Traffic & Blogging Income Report – October 2014

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’m going to share percentage increases from the month before for my traffic stats, as well as actual numbers :-).  Also, data is from either WordPress stats or Alexa.

Retired by 40:

• Pageviews: 31,282
• Unique Pageviews: 19,192
• Bounce Rate: 27.9%
• Daily Pageviews/Visitor: 8.3
• Daily Time on Site: 9:25

My pageviews were really crappy the first 2 weeks of the month, but then I realized that becuase I had been doing some back-end things like rearranging my navigationi, redoing pictures and some other stuff or EBA (Elite Blog Academy) I had been slacking on social media promotion.  Couple that with the new Pinterest Smart Feed rollout (see more information at the end of the post) and it was terrible.

The last two weeks, though, I rallied and averaged 1,700 pageviews per day.  Still, it brought my total for the month down :-(

Ten Minute Savings

• Pageviews: 1,600

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.

 Income –

I’m going to my actual blogging income – the actual numbers! – as well as percentages increases in the income section.  Right now my income is small, but when I look at the percentage that it is increasing every month, I am really encouraged!

Keep in mind, this is purely my income.  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: I’m diversifying my Ad Networks, just like any another income strategy, so expect a little more detail in the coming months!
  • Adsense: $75.78
  • Blogher: $31.48
  • Media.net: $3.73 (only active for 2 days :-)
  • InfoLInks: $12.88
• Affiliate Sales:
  • Commission Junction: $67.07
• Direct Sales:
  • FeedWeb: $60.00

• Total Income: $250.94

Ten Minute Savings

• Ad Networks: I’m diversifying my Ad Networks, just like any another income strategy, so expect a little more detail in the coming months!
  • Adsense: $3.12
• Affiliate Sales:
  • Share A Sale: $8.43

• Total Income: $11..55

Expenses

• ViralWoot – $15.00.  ViralWoot does my Pinterest scheduling so I don’t have to be plugged in constantly.  If you would like more information about how I drive 60% of my traffic from Pinterest, you can read about it here. **Update: I now use Tailwind for my Pin scheduling.  You can learn more about how to schedule pins for only $10 a month here.

• Total Expenses: $15.00

Goals for October –

• Introduce ya’ll to my  new blog!  So exciting! – PASS – the post 9 Reasons Why I always Choose Aldi first appeared on Ten Minute Savings
• Average 1,500 page views per day – so far this is not looking good… FAIL – I averaged just over $1,000 pageviews per month, but I figured out why the first 2 weeks were so terrible: Pinterest rolled out Smart Feed!  There’s a note at the bottom of the post regarding this, if you’ve experienced a drop in traffic!
• Finish the Elite Blog Academy with my full attention – FAIL – I worked through 2 units, and decided to work through 2 units per month to get my money’s worth!
• Make $350 from Ad Networks – I started using BlogHer for my 2 main ad spots, with Adsense filling in the less advantageous areas, and so far this month, I haven’t been impressed.  If we keep going at this rate, I’ll definitely not hit my goals!  FAIL – I also started using Media.net and have been very impressed!
• Redo my blog navigation – PASS! – Hopefully, everything is much easier to find now!
• Elite Blog Academy – I have been learning so much about how to turn your blog into a business from Ruth and the Elite Blog Academy, so I wanted to pass this deal on to you if you were thinking about joining!  From now until 12/5/14, if you sign up for EBA, you’ll get special Black Friday pricing of $299 for the course.  It’s well worth it, believe me, but if that weren’t enough, I encourage you to consider this awesome price, because after 12/5/14 the price will rise to $399!  Click this link or the banner below to get started!

Goals for November –

• Develop a social media plan for Ten Minute Savings
• Make $300 in income
• 2 EBA Units Complete
• Average 1,200 page views per day for Retired by 40, and 50 for Ten Minute Savings

I do really want to point something out, if you’ve been following the blog for long, or even been utilizing Pinterest, then you need to check out what is going on with the Smart Feed they just rolled out.  Remember Facebook started keeping people from seeing your blog posts in their news feed?  Well, Pinterest has started doing the same thing, but you have the power to make you posts get seen!  I could write an entire article about how Smart Feed works, and how to combat it, but it would just be rehashing with Jill Levenhagen wrote on her blog entitled “Pinterest Smart Feed: Formulating a Comprehensive Blogger Strategy.” If you use Pinterest at all, read this article!  It is chock full of information!

Here’s What I’m Doing About It:

• Liking my stuff: as I’m scrolling through Pinterest, and I come upon my posts that others have pinned or repinned, I like it and repin it to let Pinterest know that the content is quality.
• Creating my own Group Board: This is a great way to gather new followers, because pinners must follow all of your boards before you can invite them to pin to one of your group boards.
• Joining Social Media Promotion Facebook Groups: Did you know that there are social media promotion facebook groups, made up of individuals who just want to promote each other’s work and get it seen by more people?  Seriously, the best thing ever!

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.

Whaddya think?  Not my best month, but I’m learning…..very slowly…..

*This post may contain affiliate links

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You May Also Like:

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