Welcome to my February 2020 Monthly Blog Income Report! Whew. What a month. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly as productive as I would have preferred, but I will explain more as I go through the report!
The backstory about me and my blogÂ
(If you’ve been here before, feel free to skip this section!)
I started my blog in 2018. It was originally created to be more of a portfolio site to accompany me on my job search so I invested very little time or effort into as a blog. In fact, I even went as far as NOT self-hosting so my customizing and monetizing capabilities were ZILCH.
In 2019 I switched to self-hosted as I pivoted towards lifestyle blog. It was another 6 months before I narrowed my focus, found my target market and ultimately niched down to intentional living and personal development catered towards moms.
However, it wasn’t until the end of 2019 (as in after Christmas!) I began my journey into monetizing my blog!
February Recap Blog Income Report
I wasn’t sure what to expect with growth in my second month of monetizing, so my target numbers were on the smaller side. However, considering what the month ended up looking like I still didn’t meet expectations. Unfortunately a few days into the month my Adsense account was flagged because of the increase in views my blog has been getting. So I lost my only source of income. This paired with a handful of query opportunities for my children’s books took my attention away from the blog and when a series of outside influences hit me…let’s just say my blog didn’t fair well…
So with that said, let’s jump into numbers…
Income
Blog Income:
Google Adsense: $31.26
Affiliate Marketing: $0
Sponsored Posts (blog): $0*
Products: $0
Total Blog Income: $31.26
Additional Income: Art Shop: $0 Sponsored Posts (Instagram): $0
Total Additional Income: $0
Total Income: $31.26
Affiliate breakdown:
Amazon: $0
ShareaSale: $0
**Others: $0
Expenses
Blog Expenses:
Hosting: $6.38*
Domain: $2.50*
Education: $0
Additional Expenses:
Etsy Fees: $0
*I pay in advance for the year but showing the monthly breakdown of that cost is.
Total Expenses: $8.88
Total Net Profit:$22.38
Income Analysis
Fortunately, I did make money this month. Nothing crazy, but better than nothing! Unfortunately, I did lose my advertising account, and due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t put any effort into affiliate marketing or my shop. Moving forward I will be looking for a new ad network to replace Adsense, I need to create an affiliate marketing plan, finish 2 new products for the printable shop, and update my art shop.
? March Goal:
Ad Network: NA until I have a new network!
Work on SEO to increase organic traffic to increase RPM
Affiliate Marketing: $50
Write two affiliate posts
Sponsored Posts (blog): $0
Nothing currently in the works
Products: $200
Write a blog post, list 2 more products – send email marketing
Art Shop: $500
List 10 products (rephotograph items), connect printify, possibly reopen commissions
Sponsored Posts (Instagram): $0
Nothing currently in the works
Time Commitment
Last month I took the time to organize my editorial calendar, create specific goals with an action plan and measure my time commitment. Unfortunately with unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t hit it so I needed to reevaluate my time commitment for this month:
I spend the majority of my day as a homemaker: taking care of the child, the home, homeschooling, etc. This is my first priority.
I spend approximately 3 hours a day, or 20 hours a week working on the blog, including products listed on the website.
The rest of my time (LOL) is spent split between writing (YA series, picture books, and short stories for publication), painting (for my art shop), and illustrating. I am working on building a portfolio to open up for illustrating picture books (including my own), and opening my painting shop to commissions.
? March Goal:
I would start scheduling further ahead on blog posts. I usually work 3 months ahead, I’m currently writing the night before so I need to get ahead of schedule again. I will focus on creating better breakdowns of my time towards goals so I can better portion control the time overall and be more strategic towards specific goals.
Traffic Report
Blog:
Pageviews: Goal: 6000 – Actual: 8521
Bounce Rate: Goal: 50% – Actual: 44.75
Sessions: Goal: 3000 – Actual: 3104
Blog Views Overview:
Organic: 62 users
Direct: 187 users
Social: 892 users
Referral: 22 users
Social Views Breakdown:
Pinterest: 545 users
Facebook: 471 users
Twitter: 12 users
Other: 2 users
Email: 0 users
All things considering, I did great! I met and exceeded all goals!
Now, overall my Pinterest views are low, I know I can do much better. One of my focuses in March will be spent on Pinterest and Pinterest SEO in particular. I’m using Tailwind but I don’t see any increase in views from that.
Other concerns are Facebook, social media, SEO and email list (basically everything). I am spending 1-2 hours of my day in Facebook groups that aren’t reciprocating so I did spend a lot of time testing groups, removing offenders and trying new groups. I do find that social media is a waste of time. I’d like to schedule posts ahead, maybe post 3-4 times a week only and stay off of it the rest of the time. SEO on my blog will be my other main focus in March. My email list now has the resource library available to all who join so hopefully that will begin incentivizing.
? March Goal:
Pageviews: 10000
Bounce Rate: 40%
Sessions: 3500
Email Subscriber Statistics
February total subscribers:Goal: 100 – Actual 78
Unfortunately, I didn’t make my goal, however as previously mentioned I didn’t do much to actually push my list either this month. I have a popup and sidebar, as well as a graphic at the end of every blog post which helps but I do need to start incorporating signups in my posts and pushing on social media as well. I have however been sending emails every other Wednesday, which I always see a small drop in subscribers when I do. But I’m ok with that in the interim as I clean up the list of people who aren’t my target market!
