you try to go all-in doing all those different things at once. It’s like trying to chase all the shiny objects that you come across.
Let me tell you something.
It never works when you are bombarded with too much information!
I highly recommend taking it one step at a time and focusing on only ONE thing to avoid inefficiency or stretching yourself thin.
For example, if you’re a new blogger trying to learn how to make money with your blog, I recommend focusing on one monetization strategy at a time.
You can start off by learning how to monetize your blog with ads and stick to testing out that one strategy until you see results and understand how it really works.
Once you feel that you know enough, and you’ve actually earned your first income from ads, then go ahead and learn a different monetizing method like affiliate marketing for beginners.
Blogging Tip 2: Don’t neglect building a solid foundation for your blog
This is another important tip that ties in with the previous tip about focusing on one thing at a time.
Beginners who just started their blogs should really focus on setting up the blog, creating valuable content, and building a proper foundation.
I often see A LOT of beginners neglect this step because many newbies are too anxious to make money fast and they get way too ahead of themselves. Don’t make this mistake!
I know it’s tempting, and you are mesmerized by all the stories about how bloggers are making money immediately in a few weeks or months with their brand-new blogs. That won’t happen especially if you are new in the blogging space.
When you just started your blog and you have NO experience at all, I do NOT recommend skipping the important steps of learning how to set up your blog properly and building a solid foundation for success.
This is what I teach in The Treasure Map To Blogging Success in 30 Days and I highly recommend focusing on building a proper foundation BEFORE you dive deep into learning any traffic or monetization strategies. This is a 4-week program aimed to help you get started on the right foot for success!
The Treasure Map To Blogging Success in 30 Days!
Again, focus on ONE thing at a time. Take everything step by step!
If you are new to blogging, please go through this detailed tutorial on how to start your blog for beginners – these are the steps you should take once you’ve started and registered for a self-hosted blog. This tutorial guide will also show you step by step on how to register your blog.
Blogging Tip 3: Stop chasing for fast and big numbers!
This is something I always try to keep in mind, and it’s very important when it comes to creating a healthy mindset in your blogging journey.
As I’ve always said, I enjoy blog income reports because they motivate and inspire you to make a positive change in your life.
If it weren’t for blog income reports, or hearing stories about how bloggers are able to make money from home, I honestly wouldn’t have been able to quit my soul-sucking job and share my story here. So, I am very thankful and grateful for that!
However, blog income reports can become dangerous when you don’t feel like you’re making progress or generating as high of an income as another blogger. You might start to subconsciously form negative thoughts and think “Is there something wrong with me?” or “are these high-income bloggers hiding something from me?”
As the saying goes… “everything in moderation.”
It’s okay to enjoy reading blog income reports, but don’t be too consumed by it.
I, myself, used to think there was something wrong with me when it felt like I wasn’t making much progress with my blog in the first 6 months of starting it because of all the stories I heard of how bloggers made over several of thousands of dollars in their first or second month blogging.
But I fought my own battle by setting more realistic expectations for myself.
I kept a positive mindset by ignoring negative thoughts and truly believing in the idea that I was going to earn an income with my blog!
No matter what stage you are at in your blogging journey, whether you’re a complete beginner or someone who has been blogging for over a year, I encourage you to keep learning and growing at your pace. The key is to focus on yourself and your goals and not someone else’s.
Monthly Blogging Income Report:
Now is the moment you’ve been waiting for!
Here is my total blog income and expenses for my two blogs in September, October, and November 2020.
Before looking at the numbers…
If you are a beginner, or someone who hasn’t started a blog yet, I want to point out that my expenses were much lower when I started this very first blog of mine. It was even operating on a free theme up until my 2nd year of blogging, which was still generating over $7,000 per month.
This is how Finsavvy Blog used to look with a free and very basic theme and overall, I did not spend a lot at the very beginning.
As a newbie at that time, I invested in this basic Bluehost plan for just $2.95 a month along with a few affordable blogging resources and tools to help me get started.
It’s tremendously important to invest in resources that will help you grow if you want to make money with your blog, but the good thing is it doesn’t have to be expensive at the beginning.
During that time, I was focused on building a proper foundation and learning the basics first!
