I started blogging way back in April 2006, but truth be told, for almost two years I didn’t make any money as a blogger.
Even though I had good intentions, and I worked hard, I didn’t really know what I was doing, and I was too cheap and too stubborn to invest in proper training and mentoring.
So I spent almost two years trying to figure everything out on my own, and didn’t really make any money with my blog, even though I wanted to.
Then at the end of 2007, after a lot of needless frustration, I decided that enough was enough.
I got some proper training and mentoring and in January 2008 I set a goal to start making money with my Blog.
At first it was slow, but by July 2008 I had made around $2,700 from my Blog in that month – working on it part-time.
Around the same time I decided to quit my corporate job and to pursue making money online from home on a full time basis, but instead of continuing to focus on growing my blog income I decided to focus primarily on affiliate marketing.
Some of my the people I met as a blogger were making a LOT of money doing affiliate marketing and I saw it as a faster way to replace my income than blogging, which I saw as a more longer-term way of building up an income.
I also explored many other income streams, ranging from starting niche blogs & websites, to running a software development company, to network marketing and of course affiliate marketing.
In the end, all of these different income streams paid off, and now allow me to make a comfortable 6-figure income working from home, but one of my primary passions throughout all this time that I always seem to go back to is blogging.
I enjoy blogging for so many reasons, but except for that brief period of time between January – August of 2008, I haven’t really focused my energy on making money from my blog.
Until now.
On January 1st of this year I decided that I really want to focus on building up an income as a blogger.
And one of my first goals that I want to hit is for my blog to be making at least enough money per month to pay for my new car.
I haven’t actually picked the exact car I want yet, but my goal is to get my blog generating at least a minimum of $500/month, which would most likely cover the car payment on my new car.
I may end up deciding to up that goal to $750-$900/month if I decide to get a more luxurious car, but I haven’t decided yet.
In either case, what I want to do is to build up this blog and just like I did back in the beginning of 2008, I want to stat posting regular blog income reports showing how much money I’m making from my blog each month.
I want to do this to both keep me accountable to my audience, but also to hopefully inspire others who enjoy blogging to make money with their blogs.
I know back in 2008, when I was doing monthly income reports, I got a lot of emails and comments from people who were inspired by my success and I think if I can build up an enough income with my blog to be able to pay for a car, that will inspire a lot of other people as well.
There are a lot of gurus out there who make HUGE amounts of money online, and I know that the six-figure and seven-figure incomes that some of these guys make per month are probably a lot more inspiring than the $500-$900 target I’m setting for myself – BUT – I also think there’s a lot of inspiration to be gained from making even $100 or $200 or $500 per month with a blog.
And since I hardly did any blogging at all from 2012 to 2014 as I was focused on other projects and income streams, and since the whole online world has changed pretty drastically since 2008, I’m pretty much starting from scratch here.
This month I’ll be working on putting together a tracking sheet for all my income streams that I generate money from as a blogger and I’ll probably have my first income report ready by the end of the month.
I’m not sure how long it will take me to get to the point where my blog income can pay for my new car, but it’s going to be fun to go on this journey. 🙂
If you’d like to learn how to make money from your blog as well, feel free to contact me for more info or watch this video, but just as a quick disclaimer, my results are not typical as I’m not a typical person, so check out my income disclaimer here if you’d like.