If you’re thinking of starting a blog or niche website, you’re probably curious about how much it can potentially earn.
While every website is different, so too is every niche and site operator. The entire process of building a blog is incredibly nuanced and, there is NO framework that can guarantee absolute success.
With that said, I’ve created this blogging income report series to help track my personal journey. Your journey could be very different.
NOTE: This income report does NOT include any income from my Minted Empire brand (this blog, my newsletter, and my YouTube Channel). Minted Empire is something I do in my spare time, and any income I earn here usually ends up being reinvested into my niche sites.
New for May 2022: I’ve changed the format of these income reports to include some tables. It makes the data so much easier to read at a glance. I don’t have time to re-edit my previous income reports to include the tables. There’s also no point because I’m now sharing the historical information in each new report anyway.
Let’s dive in!
Overview of May 2022’s Performance
I recently added two sites to Ezoic bringing the total niche sites to five. These are now included in the income report.
May, being in the middle of Q2, tends to see a slight increase in earnings from display ads. Q4 tends to have the highest earnings of the year. Q1 tends to have the lowest earnings of the year.
This month saw an overall increase in earnings which was mostly due to Ezoic. (Affiliate earnings dipped, unfortunately).
Google Core Update – May 2022
This month saw the beginning of Google’s Core Update rollout. Thankfully, my sites didn’t seem to be affected. I’ve no idea what the update was targeting.
Site Breakdown
This income report covers 5 websites.
(If you don’t want to read the detailed breakdown for each site, you can skip ahead to the summary.)
Site 1: Performance Report
Started: June 2020
Niche: Hobby / Tech
Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic) & Affiliate (mostly Amazon Associates)
| Month | New Posts | Total Posts | Pageviews | Ads $ | Affiliate $ | Total $ |
| Jun ’20 | 3 | 3 | 202 | – | – | – |
| Jul ’20 | – | 3 | 336 | – | – | – |
| Aug ’20 | 4 | 7 | 48 | – | – | – |
| Sep ’20 | – | 7 | 22 | – | – | – |
| Oct ’20 | – | 7 | 54 | – | – | – |
| Nov ’20 | 1 | 8 | 254 | – | – | – |
| Dec ’20 | 2 | 10 | 271 | – | – | – |
| Jan ’21 | 6 | 16 | 434 | $1 | – | $1 |
| Feb ’21 | 6 | 22 | 536 | $3 | – | $3 |
| Mar ’21 | 7 | 29 | 2,643 | $14 | $1 | $15 |
| Apr ’21 | 11 | 40 | 4,504 | $34 | $46 | $80 |
| May ’21 | 10 | 50 | 7,601 | $67 | $382 | $449 |
| Jun ’21 | 5 | 55 | 7,117 | $80 | $286 | $366 |
| Jul ’21 | 0 | 55 | 9,534 | $125 | $383 | $508 |
| Aug ’21 | 4 | 59 | 12,903 | $148 | $394 | $542 |
| Sep ’21 | 0 | 59 | 15,336 | $175 | $406 | $581 |
| Oct ’21 | 3 | 62 | 16,735 | $206 | $701 | $907 |
| Nov ’21 | 28 | 90 | 19,458 | $346 | $376 | $722 |
| Dec ’21 | 62 | 152 | 14,170 | $280 | $473 | $753 |
| Jan ’22 | 36 | 188 | 12,713 | $173 | $210 | $383 |
| Feb ’22 | 1 | 189 | 10,899 | $137 | $348 | $485 |
| Mar ’22 | – | 189 | 13,587 | $154 | $516 | $670 |
| Apr ’22 | 4 | 193 | 21,844 | $184 | $430 | $614 |
| May ’22 | 30 | 223 | 29,626 | $305 | $347 | $652 |
Site 1 has a start/stop history. After working on it for a few months in 2020, I didn’t see any traction (that’s normal), and I decided to pause working on it (I regret that now).
Site 1 is in an incredibly competitive niche dominated by massive global companies. I do have an interest in the niche, but knowing what I know now, I probably would have entered a less competitive space.