? March Goal: 100 Subscribers
Social Media Statistics
Generally, social media isn’t a huge focus for me. However, I am building up my media kit and social media vanity numbers are important for that so I need to focus some amount of time towards building up solid profiles.
Again, I want to spend minimal time on Twitter and Instagram, so I will stick to posting on days when new blog posts come out, and sharing other people’s content occasionally. Pinterest I will focus on this month, first spending time learning SEO and then increasing followers. However, I posted once on my art Instagram, and never on my blog Instagram. Twitter I was sporadic on, and Pinterest I forgot to even use Tailwind (it’s been a weird month…)! At least I made one goal!
? March Goal:
Pinterest: 2000 Followers
Twitter: 200 Followers
Instagram (blog): 1500 Followers
Instagram (art): 600 Followers
Adsense
Adsense is measured by RPM which is the metric to track rate per thousand page views. This number can move month-to-month and ultimately measures how effective your ads are. So for every 1000 pageviews, you receive your current RPM. The RPM can fluctuate day-to-day due to impressions versus clicks. I barely understand it myself so I’m the last person to try and explain it. All I know is: the higher the RPM, the more you make!
February RPM: Goal: $5 – Actual: $9.19
As mentioned, I lost my Adsense account. Well, technically it’s “under review” but it’s been a month, I don’t think I’m getting it back…Anyway, I had done an email book launch, paired with an increase in new Facebook groups which shot my views up on a consistent basis. I’m not sure if people clicked ads inappropriately (I’ve heard horror stories of people doing it on purpose so you lose your ads), or if they just thought my views increasing were concerning, but either way, my RPM jumped and I was instantly flagged. Now I’m on the lookout for a new Ad Network…:(
? March Goal: NA until I find a new Ad Network
Blogging
February Blogging Goals:
Post Count: Goal: 8 – Actual: 6 February Word Count: Goal: 8000 – Actual: 11913 wordsÂ
I hit one, but didn’t hit the other! For missing two posts, I think I did great for word count!
In case anyone is interested, you can read all my February posts here, or my top 3 most popular from February:
Another piece of my blog I need to work on is speed. I have a few unused plugins sitting around and I need to compress my photos to increase my speed.
February Blog Income Report Summary:
All in all, February was surprisingly productive considering the setbacks! In the end, I did make money, although I will need to pivot my plans to continue that. I have a lot of areas to work on and most of them were supposed to be worked on back in February. But what can I say? Sometimes life has other plans.
I’d love to hear from you! What successes did you have in February? What are your goals for March? Any tips for the newly monetized? Do you publish your own blog income report? I’d love to see it, drop it in the comments!
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About Ariana Dagan
Welcome! I live in Northern California with my husband, daughter, and a dog. I'm an artist, crafter, illustrator, and creative mentor.
I'm on a mission to create a culture of happier, thriving creators! I help others scratch that creative itch so you can reclaim your time, rediscover your identity, and reach new levels of success in your endeavors (and yes peace of mind is a VERY worthy endeavor).
This site is a place to find value in your voice and strength to become the best version of yourself so you can go from simply existing day-to-day to LIVING ON PURPOSE through creativity.
I love your income report because it`s honest and realistic.I hate those “I made 4 figures on my first or 2nd month clogging” I hate them with a passion because as someone who`s been blogging for over 4 years, I know how shallow and misleading they are.
Unfortunately many newbies will believe these claims,buying product after product that these liers are promoting expecting to make the same amount.
When anyone asks me any advice I`ll give to a new blogger, I always say don`t believe those I made 4 figures in my 3rd mnth blogging because they are liers.
Really appreciate you sharing this.I just wish all bloggers were so honest,
Good luck with your blog, keep working and believe me, things will improve, when I got started, any sale I made I always got scared that the buyer will return the product, how could anyone have found my blog and bought a product I recommended.
Now after some time blogging(4 years to be exact) if a week passes without my site making a sale, I ask myself if something is wrong.
It`s hard at the beginning but believe me, the sales will start coming.
Keep working
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I love your income report because it`s honest and realistic.I hate those “I made 4 figures on my first or 2nd month clogging” I hate them with a passion because as someone who`s been blogging for over 4 years, I know how shallow and misleading they are.
Unfortunately many newbies will believe these claims,buying product after product that these liers are promoting expecting to make the same amount.
When anyone asks me any advice I`ll give to a new blogger, I always say don`t believe those I made 4 figures in my 3rd mnth blogging because they are liers.
Really appreciate you sharing this.I just wish all bloggers were so honest,
Good luck with your blog, keep working and believe me, things will improve, when I got started, any sale I made I always got scared that the buyer will return the product, how could anyone have found my blog and bought a product I recommended.
Now after some time blogging(4 years to be exact) if a week passes without my site making a sale, I ask myself if something is wrong.
It`s hard at the beginning but believe me, the sales will start coming.
Keep working