Just like last year I am doing another income report. Again I think transparency is important and I want you all to know that I do make money from blogging, though for the second year in a row that number is pretty darn small.

I know some of you have seen Pinch of Yum, Smart Passive Income, and a slew of other website posting their monthly income reports, and this one is going to be laid out pretty similarly to those, albeit a little shorter, and less technical, because lets be honest, I don’t have much to report.

Income:

Contributor Work: $227.66

Sponsored Posts: $65.99

Dealspotr.com: $48.97

Affiliate Sales: $9.50

My Recipe Magic: $7.50

*unfortunately My Recipe Magic stopped paying me money I have been owed since June and refuses to provide an explanation, so I have discontinued working with them. I would not recommend them to anyone as their site is riddled with problems, and they have no customer service to speak of.

TOTAL INCOME: $359.62

Expenses:

Switch to WordPress: $225.00

Domain/Hosting Fees: $65.17

Learning tools: $34.95

Advertising: $7.00

TOTAL EXPENSES: $332.12

Net Income: $27.50

 

Notes on this report:

This year I made money, that’s a huge increase over last year’s -$29.59, but it’s also not allowing me to pay my bills.

This year I chose to make the switch to wordpress from blogger, which in tern meant my hosting & domain fees have gone way up, and will continue to be at their current rate for the foreseeable future. You can read more about my domain and hosting set up here. For the actual transfer I used High Note Designs because sometimes it’s worth going with the professional. In this case it definitely was and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

The income I made from sponsored posts was manly through product reviews, so while I still have to count them at their dollar value as income “you cannot eat product”, so keep in mind more than half of those dollars are not actual dollars at all.

I lumped all of my affiliate sales into one category because I am a part of several affiliate programs and have only made minimal amounts at each. It didn’t seem useful to list all of those dollars separately. The affiliate programs that I am a part of are AvantLink, Shareasale.com, Amazon and Pinch of Yum. Also there is quite a lot of money sitting in a number of these affiliate accounts, but since they only pay out at larger dollar values I cannot count them as income. I will count them as income once they are actually paid into my accounts.

In 2016 I hope that I can improve on these numbers and increase my income. Any income that I do make will go right back into the blog. I am excited that I might finally be able to spring for new photography equipment or a blogging class this year. This blog is my hobby and it’s a hobby that I am passionate about and I want to learn more. Making money here allows me to reinvest it in the blog, and learning tools so that I can then supply you guys better content that is free to you.

I also want you to know that I appreciate each and every one of you that stopped by my little corner of the internet, even for a second. Every single view, comment, question, and share counts.