Blog Income: July Blog CFO Update

**For your convenience this page contains affiliate links.  Please check my disclosure here.

I didn’t want to do this entry.  July was a tough month.  Blogher has been pushing visability and I just didn’t like how my blog was SHOWING on phones.  So, I switched companies with that to WP Touch.  That has taken a little time to figure out.  In the meantime, my ads weren’t showing up right.  You know the drill –right?  Always a work in progress.  As a reminder, I have only bit working hard for pageviews since late January.  Prior to that, this was a mom blog with maybe 30 hits/day.

My pageviews have been down.  I heard Pinterest changed something in their search, but I also wasn’t pinning as much.  ANYWAY, back to what you want to know.  Here’s the nitty gritty:

[thrive_leads id=’52234′]

Hits

132,885 (down 16%) {sad face}.  I try to console myself with scrolling up on my blog income spreadsheet and realizing that in just 6 months prior  I was at 17,403 (my January totals).

Users

86814 (down 13%)

Blogher Income

353.57 (down 33%) {sad face}

Adsense Income

135.31 (down 30%)

Amazon Income

35.79 (down 20%)

Spreadsheet

3 bought (made 5.55) — again was never really meant to be a source of income, but more of a learning experience

Ad revenue Totals: 504.72 (down 34%)

Sponsored posts

Sponsored posts treated me well.  I had a bunch that I was accepted for early summer, that seemed to all get bumped until lately.  I had 3 programs and I will earn 750 for those 3.   Again, sponsored post payments are really random.  I won’t see that money for a while.

Total income: 1254.70 (up 23%)

And that certainly isn’t chump change.  I was certainly helped out by my sponsored posts.  I hope those aren’t bugging you.  I liked how a few of them were me just writing a post about our family and then tying them in.  Hopefully an avid reader wins the sweepstakes!

A few thoughts on July’s income:

1.  I stopped pinning manually.  I was starting to lose my mind.  Doing 20 pins 3 times/day takes time.  It also had to happen by ME every day.  I started mainly using just Ahology (which I am a huge fan of).  I did that for about 3 weeks, but just found like my hits were plummeting.  I recently added ViralTag (29.99/month) and that seems to be helping.  I sometimes wonder if I shouldn’t go back to manually pinning.  Anyone have thoughts on this?

2.  Change my mobile view.  I really like how WPTouch looks.  I think it’s easier for readers to see, and it also loads quicker, which is BIG in the mobile business (or so I hear).  But, it only has two ads/page (which probably a lot of people are thankful for).  Everything’s an experiment.

3.  I just applied to Blogger Network.  I’ve heard good things about them.  I’m hoping to replace my Adsense with them.  I guess they do a waterfall fill type of thing, where they put the highest paying ads first, and then trickle on down to what is the next best one.

4.  I put a lot of Halloween costume tutorials up, which aren’t my normal thing.  BUT, I’ve made a lot of costumes and Halloween is coming up.  I wanted to have them all available for readers come costume time.  I’m aware this could have been a turnoff for readers.  I’m starting to see some Yoda costume makers coming to my blog already. 🙂

5.  I’m trying to adjust how I post.  I need more family posts, and maybe reign in so much “pinnable” content.  I love reading what other people are doing with their kids and how families run.  I always keep it real.  Me and my curls.  I really aim for 1-2 sponsored posts/month.  I don’t like it when bloggers jump the shark and are constantly sponsored.  You can rest assured I still have plenty of new and non-sponsored posts coming up!  As sad as I am that I’m earning less ad money, I am still really enjoying doing it and I don’t want to lose the fun aspect of it.

Are these posts helpful?  Are you cackling that my revenue decreased?  Tell me if you like them.  Leave a comment below! 🙂

On another note, my husband did add a part time job, so the money scene isn’t quite as ugly as it once was, but we are still not rolling naked in dollar bills.  I’m hoping that comes next month. 🙂

Anyway, I hope this post is helpful to my readers.  I know it’s not my normal genre.  If you enjoyed this post be sure to check out my other blog income posts, or my blog income spreadsheet.  You’ll see how far I came since January. 🙂  Also be sure to follow my “Business of Blogging” Pinterest board.