21 Blog Income Reports – How Much Do Bloggers Make?

How much do bloggers make?

I think the advent of bloggers publishing income reports is a good thing.  They are a testament to the fact that blogging and niche sites can be a great business.  I very well may not have jumped into this business had it not been for the folks at Site Built It way back when tell me that the founder’s daughter creator owned a travel site earning $2,500 per month (or so the story went).

That seemed like a huge sum of money to me at the time.  I did have a full time career but thought that would be a great side hustle that was fun.

Since then many more bloggers have published income reports.  Some are astronomical; some are modest. I believe they are all inspiring.

I’ve thrown my hat in the income report ring as well.  I believe they help inspire others but they are also outstanding marketing articles each month.

No article on Fat Stacks attracts email subscribers like income reports.

  • They attract subscribers.
  • They help generate course sales.
  • They attract links.

Hence many bloggers publish them.

I don’t buy anything from anyone who doesn’t demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that they know what they’re doing.

Net income is a very good proxy for demonstrating ability.

Not all income reports are created equal though.

Some are great (and I’m not talking about high revenue as being great).

Some are okay.

Some are downright misleading.

And no, my income reports are not the best out there.

I’m lazy, but they do give you a snapshot of how some of my niche sites are performing.

My income reports are not the only ones out there.  There are many to check out and follow.  Here’s a list of them.

How much do bloggers make?  Here’s a List of Blog Income Reports

Fat Stacks Income Reports

Of course I list myself first.  Narcissistic?  Maybe, but my blog, my rules.  I’ve published blog income reports for a few years. I’m happy to report overall revenue and net income has increased over time but that’s not without ups and downs.

While my income reports are not the most detailed out there, I do report revenue and expenses so you know what I put in my pocket from my blogs.

Moreover, my blog income reports do NOT include income derived from Fatstacksblog.com (this blog).  I don’t think it makes sense to tell you how much I make on a blog where I tell you how much I make.  It would be weird and disingenuous to teach blogging based on my only having the one blog that teaches how to blog.  All I could tell you is to start a blog on how to blog, then tell people how much you make telling them how to blog.  Doesn’t sit well with me.

Instead, my income reports solely report income from niche sites and blogs totally independent from Fatstacksblog.com.  They are in totally different niches.  They earn in different ways.  Different audience.  Totally different.

You can see my income report here.

Yeys.com

Yeys.com is run by Anne.  I’ve known Anne for some time now.  We met through Fatstacksblog.com.  She runs a large portfolio of niche sites.  Like me, Yeys.com reports on her portfolio of niche sites.  She and her husband are running a large, growing and highly successful portfolio of niche sites.  She knows this business unlike anyone else and it shows in her income reports.

She’s very busy so she doesn’t blog on Yeys as much as she’d like but what she’s put up on that site is impressive.  Her income reports are epic.  Highly, highly detailed and helpful. I consider her income reports to be the best on the Web.

Check out Yeys’ reports here.

Passive Income Geek

One of the huge intangible benefits of publishing Fatstacksblog.com is I’ve come to know a lot of great folks in this business.  I get to know some email readers, course buyers, many forum members and colleagues.  Morten, the guy behind Passive Income Geek is one such great guy I’ve met via Fatstacksblog.

We’ve chatted on Skype and emailed.  Super smart and nice guy.  I’m lucky to know him.

Anyway, like me and Anne, Morten also publishes a portfolio of niche sites and writes about it on his blog PassiveIncomeGeek.com.  He too publishes income reports that are impressive.  He knows this business well.  His website, course and income reports are worth a look.

He showcases monthly income of his niche sites on his course sales page here.

Adam Enfroy

Adam doesn’t know me. We’ve never chatted but he impresses me big time.  He’s a ranking machine.  I’m only familiar with his one site Adamenfroy.com on which he publishes income reports.  As far as I can tell, his income reports report income earned on the same site (adamenfroy.com).

His income reports are very detailed.  He itemizes revenue and expenses which I appreciate.

I’m not usually a big fan of folks doing that but Adam softens the blow in the way he outright states that his blog is a business and that he approaches it solely as a business.  It sure worked.  He’s pulling in nearly a $100K per month in under 2 years which is insane.

He knows this stuff well.  His posts are detailed and helpful.  Overall, I’m a fan.

Here are Adam’s income reports.

FullTimeBlog.com

FullTimeBlog.com is published by Brock McGoff.  What I appreciate about Brock is his income reports profile income from a true niche site in the men’s fashion niche called The Modest Man.

His reports are very detailed setting out all revenue sources and expenses. The amount he earns is certainly not very modest.  The level of detail in his reports puts mine to shame.  You get a very good understanding how he’s monetizing a really great niche site.

