This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you purchase from one of these links I will receive a commission. Please read my full privacy policy for more information.

I am so glad you are here! Did you stumble across this article because you are wondering how people quit their jobs to make money blogging? I wondered the same for many years until I decided it was time to figure it out and join them!

I've been wanting to quit my corporate career for a long time! Finally, I was able to quit my job and blog full-time. This income report shows you how to make money blogging. I made $1,135, and you can too. I am sharing my blog income report with you so that you can see how it's possible to be your own boss!

Blogging Background

In January 2016, I left my corporate job to work for a small company from home. I used the flexibility that I gained from transitioning away from the office environment to start turning this blog into a business. Here are my tips for how to do the same: I Quit My Corporate Job for Flexibility: 3 Tips for You.

I began writing my first eBook, Busy Moms Building: 12 Steps to Running Your Own Online Business for Busy Moms, in June 2016. I turned Redefining Mom into an LLC in preparation for my eBook launch on September 29, 2016.

By August 2016, I had grown my blog from under 10,000 page views to 30,000 in three months by creating a content strategy and being intentional with how I promoted my content on social media. The best part is that I grew significantly through the summer months when website traffic (especially for moms) is at the lowest for the year.

I quit my full-time job the first week of August 2016 to blog full-time!

Busy moms building shows you how to make money blogging in your first month

How I Quit My Job to Blog

I began to network with other bloggers in Facebook groups and attended an in-person mastermind in May. The mastermind was a turning point in transforming my blog into a business. Most bloggers do not make their money from one income stream. I learned a ton from the ladies in my mastermind group and began to implement many of the steps immediately when I got home. You can read about the steps I took to begin monetizing my blog here: Ultimate Beginners Guide to Blogging: How to Blog for Money.

Important Facts About My Income Reports

  1. I do my accounting on a cash basis. This means I only count revenue and expenses at the time the money comes into my bank account and leaves my bank account. All of my income reports will be done on a cash basis.
  2. Affiliate payments for items I promote are usually on a 60-90 day pay delay. This means that most of the affiliate income in this report was earned in previous months.
  3. I spent roughly six months building my blog while I was still working full-time. My primary focus was not on making an income during that time but rather building a foundation that would allow me to make money through multiple income streams later on.
  4. This income report will not take into account income I make through contracts that do not directly relate to blogging.

Why Do I Want to Share My Income Reports?

  1. This is my job now! I plan on using these reports to hold myself accountable.
  2. Three years ago, I was sitting in a cubicle in corporate America feeling trapped and anxious. I felt like I spent way too much time at work or traveling for work. I needed more time at home with my baby. My plan is to give you a look into my journey through sharing these income reports.
  3. It helps new bloggers or potential bloggers to know how people make money so they can see that it is realistic for them to do it too.

[clickToTweet tweet=”See how I made $1,135 in my first month since quitting my full-time job! #blogger” quote=”See how I made $1,135 in my first month since quitting my full-time job! #blogger”]

Redefining Mom Stats

I've been wanting to quit my corporate career for a long time! Finally, I was able to quit my job and blog full-time in August of this year. This income report shows you how I make money blogging. I am sharing my blog income report with you so that you can see how it's possible to be your own boss too!

August 2016 Income Report

August was my first month being self-employed. I worked about 20 hours a week in August because of family commitments. Payments from affiliate sales from earlier in the summer started coming in during the month. Unfortunately, I did not regularly post during the summer months because of a hectic travel schedule. Overall, I am very happy with the results for the amount of time I invested. I expect my income to significantly grow between now and the end of the year. Everything I have been putting into place should be coming to fruition soon!

Affiliate links are included below. This means I get a commission, at no additional cost to you, if you purchase products that I recommend. Everything I recommend below I personally use myself! 🙂

Income

Affiliate Sales

$30.00- Building a Framework eBook (check out my review: Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook Review)

$18.00- Blog by Number eBook

$15.00- FlexJobs

$82.30- Ultimate Bundles (this was from the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle back in May-June)

Total: $145.30

Freelance writing

$400.00- from 2 writing assignments

Freelance client work

$450.00- from 2 new client retainer packages

Product sales

$139.58- from my product Easy Budget and Financial Planning for Busy Families Spreadsheet (I do not promote this at all except for a Pin on Pinterest and an upsell funnel that happens when people download my Free Printable Budget Planner).

