In 2018, I started blogging and writing more seriously as I wanted to make a full-time career out of it. In the spirit of looking forward, I’ve had to look back and take a hard look at my income for the last year.
Because we live in a world where money is needed to survive, Latte Lindsay runs a number of affiliate programmes and offers paid/sponsored content. If you choose to click the links and read the posts, the site may earn a commission or receives a payment. All of the opinions are my own. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any partner brands/company(s), beauty & lifestyle brands, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities unless specified.
I will be honest, this was a tough post for me to write because it involves being very honest about my money and that is something we are told not to share. Especially when it comes to writers and bloggers. There is a real “fake it until you make it” mentality. It makes coming out of the income closet that bit harder because your income might not be as good as someone else’s and it can make you feel like a failure.
Sponsored posts- £2,534.41
Book Sales- £500
Adverts- N/A
Affiliate income- N/A
Total- £3,034.41
How did it go?
I’ll be honest, I’ve been blogging for a few years and I have made a lot of mistakes when it came to earning money. I’ve been back and forth with different things and how to make money. I might actually write a book about my blogging mistakes so you know what you avoid. 2018 was my first year of making money from my site and it has been an amazing feeling. Previous years, I have made money as a writer and I have worked for different places, but I’ve never been able to make my site profitable. 2018 was the year when I grabbed the bull by the horns and put all of my knowledge to use, reached out and made waves.
How did I do it?
There was a lot of mistakes that were made in the past and I could only hope that I had learned something from them. I took the plunge and contacted some blogger outreach companies and started taking on sponsored posts, something I had never done before. I would like to point out that I do run ads and affiliate schemes on the site, but I haven’t included any of the income for this year because they didn’t pay out. There are levels that you need to reach before they will pay you, and I fell short of those levels. But I’m guessing you are probably surprised by the book sales figure. My book was made available for pre-order in November 2018 and it appears to have done well with sales so far, but I won’t know how well for a while because my publisher is keeping those figures a secret until April 2019. And you can get your copy of Newtownards in the Great War (Towns & Cities in the Great War)
The future of my income
Recently I published a few posts about my goals for 2019 and 2018 in review, and I made a better big thing about my income goals for 2019. By the end of 2019, I am hoping that I will be hitting £10k a month. This is not an impossible number (if other bloggers are to be believed) but it is a big number, especially considering my entire 2018 added up to just over £3k. This works out as an average of £250 per month, which isn’t too bad when you think about it, it is kind of close to a part-time income.
What are your blogging and writing goals for 2019? Let me know what your goals are in the comments section.