You can check out my older blog income reports in this achieve here, which is much more relatable for newcomers who want to start a blog.
Now that this blog is earning a steady income, and after learning a lot of new things in the blogging world, I have been re-investing the money I earn back into faster hosting, Virtual Assistant (VA) services, upgraded blogging services, and tools. These are things you don’t need until your blog starts generating more income.
Remember to start small and take your time to learn!
November 2020 Blog Income: $22,343.23
Display Advertising: $5,062.09
Affiliate income: $15,201.95
- Saving money and budgeting resources, survey sites, cash back apps, etc.
- Amazon Associates
- Blogging tools and resources
- Work from home job resources
Digital products: $2,079.19
- The Treasure Map To Blogging Success In 30 Days
- The Ultimate Power-Up Budget Binder
- The Ultimate Blog Booster Binder
Total Blog Expenses: $1,524.33
- Web hosting and paid plugins: $53.20
- VA services, Canva Pro, Tailwind, ConvertKit, advertising, digital products subscription, and transaction fees: $1,471.13
November Blog Net Income After Expenses: $20,818.90
October 2020 Blog Income: $21,258.96
Display Advertising: $4,580.84
Affiliate income: $15,012.77
- Saving money and budgeting resources, survey sites, cash back apps, etc.
- Amazon Associates
- Blogging tools and resources
- Work from home job resources
Digital products: $1,665.35
- The Treasure Map To Blogging Success In 30 Days
- The Ultimate Power-Up Budget Binder
- The Ultimate Blog Booster Binder
Total Blog Expenses: $1,465.33
- Web hosting and paid plugins: $53.20
- VA services, Canva Pro, Tailwind, ConvertKit, advertising, digital products subscription, and transaction fees: $1,412.13
October Blog Net Income After Expenses: $19,793.63
September 2020 Blog Income: $21,010.18
Display Advertising: $4,249.62
Affiliate income: $15,381.29
- Saving money and budgeting resources, survey sites, cash back apps, etc.
- Amazon Associates
- Blogging tools and resources
- Work from home job resources
Digital products: $1,379.27
- The Treasure Map To Blogging Success In 30 Days
- The Ultimate Power-Up Budget Binder
- The Ultimate Blog Booster Binder
Total Blog Expenses: $1,422.86
- Web hosting and paid plugins: $53.20
- VA services, Canva Pro, Tailwind, ConvertKit, advertising, digital products subscription, and transaction fees: $1,369.66
September Blog Net Income After Expenses: $19,587.32
In the last 3 months, I earned $64,612.37 blogging before expenses. $60,199.85 is net profit accounting for expenses.
As you can see, I didn’t earn this much right off the bat. It took time for me to learn and grow as a person, and starting a blog is something I always highly recommend people to do!
Final thoughts on blogging:
Starting a blog definitely allowed me to pay off debt, save more, and quit my day job. It also allowed me to buy things I appreciate and enjoy in life!
Blogging is also very therapeutic especially during the time of today’s health crisis. If it weren’t for blogging, I would have gone nuts because of Covid.
I knew absolutely nothing and even signed up for a blog on a whim and I’m so thankful that I didn’t spend time overthinking too much. If I had researched way too much or tried to prepare to make everything perfect at the beginning, I would have burned out and not taken action. I also wouldn’t have been here today inspiring you to start one too.
And due to my lack of knowledge at first, I truly understand the struggle of a beginner with NO experience. That is why I created and wrote this ebook, The Treasure Map To Blogging Success in 30 Days for complete beginners. It’s the resource I really wish I had when I first started my blog. It’s an inexpensive ebook for beginnings to get started on the right foot who don’t have a lot of money to spend.
Again, I don’t know any other business idea that allows you to start with such a low cost at this time and year other than blogging.
If you haven’t started your blog yet, then the best time to start is now!
If you don’t know where to start, I encourage you to enroll in my FREE 7-day e-mail course here that will teach you how to start your blog and make money.
I hope you found this blog income report helpful and inspiring!
Have a question or comment about blogging? Be sure to comment or ask away in the comment box below, and I’ll be happy to answer! 🙂
Hi Ling,
Your story is truly an inspirational one, and you’re rocking! Keep going!
