Pageviews were down (thank you Pinterest), income was up.  Never a bad thing, right?

Still on target with well over over 3 times what I earned last year!  Gotta love that!

As always, my income reports are brought to you by my blogging income spreadsheet.  It tracks all of this.  I just pop the numbers in, it tells me how much rpm I’m making per network (a lot of ad company’s are wrong, especially if you have separate mobile vs desktop companies).  Seriously, it’s the bomb.  I even have a brand new sales page that outlines it even better!

Ok, on to the numbers!

** I haven’t mentioned it before, but this is the income I MADE during the month.  NOT the money I was PAID.  I think it fits better with my stats, as the money I am PAID often fits with 2 months ago.  That is NOT how I do my taxes, but I like it better for income reports.

Sessions: 180k      Hits: 217k

Is anyone else seeing the dagger in my heart here?  All are down about 18%.  Pinterest (my #1 referrer) has been making some serious changes, and I’m just trying to go with the flow.  For me, the key has to be to make MORE off each eyeball.  You’ll see more about that later.

Ad income:  $1029

A very sad, and very down 56% month to month.  I run my ads through MediaVine and PadSquad.  Padsquad had a serious glitch this month and I have given tentative notice with them.  I’m not sure WHAT I am going to do (happy for advice, if you want).  Income with Padsquad was down 59% (I also had an extra ad from my church in last month’s, so in reality ad income is only down about 40%).  Two factors in this is a new quarter (always low at the beginning of the quarter, although Padsquad’s has continued to go down all month) and also a decrease in views means less impressions overall.  If I do leave Padsquad I will just have MediaVine do all my ads….

Affiliate Income:  $2477

This is up 24% — FINALLY a bright spot!  I did really well with one company this month (I think my post for them is finally SEO’ing), and I did HORRIBLE with one company I used to do well with.  Always fleshing out affiliate streams.  Amazon income was like 20 bucks last year at this point and it’s close to $500.  Obviously, the key is to showcase products you love.  That always sells the best.  I’ve been part of the Ultimate Bundle this past week and that is selling well too.  I haven’t even included those #’s in this post.

Sponsored Posts $1587

When it rains it pours, right?  Very happy about this #.  Also, for the things that I’m finding to write about. I think they’re a good fit.  I do have a startup that asked for a post and I have it all ready and right now they are MIA.  That’s super frustrating…  Not sure what to do there.  They are really small, but they won’t respond to any emails….  I also have a few things lined up this month…. Exciting times!

Own Content $223

I  have gone the rounds with this one!  I decided it was probably pricing for my prenatal class.  I adjusted it up, down over, sideways and in between.  At one point, I had the book selling for 5 bucks.  That price point made me sick.  After listening to an Amy Porterfield podcast I just decided to go with what felt right for me.  BTW, I love her podcasts. 🙂

I’ve researched the field and comparable classes sell between $50-$300.  So, mine is selling at 27.99 to 99 at this point.  I feel pretty good about that.

I have edited the cover, as well as the content in the book and I am re-launching it.  We’ll see how that goes.  For the next month I plan to just let it lie and see how it does.

I HAVE also resurrected my Family Systems book.  It has just been hanging around Amazon so long, and not selling.  I changed up the cover (seeing a trend there) and I am now selling it on my site as well — launch will happen soon.

I am accepting affiliates for all of my products (except for blog coaching).  I am giving an adjustable 40% affiliate for my programs (it’s adjustable as you can ask for a coupon for a smaller % back).

Grand total: $5300

Up 17%  from last month.  {woot-woo}  Mainly from an increase in affiliate sales with one company, as well as a great sponsored post month.

Full blog CPM is $29.53 — that means for every 1k hits I’m making that amount (total between all income sources).  That’s up 8 bucks from last month.  Again, making more on each eyeball.  Average CPM from last year was just just about 11 bucks  quite an increase — almost 3 times more!