See income reports here

One Hour Professor

Ron, the “One Hour Professor” is another guy I’ve met via Fatstacksblog.com.  Great guy who also owns a few niche sites. Like me, he doesn’t reveal them. I don’t blame him one bit.  He’s doing so great numbers with his blogs.

While he does report income for One Hour Professor, it’s a tiny amount compared to his other niche sites.  Like me, he has one niche site that earns the lion’s share of revenue followed by a handful of “babies” that he’s growing into what he hopes will be full-blown high-earning adults.

Check out the income reports from Ron, aka the One Hour Professor here.

RyRob.com

I don’t know Ryan but I enjoy his site.  I liken his site to Adamenfroy.com.  They cover many similar topics.  As far as I can tell, Ryan’s income reports are based on the same blog on which he publishes income reports.  He reports revenue, traffic and expenses but doesn’t itemize them.

Overall, I like his site.  I’ve stumbled on it many times searching in Google.

Read Ryan’s income reports here.

Niche Pursuits

Spencer Haws runs niche site case studies regularly.  As he builds out his sites, he publishes ongoing updates and income reports.

One of his more recent case studies is aptly called “Niche Site Project 4”.

You can read all the details, updates and access the income reports for that niche site here.

Debbie Gartner aka The Flooring Girl

Debbie publishes the website theflooringgirl.com.

It’s in the home niche but she also writes about how she makes money and grows her blog on that blog.  This is actually a growing trend with more and more lifestyle bloggers (home, food and travel).

Debbie publishes monthly income reports in your email newsletter.  It’s a great email so I recommend joining. I’m on it.

She’s also been interviewed about her blogging success.  You can read one such interview here where Debbie talks about growing your blog to an impressive $22,000 per month.

Succulents and Sunshine

This is an interesting example because it’s a fairly narrow niche compared to many other sites, especially my sites.

Succulents and Sunshine did an interview with Income School where they said they earn $200,000 gross revenue per year.  Unfortunately, net income was disclosed.

Watch the interview below.

Create and Go

Create and Go earns a ton of revenue but the big problem is I have no idea how profitable they are.  They only report revenue.  They run Facebook and Pinterest ads to their courses, but I have no idea if it’s $50 per day or $3,000 or more per day.  Therefore, while the revenue figures are very impressive, nobody except them know what they put in their pocket.

What I do appreciate about Create and Go is that they earn decent revenue from a site other than Create and Go.  In fact, that’s how they started.  The problem again is, they don’t publish expenses related to that other site so nobody has any idea whether they are profitable and if so, how profitable.

They earn revenue from selling courses and affiliate commissions.

Check out their latest income report here.  They just update each month. I don’t believe there’s an archive of past income reports (but I could be wrong).

Living the Dream

The folks behind Living the Dream are travel bloggers but publish monthly income and travel reports.

They go into great detail on their niche travel sites which is great.  More detail than I do.  You get a real sense of what’s going on with their sites.

Read Living the Dream’s income reports here.

In the Kitchen with Matt

Okay, this is an impressive income report.

Matt hit nearly $3,000 per month in his first year blogging.  That is very, very impressive.  Like other lifestyle bloggers, he published his income report on his actual lifestyle niche site.  His site is about food.

Read Matt’s income report on his first year of blogging here.

The Fiery Vegetarian

The Fiery Vegetarian publishes monthly income reports.  As the title suggests, it’s a blog about being a vegetarian. I actually think that’s a great niche.  If they keep at it I believe they can hit some big numbers.

The amount of detail included in the reports are great.  From what I gather reading the October 2020 report, the site sought out Pinterest traffic but is pivoting to focus more on Google search traffic. I think that’s a good move.  Pinterest is great… for secondary traffic.  I get quite a bit of Pinterest traffic but it’s nothing like the volume and consistency of Google search traffic.

You can read the monthly income reports here.

Entrepreneur on Fire

Here’s an example of some serious bucks being made online.

Entrepreneur on Fire is all about podcasting.  John broke into the industry way back when and as we all know, podcasting has since exploding.  He runs a popular podcast interviewing entrepreneurs and then teaches podcasting via courses.

EOfire.com consistently earns six figures per month. Their revenue stems from selling courses, memberships, affiliate promotions and podcast ad sales.

The reports are outstanding.  A great example on how to publish an income report.  The level of detail is excellent.  Every revenue source is set out.  All expenses are included so you get a “what John puts into his pocket” amount every month.

Read Entrepreneur on Fire’s income reports here.

