Last month was my BIGGEST win of the year! (maybe this month will be even better but we are not there yet)
Anyhow, I made $35,000 from my blog last month, and I’m still in a state of shock, excitement, surprise, celebration…you name it!
It was an amazing month, and I’ve SO much to share with you! I’m incredibly GRATEFUL to YOU (my audience), loyal customers and everyone else who helped me make this kind of money from home!
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve given it MY ALL (working late nights almost every day after work + weekends AND giving up on a lot in the process). More details on this below.
There’s A LOT of hard work, discipline, and dedication that goes into making money blogging, especially with your full-time job.
Oh yeah, if you don’t know me or haven’t read my story, I blog with my full-time job as a lawyer. Blogging is my side hustle.
I don’t write blog income reports every month because I’m too busy and try my best to maximize my limited time growing my blog. In fact, when I made $22,788 from my blog in October, I didn’t bother sharing it.
But I do treat my blog like a real business. I started my blog with the intention of turning it into a six-figure blogging income, and I did that in my first year.
You can read all about that here.
It all started with investing in the right tools and resources from day one to speed up my learning curve, so I wouldn’t waste time researching, googling and figuring things out on your own.
That’s my biggest secret to success and take a look here at how many blogging courses and tools I’ve invested in.
Why?
Because time is money, my friends.
And time is always on wings. Before you know it, your present becomes your past!
Table of Contents
Reason for Sharing This Blog Income Report
Before we get into the details and breakdown of my blogging income, I want to let you know that I’m only sharing this to make you dream BIG.
I’m sharing to show you the potential, what’s possible and how you can make money from your online business!
I know some people in my Facebook community are already looking forward to this post as you can see below –
Personally, I have always found blog income reports to be quite inspiring!
That’s what inspired me to start my blog last year.
Otherwise, I would have never known that blogging could be a viable way of making money online.
I had absolutely no idea that you could make money blogging. If I did, I would have started this 10 years ago!
But seriously, I do value blog income reports because they showed me what was possible for me. So I hope this one helps you!
Make sure to join our Facebook community here. You will gain more insight there and receive tons of business and legal tips for free.
Blogging Income Sources
There are three ways I make money blogging at this time –
- Selling my legal templates here and providing my legal services here(blog coaching, legal audits, custom contracts for your business, etc). Get in touch here if you need anything specific!
- Sponsorships (learn how to make money from them here)
- Affiliate marketing (recommending the products I love that helped me make money quickly)
- Paid gigs like Interviews, speaking at events, etc
There are other ways to make money blogging too but these are enough to keep me quite busy for now!
I don’t do ads. I find them obtrusive. I have quickly left websites that have too many ads no matter how great their content was.
Maybe I will add them to my blog in the future but for now, I like the clean look without them.
Also, as a reader, you most likely prefer this where I’ve no ads coming in your face, right?
Update: How I Made $78,000 a month of blogging
Watch this video to see how I made $78,000 in a month and quit my 9 to 5 job!
Proof of Blogging Income
Okay, let’s get into the numbers!
Total income last month =$35,010
$6,260 came from affiliate marketing
$28,750 ($22,138 + $6,612) came from selling my legal templates and some blog coaching and legal audits that I offer here.
Here are my Stripe earnings:
Here are my PayPal earnings:
$6,270came from recommending the affiliate products I love.
There are 20+ affiliate products I recommended, so I can’t screenshot every single one of them plus they all pay at different times depending on their affiliate terms.
But the most important thing to remember is that Ionly promote products that I’ve personally used AND the ones that have made a huge impact on my blogging success.I’ll share some of those favorite affiliate products below (the ones you purchased last month!)
Blogging Income from the prior month (October)
Also, here’s proof of my blogging income from October where I made $22,788 this month –
I made a total of $18,766 from just selling my own products and services and this doesn’t include the additional $4,022 I made from affiliate marketing.
That means I made a total of $22,788 this month!
There are months where I made over $8,000 just from affiliate marketing!