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 Percentages of Income

I am really working to balance these out.  I’d love less ads on my mobile site, and to make up for it in other spots:

• Ads: 19% (goal 20%)
• Affiliate: 47% (goal 30%)
• Sponsored Posts: 30%  (goal 10%)
• Self: 1% (goal 40%)

You can see that self is something I REALLY want to work on.  I’m making strides!

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3 Things I learned This Month:

1.  You can A/B test with Thrive Themes.  Now, I know all the big fancy bloggers use LeadPages, but it is SO expensive.  I use ThriveThemes to build all my landing pages (most you can click onto from this page).  I just figured out how to A/B test them.  You do it through some google analytics code, I think it’s SUPER cool.  Check it out!  Seriously, for under $100 forEVER you can make as many landing pages as you want.  Live the dream people.
2. I need to keep building my newsletter.  We’ll talk more about it next month, but 90% of my sales from the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle came from my newsletter.  They trust me.  I’m constantly sending them good info, so when I do — it’s ready for them.  I love ConvertKit.  I am also offering a 30 minute brainstorming session on how to get it going if you buy through my link.  I’ve said it before, and I will say it again.  If you’ve got a few posts under your belt and you’re getting readers (I would start on MailChimp for my first 1,000 subscribers) SWITCH to a program that can really help you grow it.  It’s how you’re going to make your cash.  Seriously.  I know  ConvertKit is expensive, but SO worth it.
3. I need to stop feeling bad about myself.  In a rash move to try to increase sales on my prenatal class I listened to 2 million podcasts on all these people making 6 figures.  I then read this article.  Woah.  That’s what I needed.  I am an ACTUAL expert selling an honest class.  It’s going to take time to build.  Each sale is a victory, stop it Hilary.  Seriously, click to that article.  You’ll thank me.  It’s REALLY important for me to come at blogging from a stance to help actual overwhelmed moms — and whatever comes from that is really great.  But I want to do it honestly — and my business has grown with that intention.

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Ok, with me wanting to REALLY build my self income, I got a little desperate this month.  I really started trying Boosted Posts on Facebook, as well as Promoted Pins.

This was the month I decided to try social media advertising in earnest.

And I have to say, I’m not impressed….

Facebook

I used this one at length to promote my webinar, spending close to $100 with possibly one or two sign-ups for the webinar coming from FB?  I have heard people don’t often buy off Facebook ads (but they will give you their email).  I think I’m going to take a break from it for a while.  Also, I had two companies paying for promotion of a couple of posts.  Now my reach has just tanked.  Oh Facebook.

I think, once I gain some courage back, I am going to try a Facebook Live of the Prenatal class.  How to buy and how the online course works.  I may also bang my head against the wall for a while. 😉

Pinterest

I promoted my prenatal class through some pins.  I spent maybe 100 dollars, again with zero conversions.  ZERO.  Everyone who bought either found me through an affiliate or was on my newsletter.  I am still promoting some pins at just a dollar/day, but I may stop that soon.  Again, zero conversions.

Now, I am no fool that my page may just not convert well.  I’m always working on the page.  I am 100% open to any changes on it — feel free to check it out.

I don’t know.  But, I also think people need to trust me, before they buy a course like this.  And that trust is not built through a Pinterest ad.

I don’t think that type of trust is necessary when you’re buying a regular product or a business product.  And I swear everyone who talks about making money is only making money off people who want to make more money — not off of people who just want to learn something new.  That is frustrating.

ALSO, if you are placing a Pinterest ad, put TONS of relevant keywords in, and then bid 10 cents – for a while I was paying a buck/click.  I’m now paying 10 cents.  Same clicks, only cheaper.

I do hope to play with both of these in the coming months, but right now I am gunshy with the lack of results.

Anyway, there you have it.  I did do a

Webinar

It was a couple of weeks ago.  It did alright, I sold a few courses off of it.  But, now it’s available for replay.  BTW, I used Thrive Themes, Google hangouts and disqus comments for it.  All totally free, and totally easy.  Would you guys want a tutorial?  You can see the page here.

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Hope to clear 6 this coming month.  I also hope to be at 10k by the end of the year.

It’s all an experiment with goals, am I right?

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