If youβre thinking of starting a blog or niche website, youβre 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 youβre more intermediate to advanced.
With that said, Iβve 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.
Letβs dive in!
Overview of March 2023βs Performance
Portfolio traffic this month was very similar to February. Only very slightly down, but more or less flat. Earnings down $61 to $2,001.
Towards the end of Feb, Site #1 got hit by the Google Product Reviews Update but it did recover about 50% of the loss with the March Core Update that rolled out a couple of weeks later.
I was pretty happy with this considering that I havenβt published on this site for a few months and nor did I update any previous posts. This is all about to change very soon! I have big plans this month to add new content AND update existing content.
Site Breakdown
This income report covers 6 4 websites because I sold 2 in early 2023.
I own many sites but I have 4 sites that Iβm actively working on.
(If you donβt 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 β20 | 3 | 3 | 202 | β | β | β |
Jul β20 | β | 3 | 336 | β | β | β |
Aug β20 | 4 | 7 | 48 | β | β | β |
Sep β20 | β | 7 | 22 | β | β | β |
Oct β20 | β | 7 | 54 | β | β | β |
Nov β20 | 1 | 8 | 254 | β | β | β |
Dec β20 | 2 | 10 | 271 | β | β | β |
Jan β21 | 6 | 16 | 434 | $1 | β | $1 |
Feb β21 | 6 | 22 | 536 | $3 | β | $3 |
Mar β21 | 7 | 29 | 2,643 | $14 | $1 | $15 |
Apr β21 | 11 | 40 | 4,504 | $34 | $46 | $80 |
May β21 | 10 | 50 | 7,601 | $67 | $382 | $449 |
Jun β21 | 5 | 55 | 7,117 | $80 | $286 | $366 |
Jul β21 | 0 | 55 | 9,534 | $125 | $383 | $508 |
Aug β21 | 4 | 59 | 12,903 | $148 | $394 | $542 |
Sep β21 | 0 | 59 | 15,336 | $175 | $406 | $581 |
Oct β21 | 3 | 62 | 16,735 | $206 | $701 | $907 |
Nov β21 | 28 | 90 | 19,458 | $346 | $376 | $722 |
Dec β21 | 62 | 152 | 14,170 | $280 | $473 | $753 |
Jan β22 | 36 | 188 | 12,713 | $173 | $210 | $383 |
Feb β22 | 1 | 189 | 10,899 | $137 | $348 | $485 |
Mar β22 | β | 189 | 13,587 | $154 | $516 | $670 |
Apr β22 | 4 | 193 | 21,844 | $184 | $430 | $614 |
May β22 | 30 | 223 | 29,626 | $305 | $347 | $652 |
Jun β22 | 23 | 246 | 30,894 | $492 | $499 | $991 |
Jul β22 | 12 | 258 | 39,760 | $546 | $830 | $1,376 |
Aug β22 | 5 | 263 | 45,232 | $731 | $671 | $1,402 |
Sep β22 | 10 | 273 | 43,012 | $917 | $609 | $1,526 |
Oct β22 | 17 | 290 | 39,881 | $860 | $905 | $1,765 |
Nov β22 | 5 | 295 | 35,150 | $985 | $1,130 | $2,116 |
Dec β22 | 1 | 296 | 37,227 | $720 | $1,465 | $2,186 |
Jan β23 | 3 | 299 | 38,570 | $468 | $511 | $979 |
Feb β23 | β | 299 | 38,410 | $513 | $519 | $1,032 |
Mar β23 | β | 299 | 25,631 | $342 | $498 | $840 |
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 β20 | 10 | 10 | 142 | β | β | β |
Oct β20 | 10 | 20 | 571 | $1 | β | $1 |
Nov β20 | β | 20 | 466 | $4 | β | $4 |
Dec β20 | β | 20 | 542 | $9 | $5 | $14 |
Jan β21 | 1 | 21 | 499 | $5 | $1 | $6 |
Feb β21 | 6 | 27 | 513 | $5 | $4 | $9 |
Mar β21 | 4 | 31 | 1,627 | $7 | $1 | $8 |
Apr β21 | β | 31 | 2,492 | $12 | $32 | $44 |
May β21 | 6 | 37 | 3,690 | $41 | $67 | $108 |
Jun β21 | 7 | 44 | 3,938 | $53 | $63 | $116 |
Jul β21 | 12 | 56 | 5,870 | $91 | $7 | $98 |
Aug β21 | 1 | 57 | 6,529 | $92 | $17 | $109 |
Sep β21 | β | 57 | 6,367 | $91 | $3 | $94 |
Oct β21 | β | 57 | 6,503 | $91 | $7 | $98 |
Nov β21 | β | 57 | 6,114 | $110 | $106 | $216 |
Dec β21 | β | 57 | 4,919 | $88 | β | $88 |
Jan β22 | β | 57 | 6,618 | $110 | $36 | $146 |
Feb β22 | 3 | 60 | 6,473 | $90 | $35 | $125 |
Mar β22 | 16 | 76 | 8,115 | $96 | $1 | $97 |
Apr β22 | 7 | 83 | 9,219 | $134 | $61 | $195 |
May β22 | 6 | 89 | 13,639 | $223 | $33 | $256 |
Jun β22 | 8 | 97 | 18,779 | $350 | $172 | $522 |
Jul β22 | 7 | 104 | 21,624 | $354 | $96 | $450 |
Aug β22 | 1 | 105 | 28,694 | $593 | $46 | $639 |
Sep β22 | 7 | 112 | 35,042 | $1,043 | $40 | $1,083 |
Oct β22 | 9 | 121 | 29,316 | $766 | $156 | $922 |
Nov β22 | 1 | 122 | 17,316 | $477 | $119 | $597 |
Dec β22 | β | 122 | 12,211 | $241 | $51 | $292 |
