This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you purchase from one of these links I will receive a commission. Please read my full privacy policy<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Finally, here it is\u2026 my big business takeaways from 2018 and tips for how to make money blogging<\/strong><\/a>. There were a lot of highs, lows, and lessons learned. My hope is that you walk away with a list of practical action steps for your own business. Or, maybe you don\u2019t have a business and this will inspire you to start one!<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get to it\u2026<\/p>\n In March 2018, we welcomed our second baby girl. My girls are 5.5 years apart because I suffered from pretty bad\u00a0postpartum PTSD<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0the first time.<\/p>\n My goal was to 2x revenue over 2017. I thought, at the time, this was an outrageous goal considering I was having a baby and had no idea how postpartum would impact me.<\/p>\n I ended up 4x my revenue from 2017 in 2018!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Needless to say, I learned a lot through birthing a baby and exploding my business at the same time. The goal of this email is to share the highs and lows as an encouragement to you. Truly, if I can do this, so can you!<\/p>\n Nothing drives me more nuts than false or misleading income reports. I documented in 2017 why I stopped publishing income reports here:\u00a0What No One Tells You About Blogging and Motherhood<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m a very open person and firmly believe that it\u2019s important for women to talk about money. When we help each other out, especially in business, the tide rises for all of us.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not comfortable sharing exact numbers. However, I am comfortable sharing percentages.<\/p>\n Even more so, I think it\u2019s\u00a0very important<\/em>\u00a0to preface this with two points:<\/p>\n Looking at these numbers shows me I have some improvements to make. Most notably, I want to decrease how much I spend on job education and increase the amount I spend on contractors to help me execute on revenue-generating projects.<\/p>\n **This information on taxes is my personal understanding of the topic and does NOT substitute for legal or financial advice from a professional**<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Taxes are calculated after business expenses. Essentially, taxes are calculated on 50% of my total business revenue which is why it\u2019s such a small percentage as compared to my overall revenue.<\/p>\n I became an S-Corp this year which means I put myself on payroll. Please keep in mind my husband has a corporate career which puts us in a higher tax bracket. His withholdings also cover some of the taxes I have to pay at times as well. Taxes are complicated.<\/p>\n As an S-Corp, I pay payroll taxes on a salary I pay myself. This includes federal, state, and FICA taxes. I pay FICA (social security and Medicare) as both an employee and employer.<\/p>\n The remaining profit left in the business is passed through to our personal tax return. I pay federal, state, and FICA taxes. However, I only pay FICA as an employee and not an employer on this amount. Essentially, becoming an S-Corp is a legal way to reduce your tax burden.<\/p>\n This is the amount that hit our family bank account that we could actually spend.<\/p>\n Phew, I have my masters degree in finance and geek out about this stuff. If your head feels like it\u2019s about to explode, don\u2019t worry. This is why you\u2019ll hire a CPA!<\/p>\n It\u2019s always easy to look at where someone is now and get discouraged. I don\u2019t want that to be you! Let me set the stage for you on the business timeline for Redefining Mom. This did NOT happen overnight. However, it is also extremely possible to achieve if you put the work in.<\/p>\n The best way to make wise decisions about your business is to evaluate the numbers. Numbers don\u2019t lie. The problem is figuring out what exactly the numbers mean for your business and how to use them to make meaningful goals for 2019.<\/p>\n I started a fairly basic spreadsheet divided out by month with a summary tab so I could see the numbers for the entire year. I used my bookkeeping software to come up with the numbers.<\/p>\n On the summary tab, I pulled in revenue, expenses, and profit. Underneath the numbers, I made a row for big wins, losers, and necessary (i.e. hiring a business coach).<\/p>\n This process made it abundantly clear to me what worked in my business and what didn\u2019t in 2018. Using this information, I\u2019m armed to make educated decisions for 2019. As they say, 20% of where we spend our time creates 80% of our profit. This couldn\u2019t be truer! In 2018, I started to spend more time where 80% of my profits came from and guess what would happen? A lot more money!<\/p>\n As I mentioned earlier, a few blogging friends of mine pushed me to create a course on promoted pins (Pinterest Ads). I have a knack for analyzing data and it was evident there was a lack of resources on how to properly leverage promoted pins in the market. I use promoted pins to drive targeted traffic to my sales funnels. In January 2018, I officially launched Pin Practical Promotions<\/a><\/strong> to the public. Throughout 2018, I used this course to explore multiple marketing avenues such as live launching, live challenges, joint ventures, and webinar training. By far the two most successful methods were live challenges and joint ventures. (It\u2019s on my list to create a resource guide on the multiple strategies I used to grow this course to over 700 students in a year).<\/p>\n Creating a signature course allowed me to leverage my professional skills from corporate and marry them with something I am truly passionate about. Win, win!