AUGUST 2019 INCOME + TRAFFIC REPORT – HOW I MADE $4,162.12 MY 10TH MONTH BLOGGING

My 10th-month blogging! It feels almost surreal!

I’m really excited for this income report, not because it’s record-breaking or any of that (in fact, it’s quite a dip from July) but because I spent all of August working on my e-course which is now live here and I didn’t dedicate much time to my blogs (or almost any time at all)

So everything I made from my blogs was almost entirely passive.

It’s nice to know you can lean back a bit and things still work out. You don’t have to be working 50 hour weeks, constantly pinning, and hustlin‘ to make ends meet.

With that said, with the official launch of my e-course, I am ecstatic to be back and dedicating more time to creating content on here!

So, let’s get into the numbers and start talking about them..

As always, this income report will be for TheFab20s and my 2nd blog.

I’ve gotten a couple of questions about why I don’t disclose my second blog.

At first, I didn’t want to give it any ‘help’ from the readers of TheFab20s and allow it to grow 100% organically.

But the truth is, it’s more of a ‘niche’ site and generates a large portion of money via Amazon. So to protect the success of that site and avoid copy-cats, I have decided to keep it private indefinitely.

If that niche ever becomes saturates, then I won’t have a problem disclosing it ?

Big Announcement

Guys, my e-course is live! If you’ve been reading my income reports for a while, you knooow I have been working on this for what feels like forever.

But it’s finally here and I’m super excited to share it with you all!

I go over every little thing I do to create a successful blog. From setting it up, plugins, brainstorming, creating content, monetizing and (my favorite & the meat of the course) my Pinterest strategy.

I launched TheFab20s on October 26, 2018 and was accepted into Mediavine in January 2019 (that’s three months!)

Just to prove it wasn’t beginner’s luck, I replicated the results with my second blog…

My second blog was launched on March 24, 2019 and accepted into Mediavine in May (not even two months later!)

You learn exactly how I do it in my e-course. I leave absolutely nothing out. So if you’re ready to start a profitable blog and make an extra income (or even replace your current one) click here to check out my course.

Check out my past income reports for more information on how I got here..

November 2018 (1st month!) – $82.08
December 2018 – didn’t track 🙁 but was less than $200
January 2019 – less than $200; got approved for Mediavine at end of the month!
February 2019 – $1,566.40
March 2019 – $1,993.02
April 2019 – $2,021.49
May 2019 – $3,619.52
June 2019 – $3,351.23
July 2019 – $6,839.30
August 2019 – You’re here!

Let’s break it down…

Sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled program, but as of September 2019, I have launched my very own course Blogpreneur Blueprint  which goes into every little detail of how I grow and monetize my blogs..
If you want to know all my ~secrets~ I highly encourage you to take a peek.

Also, check out my latest income report here to see just how quickly you can turn a blog from idea to side-hustle to full-time business

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INCOME

AdRevenue
Mediavine (TF20s) – $1,703.27
Mediavine (Blog B) – $1,004.64
Total AdRevenue – $2,707.91

Affiliates
Amazon – $1,349.61
Commission Junction – $67
Pinteresting Strategies – $37.60
Total Affiliate Income – $1,454.21

Total Revenue – $4,162.12

EXPENSES

Tailwind– $14.99
Picmonkey – $7.99
Hosting (Prepaid for the year)  

Total Income After Expenses – $4,139.14

Let’s talk about this!

Although at first glance it might seem like my income went down (it was $6,839.30 last month), but if we take a close look, it technically didn’t.

Wait whaaaaa?! Claudia, how badly did you fail math?!?

Alright, hear me out! Haha, I know it’s almost $3,000 less than July, but when we go into the analytics, July’s income report was so much higher because it had a pin go mega-viral!

That pin brought me in almost 10,000 page-views a day for a week (so ad revenue was super high!) and the post had a couple of Amazon products so my amazon commissions were almost $200 a day!

It was both fascinating and exhilarating, but like I always say, I don’t chase ‘viral’ I want steady growth!

And if we take out the anomaly that is July, my income is consistently growing month-to-month.

This was a calm month, like I said, I was working on my e-course and didn’t publish, so making $4,139.14 is amazing in my eyes.

TRAFFIC BREAKDOWN

TheFab20s Traffic

144,675 pageviews! A tiny dip from 147,541 last month, but I’ll take it!

