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.
There is NO framework that can guarantee absolute success, but this one mega course comes really close, in my opinion. I also recommend this course if you’re more intermediate to advanced.
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.
Let’s dive in!
Overview of February 2023’s Performance
Portfolio traffic took a hit this month, mainly down to site #1 getting hit with the Google Product Reviews Update. It was growing, until it was hit toward the end of the month. So, when comparing Jan to Feb, traffic looks flat. March will be down though, unfortunately.
Site Breakdown
This income report covers 5 3 websites because I sold 2 recently.
I have 4 sites that I’m actively working on. Only 3 of them are included in this income report because I plan to do a separate case study soon with the other site.
(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 |
| Jun ’22 | 23 | 246 | 30,894 | $492 | $499 | $991 |
| Jul ’22 | 12 | 258 | 39,760 | $546 | $830 | $1,376 |
| Aug ’22 | 5 | 263 | 45,232 | $731 | $671 | $1,402 |
| Sep ’22 | 10 | 273 | 43,012 | $917 | $609 | $1,526 |
| Oct ’22 | 17 | 290 | 39,881 | $860 | $905 | $1,765 |
| Nov ’22 | 5 | 295 | 35,150 | $985 | $1,130 | $2,116 |
| Dec ’22 | 1 | 296 | 37,227 | $720 | $1,465 | $2,186 |
| Jan ’23 | 3 | 299 | 38,570 | $468 | $511 | $979 |
| Feb ’23 | – | 299 | 38,410 | $513 | $519 | $1,032 |
Traffic was hit towards the end of Feb, so we won’t really see the impact until next month.
Site 2: Performance Report
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 |
| Jun ’22 | 8 | 97 | 18,779 | $350 | $172 | $522 |
| Jul ’22 | 7 | 104 | 21,624 | $354 | $96 | $450 |
| Aug ’22 | 1 | 105 | 28,694 | $593 | $46 | $639 |
| Sep ’22 | 7 | 112 | 35,042 | $1,043 | $40 | $1,083 |
| Oct ’22 | 9 | 121 | 29,316 | $766 | $156 | $922 |
| Nov ’22 | 1 | 122 | 17,316 | $477 | $119 | $597 |
| Dec ’22 | – | 122 | 12,211 | $241 | $51 | $292 |
| Jan ’23 | – | 122 | 15,514 | $266 | $13 | $279 |
| Feb ’23 | – | 122 | 12,219 | $237 | $4 | $241 |
This is a seasonal site. I’m currently in middle of re-branding. I’ll be moving it to a new domain and power-boosting with an aged domain redirect as well as a link-bait campaign. If you’re following along via my newsletter, you’ll find out more.
Site 3: SOLD!
Site 4: SOLD!
Site 5: Performance Report
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 |
| Jun ’22 | 39 | 286 | 7,469 | $244 | – | $244 |
| Jul ’22 | 32 | 318 | 12,675 | $348 | $56 | $404 |
| Aug ’22 | 23 | 341 | 23,562 | $568 | $49 | $616 |
| Sep ’22 | 28 | 369 | 24,240 | $766 | $49 | $815 |
| Oct ’22 | 34 | 403 | 26,081 | $862 | $107 | $969 |
| Nov ’22 | 7 | 410 | 24,027 | $926 | $8 | $934 |
| Dec ’22 | 2 | 412 | 23,765 | $678 | $5 | $683 |
| Jan ’23 | 0 | 412 | 32,310 | $761 | $49 | $811 |
| Feb ’23 | 0 | 412 | 29,492 | $670 | $111 | $781 |
This is a fresh domain with a relevant aged-domain redirected to a relevant silo on the site.
I’ll admit that I felt disheartened with the traffic plateau that seems to have lasted for about 4 months. With a bit of luck, it might be emerging from that now.
Income Summary
Overall Earnings This Month By Niche Site
- Site 1: $1,032 ( previous month $979 )
- Site 2: $241 ( previous month $279 )
- Site 5: $781 ( previous month $811 )
Total Earnings From This Selection of Sites: $2,062 ( previous month $2,103 )
Niche Website Earnings by Source
- Ezoic Display Ads: $1,420 ( previous month $1,516 )
- Affiliate: $643 ( previous month $587 )
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.
Here’s a quick breakdown of my running costs this month:
- Virtual Assistant (VA) (OnlineJobs.ph) : $73
- Team Content Order Management (Trello) : $54
- Plagiarism Checker (CopyLeaks) : $35
- Domain (NameCheap) : $10
- Hosting (CloudWays) : $36
- Site Management / Backups (ManageWP) : $13
- Theme (GeneratePress) : $5 ($59 paid annually)
- Plugin: (Link Whisper) : $14 (I have a 10-site license)
- Affiliate Tables & Link Checker (Lasso): $111
- Premium fee for Ezoic : $170
- Social Media Scheduling (Metricool) : $12
- Graphics (Canva Pro) : $12
- Keyword Research (Ahrefs) : $99
- Rank Tracker (SERPRobot) : $10
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: $0
- Site 2: $0
- Site 5: $0
- TOTAL Estimated Content Investment this month: $0
- I took a temporary break from content publishing this month, will be back publishing soon!
Note: The content costs are estimated based on the published word count. The figure might change slightly when all of their invoices come in. This is a rough estimate, but it’s probably reasonably close.
That’s the end of the income report.
See you next month!