My Stripe earnings this month –
My Paypal earnings this month-
Update: A couple of months after writing this blog post, I made $60,000 a month from my blog!!! Here’s ONE of my blog income sources:
Blogging Expenses
Now that blog income proof is out of the way, let’s talk about blogging expenses!
Below are my monthly expenses – I don’t know the exact amounts for some of them because I’ve paid in full for the year in advance.
When you pay for the whole year at once, you get a discount and save money, so that’s why I like to pay for everything in advance. This way, I don’t have to worry about them every single month!
- Bluehost (hosting)
- Kartra (my all in one business platform that I can’t live without)
- Tailwind (makes my life so easy for Pinterest and Instagram as you can see here)
- Stripe and PayPal fees (varies every month depending on the transactions)
- Affiliate commissions I pay YOU if you signed up for my affiliate program for free here and made a sale!
I love paying you. I’m serious because I know it’s not easy to make money blogging so anything I can do to help!
I have been told several times that I have a very generous affiliate program where you earn 40% commission per sale (that’s more than $60-$200 per sale on myLegal Bundles!), so make sure to sign up here, if you haven’t already.
Did I mention it’s free to sign up as an affiliate? So what are you waiting for!
Take a look at 100’s of awesome blog posts my affiliates have written to make money blogging every month on autopilot!
Your Favorite Legal Templates (Sold in this order)
I made the bulk of my money last month selling my legal templates as you can see above but ever wonder which legal templates bloggers and entrepreneurs like you buy instantly? I can’t wait to share it with you!
Actually tons of you email me all the time asking which legal templates you should buy first, second and whether I’ve bundles of the top-selling legal templates. I do have a couple of bundles that you can see here but more are coming soon.
In the meantime, read below to find out which legal templates are most popular!
Let’s talk about them in the order of popularity like which ones are your favorite: (maybe you are missing something you should have)
1. These Comprehensive Legal Bundle packages
TheseLegal bundle packages sell the most because ANYONE that has an online business or website (regardless of the niche) needs them!
The first Starter Legal Bundle comes with 3 essential legal pages you must have on your website to comply with all the laws, avoid GDPR and CCPA fines and sleep peacefully at night knowing your online business is legally protected. PLUS did I mention it comes with 9 amazing bonuses worth $1,175!?
It’s a no-brainer to get this Legal bundle at a huge discount unless you like paying $250 – $500 an hour just to speak to a lawyer.
These legal templates are trusted by over 10,000 entrepreneurs, bloggers and my clients that I’ve helped as a lawyer for more than 9 years now.
Take a look at hundreds of love notes I’ve received here on these template bundles or watch this video instead.
2. Sponsored Posts Contract Template
Okay, so after the Legal Bundle, this is the next popular template (Sponsored Posts Contract) that most bloggers and entrepreneurs get.
If you don’t know, sponsored posts are a form of advertisem*nt where brands collaborate with you and pay you to write a blog post, post on your social media, create a video, etc. They are an AMAZING way to make money online and increase your blogging income quickly.
This kind of collaboration with you helps the brand/sponsor reach a greater audience through you and bring more business to them.
That’s why they are ready to pay you for your time to review their products and services.
BUT before you get all excited to collaborate with your favorite brands, make sure to cover yourself legally with this Sponsored Posts Contract.
A sponsored posts contract is an agreement between you and the brand/company who is sponsoring content on your website. It protects you and your business from legal disputes that can arise and ensures you get paid on time!
Anyone looking to create sponsored content needs this contract.Bloggers, Influencers, Vloggers, Freelancers, Affiliate Marketers, and more.
That’s why this sponsored posts contract template sells like hotcakes because it includesall the legalese you need to protect yourself legally and financially. PLUS you receive $500 in 3 bonuses, allwithout stressing, getting confused,losing your hair or wasting hours upon hours!
Watch how Steffa uses this Sponsored Posts contract to work with brands like a pro!
Grab your Sponsored Posts contract template here.
