How I Made $3,328.10 Blogging in December 2016

Happy New Year, everyone!

There’s something so invigorating about the fresh start a new year provides, isn’t’ there?  It’s like a new month, only way better.




This is my December Online Income Report, and it’s monumental in more than one way: this marks my 25th income report, and my 500th published post on this blog.  And honestly, those are milestones I never thought I’d hit!

One thing that I’ve been talking about lately is letting go of that page view number, and instead focusing on how engaged the people are who are coming to your blog.  Letting go of that page view number can be completely freeing, which is why, in addition to income and expenses, I’ve added a section tracking other metrics that may be helpful to you – and that can replace your focus on page views.

Online Income:

During the month, I track both deposits (money I actually receive during the month, but that I earned in previous months), as well as Accounts Receivable (AR for short, the money that I actually earned within the month).

Make no mistake: both are important!

Deposits help me budget for next month (since we live on last month’s income) and AR helps me forecast for expenses and budgeting for future months.  We try as hard as we can to plan ahead, and this blog’s income is a big part of that!

Ok, on to the income:

• Ad Income: $383.08
• Affiliate Income: $2,945.02
• Sponsored Posts: $0

Total Income: $3,328.10

Ad Income

December was a great month for Ad Income (thanks, 4th quarter!) and while I’m obviously happy with the numbers, I don’t expect them to be as high during the first quarter of 2017.  Ads are becoming less and less of an income strategy as I focus more on affiliates, products, and social media promotions for income.

My ads are run by Monumetric (formerly The Blogger Network), who I absolutely LOVE.  If you want to take ad management off your plate, look them up!




Affiliate Income:

I’m going to be honest, during December I did almost nothing extra to promote my core affiliates.  Instead, I took some time to organize, get settled into the new house, prep for taxes etc.  Basically, I created a game plan for 2017.

The strategy piggybacks off of what I talked about in November’s income report: creating a steady stream of affiliate payments throughout the year, rather than the feast or famine of semi-annual payments.

I can’t share everything right now, since I’m working on a post about it, but I can say that it involves bringing on a few strategic new affiliates, really developing my relationship with  my email list, and pushing really hard to update old content not only for information, but with helpful links and affiliates.  It also involves a whole lot of organization in the form of spreadsheets.  (I love spreadsheets, its’ the accountant in me!)

Sponsored Posts:

I didn’t accept any sponsored posts in December.

They’re honestly not a huge part of my strategy, but if one comes along that is a good fit, I will consider it.

Making money from a blog isn’t a get-right-quick scheme.  In fact, it’s taken several years just to get this far.  But learning to let go of metrics like page views, and focusing instead of what’s working makes me more efficient, and helps me make more money while doing something I love!

Key Metrics for Your Blog:

I really, really like metrics.  Blame it on the accountant in me, but I can’t live without them.  So when I decided to do away with page views in this report, and the bulk of my reporting, I had to replace them with something.

These are the metrics for bloggers that I live and die by:

• RPM: $49.26 (down from $24.12 in November)
• Daily Income: $107.36 (down from $61.28 in October)
• Diversification:
  • Ad Income: 11.51%
  • Affiliates: 88.49%
  • Sponsored Posts: 0%

RPM

Your blog’s RPM is how much money you make per 1,000 Page views.  The reason I LOVE this metric is because it takes the focus OFF of page views.

Here’s how you calculate it:

Income/Page Views x 1000 = RPM

And yes, I’m aware that page views actually go into the equation BUT for me it takes to focus off of page views and instead tells me how much I’m connecting with each and every person who comes to this website.  If we’re connecting, then they’re clicking, and buying, and will hopefully come back.

Many people thing you have to have millions of page views to make a lot of money but you DON’T!

Blog Ambitions really opened my eyes to this, especially when they broke down the RPM’s of many big bloggers:

• Pinch of Yum, 10.83 Apr
• Pulling Curls, 12.28 May
• A Whimsical Life, 23.72 May
• Platings and Pairings, 10.43 Ma
• Just a Girl and Her Blo, 35.48 Apr
• Beauty through Imperfection 11.50 May
• (source)

Isn’t this eye-opening?!?

It makes me happy to see that my RPM is really competing with tons of established bloggers.

So, if you’re seriously struggling with being happy with your blog’s income or I really suggest that you calculate your blog’s RPM!

Daily Income:

While I obviously don’t make a salary from my online income, it helps my mindset to think of daily income.  Multiplying this number by the 365 days gives me sort of an annual number.  It’s also a way to see fluctuations in the months – and helps the hubs and I project next year.

Of course, things can change in the blink of an eye, but again, Daily Income helps me take the focus off page views.

Diversification:

Lastly, I make sure to calculate the the percentage that each type of income takes of my total income.  This is super important because like everything blogging, nothing lasts forever, and the more diversified I am, the smaller the hit my income will take if, say, one of those income streams was taken away.

It’s just like how we’ve diversified our household income, and it’s super important!

I am truly grateful for every single dollar, and for each and every way this blog makes money.  What’s more, I am blessed by every single reader that comes through this blog (and hopefully stays for a while).

If you like seeing reports like my Online Income Reports, please sign up for my blogging newsletter.  I’d love to share them with you!

And, be sure to check out my other blogging posts:

• All my blog income reports
• The Best Way To Schedule Pins on Pinterest
• 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Start A Blog

This post may contain affiliate links.  See my disclosures for more information.

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