Welcome to my May online income report. Each month I share exactly how I earned money online so you can follow along, learn what worked, and track progress. Here’s the breakdown for May and some context about my business and plans.
If you’re new here and wondering why I publish monthly income reports, here’s the short version: these reports began as a record of my extra income from side hustles. After I left my full-time job as a financial analyst in October 2013, they evolved to reflect all the ways I make a living while running my blog full time.
I publish these reports for three main reasons:
- To inspire others. Before I discovered blogging and side hustles, I didn’t realize how feasible it was to earn meaningful extra income. Seeing others publish their results encouraged me to try and ultimately changed my life. I share my monthly results to show what is possible and to motivate people to improve their finances.
- To track and learn. Publishing these reports forces me to review performance, learn from mistakes, and identify areas that need improvement. They act like a journal and help me stay focused.
- To show that making money from home is achievable. There are many legitimate ways to earn from home, and I like to highlight real examples and methods that work.
I love being my own boss and running the blog full time. I wake up excited most days, and I enjoy the flexibility to work on projects I care about while traveling or pursuing hobbies.
How was my blog income in May?
I earned $69,085 online in May, before expenses.
May was another strong month for income and work-life balance. Pageviews dipped slightly, which is common in summer, but income remained healthy—reinforcing that blog revenue is not solely tied to traffic. I do expect both income and pageviews to soften a bit over the next couple of months because affiliate marketing and ad revenue often slow during summer when many people are offline or on vacation. Things typically pick back up by late August.
Over the summer I’ll focus on finishing my course and may take a short technology break in August to hike part of the Colorado Trail.
EDIT: My online course is live now! If you’re a blogger, consider my course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I share the exact strategies I use; affiliate income is a major, consistent part of my revenue and this course covers what has worked for me.
My business is growing, income trends are positive overall, and I have many new ideas for the rest of the year. I’m grateful for how things are going.
If you’re interested in starting a blog, I created a step-by-step tutorial showing how to start an affordable, self-hosted WordPress blog. Being self-hosted is essential if you plan to monetize and look professional—my income expanded noticeably after switching to self-hosted WordPress.
Breakdown of May 2016 income – $69,085.03:
- Affiliate income – $53,661.53 total:
- Bluehost – $41,730.00
- Survey companies – $8,275.00
- Ebates (estimate, tiered) – $1,000.00
- How to work from home selling on Amazon FBA – $475.13
- MOTIF Investing – $460.00
- Izea/SponsoredTweets – $229.50
- $5 Meal Plan – $221.30
- 30 Days Or Less To Freelance Writing Success – $148.50
- Building A Framework – $70.00
- Digit – $70.00
- Aweber – $65.10
- Strategies Worth Sharing – $56.00
- Mystery shopping – $30.00
- Miscellaneous affiliates – $831.00
- Sponsorships and advertising – $13,675
- Display advertising – $1,748.50
- Staff writing – $0
The totals above are for May before fees and expenses. Some fees and expenses (virtual assistants, technical support, newsletter costs, PayPal fees, etc.) sum to around $1,400. After expenses and fees, I made approximately $67,685. This figure does not include taxes; as a self-employed person I cover taxes (often over 30%), health insurance, and benefits typically provided by an employer.
For a full guide on blog monetization, see my resource The Ultimate Guide To Making Money Blogging.
Below are a few highlights from past monthly reports; I publish one every month and archive them on my income page.
- $672 extra in May (2012)
- $6,523 in January extra income (2013)
- $11,927 in October income – I finally left my job (2013)
- $12,640 in January income (2014)
- $23,758 in February income (2015)
- How I made $300,000 online in 2015
Comparisons and 2016 online income total:
- Total income in May 2016: $69,085
- Total income in April 2016: $71,761
- Difference: -$2,676
- Total in 2016: $307,431
Blog news.
Making Sense of Cents is doing well. Traffic dipped slightly for the typical summer slowdown; May saw around 450,000 pageviews. I expect similar traffic until around August when things usually pick back up.
