For August 2018 I earned $7,422.16 in gross sales from my blog and online business.

I have been ”blogging” for 7 years, but to be fair my first blog was a ”failure”. It wasn’t until I upgraded my website to a self-hosted WordPress (dot org) website and got a new theme in 2014 that I knew what I was supposed to do with it.

That is when I published 2-3 times per week for 12 months. Yep, a year. I was growing my email list at the same time as SEO’ing my blog posts. Later I learned about Pinterest strategy. (I share my Pinterest steps here).

Nowadays, I do similar. I publish about once per week. I SEO the blog post and share on Pinterest and email out to email subscribers.

THAT, over and over again is exactly how I turned this ”hobby” into an income.

THAT, is how I quit my day job in October 2016.

THAT, is how I retired my boyfriend from his job in April 2017.

 

And what do I do nowadays? 

1. Create content. 
2. Publish blog posts regularly.
3. SEO those blog posts.
4. Share on Pinterest
5. Email out to email subscribers, while growing my list.

Related: Free Workshop on How to Start a Blog & Make Money With It

 

WHY DO I SHARE MY INCOME REPORTS?

I follow several income reports like Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income, Rose Atwater from Rose Bakes, Pinch of Yum, House of Brazen and Making Sense of Cents and there is something about numbers that is sexy, motivational, inspiring and lets me dream bigger. Is it just me?

I read Rose Bakes 2015 income report where she made nearly $37,000 USD for the year from blogging. Well, that knocked my socks off. I showed my boyfriend and talked about it and read and researched. I was hugely inspired.

Later I even had a business mentoring session with Rose and now, a year later, I am so incredibly lucky to call Rose a friend and mentor.

But that feeling of inspiration, motivation and that it is soooo hugely possible this business dream …. Well, I want to share that with others.

BLOGGING IS NOT THE WAY TO FAST MONEY.

At all. We all hear about the $100k launch and whatever else, but I gotta wonder is that real? And how much of that was spent on Facebook advertising?

For me, I’m not going to talk about those pie-high-in-the-sky numbers. Because launches make me want to vomit in my mouth a little bit. And I don’t do webinars. I’m going to talk about the hard work and real numbers that made it possible for me to quit my full-time job.

Because, yes, I worked full time while building up this blog and business.

• August 2014 – $191
• December 2014 – $415
• July 2015 – $732
• November 2015 – $1404
• February 2016 – $1593

It has been hard work. But if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

And it wasn’t a smooth uphill slope. Some months I made $0 minus expenses. A couple of months I made up to $2000-$6000, but those were few and far between.

Gee, if I knew way back then what I now know!

And now? Now I have quit my FT job. Now I work less than 30 hours per week. Now I have replaced my full-time income and I retired my boyfriend from his job in April 2017. Because that is my dream and big WHY. And you are going to need to hold on for dear life while on this ride.

Imagine a rocket ship or roller coaster. Which do you think the journey or blogging is going to be? A rocket ship that is a sky rocketing success story with little to no work. Like winning the lottery.

Or a roller coaster, like everything else you have experienced in life? (Hint: it is a roller coaster of a ride, because it is life.)

This post contains affiliate links.

• Related: $11,090.94 July 2018 Income Report
• Related: How I Made $83,146.87 in last 12 months (Mid-2018 Review)
• Related: $6157.15 May 2018 Income Report
• Related: $7880.30 March 2018 Income Report
• Related: How I Made $78,926.26 in 2017

 

WHAT’S NEW

I did my regular monthly business review on the podcast and listed all the things I ”did” (business & personal) into 2 columns. Column A was what worked for me and Column B of what didn’t work for me.

What worked for me?

