Transparent Blog Income Reports: How I Made $2.5 Million+ Online Without Social Media

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Monthly Income Reports from a Six-Figure Blogger Turned Business Coach

Are you curious about how to make money online in 2025 without relying on social media? For years, I’ve shared detailed monthly blog income reports documenting my journey from making just $6,500 in my first year to building a multi-million dollar online business that generates passive income while I sleep (it’s not just a cliche!).

These transparent income reports reveal exactly how I:

  • Sold my wellness blog for multiple six figures in 2021
  • Made $135,000+ during a 4-month maternity leave
  • Grew my business by 165% after quitting all social media
  • Built sustainable revenue streams that work on autopilot

Whether you’re a beginner blogger looking to make your first $1,000 online or an established entrepreneur wanting to scale to six or seven figures without burnout, these real-life case studies provide a blueprint for creating a profitable online business that aligns with your values.

My goal is to teach you exactly how you can make money online, too! 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!). 

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My Blogging Journey: From $6,500 to Multiple Six Figures

If you’re new here, let me share my story. In 2016, I launched my first blog, Root + Revel, after leaving my career as a journalist. My first year? I made just $6,500 total. But I was determined to make this work.

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 (thanks to the digital products I had launched and the evergreen funnels that were selling for me)!

And in 2021, I made the strategic 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 programs, which you can learn more about here.

To date, I’ve generated over $2.5 million from my online businesses – all while working less than 20 hours per week, taking 12+ weeks of vacation annually, and never posting on social media since 2021.

Why I Publish Income Reports

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 an online business 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.
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How To Make Money Online: Four Proven Ways to Monetize Your Blog in 2025

There are countless ways to make money online, but after years of experimentation, I’ve found these four revenue streams to be the most reliable and scalable for bloggers, coaches, course creators, digital product sellers and online entrepreneurs:

1. Display Ad Revenue: Passive Income While You Sleep

Display ads are great because it’s completely passive income, and you can get started with ads right away even if you have ZERO followers. You literally put up the ads and have your ad network manage them for you to optimize your earnings.

You can start with basic Google AdSense at any traffic level. Once your blog reaches about 10,000 monthly pageviews, you can apply to premium ad networks like Mediavine or AdThrive (which I used for Root + Revel and have nothing but RAVE REVIEWS).

Cons of display ads:

  • Requires significant traffic to be truly profitable
  • Can impact user experience if overdone, so you need to decide what amount of ads feel right and most natural to you. For reference, I do not have display ads on this site as I find it distracting from the action I really want me visitors to take, which is to join my email list and buy my digital products.
  • Lower profit margin compared to other monetization methods

Real-life example: At Root + Revel, display ads generated approximately $3,000-$5,000 monthly once I reached 150,000 monthly pageviews.

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. Sponsored Content: Getting Paid by Brands You Love

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.

Unlike display ads, sponsors pay you directly – often $100-$25,000+ per post depending on your audience size and engagement.

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.

Pros of sponsored content:

  • Guaranteed upfront payment
  • Opportunity to work with brands you genuinely love, helping your readers solve a problem and make their lives easier or better
  • Can be very profitable with the right partnerships

Cons of sponsored content:

  • Requires active pitching and relationship building (lots of active work, not passive)
  • Less control over your content
  • Typically needs established traffic/following to be lucrative

Real-life example: I’ve negotiated sponsored content deals worth $2,000+ for single blog posts by focusing on value-driven partnerships rather than follower counts.

If you want to learn how to increase your online business’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: Earn Commissions Without Creating Products

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 unique tracking link proceeds to buy, you get paid either a percentage or a flat rate for the sale.

Pros of affiliate marketing:

  • Can start immediately with no minimum traffic requirements
  • Promotes aligned brands and services that you truly love
  • Scales well with traffic growth
  • No delivery required on your end

Cons of affiliate marketing:

  • Commission rates can change without notice
  • Directs traffic away from your site
  • No guaranteed income (unlike sponsored content)

Real-life example: Affiliate marketing consistently generated $8,000-$12,000 monthly for my business, primarily through promoting courses, hosting services, and wellness products I personally used.

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

RELATED:  100+ List of Affiliate Marketing Websites for Beginners in 2023

4. Selling Your Own Digital Products (My #1 Revenue Stream)

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 (i.e. the goal isn’t high traffic, it’s converting visitors into buying 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.  

Cons of digital products:

  • Requires upfront time investment to create
  • More complex to set up initially
  • May need to learn new skills (course creation, sales, etc.)

Real-life example: My Mindful Business Academy generates consistent five-figure months through evergreen sales funnels – even when I’m not actively promoting it.

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. 

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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.

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