August 2017 – Start a Mom Blog Income Report
Income Reports are a tricky thing. On one hand, it’s highly awkward to share the details of how much money the blog has made, and on the other hand, I want to shout it from the rooftops to help every other mom know she can do this too! I try to casually mention to family members that blogging is a real way to contribute to the finances. That by turning your skills into online content you can help others and change the world! But most of the time it just passes in one ear and flows out the other.
Either they don’t understand what I’m saying, or they think it’s highly unlikely to make money online. But it’s not. It’s very very real. And that is one of the main reasons why my husband and I decided to write our income report below. Very much like a fitness coach showing you that working out and eating healthy can make you look and feel better, this income report is here to show you that with hard work, time and energy, you’ll be able to monetize your blog too. Nobody develops a six pack after a few weeks of working out, and the same applies to blogging. You won’t be making thousands after your first month. But with consistent effort and lots of time, you will see results, and others will start to notice!
As many of you know, I’m 36 weeks pregnant with our third little blessing. My two daughters are 3 years old and 1.5 years old – so in short it has been challenging to work on the blog, grow a baby, and raise two beautiful little girls at the same time. I used to be able to work while they napped, but for the last few weeks, I’ve been napping with them. I also used to wake up super early with my husband as he bolted off to work at 6:00 am, but lately I’ve been sleeping in. Growing another human is hard work and I’ve been exhausted.
So to be 100% open with you, my husband has been helping a lot with the blog and around the house. It has truly turned into a partnership, especially the last few weeks. So please understand that the income below reflects the efforts of months and months of hard work, and also the energy and manpower of two people. Not only is he helping to grow my YouTube channel, manage all of the affiliates and set up technical elements; he is also helping with dinner, the dishes, bath and bed time, and supporting me.
If your husband is not on board with you starting a blog, maybe you can share this income report with him. Maybe it will help convince him that blogging is not just a hobby and can turn into a life changing business.
So with that, let me give it over to John, my handsome husband, to walk you through the August Income report for Start a Mom Blog.
August 2017 Start a Mom Blog Income Report
This post contains affiliate links.
Income Report at a glance:
Gross income: $39,888
Total Expenses:$2,872
Total Net Profit: $37,016
Difference between previous month: +$12,142
Welcome Back to Start a Mom Blog Income Reports!
Hello everyone! John here – it’s good to be posting again!
We haven’t published an official income report since December for a couple of reasons. These reports take a long time to put together, and as any mom knows, time is in short supply.
But the bigger reason is because… we were scared.
In December, we mentioned that our eventual goal was to reach $10,000 per month.
When we first started monetizing the blog, that seemed like a radical goal at the time.
But we kept putting in consistent, small efforts over time. And they compounded on each other. Slowly but surely, the growth came.
And as the growth came, more and more ideas came – ways to continue to serve our audience with additional products and opportunities.
So we put our heads down and focused on that. Here we are months later, and it’s time to take a breath, recap how our year has been, and give some lessons learned for you, so you can continue your own growth story!
Why We Publish an Income Report
Blogging is such an interesting hobby/passion/business.
You can start with such a tiny budget – no huge equipment, no major technical expertise (that can’t be learned easily). And the growth potential is just incredible.
But it’s not all sunshine and roses. It takes TIME. And it can be weeks or months before you ever see the first return on your investment.
Your first posts might not get a single share on Facebook. That’s OK.
Your email opt-in might not get more than a few subscribers. That’s OK.
Your traffic may be a flat line for weeks. That’s OK.
You are building a foundation of content, skills, and consistency. That alone is an amazing return on investment.
Even though it doesn’t feel like it!
People want instant results, instant gratification. That is the hardest part about blogging.
It is a slow, steady grind in the beginning. Until it takes off.
Everyone in the beginning stages starts looking for motivation when they are wondering if it’s worth it.
That’s where I think our Income Reports start coming in handy. We want to show you what is possible when you stick to it and push through that difficult beginning.
It is NOT to flaunt our success – it is to help reaffirm you that you are on the right track.
When we started out, there were moments of self-doubt. We would check out big blogger’s income reports and think, “If they can do that, we can make something happen!”
Because of the motivation of those income reports, it kept us going until we started to have something show for it as well.
