2024 Blog Income Report – One-Year Review

As I write these lines, it’s been just over a year since I took the plunge and stopped working as a physiotherapist to devote myself full-time to my blog, which you’re reading right now.

(And to my Wikipedia freelance activity on the side, which is also the subject of a detailed report).

So, was I right? And is blogging a financially viable activity? Humanly satisfying?

Read all about it in this article!

♻️ Last update: October 11, 2024.
👩‍⚖️ Declaration of financial interests: none directly related to the subject. My complete declaration of financial interests is in the legal notice section.
Written by Nelly Darbois, physiotherapist and scientific editor

Why I’ve decided to devote 100% of my time to my blog

To put this into context, I’m a trained physiotherapist.

I worked as a salaried physiotherapist from the time I graduated in 2012 until 2019. Then as a self-employed physiotherapist from 2019 until 2023, when I decided to stop practicing physiotherapy altogether.

I launched my blog kinedarbois.fr in 2019, initially to continue educating myself about kinesiology, and to make myself known locally as a kinesiologist by patients.

In 2021, I started monetizing my blog. I was also a health writer on the side, in addition to being a physiotherapist.

That was a lot of hats to wear, on top of my family life (2 children) and my involvement in associations and direct democracy activism.

That’s why, in August 2023, I decided to stop doing physiotherapy altogether and devote 100% of my time to my online activities, in particular my blog, which gave me more flexibility and freedom than traditional physiotherapy.

My blog’s balance sheet for the year

Here’s a table showing the income I’ve earned from my site in the first year I’ve devoted 100% of my time to it.

🚨 This is the gross sales figure, from which you have to deduct around 35% social security contributions, 15% income tax and 5% miscellaneous charges, to get an idea of my net income after tax.

Month	Gain	Number of page views
September 2023	$3,086	👍 255 643
October 2023	$2,836	149 135
November 2023	$3,316	134 104
December 2023	$2,498	125 040
January 2024	$2,618	148 471
February 2024	$3,191	157 474
March 2024	$3,423	128 021
April 2024	👍 $3,548	91 432
May 2024	$2,943	👎 89 394
June 2024	$2,726	104 996
July 2024	$2,759	123 060
August 2024	👎 $2,216	126 165
	$2,930/month (average)

As you can see, my traffic dropped considerably just after I decided to devote myself full-time to my site (October). Quite a stress, which I mentioned in my 2023 review, but which I managed to compensate for!

Where does the money come from?

From 3 main sources (from most to least profitable):

1. automatic display of ads based on users’ browsing histories and the themes covered on the page. I delegate this to an advertising agency for bloggers called Mediavine. I earn money just for displaying the ads, even if people don’t click on them;
2. the sale of e-books and e-learnings to patients and physiotherapists;
3. affiliation : I can earn a commission when people buy products through my links, mainly for products I use such.

I also have a Youtube channel (10k subscribers), which earns me around 100 to 200€ / month.

I have a very simple (and choosy) lifestyle. I live in a medium-sized apartment in a small commune in the French provinces, we have just one car for the household, and we go on vacation in our department.

However, income from my blog alone wouldn’t allow me to live, give and save as I’d like. This is one of the reasons why I also freelance on the side, under the brand Wikiconsult, to create and edit Wikipedia pages for companies, public figures and institutions.

Moral assessment: do I enjoy making a living from my blog?

The answer to this question is crystal clear: I’m extremely happy with my current job!

I look forward to this way of life every day, I really enjoy it.

My only fear is that it won’t be viable in the long term. But after a year of profitable business, I should be able to put that fear to rest!

My physiotherapist friends and former patients often ask me if I don’t miss physiotherapy and contact with patients. My spontaneous answer is “not at all!

I explain it by the fact that I have a lot of social interaction, thanks to my life with young children and my activism/associative activities.

I also feel more useful than when I was a physiotherapist, when I felt I’d done all I could do.

Both by accompanying professionals on Wikipedia, but also by writing articles that answer the questions that web users ask by delving into international scientific literature.

My blogging goals for the coming months

Over the last few months, I’ve greatly reduced the frequency with which I publish new articles on this blog. I publish only 1 new article per week in French (whereas I sometimes went up to 3 or even 5 per week in 2023!).

I intend to carry on like this.

I also translate at least 2 old articles a week into German or English – it’s very fast, I use artificial intelligence for that.

I launched a TikTok account a few months ago, primarily to inform an audience I wouldn’t reach via my website or Youtube channel. I make short videos that link back to my site or my Youtube channel, at an irregular but satisfying pace, which I intend to continue.

I don’t have any growth targets for my blog, other than keeping up with inflation. So I’ll adapt my strategy according to the evolution of traffic and sales.

To achieve this goal, I need to generate an average of $3050 a month in sales with my blog over the next 12 months (taking into account 4% inflation). I’ll report back in a year’s time on whether or not I’ve reached this target!

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That’s all I wanted to say on the subject! Any questions or comments? See you in comments!