March Blog Income Report and a Peek inside the Slack Community at Billionaire Blog Club

If you’re here, I imagine you are either a blogger, or nosy about what kind of money a blogger can make.  I welcome both of you, the blogger and the nosy person.  I’m super nosy and love to read about how much money bloggers make, so consider this a no judgment zone.

***Update 5/1/2018 The links below are no longer affiliate links.  I love Billionaire Blog Club so much, I got them to hire me!  I’m the Community Manager for BBC, but everything you’ll read below holds true, 100%.  I couldn’t be prouder to be a member of the BBC Team.***

Nosy is just another way of saying curious and curiosity is probably one of the greatest traits a human can have, right?  Without curiosity would we have electricity or coffee or iphones or any other awesome thing?  Imagine the curiosity it took for someone to take a little brown bean, smash it to bits and then pour hot water over it til it tasted delicious and gave them a rush of all that is good in the world?  We’re useless without curiosity.  And coffee.  I’ve always found curiosity is fueld best by caffeine.

That’s why I’m an open book on all things blogging and blogging tips.  Actually, on almost all things, but for this post, we’re talking blogging.  If there’s something you’re wondering at the end of this, please send me a comment.  I didn’t leave something out because I’m holding anything back.

I have two objectives with this post.  I want to tell you about what I earned and I how I earned it in the month of March.  And I want to tell you about some of my experiences in the best blogging community there is, Billionaire Blog Club.

Let’s start with the money, shall we?

March Blog Income Report

As a reference, here are my Google Analytics numbers for March.  51k pageviews.  6k less than February :-(.  But, the good news is, I made more money this month than I did the month before.

You’re probably wondering why pageviews are lower.  I am, too.  If you’ve been here before, you know that I had over 100k pageviews in January, then 57k in February and now 51k in March.  Seems like a scary drop, doesn’t it?

But, I’m still ahead of where I was at the end of last year, so I’m not stressing about it.  There are a million conspiracy theories floating around about recent drops in traffic from Pinterest, but I’m not feeding into it.  Pageviews go up and pageviews go down. The only thing I can control is creating good content and promoting it to the people that want to see it, so that’s where I’m focusing my energy.

Side note, one of the best ways to have more control in your business is to look at all of the different types of digital products and then make one that might work for your audience. I’ll get to that at some point.

Ok, now the money.  As always, this is money earned in March, not paid out in March.

March Income:

Mediavine Ads:  $679.84 (-49.63 compared to February)

Amazon Affiliate Sales:  $126.24 (+66.89 compared to February!  Doubled it up!)

Other Affiliate Sales: 

  1. Keto Dash – $31.02 (+$31.02)
  2. Share A Sale – $6.34 (+6.34)
  3. Skimlinks – $8.66 (+8.66)

Total: $851.77 

Can you tell I put some focus on affiliate sales in March?  I’m super proud that I made some sales, but there is SO much more opportunity here.

I can’t and won’t do an income report where I don’t talk about Billionaire Blog Club.  It’s the only reason there is any income to report and if you’re here to learn about blogging, then the only place to do that is Billionaire Blog Club. Hands down.  And, yes, I did Elite Blog Academy.  And didn’t get anywhere with it.

If you’re new here and you don’t know what BBC is, it’s a community of bloggers run by Paul Scrivens.  Also, it’s all of the courses you’ll ever need on Pinterest, SEO, Content creation and e-mail marketing and whatever else you’re looking for.  It’s constantly being updated with new content (it was just upgraded 4/06/18 and this is the third update since I joined last August).

But, the best part of BBC is most definitely the community.  It’s run by Scrivs and he’s there all the time to answer questions, but it’s also regular old bloggers helping other regular old bloggers.  I’ve been around now for a while and I have basically set up an apartment in Slack, so I tend to chime in a lot (mostly on the super newbie questions, because that’s my specialty.  And I also know my limits).  I thought it would be fun and interesting to show you some of the actual questions that I’ve helped with in Slack.

My Favorite Billionaire Blog Club Slack Questions

(This first question is more of a summary than a verbatim question I’ve helped with in Slack. It comes up ALL THE TIME)

1. I can’t launch my blog until I have twenty posts, 3 unique opt-ins, a kick ass about page, disclosures and 14 other things that I learned about on Pinterest.  Right?  (this question comes courtesy of Laura from Little Yellow Wheel Barrow and Carrie from Side Hustle Income and then a long list of perfectionists who followed that needed a little bit of a shove to get their blog launched).