1. My mum came and visited for 5 days and I could stop work easily. Not entirely planned or unplanned, but the week before saying she might drop in. The fact I could stop work at a moments notice, spend that time with her, no be ‘guilty’ that I have to leave or work and no stress with my own workload. That I could stop, drop everything, spend time together, and pick up where I left off. Easily & stress-free free. That totally rocked my socks off.
2. Did 2 x live workshops. It was the biggest month ever for Blog Business School with 29 new enrolled students for the month. And that is directly related to the 2 x live workshops for the month, which went to a thank you page. The thank you page ‘sold’ the 29 spots. The content was hugely popular (Blogging 101 and also Launching). So it was another reminder of something that I knew ‘worked’ and to keep doing it!
3. Journalling. In winter I nearly stop writing. Some people call it morning pages or bullet point journalling or manifesting. Whatever you want to cal it, for me the practice is SO important, for myself – it’s get’s creative juices flowing, create content, get me into a positive mindset (and I’m so much more product for it!) You can get a template of how I journal here.
4. Podcast. A regularly schedule and committing to it. With Blog Business School podcast, Claire and I tried another way of scheduling (I do August, she does September) and I really liked it! For Angel Foods Show podcast I just had another break (over Winter) and started publishing again on Friday.
5. Back deck built. We finally (finally) built a deck in the middle of the backyard, which we talked about for at least a year. We have a very small 3 bedroom house and there is nowhere to go sit, outside. It has added to our quality of life, 10 fold. With cups of tea, lunch out there, breakfast out there, having an evening campfire.
6. Optometrist & dentist. Had some appointments for Hottie Boyfriend and his daughter and they both got glasses! I’ve always had glasses and wear them all the time. And Miss 8 went from ”I hope I don’t have glasses” to exceptionally excited waiting for her prescription and now wears them all the time!
7. Membership audit. I hadn’t done a Cake Business School audit in 8 months (my goals was once every 6 months). Being # number of new enrollments, what % percentage drop off from 1st trial months to 2nd paying month and average time enrolled. I do a simple tally system (pen to paper) as I keep a sales report in excel spreadsheet every time I do bookkeeping. I’m looking at how I can improve + help more people grow their cake business.

What didn’t work?

1. I ran a 3-month membership deal that didn’t sell. I normally do a % discount with a bonus. I’ve never run a 3-month deal before and I thought it was a great price point ($36) and I added a bonus that has always been popular in the past. I think because my sales copy got a bit confusing with getting 33% off, it’s like buying 2 months + get 1 free, plus get a bonus thing. Well, that is the only reason I can see that it didn’t work and I actually stopped promoting mid-way through the promo period (and I rarely ever do that!)
2. Productivity. I feel since I have been so unwell in the last 18+ months that I (still) haven’t gotten back to my former self, pre-court-custody stuff. I call myself a content creation machine. I use to be able to spit out a blog post (beginning to end, published, promoted, email) in 1 hour. Now it takes me 2 hours. And I realised maybe I never will. I’m older and closer to 40 than any other age. Maybe it is just part and parcel of my age?
3. Mood. Goodness, I have had some shocking mood swings lately. I’m not normally. Not monthly, not ever. I wondered whether hormonal, someone said maybe menopause. I can go from happy to extremely angry to extreme stress within minutes of each other. Weird, right? And it might not stop all day. Currently, I deal with spending time by myself and I’ve ordered some essential oils for natural remedies.

What did I learn?

I’m always reminding myself to keep it simple. Rather than SEO (for example) talk about blogging 101 basics. How to write a blog post in 1 hour (for example)

I’m always onto the next thing. Even though I teach and recommend people always stop and reward themselves. Congratulate themselves. Celebrate. I barely ever do. Apparently, I still need to keep learning this lesson.

What’s next?