3. Freelance Contract Template
Next in line is this Freelance Contract template but in reality, this one sells just as much as the Sponsored Posts contract template. This is because if you have a business, you are likely to hire a freelancer, virtual assistant, graphic designer, social media manager, or anyone else to help you out at some point OR maybe you are the freelancer that’s offering these different services to increase your income?
The beautiful thing about this contract template is that BOTH the client and the freelancer can use this contract to avoid lawsuits and ensure that they are protected.
This is the exact contract templatethat my dad failed to use with his freelancer and paid a huge price for his legal mistake when hegot sued for $90,000!
Yup, I take this contract very seriously and if I could, I would give it to you for free –now that I think about it, I have actually given it to you for free on multiple occasions but for that, you’d have to get on my email list AND join my Facebook group here. Special offers like these are reserved for my email list or my Facebook group members.
I personally use the same contract every day to hire a virtual assistant, graphic designer, freelance writer, and other people to help me out with my business as needed.
—> Watch why Keesha loves this contract template here and how she uses it to avoid any legal issues with her freelancers.
4. Confidentiality Agreement (also known as the Non-disclosure Agreement) NDA Template
This is the next popular contract every smart entrepreneur gets because if you have a business, you want to protect it legally so others don’t steal or misuse your business information and secrets.
And how does this confidentiality agreement help?
A Confidentiality Agreement is most commonly known as the Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA). Just like it sounds, if you have this NDA in place with someone, you can talk freely about your business with that person without worrying about that person sharing your information with others.
This legal contract is needed to protect your “secret sauce” as they say, meaning protecting your business confidential and proprietary information, so others don’t steal your ideas, trade secrets and become competitors.
It’s a very important legal contract you need any time you are going to discuss your business with someone. For example:
- Talking to a friend to bounce off ideas on your new product
- Discussing a partnership orjoint venture opportunity with someone
- Hiring a virtual assistant or any freelancer to help you with your business
- Giving someone access to the backend of your business
- Collaborating with others in your business, etc
I hired some people to help me with my business recently and this is exactly the contract I signed with them BEFORE I discussed my business details with them (anything!) or gave them access to any of my business information (could be WordPress, your email marketing service, your social media account, etc). Makes sense?
Also, I’m pretty sure you have signed an NDA sometime in your life and that’s most likely at your job. Many companies require this NDA or confidentiality agreement to be signed by their employees because obviously, they want to protect their business information from being misused or shared with others.
Now you are the business owner and you need to do the same to protect YOUR business!
Otherwise, imagine how much harm someone could cause to your business if they shared your secrets with a competitor or used your business information to their advantage?
CASE STUDY – True Client Story
One of my clients (let’s call him Matt because I can’t reveal his real name) recently faced this exact legal issue where his business information was shared by his employee with his competitor!
Matt’s employee used what she learned about Matt’s business as leverage to get hired by his competitor for more pay.
So she left Matt’s company and guess what?
Matt didn’t have an NDA or confidentiality agreement signed with this employee preventing her from sharing his business proprietary information, so there was nothing he could do.
He had to eat his losses.
Something similar but worse happened to my blogger friend, Sarah, who had hired a virtual assistant to help her with a product launch.
Long story short, this virtual assistant gained access to Sarah’s entire business (the backend stuff), her product and stole her ideas to launch a similar product of her own!
Unbelievable, right? True horror stories, guys! because not everyone has integrity so don’t think it won’t happen to you.
But isn’t it PAINFUL to see your original business ideas exploited by people you trusted?
No wonder, if you are a smart savvy business owner (which I like to think you are!), then this contract template is on top of your list and that’s why it sells a lot.
Watch how Ken and Betty who have multiple businesses use this NDA template here.
Betty is SO right when she says, “Without an NDA, you lose your intellectual property, your core ideas and you lose EVERYTHING.”
Grab your NDA template here, if you haven’t already.
Click to watch her video below–
5. Guest Blogger Agreement Template
I only launched this template like a month ago but it has become the popular choice because if you are a blogger, you all need it!
