I blog for a living. While most people are familiar with the term blog, they don’t realize that you can do it for a living. I also feel like there is a significant misconception about blogs. Many people think of blogs as online journals, or a place to write about your day and share photos of your kids. They see articles shared on Facebook by blogs like Scary Mommy, and maybe even share them themselves. They don’t quite connect the idea that the article they are sharing is a blog.

Anyway, even people who are familiar with modern blogs don’t understand how it can be a job. The truth is, many bloggers make money in different ways. I see income reports from bloggers who structure their income sources very differently than I do. For example, I have barely experimented with affiliate programs at all, but for some bloggers who blog for a living it’s their primary source of income.

I would like to share income reports someday, but putting the specifics out still causes me stress. However, I thought I would share the percentages from last month, to give you a rough idea of how my income is divided.

Last month was sort of a slow month for me income-wise. If I were to line up all 10 months of the year so far in order of income, it would be my third of ten. So a worse-than-average month. However, my good month vs my bad month doesn’t necessarily change what percentage came from each type of income.

Paid social posts: This all came from blogging networks. These campaigns are usually 1 tweet and 1 facebook post about the same thing, for a set rate.

Paid ads – these are sidebar ads. I run Adsense which pays me per click, and Sovrn which pays me based on how many times their ad is viewed.

Sponsored blog posts that I got through blogging networks. These are where I applied for a chance to write a sponsored post for a brand and was accepted. Blogging networks are the middle-man between bloggers looking for paid work and brands looking for advertising.

Direct sponsored posts. These are when a brand or business emailed me looking to pay me in return for me writing a post for them.

38% Paid social posts.

7% Paid ads.

39% Sponsored blog posts that I got through blogging networks.

11% Direct sponsored posts.

3% affiliate income

This adds up to 98% because I did rounded estimates.

As you can tell, for me, my earnings is pretty well split between paid social media work and sponsored posts from blogging networks. I also make a little bit from sponsored posts that I obtain outside of blogging networks. Then just a little bit from sidebar ads and affiliate income. I am switching ad networks this month, to a network that I have heard pays much better. We’ll see how it works for me.

Do you blog for a living? What are your top sources of income?