Blog Income Report December 2019

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Blog Income Report December 2019 : Find out how I made $2583.00 through my blog with various strategies.

Soooo . . . Remember that time last month when I said I was going to be a full-time blogger? Well, I took it back, sort of. After I posted my last income report a wave of emotion and deep thought came over me in a really harsh way.

It caused me to think a lot about what I really wanted out of this whole arena and how I was going to get it. Turns out that going all the way is probably not the best for me, but I will explain below!

All that aside, I am happy with my December income even though it is half of what I made in November which was to be expected!

Also, my grand total for blogging in 2019: $22,843.26 …. THIS IS AMAZING!!!

Past Blog Income Reports

Check out: Blog Income Report | February & March 2018 | $18.34
Check out: Blog Income Report | April 2018 | $203.17
Check out: Blog Income Report | May 2018 | $50.93
Check out: Blog Income Report | June 2018 | $213.50
Check out: Blog Income Report | July 2018 | $213.50
Check out: Blog Income Report | August 2018 | $174.52
Check out: Blog Income Report | September 2018 | $177.52
Check out: Blog Income Report | October 2018 | $563.78
Check out: Blog Income Report | November 2018 | $345.42
Check out: Blog Income Report | December 2018 | $919.76
Check out: Blog Income Report | January 2019 | $1334.94
Check out: Blog Income Report | February 2019 | $1156.02
Check out: Blog Income Report | March 2019 | $1120.24
Check out: Blog Income Report | April 2019 | $1231.17
Check out: Blog Income Report | May 2019 | $1465.15
Check out: Blog Income Report | June 2019 | $1898.35
Check out: Blog Income Report | July 2019 | $1754.04
Check out: Blog Income Report | August 2019 | $1729.33
Check out: Blog Income Report | September 2019 | $1626.35
Check out: Blog Income Report | October 2019 | $1880.46
Check out: Blog Income Report | November 2019 | $5064.21

Here are some noteworthy things that happened in December:

I went back on my word: As I explained above, I decided NOT to be a full-time blogger. After posting my income report I felt icky and gross for some reason. It wasn’t received well by my colleagues and it wasn’t received well by me. I had to think long and hard about why I felt this way and what was going on. Truth is, a couple months before I announced it, I was already technically blogging full time except full-time for me is when my babysitter is here and when I have pockets of time when James is sleeping. This adds up to maybe 15 hours a week. I had SO MUCH I wanted to get done in such a little amount of time and it just wasn’t happening. While I know my to-do list is never done, the pressure of blogging was worse than any pressure I felt with it ever and there are a few reasons for this.
- I knew I would be chasing my next dollar constantly. As you can see in the varying income amounts above, money making in blogging is fickle and cyclical. There is no way I can count on a solid amount each month and even if I can, it’s not an amount that is high enough to pay for all of my expenses at home and with the business. Constantly worrying about how I was going to gain or even maintain that level of income was stressful and caused a lot of anxiety. To save my brain from all of that anxiety further in the line, I am planning to invest some of the money in gold IRAs, so that I have a backup for the downtimes. One of my friends suggested that I should be considering investing with Goldco, this review covers what you need to know. Let’s see how far I can go with it. Regardless, I will keep you all posted!
- I’d have to do things I just don’t want to do. To get those extra dollars, a lot of people get sponsored work etc. I know that some people love working with brands but honestly I hate it. I hate all the red tape and I hate that it’s a lot of work for a one time fee. Plus, I have seen some people I really respect take on partnerships with products and brands just for the money and it’s incredibly obvious. I just don’t want to go there. If my work speaks for itself and it comes to ME then great! I just don’t enjoy the idea of chasing down brands for work in that way.
- I’d have to change things I don’t want to change: After publishing that post, my time on IG felt so weird. For some reason I felt like I had applied for a job that I didn’t have the normal requisites for. I felt pressure to be on social all the time and with that comes the pressure to have a better life and better appliances, better food, more makeup etc. It feels like that becomes the path to success in that world and to a big extent it does! But for me, I just don’t want to feel like I need to match up to those lives and those friends that a full-time blogger in this space has. Truthfully, I kind of want to just be in my own space or my own lane and just go from there.

When it all comes down to it, I want to blog the way I want to blog and only blogging for a living takes me away from being myself in some aspects and I’m just not willing to do that. This is not to say I will never get to that place, but right now it’s not the time.

So what’s the plan?

It’s pretty simple. Blogging as a side-hustle was fun and challenging in a lighter way, so I plan to keep it one except it does hold a bit more weight in my income. My plan right now is to basically do exactly what I did all last year during my pregnancy. I’m going to take on a couple personal chef clients while keeping the blog active with 2-3 quality posts a week. I’ll have guaranteed income doing something I love and something I know will make me feel accomplished with my clients all while having this blog and community as a growing business while still being able to be me. It seems like a win win.

I’m hiring MORE help: Any money that doesn’t go towards my expenses will go towards investing in my corner of the internet. Last year, that money was used to save for maternity leave. And now, since I will spend less time on the blog because I have clients and mom life, it makes sense to make the money through chef work, and then use it to pay another person to do the things I don’t have time to do. DUH! right? I have a system and some great people that are going to help me with this and it makes things more exciting!
I’m getting a Pinterest Audit: Since I am a small blogger, any amount of traffic helps with income. The biggest sources of traffic are google then Pinterest for me. While I want to keep my traffic google centered, I know I could be doing a much better job at Pinterest. Truthfully, I’ve been winging it for this entire time and I KNOW a better strategy will help move things along there. I am spending a big chunk of money (to me) on an audit from a professional that will outline exactly what I need to change and do to have a smoother running account that will hopefully bring in more traffic for me.
No sponsored work this month. Like I said before, I am kind of just letting the sponsored work come to me instead of chasing after it. That said, everything kind of slowed down in this department during the holidays. I think that November is actually the biggest month for these types of things and it was for me too. Now that the holidays are over, I am getting a few emails here and there, but nothing worth working with just yet!
I took ANOTHER Instagram break: when I was figuring out what I needed to do about my current blog/job situation, I really just couldn’t be on Instagram. I really needed ANOTHER break from being on stories and consuming the content of others. I periodically do this which may hurt me in the long run and put me down the algorithm further, but my mental health is very important. EVERY TIME I take a break, I realize that being on it puts so much pressure on me that becomes normal after a while. When I am off the air waves, EVERYTHING FEELS LIKE ENOUGH. I have nothing to prove to anyone and life is amazing the way it is. This alone makes it so much harder figure out how to show up in that space without getting sucked in. I don’t really have the answer right now which is why I still haven’t been on, but I’m sure I will figure out what is best soon!
The unicorn season is over: in my last income report I talked about how I knew that my income and traffic wouldn’t be as high at all and that is true! Even while I write this in January, my traffic is amazing but my RPM was slashed in half for Q1 as all bloggers fear and have to deal with. This makes me think about my Q4 strategy for next year and how it’s a great idea to start working on it over the summer to maximize earning potential to fill in the gaps of the low months which start now. Again, it’s a fickle business!

Either way, I feel like I am in a much better head space going into 2020 with the blog. In fact, I feel like it will be even MORE successful than it was in 2019 because I will have a better strategy with posting and SEO, I have help, less pressure and most important, I don’t have time to spend on the things that truly don’t matter!