<\/p>\n I created an entire course documenting my experience with affiliate launches called Pin Practical Influence<\/a><\/strong>. I\u2019m not talking about Amazon affiliate links here, I\u2019m talking about open\/close cart launches that pay out 30-50% commission. In order for this to work, the product has to be closely related to what your audience needs. My top affiliate launches were\u00a0Elite Blog Academy<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Ultimate Bundles<\/a><\/strong>. I was on top of the leaderboard for both.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that I have a love affair with Pinterest ads. What surprised me in 2018 was my love affair with Facebook ads! I\u2019m passionate about bringing targeted traffic from ads on to my email list and nurturing them into paying customers. I use Pinterest ads as a low-cost, effective way for growing my email list. Facebook ads have proven to be wicked successful for flash sales and feeding my live challenges with quality leads. I even ran a successful Facebook ad campaign for my\u00a0Family Budget Spreadsheet<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n I know I\u2019ll get asked\u2026\u00a0this course taught me everything I know about Facebook ads<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n I am not happy that I invested more in job education and coaching than I did on execution support inside my business. I keep telling myself I am a terrible delegator and it\u2019s really holding me back from going to the next level. This is something I intend on changing in 2019.<\/p>\n From late August-early November, I was gone for 6 weeks. It\u2019s literally nutty to do that right after having a baby. Plus, I am a very routine oriented person and it takes me several days to get back into the swing of things when I get home. I had a major case of FOMO and I feared that I would slip into postpartum again so I used travel to avoid my feelings. It really didn\u2019t work and I never intend on traveling so much in a short period of time ever again unless my family is with me.<\/p>\n Mine and other people\u2019s groups. Listen, I\u2019m going to give some tough love here. Facebook groups drain your energy and are a time-sucker. The number one issue I have with most groups is the whining from people who are too busy complaining and not actually doing the work. It sucks me in and derails me. Either I find myself defending something which is pointless or I catch myself falling into comparison traps. In 2019, I\u2019ll be shutting down my free group and leaving many other groups. Some groups are amazing and I intend on giving a list of groups I recommend joining when I close mine down. Moral of the story: Spend less time on Facebook and more time working.<\/p>\n I call myself the anti-blogger, blogger. LOL, tongue twister! It\u2019s true though, I don\u2019t follow most conventional blogging advice. I hate writing blog posts. I actually loathe it. I prefer nurturing my email list, creating useful digital products, and building sales funnels. I view my blog as a vehicle for people to find me. I did what I needed to do as a blogger to make my blog work for me. This makes display ads pretty pointless for me and I don\u2019t like how they clutter my site. This month, I turned them off.<\/p>\n This is exactly why it\u2019s so important to do a yearly review. I was shocked by how little my list actually grew in 2018. When all is said and done with unsubscribes and deleting inactive subscribers, I only gained about 15,000 new subscribers in 2018. Part of me is okay with this because I was focused on building foundational blocks like my course and solid funnels. However, now it\u2019s time to really ramp up the number of people going through the funnels that are successful. This will be a huge focus for me in 2019 as it is the #1 way I hope to grow my revenue.<\/p>\n Reference the above section on taxes, this saved us thousands in taxes.<\/p>\n This is a constant struggle for me because of the high expense. However, there is no doubt that every experience I\u2019ve had with mastermind programs or business coaching since late 2016 has had a meaningful impact on my business. Sometimes the program itself turns out not to be that great but the connections I\u2019ve gained have been invaluable! In 2019, I invested in Elite Blog Academy VIP and I am confident this will literally be a game-changer in my business trajectory.<\/p>\n Did you know Redefining Mom started because I was furious about the lack of maternity leave policies in the US? It took me 3+ years to process the fact that my postpartum was way worse because of the lack of support offered to new working moms. It\u2019s a huge reason why my kids are 5.5 years apart. I was unwilling to have another baby and be forced back into 10+ hour days within 12 weeks of having a baby. I built my business specifically so I could have another baby and dictate my own maternity leave.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0And, I did just that! I fully funded 8+ weeks of maternity leave from my own business profits. <\/span><\/p>\n When I started working again, I hired an amazing Nanny so I can see my baby whenever I want\u00a0all day long<\/em>. This business gave me control of my circumstances. It has allowed me to find the balance I so desperately craved between work and home while I was in corporate. I cannot express to you enough how amazing this is. My business was primarily funded through my promoted pin sales funnels during this time.<\/span><\/p>\n Last but not least, I\u00a0pumped breastmilk and shipped it home<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on every single one of my business trips in 2018. Breastfeeding was such a struggle for me the first time and I am super proud of myself for doing this during a hectic and stressful period in life.