It’s good to know my traffic is pretty stable and I don’t have to be pumping out content constantly to maintain it.

Now that I AM back to content creating full-time though, I am excited to see what new heights this blog can reach. I’m hoping to get 250,000 pageviews in a 30-day period by December *fingers-crossed*

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SECOND BLOG TRAFFIC

84,953 pageviews! Last month, thanks to the mega-viral pin, my pageviews were at 219,069. So it seems everything has gone back to normal-ish.

Sometimes I do find myself getting caught up wanting that rapid growth but I know that slow-and-steady wins the race.

And virality doesn’t lead to stability.

So I’m happy with both my blogs this past month and very happy with what I’ve created this past year.

SHOULD YOU START A BLOG?

In past income reports, my answer has been a resounding YES!

However, the more and more I learn about blogging I will tell you it takes TIME and COMMITMENT. The learning curve is quite big.

And if you lack self-motivation then perhaps this isn’t for you.

BUT, if you like to challenge yourself, want to create a second (or perhaps primary) source of income, and you can put in the work when you see little to no results, then you should definitely give it a shot. 

Don’t believe those naysayers who say blogging is dead. I entered the blogging game ‘late’ according to some.

But you know what…

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. 

Stop putting things off, or worse yet, never starting because of what others say. Statistics mean nothing to the individual. 

The problem is many of us want immediate results. We live in a world of instant gratifications. Nothing about blogging is immediate, it is a marathon, not a sprint. 

Take your time. Learn as much as you can. And keep publishing. 

It is 100% possible to create a blog that produces a sustainable and rewarding income. 


I want to show others that IT IS POSSIBLE to build a blog and earn extra money on top of their full-time jobs. 

My income reports are a tool to help you see that earning money through a blog is possible and perhaps motivate you to start your own blog some day!

Now, before you think I’m anything special.. I would like to let you know I

• don’t have experience writing for a living
• don’t have experience creating graphics or blogs
• have no experience in online marketing
• am not a fan of social media (I don’t have a FB, or twitter)
• started blogging with a full-time job (have since quit my job to blog full-time and travel in July 2019!)

So if you think you can’t create a money-making blog, you are completely wrong!
And worse yet, you’re underestimating your capabilities dramatically!

If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?

If you have been going back and forth about starting a blog, you need to start it NOW. Cut the excuses and the BS you tell yourself about why you can’t and dive in.
It’s only scary in the beginning and then it becomes fun!

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Proof Of Income

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HOW TO GET STARTED?

STEP 1: SET UP YOUR BLOG FOR SUCCESS FROM DAY 1

You absolutely need to self-host. Self-hosting allows you to have complete control over your website and content.

For example, if I didn’t self-host, my site would be ‘www.thefab20s.freeblogsite.com’ instead of my own domain name as it is ‘www.thefab20s.com.’ What successful blogger do you know that has a site like that?

But that’s not the only dilemma.

It’s much worse:

• You don’t own your content – the blogging platform owns it and they can shut you down for whatever reason (or if they go out of business)  (3)
• The web address will be hard to remember – you want a catchy, easy to remember domain name so those that love what you blog about can visit you regularly
• You can’t advertise – this makes it much harder (or impossible) to monetize your blog

Please note, all these limits apply to the wordpress.COM sites as well.

You want a wordpress.ORG blog, its the exact same software without the limitations!

AT THIS POINT IN TIME, I ONLY USE AND RECOMMEND BLUEHOST FOR DOMAIN NAMES AND WEB-HOSTING.

Bluehost gets my stamp of approval because they really care about helping bloggers like you and me to get started as quickly and painlessly as possible

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WHAT MAKES BLUEHOST SO GREAT?

Nothing comes close to Bluehost in terms of blog load speed and uptime

Bluehost has great performance, they are easy to use and it’s absolutely the best pick for beginners.

On top of that, Bluehost offers a FREE Domain, 1-click WordPress Install, and a FREE SSL Certificate. An SSL certificate adds trust with google as well as with your blog visitors as well!

If you want to start blogging, head on over to Bluehost and click the green ‘get started’ button.
In the beginning, the basic plan is all you need to get started on the right foot. 

STEP 2: WRITE. A LOT.

Before you launch, you’re going to want to do the work beforehand. 

I wrote more than 15 blog posts before my launch. Anyone who visited my site in its early days would have never thought it was only a couple of days old. 

