11 Unbelievable Blogger Income Reports and How They Did It

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Have you ever seen a blogging income report and thought “There’s no way?” I’m right there with you. I thought exactly the same thing. Believe it or not, it’s true! I keep hearing that you can’t make money blogging these days. Well, I’m here to tell you that you can!

In today’s blog post, I’m going to take a look at 11 incredible income reports from bloggers and tell you exactly how they did it. This is not to make you feel bad about your blog making nothing! This is to inspire you and give you ideas on how you can replicate their success.

*This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission. For more information, click here.

First, I want to clarify a few things. All of the income reports below are gross income. That means that expenses and taxes have not been deducted. I’m not going to cover expenses, but many of the bloggers below have included those details in their reports if you would like to view them. To view and income report click on the date of the report.

The purpose of this post is to show you exactly how these bloggers made money. You may be surprised by some of their income sources, but they are all something most bloggers can try out for themselves. My goal here is to help you find ways to make money blogging using real-life examples.

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Income Report: $28,785

Blog: Breaking the One Percent

Month and Year: August 2018

At the point of this income report, Ben Huber of Breaking the One Percent writes that the blog is 42 months old and that he only really understood what he was doing for the past 18 months. I mention this because if you are in month 2 or 12 of your blog, you won’t be likely to be earning this much money and that is perfectly normal.

However, Ben points out that they have finally figured out what works for them and he reports the following income for the month:

Affiliate Marketing: $27,836
Ads: $638
Course sales: $311 (net profit)
Store sales: $2

He also makes it a point to say that they used multiple affiliate networks and multiple affiliates within those networks. Although he doesn’t provide the exact breakdowns of affiliate sales, he does link to this post that tells you which affiliate programs he uses.

It appears that ads and affiliate marketing currently make up the majority of their income. However, they are earning some money from some digital products.

The big takeaway: Ben used multiple affiliate networks and affiliate programs to make up the bulk of his income. In addition, he seems to be trying to add digital products to the mix. That means that he is attempting to create multiple streams of income. This will make his income more reliable in the future.

Income Report: $41,700

Blog: Just a Girl and Her Blog

Month and Year: December 2016

I have to say that I love Abby Lawson! She (and her hubby Donnie) offer loads of free and paid resources to help bloggers succeed. When you are getting started, that means the world to a blogger.

I chose this blog report because it is her most recent report. She has since stopped publishing these reports, but I wish she would do an update to show where she is now, nearly 2 years down the line.

At the time of this blog report, her blog had been active for 4 years! Like Ben in the previous income report, her blog isn’t brand new. However, can you think of many other small businesses that have been around 4 years and have this much monthly income? I can think of very, very few.

Abby and Donnie break down their income into only two categories; digital products and affiliate income. They go into much further detail in the income report, which you can view using the link above.

This is the gist of how they earn their income:

Digital Products: $14,193
Affiliate Income: $27,507

The big takeaway: Abby and Donnie are about a year ahead of Ben at this point and are seeing more income for their own products. You will also notice that their income also includes multiple streams (all of which are doing well). With an income breakdown like this, you have much more financial security and stability.

Income Report: $95,197.34

Blog: Pinch of Yum

Month and Year: November 2016

I really wanted to include Pinch of Yum in this blog post for a few reasons. The first is that it’s a niche blog. Pinch of Yum is a food blog that combines the resources to start your own food blog with the love of food. The other is because this is a business 7 years in the making.

So far, on this list, you will notice that none of these blogs are overnight success stories. Lindsay and Bjork are no exception. They are another husband/wife team that has learned how to make money with their blog.

Unfortunately, this blog income report wasn’t grouped together into income types. That meant that I had to do this myself. For that reason, I have listed all of the sources of income (just in case I made a mistake). I recognized some of the affiliate programs, but there are others that I have no clue about and just had to make my best guess on.

Affiliate Income: $69,060.23 Includes: AdThrive: $52,313.13, Bluehost: $5,175, Amazon Associates $4,753.49, Swoop $3,153.66, AdThrive Video $2,966.49, sovrn $369.43, Genesis Theme $139.85, Elegant Themes $124.00, ActiveCampaign $50.78, and AWeber $14.40
Sponsored Content: $22,400 (Not specified)
Digital Products: $2,456.80 – Includes: Tasty Food Photography: $2,296.80 and How to Monetize Your Food Blog ebook: $160
Ads: $1280.31 – Gourmet Ads: $1,280.31

The Big Takeaways: This is another blog making the majority of their income from affiliate marketing and multiple streams. Unless you already have an established blog, you won’t qualify for premium affiliate networks like AdThrive yet, but these are things you should be thinking about for the future.

