This is my first time ever sharing my blogging income report! Yes, I trying something outside my comfort zone and really pulling back the curtain. Why? For a long time I felt like why would anyone want to read about my blog income, but this year I thought why not give it a try!
Each blogger I know makes money from blogging in similar or different ways and I want to share mine with you.
Now I am using my blog income report to show you that any income that comes your way through your blog should be celebrated and you don’t need to compare yourself to anyone. Your only competition should be yourself. I hope mine gives you some insight into how bloggers get paid but also that there are many different ways you can get paid as a blogger.
Today, I’m going to show you how I made $1,962.38 last year with my blog.
Why I Decided to Share my Blog Income Report
If you’re new to City of Creative Dreams, as I mentioned at the start, I don’t typically share my blog income report because honestly I never thought it was enough to share. In fact, if you are similar to me, blogging income reports used to pull me into imposter syndrome. It made me feel like I was doing something wrong because I wasn’t making $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 or $50,000 income a month like:
- FinSavvy Panda – made $22,343.23 in November 2021
- The She Approach – made $150,000 in November 2020
- By Sophia Lee – made over $43,000 in May 2020
However, you know what? That mindset changes now because after blogging for years, I want to celebrate all of my income moments big, small and even non-existent.
This is such a brilliant way to track my journey but also inspire upcoming new bloggers out there (like you) that making money online is possible but each journey is different. You can do it and you don’t have to be the same as everyone else. Yes, you got this!
My Blogging Journey
I am just like you. Really, I am. I started as a brand new blogger back in 2013, who didn’t know a single thing about starting a blog. If you want the real tea, I simply saw a blog website that I loved, who had the same passion for organizing as me while taking care of my newborn son and said I could do that. True fact.
I can’t tell you how many hours I spent on Google searching for how to start a blog and then designing this website. Believe me, this blog of mine has been through templates each year until I found one that I truly love.
Not to mention that I had no experience with designing, Pinterest or any social media platform, or marketing techniques back then. It was all a learning on-the-go style that I was so unfamiliar with. Basically, I took a chance.
I was just a girl who loved organizing and sharing tips and products that worked for me with hopes that it would help one person out there. That is all! A fun place of my own to share my love of home organizing, wedding planning and natural lifestyle.
Now, it is continuing to thrive and I believe that it is such a great way to express yourself and your passions on your own terms.
In the beginning, I made mistakes. I thought creating blog posts five days a week was productive to get ahead. It was exhausting, caused a lot of burnout and took the joy from what I loved.
Today, I spend a few hours a week maintaining this blog, which allows me to spend more time on other passions, businesses I own and love, self-care and my family. Which is completely different from my old 9-5 job!
How to Start a Blog and Make Money with no Experience
You are not alone in searching for how to start a blog because I have been there too. I have searched this up when I was first starting out. Like I mentioned before, I never had any experience in blogging, but the freedom of having one made me excited. Not to mention the thought of possibly making money from it blew my mind.
At first, I started with a free Blogger account. It was great at first and I used it for many years but then I wanted more and switched to a self-hosted WordPress website. To be honest with you, I wish I had started my blog on WordPress from the beginning. This company has done wonders for my blog.
If you’re still thinking about it, stop thinking and start a blog! I love encouraging anyone to start a blog because it has been such an exciting ride. However, I do notice that every time I say that to someone, I get these comments back:
- You need to be an expert at something to be a blogger.
- I am not a good writer.
- You need a blog post every day or week and I don’t have the time.
- I don’t have good enough tech.
- You need experience in writing, SEO, marketing, tech to be a blogger.
That is absolutely NOT true! As much as I love writing and it comes naturally to me that doesn’t mean that I was born to be a blogger. I only used to write short fiction stories, fiction novels and poems. None of which I do as a blogger.
Words of Wisdom for those Thinking about Starting a Blog
The only way to get experience in anything is to learn. Just like the only way to start a blog is to take action and start one. My blog posts in my starter years were not anywhere as good as they are now. I only got experience because I kept trying and learning and increasing my skills for the better.
The key to blogging to me is to write like talking to one of your friends. You don’t need to go to school to become a blogger and you don’t need to be an expert at something in order to do it. All you need is to have a passion, able to tell someone how to do it, snap photos or find free stock photos and press publish.
Yes, your first blog posts might not be to your standards but you know what, you can fix and adjust it later. It doesn’t need to be perfect to press publish.
Just start! Because if you were waiting for the perfect time, the perfect tech or the perfect outcome, it will never happen. However, if you trust the imperfect, messy journey of it all, you make progress. Before you know it, brands will want to collab and you will be able to create programs and paid digital products that best suit your audience.
BONUS: If you are interested, I would love to help beginners like you! You can learn more about how to start a blog for beginners here!
2021 Blog Income Report
As of this blog post, I have been blogging for 8 years. In fact, you can check out my 8th Anniversary blog post here. Woot, woot! You might be looking at the amount made and wonder if that is how long it takes to make money blogging? The answer is no.
City of Creative Dreams was a hobby blog for many years before I personally felt that it could be more of a business and only recently fully decided to turn it into one.
I’ll be honest, for many years I didn’t feel good enough to make money through my blog. After all, I was a different blogger who prefers to only share products that I personally love and use. That is incredibly important to me and will always stand by that instead of adding affiliate codes to everything. I would rather be 100% myself than lie and say I like something I don’t personally like using just for money.
The majority of those products I personally use don’t always have affiliate links to them but I share them anyway. I also do not use many different products either, so once I find the perfect product for me, I am a lifer until it is discontinued lol. If you are interested in seeing what I like using you can check it out here.
Plus, I only make evergreen content so you will never find holiday/seasonal content on my blog. That means that, unlike other bloggers, my income choices are not always on the same level field and I constantly need to be creative with my blog content and don’t rely on holidays for my blog content.
Lastly, I offer a jaw-dropping free organizing printables library for my subscribers that could have been a source of income for me but I chose to keep it free. Why? Because I care about my audience and my goal is to provide them with a source of value to them over asking for payment.
Alright, now that is out of the way, here are my blog income report numbers!
Blog Income Report: How I Made $1,962.38 Blogging in 2021
This is it! The moment you’ve been waiting for! Drum roll, please! Here is how I made $1,962.38 blogging in 2021 and my total blog income for the year 2021.
- Giveaway Collaboration
- Paid Sponsored Posts
- Wedding Planning HQ – a wedding planning guide & online course to help you plan your wedding.
- Wedding Planning Blueprint – a free mini-course
- The 4 Behind-The-Scene to Wedding Planning Sucess – a free webinar
- Inspired by Organizing – Custom Home Organizing E-Designs
- Virtual Assisting Service – Social media manager/ assisting other tasks.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, you got to read about my journey and go behind the scene to see my blog income report on how I made $1,962.38 blogging in 2021. No, right now, I don’t make $5,000 – $10,000 dollars each month but I made something and to me, that is what matters most.
Blogging isn’t always so glamorous and it does take work. However, it is worth it in the end because you get to create your own world, your own community and your own space that you have the utmost control over.
Tell me, is starting a blog yourself, something you are curious about? Also, do you want to see more blog income reports? Let me know in the comments below!
- How to Start A Blog Awesome Tips For Newbies
- 7 Year Blogiversary – The Most Important Blogging Advice for Newbies
- 3 Tips To Write Great Blog Posts In Half The Time
