Why Bloggers Share Their Income Report and Why You Should Too

182Shares

How many times have you come across posts where a blogger talks about his income from blogging and shares his income stats?

When I started sharing my income report initially, I got many mixed reactions from regular and first time visitors. Some people find it motivating, others consider it “showing off” or bragging, and some people believe it’s misleading.

I have not written about this topic before today, but after four years of blogging, I believe it’s time to clear the air and share my perspective on sharing income reports publicly.

Show me the money
  • Save

Why sharing a blog’s income report is helpful to yourself and others:

There is no denying the fact that money is one of the biggest motivational factors in every aspect of life. If you ask people what they want to do or become in life, a majority will answer that they want to be involved in a profession that brings maximum recognition, respect and financial compensation. This is true because money is needed to buy most of our necessities and luxuries in life.

Blogging as a potential career option:

Blogging is a relatively new career option, and it is not a field in which one can gain certification or a degree. It is, however, a job which anyone from any age group anywhere in the world can pursue.

These days many people have blogs on one of the free blogging platforms available, and they blog for personal interest, communication, or because they have a passion for writing.  What many of these bloggers don’t yet realize is that blogging can bring recognition, fame and (for some) a very good income.

A new source of blog monetization:

There are thousands if not millions of bloggers out there who are still unaware of different ways to monetize a blog. Most budding bloggers think AdSense is the only way to make money from their blog. But there are many more lucrative ways to create income from blogging such as sponsored reviews, affiliate marketing, CPM ads, etc.

When I see a blogger’s income report, I often learn new methods that I can explore to add to my own blogging income.

The motivation for readers and self-motivation:

everyone can make money online
  • Save

When I started blogging, I stumbled upon the income reports of a few bloggers, and that helped me to understand the true monetary potential of blogging. I believed in “If They Can Do It, I Can Do It“, and with that mindset I managed to cross the blogging income milestone of $6000 per month.

Publishing my income report also serves as a self-motivation mechanism for me. It helped me to raise my goal with every milestone I crossed and reported.

Check out the complete archive of my income reports and compare my first income report with the latest one, and you will see the growth for yourself.

Comments are helpful:

There is no doubt that full-time bloggers can make money from their blogs.  And whether the income has been earned through AdSense ads, affiliate marketing or any other method, sharing one’s blog income report adds more transparency to the blog. Indeed, whenever I have shared my income report, many regular readers like you have commented suggesting new potential income streams such as an eBook or a new affiliate product and so on. Many readers have messaged me on Facebook and informed me of a few high-converting products.  All of this has been extremely helpful.

In the end, sharing a blog’s earning summary helps to create a better relationship between a blogger and his regular readers.

Some people may think that blog income reports are misleading or may not be genuine, and it is not our job to convince them of anything.  All we can do is honestly and openly report accurate income stats and hope that it may inspire even one other blogger to reach for his own success.

I would love to know a few things from you:

  • Do you find viewing blogging income reports useful and motivating?
  • Do you publish your own income reports on your blog? If not, why not?
  • Has another blogger’s published earnings report helped you to grow your blog?

Do share your opinions, and consider sharing this article on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Was this helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!
  • Save
182Shares
Authored By
A Blogger, Author and a speaker! Harsh Agrawal is recognized as a leader in digital marketing and FinTech space. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud, and a Speaker at ASW, Hero Mindmine, Inorbit, IBM, India blockchain summit. Also, an award-winning blogger.

35 thoughts on “Why Bloggers Share Their Income Report and Why You Should Too”

  1. PUGAZHENTHI

    Hi,

    The income report which you have presented is motivating me a lot for starting a blog immediately. I am preparing myself to launch my blog taking all the precautions mentioned in your blog.

    I will share my site/blog the moment it is launched.

    Regards

    K pugazhenthi

  2. Jonah

    Hi Harsh and thanks for another informative post.

    Publishing your income and expenses is always going to attract a diverse response. It will motivate those who are prepared to do what it takes and stick at it. You will always get those who hold a slight suspicion or who are sceptical and don’t believe. They are usually the ones who generally don’t tend to move forward in their own business as they procrastinate and constantly look for reasons or excuses not to move forward.

    There are of course those marketers who do exaggerate their income to impress or who promise earnings of 6 figures to gain followers. You should ignore those marketers unless they can show you that they too are earning those 6 figures……but they will never prove it because they are not.

    There are quite a few high profile marketers that are earning what they say they are earning and they post similar income reports as you. I would like to mention their names here but that would detract from your own earning post.

    The key point I took from your monthly income reports was not the income figure but the expenses figure. I look at how much you are spending and where you are spending it. This is important but often ignored but is key.

    Your expenses reflect what you really need to be doing to be successful online. Everybody wants to do it all for free and they struggle using free blogging platforms, free software, free marketing tools and free analytic tools etc. This may appear to be a good idea at first but it is not and never will be. Unfortunately these free tools will not help any marketer’s financial progress but very few will listen. Speculate to accumulate.

    Your own income report shows, as many other income reports also show, that to be successful and to make any real money online you need to speculate to accumulate and invest some money in certain products or software that do actually help advance your business and you need to do that on a consistent basis. That is a fact for any type of business.

    So rather than looking at the income/profit figure, your readers should actually be looking at what needed to be spent to achieve that and they need to be working towards doing the same and investing and then reinvesting.

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Jonah
      I must say you got an eye to look at the right thing. Surprisingly, the lot of ShoutMeLoud readers take note of expenses and learning from it. I believe such reports are useful only when one take inspiration & idea from it, to implement on their blog. Directly copying the idea won’t be that fruitful, as you are just rehearsing the last layer, and missing out all other underneath layers.

