June & July Income Report – A mixed bag

A few months ago, I wrote a post that had my income report for March, April and May. I don’t intend to make these income reports a regular thing unless something happens to inspire me to write one. In an ideal world, I would make a similar and consistent income every month so the income reports would be fairly boring!

But I believe it’s very important to talk about blogging income and be transparent, though I understand many don’t feel comfortable doing that. Whether that comes from a place of embarrassment for not feeling like you earn ‘enough’, feeling worried you’re undercharging or that you just want to keep your financial situation to yourself.

Bloggers are paid at such varied amounts based on following, traffic, DA, trust flow, organic traffic, social following and more. There’s such a variety of budgets, too. So this is why I’ve always been passionate about sharing my blogging stats and information.

I am happy for anyone to chat with me privately about if they prefer, or to ask me any questions. There are a lot of income reports out there and most of them often claim to make thousands per month (most of these tend to be Americans!) but I personally feel like that isn’t a likely outcome for most people who want to make an income from blogging. I do believe the amount I make is realistic. Although it would not be enough to live independently (especially with a baby!) it is enough when you put my partner’s income into the equation.

I would feel uncomfortable blogging full time if I was on my own, because of the lack of stability in my income at the moment. But it is an excellent second income and it is a lot more than I would earn by working full time when paying around £1000 a month for childcare. So I do have to stress that we do have a stable household income that would cover our expenses if I had a terrible month. I also have an emergency fund that would allow us to live for around 5 months with zero income (for both me and my partner). I have no debt, other than my mortgage and we have money saved for our wedding next April. So I am in a financially stable (and lucky) position. Though I am also 35 years old, so it has taken me time to get to this point. I, like many, would have struggled to get on the property ladder in my 20s and spent years throwing rent at landlords.

I just wanted to stress this – as I think it’s important to realise you can’t just quit your job and hope for it to work without some kind of stability, or earning a large amount consistently. I mean, maybe you could if you lived with your parents or something – but not if you are renting and have regular bills, council tax and rent/mortgage to pay!

As I mentioned in my last income report, my goal is to make £600 a month on my blog at least and then a stretch goal of £1000. I would love to average £1000 a month for this financial year (£980 so far!). Of course, I would want more, but my goal is consistent income with a good work-life balance.

I am working on my other blogs to help increase my income long term. But this is all I need for now. I find it difficult sometimes with my figures as I see other people making a lot more than me. It can make me doubt myself and question if blogging full time is the right thing for me, but then I remind myself of my personal circumstances and that I do not need more than £1000 a month (though it would be nice).

My main goal is to be able to stay at home with my son while being able to save some money per month for our next home.

Over the last few weeks, Leo has gotten better at sleeping in the evening. He used to go to bed with us, but I now take him to bed around 8 pm which means I can spend a couple of hours each evening blogging. I love this as it takes the pressure off me trying to find pockets of time each day. Blogging with a baby is hard work! But this allows me to spend more time on my blogs.

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase and get talking about those blog income reports!

June Blog Income

In June, I made a total of £544. This is the lowest month I’ve had since before March when I put effort into generating an income for my blog.

I felt quite frustrated with this figure because, again, it made me doubt myself. I expect that I will have more months like this and I really need to deal with it better. This is why I have an emergency fund (which I didn’t need to use, thankfully). Even though you know this will happen, it doesn’t make it an easier pill to swallow. It has just reinforced the idea that I need to diversify the income on my blog.

This is why I have been putting more effort into Instagram, why I’ve started working on my fitness blog again and why I started my money blog.

Another problem I had in June is that I had a lot of work agreed upon at the end of the month, but it was either published or paid in July. I had £440 carried over from the last week in June to the first week in July. So, despite my poor performance that month, I didn’t feel too bad by the end. of the month as I was waiting for almost £500 to be paid for me.

Just to clarify – the way I work out my income is the date the money hits my account, not the date I publish a blog post. This is because at the end of the month, I then look at my earnings and budget accordingly. So in June, I spend July’s income and in July I spend June’s. So I am a month ahead. I find that easier to get my head around rather than getting random amounts in my bank.

At the end of each month, I see what money I have, keep some in my current account for my direct debits (phone bill, Netflix, expenses), move some to our joint account for bills and then move the rest to my Monzo account which is what I use for my every day spending fo the month. Then my current account is left alone until the end of the next month.

I also made some money with side hustles, such as surveys and other cashback offers. I made over £200 last month and you can read more about that here.

July Blog Income

In July I made £1434.66, which was so much better than in June. I felt like I was getting a steady amount of work in the whole month and this was boosted but the collaborations I had secured at the end of June.

I did a few higher paying jobs too which was great as I often suffer from imposter syndrome when I hear of people charging hundreds for sponsored blog posts. Those opportunities do not seem to come my way often and from talking to some others in private, I think what I charge is pretty average. It’s hard to say what I charge, as I will often go lower if it’s for regular work or if I’m feeling a bit desperate for cash. I’m still saying no to those $10 and $20 posts that often land in my mailbox! Don’t worry! I was even offered 10 posts for $10 each a few months ago which I declined as that works out at about £6 a post. Not worth it!

My income comes from a mixture of sponsored posts and prewritten guest posts.

I also am working on affiliate marketing though I’ve had anything that’s paid out in July. I’ve had about 4 or 5 affiliate sales in July really hasn’t earned me a lot. It’s one of those magical beasts that I’ve not quite conquered yet but now I have a bit more time in the evenings, I’m hoping to put some time and effort into it and see some results.

I’m starting to get a bit of work on my fitness blog also.

So far August is looking good for me. I’ll probably have a few dry weeks now but if I keep getting work and payments the pace I have been, I have the potential to top July’s blog income. But you never know with blogging!

I made an additional income of £317 on side hustles in July, which is a nice boost to my blog income!

Blog Expenses

My blog expenses vary month to month, as sometimes I buy blog stock photos or other bits. It averages around £100 a month, you can read some of the blogging tools I pay for to help me run my blogs here

So, that’s your lot. As always, I’m not promising to do this every month – just when I feel the need to!