November Income Report: My Highest Blog Earnings to Date

This post may contain affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure.

There’s a common misconception that you have to create and sell your own products in order to make money blogging. In this November income report, I’m going to share exactly how I increased my blog income from $100 per month to nearly $3,000.

I’ll share struggles and wins and how I took time off and still bounced back to earn more money this month blogging than ever before. The future is bright, and I can’t wait to see what 2020 brings!

Before we get started, if you’ve been considering starting a blog of your own, check out these tools and resources for beginner bloggers. I’ve compiled all of the tools and strategies into one single page that you can bookmark or pin for later.

Pageviews – Traffic and Stats

Surprisingly, November wasn’t my highest month for traffic (even though my income was so much higher than every other month).

The blog received just under 40,000 pageviews, a huge improvement from last year. I launched this blog in January of 2018, and the entire first year I only earned $1500. My pageviews hovered around 10,000 for most of the year, and I didn’t realize that I could have applied to Monumetric ad network to increase my earnings.

As you can see, readers are spending over 4 minutes on average on a page, but my bounce rate is pretty high. This is something I’m actively working on so that people see the true benefits of what I have to offer here at Perfection Hangover.

Here’s how I made money blogging in November 2019.

NOVEMBER INCOME

• YoDerm: $90
• Amazon Associates: $263.54
• Rakuten: $25.30
• Sponsored Posts: $475
• Tailwind through Shareasale: $69.90
• Bluehost: $75
• YouTube Ad Revenue (with less than 4k subscribers!): $235.74
• Mediavine Ad Revenue: $1,285.67
• Monumetric Affiliate: $15.89
• Christian Healthcare Ministries: $175

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Total Gross Income: $2,711.04

Now, to many people, this doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but for me to be able to work from home while raising three kids, it’s a lot.

Last year I actually applied for a part-time job to help out with the bills and get me out of the house. The blog really wasn’t earning much at that time, and this job would be 19 hours per week and paid $10 per hour.

The manager who interviewed me showed up 15 minutes late, and I just had a bad vibe. I didn’t even get a call-back, and honestly, it was for the best. God knew what He was doing when he denied me that opportunity. I hunkered down and got to work on my own online business.

[ss_click_to_tweet tweet=”Even though I didn’t get the job and that $760 per month would have been nice, I earned almost 4x that in a single month blogging, and I didn’t even have to put on pants!! ” content=”Even though I didn’t get the job and that $760 per month would have been nice, I earned almost 4x that in a single month blogging, and I didn’t even have to put on pants!! ” style=”4″]

$100 per month blog income grew to $1,000 per month and is trending up to $3,000 per month, and I am so grateful!

November Expenses

Blog Hosting: $10.95

I pay for my hosting monthly through BigScoots. I upgraded from Bluehost when I started gaining more SEO traffic because BigScoots is faster. But it’s also much more expensive than Bluehost. I pay $10.95 per month for hosting through BigScoots.

But if you’re thinking of starting a blog of your own, I recommend the 36-month hosting plan on sale for Black Friday/Cyber Monday for just $2.65 per month.

It’s the most affordable way to start a blog, and if you get to work writing, you can earn your investment back (and then some) in no time at all.

If you decide to purchase hosting through my affiliate link for Bluehost, forward me a copy of your receipt, and I will send you a coupon for 100% off my 1-hour video training on how to perform keyword research, outline, and write blog posts to rank on page one of Google.

It also shares how I create beautiful images for sharing on Pinterest. You can send me your receipt at melissa at perfectionhangover.com, and I’ll send you the free content upgrade!

ConvertKit: $49

“They” (bloggers) keep telling me that I need to grow my email list. They say that the money is in the list, so I offer opt-ins to freebies and tools to help my readers gain control over their income and finances. I started with less than 1,000 subscribers, and it cost just $29 per month.

Now that I have more than 1,000, my price increased to $49, but I am capturing emails, gaining pageviews, and increasing affiliate sales.

Eventually, when I launch my product, I want to have a good email list of subscribers to sell these products to.

There are other, more affordable (even free starting out) email providers, such as Mailerlite, but when you outgrow their free plan and want to move over to ConvertKit, it’s a headache. Save yourself some trouble and choose one email provider that you’ll want to stick with.

Try ConvertKit for free and see for yourself. 

AAWP – Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin: $37

I LOVE this plugin, y’all. I wanted a way to create tables and lists on my site that would increase Amazon conversions, and since installing it, my Amazon affiliate income has doubled.

It paid for itself very quickly! Here is an example of how it looks on my site within a post.

If you just have one site, the single-site option is enough, but if you plan on having multiple sites, you may want to choose the next level up.

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Total Expenses: $96.95

Net Income: $2364.09

Blogging Wins –

Mediavine – The Game Changer

Obviously, the top source of income was completely passive, from Mediavine display ads. I am a fan of Monumetric for ad revenue when you reach 10,000 pageviews, but as soon as I switched to Mediavine, my income increased so quickly!

