August 2015 Blog Income & Traffic Report

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 blog 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.

One quick note: at the bottom of the article there is a one-question survey that I’m hoping you’ll help me out with!  So even if you’re bored by all of the numbers in this post could you scroll down and take the survey for me?  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Let’s get started!

Time –

I keep track of the hours I work as dilligently as I can because I want to know if I am spending my time wisely.  These hours include hours worked both here on the blog and on The Pinterest Assistant, for my Pinterest clients.

The month of May brought the highest dollar amount I’ve ever made per hour, at $28.94.  However, other months have been lower or higher.  Here are the hours I worked:

• August 1 – 8: 45 hours
• August 9 – 15: 42 hours
• August 16th – 22nd: 12 hours
• August 23rd – 29th: 34 hours
• August 30 – 31st: 4 hours
• Total Hours: 137

This month, the kiddo and I had so much fun!  We took advantage of the amazing weather and the last few weeks of 6 Flags being open to really get out and do some fun stuff!  Between the extra activities and the fact that I hired an additional employee for The Pinterest Assistant, I was able to work a lot less, and still make more money, as you’ll see below.

I promised myself when I went into business for myself that I would NOT work more than 40 hours per week (averaged, not exactly) and so I love seeing these numbers!  Based on those hours, and the income I will spell out below, in August I made:

$15.93/hour

I’ve definitely had ups and downs in both income and page views on the blog, but diversifying my income has definitely done wonders for both my hourly rate an my sanity.  Sure, I made nearly $35/hour in May, but I’m calling May a fluke because of a big affiliate payment.  If you take that crazy month out, I’m seeing substantial, consistent growth, and that’s what it’s all about.  Slow and stead win the race in blogging.

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 –

I’ve written about my favorite blogging course, Elite Blog Academy several times now, so I’ll just give this a brief mention.  On February 22nd, for 5 days only, Elite Blog Academy (EBA) is opening it’s doors. This is the ONLY time in 2016 that the course will accept new memebers.  Not only are the course spots going to go fast, they’re offering it at the unbeatable price of $499!  I highly enocurage you to consider the course if you’re serious about blogging.  In the 2 years since I took the course, I’ve:

• Left my office job as an accountant
• Started working on my blog full time
• Launched my company, The Pinterest Assistant, which now employs a staff of 4, and brings in far more money than I ever could have hoped for.
• Make more money than I ever did as an accountant
• Get to be home with my daughter – no daycare!
• Work as much or a little as I want
• Have written 2 books
• & Am working on a course call “Your Blog Or Your Life” which will teach you how to keep your blogging to 6 hours per weeks, while still earning $1,000 – $2,000 every month (or more)

I wrote a full review of the course, the good & the bad, so you can judge for yourself here!

My friend Cat, who is an amazing freelance writer, blogger, entrepreneur, and speaker has launched her course, Get Paid to Write For Blogs!  Cat started her business from nothing, living in Grenada, and now supports her family with her incredibly successful writing.  If you’re interested in setting you own schedule, being your own boss, and writing for a living, you should definitely check out her course – plus, you get 15% off when you use my link!

Income –

This is important: Previously, I was reporting the income I earned (not necessarily was paid) and actual expenses paid.  When this blog was smaller, it worked well, mainly because I was so excited to be making money – haha!

So now, I am reporting the actual income I received, as well as actual expenses.  This will make for a more accurate income report and hourly rate, but it will look a little bit deceiving, because some of the income I reported in previous months I will show as received this month – so just realize that as you read this!

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.

• Ad Networks: $468.57
  • The Blogger Network: $468.57
  • Media.net: $0
  • BlogHer: $0 ( I ended my contract with BlogHer)
• Affiliate Sales: $26.98
  • Commission Junction: $0
  • Tailwind: $26.98
  • EBA: $0
  • Amazon Associates: $0
• Sponsored Posting: $377.50
  • Moms Affiliate: $0
  • TapInfluence: usually this is around $400 – if you want to to participate in awesome, well-paid sponsored posts, check out TapInfluence!)
  • Clever Girls: $175
  • Kasai Media: $2.50
  • iSway: $200
  • Other Sponsored Posts: $0
• The Pinterest Assistant: $1,305.59
• Freelance Projects: $250
• Total Income: $2,428.64

Expenses

Just like with my own budget, I strive to keep my expenses affordable here on the blog.  However, I am not against spending money on something that will give me far more value that it costs.  Case in point, you’ll see each month I have expenses for things like Tailwind, Mailchimp, Productive Inbox, and Postplanner, because they literally save me HOURS every single month.

•  Tailwind for my Pin scheduling.  You can learn more about how to schedule pins for only $10 a month here.
• MailChimp: $50.00 – I absolutely loooove MailChimp .  For those of us who are technically, and artistically challenged, this is the absolute best way to go for emails.  Check out these 11 Reasons why Every Blogger Needs Mailchimp for more info!
• BoardBooster: $15 -I have almost completely stopped using BoardBooster.  You can read a case study of why here
• Productive Inbox: $5
• New Domain Names: $16.99+ $10.95 – I may have a domain collection problem….
• Fiverr: 21.50 – Logos and favicons for another site of mine
• Misc: 141.56

• Total Expenses: $246.00

Some Highlights –

I was featured on a couple of different websites this month, one of which did this pretty sweet illustration of me – love it!

I was also featured in Montana Capital’s 3-Part Money-Saving Tips Series featuring money saving tips on many different topics from tons of amazing PF bloggers.  If you’re looking to refresh your budget and frugal habits, you should definitely go check it out!

Overall, I’m loving August.  Sure, it went by much too fast, but I felt like I got the work/family balance right.  I also joined a gym this month, which has free childcare, and it’s like pure heaven.  2 months ago I got rid of my babysitter, and while I’ve loved the extra time with my daughter, it’s also been a bit more stressful.  Taking time out of my day for me & only me has been super helpful!

Also, Alexa Mason sent me a really cool SEO spreadsheet to help me think through and then carry out an SEO strategy on my blog.  I loved it, ya’ll!  One of the things I’ve been trying to get more serious about is my SEO strategy and Alexa has had some crazy success with her, so this booklet was really helpful.  If you’re interested in developing an SEO strategy for your website or blog, and don’t know where to start, Click here to view more details.  It’s only $9 :-)

Oh, and one more thing: If you love Canva like I do for it’s free, amazing design program, as well as affordable images for purchase, then click here to register for early access to Canva for Work – just another way that Canva is changing the face of online design!

August 2015 Goals

• 150,000 page views – SUCCESS
• Start a grocery budget challenge – SUCCESS – kind of.  I actually changed it to a “Make $1,000 before Christmas” email course, which you can sign up for here
• Make $3,000 before expenses – FAIL – Maybe $3,000 was kind of a stretch.
• Schedule 3 FB posts per day – SUCCESS! – PostPlanner has made this super simple for me

September 2015 Goals

• Hire an additional VA for The Pinterest Assistant
• Bring Back Inspiration Tuesday
• Get 1 month ahead on blog posts
• Keep scheduling 3 FB posts per day
• Make $4,000 before expenses
• Write and publish 6 posts per week on my other niche sites

 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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