Blog Income Report – How to Make Money After Your 9-5 Job

Bybygracev

This blog post is about my first blog income report.

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I can’t believe I am writing an income report on my first month back to blogging.

Quick Back Story – I started this blog about 2 years ago and quit after 2-3 months. Life got crazy, work got crazy, and it was just not a priority so I stopped.

Fast forward to now – I set out a goal for 2025 to pick back up my love for blogging and made a commitment to myself to stick with it and it has already started paying off!

Why did I start my blog?

The common denominator between the two time periods in my life is that my 9-5 job was not satisfying. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, the people I work with, and the company I work for, however, it just was not enough.

One thing about me is that I thrive on a full schedule. I saw women working from home, building businesses they loved, having kids, getting married, traveling, and truly thriving off the energy of blogging, I had to get in on that!

So essentially, I started my blog for 2 reasons:

  1. Build a business that gave me a fulfilled lifestyle.
  2. Build a business that would allow me to be flexible to run a business and be present with my husband and future children.

Why am I writing a blog income report?

This is my side hustle and right now it is my “baby”! The amount of hours I am putting into planning, writing, and building strategies needs to eventually be making me more than $20 a month!

I want to (hopefully) look back and see the hard work that paid off.

I also want to show people who work 9-5 jobs that they can do it! You can work 40 hours a week and spend 10 hours extra to build a side business! The best bloggers have said that it is not hard work, it is just a lot of work.

JANUARY 2025 BLOG INCOME REPORT

JANUARY 2025 TOTAL INCOME: $21.66

Affiliate Income:

  • Amazon Affiliates: $21.66

Yep. That is it. $20. However, this $20 is EVERYTHING to me. First month back into my side hustle and I made money!!! That is beyond an accomplishment in my opinion. I wish I could market this as “my first month blogging”, but technically it is not since I started it 2 years ago. However, I did not just do nothing this month, lots of work was put in to earn my $20.

Expenses:

  • Bluehost Platform: $7.49
  • Professional Etsy Theme: $8.40

So essentially I broke even this month. But, they say you have to spend money to earn money. That is exactly what I did first month into my side hustle and I will continue to use that motto the entirety of my blogging career!

January Blogging Stats:

January Traffic: 6,242 page views

Pinterest Followers: 65

What did I do in January to grow my blog?

On top of my 9-5 schedule, being married, seeing friends, spending time with family, working out, and making time for myself, I don’t know how I made it through this month.

My Goals for January 2025: (and did I accomplish them?)

  • Get back online – YES (paid my $12 fee *eye roll*)
  • Get a professional theme – YES (purchased!)
  • Create a Content Calendar – YES
  • Update affiliate links – YES
    • 3 sales in 180 days –YES YES YES – I cannot believe I hit this in my first month back on!!
  • Create a schedule – YES
  • Get back on Pinterest – YES

2025 Word of the Year: Consistency

This yearly word choice 100% relates to my side hustle blog. I was committed to making this part of my everyday life.

If you might notice, most of my goals were simple. I just wanted to get back on track and figure out my game plan for the year. I reviewed my website, figured out what did well over the last 2 years (I did have 1 post go viral!! literally shocking!) and what needed some work. With my Type A personality that I needed a schedule to hold myself accountable and make sure I was giving my blog enough time it needed to be successful.

I was not planning on getting a theme but everyone always says it is one of the first things to do when you start a blog. I did not even want to spend the $8 on an Etsy theme, but I did and I am so glad I did. My blog was leveled up and it now makes creating blog posts so much easier (and they look much more cohesive and professional!).

Since I had 1 post go “viral”, I wanted to capitalize on that quickly. I knew I could apply to Amazon Affiliates, but I also knew that I needed to have 3 sales in like 180 days. So that was my goal! I did not know that I would CRUSH that goal in January so that was a major win (I was rejected 2 years ago when I first started my blog).

What are my short term goals to grow my blog income?

With my schedule in place and my content aligned, I am ready for the coming months. Lots of short and long term goals were set, so let’s hold ourselves accountable!

My Goals for February 2025:

  • $50 in Amazon Affiliate (this would be double from last month)
  • 7000 page views (it is a shorter month so this might be less)
  • 8 blog posts – 2 per week following my posting schedule
  • Update at least 4 old posts and make new pins for Pinterest
  • Strengthen Pinterest Strategy – stay consistent and update style

February is obviously a shorter month, but I still have goals that I want to achieve. I know that spring months tend to dip in traffic (from what I heard), so we will see. Feeling hopeful but I also want to be realistic with myself.

What are my long term goals for my blog?

Like I said, consistency. Building a plan has truly helped my sanity and confidence in sticking with my side hustle.

2025 Goals:

  • 50,000 Page Views to get into an Ad Agency
  • 2 posts per week, every week
  • Pinterest Posting for every post
  • Look into building an email list
  • Take a blogging course.

I am hoping to start building up to these goals throughout the year. First long term goal I plan on checking off the list is taking a blogging course. Goal is to pull off the bandaid and purchase it (ROI!!!!).

Really want to get more page views to get into an ad agency, hoping to hit 10K views by May and continue growing from there.

I plan on building out my content each quarter. Having 3 months of content ready to blog has made my life 1000% easier.

and that is a wrap on my income report for my side hustle blog!

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