We’d like to pay forward that favor to you!
And there’s another reason for these reports
We love our readers – you are seriously amazing and have become such a large part of our lives over the past couple of years.
Some of the emails you write us become the topic of dinner conversation.
We thoughtfully consider how to respond to a difficult question during the kids’ bath time.
We get to go deeper into our thought process during these reports and show a bit more of our personal side, and that’s just amazing.
Alright, so let’s get into the meat. What are some of the things we tried that have been working for Start a Mom Blog!
YouTube Webinar
We did our first Live Webinar Launch for Ebook by Number!
It was a scary but exhilarating experience – and I wasn’t even on camera 😉
There was more technology involved in pulling this off than we have done in the past, but luckily it went off without a hitch.
We created a special webinar page on the blog, and figured out how to embed a YouTube Live Stream to that page, including comments!
The end effect was a clean interface that allowed us to present our new product AND engage our audience in a whole new way!
It provided a great platform for Suzi to be open and personal, while also having a concentrated time to talk about her new course.
Webinars are a more advanced way to engage your audience, but it was so rewarding! We had over 130 in the audience during the presentation, and made almost $10,000 from Ebook by Number alone during the initial launch week!
With our third baby due within a month, we aren’t planning any webinars at the moment – but I am excited to put another on in the future. If you’d like to know more about webinars and how you could incorporate them in your niche, leave a comment below 🙂
Super Simple 3 Step Funnel
In August we also released a complete beginner’s guide to a sales funnel that we have been experimenting with.
In the short time that we have been running it, it has generated over $3,000 in sales alone – all on autopilot.
I definitely recommend you check out the post for all the details (including a step by step video!), but at a high level, it goes like this:

The idea is that you get people into the funnel through any of your opt-in offers. These are all potential customers, because they just said a little “YES” to you by giving you privilege to contact them.
Instead of sending them directly to a Thank You Page, you offer them a one-time offer for an extremely attractive offer. You want the offer to be attractive to a new customer, because this might have been the first time they’ve looked into your niche.
That is why we chose the Income Journey. It is motivational to a new blogger, and it quickly walks through OUR journey to making over $17,000 per month in a year. It should meet the customer where they are. What questions would a new person have when coming to your site? Make sure your special offer answers those questions, and you’ll increase your conversions!
Sales funnels are a powerful tool, and can be extremely fun to draw out and plan the path that readers will go through.
The big thing to keep in mind is that a sales funnel is NOT a “get rich quick” scheme. It’s not just trying to get money from your readers’ pockets and into yours.
It is a tool to help you guide your customers on the most useful path that they should follow on their journey through your content.
QUICK TIP: You should always be looking for the shortest path between where your readers are and where they want to be. This is a tool to help you do just that!
Blog Strategy Seeker
If you haven’t learned yet, Suzi and I are huge nerds. We love excel and creating fun little tools to help drive decisions.
But we never really found the right use for a tool with Start A Mom Blog.
Until August 🙂
During a walk with the kids, we started brainstorming what tools we could create. The goal was to make an awesome Optin tool to increase email subscribers.
We kept thinking of ways to make blogging more efficient. Ways to help people who ALREADY had blogs.
We eventually realized that we were trying to serve the wrong audience. We needed to find a way to help our audience determine the right TYPE of blog to start, because that is one of the hardest decisions in the beginning.
Enter the Blog Strategy Seeker 🙂
It’s a simple tool that helps you pinpoint the right type of blog for you based on your interests.

As I said, the purpose of this was to increase subscribers… so how did it do?

We got a nice bump of 343 subscribers on the launch day of the tool, and it continued to contribute a good number of subscribers going forward. Nerdy success for us!
In total, we increased our email subscriber list by 3,135 during the month of August.
QUICK TIP: You never know which optin idea is going to really take off. Have fun with it. Experiment. Be consistent, and you’ll create a nice portfolio of freebies that will help grow your audience!
Back to School Bundle and the benefit of having multiple products
Another big event in August was our first “Back to School” sale.
Sales are a funny thing, aren’t they? You’d think that if your products were priced right, then you wouldn’t need to run sales ever!
But why does EVERY business run sales almost every month – for even the most unrelated events?
