I made about $348,000 with my online business
in 2020 and in this video I’ll do a recap Of all the income streams and you’ll see
what worked better during this crazy year And which income streams didn’t perform that well! Here are some of the reports in my payment
processors and in my course platform. Since My income comes from different sources, and I also
live in Portugal but all my income is counted in US dollars and then converted to Euros, currency
conversion fluctuates from month to month when I withdraw money to my company bank account. So,
I can’t show you a pretty number in any software That matches exactly $348k US dollars, but you
can see in my accounting program a graph of the Revenue for each month and by the end of the year,
the total in Euros is a little below 300,000. And this is actually not the number
I wrote in my list of goals for 2020, But I like to challenge myself with the
goals which I hardly will be able to reach, So at any time of the year I feel
that I need to do an extra stretch To get closer to my crazy goals that
keep growing every year by the way. Hi! I’m Anastasia of anastasiablogger.com and
on this channel I share my tips on Pinterest Marketing, blogging, and online business in
general. If that’s what you want to learn, Then subscribe and hit the bell button to
get notified when my new videos go live! 2020 was a very difficult year for a lot of
people and I wanted to share this annual income Report in particular to inspire you and show
you what is possible so that you stop hesitating If you are still thinking if it’s worth
starting your blog or your Youtube channel, Or your online course, or any kind
of business online for that matter. In the middle of the pandemic when so many
people lost their jobs, when businesses had To close their doors, there was a fast and
significant shift towards online platforms. Universities and schools worked online,
fitness and yoga trainers were giving their Classes online, for the most part of the year
restaurants had to use online orders and delivery, We had to buy clothes and shoes online here
in Portugal as all the shops were closed. For my online biz, it was mostly
growth but let’s dive into the income Report details so you can see which areas
suffered because definitely the pandemic Had a negative effect on
some areas of my business. So I made almost $50,000 with advertising
income on my websites and on my Youtube channel. I started with ad income because it was the
one that had quite a drop in 2020 because When lockdowns started and businesses were
closing doors, in the light of the unknown Advertisers majorly cut their budgets. This affected RPM (revenue
for a thousand of visitors On my blogs and on Youtube channel as well).
You can see on this graph how
RPMs went down around April And that is not typical for other years. Normally, RPM gets a little
lower in the summer months But even though, it’s not a drastic drop
like it happened around April of 2020. I also have to admit that during 2020, I
reduced the amount of ads on my main blog Anastasiablogger.com. Basically, I removed
them from all the blog posts that cover Blogging and Pinterest tips because although
that content could get higher RPM, for me it Was obvious that I can make more money if
I improve user experience on those pages By removing the ads, and focus on selling my
own or affiliate products in those articles. I don’t know where you are at right now in
your online income journey so I thought it Was important to give you a better perspective
of how your income streams can change and evolve Over time. That’s why I mentioned
here that I intentionally reduced The amount of ads on my website to give
a priority to other income streams. By the way if you are thinking about starting a
blog right now, I can recommend you an affordable Hosting provider which I used when I started my
blog. I’ve partnered with these guys and they Offered a special pricing for my audience, you
can check more about it in the description below This video. I’ll just tell you that this offer
includes a free domain name for the first year, And the hosting for a WordPress site
that will cost you just $2.95/mo. Moving to my next monetization method, I
also made a significant amount of dollar Dollar bills with affiliate products – I made
over $64,000 with this income stream last year. A lot of other bloggers send traffic to
affiliate networks like Amazon, RewardStyle, CJ Affiliates, Shareasale and others. They just
add links in their content depending on their Niche for example, it can be home décor
items, health and weight loss products, Clothes and shoes for fashion niche and
so on. This is one way to go, I personally Never had patience to write content around
multiple low-cost products in one blog post. So my strategy is to promote products in
the online business space and that involves Actively creating content, email campaigns and
sometimes even hosting webinars to promote them. I guess, it’s really a matter of personal
preference. I know a lot of people make Thousands of dollars a month with affiliate
links in other niches, they like to be behind The screen and consistently write articles around
a wide variety of products. Each blog post like This can have a dozen or more affiliate links.
It’s one way to go about affiliate marketing. But I like to invest my time into other formats
like promoting affiliate products through videos On my channel, email marketing and
webinars. I can’t say that I spend Less time for these formats or that
promoting products this way is easier.
It’s just another type of content
and I believe that each one of us Should do what we are best at and
what we enjoy most. If you do so, You will never get tired of doing
what you do to make money online! The biggest income stream that
really went up in 2020 for me Compared to previous years was my own
products. I made about 223,000 with courses. I have a Tailwind course but the majority of sales
comes to my Pinterest SEO Traffic Secrets course That includes the Tailwind
course as one of the modules. One of the reasons for this significant growth is
this Youtube channel! I have to thank all of you Guys for watching my videos and supporting
my channel with your likes and comments. By the way, if you are finding this
annual income report interesting so far, Give me a like, it really motivates
me to share and create more content On this note I’d like to mention
here one of my great supporters With a nickname Flor who owns an Etsy store with
digital products called Bring Plan Clear Steps. She recently emailed this and really made my day. Thank you so much for your help with my
new blog and especially with Pinterest. I've watched all your YouTube videos.