Recent blog updates:
- I launched a free email course on how to start a blog. It’s aimed at people who haven’t taken the leap yet and over 1,600 people have signed up so far.
- I finished my affiliate income strategy course and it’s now live. If you want to learn how I earn consistent affiliate income, that course walks through my methods step by step.
- In April I migrated my email system to ConvertKit. I’ve heard great feedback from other bloggers and expect it to serve my business well.
Many readers ask how I stay connected while traveling in my RV. I use a Verizon MiFi device, which keeps me online reliably where free Wi‑Fi would be slow, unsafe, or unavailable.
Top new posts on Making Sense of Cents last month:
- Yes, You Can Reach Financial Freedom
- How To Start A Successful Freelance Writing Career
- 9 Odd and Interesting Ways To Make Extra Income
- Downsizing Your Home? Here’s How I Went From A 2,000 Square Foot House To An RV
- How I Became A Successful Dividend Growth Investor
- 27 Money And Life Lessons I’ve Learned
- 31 Birthday Freebies You Should Sign Up For
- Family Budget Meetings – Yes, You Need To Have Them
- 10 Ways To Drastically Cut Your Budget And Household Expenses
Featured Question: What should you do when a blog post goes viral?
When a post starts to go viral, that’s the beginning of opportunity—not the end. Here are nine practical steps to make the most of viral traffic:
- Reread the post. Proofread multiple times to catch typos, update facts, fix broken links, and improve clarity.
- Add monetization methods. Carefully insert relevant affiliate links, increase ad placements if appropriate, and avoid overwhelming new readers with too many offers.
- Link to related content. Add internal links to keep visitors exploring your site and discover more of your work.
- Convert visitors into subscribers. Add subscription boxes or pop-ups and offer a related freebie (PDF, checklist, or mini-ebook) to encourage sign-ups.
- Watermark images. Protect your visuals so others can’t republish them without credit.
- Make updates site-wide. Use the surge in traffic as a chance to refresh your About page and any posts you link to from the viral piece.
- Promote it further. Share the post across social channels and consider paid promotion to extend its reach.
- Check hosting capacity. Contact your host to ensure your plan can handle the spike in traffic—upgrading temporarily can be worth avoiding downtime.
- Have fun. Whether viral means thousands or millions of new visitors, enjoy the moment and learn from the experience.
Past featured questions have addressed topics like increasing affiliate income, the relationship between pageviews and earnings, how to sell a website, and whether new bloggers can still find success. I answer one reader question in each monthly report—feel free to leave a question in the comments.
My plans for the website and future income goals.
Goals keep me focused. Current priorities include:
- Promote more. I’m improving my promotion strategy, especially on Pinterest, which drove roughly 180,000 clicks in May. My target is to reach 500,000 or more Pinterest clicks by year‑end.
- Continue learning. I’m taking courses and reading resources to refine strategy and execution.
- Accept more interviews. I plan to take more interview opportunities after launching the course.
- Double my income. I aim to double 2015’s income, which will require averaging roughly $53,000 per month. It’s ambitious but achievable with focus.
- Diversify affiliate streams. I want a broader mix of affiliate partners and products to reduce dependence on a few sources.
- Create digital products. My affiliate marketing course is live and is the first of several digital offerings I plan to develop.
- Increase monthly pageviews to 1,000,000. It’s a measurable goal that will help guide growth efforts.
Staff writing.
I didn’t do any staff writing in May. I’ve been turning down or referring many staff writing requests so I can focus on building the affiliate course and improving the blog. I still enjoy occasional staff writing, but I’m prioritizing higher-leverage activities right now. Since shifting focus toward my own business, my income and work-life balance have improved noticeably.
Related articles include how to start a freelance writing career, tips for virtual assistants, and what a virtual assistant does.
Affiliate income.
Affiliate income remains a major component of my business—$53,661.53 in May. I value affiliate partnerships because, when done right, they create passive revenue streams that support travel and lifestyle flexibility. My affiliate strategy course explains how I approach affiliate marketing in detail.
How was May for you? Are you interested in earning income online?