Your blog looks great and is full of useful information—all the best for your future endeavors.
Thank you. I’m glad to hear you find my story inspiring. I’d love to see you grow and succeed with your blog!
Starting a blog is the easiest thing in the world. Its staying consistent with blogging that gets difficult. I know most bloggers will say that experience isn’t needed but skills are essential. There’s more to blogging than just engagement and marketing. I got into blogging 3 years ago because I wanted to start a passive income. If I can stress this enough in the blogging world 3 is going to be your lucky number. Writing is an important factor to blogging. The quality of content is important. I like to think about 80/20 rule. 20 of the action a person takes will create 80% of the results. It’s up to each individual to decipher what their 20%. I use to fall victim to income reports but then I realized that some reports don’t make that much sense. Something I noticed. This is a pretty detailed blog post but it’s a lot of repetition from what other bloggers have said as well. Thank you though
Hey, great detailed post. I am a long time followers of yours and I also have a finance related blog. I have steady google traffic which is growing slowly but my Pinterest traffic is more or less stagnant.
I have been consistently publishing few pins every day from last 5 6 months but it drives on around 40-50 visitors per day.
My question to you is, do you use ads on Pinterest? Or any other thing you can suggest me to try differently.
Thanks
Hi Sumeet! Apologies in the delayed response!
That’s awesome to hear you’re making progress with your traffic!!
Most of my traffic to all my blogs comes from free traffic. This blog you’re reading here, Finsavvy Panda, is mainly from Pinterest and some from Google. Although I do use ads on Pinterest, that’s less than 1% of my traffic. 99% of my traffic is free.
I’ve been focusing mainly on Google for one of my other websites that I’m working on with my husband because that particular niche makes sense for Google (and a bit of Pinterest), so I recommend looking into Google traffic strategies too if you haven’t yet. It’s important to diversify your sources once you past the beginners stage.
I hope this helps!
Ling.. This is so amazing.
I am also a blogger and I have one question. Is the affiliate marketing of over $10k from just one blog or multiple blogs? That’s so inspiring. 🙂
It’s from 2 blogs. 🙂
Hi Ling,
Your story is truly an inspirational one, and you’re rocking! Keep going!
Your blog looks great and is full of useful information—all the best for your future endeavors.
I am glad you find it inspiring! Thank you! ❤️
Hey Ling- a few questions. I am also new to blogging but have the struggle of finding the confidence to share my creative work with family and friends (specifically friends that I feel may be critical or judgemental) – I am already a reserved person as is, so I decided to not share my creative work with friends at all and to only share it with strangers that don’t know me. My questions are:
1. How did you handle the process of getting comfortable sharing your stuff with the general public? I’m still a little reserved about this even though I have my stuff out now with the public.
2. My blog had been live since February 2021 but I was very slow to get the hang of it and now I have posted more than 12 posts and have a good understanding of what needs to be done to start making money but I’m not sure what I should focus on to start the money-making part of it. I haven’t even been able to grow my email list with my freebie. My first month live I got traffic of 1500 page views (which I am not sure if 1500 page views is even a milestone for blog just launched?), but no one signed up for my email freebie – so I am not sure 😕 if I am missing something here. If you can share with me, how did you increase interest in downloading your freebie and what metrics can we use to measure success with regards to pageviews.
Hi Catherine
As someone who is reserved, I understand how you feel and is normal to not feel confident. I let go of all my fears and negative thoughts when I started my blog. 🙂
Good questions…
1. To be honest, I didn’t feel comfortable but I knew that if I let that hold me back, I wouldn’t have been here. I had to rewire my mind and train myself to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. It’s challenging but I know you’ll manage and get used to it once you start blogging and learning more and more things. It eventually becomes the norm for you.
2. Your blog is very new and being able to reach 1,500 in your first month is a huge win! So go and celebrate your win because you deserve it!! 🌟 Many new bloggers would love to see those results in their first month. 🙂
I don’t generally recommend brand new bloggers to start a list immediately because there are a lot of other blogging things they need to master and understand. I get that you hear people say that they regret not starting an email list on day 1 (this is speaking from hindsight and it’s so easy to say), but that is overwhelming to total beginners who are still learning the basics. I recommend focusing on building a solid foundation (aka proper set up) for your blog, creating more great content, and then learning how to get traffic. And then learn some monetizing strategies like getting started with display ads. Or some affiliate marketing once you understand who your your readers are.
