My 1st Year As A Blogger Plus Yearly Income Report_bri alli_girl planted blog post image

February 12, 2023

My 1st Year As A Blogger Plus Yearly Income Report (Exciting!)

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I cannot even BELIEVE I have been blogging here at GirlPlanted.com for a year now. And goodness, what a year it was.

I experienced Covid (actually all 6 of us went down dominoes style), I experienced creator burnout, I gave up on my blog for quite a while and I found my way back.

My 1st Year As A Blogger was crazy, full of twists and turns and ended very unexpectedly.

Let’s get into it; the nitty gritty details, my income report for the entire year, a month-by-month recap and what goals I’ve set for myself for year 2!

My 1st Year As A Blogger Was Incredibly Realistic

I feel like for MOST bloggers that set out to start something that needs to be learned along the way (vs knowing what to do right out the gate), it’s unrealistic to expect to make a ton of money or meet big goals the very first year.

Sure, you can do those things, but I think for the majority of us (me included) we have to figure it out for ourselves.

I’ll be going into my annual income report by month to share a little about what I did, how much I made and how I made that money.

After we go through the year, I’ll share the most exciting news about what year 2 will hold for me and this website of mine.

Month 1 As A New Blogger (Feb)

My 1st month of blogging started in February 2022, with my first blog post being published on the 13th of the month. My lucky number!

When I started this website I pretty much went “all-in” with it. Which was a lot of money to invest, truly. But I was ready for that kinda commitment.

I went into this whole blogging adventure with wanting to publish within a more niched topic; plant based recipes and meal ideas.

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 7
Income: $0
Traffic: N/A

Month 2 (Mar)

My 2nd month of blogging went pretty well! I was super motivated to find my brand’s vibe and voice. I was finding my groove as a plant-based food blogger and had decided to create and publish several posts within specific food categories, to build them up one at a time.

Looking back, this was a brilliant plan. Google really seemed to notice as well.

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 12
Income: $0
Traffic: N/A

Month 3 (Apr)

My 3rd month of blogging was all about celebrating my first brand partner with this new business of mine!

I’ve worked with many brands and have been paid quite well in the past with my other businesses, but this was different as it was my first personal brand AND my first SEO powered blog.

P.S. I loathed SEO at first, but now I LOVE SEO. We’re besties.

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 7
Income: $0
Traffic: N/A

I became a Tastemaker Affiliate with Daily Harvest, so I focused on publishing blogs with a new food topic category and my first brand partner in mind.

This is also the month I stumbled onto a long-tail keyword that was searched for often, but nothing really was satisfying that search inquiry. Such a blessing, as this one post is my biggest traffic source right now!

Month 4 (May)

My 4th month of blogging was SLOW. I experienced a little bit of creator burn-out. Publishing blog posts that are SEO rich are very time consuming on their own – add in food blogging and there’s just SO many things I had to do for just one post.

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 4
Income: $161.67 Coaching
Traffic: N/A

I felt very overwhelmed this month, which shows in the amount of posts I published. But something amazing also happened!

I started privately brand-coaching another creator this month, which came from me sharing my love of professional, strategic blogging with others!

Me, chatting with my brand strategy + web design client, Joey.

Month 5 (Jun)

My 5th month of blogging was a fun milestone kinda month, even though the amount of published posts was so low. Google Analytics had been set up correctly the pervious month, so it was finally keeping track of my traffic. I was able to earn money as an Amazon Affiliate AND I was accepted into the Google Adsense program and made my first pocket change there, too!

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 3
Income: $161.67 Coaching + $1.57 Amazon Affiliate + $.91 Adsense
Traffic: 1,579 Page Views

It’s not a lot, but I celebrated every single penny. My brand-coaching client paid on a payment plan, so that income was also celebrated this month. Very grateful.

Month 6 (Jul)

My 6th month of blogging was…well…let’s just say I hit a proverbial wall. I wasn’t super excited about making food content and my entire family of 6 got covid. It hit us one at a time, in true dominoes style. I had no energy to devote to anything really.

