Traffic & Blog Income Report – February 2015

During my 1st Year Blogiversary post, I asked you all if you would be interested in my doing both a Pinterest post (since 60% or more of my traffic comes from Pinterest) as well as an income report now that I am actually making some money!  Your response was overwhelmingly “Yes!” so I’m going to start doing these Traffic & Income Reports on a monthly basis!

I believe that more bloggers should reveal their income, as well as some stats about their traffic to inspire and encourage others, so I’m am giving monthly updates about my income and traffic statistics. This is my actual blogging income, folks.  Read on!

Let’s get started!

Traffic –

I was super angry that I didn’t hit 300,000 page views this month.  I was only 3,300 page views short, which really irked me, but I guess I’ll just try, try again!  On the bright side, my page views are higher than they’ve ever been, and so is my income!

Also, did you notice something different about the site?

Let’s be honest: redesigning this site is cheaper than redesigning my house, so when I get the decorating bug, ya’ll get to see it!  But, I actually paid for this update, so it’s here to stay for at least a year.  (Well, at least 6 months).

Retired by 40:

• Pageviews: 297,748 (avg. 9,604 per day) (+15,948)
• Unique Pageviews: 120,964 (+30,026)
• Bounce Rate: 54.6%
• Daily Pageviews/Visitor: 4
• Daily Time on Site: 3:45

Time –

Last month, I made $16.36 per hour.  However, in February, I was really terrible about keeping track of my time – so sorry!  Rest assured, I’m going to make sure I keep an accurate accounting of my time in February!

If you want to start your own money-making blog, you can do so very cheaply.  I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own in about 10 minutes, and very cheaply, with prices starting at only $3.95 a month.  This low price is only available through my Bluehost link, and when you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting, Bluehost will even throw in a FREE domain name (a $15 value).  Again, this pricing + free domain name is only available through my link, and if you want to make money with your blog, then self-hosting through a company such as Bluehost is essential.

My New Favorite –

A lot of people (my family, mainly – haha) ask me how I make money blogging.  Now, I don’t have crazy 5-figure incomes like Michelle at Making Sense of Cents, or Cat who supports her whole family, including a husband in med school, but I do make a pretty decent side income.  And I do that in about 12 different ways.  So, each month I’m going to start briefly highlighting the newest way I’m making money.  Believe me, income streams change as often as each month, or even more often!

If you have more than 100,000 monthly page views, you should definitely consider apply to The Blogger Network.  Not only do they manage your ads for you, you’ll earn more money, and it’s free!  You have to apply to be a part of it, but trust me, you won’t regret it!

Income –

Keep in mind, this is purely my income.  I have earned this, but I may not be paid on it for up to 3 months.  The actual income I receive is recorded in our Budget Updates on the blog income line!

This does not account for the 30% that I hold back for taxes.  Also, this does not take expenses into account – those will be covered in the next section.

Retired by 40!

• Ad Networks: $456.89
  • The Blogger Network: $267.51
  • Blogher: $121.00 (not final)
  • Media.net: $52.76
  • InfoLinks:$15.52
• Affiliate Sales: $856.19
  • Commission Junction: $456.20
  • Tailwind: $49.46
  • EBA: $0
  • Clever Girls: $175.00
  • Amazon Associates: $175.53
• Total Income: $1,313.08

Expenses

This month brought quite a few expenses!  I actually cancelled my ViralWoot Account, started with BoardBooster (review coming soon, and you won’t want to miss it!) but then ViralWoot still charged me.  I’m still working on that situation, but keep in mind this is an above-average month for expenses!