I joined Mediavine on September 17th, and my first full month with them earned $769 with 44,000 pageviews. This month, I had fewer pageviews but my RPM skyrocketed!

That’s what I love about Mediavine. They give you actionable tips and tricks to increase your RPM and income. Their customer service is hard to beat, in my opinion.

If you’re hovering around 10,000 pageviews, apply to Monumetric until you reach 25k sessions. Those small paychecks, in the beginning, are so rewarding and motivate you to keep going!

My very first income report showed $1,541.82 of income, but it was for an entire year of blogging.

Spoiler alert: the last six months of the year I was severely depressed and dealing with a lot, so my blog took the back burner while I focused on self-care.

When I finally picked myself up and started writing again, my income started snowballing from there. Here’s a compilation of all of my income reports that I’ve published.

3 Things I Focused on to Increase Blog Income in November

1. Mediavine RPM

It’s no secret that advertisers raise their budgets during Q4. Black Friday and Cyber Monday (and the holidays in general) are a great time to capture buyers.

Case in Point: My RPM with Mediavine shot up to $65.47 on Black Friday!

I realize that it won’t always be this glorious, but I’m riding the high while it lasts!

2. SEO

I have been focusing on SEO since the beginning, but I realized when I started making it my #1 priority, my organic traffic and income started going up!

I’ve learned everything I know about SEO from Google and YouTube, and I’ve done okay, but a few things I’m doing to increase my organic search traffic include:

1. Stupid Simple SEO – I’m taking Mike Pearson’s course, learning how to really optimize my blog so that I don’t have to rely on Pinterest for traffic. Pinterest is great, but Google is your bread and butter!
2. Cleaning up Old Posts – I realized that several of my old posts are missing a keyword in Yoast plugin, and I really didn’t optimize them well at all. So one by one, I’m cleaning them up and optimizing them.
3. I’m focusing on getting more backlinks and raising my domain authority. This is a bit of an advanced task, so if you’re a newer blogger, the best advice I can give you is to sign up for a free account with HARO.Then respond to all of the inquiries you are qualified for, and you’ll end up with some really quality links back to your site. Sometimes, unfortunately, reporters don’t link to your site, and while it’s frustrating, it can help with Google’s new E-A-T algorithm.

In November, I achieved my highest Google search pageviews in a single day at 1,042 pageviews on Black Friday?! Do you think it’s a coincidence that Black Friday was also my highest RPM and ad revenue day as well?

[ss_click_to_tweet tweet=”Buyers searching Google who land on YOUR website have the intent to purchase something. Google knows this, and advertisers know this! That’s why SEO is so important to your blogging strategy!” content=”Buyers searching Google who land on YOUR website have the intent to purchase something. Google knows this, and advertisers know this! That’s why SEO is so important to your blogging strategy!” style=”4″]

3. Pinterest

While Google is King when it comes to traffic, Pinterest is most certainly a queen diva, and she needs attention, too.

To help me with my Pinterest traffic, I learned manual pinning strategies from Carly at MommyOnPurpose.

When I paired Carly’s strategies with Tailwind’s tools and resources, my blog traffic from this source also increased.

New Posts Published in November

I was busy last month, publishing 9 new posts and republishing some older, updated content as well!

• How to Start a Rental Business for Passive Income
• 5 Tips to Follow If You’re a New Landlord
• 17 Side Hustle Ideas for Moms Who Already Work
• 10-Year Challenge | Family Goals and Financial Plans
• Christmas Wish List: Gift Ideas for the Women in Your Life
• 2019 Black Friday Cyber Monday Deals for Bloggers
• Financial Advice to my Younger Self | Lessons for my Kids
• Poshmark Review | Make Money Decluttering and Reselling
• How to Be Financially Savvy When Buying a Home

Most Popular Posts in November

• 17 Things Frugal People Usually Don’t Do
• Tieks Review: How I Saved $25 Off my First Pair and Were They Worth It?
• It’s Not Personal, Karen. I just HATE Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)
• Why I Quit Beachbody Coaching {The Truth About Multi-Level Marketing}
• 76 Side Hustle Ideas You’ve Probably Never Considered

Top Referring Posts in November

I want to give a huge shout out and sincere ‘thank you’ to these bloggers and publications who provided the most referral traffic this month!

• The Ladders – Careers and Business
• Melissa Blevins’ Perfection Hangover Cure Offers an Answer to Overcoming Obstructions
• CHM Review: Healthcare on a Budget
• Wallet Hacks Feature – Donating Blood Plasma for Extra Cash

Wrapping up November Blog Income

A year ago, when I was on the verge of quitting blogging, I knew that there was the possibility of growing. I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to do it, but I knew that I was determined to make it work.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to help other women like me realize their dreams of staying home while raising babies and sharing their gifts with the world.

The reason I share these blogging income reports is that I want to inspire you to take action and do something for yourself. Everyone has gifts and talents and something to share/say to the world.

Go here to learn how to start a blog.