It has to do with the psychology of a customer that is on the fence. Sales can sometimes provide just enough value to incentivize them to take the plunge.
And if you’ve seen other courses in the blogging sphere, you’ll know that we understand our audience and their price points, and always try to over-deliver in value.
So when we run sales, we generally try to create bundles and add more content to the offer, instead of simply discounting the price.
So in August we offered a Back to School sale! It was very relevant because finally families are starting to return to normal, and moms would be able to pick up their blogs again.
And over the course of the 1 week sale, we made over $5,000 in course sales!
When you have multiple products, it is easier to create bundles and bonuses, which might open up just the right combination to work for your customers!

So let’s get down to business – how did Start a Mom Blog do in August?
Sales
Products:
Teachable Courses:
Blogging Bundles: $5,591
Blog by Number Course: $6,739
Ebook by Number: $10,285
List by Number: $111
Optins ABCs: $185
9 Step blog Plan: $756
Theme by Number: $285
Teachable Courses: $23,952
Sendowl Ebooks:
Amazon Affiliate Ebook: $770
Blog by Number Ebook: $720
Email Bundle for Blog by Number: $141
Income Journey: $2,738
Stock Images: $140
Other: $76
Sendowl Products: $4,585
Affiliate Marketing:
Divi by Elegant Themes: $262.50
ConvertKit: $1,834.99
Amazon Affiliates: $80.26
Siteground: $8,625
Tailwind: $41.98
PicMonkey: $241.46
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: $219.60
Other: $45.98
Total Affiliates: $11,351.77
Total Income: $39,888
Expenses
ConvertKit: $199
Siteground: $45
Sendowl: $267
Teachable (Including affiliate payouts and transaction fees): $2,346
Tailwind: $15
Total Expenses: 2,872
Total Profit = $37,016

Want to know in detail what the blog has done in 2017?

If we can make this happen, so can YOU
We are incredibly blessed, and we have you – our wonderful readers – to thank for so much of our success!
Again, these reports are a way of us sharing how things are going and what is working, to help boost your blog to the next level.
The beauty of blogging is that there is no limit. No hourly wage. No approvals you need to wait on to implement ideas.
We live in a wonderful sandbox online.
We all have a voice, a talent, a special something.
Suzi likes being in front of the camera relating with her audience. I like editing the videos afterwards to manage her YouTube Channel.
Suzi likes to find something that works and put her head down to implement it wonderfully. I like keeping my head in the clouds to think of cool new technology or techniques to try on the blog.
My point is all of this, is to find what you like and do well, and focus on it.
If you stay genuine, consistent, and persistent on your passion, yours will be able to grow as well!
KEY TAKEAWAYS – ACTION LIST
The simple sales funnel can be implemented quickly and easily – even if you don’t have your own product yet. It can also help you make that first $100 with your blog without feeling salesy!
If you don’t have a collection of your own products yet, you can always partner with someone else in your niche and bundle your products together to run an attractive one time offer.
If you’re having a hard time growing your blog, think about where you can get help. Once I acknowledged that I can’t do it all at 36 weeks pregnant with 2 little ones – my stress level decreased. My husband has been a huge part of growing the blog the last few weeks and I am so thankful.
Not everything you do will have a great return. Not every post will bring in traffic. Not every freebie will convert. But if you keep working on your blog, all those small efforts will pay off. The most successful bloggers aren’t the smartest, they are the most consistent.
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Suzi,
This has nothing to do with your income report as I don’t remember how I got here with my 19 month old banging on the laptop keyboard. BUT! I wanted to say thank you! Yes, we’ve corresponded before, but still I like your aura.
Somehow the universe decided that your YouTube video should pop up while I’m breastfeeding at the wee hours, and I was hooked.
Nothing to do with the report, but you guys and gals, she is real! I mean I did buy Suzi’s course when I was about to buy my domain a year ago, and I didn’t finish reading it all. However, Suzi always replies to my emails through my mid-way snail paced reading of it.
Bless you and your hubby and munchkins.
Suzi & John – This income report is awesome (and so are your results). You guys are so inspiring. Love your takeaways section, too.
I think you’re right about consistency. My blog is doing well, but has huge upside and I’m hoping that I get a few breakaway articles to take hold to add to the level.
