My Monthly Blog Income Reports

For the last few years, every single month, I shared a detailed post outlining my blog income reports to show you exactly how I made money blogging and building an online business serving others! 

My goal is to teach you exactly how you can make money online, too! While I’m not posting new blog income reports anymore, there are dozens for you to browse through below. I hope they inspire you to see what’s possible for you (and to see that the online world isn’t oversaturated—there’s room for ALL of us to build profitable businesses that truly serve us!). 

Table of Contents:

Kate Kordsmeier headshot, woman in blue button down shirt sitting at a laptop at a white table and white background

Blog Income Reports Introduction

If you’ve been following along for a while, you may remember that in my very first year of blogging for Root + Revel (2016), I made just $6,500. In 2017, I went full-time with my blog and I earned $75,000. And in year 3, I made $150,000 (AND I took a whopping four months off for maternity leave that year). By January 2019, I had my first $20,000+ month… from my freakin’ blog! 2020 brought another four-month maternity leave, but this time, I made $135,000 during my time off!

And in 2021, I made the decision to sell Root + Revel to focus full-time on teaching hundreds of heart-centered women how to create highly profitable, soul-aligned and hands-off online businesses through my coaching program, the Success with Soul Incubator. 

Although I’ve made the decision to pause my blog income reports, I’ll still have all the ones I’ve previously created, linked below for you to browse. 

Reading income reports has always inspired me so much, because it showed me what was possible in the world of blogging as a business. But I’ve realized that I can still share valuable tips about making money online, even now that I no longer have my Root + Revel blog. 

At the end of the day, I want to help you learn how to make money doing something you love — something that lights you up every day and makes you excited to get to work, something you’re passionate about, something that impacts others for the better, something you can do from your couch in your jammies or on a beach in the Caribbean or at a desk in a co-working space at whatever dang time you please because YOU’RE YOUR OWN BOSS.

Please know, the goal of these blog income reports was never to brag or show off or pat myself on the back (though it’s always a good idea to celebrate your own successes, too!). Rather, my goal with these income reports was three-fold:

  1. to help anyone interested in starting a blog learn the ropes and find inspiration and motivation to be successful and change your life, whether that’s simply finding an outlet for your passion, improving your financial situation by making some extra money, or finally quitting your job and making six figures working for yourself. I hope that by sharing my own journey, my transparency and story might help you to achieve your dreams.
  2. to show fellow skeptics (hi, I used to be one of you when I was a full-time journalist who wrote for real publications and turned my nose up at bloggers who were running their blogs without integrity, transparency and a business mindset) that it IS possible to make money online and to do so while keeping your soul intact.
  3. to help myself. Yes, I’ll admit it. I do have some selfish motivation for publishing these income reports. Because quite honestly, it’s a great opportunity for me to reflect on my business, to look back and see what worked and what didn’t, to learn from my mistakes and to track my achievements.
Kate Kordsmeier on chaise lounging with her iphone.

How To Make Money Online

With an online business, you can make money with four main revenue streams: displaying ad revenue, getting sponsored by brands, joining affiliate marketing programs, and my favorite strategy, selling your own products! 

Let’s dive in and explore each of these income-generating avenues a little more in-depth.

1) Display ad revenue

Display ads are great because it’s completely passive income, and you can get started with ads right away. You literally put up the ads and have your ad network manage them for you to optimize your earnings. I used AdThrive Ad Network and couldn’t have been happier with them.

On the downside, ads can impede your user’s experience, so as a blogger you need to decide what amount of ads feel right and most natural to you. You don’t want your blog to be overrun with ads, but you’re also providing valuable, free content to your readers, so having ads really helps bring in extra revenue. As long as you find a good balance, ads can be totally worth it!

2) Get sponsored by brands

Sponsored content is content that resembles your blog’s regular editorial content, but is paid for by a brand, company, or advertiser and intended to promote their product.

In practice, sponsored content looks like this: A brand pays you an upfront, agreed-upon, fixed and guaranteed amount for you to promote their product on your blog.

On the plus side, you can work with companies that you authentically love and personally use, helping your readers solve a problem and make their lives easier or better. However, paid sponsorships are a ton of work, give you less control over your content, and you need a certain amount of pageviews and/or social media following before you can get lucrative paid sponsors.

If you want to learn how to increase your blog’s revenue by working with brands and sponsors, read our detailed Guide to Sponsored Content: How to Get Paid Working With Brands as a Blogger.

3) Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is by far one of the biggest revenue generators you can take advantage of online!

What is it? Affiliate marketing is when you receive a commission for promoting someone else’s product, service or program. You promote that thing to your audience with a special link. When anyone who has clicked your link proceeds to buy, you get paid either a percentage or a flat rate for the sale.

I love affiliate marketing because you get to promote brands and services that you truly love, trust, have personally tried, and are in alignment with your mission. You can also get started with affiliate marketing right away, which is another plus!

The downsides are that you don’t control the program, meaning it could change or disappear at any time, along with your revenue. You’re also directing traffic away from your blog in order for people to buy, and there’s no guarantee you’ll earn anything (unlike sponsored content).

Ready to increase your income with affiliate marketing? Check out our 10 Strategies to Increase Your Affiliate Marketing Revenue here!

4) Selling your own products

Selling your own products is my favorite way to monetize a blog or website. 

This method of generating income is so much faster than other methods because it doesn’t rely on the slow, organic growth of traffic! 

For example, with a traditional blog, you’re relying on high website traffic in order to make money from strategies based on page views, like ads and sponsors. But with a conversion website focused on selling your own products, you need way fewer pageviews in order to make the same amount of money (or more!). And you can do it so much more quickly without those specific numbers being required to see results. 

Another benefit of selling your own products is that you’re always making 100% of the sale. Instead of taking a commission or small percentage of the revenue, all the money you make is yours. 

You’re also not beholden to anybody else’s standards or requirements, like you are when you’re working with a sponsored brand. 

Creating your own products to sell means you’re tailoring your revenue stream to YOUR business, mission, and audience. If you’re not about one-size-fits-all strategies, this could be the perfect revenue stream for you.  

And if you need help deciding what revenue streams are right for you, I’m here to help! join me inside my Launch It With Soul: Create Your Dream Offer Mini-Course. 

Launch It With Soul Opt In Graphic blog income reports

Inside this course, you’re going to get all the tools and strategies you need to create (or refine) your unique, one-of-a-kind offer. You’ll make sure your revenue streams are truly aligned with your soul’s desires and make them scalable so you can avoid burnout.

Monthly Blog Income Reports

Blog Income Reports for 2020:
Blog Income Reports for 2019:
Blog Income Reports for 2018:
Annual Blog Income Report for 2017:
Launch It With Soul Opt In Graphic blog income reports

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