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 0
Income: $258.66 Coaching + $1.10 Amazon Affiliate + $5.80 Adsense
Traffic: 3,166 Page Views

We had been lucky not getting sick from the start of the pandemic, so it was time it hit us. I’m also a mother to a kiddo with 24/7 special needs. When I tell you that I lost my shit this month, I really lost my shit. Luckily my (2) brand coaching clients understood, so we changed our contract dates just a bit. I was out sick for weeks, plus the time spent taking care of my husband and our 4 babies as they navigated their way through Covid, as well. I hated this month in all the ways.

Month 7 (Aug)

At this rate, I had 33 blog posts published and I’d say about 90% of those posts were A+++ SEO powered and were starting to get some traffic.

While I was sick and taking care of my family and getting back on track with my clients, I had increased blog traffic even though I hadn’t published a single NEW post.

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 0
Income: $3.94 Adsense
Traffic: 4,849 Page Views

Looking back at this particular point in my blogging business was a vital part of my decision to move forward and not give up on it. A blogging business can keep running in those times where I do need a break and need to literally step away from the computer.

As a full time caregiver to my son, I can’t have a traditional job anymore and actually, it was tough to juggle clients during this time.

It reminded me that this business model is the BEST fit for me to be an entrepreneur, a creator, a mommy, caregiver and wife.

Month 8 (Sept)

I walked away from Girl Planted completely, having reached full burnout and confusion on what I wanted this website, this blog and my brand to be.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted, so I intentionally took September and October off.

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 0
Income: $10.55 Adsense + $110.30 Instagram Reels Bonus
Traffic: 4,222 Page Views

Daily Harvest was going through some things as a company so my partnership with them was on pause and my other income streams were so small.

I did focus on my brand coaching clients,

I also activated Instagram Reels Bonuses, which was a fun surprise! I did discover, however, I really wasn’t into social media anymore.

Month 9 (Oct)

Oof! It’s tough for me to revisit these months, BUT it turns out that my time off was such a huge blessing in disguise. More on that in a bit.

During October, I didn’t touch Girl Planted and instead, wrote 3 books and designed an entire planner for content creators (coming soon).

I felt SO inspired this month, connecting with my brand coaching clients and felt that need to work out all the confusing things swirling around my brain.

I did think about GP often and missed her. Yes, my blog is a girl, ha!

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 0
Income: $50 Siteground Affiliate + $4.04 Amazon Affiliate + $10.78
Traffic: 3,766 Page Views

It was super fun seeing a $50 deposit from another affiliate partner, which was motivating to get back into girl boss business mode.

My traffic was decreasing this month, as it should have. I hadn’t published anything in such a long time!

Month 10 (Nov)

Hello, month 10. I’m back. Finally. I only published two articles this month, but I made sure they were in the topic niche that was bringing in consistent, organic search traffic for my site.

I also spent some time re-branding to what I thought would be the new direction for Girl Planted (I was SO wrong!).

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 2
Income: $3.18 Amazon Affiliate + $14.44 Adsense + $35.74 Instagram Reels Bonus
Traffic: 3,549 Page Views

For not having published in months, my (96% organic search engine / SEO traffic) was doing pretty well. My family had hit some pretty rough waters after Covid so I was still a little uncertain of my goals.

I did know that I wanted to keep going with it and to just start blogging strategically again.

I also decided to try social media out for fun vs for income-producing content. It was my final attempt at being on social. I have since decided it’s just not worth my time and energy.

If I do go back in the future, it will be a team member handling the accounts.

Month 11 (Dec)

My eleventh month of blogging was the start of earning more income with Amazon, but as an influencer with a storefront vs an affiliate. It dawned on me that I could use my very large instagram account (11k followers) to be approved and sure enough, I was.

I could have made more with Amazon the first several months, so was bummed about that, but ultimately I’m grateful that I had this light-bulb moment. It was super motivating to me, too!

