It was a great month in blog-ville.  Super thrilled with the increased # of pageviews along with increased income.

So much, that this is my last month that has firm #’s for my income report.  I know a lot of people have thought I was insane for doing it all along, but as my income nears a number with 5 digits I’d just prefer to keep it more on the DL… I hope you all can appreciate that.  I still plan to break down each area with the % change of income.  So, there’s 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.  Check out that page as well as my blog coaching page if you’re wanting to increase your own income!

Ok, on to the numbers!

** As a note: 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: 240k      Hits: 283k

Woot-woo!  I swear Pinterest made a change, and views are up 30%.  I’m kind of jazzed {happy dance}

Ad income:  $1237

Yes, this is up 20% from last month, but I still feel like it’s pretty abysmal considering that my pageviews were up 30%!  I am leaving padsquad mid month.  I have finally decided that income can’t be based on ads and in order to really make it, I need less ads.  All of my ads, at that point, will be serviced by MediaVine.  They had a great RPM this past month.  Income with just them was up 46%, padsquad income was up 5%.  Anyone see my giant frowny face from that far away.  Anyway, Ads — it’s time to move on and up. 🙂  FYI, I am not under an illusion that I am going to make more money with this change.  I think it will be fairly similar, it will be more consistant, but it will be LESS ads and that’s what I’m working towards.

Affiliate Income:  $4345

Holy Guacamole!  Can I just say that the right relationships with the right companies can really pay off big for both the company, yourself AND your reader.  I am thrilled with this number.  Amazon is about on par with what it was in the prior months.  But, I have a few other companies that I am just loving working with. #blessed

Sponsored Posts $3185

I thought last month was high, but I was wrong.  This is up 77% since last month.  Plus, I am finding companies that are a really good fit.  I’m proud to be able to produce great content that is just sponsored by a company.  Total win for all of us.  I feel like there is a rush to get a bunch of them in before bloggers are on vacation.  Hence, I am doubtful there will be as many next month.  BUT I will continue to take what matches me. 🙂

Own Content $1086

I did a 40% sale on my birthday this month.  It did pretty well, and my Family System book continues to sell well.  I know I made around $500 with the ultimate bundle, but I was also an author so I know there’s an author bonus on top of that.  I have no idea what that will be, so I just counted the 500 in this.  That means, from WooCommerce on my blog I made just about 500.  I want this to increase.  I plan to do a Pinterest ad for my Family Systems book to see how it does.  Who knows.

I started using timers on my sales pages (I use Thrive Themes to create them, and I totally recommend them) and I really think it did help….

 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).  My products sell well to any pregnancy market you have, or any housewife market.  I do have another book coming out this late summer to school-aged moms.

Grand total: $9800

Holy.  Crap.

I’m just a girl, who blogs.  I actually really love blogging.  I might not love balancing blogging with having my kids home for summer vacation, but I love the game of trying to sell more, or to get more pageviews/visitor.

I have to say I’m really proud of this number.  I also want to thank the amazing tribe of bloggers I have around me who support me and give me ideas on how to grow my business.  I am lucky in SO many ways.

Full blog CPM is $41.13 — that means for every 1k hits I’m making that amount (total between all income sources).  Again, a lot of that is coming from one affiliate partnership.  I’m also really proud to not be selling to bloggers.  I’m selling to MY target audience.

Almost all of this income (minus about 100 bucks) is made as a blogger.  I’m not doing this selling hosting or webinars to other bloggers.  I’m doing it as a mom who wants to help other overwhelmed moms to find more joy.

 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: 13% (goal 15%)
• Affiliate: 44% (goal 35%)
• Sponsored Posts: 32%  (goal 10%)
• Self: 11% (goal 40%)

Still working on the self.  It’s up 7% from last month (mainly because of the Ultimate Bundle).

This month I’d like to do a little M&M about why my online course maybe doesn’t sell as well as I had hoped.  I read an article this month about how listening to the six figure webinar podcasts aren’t doing bloggers any favors and I would 100% agree with that.

I think we all need to recognize that these webinar people are all trying to get money from US.  WE are their target market.  It’s a lot easier to sell a webinar telling people they’re going to be RICH vs my prenatal class that just tells people they’ll be fully informed.

My online course is NOT about how to make money.  I don’t make false claims or promises.  I am educated on the topic that I am writing on, and yet I haven’t made six figures of of it – and I’m like 3 months into it.

1. My course has a pretty small niche.  I just launched my family systems ebook and it makes sales almost every day.  You might say that it’s because of the smaller price tag, but I actually made my prenatal class 5 bucks for a few days with maybe one sale.  I am targeting pregnant women in their third trimester.  That’s not nearly as large as targeting all housewives everywhere.  Surprise!
2. I’m honest. I’m not doing the hard sell that the price is going to raise infinitely in 3 minutes.  I just can’t be.  I do have time-sensitive sales, but I have them fairly frequently and I do toss out coupon codes in my newsletter every now and then.
3. The majority of my newsletter list is not that target market. Where as, almost all of my newsletter targets to Family Systems.  And, most sales come from a newsletter, rather than just a link.  There’s that.
4. It’s going to take time. I think this is something that will be best promoted by word of mouth.  That takes times.  I could A/B test until I am blue in the face but it’s not going to make me a millionaire.

I will say that I have made 2k on it.  I have probably been paid my regular hourly wage in making the course at this point.  I am grateful for the people who have purchased it and I am grateful that the internet will continue to allow people to purchase it if they would like to.

Passive income isn’t always fast income.  Obviously, I’m doing pretty well in all areas of my blog.

I am glad to say that I will actually have a new ebook with printables available within the next couple of months and I’m excited to see how that works out.

And as always, if someone has an idea on how I could make a million more I’m happy to hear them.

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