Income Total

$1,134.88

Expenses

Subscriptions, Services & Fees

$9.00- SendOwl is the e-commerce tool I use to sell the budget spreadsheet I mentioned above (it’s also what I will use to sell my upcoming book and start an affiliate program of my own).

$45.00- iMark Interactive for tech support on my website. Grayson Bell is the guru behind the company and has helped out tremendously! I pay him a monthly retainer for his services.

$24.00- P.O. Box renewal for 6 months.

$7.00- Pinterest templates

$10.00- Acuity Scheduling is what I use to manage my calendar with clients and business meetings. LOVE IT!

$12.95- Canva.com is what I use for making all my social media graphics.

$5.00- Google Apps for hosting my domain email address.

$142.00- Virtual Assistant services (for projects that I will not see the value from until later in the year).

$22.21- PayPal/Stripe payment fees

$0.00- ConvertKit is my new email service provider but I am on a 60-day free trial so it is free this month!

Total: $277.06

Education & Coaching

$17.00- eBook purchase

$29.00- course purchase

$480.00- business coaching

Total: $526

Expenses Total

$803.06

Net Income

$331.82

My expenses are way higher than I would consider normal. Hiring out a few tasks to virtual assistants was necessary for long-term growth and will not be a regular expense until my income is much higher. My business coach is also a big investment for my income right now but I also expect that to pay for itself by the end of the year (plus much more)!

I am excited to see where I end up income wise in the coming months because of the investments I’ve made upfront.

Accomplishments for August 2016

  1. Reached 10,000 Pinterest followers and 5,000 Twitter followers! I used Pin Practical to get me there!
  2. Got my act together and put up a hire me page and got two new clients!
  3. Invested in Acuity Scheduling so that clients or prospective clients can easily schedule time with me.
  4. Finished a course by Michelle from Making Sense of Cents called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing! <— a seriously amazing investment! Michelle makes over $50,000 A MONTH in affiliate income. Part of the investment in the course is a private Facebook group that is very engaged and Michelle offers her assistance in there on a regular basis.
  5. Put together my launch plan for Busy Moms Building using Abby Lawson’s course Book Boss! Once my book launch is done I plan on sharing exactly what I did with everyone.

Goals for September 2016

  1. Launch my eBook Busy Moms Building on September 29th! If I did $500 or more in sales between then and October 1st, I would be thrilled!
  2. Reach 40,000 page views.
  3. Grow my email list from 2,607 to 3,000.
  4. Publish 4 new posts.
  5. Reach $2,000 in monthly income.

I will be starting a Mama mastermind with my business coach later this month. I am super excited to meet new Mama CEOs and make plans for 2017!

May 2018 Blogging Income Update

Since writing this first income report, a lot has changed in my business. A few highlights include:

  • I’ve launched several blogging courses under the Redefining Mom brand
  • Trademarked Redefining Mom
  • Created a successful Facebook group
  • Reached the 6-figure a year mark
  • Grew my email list to over 25,000 people
  • Mastered Facebook Ads and Promoted Pins

I also stopped publishing income reports after the first two months. I explain in depth why in this popular post: What No One Tells You About Blogging and Motherhood

Blogging Resources

50+ Blogging Resources and Tools for Running a Successful Blog!

Ultimate Beginners Guide to Blogging: How to Blog for Money

How I Made $7,000 on Autopilot with Pinterest in 3 Months

Pin it!

I've been wanting to quit my corporate career for a long time and make a full time income blogging from home! Finally, I can do that! My blog income report shows you how to make money blogging. I made $1,135, and you can too. I am sharing my blog income report with you so that you can see how it's possible to be your own boss!

I've been wanting to quit my corporate career for a long time! Finally, I was able to quit my job and blog full-time. This income report shows you how to make money blogging. I made $1,135, and you can too. I am sharing my blog income report with you so that you can see how it's possible to be your own boss!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

46 Comments

  1. Nice work! I’ve been blogging for about 2.5 years, but I’ve only taken monetization seriously over the past six months or so. I just finished Michelle’s course, too. And I can’t wait to implement some of her strategies! Keep up the amazing work!

    1. Thank you so much Kate! I love your post about the HSAs… I agree they are a hidden gem! 🙂

  2. Great job! Love reading all about your different strategies and I know it will all pay off in the next few months.

  3. Thanks for sharing, this is great information! I found this post through Adventures in Blogging. I’m also taking Michelle’s course :). It’s been on my to-do list to join a mastermind but I haven’t had luck finding one if you don’t mind sharing how you found yours.