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 1
Income: $13.90 Amazon Influencer + $11.85 Adsense
Traffic: 5,188 Page Views

I remember seeing an email from google saying congrats on 5k clicks! I was like WHAT is happening here?!

Turns out, after their latest update to their algorithm, google decided that a TON of long tail keywords that I had strategically blogged about this entire year, would match with my content being considered by them as top quality.

Basically what that means is, I started ranking on the first page AND in the top 5 spots for almost all of these search engine inquiries. YAY!

December grabbed my attention.

Month 12 (Jan 2023)

My very last month in my first year of blogging was here already! After receiving that 5k milestone email and after Daily Harvest asked to resume our partnership, I knew I needed to come back to Girl Planted. I decided to get intentional again by making some really scary decisions and to end my 1st year with a bang!

Total Number Of Blog Posts Published: 5
Income: $14.60 Amazon Influencer + $14.78 Adsense
Traffic: 7,087

Whoa. How cool is that?! Knowing that I started my official 2nd year off blogging on February 13, 2023, I wanted to be actively and completely ALL-IN, with all my content creating, business coaching eggs in this pretty website basket. I decided to re-brand a 3rd time, turn Girl Planted into a Lifestyle website, aimed at reaching women who were 40+ years old, like me, and who may be in a similar life place. We know what we want and we’re unapologetic in our pursuit of pure joy and happiness. I’m so excited to see where year 2 takes me.

My 1st Year As A Blogger Plus Income Report Recap

I started off super strong as a food blogger within the plant based recipes and meal ideas niche, secured my first brand partner, a handful of affiliate partners, got Covid, took a very long break altogether, came back slowly and then decided to go ALL-IN because I was ranking on the first page of google (and in the first spot) for several keywords.

I’ve re-branded my website 3x and changed my mind with my business strategy about a million times.

I finally took my own branding advice (I’m coaching myself right now) and found a way to combine all my passions as a creator and business coach to turn Girl Planted into the brand and blogging business of my dreams.

Damn. What a year!

Income Report Total for this year: $889.48

I haven’t been paid for any of the Adsense earnings yet ($100 minimum. I’m almost there!) and Amazon is steadily increasing. Being an influencer did make a difference vs being an affiliate only.

It turns out that I truly loathe social media for what it’s become so that also played a huge factor in my decision to go full time as a blogger my second year with Girl Planted.

I’m on the fence about YouTube and Pinterest. So many other bloggers swear by Pinterest and I do know that YouTube videos boost my SEO for my recipe blog posts.

I’m not in a place to hire someone to take over those things for me. I’ve got some big decisions to make and FAST as tomorrow is Day 1 of Year 2! Whoop!

I also feel like re-branding to be a fit for me as a creator with my vibe and now having a goal of publishing more personalized articles was the BEST decision I could have made. We’ll see though.

Goals For Year 2

I am excited to share that I am now a FULL-TIME blogger. Girl Planted is my only creative commitment, I’m no longer treating it as a hobby and have a strategic content plan in place for this second blogging year.

There are so many ways to grow this brand and I have yet to even scratch the surface of being an Amazon Influencer, which is one of the affiliate partnerships I’ll be putting a lot more time and effort into.

Finally, having inspired myself with this very blog post, I am committing to monthly income reports as a way to hold myself accountable (published every 3 months).

I also love reading these when other bloggers publish them, so maybe one day I’ll be able to provide that for one of my readers.

A lot of big, awesome things to come! I couldn’t be MORE excited to really make this business a success.

I know this was a long and wordy post, but if you’re reading it, then you’re considering starting a blog or maybe even getting more intentional with one you’ve already started.

Regardless, I hope it inspires you to take action!

If you just nodded yes, scroll to the top of this page and check out FREE Resources For Bloggers. I’d love to help in any way I can. xo

Bri Alli

GirlPlanted.com

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TAGS:beginner blogger Featured hobby blogger new blogger income report part time blogger