You are most likely accepting guest posts on your website. Right?
Pretty much all bloggers do.
Anyone that accepts guest posts on their website needs to have this contract template in place BEFORE they publish the guest post.
A Guest BloggerAgreement is used when you publish articles on your website that are written by other people. Those articles are called “guest posts.”
This Guest Blogger Agreement is needed to protect you and your business from legal implications related to using and owning content created by others, while also stating your right to use other people’s content in your own marketing and promotions (after all, you are not the one who wrote the guest post).
It also states your guest post guidelines that your guest bloggers must follow.
Read this post to learn more about this agreement, why it’s so important, and how to use it as a blogger.
This template is so handy because you don’t have to sit there and scratch your head to come up with your guest post guidelines.
Instead, use this 8-page legal agreement with your guest bloggers.It clearly states your guest post guidelines and requirements (your guest post topics, submission requirements, ownership of intellectual property, etc) and also includes allthe indemnification clauses you need to protect yourself from copyright violations and more!
You just fill in the blank the highlighted sections of the Guest Blogger agreement template as instructed based on your business and you are done in 15 minutes or so! Easy peasy.
When you are ready to accept guest posts on your website, make sure to have this Guest Blogger Agreement in place with your guest blogger and grab it here.
I love what Sherilynn (who has purchased all my legal templates) says below, “with Amira’s templates, I didn’t break my budget nor ruin my weekend plans”
6. Affiliate Agreement Template
The Affiliate Agreement template was your next popular choice because those of you who have an affiliate program for your products or services knew you needed this contract.
An affiliate agreement is a must BEFORE you have your affiliates start promoting your products or services because if something goes wrong, these are the terms and conditions that serve as a binding contract to protect you.
Without this affiliate agreement, you are out of luck when something goes wrong and in business, you can’t afford to take that financial and legal risk.
As you know, FTC regulates affiliate marketing and the last thing you’d want is to be legally responsible for the mistakes of your affiliates.
What if your affiliates don’t promote your products legally or fail to give proper affiliate disclosures as required by the law? What if there’s a dispute over affiliate commission or another violation and now you want to terminate that person’s affiliate account?
All these are important considerations and you don’t think about them until something goes wrong when it’s too late!
I have an affiliate program and this is the affiliate agreement you accept when you join my affiliate program in Kartra. I’ve customized the template to my business and you’d do the same when you grab your affiliate agreement template here.
Watch how Richard uses all these legal templates including this affiliate agreement for his business.
7. Media Release Agreement
This Media Release Agreement was next in line because it allows you to use someone’s name, likeness, photos, testimonials, videos, etc without getting into legal trouble!
The other person gives you the legal right to use these on your website and in your business marketing with or without compensation.
With the Media Release Agreement, you can safely use other people’s personal intellectual property (as discussed above) without worrying because that person has signed a contract to release you from legal liability. Without this contract, you can get sued for violating that person’s right to privacy and publicity and you’ll end up owing them a lot of money.
So it’s a very important legal contract you should have in place and it’s so easy to add it on your website and have the other person click to accept. This way, you know you are legally covered!
Sherry says, “you’d be crazy not to get these legal templates” and Susan says, “I can sleep better at night.”
Here’s a detailed blog post that explains this agreement and how to use it.
Take a look below and grab your copy of the Media Release Agreement here.
8. LLC Operating Agreement
If you have incorporated your business by forming an LLC then great job! You have just taken the first step to separate your business from your personal assets to protect yourself legally.
But do you have the LLC Operating Agreement you must have? Tons of you got this template last month!
This LLC Operating Agreement legitimizes your business and separatesyour business from your personal assets like your personal bank account, car, and house.
Without this agreement, you cannot show to the court that your business is separate from you, so you will be personally held responsible for the business debts, losses and lawsuits.
Click here to grab your LLC Operating Agreement.
9. Coaching Agreement Template
If you are a coach then this contract is on top of your list, right? You know you need a Coaching Agreement to work with your clients. I’ve heard and seen tons of legal issues when you don’t use a coaching agreement with the clients that you coach.