Jan β23 | β | 122 | 15,514 | $266 | $13 | $279 |
Feb β23 | β | 122 | 12,219 | $237 | $4 | $241 |
Mar β23 | 0 | 122 | 16,223 | $333 | $12 | $345 |
This is a seasonal site. Iβm currently in middle of re-branding. Iβll be moving it to a new domain and power-boosting with an aged domain redirect as well as a link-bait campaign. If youβre following along via my newsletter, youβll 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: Home Living
Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic) & affiliate
Month | New Posts | Total Posts | Pageviews | Ads $ | Affiliate $ | Total $ |
Summer β21 | 46 | 46 | 6,654 (July to Dec β21) | β | β | β |
Jan β22 | 42 | 88 | 1,849 | β | β | β |
Feb β22 | 106 | 194 | 2,178 | β | β | β |
Mar β22 | 27 | 221 | 3,063 | β | β | β |
Apr β22 | 7 | 228 | 4,559 | $91 | β | $91 |
May β22 | 19 | 247 | 5,704 | $154 | β | $154 |
Jun β22 | 39 | 286 | 7,469 | $244 | β | $244 |
Jul β22 | 32 | 318 | 12,675 | $348 | $56 | $404 |
Aug β22 | 23 | 341 | 23,562 | $568 | $49 | $616 |
Sep β22 | 28 | 369 | 24,240 | $766 | $49 | $815 |
Oct β22 | 34 | 403 | 26,081 | $862 | $107 | $969 |
Nov β22 | 7 | 410 | 24,027 | $926 | $8 | $934 |
Dec β22 | 2 | 412 | 23,765 | $678 | $5 | $683 |
Jan β23 | 0 | 412 | 32,310 | $761 | $49 | $811 |
Feb β23 | 0 | 412 | 29,492 | $670 | $111 | $781 |
Mar β23 | 0 | 412 | 33,859 | $722 | $45 | $767 |
This is a fresh domain with a relevant aged-domain redirected to a relevant silo on the site.
Site 6: Performance Report
Started: September 2022
Niche: Not disclosed
Monetization: Affiliate
Month | New Posts | Total Posts | Pageviews | Ads $ | Affiliate $ | Total $ |
Sep β22 | 12 | 12 | 9 | β | β | β |
Oct β22 | 8 | 20 | 55 | β | β | β |
Nov β22 | 13 | 33 | 139 | β | β | β |
Dec β22 | 17 | 50 | 351 | β | β | β |
Jan β23 | 15 | 65 | 1,752 | β | $5 | $5 |
Feb β23 | 7 | 72 | 2,184 | β | $8 | $8 |
Mar β23 | 17 | 89 | 5,483 | β | $49 | $49 |
This is a fresh domain in a niche that Iβm super passionate about. Iβm very excited to see how far I can take this site.
Income Summary
Overall Earnings This Month By Niche Site
- Site 1: $840 ( previous month $1,032)
- Site 2: $345 ( previous month $241)
- Site 5: $767 ( previous month $781)
- Site 6: $49 ( previous month $8)
Total Earnings From This Selection of Sites: $2,001 ( previous month $2,062 )
Niche Website Earnings by Source
- Ezoic Display Ads: $1,398 ( previous month $1,420 )
- Affiliate: $603 ( previous month $643 )
Outgoings
Running any website or blog involves having expenses. I could run extremely lean and just have my hosting costs if I wanted.
However, Iβm playing the long game, and I donβt 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 donβt view content costs as an expense. Investing in good content is exactly that β an investment in the site. Iβll list my content costs separately below.
Hereβs 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
Iβve 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.
Oh how things change! I have changed how I produce content. I bought a lifetime deal for KoalaWriter which does an amazing job at creating first draft AI-assisted content. Sadly, the lifetime deal is no longer running. Read my KoalaWriter review that Iβm working on.
I pay an editor $8 per article to review the content produced by KoalaWriter. She fact-checks the content and adds some human personality to the content. Weβre at the early stages of this new production workflow, Iβll keep you updated.
Content Investment in Current Month
- $2,449.30 on a lifetime deal for KoalaWriter. This will provide 1,000,000 words per month if using GPT 3.5 or 200,000 words using GPT 4. Thatβs per month! Per life. Amazing deal.
- $197 on ZimmWriter Lifetime deal. Another awesome first draft creator. Still testing, but itβs looking great so far.
- I took a temporary break from content publishing this month, will be back publishing soon!
Thatβs the end of the income report.
See you next month!