Blog income, I made $60,582 online in 2015

Credit

Out of laziness I have stopped doing these monthly blog income recaps on MMYW after January, and that is too bad, because I didn’t keep goo track of the expenses for the blogs. So I hope you will excuse me if this post is a bit vague.

The expenses were mostly my VA, who got a raise in July on her second work anniversary and now costs me $300 a month for 20 hours a week.

Other than this, hosting at Hostgator and domains from Godaddy,  maybe a few Fiverr gigs,  I didn’t spend much. Based on my last Hostgator and Godaddy invoices, that’s about $120 for all three sites for the year. I kept my designs on Genesis, we are due for a site overall on every one of them, but I will keep them on Genesis as I am happy with the support and looks of the sites.

I stopped working with staff writers, although I am now looking for paid guest posts on Savvy Scot, details here if you’re interested.

Expenses were kept under $4,000, which is a steal to run three businesses and generate fifteen times as much.

My goal was to make $60,000 blogging in 2014, and I made $70,423. I set the bar higher for 2015, with a $75,000 goal. This time my friends, I missed superbly.

In 2015, I made $60,582 blogging.

It is still a ton of money and I am grateful for you and every reader who helped make that a reality.

$5,048 is a very nice monthly income, and my hourly rate was over $100 as I barely spent more than 10 hours a week on these blogs.

As usual, 10% of blogging income will go to sponsor young girls’ education in my village.

That is something else I have been pretty silent about, and will made a full post soon. Last year, I kept going with the project of computer classes, scholarships, uniforms and a library for the  kids in my Guatemalan village. I also received volunteers from all over the world who came for a few weeks or a few months to teach English to the kids. They were ecstatic to get teachers from other countries come and visit them to their little village. It was very touching. But that’s for another post.

What I did well online:

• I kept in touch with my network of advertisers. If anything, I was writing every now and then to see if they had campaigns. 90% of my blogging time was made managing the business.

• My VA kept social media alive. Social media was a great referring channel, she focused on that.

• I travelled most of the year but kept on top of things. I think I spent four months at home last year. I went to seven countries, and didn’t always have internet, yet managed to stay afloat.

What I sucked at:

• Writing consistently. Life took over, a lot happened in 2015, and I didn’t publish nearly enough content. Writing 100% of the content on three blogs was too ambitious. I am looking to scale back on Savvy Scot and write more on the other two.

• Managing my inbox. It is a mess and as a result I have missed on following up with people who could have brought me an income. Checking your emails while traveling, from your phone, in half an hour so you can go back hiking, isn’t ideal. I chose my priorities.

• Reaching out to my peers. Connecting with other bloggers is very important. I was about to go to FinCon as I was in the U.S. two weeks before, but the house swap I had for these two weeks fell through and I didn’t feel like looking for alternatives. I’m an introvert and I wasn’t sure I’d do well anyway. But writing an email to people once in a while, that I can do. And should have done way more in 2015.

• Investing. Spend money to make money. Investing more in the blogs is one of my goals for 2016.

And my main goal for 2016 is… *drumroll* … I will shoot for $100,000 after expenses. That will have to be about $10,000 a month before expenses as I plan on investing in my growth. That seems crazy but if you can make half passively, you just have to figure out how to make the other half!

What are your blogging goals for 2016? How will you reach them?