At the beginning of 2021, I decided to give Site 1 another shot, but I didn’t go all in because I was distracted by other sites and other shiny objects. In November 2021, I went fully in on Site 1.
Currently, on Site 1, more than half of the entire content has been published within the last two months of 2021. (I’m proud of that achievement).
However, the relatively large volume of published content on Site 1 has yet to emerge from the proverbial Google Sandbox. I’m pausing production for a few weeks until I can assess which types of posts are performing well.
I’m using this time saved to add videos to Ezoic (for monetization) and also to kickstart Sites 2 and 3 that I had paused for a while.
Site 2:
Started: September 2020
Niche: Lifestyle
Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic), Other Affiliate
| Month | New Posts | Total Posts | Pageviews | Ads $ | Affiliate $ | Total $ |
| Sep ’20 | 10 | 10 | 142 | – | – | – |
| Oct ’20 | 10 | 20 | 571 | $1 | – | $1 |
| Nov ’20 | – | 20 | 466 | $4 | – | $4 |
| Dec ’20 | – | 20 | 542 | $9 | $5 | $14 |
| Jan ’21 | 1 | 21 | 499 | $5 | $1 | $6 |
| Feb ’21 | 6 | 27 | 513 | $5 | $4 | $9 |
| Mar ’21 | 4 | 31 | 1,627 | $7 | $1 | $8 |
| Apr ’21 | – | 31 | 2,492 | $12 | $32 | $44 |
| May ’21 | 6 | 37 | 3,690 | $41 | $67 | $108 |
| Jun ’21 | 7 | 44 | 3,938 | $53 | $63 | $116 |
| Jul ’21 | 12 | 56 | 5,870 | $91 | $7 | $98 |
| Aug ’21 | 1 | 57 | 6,529 | $92 | $17 | $109 |
| Sep ’21 | – | 57 | 6,367 | $91 | $3 | $94 |
| Oct ’21 | – | 57 | 6,503 | $91 | $7 | $98 |
| Nov ’21 | – | 57 | 6,114 | $110 | $106 | $216 |
| Dec ’21 | – | 57 | 4,919 | $88 | – | $88 |
| Jan ’22 | – | 57 | 6,618 | $110 | $36 | $146 |
| Feb ’22 | 3 | 60 | 6,473 | $90 | $35 | $125 |
| Mar ’22 | 16 | 76 | 8,115 | $96 | $1 | $97 |
| Apr ’22 | 7 | 83 | 9,219 | $134 | $61 | $195 |
| May ’22 | 6 | 89 | 13,639 | $223 | $33 | $256 |
Site 3:
Started: December 2020
Niche: Pets
Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic)
| Month | New Posts | Total Posts | Pageviews | Ads $ | Affiliate $ | Total $ |
| Dec ’20 | 16 | 16 | 42 | – | – | – |
| Jan ’21 | 14 | 30 | 271 | $1 | – | $1 |
| Feb ’21 | 20 | 50 | 665 | $6 | – | $6 |
| Mar ’21 | 12 | 62 | 1,672 | $5 | $1 | $6 |
| Apr ’21 | – | 62 | 2,200 | $10 | – | $10 |
| May ’21 | – | 62 | 2,946 | $32 | – | $32 |
| Jun ’21 | – | 62 | 4,276 | $50 | $4 | $54 |
| Jul ’21 | – | 62 | 5,216 | $73 | – | $73 |
| Aug ’21 | 16 | 78 | 4,402 | $53 | – | $53 |
| Sep ’21 | – | 78 | 4,450 | $49 | $3 | $52 |
| Oct ’21 | 18 | 96 | 4,203 | $46 | $3 | $49 |
| Nov ’21 | – | 96 | 3,751 | $65 | $2 | $67 |
| Dec ’21 | – | 96 | 5,474 | $90 | – | $90 |
| Jan ’22 | – | 96 | 5,933 | $72 | $3 | $75 |
| Feb ’22 | – | 96 | 5,579 | $61 | $1 | $62 |
| Mar ’22 | 6 | 102 | 5,760 | $66 | $1 | $67 |
| Apr ’22 | 7 | 109 | 5,867 | $70 | $3 | $73 |
| May ’22 | 12 | 121 | 6,186 | $73 | – | $73 |
Site 4:
Started: March 2021
Niche: Not disclosed!
Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic)
| Month | New Posts | Total Posts | Pageviews | Ads $ | Affiliate $ | Total $ |
| Mar ’21 | 12 | 12 | 23 | – | – | – |
| Apr ’21 | 5 | 17 | 20 | – | – | – |
| May ’21 | 4 | 21 | 14 | – | – | – |
| Jun ’21 | – | 21 | 17 | – | – | – |
| Jul ’21 | – | 21 | 13 | – | – | – |
| Aug ’21 | 9 | 30 | 39 | – | – | – |
| Sep ’21 | 6 | 36 | 37 | – | – | – |
| Oct ’21 | – | 36 | 35 | – | – | – |
| Nov ’21 | – | 36 | 45 | – | – | – |
| Dec ’21 | – | 36 | 379 | – | – | – |
| Jan ’22 | – | 36 | 321 | – | – | – |
| Feb ’22 | – | 36 | 557 | – | $1 | $1 |
| Mar ’22 | – | 36 | 1,087 | – | – | – |
| Apr ’22 | – | 36 | 1,553 | $5 | – | $5 |
| May ’22 | 7 | 43 | 2,795 | $24 | – | $24 |
Site 5:
Started: January 2022 (with some seed content posted during Summer 2021)
Niche: Not disclosed!
Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic)
| Month | New Posts | Total Posts | Pageviews | Ads $ | Affiliate $ | Total $ |
| Summer ’21 | 46 | 46 | 6,654 (July to Dec ’21) | – | – | – |
| Jan ’22 | 42 | 88 | 1,849 | – | – | – |
| Feb ’22 | 106 | 194 | 2,178 | – | – | – |
| Mar ’22 | 27 | 221 | 3,063 | – | – | – |
| Apr ’22 | 7 | 228 | 4,559 | $91 | – | $91 |
| May ’22 | 19 | 247 | 5,704 | $154 | – | $154 |
Income Summary
Overall Earnings This Month By Niche Site
- Site 1: $652 (previous month $614)
- Site 2: $256 (previous month $195)
- Site 3: $73 (previous month $73)
- Site 4: $24 (previous month $5)
- Site 5: $154 (previous month $91)
Total Earnings From This Selection of Sites: $1,159 (previous month $978)
Niche Website Earnings by Source
- Ezoic Display Ads: $779 (previous month $484)
- Affiliate: $380 (previous month $494)
Outgoings
Running any website or blog involves having expenses. I could run extremely lean and just have my hosting costs if I wanted.
However, I’m playing the long game, and I don’t mind paying for tools/services that save me time and mental energy and make the blogging journey a little easier.
Breakdown of Expenses For This Month
Like many others in the industry, I don’t view content costs as an expense. Investing in good content is exactly that – an investment in the site. I’ll list my content costs separately below.
Hosting (CloudWays are super fast for WordPress sites!): $27.50
Ezoic Premium: $144
SerpRobot: $15
Content Investment
I’ve built my own team of freelance writers. I manage them via Trello & Slack. I pay a maximum of 3 cents per word for the content they produce.
I’m very happy with the quality.
Content Investment in Current Month
- Site 1: $1,518
- Site 2: $201
- Site 3: $0 (Niche Website Builders have sponsored content for this site, more on this later).
- Site 4: $584
- Site 5: $627
- TOTAL Estimated Content Investment this month: $2,930
Note: The content costs are estimated at 3 cents per word based on what was published within the month. The figure might change slightly when all of their invoices come in. This is a rough and ready estimate, but it’s probably reasonably close.
That’s the end of the income report. See you next month!