I won’t bore you with the details but you do need toclearly outline your legal policies and disclaimers, so your clients know exactly what to expect from you as a coach.
This coaching agreement just like all my legal templates is quite comprehensive (14 pages long!) but the best part is that it makes you think about how you want to provide your coaching services like what would happen if a client cancels and doesn’t notify you? or what would be your refund policy for no-shows and much more!
So if you are a coach, grab your Coaching Agreement here.
Watch how this busy mom feels after getting these legal templates here including this Coaching Agreement.
New Sweepstakes Terms and Conditions template
Are you hosting giveaways like sweepstakes and contests on social media to raise your brand awareness, attract new customers and increase traffic to your website?
More and more bloggers and entrepreneurs are using sweepstakes, giveaways, and contests as part of their marketing strategy to promote their business and increase their visibility. I’m sure you must have seen brands using this strategy all the time!
But do you know all the sweepstakes rules and regulations? Like what should be your giveaway terms and conditions?
Read this post to find out and grab your Sweepstakes Template here.
New Interior Design Contract Bundle (for interior designers including edesigners)
Due to popular demand, I created this new bundle for interior designers including edesigners because they need a special service agreement and disclaimers to work with clients in their design business.
The Interior Design Contract Bundle is an instant download of my5 essential legal templatesyou need to comply with the laws, work with your clients like a pro,and sleep peacefully at night knowing your online business is protected legally, PLUS get $1,250 in 10 bonuses you don’t want to miss!
It comes with my best selling:
- Legal Bundle (Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms and Conditions templates),
- Design Service Agreement for designers to use with their clients
- Affiliate Agreement template for your affiliate program
Check out this Interior Design contract bundle here.
Blogging Tools and Resources You Loved Last Month
Okay so now you know what legal templates are most popular and which ones entrepreneurs like you bought to protect their online business legally.
Now let’s talk about what blogging and business tools and resources you love?
Remember, I made $6,260 last month from the affiliate products that I recommended.
These are my favorite blogging tools and resources that run my 6-figure blog.
Here are the top sellers from last month:
- This Pro Blogger bundle to take your business from 0 to $100K plus. Read my detailed review here.
- This course to create your own products and services (I used this the most). Read my detailed review here.
- How I started my blog in 7 days. Read my detailed post here.
- This FB ads course (I’m not sure if it’s still open for enrollment)
- This Pinterest templates Bundle, this one and this one too (so glad to see you loving Pinterest templates like me!) More details are inthis post.
- Obviously this was a no-brainer. Who doesn’t need it?
- For email marketing – these two are the best: ConvertKit or Kartra
- Freshbooks (this is what I use for my accounting – so easy and painless)
- I always get a question about Themes and this one is the best
- Bluehost for hosting your blog
- This super-affordable Pinterest marketing course(Read this post to learn about others!)
- SEO books – this one and this one. (Read this post to learn about SEO and start NOW!)
- This SEO course helped me the most but it’s closed for enrollment at the moment
- This blogging course to make money. Read this post for more details.
- This Sponsored Posts course to start making $10,000 a month from creating sponsored content!
- The last one is this Canva graphics bundle, which I’m glad you love as much as me!
Facebook Live – my 3 Golden Nuggets from this Month
I created a video for my Facebook group talking about the 3 golden nuggets from last month like what I did differently to make $35,000-
Watch it below:
What I sacrificed (ever since I started blogging)
Blogging is not for everyone. Sometimes we read these blog income reports and think it’s all peachy or fun but that’s NOT the case at all. Some aspects of blogging may be fun for you but not everything is fun and games. There’s so much mental work, focus, discipline and dedication required.
I want to be real with you. There’s A LOT you have to sacrifice to come out as a winner.
For example, here are some of the things I missed out on or gave up to become a 6-figure blogger-
No Social Life Whatsoever
With the exception of a few work-related travels and some dinners, I’ve worked pretty much every single day and every weekend.