Sponsored content was something that has not been listed in the post yet, so I wanted to be certain to show that you can earn a significant income just from writing sponsored blog posts. How cool is that?

$109,878.70

Blog: Believe in a Budget

Month and Year: April 2018

This post was written in April of this year by Kristen Larsen. At the time of the post, Kristen had been running this blog for 3 years and 3 months. She even lists her income reports to show that this is not a normal month, but the result of a lot of hard work on her part.

This is a great blog post because it includes a major product launch. This is something I wanted more of you to see. Just because an income report only has $500 from digital products, it does not mean that digital products are not a major income source.

In February, Kristen reports $21,285 in income and in January she reported $41,502. This is an amazing income report, but it’s not an every month type of report.

This is Kristen’s breakdown for the month:

Digital Products: $100,282
Affiliate Income: $8,638.86
Ads: $957.84

The big takeaways: She makes a substantial amount from affiliate income, but check out her digital product sales! She is careful to point out that this was a lot of overtime and hard work and that it was very rewarding. Launches are typically more lucrative months and you have to balance that income out over the course of the year.

Income Report: $139,233

Blog: Making Sense of Cents

Month and Year: January 2017

At the time of this income report, Michelle had left her day job as a financial analyst 4 years prior to work on her blog full time. Making Sense of Cents is another niche blog, this one focusing on personal finance. I will note that she had been blogging well before leaving her full-time job, so we’re looking at a blog that is likely over 5 years old at the time of this income report.

What I like most about this report is that she lists what she was doing on the marketing side of her blog to increase traffic and opportunities. Around this month, she had a featured piece on Forbes and was working on her email marketing skills and her Facebook following.

In addition, to diversify her income, she created her first course. The product launch paired with the Forbes article and peak season for bloggers meant that she had a very successful month.

Her income breakdown is as follows:

Affiliate income: $69,878.11
Course: $49,078
Sponsorships and Ads: $17,000
Display Ads: $3,277

The big takeaways: Michelle’s income is spread out, which gives her significant income stability. To be honest, I’m surprised that she waited 5+ years to create her own products. She clearly had the audience long before then. This move was well overdue and appears to have been a good one.

Income Report: $162,051.86

Blogs: Create and Go and Avocadu

Month and Year: July 2018

Alex and Lauren started Avacadu, then Create and Go after their first blog failed. They started Avocadu in September of 2015, so they have been blogging successfully just shy of 3 years at the time of this report.

They have seen success in a short period of time, but it took failure to get to this point. Succeeding after failure is definitely something I wanted you to see. If your blog is struggling, that’s okay. You can still find success as a blogger. It just takes time and on-the-job experience.

Surprisingly, Alex and Lauren only have 2 types of income. However, there is more than one source in a single category. Considering both of their blogs are relatively young, this isn’t a huge surprise.

In this income report, Alex breaks down their income as follows:

Affiliate Marketing: $52,798.41
Ebooks and Courses: $104,510.90

The big takeaways: Despite this being such a young blog, their ebooks and course sales are phenomenal! The benefit of selling your own products is that they are targeted to your audience and the bulk of the sales go to you. It also builds your audience and will increase your sales over time.

Income Report: $199,842

Blog: Entrepreneurs on Fire

Month and Year: August 2018

Kate and John are yet another power blogging couple that has turned a blog into their joint business venture. I didn’t plan on sharing so many blogging couples, it just kind of happened that way. Maybe this means that having a supportive partner greatly increases your chances of success? I can see how that would improve your chances of success.

John started Entrepreneurs on Fire in 2012, so this is definitely an established blog. Unlike any of the others features this blog post so far, he and Kate sell physical products (journals).

It’s interesting to see how much money John and Kate have earned from journal sales. I don’t think this would work for a blog that wasn’t already established. However, it may be something for bloggers to consider in the future.

Here is their income breakdown:

Product/Service Income: $160,400
Affiliate Income: $39,442

The big takeaways: Once again original products are the largest source of income for this blog. You will find that this is often the case with higher earning blogs. However, they still earn a substantial income from affiliate sales.

Income Report: $208,558.17

Blog: It’s a Lovely Life

Month and Year: March 2018

It’s a Lovely life is managed by Heather and Pete, another family of bloggers. Heather has been blogging for the better part of a decade and Pete left the real estate game to join her last year. They spend a lot of time traveling with their family for their blog and seem to really enjoy the freedom it creates.

Something unique about this income report is that Pete goes into quite a bit of detail where expenses are concerned. He mentions that paid ads on Facebook and social media are what increased their income for this month and that they were planning to continue placing Facebook ads.

