Whew!  I survived my first month of blogging!  I have learned a lot this past month and had some successes as well as many challenges.  A month ago, I was clueless about how much more goes into blogging than just writing blog posts.  Hosting, domains, security, plugins, widgets, promotion, graphic design, image editing, branding- these are all things I had NO idea about going into this.  As I assume all new bloggers do, I am learning as I go.

Why 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 1 Revenue

This section will be very short because right now I only have one (small!) income stream: Amazon Affiliates.

Affiliate income: $4.33

Sponsored posts: None yet

Google Adsense: Hoping to start next month!

Total revenue: $4.33

Month 1 Expenses

Expenses this month are not what I expect to have going forward because they my startup costs.

Bluehost (Web hosting for 1 year, domain name registration, + security):  $125

WordPress (Premium Theme and Install): $179

Total expenses: $305

Month 1 Net Income: $-300.67

Sad face!  This month was a big net loss.

However, I didn’t expect to turn a profit in my first month and I am not going to let this get me down!

Stats:

These are a bit more optimistic than my income this month.  Anything above 0 is a success to me because all of these were at 0 until half way through April!

Page views: 303

Unique visitors: 207

Comments on my blog: 2

Pinterest followers: 7

Twitter followers: 35

Right now those are the only social media accounts I’ve started.

Goals for next month:

Income: $1 (hoping to see a positive number)

Page views: 1000

Unique visitors: 500

Comments on my blog: 25

Pinterest followers: 50

Twitter followers: 200

Broader goals for the next month include writing a sponsored post, setting up Google Adsense, and connecting with other bloggers by either writing a guest post or featuring a guest on my blog.

So, what do you think?  Any impressions or feedback from my first month?  Anything you want to share about your start as a blogger?  Leave a comment!