    1. Hi Melanie! Thanks for stopping by! I am in a mastermind with a few other ladies in Michelle’s group! I have tried many before that never seemed to work out. How about starting a thread in her group asking if anyone is interested? The Mama Mastermind I am doing is a paid mastermind. So I am doing one free and one paid. Feel free to send me a message if you want to ask me anything else!

  4. This is awesome. I’m currently taking Michell’s course.

  5. Congrats on your August income report and leaving your full-time job! This is truly inspiring and I hope to earn a living from blogging some day. I like that you break out the income and expenses by affiliate program/company/category so we can see where your income is actually coming from. I look forward to reading your ongoing income reports.

  6. This is so great to see! And congratulations on quitting your job to pursue your own goals! If you ask me you’re off to a great start! #Inspired lol

    I really like that you layout your expenses as well. Not all income reports include expenses or go into details about where they spend their money.

    I haven’t started my blog yet but it’s useful to see what others are spending their money on. You’re obviously on a whole other level but still really great to see.

    Thanks for sharing!

    1. Thanks for stopping by Alicia! It took me a long time to decide to monetize. When you start your blog let me know the link so I can check it out!

  7. I love how detailed your report was. Very helpful! I also love how you detailed your expenses and linked to the sources. Can’t wait to read about next month!

  8. Very impressed, Monica! Good for you! Can’t wait to see if you reach your goals for the coming month.

  9. Wow, Monica! I didn’t know you had all this planned and done!

    I remember finding your blog in the spring and look at it now! It’s totally awesome and I love your Pinterest pins.

    That’s great you made $400 with freelance writing on two assignments! It rocks doesn’t it? 🙂 And wow with the affiliate sales! I have some affiliate links on my blog, but haven’t done much with them (so, I’ve only made less than $50 in two months). My passion is product development, but I wouldn’t mind some more affiliate income.

    Can’t wait to see your journey to mompreneur status!

  10. Thanks for sharing! This is so inspiring. I just launched my blog this week and was excited to earn $6 from Amazon! Ha!
    Love how you share real value in this post!!

  11. Wow! Congrats on your success so far! My hope and dream is that one day (in the not so far away future) that I will be able to blog full time as well. I really appreciate when bloggers take the time to write income reports that show how they are being successful. This is a great guide for me! Thanks so much for the tips!
    – – Rachel @ Tidy&Teal
    P.S. I signed up for your email course as well 🙂

  12. This is so inspiring! I started blogging about a year ago and it has become a lot more to me than I ever imagined… my mom blogs too and has recently started making money from her blog so I feel inspired by her to do the same lately..right now I work a case management job at a nonprofit, which at times can be rewarding and it;s a good job for the mean time, very flexible, great time off, etc. But if I could someday make enough money from blogging that I only had to work part time or not at all, that just sounds amazing!

  13. Congrats! That’s awesome & thanks for sharing, it helps us other bloggers figure out ways to monetize our blogs.

  14. Great article. Have bookmarked it so I can come back to it for guidance. Thanks

  15. Monica, came across your blog recently and love this recent article. Especially how you’ve listed out your investments because you need to invest in yourself and your business at times to get returns and this is such an important message.

    Good luck with your ebook launch and I’ll be popping by here alot more! 🙂

  16. Wow, Monica! You are an inspiration! I quit my corporate job over 2 years ago, but did it a much different way and am only NOW figuring out the right way to blog! Thank you for sharing all these great resources and being so transparent! Best of luck moving forward without the corporate world – you’ve got this!!

  17. Great information! Can’t wait to start monetizing my blog!

  18. Great work!. You are the motivation of other moms. I got motivated when I saw you left your job after 10 years to start online business. It means never give up. And it’s awesome you made good money on you first month of blogging. Really helpful and inspirational. It very hard for blogger to make money in First month of blogging.

  19. I love reading how other freelancers and bloggers are able to reach their goals. This post is super helpful and informative, and I can definitely relate. I hope one day my page views reach the 5 digits! Cheering you on!

  20. This is so amazing Monica. It still blows my mind that you can make a sustainable living doing something (blogging) that didn’t even exist back when I spoke to my career counsellor! I guess as parents, we need to understand, appreciate and support our kids in pursuing any new digital career they might want in the future!