<\/p>\n I was late to buy into this concept but I\u2019m ready to now. I will be shutting down almost all of my courses and my free Facebook group this year. I fully intend on embracing the concept that 20% of my effort makes 80% of my profits. It\u2019s time to put more focus on the 20% and cut out the noise from things that simply are not working. This also means I will be launching a few new projects but they will be strategic and cohesive to my overall mission. Something I\u2019ve learned a lot about in the EBA VIP program.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time for this anti-blogger to put on her big girl britches and stop ignoring the number one search engine in the world\u2026 The Googs! My VA will be helping me implement this strategy. The first course we will be working through is Adventures in SEO by Lena Gott. You can get on the Adventures in SEO wait list here<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0if you\u2019re interested.<\/span><\/p>\n This really goes hand in hand with my next point on advertising. It\u2019s time to ramp up the leads I bring through my sales funnels now that I\u2019ve proven that they work. I intend on doing this through targeted ad campaigns and through a new super-secret project I\u2019ll be announcing next month! Haha, suspense!<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve tripled my budget for ads in 2019. Yep, you read that right. TRIPLED! I don\u2019t intend on this cutting into our family profit either. I intend on being an ad ninja and using my tripwires (limited-time offers) to pay for my ad spend. Speaking of tripwires, I geek out about tripwires inside my promoted pins course<\/a><\/strong>. I might even be launching a special course on how to set up sales funnels and tripwires later this year. Fist pump!<\/span><\/p>\n Learn more about the exciting new programs we are offering over on how to build your own digital product business at\u00a0Empowered Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n I hope you found the information I shared useful on your own blogging\/business journey.<\/p>\n How to Start a Blog and Make Money from Home<\/a><\/p>\n 3 Steps to Get Your Blog Finances in Order!<\/a><\/p>\n Ultimate Beginners Guide to Blogging: How to Blog for Money<\/a><\/p>\n Blogging Resources<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Desktop](\"https:\/\/redefiningmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/make-money-blogging-pin-150x150.png\"\/)
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<\/p>\n2018 Blog Year in Review<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/h2>\nRevenue, Expenses, Taxes, & Profit<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nRevenue:<\/strong> Multiple 6-Figures and Under $500k<\/h2>\n
Revenue Breakdown:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Business Expenses: 50% of Revenue<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Major Expense Categories (% is of total revenue):<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nTaxes: 12.5% of Total Revenue<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Profit: 37.5% of Total Revenue<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Timeline](\"https:\/\/redefiningmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/RM-Business-Timeline-Make-Money-Blogging.png\")
<\/h2>\nMy Business Timeline <\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Boiling it down, the\u00a0four major things that led to my business growth\u00a0over time have been:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Practical Tips for Evaluating Your Own Business Performance<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/strong><\/h2>\nWhat Worked in 2018<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Creating a Signature Course<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Affiliate Launches<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Advertising <\/strong><\/h3>\n
What Didn\u2019t Work in 2018<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Underinvesting in Support <\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Traveling Way Too Much<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Free Facebook Groups <\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. Ads on My Site<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. Slow Email Growth <\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Busy](\"https:\/\/redefiningmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/make-money-blogging.jpg\")
<\/h2>\nWhat Was Necessary in 2018<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. I Became an S-Corp <\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Investing in High-Level Business Coaching<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Maternity Leave<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/redefiningmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/blog-income-report-pin.png\")
<\/p>\n 4 Ways I Intend on Growing My Blogging Business in 2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
1. Simplifying<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) <\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Email List Growth <\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. <\/span>Pinterest and Facebook Advertising <\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Feminine](\"https:\/\/redefiningmom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/make-money-blogging-hands-on-laptop.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDO YOU WANT TO START AN ONLINE BUSINESS IN 2021?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
More Tips to Make Money Blogging:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Pin It!<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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