The Clean Eating Couple

And yet another lifestyle blogger publishing an income report on the lifestyle blog. I love it. I think it’s fun, inspiring and refreshing from the “how to blog” crowd publishing income reports based on the “how to blog” niche.  It goes to show there’s “riches in the niches”.

In January 2020, this blog published a detailed annual income report for 2019 here.

Bloggers on the Rise

Bloggers on the Rise is like Fat Stacks in that it’s where the publisher (couldn’t find a name) talks about and reports on her other niche sites.

The income reports are nicely detailed and showcases quite a few niche sites.

I appreciate that this is an income report on actual niche sites plus expenses are clearly listed so all in all, they are detailed and transparent income reports.

You can read them here.

It’s Claudia G

It’s Claudia G is published by Claudia, a 21 year old lifestyle blogger.  Bravo to her.  She’s killing it at 21. I wish I got started then but when I was 21 there was no WordPress. I think it Dreamweaver was commonly used to build HTML sites.  I digress.

Claudia writes about what interests her spanning many topics.  It’s an influencer approach which I think is terrific.

You can read her detailed income reports here.

Simplyhatch.com

Simplyhatch.com’s income reports profile Alison’s income earned from her lifestyle blog Love Life be fit.

Alison launched Love Life be fit in September 2019. Within one year she’s grown it to $2,045 per month.  IMPRESSIVE.  I think that’s fantastic.  Getting to that four figures per month requires a ton of work.  Most of her income is via Mediavine ads followed by few bucks from affiliate promotions.

I really like how she’s profiling a blog separate from the site that publishes the income report.  She does not discuss how much she makes on Simplyhatch.com which is the same approach I take with Fat Stacks Blog.

Read Simplyhatch’s income reports here.

Another Mommy Blogger

Haha, a self-described blogger as a mommy blogger. There are plenty of them. It’s a popular niche.  The mommy blog niche is usually a mix of various niches combined with the influencer blogging strategy.

Topping out in October 2020 above $3,500, Sierrah is doing great.  That’s as much as many full time salaries.  I’m still amazed that publishing a blog can earn thousands per month.

Read Another Mommy Bloggers’ income reports here.

The Website Flip

Mushfiq Sarker publishes a great post here along with an email newsletter showcasing his several niche sites’ progress.

His reports are highly detailed and impressive.  This guy knows what he’s doing.  From what I gather and based on the newsletter’s name, he buys lower-priced sites, grows them and flips them for a big fat profit.  It’s a proven model.  He’s succeeding very nicely.

Check out his reports here.

Are there other blogger income reports?

Probably. I’m sure in the bowels of the Web many more income reports lurk.  I did my best to only include bloggers with recent income reports instead of those where the last report is several years ago.

Many bloggers used to publish income reports but stopped for various reasons.  I guess you get to a point where the income reports are no longer necessary to grow such a blog.  I’m not there… yet.  I have no plans to stop publishing income reports but I can’t say I’ll publish them forever.

I welcome additional submissions

If you publish current income reports or know of someone who does, email me at info[at]fatstacksblog.com and let me know. I’ll check them out for inclusion in this list.

Good and bad income reports: What to look for

Let’s talk about what you should look for when reading income reports.  Some are great, some are okay and some are misleading.  I’m not going to specify any examples of what I consider bad or misleading reports but I’ll set out what I tend to look for below.

Misleading income reports

The very worst income reports are those that mislead.

While probably not criminally fraudulent, they’re bad.

You must watch out for these.

What makes an income report misleading?

Any income report that ONLY reports revenue.

Every business has expenses.  It’s particularly egregious when bloggers have a lot of expenses such as paid ads and fail to reveal those expenses.

Revenue-only reports make it sound like the owner is pocketing all that money. They aren’t.

An example is someone who sells physical products and reports gross revenue without subtracting the cost of goods sold and/or money spent on ads.

The worst part is that anyone, including you, could have $5 million in revenue next month.

All you have to do is spend $20 million+ on ads driving traffic to your site and you’ll earn a pile of money.

But, chances are you won’t earn anywhere nearly enough to pay for the ads. You’ll lose money. You’d probably be broke. I know I would be.

And yet… you could publish a report proclaiming you earned $5 million in October.

It’s nuts.

And yet there are such income reports out there.

When I find them, I contact them asking what the expenses are.

They either ignore or me or say something vague like “we don’t publish those details.”

Not acceptable.

Those details are hugely important, especially if I’m interested in buying their course.

I don’t buy because for all I know they’re losing money or only breaking even; not actually putting all those thousands into their pocket every month.