1. Holidays. We are going away for the first half of September school holidays (9 days) back to my hometown (Proserpine, north Queensland). So preparing for having that time off work (we will be in mid-launch for Price.Market. Sell. but all that work will be pre-done.
2. Mastermind turn Bakers Blogging course. Claire and I were going to go into promoting a mastermind but we changed our minds (kinda the beauty of this business beast.) When we got together and said who can we serve best, who can we help RIGHT NOW? The answer was so simple. We can help bakers with blogging. Keep it simple. So we created a course in 1 day – $5k Bakers Blog Formula – and launching/promoting for the next 8 days (until 12 September 2018, as it is a live launch).
3. Round #5 of cake business course is launching this month, too. We launch 4 x times per year and it was due to launch on 17th, but I pushed back 1 week, to separate the blogging course and cake course promo period. I’ll be on holidays for half of it (which is fine, as I pre-plan, pre-schedule, automate a very large section). The only live aspect is workshops and FB lives which I provide content and call to action.) We have just gone up in price (again) to $197 as the full price point, with a 25% early bird discount. We will stay at this price for at least 2 rounds.
4. Goals. Always, have the goals. I set income goals every month. For September, I set a goal (originally) for $10,000. Stretch goal of $13,000 and super stretch goal of $14,000. I actually feel the stretch goal is the goal. I have another income goal of increasing memberships income at 10% month on month and write those figures down. I have sales goals for the bakers’ course and the cake course. I also reminded myself of my yearly goals of 100,000 pageviews per month for Angel Foods website by 31 December 2018.
5. Looking at starting another business. Because 2 businesses, plus my boyfriend’s labour hire business isn’t enough. I’ll share more about that in the future 🙂

Related: Does Setting Income Goals Really Work?

 

AUGUST 2018 INCOME REPORT

TOTAL INCOME – $7,422.16

CBS – Cake Business School

BBS – Blog Business School

					of TOTAL $7,422.16
MEMBERSHIP	$                    4546.00				61%
	CBS 1-year	$ 868.00	19%		12%
	CBS recurring	$3168.00	70%		42%
	CBS x $1 trial	$39.00	1%		^0%
	BBS recurring	$ 432.00	10%		6%
	BBS x $1 trial	$29.00	^0%		^0%
PRODUCTS	$                      1490.52				20%
	Cupcake Business In A Box	$       98.00	6%		1%
	Startup Kit	$    394.00	26%		5%
	Price. Market. Sell	$    984.52	65%		13%
	Cake Growth Kit	$     00.00	0%		0%
	Recipe Book	$       14.00	1%		^0%
AD REVENUE	$                       1028.98				13%
	MediaVine	$  1028.98	100%		13%
AFFILIATE	$                           186.66				2%
	Shareasale	$                   –	0%		0.00%
	ConvertKit	$     186.66	100%		2%
	Siteground	$             –	0%		0
	Bluchix	$             –	0%		0%
	Ultimate Bundles	$             –	0%		0%
	GDPR + Convertkit	$
	GDPR Compliance Pack
OTHER	$                        170.00				2%
	Freelancing	$     170.00	100%		2%

 

• Related article: How I Made $2430 in Sales from a $10 Product
• Related article: ConvertKit Demo & Review
• Related article: Bluehost Suck. Why I Migrated to Siteground
• Related article: How I Have Nearly 300 (now 700) Membership Members & Make $ Thousands Monthly

 

TOTAL EXPENSES – $1,704.35

• Libsyn – $21.91 (podcast hosting)
• MemberMouse – $54.63 (membership site for Cake Business School & Blog Business School)
• Siteground – $280 (website hosting – Bluehost suck. Why I migrated to Siteground.)
• SamCart – $27
• Affiliate payouts – $382.38 (partnership + JV )
• Fees – $314.50 (PayPal and Stripe and bank fees)
• Sucuri – $284.65
• Tailwind – $339.28
• ConvertKit – For Angel Foods website and this website I pay yearly as I pay for 10 months and get 2 free, averaging $333 per month (over 22,000 email subscribers).

I have paid for a years’ worth of ConvertKit for this website and Angel Foods (email service provider), instead of paying monthly, I bought a year and got 2 months free. See ConvertKit demo here.

Tailwind (Pinterest pinning app) I did the same and bought a years’ worth which averages the cost at $10.93 per month. See Tailwind demo here.

Note – from my gross income I pay myself a wage, pay myself superannuation and pay a mortgage.