Blogging Income Report

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.

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 September 2022’s Performance

What a month! 3 Google Updates! (Helpful Content, Broad Core, and then a Product Update). Then there were some major global events that also contributed to drops in traffic.

Overall, considering how much was going on, I consider myself fortunate that my main sites were only slightly affected.

September, being at the end of Q3, tends to see a slight decrease in ad rates 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 due to an increase in ad rates.

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)

MonthNew PostsTotal PostsPageviewsAds $Affiliate $Total $
Jun ’2033202–––
Jul ’20–3336–––
Aug ’204748–––
Sep ’20–722–––
Oct ’20–754–––
Nov ’2018254–––
Dec ’20210271–––
Jan ’21616434$1–$1
Feb ’21622536$3–$3
Mar ’217292,643$14$1$15
Apr ’2111404,504$34$46$80
May ’2110507,601$67$382$449
Jun ’215557,117$80$286$366
Jul ’210559,534$125$383$508
Aug ’2145912,903$148$394$542
Sep ’2105915,336$175$406$581
Oct ’2136216,735$206$701$907
Nov ’21289019,458$346$376$722
Dec ’216215214,170$280$473$753
Jan ’223618812,713$173$210$383
Feb ’22118910,899$137$348$485
Mar ’22–18913,587$154$516$670
Apr ’22419321,844$184$430$614
May ’223022329,626$305$347$652
Jun ’222324630,894$492$499$991
Jul ’221225839,760$546$830$1,376
Aug ’22526345,232$731$671$1,402
Sep ’221027343,012$917$609$1,526
Performance for Site #1
Ezoic earnings
Ezoic earnings from Site 1

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.


Site 2:

Started: September 2020

Niche: Lifestyle

Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic), Other Affiliate

MonthNew PostsTotal PostsPageviewsAds $Affiliate $Total $
Sep ’201010142–––
Oct ’201020571$1–$1
Nov ’20–20466$4–$4
Dec ’20–20542$9$5$14
Jan ’21121499$5$1$6
Feb ’21627513$5$4$9
Mar ’214311,627$7$1$8
Apr ’21–312,492$12$32$44
May ’216373,690$41$67$108
Jun ’217443,938$53$63$116
Jul ’2112565,870$91$7$98
Aug ’211576,529$92$17$109
Sep ’21–576,367$91$3$94
Oct ’21–576,503$91$7$98
Nov ’21–576,114$110$106$216
Dec ’21–574,919$88–$88
Jan ’22–576,618$110$36$146
Feb ’223606,473$90$35$125
Mar ’2216768,115$96$1$97
Apr ’227839,219$134$61$195
May ’2268913,639$223$33$256
Jun ’2289718,779$350$172$522
Jul ’22710421,624$354$96$450
Aug ’22110528,694$593$46$639
Sep ’22711235,042$1,043$40$1,083
Performance for Site #2
Ezoic earnings
Ezoic earnings from Site 2

Site 3:

Started: December 2020

Niche: Pets

Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic)

MonthNew PostsTotal PostsPageviewsAds $Affiliate $Total $
Dec ’20161642–––
Jan ’211430271$1–$1
Feb ’212050665$6–$6
Mar ’2112621,672$5$1$6
Apr ’21–622,200$10–$10
May ’21–622,946$32–$32
Jun ’21–624,276$50$4$54
Jul ’21–625,216$73–$73
Aug ’2116784,402$53–$53
Sep ’21–784,450$49$3$52
Oct ’2118964,203$46$3$49
Nov ’21–963,751$65$2$67
Dec ’21–965,474$90–$90
Jan ’22–965,933$72$3$75
Feb ’22–965,579$61$1$62
Mar ’2261025,760$66$1$67
Apr ’2271095,867$70$3$73
May ’22121216,186$73–$73
Jun ’22–1219,116$117$1$118
Jul ’22512612,247$162$2$164
Aug ’22–1269,244$126–$126
Sep ’22–1269,625$263$2$265
Performance for Site #3

Ezoic earnings
Ezoic earnings from Site 3

Site 4:

Started: March 2021

Niche: Not disclosed!

Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic)

MonthNew PostsTotal PostsPageviewsAds $Affiliate $Total $
Mar ’21121223–––
Apr ’2151720–––
May ’2142114–––
Jun ’21–2117–––
Jul ’21–2113–––
Aug ’2193039–––
Sep ’2163637–––
Oct ’21–3635–––
Nov ’21–3645–––
Dec ’21–36379–––
Jan ’22–36321–––
Feb ’22–36557–$1$1
Mar ’22–361,087–––
Apr ’22–361,553$5–$5
May ’227432,795$24–$24
Jun ’226494,339$36$1$37
Jul ’222514,707$23–$23
Aug ’227585,288$32–$32
Sep ’228662,329$17–$17
Performance for Site #4

Traffic dropped on this site – I think it was hit by one of the updates. Will wait a while to see if it recovers. I might be selling it soon. It’s difficult to feel motivated to work on a site when you don’t have a passion for the niche.

Ezoic earnings
Ezoic earnings from Site 4

Site 5:

Started: January 2022 (with some seed content posted during Summer 2021)

Niche: Not disclosed!

Monetization: Display Ads (Ezoic)

MonthNew PostsTotal PostsPageviewsAds $Affiliate $Total $
Summer ’2146466,654 (July to Dec ’21)–––
Jan ’2242881,849–––
Feb ’221061942,178–––
Mar ’22272213,063–––
Apr ’2272284,559$91–$91
May ’22192475,704$154–$154
Jun ’22392867,469$244–$244
Jul ’223231812,675$348$56$404
Aug ’222334123,562$568$49$616
Sep ’222836924,240$766$49$815
Performance for Site #5

Traffic was only very slightly up this month, but the ad rates went way up which I think is because my overall portfolio traffic (in Ezoic) hit a new Premium level.

Ezoic earnings
Ezoic earnings from Site 5

Income Summary

Overall Earnings This Month By Niche Site

  • Site 1: $1,527 (previous month $1,402)
  • Site 2: $1,097 (previous month $639)
  • Site 3: $266 (previous month $126)
  • Site 4: $17 (previous month $32)
  • Site 5: $815 (previous month $616)

Total Earnings From This Selection of Sites: $3,722 (previous month $2,815)

Niche Website Earnings by Source

  • Ezoic Display Ads: $3,006 (previous month $2,050)
  • Affiliate: $715 (previous month $765)

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:

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: $617
  • Site 2: $239
  • Site 3: $0
  • Site 4: $363
  • Site 5: $841
  • TOTAL Estimated Content Investment this month: $2,060

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!

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