Transparency in WordPress Part 2: Bloggers Income Reports

I recently posted about WordPress related companies that share income statistics, which was a fun and inspiring post. It’s always interesting to see how much income people are making from their projects so I thought I would do a follow-up post but this time look at individual bloggers who publicly share their income and traffic stats.

The bloggers listed here mostly all use WordPress and blogging as the basis for their income but have diversified into other areas of income such as podcasts, eBooks and product sales – it’s always good to have a mix of income sources in case one takes a hit, especially important with the constant ups and downs of Google updates and so on.

Smart Passive Income

Smart Passive Income is the blog of Pat Flynn who has built an impressive personal brand, along with his blog he also produces two podcasts, does public speaking and also runs some niche websites which run on WordPress such as Security Guard Training HQ and FoodTruckr. He also has some products such as Smart Podcast Player and Green Exam Academy. Pat is a likeable and very inspiring guy who has worked really hard to get to his current income level of over $150k revenue for last month. He has been posting monthly stats and income roundups since 2008 where he made just under $8k, there is loads of good content on his blog so if you are looking for some tips on building recurring income with your sites, I recommend you take a look back through his archives.

• March 2015 Income: $153,397.47

Entrepreneur on Fire

Entrepreneur on Fire is a blog and podcast network and also a collection of training resources, since launching in 2012 they have brought in over $3.5 million in revenue. They publish monthly revenue reports, with the latest from february 2015 showing over $433k in revenue!

• February 2015 Income: $433,252.

Matthew Woodward

Matthe Woodward is a British blogger who shares loads of statistics each month about his blog and his business including revenue, traffic, social shares, popular content and so on. He started his income reports in 2012 where he made just $700, he has earned as much as $35k in a month and last month’s revenue was $12k. He has a focus on SEO and there are some really interesting and detailed posts on the subject such as “How I Built A Top 100 Blog In 12 Months & How You Can Do It Too!”

• March 2015 Income: $12,215.22

Pinch of Yum

Pinch of Yum is a food blog which provides food recipes but also focuses on teaching other food bloggers how to start their blogs and provides some eBooks on subjects like food photography. They provide monthly income reports, where they went from just $21 income in 2011 all the way up to $26k in february this year! Really inspiring growth and they have built a great blog in a niche outside the usual SEO / marketing fields who usually post these revenue updates.

• February 2015 Income: $26,248.58

Shout Me Loud

Shout Me Loud is a blog by Harsh Agrawal which focuses on Technology, WordPress and blogging. He has posted over 1000 articles since it launched in 2008 and he regularly posts statistics roundups with the latest one in March showing revenue of over $15k. The blog has great traffic numbers with over 300k uniques visiting in march. Revenue is generated from affiliate sales, sponsored posts and consultancy income.

• March 2015 Income: $15,313,41

True Valhalla

True Valhalla is a blog run by Matthew, an HTML5 games developer based in Australia. He makes money from his blog, sales of an eBook about making money with HTML5 and from sales of his games. He has been posting income updates since 2012 where he made just over $1000 to February 2015 where he made over $5000.

• February 2015 Income: $5,184

Making Sense of Cents

Making Sense of Cents is a personal finance and lifestyle blog run by blogger Michelle, who impressively, managed to pay off her $38k student debts in just 7 months. In february of this year she made $23,758 which was her best month so far and included the sale of an $11k website. She has kept a running total of her extra income on the site since May 2012 where she made just $672, another impressive blogger to take a look at.

• March 2015 Income: $15,151

Conclusion

There are some very inspiring numbers shown here, what is even more inspiring is digging back into their past income reports and seeing where they started. It shows the power of blogging and building an audience and right now there is no better platform for building your blog with than WordPress. Picking a niche you are passionate about and sticking to regular blogging, following along with the latest updates and methods for promoting your site will pay off in the long run. I have now personally build two large blogs from scratch to good income levels ( I sold my first one and then focused on WPLift ). At the start progress will be slow, it may take over a year to grow your blog but persistence definitely pays off with blogging.

How are you doing with your blog? Do you share income or other stats? Let us know in the comments and I may make these income roundups a permanent feature on WPLift.