I’ve had to turn down invitations and meetups with friends just so I could finish my blog work whether it was writing an epic post like this or creating a new product or responding to 100 emails or engaging in my Facebook group or scheduling pins…the work just never ends!
I’ve even hired people to help me with things throughout the year but still, my work is so specialized that not everyone is well-versed to handle legal questions or inquiries. The last thing I want is for my virtual assistant to misinform my customers about the law or make a mistake. So I personally respond to most of my emails still.
2. No Entertainment
This is an extension of my point above. It means no TV, no talking on the phone for hours with friends, no reading a book or doing things that generally bring joy. I mean it. It’s been work work work for days, weeks and months.
I totally miss binge-watching a good Netflix show but I can’t afford to because that means, I would be taking hours away from blog work.
I’ve also kept a journal ever since I was a teenager and I used to love writing in it almost every day but ever since I started blogging, I have probably written 5 times this entire year. Giving up something like that is huge for me even though it may seem insignificant to some people.
3. Weight gain and no exercise
I used to go to the gym 3-5 times a week because it made me feel good. I loved it and ever since I started blogging, that routine went out the window. There are only so many hours in a day and after work, I had to prioritize my time for blogging.
But I feel like I’m glued to my computer screen for hours. I know you know what I’m talking about! Can you relate? It’s not healthy but it’s our reality. This really affects your physical and mental health.
I do plan to change this in 2020 but my point is that your health suffers and these are not small sacrifices we make for our business.
4. Harder than being a lawyer
I thought I’d never say this but blogging feels harder than being a lawyer. It’s because I’ve been working as a lawyer for 9 years now, so it’s second nature to me. It comes naturally to me.
But this whole year building my business from 0 to 6-figures has sucked the life out of me. You feel like you master one thing to realize you know nothing about this other thing.
The learning never seems to end. Just when you think you are in a sweet spot, you have to learn something new. Seriously. I feel like we never graduate as bloggers!
Think about it – you learn to write quality blog posts only to realize you neglected SEO or
You get great at selling products only to realize you are neglecting your email list because you don’t have the time to work on both
You start to focus on growing your social media only to realize you need to take additional courses to master Pinterest
At times I wondered why I’m killing myself and maybe I should just continue working as a lawyer for as long as I can and that’s enough.
After all, you cannot take money to your grave. You leave it all behind here.
Then honestly, you know what would cheer me up out of the blue? A love note from you in my inbox, Facebook community or Facebook page.
When I focus on you and the number of people I’ve helped – it’s over 10,000 entrepreneurs and clients now that I’ve helped as a lawyer, that’s what keeps me going.
For real.
7 Most Popular Articles Last Month
These articles were visited the most last month and generally speaking, these are my most popular articles worth checking out. Some of them I’m surprised about but that’s the thing, you never know which blog posts will be a hit:
- 100+ Pinterest Templates to Create Viral Pins and Make Your Life Easy
- How I Made $20,000/month Blogging With My Full-Time Job
- How I Started My Blog in 7 Days With My Full-Time Job
- Tips, Ideas and Products to Make Your Home Office Perfect!
- The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Understanding SEO
- 7 Most Powerful Habits of Self-Made Millionaires
- 3 Ways to Legally Protect Your Online Business (in 30 minutes or less!)
Final Thoughts – How I Made $35,000 From My Blog Last Month (Blog Income Report)
Blogging itself is a full-time job. Isn’t it?
You have to constantly show up for your people and there’s that pressure of producing quality content whether it’s a blog post or an email you are writing or creating a product that makes someone’s life easy.
Whatever it may be, it can be SO EXHAUSTING at times and if you don’t have the passion for it, then blogging is not going to be fun for you and you are better off pursuing something you truly enjoy instead.
But it all starts with treating your blog like a business from day one and taking the right steps to invest in the right tools and resources that will speed up your progress. Join my Facebook community here so we can support each other!
Tell me in the comments if you have any questions and if you enjoyed this blog post? Are you treating your blog like a real business?
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