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So it has been a while since I have done an income report. And that’s just honestly because there hasn’t really been enough income each month to report.

The last income report I did was back in August of 2019- my second-month blogging, and I also did my first-month blogging income report.

This is going to be an honest November 2020 income report. Spoiler alert- I didn’t even make that much money.

So if you’re hoping to learn how I made $10,000 this month, this is the wrong income report for you.

However, if you’d like to learn how much I did make blogging in November, and a few truths about making money blogging that you may not have considered, you’re in the right place!

HOW MANY SALES I MADE IN NOVEMBER 2020

First, let’s break down the sales I made.

MONEY MADE FROM TEACHABLE

I tend to sell two courses a lot on Teachable, Mastering Sales with Ell, and Pinterest With Ell. They have really become my main sources of income over the last few months, and I’m thrilled with that.

These are the courses I recommend the most because not only do I stand behind them 100% as amazing courses, but they’re also affordable courses for my audience. The more I sell of them, the more I promote them because I know I have good conversions on these courses.

Courses sold– 4

Revenue– $49

ETSY SALES

I have 3 Etsy listings up at the moment, a social media content calendar, a blog post content calendar, and Pinterest templates. Usually, I make more sales over the month than three, so Etsy revenue was down this month but other areas made up for it!

Orders– 3

Revenue– $14.67

PINTEREST FREELANCING

I’ve just launched my Pinterest Freelancing services where I create pins for people. I was a lot of fun and I’m hoping to grow this revenue source in the future!

Clients– 1

Revenue– $25.51

TOTAL REVENUE

So you may be looking at that and going… That’s $89! Not bad!

Sadly, that’s not actually the case. And here’s why.

BLOGGING TRUTHS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT

I didn’t end up making $89 last month, I actually made $57.10. Which is obviously a pretty significant difference between the two numbers.

Here’s why

1. TEACHABLE TAKES TWO MONTHS TO PAYOUT

I know, crazy right? So, I made 4 sales from Teachable in November. But, because of the way their system works I won’t actually see that money until January!

Why?

The have a 30-day money back guarantee policy. Which means buyers have an entire month to take the product back. That’s already one month right there.

And to add onto that, Teachable only pays out on the 1st of every month.

So, that means the money deposited into my bank account on November 1st was actually from September sales.

And if we check how many sales I made in September:

I only made one sale in September, bringing my total to just $19.50.

2. TAXES

Since I work for myself, taxes don’t get taken out of sales for me. Normally, at a regular 9-5 job, your employer pays your tax for you so the money you see in your check is yours to keep.

In this case, since I work for myself I am essentially the employer. This means every sale that I make I have to be conscious of the fact that taxes need to be taken out of it.

Since I am just starting to make money blogging, I’m not sure how much I will be needing to pay for taxes on each sale. But from the advice I’ve heard, you need to save about 20 to 25% of each sale just to be safe. 

I’m not sure how true this is but I typically save 20% of each sale just in case.

3. ETSY FEES

As you saw in the Etsy screenshot, my revenue said $14.67. But, Etsy takes a cut of each of your sales, I believe it’s 5%. This means, out of the three Etsy sales I made for the month of November I only actually took home $12.09.

FINAL NOVEMBER 2020 INCOME REPORT

So the grand total of what I made in November is $57.10 however I saved $11.42 for taxes. This means the money in my pocket that I actually get to keep is $45.68.

Now, this is obviously far off from that $80 number we originally started with. And I haven’t even gotten into all of the expenses of blogging. Luckily, most of my blogging expenses are paid yearly and they aren’t paid monthly so I didn’t actually have any blogging expenses this month.

However for this year in total, I still technically lost money because I didn’t make enough so far this year to cover my blogging expenses. I hope that next year this will be changing!

Blogging is hard. It’s expensive. And making money online is difficult. Despite all of that, I still absolutely love being able to do this as a job and I wouldn’t have it any other way. However, I don’t want you to feel discouraged by those crazy income reports on Pinterest about how to make $10,000 in your first month or $100,000 in your first year.

While those numbers are possible that is the exception and not the rule. Those people put in a lot of hard work and a lot of time, but not everybody is making those numbers blogging. There are the vast majority of bloggers that are only making small amounts of money and an even bigger vast majority that are not making any money at all.

I just recently started making a regular income in August of 2020. My income for August was one single sale where I made $3.92 from Etsy. But since then, I have been able to increase my income every single month. December and January will be no different. And I know that if I can make money blogging anybody can do it!

CONCLUSION

So don’t feel discouraged if you aren’t making money blogging just yet. Because this is my third blog and I have been blogging for about 3 years now. It’s taken three years to get to $45 a month. I don’t say that to discourage you either, I’m not saying that it’s going to take you 3 years to make your first $45.

If you’re a smarter blogger than me, you may be able to make money quicker. However, my point is don’t be discouraged by the number of people that you see making a ton of money blogging because some of us bloggers are right there with you!

I hope you enjoyed this November 2020 income report post, I hope it was eye-opening for you, and I hope it makes you feel a little bit better about seeing those giant income reports. If you’d like to see future income reports from me, leave a comment letting me know and I will create more income reports in the future if that’s something you want to see!