How I Earned $136,829 Blogging in October

Welcome to the October business income report, where I share how I earned money online last month. Below is an update on how the business performed and what I learned.

If you’re new to Making Sense of Cents, you might wonder why I publish monthly income reports. Feel free to skip ahead if you’re already familiar with my reasons.

This began as an extra income report because I originally documented side-income earnings while working a day job. In October 2013 I left my role as a financial analyst, and since then my monthly reports have covered all ways I earn a living.

Many people ask why I publish my income each month. Some think it’s unusual, while others appreciate the transparency. I publish these reports for three main reasons:

1. When I started, I knew nearly nothing about side hustles or making money online. I believed raises at a full-time job were the only way to significantly increase income. Seeing other bloggers publish their income reports inspired me to try side hustling, so I share my results to encourage and motivate others to improve their financial situations.
2. Publishing the reports helps me reflect, learn from mistakes, and identify areas that need improvement. I treat these monthly updates like a journal to track progress over time.
3. I want to show that earning money from home is possible through legitimate channels. There are many ways to make money online, and by sharing my experience I hope to point readers toward useful resources and examples.

I love being my own boss and working as a full-time blogger. Waking up each morning excited about the day is a wonderful feeling, and sharing these reports helps me show that you don’t have to hate your job or life. Your work should at least allow you to enjoy activities outside of work—spending time with loved ones, hobbies, travel, and so on.

How was business income in October 2017?

I earned $136,829 blogging and online in October 2017, before expenses.

October was another strong month. I’ve been working fewer hours recently and hired a virtual assistant in July, which has made the business more enjoyable and freed me from repetitive tasks.

One highlight last month was attending FinCon17 in Dallas, a conference for personal finance content creators. FinCon is an excellent networking and learning event where I always come away energized about the business.

Two takeaways from FinCon17:

1. I want to start producing video content. I’m considering a YouTube channel for our travels, though I’m still learning the technical side of video and editing.
2. I might separate travel content from Making Sense of Cents into its own site. I cover many topics and isolating travel could make the audience experience more focused.

I haven’t decided on either yet, but I’m brainstorming ideas.

Lately the business runs smoothly with minimal daily input from me. The upfront work I put in continues to generate income while giving me more time for other interests. A major focus for me over the past months has been improving work-life balance—and I’ve made significant progress.

October marked my tenth consecutive month with income above $100,000. I began at $0 and built this business through sustained effort, so don’t be discouraged if your starting point is small. Incremental growth adds up.

This strong month came from a few key strategies I’ve been emphasizing:

• Diversifying income. In 2016 I launched my first product, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, which broadened my revenue mix. Today my business earnings include affiliate marketing, a course product, sponsorships, and advertising. I’m also diversifying within affiliate partners to avoid reliance on any single source.
• Building the email list. I began focusing on email marketing in April 2016 after switching to ConvertKit. The platform simplified newsletter creation, and growing an engaged list has been essential to my business. If you haven’t started an email list, do so as soon as possible.
• Investing time in Facebook. My Facebook audience grew substantially—from around 6,500 followers at the start of 2016 to over 80,000 by late 2017. This expansion has driven new readers, increased course enrollment, and boosted overall revenue.

Overall, the business is doing well. I often catch myself saying, “Life is really good.” My course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, continues to perform strongly and attracted many new students last month. Student success stories and glowing reviews are encouraging and demonstrate the course’s practical value.

Selected student results shared with permission include significant improvements in affiliate income—some students grew from small monthly earnings to thousands of dollars after applying the course strategies.

If you’re a blogger, consider my affiliate marketing course for detailed, actionable strategies. I also offer a step-by-step tutorial for starting a self-hosted WordPress blog, which I recommend if you’re serious about monetization.

Blog news

Making Sense of Cents continues to perform well. October was travel-heavy—we spent time “home” after roughly a year on the road, visiting friends and family and driving a lot—so I focused more on life than work. As a result, I completed fewer business tasks during the month.