Generally speaking, you may want to take an email marketing course later on if you really understand how to use email marketing effectively. Btw, not all freebies convert and there are too many factors. You really have to understand your audience and create a plan/strategy behind if you want to start with email marketing. A course should be able to teach you from A to Z but again, I think this may be too early at your stage. I personally regret starting my email list too early when I first started my blog a few years ago. I didn’t know what to do with my list and I’m still slowly cleaning mine today due to so many other things to learn.
A metric I would focus on is how much profit you’re bringing in per visitor. It’s not about how popular you are or how many pageviews/traffic you’re getting but more about whether you can convert your readers into happy customers. This will come with time and practice. Everyone’s audience is different so it will require ongoing testing and tweaking even after you’ve taken courses on how to do it.
I hope this helps!! 🙂
Hey, dearest first of all congratulation your very hardworking and I love love love reading your income reports. I really need your help please help me with this. I have started my women’s blog in November 2020 and I am keep pinning 15 pins a day on Pinterest but none of my pin go viral? I have seen a lot of bloggers who are in this niche and getting tons of traffic from Pinterest. I am very much demotivated.
I am really working hard on my blog creating pins reading all your post gaining information.
I have done everything other people have recommended me for Pinterest like SEO pinning.
My Pinterest pins only got 30-80 impression. and I don’t know what to do now.
Please dear help me with this. I am really confused.
Hey Simran
Don’t feel demotivated or discouraged! Your blog is still in its infant stages and by the sound of it, I believe you are going the right direction. Pinterest and your blog are not overnight Success and you will have to trust me that it takes time. Be patient, wait it out and continue building your blog and learning how to get traffic with a pinning strategy that works for you, and you’ll see results. The hardest part is the beginning because you won’t see results for a while (trust me, I struggled and went through that stage too), but it will pick up if you can push through by staying positive and motivated. Let your account age and have it do its thing while you’re shooting out your pins. Be sure to make a mixture of static and story pins. I also highly recommend investing in an affordable traffic course or resource if you haven’t already. This will help you fast track and avoid common mistakes. I don’t know any blogger who is making money without investing in a course or ebook. This is a good start. I hope this helps!
I know it’s probably going to be a long time till I see another income report from you but still, thanks so much for sharing.
Always interesting to get some insight into a bloggers returns through all monetisation streams 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed this blog income report!
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment! 🙂
Hi I have a huge question about this method. As in can I start a different type of page instead of blogging? As of right now, I’m getting about 217k monthly views and it seems to be going up between 10k to 20k every other day. I’m an artist and I post my drawing videos (time-lapsed) and my artwork.
Hey JR – I’m not sure what you mean by start a different type of “page” instead of blogging? Would you be able to clarify? 🙂
Hi! I was wondering what affiliate programs you have found the most success with in the personal finance niche. Thank you!
Hey Chris
It’s not so much of the affiliate program itself. You can make any affiliate program successful on your blog/website or part of your business as long as you know the product very well and it’s something that will help your audience.
It’s different for everyone and each person has their own success with certain affiliate programs.
Personal finance niche is broad and there are sooo many programs out there. I recommend you looking for programs with products that you actually use and understand. It could be a credit card you always use, an investing related product, opening a high-interest savings account, an investment account, budgeting apps, etc. You can find many on places like Aragon premium, CJ, impact, shareasale, etc.
The more you know and understand the product as well as understanding your audiences’ needs and wants, the better your chances of converting them! You have to keep in mind that every blog (even though it’s the same niche) are likely to have different audiences. It’s not always exactly the same and that’s where I see people have this misconception thinking that just because one blog is able to promote and convert on a certain affiliate product, they think they’ll be able to do the same. I made that mistake before and learned that it’s not always the case so it’s best to choose the products you understand and stand by 100% to see great results.
I hope this helps! Feel free to let me know how it goes! 🙂