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Note: This post originally appeared on BreakingTheOnePercent.com, before we merged DollarSprout and BTOP together.
I think a lot of blog income reports suck.
Actually, no. I think most blog income reports suck.
To be honest, I’m not even really sure why I still read them. I guess there’s always a small part of me that thinks that maybe I’ll find some useful tidbit of info.
I get why they are so popular. People want to know what’s inside the black box of “making money blogging.” We want to find the “secret” to profitable blogging — but what we usually end up getting is a regurgitated, copy-and-pasted, no-original-advice-whatsoever post that’s nothing more than a thinly-veiled promotion of affiliate products.
(I’ll get this part out of the way now: If you want to start a blog, we recommend Hostgator. Use code BTOP60 for 60% off, and check out this tutorial if you need help. There — I’m done!)
People looking to make extra money are often sold the dream of making a bajillion dollars a month from blogging, and it’s gotten kind of old. I see it happen all the time (and hey, I’m no saint either. I’ve had my fair share of sales-y attempts to sell hosting/courses/etc.).
But now that our own blogs are starting to see some real success, I’ve noticed myself becoming even more jaded with the “make money blogging” world.
That’s why I’m treating this blog income report differently
The other day I asked people in our blogging Facebook group what they wanted to know.
How do you split your time between multiple blogs effectively without letting one wane?
I won’t sugarcoat it — having multiple people helps a lot. Even if we just had one site, I don’t know how one person could ever do it all. It’s way too much.
When I say that, I mean it’s too much for the level that we want to reach.It’s definitely possible to make money blogging as a solo operation, but I think reaching the $100k/mo stratosphere levels is highly unlikely for someone starting in 2018 and doing it alone.
Break it down for us. How much of your income comes from BTOP, VTX, and DS?
This breakdown isn’t perfect, but it’s very close (I’m too lazy to go through our 8+ networks and add up all the subIDs):
BTOP: 30%
VTX: 53% (organic traffic helps a ton here)
DollarSprout: 17% (Remember, this site is less than 3 months old. Launched October 13, 2017)
How do you negotiate better rates with affiliate partners?
This post shows me in action as I negotiate with an affiliate and get a 12.5% pay raise. You should read it.
How do you create compelling Pinterest graphics for saturated topics?
Long story short: never stop experimenting.
Different calls to action, different fonts, different verbiage, different everything. Just keep trying everything. People think making 1 or 2 pins for a post is enough and it is definitely not enough.
And don’t worry, Pinterest even encourages you to make multiple pins leading to the same landing page:
How do you prioritize what to work on?
I think I need to do a better job of this, actually. I pretty much just work on what’s most urgent first (usually my inbox) and then I work on whatever I am most motivated to work on that day.
If I know I’ve neglected something for a while, I try to address it. I’ve never really been capable of having Monday be Content Day, Tuesday be Social Media Day, Wednesday be SEO Day, etc. I sorta just try to do everything at once. Don’t be like me.
Those were the biggest questions for this blog income report.
Do you like this format? If you aren’t in our FB group, make sure you join it so you can ask your question next time.
I’m trying to keep it real here. I want to share as much as I can.
I also don’t want you to feel like a crumb if you haven’t made money from your blog yet.
Creating anything that brings in $12K in one month takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. It didn’t happen overnight for us.
However hard you think you have to work to get where you want to go, multiply it by 10 and double your timeline. From my experience, that’s just how it goes.
-Jeff