  3. M.Imran

    well a great post and explanation harsh.
    often i watch interviews and read bloggers interviews i observe that they dont show how much they are earning. dont know why but if they show is their any pblm??? i think they believe if they show their earning some will kidnap them and ask for money hahahahahah.
    but here every time when i read ur income report it is only motivate me to do hard work to achieve some thing like u.
    but many bloggers hesitate to show their reports.

    anyway thanks for this great post.

  4. rohit

    $6000 Is Really Awesomee ! Congo. Bud !

  5. Jim

    I have yet a question for you:

    Do you think that your income report attracts more visitors which at the end result in more money? If that is the case I would not be surprised that a lot of bloggers publishing income reports present an overestimation of their actual income. In fact, some people might have begun a blog with a very lux income report which isn’t true only to guaranty some visitors. Do you think that only bloggers that do good publish their income?

    I don’t think that an income report is at all transparent. It would be transparent if there would be a sort of a third party website to which bloggers could suscribe (and pay) to certify their income.

    In any case, thanks for making your opinion free and open to us.

    Best regards,

    Jim

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Jim
      Income reports do attract readership…. Sharing income report is a personal choice, and many people are comfortable and open about sharing it, as there is nothing to lose.

      There are bloggers who are making million of dollars via blogging, but they don’t talk about, or don’t like to share.. As I said above, this is personal choice and there is nothing wrong about..
      How can we talk about something that we don’t see or don’t hear?? To believe or not to believe is the question one has to ask himself.. If one believe it, one day he will also make it..

  6. Eli Sultanov

    i love when bloggers share there income, its really inspiring

  7. Tarun

    It really encourages other blogger to work hard get more Income and make money like you

  8. Steve eMailSmith

    I agree,
    Disclosure of a blogger’s income from their blog, CAN be sometimes a very powerful incentive for getting better and better at it.
    Also, showing how it is done and the real numbers that prove it is TRUE, is quite a powerful incentive for other people to follow in your steps.

    Kudos on your earnings, Harsh!

    Cheers,
    Steve ✉ Master eMailSmith ✉ Lorenzo
    Chief Editor # eMail Tips Daily Newsletter

  9. Prasanthreddy Arikatla

    I really appreciate this post. Showing how much money you make on your blog is showing your readers your motivation to blogging and the amount of hard work you put into blogging. Keep it up!

  10. Istiak Rayhan

    Hey Harsh,

    To be frank, your income reports motivated me a lot. In fact, it helped me to take blogging seriously. When I started blogging I didn’t have any idea of monetizing my blog other than using Adsense and Infolinks. When I saw your Income reports, I realized that there a lot of ways to monetize blog.
    Though I didn’t publish any income report of my blog, but I’ve a plan to publish within next few months.
    Good luck with your income and keep publishing your Income reports.

  11. Ruthanne Crosby

    Sharing income report helps to motivate others to dive into blogging and you are right Harsh “You can’t please everyone”. Thanks for sharing

  12. Surendra Soni

    Hello harsh,
    Your monthly income report always motivate me…
    And remind me as same for my job portal site.

  13. Saurabh

    Oh $6000 stat is mind boggling …!!

    Congrats on that front!!

    That is something which might take someone to intire life to get in his Job Life…!! 🙂

    You rock man keep motivating us with the great stats!! 🙂

  14. Amit kumar

    Hiii Harsh sir,
    i want to say something about – Do you find blogging income report useful and motivating?
    We all know, every Blogger starts their Blog after being inspire from any other Blogger. During reading any blog they also see & read the author profile.when they get some special but simple ways and tips about Blogging then they thing about their own blog. In the list of some special ways and tips the “blogging income” also an important thing. In fact, blogging income report plays a very useful and motivating role in the inspiration any blogger.

  15. Uttoran Sen

    Income reports helps if it is true… back in 2006/07 – i used to do it. It was fun then, I used to earn under $2k a month… but still used to share the photos of my check etc.

    recently, i sold one of my blogs for over $10k+ but did not cared to do any bragging… i guess i have grown out of it,

    cheers,
    Uttoran Sen,

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Uttoran Sen
      The question is what’s the right sum to brag about? Is $10k big enough to brag about? Or $1000k… The moment you will consider $10k as bragging income, your financial goal may limit to a certain amount.. When on Internet, sky is the limit…

      More over, sharing is caring.. More you share, you will get more ideas, useful informations from your readers, friends to improve it… Do consider sharing your income report, and revenue split-up with your readers, and you will see a great level of engagement from your readers…..

  16. Ugee

    Sharing your monthly report, would actually make your readers trust your tips a lot more. Keep it up Harsh!

  17. Kushal Azza

    Great Harsh ! I just saw monthly income report by Pat Flyn which you shared on Facebook.

    Thanks.

  18. Kinjalk Tiwari

    Ok Harsh,
    I will start sharing monthly report after my earning will reach around $200
    Thank for giving this great !dea

  19. Rohit Kumar

    Hi,
    I think sharing income is great motivational idea. Those bloggers who thinks that blogging needs time and effort, this article for all of them. I feel this article is inspirational for bloggers like me who wants make blogging as career. Just a little patience and time any one can make handsome income in $$$, but need a proper guidance. And SHOUTMELOUD is bestest in term of SEO skills. Thanks Harsh sir. 🙂

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Rahul
      Thanks for your comment, and I agree with your point. When ever I see a big income report of a blogger, it becomes a big motivational factor, plus it set my financial earning goals…

  20. yash sehgal

    Very well explained harsh.And once should always remember “You cant please everyone”.No matter how hard you try,there will always be Skeptics.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top
182 Shares