I learned a lot in the past months. I use your tips to get more sales on my Etsy
shop. I recently reached 230 sales selling Digital products (65 sales last month!). It
would have been impossible without your help. Recently I decided to start my blog. I gained
a lot of confidence in my skills. I know It will be hard to learn all about blogging (and
learning how to write in English, as it is my Second language), but I know it is possible to
reach my goals. I'll be forever grateful to you♥ I wish you the best of luck.
Flor Thank you so much for these kind
words, Flor! I’m sure you will achieve Great results with all that you do –
with your store and with your blog, You have a great mindset for this journey and it
usually is the main element that leads to success! If anyone of you guys have something positive to
say and want to get featured in one of my videos, Send me your feedback in
the comments to this video! Getting back to my income from the online
course, it’s the Pinterest course you can check What it’s all about if you click on
this info icon in the top right corner, But I’ll also give you a link in
the description below this video. Creating an online course this year is probably
one of the best business ideas to pursue in these Times of uncertainty. Because you don’t need
any serious investment to start this business. And you can totally start selling your
course without an ad budget, like I did When I started offering my course 3 years ago.
To create a course, you’ve got to believe in
yourself, and you’ve got to be willing to share Anything you know from your previous life
experience, from your job experience, it can Even be a topic around on your hobby. Listen,
I recently found a couple from the US who moved To Portugal a few years ago, and they are very
successful selling a $300 course that helps other Americans move to Portugal. So you see, there are
all sorts of online courses out there! If there is A demand, if people need information about your
topic, you can make money with that course idea! In the past year so many
people who provide services Or teach in person, like fitness and yoga
instructors, all kinds of consultants, Psychologists you name it – all these people
had to find a way to switch to online format. And I know personally so many people affected
by this, and they are simply stuck and afraid To make a step into the unknown and package
their knowledge or services in a course format. They have never done anything online
and it all seems so complicated to them, So many questions pop up immediately
when they think about an online course. Where do host your course, how do you promote
it, where can you find audience and do it fast, How do you collect the emails and what should
you write to your subscribers, how do you even Collect the payments…you know all that goes into
an online course is a terra incognita for them. But it’s really doable and I’m on a mission
this year to share my experience in creating And selling online courses with everyone who
is willing to take a leap and do the work. I invite you to check out my new
program that can walk you through The entire process and show you the
stress-free way of selling courses. I’ll give you a link in the top right corner
and in the description below this video. In 2020, I slowly but steadily reduced the amount
of 1:1 services I provide to clients. For example, Pinterest account management has been
completely removed from my Work with me page. I still made almost 13,000 with these
services but it’s all from the only 1:1 Service I still provide – a Pinterest account
audit with 1-hour consultation though Zoom. I couldn’t scale Pinterest management beyond my
working hours and this actually one of the reasons I think all service providers should consider
an online course at some point, either as an Additional income source or maybe eventually even
as a scalable replacement for your 1:1 service. The last income stream was my eBooks that I
sell on two of my sites. I made about $6000 Last year with simple digital products
ranging between $7 and $19 in price. I had to make them once and they don’t
require almost any support or maintenance. It’s a truly passive income source and I
recommend everyone who struggles to get Enough traffic to apply for premium ad
management companies like Mediavine, Instead of writing new blog posts, stop
for a while and do yourself a favor.
Spend a weekend or a week, whatever it takes,
and create a simple eBook or printable, Set up some payment processor like Sendowl. And
start monetizing whatever little traffic you get As a beginner beyond the few ad dollars that
you might be getting from Google Adsense. By doing this, you will also learn your first
valuable lesson about building an email list, You can start building your list even with people
who bought these small low-cost digital products. Remember if someone bought from you once, They are more likely to say yes to
you again when you have another offer. So I hope that the biggest lesson of this
income report for you was that you should not Doubt about starting a business online no
matter how complicated it may seem to you When you are just a beginner. You can see
how my income has grown in just a few years. Is it a good result? Well,
I am pretty happy with it. Definitely some people were able to achieve much
more impressive income reports and maybe even in Shorter time. And I definitely am looking up
to them and working my way up to seven figure Years. But you know we are all different, we have
different goals, ambitions, needs and priorities. Maybe you only need like an extra $1000/mo
to be satisfied with your online income. I received an email like this from a guy
who said literally all I need is an extra $1000 a month form my blog, to put it into
a savings account for my daughter’s college. And there is space for everyone online, this
guy will make up his way to $1000 months With his blog probably like in a year or
so. And then he just needs to keep working On it part-time to maintain the level
or maybe grow it a little bit over time. I know another successful mom blogger who makes it
clear – I don’t have a plan to make a million next Year. She probably makes above 20 or 30k dollars
a month with her blog and she is pretty happy with It. She says, I have my kids and they are my
priority, I will only work on this online biz For as long as I enjoy it and as long as it
doesn’t take too much of me from my family. So when you think about
starting your online business, Be honest with yourself about your goals
and expectations and just stop dreaming, Start acting. You will figure it out
along the way and you’ll thank me later. Well, I’m done for today and if you want to check
out my other videos that will help you understand Better the context of this income report,
like how do I get traffic to my website, How exactly I monetize this traffic and so on,
I’ve hand-picked a few videos on my channel that Will help you learn more. Check them out here
and there. I’ll see you in the next videos!