Look How Much These Bloggers Have Made Less Than 5 Years

Have you been blogging for a while? Or did you just plunge into it?

Maybe you find your focus waning, feeling lost among the gazillion things to do, and being completely overwhelmed or suffering from burnout between creating quality content and promoting your blog.

Well, you are not alone.

I say we take a small break.

And what better way to refresh ourselves than drooling over these super bloggers’ income reports?

I shamelessly proclaim that drooling is my pastime. Not any drooling, mind you.

Maybe you’re completely new to the blogging world. You’ve heard one or two things about it recently and want to see what all the fuss is about.

Well, blogging is not all about money. But you’d better get used to talking about money, though, because that’s what we’re going to do here.

What Do Super Bloggers’ Income Reports Tell Us

We’ve heard about bloggers’ accountability and transparency in publishing their income reports.

But don’t forget, they do have a vested interest in doing so.

That’s how they make money. Well, most of it. It’s the nature of the business.

But the takeaway for us all is their direct message:

If I can do this, so can you.

It’s a wonderful message, and a valid one at that.

So, let’s see all the possibilities here and say:

Look at these wonderful, hard-working individuals who have accomplished so much just within the past 5 years.

But make sure you aren’t comparing your baby step ($0.18 earning) to these bloggers’ giant step ($18,000.00 earning).

Remember, every blogger on this post started with a baby step.

Heck, they probably have 1,000+ posts up and running while we fret over a handful of posts.

So let’s remind ourselves that they started with a handful of posts at one point too, just like us.

What’s in These Income Reports?

Each website assembled here has the following details:

• The date the website was registered—I’m not a stalker, I promise. You can check them on ICANN’s WHOIS lookup. It tells us the date when each blogger registered a domain name.
• The first income reported—how long it took to make that elusive first income.
• The latest income reported—how long it took from the first income to get to where they are; what’s possible.
• Key takeaways from each blogger

Are You Sure You are Not a Stalker? Why Check Their Domain Registration Date?

I swear I’m not. ha.

Registering a domain name is a decisive action.

The very first step that a blogger takes to make a go at blogging.

Some may register a domain first. Forget about it. Months pass by. Re-visit and start working on it.

But it gives us an objective point: when did it all begin (even just the thought of it) and how long did it take to progress?

For example, some bloggers may report it took them three months to earn their first income. But from the registration point of view, it’s actually 6 months.

We want to be more prudent with our expectations, don’t we?

How Long to Make Money Blogging

You’ve heard a lot (and wondered a lot) about how long it takes to make money blogging, right?

Generally, anywhere from 6 months to 4+ years.

These five bloggers are living proof.

They made a full-time income in less than 5 years in the game. Much less.

But ultimately –and I’m sorry to be obvious —what you’ll achieve is in direct proportion to the time and dedication you put in.

And this is a monthly report, by the way, not a yearly one.

Are you ready to have your eyes pop out?

(But be sure to put them right back in—you have tons of work to do!)

Let’s start with the first blogger:

Believe In a Budget—from $61.83 to $33,406.12 in just over 3 years.
The date the website was registered – July 2014
The first income reported – $61.83 April 2015
The latest income reported – $33,406.12 (Net $15,135.12) March 2018

Kristin is by far one of the biggest inspirational bloggers out there.

Turned her part-time blogging into a fully-fledged business within a year.

Registered her domain name July 2014. Published her first blog post Jan 2015.

So 8 months’ prep time from the domain registration date to her first income March 2015 which was reported a month later.

What’s impressing is that she posted 2 or 3 times per week consistently (and kept it up for nearly a year) when she started her blog.

We know how challenging it can be, right?

Have to be really disciplined to post 2 or 3 times a week.

And she did all this whilst in full-time employment.

Another thing is that she always had a goal in mind.

She counts all of her income as they hit the bank account. So, there’s no inflation in any of her income reports.

Great stuff.

Adventure In You – from $500 to $12,621 in about 3 years.
The date the website was registered – Sept 2014
The first income reported – $500 within a few months in early 2015
The latest income reported – $12,621 (Net $11,427) March 2018

Adventure In You is a travel blog run by Tom and Anna, clearly, adventurers enjoying life while making money.

Started the blog in early 2015. And made the first $500 income within a few months.

They registered their domain name Sept 2014. So a 5-6 months’ time frame for their first income.

The website has full of information, especially for beginners.

If you’re interested in a travel blog, you should definitely check them out.

One thing that stood out to me was that they advise to “work out a solid monetisation strategy from day 1’ and focus on growing one revenue stream at a time ” to avoid getting overwhelmed.

Another thing is, when they first started their blog, they thought they were too late to the game and wouldn’t be able to make money.

Good job they got over that and just went for it.

Chasing Foxes – from $514.85 to $10,266 in just over 2 years.
The date the website was registered – Jan 2016
The first income reported – $514.85 May 2016
The latest income reported – $10,266 Feb 2018

Silas and Grace, a husband and wife team, run Chasing Foxes.