I hosted an Ask Me Anything and received over 200 questions via comments and email, which helped me connect with readers. I’ll likely run AMAs twice a year given the positive response.

I’m brainstorming a personal finance product to sell on the site, and I welcome suggestions from readers. I also completed an important site migration to HTTPS to avoid browser security warnings—technical help made that straightforward.

I switched social sharing tools and continue to improve traffic and site performance. Total pageviews for the month were around 400,000.

Other updates:

• My sister joined as a virtual assistant in July and has been helping with Pinterest images, Facebook group management, scheduling, and other tasks—freeing more of my time.
• I’m considering group coaching to help more people at once and create a supportive environment for bloggers.
• I launched a community Facebook group, which has grown to over 7,000 members and serves as a place for readers to ask questions about finance, blogging, travel, and business.
• I started a new interview series featuring extraordinary people doing interesting things. The first interview highlighted someone who retired at 28 with a net worth over $2.25 million.
• I released a free “How To Start A Blog” course via email that has attracted around 30,000 signups, and followed it with a free Master Your Money email course. A third free course is in development.

Popular posts on Making Sense of Cents last month:

• Why would you make $100,000+ a month and live in an RV?
• Ask Me Anything
• How This Couple Does Van Life with A Baby (and a dog!)
• Know Your Rights When Dealing With Debt Collectors
• 5 Unhealthy Habits That May Be Hurting Your Health And Costing You Money
• 10 Budget Recipes and Cheap Easy Meals You Should Try
• Here’s What I Learned From Working For Millionaires
• Could Not Having A Budget Destroy Your Finances?

Featured Question: How can a blogger make more money around the holidays?

I answer one reader question each month. Leave a comment if you’d like your question featured.

My top recommendation for holiday revenue is publishing gift guides. I also offer a guide called How To Master Gift Guides that explains how to plan, structure, and promote gift guides to maximize earnings. Key tactics include:

• Publishing well-planned holiday gift guides that solve readers’ shopping questions.
• Sharing sales, discounts, and coupon codes to create urgency and higher conversion.
• Promoting affiliate offers on social media for additional reach.
• Including affiliate recommendations in your newsletter (when permitted by partners).

The holiday season is prime time for affiliate marketing. November and December are typically the biggest shopping months, and online sales continue to grow—making the season especially valuable for bloggers and affiliates.

My plans for the blog and business

Defined goals help drive a successful business. Current objectives include:

• Earn $1,500,000 from the business in 2017. I increased the target to focus on passive income while maintaining a better work-life balance.
• Maintain a better work-life balance. This remains a primary focus.
• Be about three months ahead on blog content. I’m currently around one month ahead and want to build a larger content buffer.
• Grow the site toward 1,000,000 monthly pageviews. I don’t expect to hit this by year-end, but it’s a long-term goal.
• Do more live interviews—podcasts and webinars. Travel and inconsistent internet make this challenging, but I plan to prioritize appearances when possible.
• Create one more paid product. Another product would further diversify income.
• Promote the blog and business more effectively. I’m focusing on Facebook and other channels to boost traffic and conversions.
• Continue learning and improving. I’m always open to new courses and tools that help grow the business.

Affiliate income results

In October 2017 I earned $48,126.30 in affiliate income. Much of this was passive, generated from older content with minimal hands-on time for the month. Affiliate marketing remains a strong focus because of its passive potential and compatibility with a travel lifestyle.

I plan to create more affiliate-focused articles—perhaps one per month—to review tools and services that readers ask about. Affiliate marketing isn’t dependent on huge pageviews; new bloggers can succeed by using the right strategies, many of which I teach in my Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course.

The course launched in July 2016 and has already helped thousands of students. It includes modules, lessons, worksheets, bonuses, and an exclusive Facebook group, covering topics such as choosing the right products, increasing conversion rates, and ethical promotion strategies.