Blogging for Income: September CFO Report

Just another boring post about blogging for income.  Again, if you’re here for organizing and cleaning, just skip on by.  It just so happens I have a valiant list of people who LOVE these posts.  Whatev’s, I’m happy to share.  I’ll be back to organizing or pregnancy next time. 🙂

September was a good month.  I had hints to the month it would be when I did my August CFO report.  Here’s the nasty deets:

(all info for this report is calculated for me by my spreadsheet -- if you are looking for a way to track your blog income, look no further)

Some of the links on this page may earn me some income and are affiliate links. You can read my disclosure here.

Visitors

Because of how Padsquad counts my views (mobile views are counted per screen length instead of per post), I now make personal goals off my users.  In September, my users went up 9% — up to 94k .  I think there’s a few reasons, but the largest being that the SAHM’s were back on the internet and off vacation.  Hey SAHM’s!  I love you! 🙂  For anyone dying to know, my views were just under 370k for the month.

Ad income

Blogher

While Blogher was certainly my largest source of income for the first part of the year, it is quickly falling due to switching my mobile ads to Padsquad.  I made just over 200 dollars, which is a decrease of just under 30% for me.  I only switched mobile ads part way through August so it’s still adjusting for that.  I don’t see great income for blogher this month either though, thus far.  We shall see where this one goes.  I love Blogher, and they have given me good sponsored posts in the past….

Adsense

I am keeping one adsense ad on my blog to make it to the #100 threashhold required to get a payment from them.  After that I will remove it.  It made just over 20 bucks last month.  Go little ad!

Blogger Network

I started using Blogger Network for my below the fold ads last month.  I have seen good income with them.  It’s just over 210 bucks.  That is a HUGE increase from last month, because I only used them for like 10 days last month.  I see good things from them so far in October.  Good news for me! {if you query into the blogger Network, please tell them I sent you!}.  I have been pleased with their customer service and I like their user interface, for the most part.

PadSquad

Here’s the big news, padsquad had a HUGE income of over 600 dollars!  I’m pretty thrilled with it.  I know it leaves a LOT of ads on mobile views… but people still seem to be able to read.  I did hear of some skanky ads with them this past week, but I contacted them and they let me opt out of anything like that — which is important to me {again, if you contact Padsquad because of something you read on here — please tell them I sent you!}

Media.net

My friend Katie recommended putting a few of these on selected posts.  So far, not great at just over 6 bucks — but I just checked October’s and it’s doing way better — so it is what it is. 🙂

Total Ad Income:  1066.62 (111% increase!)

{I think this is GREAT, I am very pleased with this number}

 Affiliate Sales

Amazon

Just over 20 bucks.  I haven’t done a lot of Amazon links in my posts lately.  I should do better at that, but I am cautious of making sure my users use their money wisely… I always want people to buy the right thing for THEM.  I just wish it was the right thing AND through my link. 🙂

Spreadsheet

4 bucks people.  I’m obviously not in this spreadsheet to make a million, I do hope it helps others.

Total Affiliate Sales:  24.11

Sponsored Posts

I had no sponsored posts last month.  I do have a couple lined-up right now.  I’m not a hue sponosored post fan.  I don’t want my writing to become an advertisement…. So we’ll see how these even out.

 September total Blog Income:  1086.73 (up 26%)

~ which gives me a CPM of 2.95 (that means for every 1k views on my site, I make 2.95, to give a more realistic picture becuase my views are skewed, per 1,000 visitors I make 11.47)

Again, I am INSANELY thrilled by this.  This number will probably go up a bit, Blogher doens’t report my photo income til the month is almost over {the ads that come up on the pictures on my website}.  It’s almost time to cash it out in ones and roll around in it.  BUT, payment is all over the place by these companies, to give you an idea — I am JUST getting paid for sponsored posts I did when school was getting out.  I am starting to really think of this blog as income….

 5 Things I’m Doing Right:

1.  I host my blog through RFE.  I have very little downtime and hear so many other headaches with other providers.  I highly recommend Aaron over there.

2.  Almost all my pinning is done through Viral Tag anymore.  While it is a HUGE pain to schedule it, I only do it once week and it’s SO nice to have it automated.

3.  I am working to build my Facebook page with more posts that are doing well on similar pages (which you can find on your page analytics).  Again, a huge pain but I hate to leave “traffic on the table”.

4.  I had a consultation with Justin Lane about my social media reach.  This guy knows nothing about mothering or actually writing a blog — but he knows social media like no one else I’ve ever talked to.  If you’re looking to increase your reach I highly recommend a consultation with him.  He can data mine the heck out of your followers and find out what they REALLY want.

5.  I like my mix of advertising right now.  Switching to PadSquad was an annoying change, but obviously worth it.  It takes time to research ad companies, but it can be worth your while.

4 things I need to work on.

1.  I need to work on twitter.  Justin shared how much brands care about twitter and how that’s how I’m going to get the reach companies want me to have.  I just don’t get twitter.  I want to be monogomous with Pinterest, but that’s not how this blogging thing works.  You can also @mention Justin here.

2.  I think PadSquad may have too many ads.  My dad complains, and I do get emails sometimes about too many ads or pop-ups overall.  It’s always an experiment and I appreciate ALL the feedback {have something to say — contact me above on the nav bar, or comment below!

3.  I get little to NO reach on Facebook, even with all the posting I do.  It hates me.  It knows I love Pinterest more.  It’s my 2nd ugly wife.  Sorry Facebook.  I’ll try to love you more.

4.  This blog takes over my life.  I did a good time pretty well ignoring it while I was on vacation (and I had pretty well set it on cruise control while I was gone do to pre-scheduling) but it’s been a struggle coming back and getting back on top of it.  My computer is always here, and I need to be better about drawing a line between family time and blog time.

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.