Blogging Income and Traffic Report Month 4 - Real Mom Recs

Blogging Income and Traffic Report Month 4

July wraps up my 4th month of blogging and it was chock full of highs and lows. I failed on some of my goals and saw some success on others.

I’m cutting myself a break on the areas I didn’t excel in this month, keeping in mind that I had all four kids home with me the entire month of July. Not exactly conducive to productivity (<—- understatement of the century). We also went on vacation and had to deal with a miserable baby with roseola, so that didn’t exactly work in my favor either.

Even with these factors, I still managed to increase my page views, income, and social media following this month.

Real Mom Recs meme

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you click one of the product links, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Why do I write income reports?

First of all, I want to write these because I love reading other people’s!  It is fascinating to me to see how other people have grown their blogs. Not just income, but also page views, visitors, and social media following. I am always super impressed to see how someone can start out so small and then start gaining traction and then BOOM– it takes off! Reading other blogger’s income reports has been hugely motivating for me.

Secondly, I’m a numbers girl. I enjoy seeing data in tables and on graphs. It makes something creative and subjective (writing) into something measurable.

The last reason I have for writing and sharing income reports is to force myself to look at my progress each month.  Blogging can be a frustrating endeavor and I want to make sure I look back and celebrate my successes.  Seeing my growth will also allow me to create realistic, manageable goals for the next 30 days.

Month 4 Revenue

Still nothing to brag about in this section, but I did see an increase in my revenue compared to the $22 bucks I made last month.

Google Adsense: $27

Affiliate income: $4.30

Sponsored posts: $9.02

I didn’t accomplish my goal of writing a sponsored post, but I did get a couple small (ok more like TEENY-TINY) sponsored social media posts, which is where the 9 bucks came from.

Total revenue: $40.32

Month 4 Expenses

Since my Bluehost hosting package is prepaid for the year, I didn’t spend any money this month. *They are still running their Summer Sale for 25% hosting packages, so if you are in the market for your very own .com, .net. or .org domain, jump on it: bluehost.com/track/realmomrecs

I do want to invest back into my site so I’m trying to figure out how to best do that. Debating between doing some social media promo, a Tailwind subscription, or both.

Total expenses: $0

How I did on my goals for this month:

  • Up my SEO game: Meh. I use Yoast SEO and try to have all my posts in the green. Other than that I’m not doing anything huge in the SEO department.
  • Land my first sponsored post: Fail. I did get those teeny tiny sponsored social media posts though, so not a total fail. Gotta start somewhere.
  • Continue to grow my InstagramCheck! I went from 503 to 758 followers in the month of July. It still isn’t my favorite platform, but I’m making progress.
  • Increase Twitter followers: Check! Twitter is becoming my favorite platform now that I’ve connected with so many funny people on there. It can be a bit of a time suck, but at least I’m enjoying myself. I went from 1205 to 1613 followers this month.
  • Write for a site that’s bigger than mine: Check! It won’t go live until September, but I did write a post for a pretty awesome blog and I can’t wait to share when it’s up!
  • 16,000 page views: Fail. But I still had a record high month with 11,667 page views, so no hard feelings here.
  • A greater net profit than I made this month: Check! I increased my paltry income by 80%.

Other accomplishments: I started a Facebook page! Now I’m pretty sure I’m on everything!

Most popular posts of July:

Two of my Disney posts took off this month, which leaves me in a contemplative state. I’m such a huge Disney fan, but I didn’t intend for this to become a straight up Disney blog. Should I separate it out into two different blogs? Just leave this site as a mix of Mom topics? I do have a HUGE idea in the works that is Disney-related, but I don’t want to turn off my readers who come here to read about parenting topics. I’m open to input on this if you feel like leaving your 2 cents in the comments or by email!

Am I a Mom blogger? Or a Disney blogger?

via GIPHY
Anyway, here are my most-read posts this month:

5 Most Underrated Attractions at Walt Disney World

Disney souvenirs RealMomRecs

RealMomRecs 25 Quotes That Will Make You Smile

RealMomRecs The Worst Kinds of Moms the Rest of Us Can't Stand

Goals for next month:

  • Continue to increase my social media following on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest
  • Do more guest posting
  • Work on “branding” Real Mom Recs (having consistent colors, fonts, etc across all platforms).
  • Write a sponsored post or at least more sponsored social media mentions
  • Write more parenting humor and practical parenting advice articles
  • Start my big surprise Disney project!

That should be enough to keep me busy! 😀

Interested in starting your own blog? Check out my step by step directions in last month’s report: How I got 11,000 page views (and finally made a profit!) in my 3rd month of blogging

Until next time!

Author

Adoptive mom, biological mom, slacker mom, Disney mom, and above all things a REAL mom. Fan of blogging, sleeping, and pretending not to hear my kids fight.

8 comments

  1. Wow, I really appreciated reading this, Caitlin. My own blog has followed a path (dictated by the realities of rest-of-life) that’s been more organic than planned (read: snail-pace growth), so I like your justification of why you do these: not just because you’re a numbers gal, but because it’s a way to hold *yourself* accountable. That’s a reason for me to consider starting them!

  2. I oved reading this. I did not earn a penny from my blog till yet. But hope high. Thanks for sharing and adding hope. 🙂

  3. I have been blogging for years and decided 2 weeks ago to take my blog seriously and I love reading income reports. It’s definitely helping me set pace and see what’s realistic for me. I’m tracking everything for the month of August and will hopefully have something to show by the end of this month, even if it’s only a few dollars.

    1. How awesome that you’ve stuck with blogging for such a long time! I know so many people quit before even hitting the 1 year mark. Wishing you the best of luck with your new blogging goals, sounds like you are keeping it realistic! Gotta start somewhere!

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