I realize that new bloggers may not have ads in their budget, but if you are launching a course or ebook, it may be worth considering in order to boost your sales.

They report their income for this month as follows:

Affiliate Income: $106,123.41
Courses: 102,434.76

The big takeaways: Most of these income reports include an expense report. However, Pete goes into much more detail about how the expenses influenced their income. This is very useful for bloggers hoping to take their sales to the next level. Here you can see what has been effective for It’s a Lovely Life, modify it, and apply it to your business. This is what income reports are all about.

Income Report: $213,212.64

Blog: Smart Passive Income

Month and Year: November 2017

Smart Passive Income blogger, Pat Flynn gives you a behind-the-scenes view of a successful month. He tells us immediately that much of the work for the blog and podcast was done ahead of time to automate it. This allowed him to spend the month of November doing a few talks, so many that he lost his voice.

In the previous income report for It’s a Lovely Life, Pete mentioned that they were increasing their use of video via social media and the blog. Pat mentions doing the same thing. In fact, he states that he plans on improving his YouTube channel and even reveals his game plan to do that. I found this pretty awesome.

Video is only going to continue to grow for the foreseeable future, so it is great to see how bloggers are using it to boost their income and create brand recognition.

With the business end of the post out of the way, he reveals his income, expenses, and the breakdown of each. I highly recommend you visit this income report by clicking on the date of the report above. His income breakdown is highly detailed and very beneficial for bloggers.

His income is reported as follows:

Affiliate Income: $61,689.56
Book Sales: $2,991.41
Course Sales: $120,362
Niche Sites: $4,010.62
Podcast Sponsorships: $11,789
Software and Apps: $12,370.05

The Big Takeaways: Pat’s income is incredibly diverse. Since he blogs about passive income and finance, I would expect no less. The above list is categorized, believe it or not. I counted 27 income sources in his report and it appeared that there were nearly as many expenses.

This means that not only is he earning an incredible income, he has spread it out over multiple income streams. That will make his income more dependable and secure over time.

Income Report: $283,680

Blog: Melyssa Griffin

Month and Year: December 2016

I have been following Melyssa for some time now. She is a great role model for bloggers and small business owners alike. I don’t think she’s doing income reports anymore, so I chose to use the most recent one that I could find on her blog for this post.

Yup, Melissa broke the quarter-million dollar mark in this month. How awesome is that? This was also less than two years ago. This just goes to show you that you still can earn an exceptional living by blogging.

Something I like about Melyssa’s income report is that she tells you what she did differently to achieve these results. There were three things that caught my attention.

The first is that she offered a tiered option for her course so that it was more budget friendly for some audience members. Second, she got more testimonials and also used video testimonials to boost sales. Finally, she spent more money on Facebook ads and received a 400% return on her investment.

Her income for the month is reported as follows:

Course Sales: $258,108
Affiliate Income: $25,572

The big takeaways: Melyssa is investing in her business and it’s paying off. I noticed in her expenses that she has her own salary taken out. This allows her to funnel more money into the business and still live comfortably. Her investments in advertising via Facebook also paid off big!

Also, note that her course sales are her greatest source of income. Many of the most profitable bloggers earn the most money from their own courses and products. Those products also grow your audience and strengthen it. This is something that will boost sales in the future.

Income Report: $474,653

Blog: Sarah Titus

Month and Year: July 2018

This income report is more of a digital store income report than one for a blog, but I think it’s important to see the value of owning your own store. Sarah has been an online seller for 20 years and has taken that knowledge into selling her own digital products.

This gives her more control, more income, and also give her freedom. She sells printables and stock photography in her Shopify store and has the freedom to work 20-30 hours per week and still earn an incredible income. She also has much less overhead for a digital store, something that helps tremendously.

The great thing about passive income for digital products is that you can continue to earn an income long after a product is launched. However, you also need to get traffic to your store and keep them coming back by updating your inventory and writing blog posts.

Printables store: $448,422
Stock Photo store: $26,231

The big takeaways: If you think that printables can’t be a substantial business, you are wrong. Selling printable bundles and binders to help other people manage and grow their business is how Sarah is earning a substantial income from her blog.

The blog is part of her sales funnel and helps her drive traffic to her shop. It’s a system that works on auto-pilot and gives her the freedom to live her life the way she chooses.

Use These Income Reports to Increase Your Income

These income reports prove that you can still earn a full time, lucrative income with a blog. In fact, things have never been easier for bloggers. This is the age of the influencer, which has created even more opportunities to turn a profit while writing about what you love. Take advantage of that and apply the new skills you have learned.

Which of these was your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

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