TIP: Facebook now offers the ability for anyone to see if a page is running ads. This way you can see if any particular blogger is spending money on FB ads. That’s one way to see if they’re spending serious money.

You can also visit their site and if running Google ads, chances are their ads will appear to you via retargeting.

If they’re running ads and not disclosing expenses, you know their profits are considerably less than what they’re reporting.

Mediocre income reports

Mediocre income reports aren’t terrible.  They aren’t misleading.

Mediocre income reports are those from bloggers who are a one-blog outfit. Their income is solely or mainly earned from the very blog that publishes the income reports.

It would be like me only owning Fat Stacks and having my income reports set out Fat Stacks revenue.

It’s called self-fulling marketing.

It goes like this:

Buy my course.

Course teaches how to set up a blog on how to blog and sell a course on how to blog.

There’s no independent business model being taught.

It’s similar to the distinction between a pyramid scheme and legitimate multi-level marketing (MLM) business.

A pyramid scheme sells the biz op that self-fulfills and promotes the pyramid scheme itself.

A legitimate MLM actually sells something independent of the business opportunity. Amway sells soap and other household goods. Yes, it sells the business opportunity as well, but that opportunity is the ability to sell the soap.

And no, I’m not going to promote Amway or any MLM. I’m just acknowledging the important distinction within the industry.

Great income reports

Great income reports are transparent and report revenue and expenses from an enterprise entirely separate from the blog that publishes income reports.

It could be a separate ecommerce business or kindle publishing business or niche site business like yours truly. It can be any business that is entirely independent of the “how to blog” business.

Is it okay to include revenue from the “how to blog” site as well?

Yeah, as long as it’s made clear how much of the revenue is from the “how to blog” site.

For example, if someone earns $30K in total revenue but $28K of it is from the “how to blog” site but lumps it in with “my niche sites”, that’s misleading. You don’t know if they own successful niche sites or not.

If it’s separated out, you as the reader at least know where the lion’s share of the revenue is from.

Other aspects of full transparency include divulging niches, URLs and are updated regularly.

My income reports are NOT the best

I admit it. My income reports are not the best. I’m not as transparent as I should be in that I don’t include traffic data. I don’t reveal my niches. I don’t reveal my niche URLs.

I’m also lazy in preparing them.

Hence, while truthful and helpful, they are admittedly lacking.

And sorry, I currently have no plans to change. They’re not perfect but they’re better than nothing.

The best income reports

The best blog income reports are based on revenue of totally independent online businesses or blogs from the blog that reports income reports.  Moreover, expenses are fully set out instead of just revenue. The very best also list out every income source, expense item and traffic.  I fall short here.  While I set out revenue and expenses, I don’t break down revenue sources and I don’t give traffic figures.

An example of what I consider to be the best income reports are published by Anne at ​Yeys.com.

Anne, someone I’ve known for some time and who I greatly respect, publishes what I consider the poster child income report.

They profile only her niche sites (not Yeys.com – the site that publishes income reports).

She shares traffic data, niche info, revenue info and expense info.

She’s the real deal.

See what I mean by checking out the latest Yeys.com income report here.

Sadly Anne reports she’s taking a break from Yeys. That’s too bad but I totally understand. Juggling many niche sites and a site like Yeys is a lot. I know from personal experience.

I welcome additional submissions

If you publish current income reports or know of someone who does, email me at info[at]fatstacksblog.com and let me know. I’ll check them out for inclusion in this list.

2 thoughts on “21 Blog Income Reports – How Much Do Bloggers Make?”

  1. Thanks for this list Jon, I hadn’t heard of several of these sites. Quick question: have you seen any data (or do you have any hunches) as to how much posting income reports helps or hurts traffic for these bloggers?

    I’ve seen some bloggers say that income reports are their most visited posts, but I’ve also seen a number of blogs do away with their income reports, which they likely wouldn’t do if they say the report posts as traffic assets. I’m wondering if the time spent on posting income reports is worth it in terms of traffic?

    1. Hey Joe, income reports are fairly popular on my site and I suspect the same for others that do them. I don’t have data other than my site but they do attract attention.
      It seems to me that the bloggers that stop doing them because the lion’s share or all of their income is from the very site that teaches this stuff. Their niche sites or independent online businesses either stopped working, were sold or dropped in priority because they weren’t all that lucrative. Publishing income reports where all or most of the income is from the very site that teaches this stuff is not a very good strategy IMO. That’s why my income reports don’t include Fat Stacks revenue. I just showcase my niche sites.
      A totally different reason they may stop, although I don’t know of any examples, is that they decided to focus more on their other businesses and slowed down/stopped caring about their site that published income reports. I have big respect for this scenario.

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