January 2016 Blogging Income Reports

January income has been my best month ever.  Let’s jump into the numbers:

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Pageviews 303k

I finally hit the 300k pageview mark.  I was really surprised it happened this quickly.  I wasn’t hoping to hit it until March (that’s my March pageview goal).  Look at me, totally ahead of the game!

Ads $1105

Ads were way down.  For several reason.  1)  It’s a new quarter and advertising people are just setting up budgets.  2)  I changed to MediaVine and it takes a while to get set up with a new ad company.  I was glad I did this in January when income was going to be poor no matter what.

Self Sales $325

I sold myself.  Just kidding.  This includes my book, prenatal class (just barely available — and I am accepting affiliates) and my spreadsheet.  Happy with this number.  I really want to hit 1k/month on this by the end of the year.

Affiliate Sales $2309

Woot-woot the January affiliate train.  I did really well with a couple of my affiliates.  And, of course, I just got an email saying that they are going to change the programs starting now.  However, I did have a friend help me with some affiliate links in my hospital post and it has SKYROCKETED my Amazon income.  I’m typing this on the 4th and I’m already up to 100 bucks which is WAY higher than I usually am.  Woot-woot!

Sponsored Posts $1321

I had 3 sponsored posts last month.  I like 3.  It makes me happy.

Total:  $5062

Woot-woot, my best month ever.  Mainly assisted by awesome affiliate income.  I hope I can beat it every other month this year now!

Total blog RPM:  20.69

That mean, in total (between all my income streams) I make 20 bucks for every 1k people that visit my site

Ad RPM: 3.63

Dismal ad income.  C’est la vie.  I’m excited to see how Media Vine Improves.  I will say that my site runs SO much better now.  That’s the main reason I switched.  Too many ads was just making my site slow and broken.  I’m excited to be with Media Vine.

NOTE:  MediaVine has a LOT less ads than my former network.  The idea is that they sell the space for more and I hope to make somewhat similar to what I was making.  BUT I do not plan on making AS much.  I hope to build trust and followers by having a clean sight.  The eye is on the final prize, not just on ad income for me.

As a reminder, I get all these awesome numbers and calculations from my Blogging Income Spreadsheet.  It comes with a 6 day course on how to set it up, and I even just added a google hangout that shares with people how to set it up for themselves (and how I adjusted mine for my new ad networks).  Even if you don’t want to spend the money, you could probably get some ideas on how to set it up on your own.  BUT, for 20 bucks with all the formulas already in there.  Well, THAT is good math. 🙂

Here’s 5 things I’m doing to increase revenue

1. Looking for new affiliate streams.  I love sharing something that I love.  That makes it easy.  I am not as big of a fan of companies who seem to change their affiliate commissions every 3 minutes, but I digress.  I do have a 20% comission on my prenatal class if you’re interested, email me.  I want to make sure you’re a good match. 🙂  The friend I mentioned is Janet Thaler.  She just showed me ways to authentically place Amazon clicks in some of my uber popular pregnancy posts.  You can read more from her in Why Most Bloggers Suck at Making Money Online. #guilty 🙂
2. I am selling my own product.  Now, I read The Launch.  Have you read it?  I employed the principles in Launch but I didn’t make a million dollars on my class.  It’s been available about 10 days.  BUT, my class is for pregnant women, most likely in their third trimester.  I’m not trying to get them rich, just educated.  I did set-up a prenatal funnel (a free mini-course where people could sign up their emails if they were interested and just mulling it over).  That has been slow going as well but I saw it start to pick up steam today.  I re-wrote it today and I think it’s a lot better — enough to get people excited about the class!  I’m excited about that.  I think this is slowly going to increase.  And that’s fine.  I’m always in a quandry about pricing, but after Februray, this one is going up. 🙂
3. I joined with a friend in OptinMonster.  She already had the BIG account and since you can have as many blogs on there as you’d like I went in with her.  I think this has helped my prenatal class.  We’ll see how it does.  It’s nice to be able to put a pop-up on a product that is going off promotion (like my owlet one — you can only see it on Desktop).
4. I’m still working ConvertKit.  It works really well and I’m just trying to figure out how it works best.  Using it to run things like a miniclass or adding some affiliate stuff to a course is SO easy.  I’m starting to be able to really refine it now that I have it all set up.  My open rate is anywhere from 30-50% and my click rate is 5-40% – which is awesome sauce.  I’m up to about 2k visitors/month through this.  Those people are converting to fans.  It’s good stuff.  I have a whole post about ConvertKit and if you give my email I send you a link to a video on how I have mine set up.  If you buy through my affiliate link, email me.  I’d love to give you some personal tips!
5. I have hired a developer for an hour or two a month.  I really need to fix a few things on my site.  He spend an hour last month and found a LOT of things wrong (my site was going down intermittantly every few days due to database errors, and for the most part that has ended).  He’s super friendly and on top of things.  It’s nice that he can fix something in minutes that would have taken me hours.  I have decided this is the best use of my money, as he can do things so much faster than I.
6. *BONUS TIP* — I just started using TheseReads.  When I say just, I mean I think I started 2 days ago.  As of today at almot 4 pm I have 76 visitors from them.  Yesterday I had 55.  I think THIS could be a great way to gain traffic for new bloggers.  Is 76 a lot? No.  But it’s something. 🙂  Everyone is getting so algorithm happy it’s not as enjoyable for users or publishers.  This one is.  It’s like google reader combined with the visual interest of Pinterest.  #win.  Check me out!

So, that’s what’s up.

I have started only taking 90% of the blog earnings as income.  I set-up an LLC last month and I am mulling over being taxed as an S-corp.

I didn’t go to business school, so a lot of this is annoyingly blech.

BUT, you’ve gotta love that income number.  I’m really proud of all my hard work and so thankful for each and every visitor to my site.

If you like these posts, be sure to check out all of my Blogging for Income posts and sign up for my Blogging Newsletter  that has tons of great tips and tricks for increasing your traffic!  I also have a Pinterest Blogging for Income Board!

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