Can blogger make $100,000 a month?

Short answer? Yes.. and damn I’d like to join this party. Here on my blog I will publish every step of my way to profitable online business.  Join me!

But let’s take a closer look at those numbers, shell we?

Shock

When you are a hobby blogger who doesn’t make a dime of it, it can be quite a shock to know how much pro bloggers make these days. Good thing though is that some of them share detailed income reports. First time I saw such a report it puzzled me a lot. This blogger earned in a month more then I in three years working as a software developer.

How is it possible?

Startup?

Currently if you want to build online business it has to be called “startup” and certainly it should be super innovative. Or so most people think.

Instead of building a startup, making no money and failing after all (unless you’re a unicorn) let’s try another approach. If you’re comfortable making $100,000 a month you don’t need to have a brilliant idea. You need to be hard-working and smart though.

OK, but how to make that kind of money on a blog?

Three types of income

In general we can divide ways of making money online into three groups:

1. Products
2. Affiliation
3. Sponsorships

Let’s dig a little deeper into each of them.

Products

What I mean by products?

• Websites focused on a specific niche.
  Websites with finite amount of information from that particular niche.
  For example site with all info about how to become a security guard in US.
• eBooks
• Online courses
• Web applications
• Mobile apps
• Plugins (e.g. for WordPress)

Where the money is coming from?:

• Advertisement
• Sales
• Paid features
• Recurring payments

Affiliation

In this model you encourage people to use specific products and make money of commissions. Important thing is to promote products which you know will please your audience. Don’t promote crap.

Affiliation has a great potential, but as you know with great power comes great responsibility.

Sponsorships

You make individual deals with sponsors to promote their products on your blog, podcast, YouTube channel etc.

Various opportunities here, you can agree to anything that is acceptable for both sides. Lot of room for negotiations.

Exemplary deal could look like this: for every 1000 downloads of your podcast (which includes some kind of advertisement) you get $50. Is it a good deal? It’s for you to decide.

Do I need a blog for all of this?

Yes.
Blog is the center of your online universe.
Blog is a place where you build your brand, your thrust and your audience.

OK, now prepare, good stuff is coming.

Income reports

We have two contestants today, Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome and John Lee Dumas from EntrepreneurOnFire. They both publish income reports on a monthly basis and both of them had a total net profit from January 2016 greater then $100,000.

Pat

We’ll start with Pat Flynn’s income report from January 2016.
Pat is doing an awesome job and I really recommend you to check out his content.

Anyway let’s get down to business.

We can divide Pat’s income into three groups which I’ve mentioned earlier: products, affiliation and sponsorships.

1. Products: $20,255.49
   GreenExamAcademy.com
   SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com
   FoodTruckr.com
   CreateaClickableMap.com
   eBook “Let Go”
   iPhone Applications
   Smart Podcast Player (wordpress plugin)
2. Affiliate Earnings: $141,881.36
   
3. Sponsorships (podcasts): $14,513.08
   Ask Pat Podcast
   SPI Podcast

Gross: $176,649.93
Expenses: 70,157.66
Net Total: $106,492.27

We can see the dominance of affiliate earnings which create more then 80% of the total income. On second and third place we have a close win for the products (11%) over sponsorships (9%).

See full report

John

Second income report (also from January 2016) comes from John Lee Dumas, an entrepreneur on fire. John is doing an excellent job. Be sure to check his podcast!

1. Products – $39,340
   Podcasters’ Paradise
   WebinarOnFire
   The Freedom Journal
   Podcast Websites
   The Fire Path Course
   Podcast Launch (eBook, audiobook)
2. Affiliate Earnings: $50,379
3. Sponsorships (podcast): $81,500
   EOFire Podcast

Gross: $171,219
Expenses: $63,753.75
Total Net: $107,465.25

As you can see John is a podcast guy. He made almost half (48%) of his total income on podcast sponsorships. Affiliate revenues represent 29% of the total income and products 23%.

See full report

My perspective

$100,000 a month? Yes, it is real. And it just blows my mind.

But there is something more about that. Those guys are creating remarkable value and are helping thousands of people. Money is just the side effect. But I assure you, they deserve it.

Frankly that is my ultimate goal as well. To build something helpful, something meaningful, something remarkable. I stopped complaining, got to work  and I’m already on my way to achieve it, although not far yet.

I want to show you every step of build process of my online business. I will publish all of my actions, failures and successes.

Join me, learn with me and let’s build profitable online business together.