Suzi and John,
You don’t know how encouraging this was to read for me! I left my job 3mos earlier than planned when the owners of both of the coffee shops I was running started to treat employees poorly and I learned about a lot of sketchy things that were happening in the background. When I stood up for my baristas the wife of one of the owners told me that I would not be welcome back after my maternity leave was over. Instead of staying in a situation where I was no longer welcome I left. We were planning on using my income from those three months to pay down debt so that it was more realistic for me to stay home with our son. We’re now living off of savings and almost at the end of it. My son, Luca, is three months old and such a joy. I’ve started my blog and have had a little over 50 views but it has just seemed impossible to get everything figured out and profitable.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I showed it to my boyfriend too and we have reignited hope that we can do this together and build a brand we are proud of while raising a family.
I can’t wait to learn more from you both!
Hi Suzi!
Congratulations on all your success. I am in the very beginning stages of starting a blog, and I want to get started on the right foot. Do you mind sharing what your business set-up looks like and if you spend on other admin things like hiring an accountant or lawyer? That is one of the biggest obstacles I face because I don’t want to end up in trouble with the IRS or anything. I hope this is a question you don’t mind answering!
Thank you for all you do, and the hope you bring.
Congratulations but I would LOVE to see all the man/womanpower hours it took! I never see income reports report the number of hours worked on a blog. I don’t care if it takes 100 hours a week, I want to see hours and have yet to see any income report list this. Congrats on soon to be baby #3, its getting closer 🙂
Claudia,
Thank you so much for the comment! I’ve let John know we should add this.
In short, I spend about 2-3 hours on the blog per day. He spends about 1-2 hours on the blog per day, depending on how many emails he gets and what projects we’re working on. If we’re launching a new product, that time definitely increases. But those hours are the actual ‘touch time’ we spend on the computer working. We additionally spend time TALKING about the blog a lot – in the car, over dinner, over coffee, etc. So even if we’re not always physically typing an email or a post, we do spend a lot of time brainstorming what to do with the blog and where to take it. 🙂
Does that help?
This was so well written. Some of the statements nearly made me choke up, because they hit home for me. Such as,’If you stay genuine, consistent, and persistent on your passion, yours will be able to grow as well!’ and ‘We all have a voice, a talent, a special something.’ … I feel so motivated. Thank you!
Thank you so much Carrie!! Now you can see why I love working with my husband, he’s my greatest supporter and his voice is phenomenal. I’m so happy he shared it on my blog! Please let me know if you need anything! 🙂
This is so exciting, Suzi and John! Thanks for sharing your wins with us and for helping us grow as well. 🙂
Thank you Ana!! I super appreciate your support and have been reading about other bloggers using your Blogging Party method! You’re one smart cookie! <3
Many congrats Suzi and John on your third on the way! And for this awesome, inspirational, and motivational income report as well!! As a bunch (team?) of teen girls who just launched our blog last month, reading how you compliment each other in your skills and personalities and how it helped you two create such a successful blog and community is truly incredible. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂
We’re definitely going to look into implementing your simple sales funnel technique.
Also! Suzi, you will be missed, but please enjoy your maternity leave. 😉
Brooke and Yara,
Thank you so much! It truly has helped so much to have my husband on board with the blog. In the beginning I did it all myself, but it has grown to much more! And pregnancy also adds stress, so he has been life saver. I know you and your team will go far – you have the energy and drive to make it a huge success! Thank you again for the sweet comment.
xxx
Great advice, Suzi and John. I love how the post is not just about the income but also about encouragement and strategizing. It’s posts like these that fuel me.
Wish you much more success and happiness in the coming days and years.
Mala, thank you! I called over John to make sure he read the comment too, thank you! Blogging is so much more than making money – and lots of encouragement is needed along the way. 🙂 Thank you for your well wishes, I hope all goes well too!! Many hugs!
Suzi and John, this income report was fabulous! Suzi, I know we spoke on Facebook about how income reports can be discouraging, but this was the opposite. It was down-to-earth, realistic, and actionable. It’s fabulous how you guys work as a team! Thanks so much!
Aww thank you Yael! I really appreciate it! I reflected a lot on the conversation we had to make sure the post was fitting for my audience. I am so appreciative of your support – wish we could meet for a playdate! <3