Welcome to my blogging income report from my second month of RealMomRecs!
I learned so much this past month, I’ve been in a constant state of what I call “brainache”. Like any muscle that fatigues from too much work, I get headaches when I learn and think too much! I guess it was a big learning month for me!
Right now on my blogging journey I feel like I’m juggling SO many balls. It is hard to know where to focus my efforts (SEO? Adding more content? Promotion? Collaboration? Social Media?) I’m still in awe of how much actually goes into blogging. I have to remind myself that at month 2 I’m still in the very beginning of this process and it isn’t going to all come together at once. Patience is something I’m always working on, and this is no different.
I did have lots of small victories however, and I’m really excited about the progress I’ve made! Just compare to last month’s report to see the growth.
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 2 Revenue
I was successful in my goal of getting accepted to Google Adsense. I am pretty happy with it so far, but if my readers seemed bothered by the ads or if I notice them become too distracting I will need to reassess.
Oddly enough, most of my Amazon affiliate income came in the beginning of the month when my traffic was lower. I barely earned anything the second half of the month when my traffic got better. Probably because people were reading articles and not reading my toy or book lists.
Google Adsense: $7.20
Affiliate income: $25.48
Sponsored posts: Hoping to break into this in the next couple months
Total revenue: $32.68
Month 2 Expenses
I was hoping not to have expenses this month, since I paid for the whole year of Bluehost upfront. But I decided my brand was worth a little investment and I hired a graphic designer to do my banner. I am very happy with it and it’s not something I’ll have to pay for again so this is basically another startup cost. Hopefully next month will have minimal expenses!
Graphic design: $180
Total expenses: $180
Month 2 Net Income: $-147.32
This month was another net loss. I am very optimistic that I will be in the green for month 3 though!
How I did on my goals for this month:
Now here is the part I’m really excited about!
Income: $1 (hoping to see a positive number) FAIL At least this saves me from having to write the obligatory paragraph about how I’m not writing this to brag about my income! I think it’s pretty clear there’s nothing to brag about here.
Page views: 1,000 CHECK! I dominated this goal! Thanks to Slacker Mom going mini-viral at the very end of the month, I ended up with over 5,000 page views this month
Unique visitors: 500 CHECK! 4,129 I’m happy this is a high number, but I’m also noticing my bounce rate is really bad. Need to focus on bringing that up.
Comments on my blog: 25 CHECK! 84. Very happy about that! A big goal of mine is to get people talking, even if it means saying things not everyone agrees with.
Pinterest followers: 50 CHECK! Up to 110 now and growing daily.
Twitter followers: 200 CHECK! 770, not bad for just starting out.
Broader goals I had for this month included connecting with other bloggers by either writing a guest post or featuring a guest on my blog. CHECK on all these! I did one collaborative post about Transracial Adoption which I’m turning into a series featuring guest bloggers. I’ve gotten a lot of interest in it and am looking forward to some exciting new posts coming in June!
I also wrote guest spots in two other blogs being posted in June. I will come back and link those up here once they are live!
How I reached my traffic goal: Most popular posts of May
My best post this month by far was Why I’m Proud to be a Slacker Mom
And these two were runners up
Goals for next month:
Looking at how I did in May, I think I made my goals too low. Time to raise the bar in a big way for June!
Income: Anything positive (I mean it this time 😝)
Page views: 10,000
Unique visitors: I don’t care about the number as long as my bounce rate is better than this month.
Comments on my blog: 100
Pinterest followers: 250
Twitter followers: 1500
New goals:
- Get on Instagram and get 200 followers
- Figure out Tailwind to save me time on Pinterest
- Continue guest posting and featuring guest writers on my blog
- Make board covers for my Pinterest boards and get them looking good
- Start focusing more on getting email subscribers
Do you think this is all doable? What am I missing or forgetting about? Leave a comment!
18 comments
Congrats! Sounds like you are headed in the right direction. Keep your motivation up and you will rock it!
Thanks Jenn! Luckily one thing I have yet to run out of is motivation! 😀
Great write up. I wish I had been more focused on monetizing when I started, finally getting there now. I will have to start these for June!!
If you do I’d love to read yours!
You’ve made more than I have in three times as many months. I enjoy income reports. Thanks for sharing! Looks like you’re off to a great start!
Thanks for the encouragement! It does help keep me on track towards my goals.
I’m inspired by this since I’m going into my second month and have only made 3 bucks! Lol.
Well if you made 3 and spent 0 you did come out ahead of me! 😂
I love monthly blog reports! The money you put into your blog will pay off. Keep up the good work.
Get it girl!!!
You’re doing amazingly well!! Rocking it, especially considering you’re just getting started. Curious to know, did you follow a course, or reference a particular site to take the steps to get the initial set-up fine tuned as you have?
There’s a lot of confusion out there I see in terms of taking the RIGHT steps in the RIGHT order to equally present a valuable website content with great design & monetize from the get go. I think you’d be perfect to guest post about your startup experience on this site https://smartmomblogger.com/write-for-us/. Sprinkle your post with an opt-in that directs back to your site & add any affiliate links that apply to help others starting out.
I have two sites, my first (www.lifestyleofyourdesign.com) was a confused disaster to begin….still fixing the beginner mistakes and have only seen success (after 2 years, part-time) because I decided to focus solely on Pinterest as my traffic generator. It took so much stress out of my day to day, not spreading myself too thin across a thousand social media etc & is a free, niche traffic driver.
I started my 2nd site (www.thecuratecollaborative.com) to consult & help bloggers, creative entrepreneurs, and small business owners as a Pinterest design & strategic consultant, offering products and services in between caring for my toddler. The flexibility is the ultimate achievement for me, second to driving more sales through affiliate programs I love & use myself, all with Pinterest!
I’m so impressed with your story, thanks so much for sharing, looking forward to seeing your progress….go for it Momma!
Thanks so much for your feedback, Karen! I am definitely interested in guest posting. I’ll be in touch with you very soon! 👍
Congrats! You are making some serious progress. I have just started out blogging as well and should start tracking my data. I agree with your investment on branding, I purchased a professional framework for my site. It is worth the initial investment to build a brand you love. Thanks for the motivating post. Look forward to reading more of your content.
This looks awesome! What affiliates are you using? I had the same issue with Amazon. They’re great but I’m trying to find a way to balance it out.
Right now just Amazon, but the topics I really want to write about (which are also the posts that get the most traffic) don’t have any affiliate links. I’m fine with it right now because I’m more concerned about building up a following, but it does seem like the people who blog about blogging have the most earning potential.
It sounds like a great start! Good luck with it all. I do make a bit of income and some opportunities through my blog – it is always fun to get the business side of blogging going 🙂
THANK YOU FOR THIS! This has really helped me set things in perspective! I’ve started seriously blogging a week ago and felt so overwhelmed with everything. Your monthly income report has changed the way I see blogging. How do you track your views and expenses？ do you use a website or an excel sheet?
Thanks Tyra! It is definitely overwhelming in the beginning, but just take it one step at a time and don’t try to perfect everything at once. To track your views get Jetpack plugin if you’re on WordPress, and also check your Google Analytics. For expenses I just keep track manually, I’m old school 🙂
I just published my report for June if you want to check it out too: https://www.realmomrecs.com/blog-income-and-traffic-report-month-3/