I share my blog income reports as part of a blog income series.
In 2023, I’m planning on focussing on content, content, and content. If you wish to learn more about how I invest in my websites, keep reading to learn more.
This blog income report will summarize my revenue sources and expenses for January 2023.
There are three essential things to note before we start:
- Most partners pay 1-3 months later. When calculating my revenue, I only counted what was paid this month. That said, the revenue found here may result from sales or income from the last few months. I’m counting my revenue this way because sometimes, a sale can be canceled, which will not be paid.
- I own several websites, but a big part of my income comes from SEO services. This income allows me to invest more in my blogs for higher returns. That said, this year, I’m stepping out of clients’ work to focus on my websites.
- When it comes to affiliate marketing, some affiliate programs are small and don’t allow specific trackers to see what sales come from what website. This revenue will be found under my main website’s income.
Website Portfolio
I currently own 8 websites:
- Gold project: Main website in the travel niche
- Silver project: This website (Nomad Life 101) in the travel and lifestyle niche
- Bronze project: A French website in a specific niche within the travel niche
- Pink project: A multilingual website about a specific destination
- Yellow project: A lifestyle blog in a low-competition niche
- Turquoise project: A new lifestyle blog started with my partner in a low-competition niche
- Gray project: A website that isn’t made for monetization (this one won’t be included in this report)
- Blue project: A brand new website started in September 2022 in a low-competition niche.
Blog Income Report January 2023
In this section, we’ll talk about each project and how they are monetized.
As I mentioned in the introduction, you’ll only find the income paid during January because most partners pay 1-3 months later.
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Gold Project
Travel niche – Website launched in 2015
This blog is monetized in 3 different ways:
- Sponsors: $3,155.47
- Affiliate marketing: $8,209.83
- Ad display: $5,230.84
For a total of $16,596.14
January 2023 was solid traffic-wise. We hit a new record of 231K pageviews for January. So, it was a nice increase from 197K pageviews in December.
We published 35 blog posts on this website in January.
Silver Project
Travel and lifestyle niche – Website launched in 2017
This website is monetized in 3 different ways:
- Sponsors: $0
- Affiliate marketing: $176.91
- Ad display: $225.31
For a total of $402.22
I joined Monumetric in 2021. It doesn’t pay as well as Mediavine, but still, money is money.
We published 3 blog posts on this website in January.
Bronze Project
French website in a specific travel niche – Website launched in 2019
This website makes all its revenue with Amazon. It made $167.61 in January 2023. The niche is very seasonal, so it varies from month to month.
Note that no new blog posts have been published since 2020. The plan is to sell this website eventually.
Pink Project
Multilingual website about a specific destination – Website launched in 2019
This website only made $14.91 in January via GetYourGuide.
The plan is to sell this website eventually. I hope to join Monumetric with this website at the beginning of next year.
We published 8 blog posts on this website in January.
Yellow Project
Lifestyle website about a low-competition niche – Website launched in 2020
This blog doesn’t generate income yet. The domain authority of this website is only 10, which means that the website isn’t ranking well yet.
Although, it’s important to note that there were a few sales on Amazon in January, which should be paid out in a few months.
We published 13 blog posts on this website in January.
Turquoise Project
Website owned with my partner about a low-competition niche – Website launched in August 2021
This blog doesn’t generate income yet. Again, this website is relatively new and currently has about 30-40 blog posts. The domain authority is relatively low.
No work has been done on this website lately.
We tried to sell it in December, but there were no serious buyers at this time. I’m thinking of using it to test new strategies and potentially write case studies about it.
Blue Project
Brand new website in a low-competition niche – Website launched in September 2022.
This website made $181.81 with affiliate marketing and sponsors combined.
We published 7 blog posts in January.
Blog Investments And Expenses
As my previous blog income report mentioned, I invest primarily in content creation and blog management (which includes content creation):
Here’s the list of blogging expenses I had in January 2023:
- Tools, and subscriptions: $184.34
- Content creation (freelance writers): $1,208.10
- Web story services: $275.86
- Accounting (including Companio): $573.64
- Blog management/assistance: $1,168.77
For a total of $3,410.71
Leaving me with a net income of $13,951.98 in January.
Now, let’s see what I learned in January 2023.
What I’ve Learned
Last year, I realized that the best investment for bloggers is content creation. As I now have ads on two blogs, the more content I have, the more money I make with ads.
But that doesn’t stop there.
More traffic = more income revenue + more affiliate sales
If you’re new to blogging, you might have heard that SEO is essential, but you don’t know where to start…
Learning about SEO can be overwhelming because there’s so much information available online. It’s hard to know which tips are outdated and which ones will help your website rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
SEO From Scratch is an affordable online course that takes the guesswork out of learning about SEO. Our course is designed for bloggers who want to learn how to increase their traffic from search engines without spending much money on consultants or agencies.
I believe SEO makes a big difference in my income.
For example, we published many blog posts regularly, and I used SEO at every step.
- Keyword research before writing a blog post
- Writing optimized content with the latest SEO strategies in mind
- Indexing the content on Google Search Console
- Optimize old pieces of content every week
- Etc.
I tend to “do more of what works”. So, at the beginning of each month, I analyze the top affiliate and top posts and identify some patterns to replicate their success.
Content creation always wins. As a result, I have decided to stop Facebook marketing, Pinterest marketing, Email marketing, and focus on content creation.
This year, I’m also calculating the return on investment (ROI) for each of my writers, so I can see exactly how long it will take to turn a profit on my investments. I’ll make sure to keep you guys updated.
Final Thoughts
And there you go, you have it – my blog income report for January 2023.
I’m confident that my current strategies work because I can see an increase in my blog traffic, ad revenue, and affiliate marketing.
Looking for blog income reports? Read one of the following income reports:
