Side Hustles

Personal Finance Blog Income Report Roundup: August 2018

Having come across several personal finance blogger income reports since starting this site, a few months ago I launched a new feature compiling some of these reports and adding what lessons I took away from them. Aptly titled my Personal Finance Blogging Income Report Roundup, this time around I’ll be looking at reports published for August 2018 — including some new blogs I’ve discovered since my last installment. In each case, I’ve broken down their income into four basic categories: affiliate income, sponsorships, courses and/or products, and site ad revenue.

One thing to note is that I’ve only compiled the data for each blogger’s gross income despite some sites also including information on their site expenses and net income. You should visit each site (linked below) if you’re interested in digging deeper. As another note, I’d love to add more sites to this roundup, so please e-mail me at Kyle@moneyat30.com or tweet me @Moneyat30 is you’d like to be included.

With that, here’s a quick look at how these blogs’ incomes break down as well as a few things I’m personally taking away from their August 2018 reports.

Personal Finance Blog Income Report Roundup (in $)

*The Centsible Home reports combined income for two sites; I’ve broken out what I believe to be TCH-related income.

**Money@30 income = Affiliate income: $10, Total: $18.53

Sources:

Making Sense of Cents | Breaking the One Percent | Money Done Right | The Centsible Home

Blogging Income Report Roundup Takeaways

Seriously, Pinterest

The last time I did my roundup, I lamented my failure to get a true handle on Pinterest just yet. Well, this month brought a new reminder of the opportunity I was missing, courtesy of Gretchen and The Centsible Home. Looking at the traffic report she included with her income post, Pinterest appears to be far and away her greatest referral source, making up 77% of site traffic according to Google Analytics. Meanwhile only about 12% comes from organic search, which has been my greatest source to date.

Luckily for me, today is the first day of FinCon 2018 and I plan on attending a workshop all about Pinterest, titled “Creating a Successful Pinterest Marketing Plan.” Needless to say, I’ll be taking copious notes during this presentation and returning home with a better idea of how to tackle this Pinterest beast once and for all.

Focus on Facebook Groups?

Speaking of social media, one of the networks I’d say I know well (but still kind of despise) is Facebook. Yet, while I know about managing a page for the most part, something I hadn’t really considered is running a Facebook Group. Mostly by happenstance, I’ve actually become a member of two Facebook Groups as of late and a plug for Breaking the One Percent’s group found in their income roundup has me starting to think I’m really missing the boat here.

The obvious appeal of starting a Facebook Group is to foster a community. As for the downside, well, let’s just say that not everyone in a given community may be as friendly as you’d hope and spammers can be ruthless. Despite those potential challenges, there seems to be a great opportunity in these groups — both for members and moderators. Once again, as luck would have it, I plan to attend another FinCon session on the topic of Facebook Groups that is sure to give me a better idea of what I could build and what I might be in for.

HARO really can be helpful

In his income report write up, Ben from Breaking the One Percent mentions something that I encounter every day but had somehow forgotten about nonetheless: HARO. If you’re not aware, HARO stands for “Help a Reporter Out.” Despite that one-sided title, the site can also be of great benefit to bloggers as well. That’s because those who end up getting quoted on other sites can not only get a little feather in their cap but can also enjoy a nice backlink and maybe even a boost in traffic.

I’ve actually been aware of HARO for a while and even ended up having one of my “pitches” accepted, going onto have a full interview with the writer in question. Unfortunately, while it felt great to be cited as some sort of expert and see my name in digital print (outside of my own site, of course), I was a little disappointed that the finished article didn’t include a link to my blog. Sure it mentioned it by name, but that’s not nearly as helpful.

Another hang-up I’ve had with HARO is the number of e-mails I get. Somehow it always seems that they arrive in my inbox as just as I’m slammed with work, leading me to either open and quickly close them or delete them altogether. Plus, it always feels like when I do bother looking them over, there’s nothing that really applies to me.

All that aside, Ben’s note was a great reminder that I really should be paying attention to HARO once again. Similarly, I’ve found that the FinCon Facebook page tends to also offer opportunities to be featured in a fellow writer’s piece. Hopefully, between these two outlets, I’ll be able get my name out there more and perhaps earn some new fans/followers as well.

Behind my income report

Not only was my August income still too minuscule to display on my chart but was also a step down from previous months. All $10 of my reportable income came from my old standby, Dosh, which equates to two referrals. As for the AdSense income that was present last time around, I made the mistake of reporting what I had from July 1 to date instead of stopping at August 1. Therefore, since that was only a couple of weeks ago, I’d be double dipping to note it again — and, in my defense, I’m still getting the hang of this whole income report thing!

Other than that, there’s not much else to say about my August income. I know I keep harping on it but I’m really betting on gaining some new skills and insight from FinCon this week and then utilizing that knowledge to further monetize this endeavor going forward. That said, I know that there’s no magic bullet or overnight fix that will suddenly start the money rolling in. Instead, I’m ready to work hard and make this little project into something larger.

Other Articles by Kyle Burbank