•  Tailwind for my Pin scheduling.  You can learn more about how to schedule pins for only $10 a month here.
• Canva: $20.oo – I decided to stop wasting time searching flickr for copyright free images for all of my posts, and am instead purchasing them for $1.00 each through Canva.  This month was higher than normal, as I created images for both February and March so that I could concentrated solely on my Pinterest Test Group in March!
• MailChimp: $30.00 – I absolutely loooove MailChimp .  For those of us who are technically, and artistically challenged, this is the absolute best way to go for emails.  MailChimp is free up to 2,000 subscribers, and up to 12,000 emails a month, but in January I ran my 31 Days of Finances & Fitness eCourse, which resulted in 43,400 emails, and a $25 charged.  Well worth it, though!
• BoardBooster: $20.00 – I’m still using Tailwind, but this new BoardBooster is amazing!  It is literally a set-it and forget-it method of keeping your  content pinned to your boards at regular intervals.  Your first 500 pins are free, so you literally have nothing to lose!
• TurboTax: $119.98 – Tax Season.  Self-explanatory
• eBook Cover: $5.50  Got it off of Fiverr, and it’s awesome!  Take a peek down below!
• Kan Speed: This site was running soooooooo slow!  So naturally, I hired someone who knows more about making it run faster than I do!  If you need your site sped up, check out Kan Speed!
• Laptop: $604.02: I love my first generation Chromebook, but as I was re-writing “Generate Traffic with Pinterest” the computer couldn’t keep up with my typing and I decided that was it!  Hopefully this computer will last me 2 years like the last one did!
• eBooks: $44.85  Guess what ya’ll?  I completely rewrote the Pinterest Guide and took it from 22 pages to 70 pages chock-full of everything you need to know to be successful on Pinterest!  It’s written, but being reviewed by an awesome group of bloggers, and giving them copies costs money!  Want to know how I generate 180,000 page views to my blog from Pinterest every single month?  Stay tuned for more info!

• Total Expenses: $310.52

Here’s the ebook cover.  Like it??

Some Highlights –

February was such a busy month!  I did an interview with Susan Johnston, and writer with US News & World Report, who was doing a piece on grocery receipt scanning apps.  Ya’ll should check it out!  I also did an interview with a report from the New York Times (big-time!!!!), but that one isn’t out yet.

In addition to writing an ebook, I launched my Pinterest Marketing Services with a select group of bloggers.  Next month, my services will be available to everyone, and I’ll have my official book launch!

Want to be part of my launch team (there are tons of perk!!) or take advantage of my Pinterest expertise? I’m happy to help!  Visit my {Need Pinterest Help?} page for more info or to get in touch!

February 2015 Goals –

• Complete my book launch plan for September – SUCCESS! Yes, it’s coming in September, my first reall eBook!  I’m so excited, and I’m following Ruth Sokup’s launch plan for her book!
• Average 10,000 page views per day – FAIL!  They say January and February are terrible traffic months, and boy they weren’t kidding!  Ah well, there’s always next month!
• Make $1,500 – FAIL!  Once my BlogHer earnings are finalized, I’ll have made more than $1,400, but that’s not quite where I wanted to be.  Time to try, try again!
• Launch Pinterest Marketing Services – SUCCESS!  To find out about how you too can drive 60% of your page views from Pinterest, check out this page!
• Delete 100 pins, 5 days a week (I am only deleting the pins that had 0, 1 or 2 repins to tell Pinterest that yes, I do pin great content!) – SUCCESS! Sound like a lot of work?  I can help with this too!
• Spend 1/2 hour 2 days a week, scheduling Facebook posts – SUCCESS! If you haven’t followed me on Facebook, you’re missing out!
• Queue up all Inspiration Tuesday posts coming in March! – SUCCESS!  If you’re in need of some inspiration, but sure to stop by on Tuesdays!
• Write 3 eBook chapters (not the ebook coming in September, the next one :-)  SUCCESS!  Now that I have 2 ebooks under my belt, I’m starting work on a third, in-print book!  So excited!!

If you want to start your own money-making blog, you can do so very cheaply.  I created a tutorial that will help you start a blog of your own in about 10 minutes, and very cheaply, with prices starting at only $3.95 a month.  This low price is only available through my Bluehost link, and when you purchase at least 12 months of blog hosting, Bluehost will even throw in a FREE domain name (a $15 value).  Again, this pricing + free domain name is only available through my link, and if you want to make money with your blog, then self-hosting through a company such as Bluehost is essential.

How was your month?  I would love to hear about it!

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Traffic & Blog Income Report – January 2015 Traffic & Blog Income Report – March 2015 August 2015 Blog Income & Traffic Report Traffic & Blog Income Report – April 2015 June Blog Traffic & Income Report May Traffic & Blog Income Report Traffic & Blog Income Report – November 2014 2-Year Milestone: July Traffic & Blog Income Report How I Make Money Blogging: September 2015 Blog Income Report Traffic & Income Report – September 2014 – My Actual Blogging Income