This is kind of my favorite question.  And, actually, it’s not really a question.  It’s more an assumption that everyone comes into blogging with.  I started blogging a long, long time ago (relatively) and I had no resources, no single idea of what I was doing, so I just literally wrote a post and hit publish and I was launched.

And, I kind of think it’s the best way to do it.  I mean looking back there are definitely some things I would have done differently.  Like, I would have taken a course like BBC so that I had a clue what I was doing, but really, to launch you need a domain name, hosting, a simple theme and a few (or even just one!) good posts and some pins.  Nothing has to be perfect.  Do you know why?

Because almost no one is going to come to your blog for a while.  And your blog is always evolving.  You are going to change it 1000 times.  You are eventually going to get some people to visit your blog and they are going to love things that you never imagined they would and they might pay no attention to the things you thought they would love.  So killing yourself to have 20 posts and 5 different opt ins for an audience that you don’t know yet, is counter-productive.

Start small.  See what resonates with your people and then expand from there.

And don’t waste a day not being launched.  The best day to launch is today.  Besides the benefit of getting the feedback of a real live audience, there is something truly magical about hitting publish on your first post.  It’s nothing like giving birth, I’m not saying that, but I’m saying, one day you were a regular person who wrote random words on the computer and then you hit publish and suddenly you’re a blogger.  It’s a pretty amazing feeling.

2. Hi Marybeth! Have you ever pinned a pin such as “How To Start a DIY Decor Blog” to your decor group boards? I’m wondering if it’s common practice in your niches. I’ve come across those pins a few times on some boards. Group board owners don’t always specify whether that’s allowed. I usually just see “please don’t post affiliate links” or “decor-related pins only”. Thank you! – from Natalie of NatalieLinda.com 

Hey Natalie! My thoughts on this are, it’s tough to say if the group boards would be ok with it or not. Some group board owners seem to be more involved than others and may or may not like that type of pin. But, more importantly, I think, for you, is that I don’t think that Pinterest would see the relevance in a how to blog pin in a DIY Decor board. I would suggest applying to group boards that are for blogging and pinning them there. I have a few blogging related group boards in my account, they aren’t great boards, but it would be a place to start. Also, check out the group board list on bbc for blogging or side hustle type boards!

(OK, this next one needs a little background.  This is an excerpt from a conversation I had with a fellow former English major about how books and blogs relate)

3.  I have noticed that all the books on a given subject, say color theory for interior design, or gardening for beginners, all cover the same material. I usually check out several similar books at a time so I can survey them all, and then I pick one to read and return the others to the library. Because one of those books will speak to me in a way the others don’t, even though they cover the same material mostly. – from Sarah from Delicious Backyard

Yes, I agree, most definitely. I think the difference with books and blogs though, is that most people spend less than three minutes with the blog. They are looking for a quick answer and they are in and out. HOWEVER, if they get to your blog and they think you’re funny or smart or overall awesome, then they might stick around and read 35 posts in one sitting and sign up for your mailing list. Whereas a book, the writing style is something the reader is committing to for the long haul. If you’re going to read that WHOLE book you want to make sure it’s one you’ll like. So while you might return some of those library books without reading them, you still will read through a few different blog posts because you’re not making a big commitment. It’s a few minutes. So the blogger gets a pageview which is great, but not necessarily a “reader” who will return and fall in love, lol.  To get them to fall in love and/or sign up for your mailing list, you have to help them and I think you have to say something that resonates with them in a way that makes them want to read more.

So that’s a little taste of some of what happens in Slack!  It’s also lots of questions about more technical stuff like Board Booster and plug ins and other things that I still don’t fully understand, but we’ve got other resident experts, including Scrivs, who can answer those!

If you want to join Billionaire Blog Club, it is open right now through 4/13/2018.

If you want to learn more about blogging, check out these posts:

11 Questions with Billionaire Blog Club Founder, Paul Scrivens

Blog Income Report – Was Your February as Bad as Mine?

Blog Income Report: I Earned $575 in my 57th Month of Blogging

If You Liked It Then You Shoulda Put A Pin In It!

Leave a Comment