I started The Keele Deal 6 years ago as a fun hobby with the hope of being able to make money on my mom blog someday.
The first few years of blogging I had no idea what I was doing. Sometimes I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing but luckily I have learned a lot since I first started out.
Since you’re reading this post I’m going to assume that either you have a blog or have some interest in blogging.
If you’ve spent even a little bit of time looking around at income reports and how to monetize a blog, then you know that it’s possible to make a lot of money with a blog.
Over the years seeing that other bloggers were making money from there blogs is one of the things that encouraged me.
But as time went on I started to get frustrated with most of these income reports and posts. Most of the bloggers writing about how they made “X” amount of money were making money selling to those trying to start a blog.
While I know there is a demand for information on how to start a blog, I got frustrated with these bloggers making it seem so easy to start a blog and make money. When the only way they made money was by telling others to start a blog.
I wanted to see an income report from someone who had a different audience and actually blogged about something other than blogging.
So I decided once I actually started making money on my blog I would do something to share and encourage others. I want people to know there really is an opportunity out there to make money even if you don’t blog about blogging.
In this post, I’m going to share some of the things I have learned from my years of blogging as well as my income reports. But first I’ll share a little bit about how I started making money on my blog.
Making Money on My Mom Blog
At first I had no idea how to monetize my blog and didn’t make any money.
after a couple of years I learned about different ways to monitoze and started making a little bit of money but not enough to cover the cost of the blog.
After 3 years of blogging I finally got to the point that I was making enough money through affiliate sells and ad income to pay for my blogging expenses.
The next year (year 4) I finally made a little bit more than my expenses and then last year, my fifth year blogging I finally made enough to actually get excited about monetizing the blog (still nothing life-changing but it’s exciting.)
What made the big difference for me in my monetizing of this blog? Creating my own products and getting accepted into Mediavine. I’ll share more about both of these later.
This year is my sixth full year of blogging and I’m excited to see how The Keele Deal grows and how much more I’m able to monitize.
As a fun way to encourage and motivate myself and others, I’m going to be sharing a monthly income report as well as some of my goals for this year.
But first, how do I monetizing my blog?
Different Ways to Monetize Your Blog
There are several different ways to make money on a blog. Some bloggers even include freelance work as income generated from their blog.
Today I want to share 4 different ways to monetize your blog without doing freelance work.
I have used each of these monetization options to some extent. Some of these are definitely better and more passive than others.
Ads
One of the first ways I started monitisinf this blog is by showing display ads.
I was part of Google Adsense until last spring when I was finally able to get into Mediavine.
Once getting accepted to mediavine my ad income really increased from what I was making with Adsense.
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are a way to make money recommending other peoples products. I am part of several different affiliate programs.
The affiliate program I currently make the most money from each month is Amazon. Which when I look at how little I make (a few cents usually) on each sale it makes me want to really start looking into some other programs.
Sponsored Posts
Sponsored posts are where a company pays you to write about their product or service in exchange for a fee.
There are several influence programs where you can apply for sponsored posts campaigns. There is a lot of competition for these types of campaigns so they can be hard to get.
You can also send pitches to companies you want to work with and set up your own sponsored posts.
I do sponsored posts every once in a while but they aren’t one of my main income streams right now.
Selling Products
Creating and selling either digital or physical products is another way to monitize your blog.
I have several digital products I sell and I’m continually trying to come up with new product ideas.
Selling my own products is typically where I make the most money each month. Some months this income is about the same as the income I get from ads and other items it’s much higher or lower. It just depends on the month.
Now that you have an idea of the ways I make money on my blog let’s talk income reports
Mom Blog Income Report
I’m doing something totally different and outside my comfort zone this year. I’m going to be sharing a monthly income report each month this year with y’all.
My hope in sharing this is to show you that you can make money from your mom blog even if it’s not a ton. So keep going you got this!
A few things to note about my income reports
#1 I will only be sharing my income from Mediavine. (Remember this is only 1 of the income streams I have for this blog)
#2 The income amount I share is the income before I take out expenses or pay taxes.
#3 Each blog will make a different amount of money with ads even if they have similar topics and traffic.
Monthly Income Reports
Ok now let’s get into the income reports. Click the month below to see my income report and goals for that month.
In each income report post I will be sharing my goals for the next month, reviewing my goals for the past month and sharing my Mediavine income.
My plan is to only share these income reports for my first full year in Mediavine, which is this year 2021.