August 2019 – Freelance and Blogging Income Report

I thought a lot about whether or not I wanted to publish a monthly freelance and blogging income report but after thinking about the pros and cons, I know how helpful they were to me prior to making the leap into the world of freelancing and blogging. It is my hope that these reports will continue to show my growth as the months go on and showcase what is possible when working from home.

Some of the links on my website are affiliate links, which means, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase.

I’ve been blogging now for several months but didn’t monetize my blog until this month, which is exciting! Knowing that I can make small amounts through affiliate marketing and promoting products I use and truly love is amazing.

NOTE: While I am in Canada, most services and clients are billed/paid in USD currency so that’s what currency I am continuing to use for these reports.

Updates this Month:

I switched my website from Squarespace to WordPress this month, which was a large under-taking but it was made a little easier because I purchased the amazing ChicServe WordPress theme from BluChic. I’m so happy with the results and am loving being on WordPress!

Why did I make the switch? As much as I love Squarespace, now that I’m venturing more and more into the blogging world, I felt that WordPress would be a better fit for my website and brand.

I was able to publish 9 articles on my blog this month, and have been focusing on my Pinterest strategy for traffic which has been very successful this month! If you want more Pinterest tips, I suggest reading this blog post I wrote: 5 Tips to Increase Your Pinterest Views

This Month’s Revenue Breakdown:

Monthly Clients: $4220
One Time Services: $780
Courses: $300
Affiliate Marketing: $97.25

Total August 2019 Revenue: $5397.25

For my first month of doing affiliate marketing, I’m actually quite impressed that I had any results this month! And it proves that I am marketing the right products to my audience and am accurately showing my love for the things I am promoting.

My monthly clients dropped a bit this month because I am raising prices and taking on less clients per month, so I also expected that to drop slightly (it was $5000 in July 2019).

This Month’s Expenses Breakdown:

Subcontractors / Writers: $612
Bluchic WordPress Theme: $129
Bluehost Website Hosting: $157.58 (yearly)
Tailwind: $89.96 (I have 2 Plus plans and power ups)
Pinterest Ads: $55.64
Later: $49
Calendly: $10
Zoom: $14.99
Monday: $50
Asana: $37.50
Teachable: $99
Pink Pom Pom Social: $16.96
SEMRush: $99.95
Dubsado: $35
Canva Pro: $12.95
Pinterest VA Membership: $99
SavvyVault Course: $97
Adobe Photoshop Subscription: $9.99
Tasty Pins WordPress Plugin: $29

Total Monthly Expenses: $1694.53

Net Profit:

Total Revenue ($5397.25) – Total Expenses ($1694.53) = $3702.72

Keep in mind, my net profit is before my 30% held back for taxes, equipment costs, etc.

With switching my website to WordPress this month, I had some larger yearly subscription expenses that had to come out this month (looking at you, Bluehost!) but rather than split the payment across the next 12 months, for these reports, I am going to include revenue and expenses when they are paid to make it easier on myself to create these reports accurately. Months that yearly payments come out will definitely have a higher expenses number but that’s how it rolls when it comes to online businesses.

Website Traffic:

My July 2019 traffic went way up to 1.9k sessions for the month, and August stayed around the same which is great. Sure, I’d love more growth but maintaining traffic in the summertime months is fantastic, especially since I experienced such a huge jump from June to July.

My Goals for September 2019:

• Make a net profit of $4500
• Gain 3 new clients
• Have 2500 number of monthly views on my website for the month
• Post 10 blog posts this month
• Gain 200 Pinterest followers and have 2000 click throughs to my website from Pinterest (in August I had 1425)
• Grow my email list to 275 subscribers (currently at 258)
• Send out 2 email newsletters
• Make $200 in affiliate marketing revenue for the month
• Post consistently on Instagram again (whoops, client work has pushed this to the side lately!)
• Create and finish a Resources page for my website
• Hit 1000 followers on Instagram (yes, I preach often how follower counts don’t matter, but I would still love to hit this milestone number)

These are a lot of lofty goals but I’m confident that I can hit most, if not all of them with putting some strategies in place and focusing on what is important. I’ll be posting an income report for September to see if I met my goals for the month!

I hope this freelance and blogging income report was interesting to read!