Create a lot of helpful posts that people will want to read! You’ll notice I don’t have any posts such as ‘my daily makeup routine’ or ‘my favorite pasta dish.’ Why not? Because no one cares!

You don’t know me, so you don’t care what I eat, wear, or do. 

Perhaps after you’ve created a relationship with your readers, they will be interested in your personal life, but in the beginning, you have to constantly be thinking ‘What’s in it for me?” from the readers point of view. 

Write a lot but with a purpose.

STEP 3: CREATE A PINTEREST BUSINESS ACCOUNT

Pinterest will be your secret weapon as a blogger.

More than 90% of my traffic as a new blogger comes from Pinterest. 

You will want to make sure you sign up for a Business Account as it will be the best way for you to drive traffic to you brand new blog. 

You can either use a personal picture or go with a logo. Bloggers have success either way, so if you want to maintain your privacy, don’t feel obliged to post who you are. 

Once you have your business account you’re going to want to create 20 or more boards related to your topic.

By the way, I don’t think you need to pigeonhole yourself! 

I don’t have a niche and I love it. I write about travel, money, and food. The riches are NOT in the niches.

Play around with different topics and see what you like and what your readers like as well. 

So if you plan on writing about travel, perhaps create 3-5 relevant boards about that topic, for example:

• Travel
• Budget Travel
• Family Travel
• Road Trips
• Europe Travel
• Asia Travel
• etc.

Just make sure it’s a topic you will be creating multiple pins and articles for. There’s no point creating a board if you don’t pin to it often. 

STEP 4: CREATE GREAT PINS THAT GET CLICKED

No matter how great your content is, if you don’t create great pins that get clicked, all your efforts will go to waste. 

There isn’t a one size fits all for pins. 

Some pins I think will do awesome tank, and others I’m not too crazy about take off randomly and go viral!

The only thing you can do is make sure you create a lot of pins and test them constantly.

I make anywhere from 2 – 4 pins per post. You never know which one will take off

More than that, if an article isn’t doing so hot, I will make more pins for it two or three weeks later with new keywords! 

A lot of bloggers use Canva or Picmonkey.

I use PicMonkey to make my pins and pay the monthly membership of $7.99 because it allows me to use the fonts I buy on top of a lot of other nifty features.

But for the first two months I used the free versions of both Canva and PicMonkey until I decided which one I liked more and bought a plan.

You can still make great pins on the free versions!

STEP 5: LEARN FROM THE PROS

There is so much to learn when you start out.

You can’t be scared of investing in a couple of courses. 

The strategy I used to get my pageviews to over 100,000 is Carlys Pinteresting Strategies and it only costs $47. 

I am not one to part from my money easily, but Carlys eBook is the best bang for your buck. 

The guide really makes you understand what Pinterest is about, and her strategy is very useful when you are familiarizing yourself with Pinterest.  

Whether you decide to invest in Carlys Pinteresting Strategies or not, you will want to constantly be learning and researching.
There are a lot of free resources online.

I spend a large portion of my free time reading tips and tricks from blogging pros. You can’t assume you know it all. 

Blogging is always evolving and you have to be evolving with it. 

You want to be studying successful bloggers and constantly asking yourself:

• What social media’s do they use?
• How do they get page views?
• What are the most shared articles they have on their website?
• How do their pins look like and which pins have most repins?
• How do they make money?

Curiosity and determination will get you far in the blogging world!

STEP 6: HAVE FUN

Yes, Blogging is a business.

However, I learned a long time ago that if you don’t enjoy the process you won’t enjoy the results. 

In the beginning, everything is new and intimidating but I challenge you to change your mindset towards this process.

Fear and Excitement are the same emotions. They release the same chemical balances in the body. The only difference is the name and power you give them.

Stop being afraid and anxious and feel the excitement! Starting a blog can be one of the greatest decisions you make.

Learn to love the process of writing, creating pins, and getting to know your readers. 

I have so much fun creating content for TheFab20s that it doesn’t feel like work. Isn’t that what we all want? 

Anyways, I am so incredibly thankful to each and every one of you that stops by my blog! From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you for reading, tweeting, pinning, and sharing this blog. It is because of YOU that TheFab20s is constantly growing! I am so grateful for you all! 

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at [email protected]! 
I am beyond thankful to big bloggers that took the time to answer my emails and I will always be here to answer yours!