On the Feb 2018 income report, they mentioned they’d made $3,000 in 3 months after launching the blog.

Their first income $514.85 May 2016 includes the first 2 months of blogging income.

So $3,000 in 3 months from launching the blog seems slightly contradictory.

They spent 3-4 months doing tons of research prior to launching their blog. Once they had 40 posts ready to publish, they launched the website.

We can reasonably assume it took 5-6 months for their first income.

It shows how committed they must have been from the get-go.

Getting 40 posts ready prior to launching and, once it’s done, getting down to business straight: register domain, publish and promote.

Given their focus and commitment, it’s no surprise they’ve achieved such a high-income level just over 2 years.

Definitely worked hard as well as smart, looking at their tips on Pinterest.

The Practical Saver – from $657.17 to about $32,650 less than 3 years.
The date the website was registered – Dec 2015
The first income reported – $657.17 April 2016
The latest income reported – $65,300 (for Jan & Feb 2018) May 2018

Allan runs a personal finance blog, The Practical Saver.

As of May 18, he has close to 300 posts up on his blog and spends as little as 5 hours per month on his blog.

Makes $30,000+ gross per month which is phenomenal.

Started blogging Dec 2015. But considers Feb 2016 as his official starting date.

He didn’t tell or market his blog to anyone till then.

He had a total of 49 posts published by March 2016. Made his first income April 16 from them.

So here we see.

Between 4 and 6 months since starting the blog, Alan made his first income ($657.17) from 49 posts.

Chasing Foxes ($514.85) with their 40 posts.

We see a number of posts are correlated to the income they had achieved at the beginning.

This may not always be the case with other bloggers.

But these bloggers certainly made it work.

It’s very inspiring, isn’t it?

The Frugal Millionaire – from $102.00 to $1,856.50 in 3 years.
The date the website was registered – Sept 2014
The first income reported – $102.00 March 2015
The latest income reported – $1,856.50 March 2018

Sarah is running her personal finance blog, full time with 3 kids.

Started her blog as part-time whilst in a full-time job with then 2 toddlers. Spent a few hours on her blog each week, publishing income mainly from freelancing.

Her first income from blogging was $102 March 2015 all from Google AdSense.

Took her 5 months to reach the Google AdSense payout threshold $100.

She quit her full-time job Feb 2017 after making enough from blogging.

Now blogs full time with 3 kids. But not devoting as much time as other full-time bloggers do.

Still makes decent money blogging.

She said the key to earning money with blogging is consistency.

Love her business name!

Here are a Few More You Might Want to Check Out

If you want to explore more bloggers’ income reports, here is a list of a few well-established bloggers.

They’ve been in the business 5+ years and influenced many others including some of the bloggers mentioned earlier.

Some have stopped publishing their income reports.

But you can still check out their previous reports.

Smart Passive Income – Dec 2017 – $165,553.31
Pat Flynn is probably a pioneer in the field of making money online through various methods. His website is gem-packed with amazing content. If Youtube or a podcast is your preferred learning tool, SPI is a go-to place.

Just a Girl and Her Blog – Dec 2016 – $41,700
Abby and Donnie – a wife and husband team – had stopped publishing their income reports with their last one in Dec 2016. Take note of “things they would have done differently” on the last income report. Very wise words there.

Making Sense of Cents – April 2018 – $104,065.00
You can tell many bloggers – including some mentioned earlier – have been influenced by Michelle’s success. They recommend Michell’s affiliate marketing course enthusiastically. Their own success proves that Michelle’s course works. So, they recommend it confidently.

Pinch of Yum – Nov 2016 – $95,197.34
Lindsay and Bjork – another wife and husband team – runs a very successful food blog. But, had stopped their income report Dec 2016 with blog traffic report. Check out their last report titled “What we learned and Why We Are Stopping”. Not only do they offer invaluable information about making money blogging. But, they also make you wish they were your best friends. If you’re interested in blogging about food, it’s the go-to place.

Matthew Woodward – Dec 2017 – $28,429.85
Mathew is an expert in internet marketing & SEO. His monthly report is full of detailed information about traffic, income sources, expenses and strategies. All his content is quite long. Some as long as 14,000+ words. phew. But, it’s not just about quantity. They are of superior quality. He had now stopped posting an income report to focus his time and energy on somewhere else.

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Grammarly (Free) – a great writing tool. Help you with spelling and grammar errors. It’s SO worth it even if all you do is writing an email or on social media.

BlueHost – get a super easy and reliable hosting plan from BlueHost. They also give you a free domain name for one year. Sign up here and start your blog in a few minutes.

Namecheap – get a dirt-cheap domain name if you change your mind and fancy a new domain name later (like I did).

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Mailerlite – another must-have to create email marketing campaigns: sign up forms, landing pages, surveys and so on; free up to 1,000 subscribers.

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