Income and Traffic Report - November 2017

Welcome to my third income and traffic report. If you missed my first or second income & traffic report, you can check them out here and here. I was incredibly nervous to hit the publish button on my first report, but after I did, I was thrilled with the positive and encouraging feedback from my sweet readers. Before I get into this report I want to share a bit about why I want to post monthly income and traffic reports.

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WHY POST INCOME AND TRAFFIC REPORTS?

Back in February 2017 I quit my full time marketing job so that I could be home with my new baby. I immediately knew that I wanted to do some type of side hustle that was incredibly flexible, had the potential of earning money, and that would be a creative outlet for me. I did research on different things I could do – from picking up a part time, work-from-home gig to starting a consulting business – and everything in between. I finally landed on starting a blog. Income and traffic reports were a large part in my decision making process.

When I was on Pinterest one day, I saw a pin that said how someone had earned over $100K a month…yes, a MONTH, blogging. I was in awe. How could someone earn that kind of money with a blog? So, I looked a little deeper and did a lot of research. I realized that I could begin a money-making blog doing what I love to do and what I am already doing anyway – creating a beautiful and thriving home on a budget. I wanted to share my passion with other like-minded creatives and create a community where I could teach, learn, and ultimately help others create a home they love through DIY projects and decorating. That’s how this little blog was born.

Some bloggers post monthly income and traffic reports, while many others don’t. It’s a personal choice, and I understand completely why a blogger would choose not to.

I am choosing to post income and traffic reports as a way to pay it forward. I also want to give bloggers in the home decor/DIY niche a place to reference. There are not an abundant amount of bloggers in this niche who post income and traffic reports. I am living proof that you can make money if you’re a blogger in this niche – even if your blog is only nine months old!

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING ON THE BLOG?

One of my goals with this blog has been and will continue to be to create an inspirational decorating hub for my readers. With this idea in mind, I focused most of my November efforts on creating holiday-focused posts including decorating inspiration and roundups of some of the best holiday decor ideas.

During the month of November, I published eleven posts. As mentioned above, they are, in large part, focused on holiday decorating ideas. These posts include:

When comparing the amount of posts, month over month, I had a slight increase from nine to eleven. I have been considering the idea of getting on a schedule and posting on certain days only. That way, there would be some consistency for my readers. The only issue I can see with this is that my one year old’s schedule fluctuates so timing doesn’t always work out…which is one of the reasons I got into this business in the first place.

Blogging is one of those rare businesses that doesn’t require a specific schedule or deadlines or meetings. I can work when time permits, and I’m not sure I’m ready to give that flexibility up yet just so I can have a set posting schedule. I am still considering this, and I’ll be sure to keep you posted if I do come up with a set schedule.

The most exciting takeaway from November is that it is my best month yet in terms of traffic and income!

I had two posts go viral on Pinterest, one of which garnered over 5K page views in one day alone. I am super pumped about this increase in traffic, but with success comes higher expectations and harder-to-reach goals. That’s OK by me. I enjoy having goals to work toward, and I’m excited to get to work on making December an even more successful month in terms of traffic and income.

TRAFFIC REPORT

In last month’s report, I outlined that I wanted to increase my sessions and pageviews by 50%. I am happy to report that I surpassed my goal. In fact, I had the most sessions and pageviews I have ever had in one month.

Here was my traffic for November:

To give you some context, here was my traffic for October:

Here you can see the month over month comparison:

Never did I think this little blog of mine would hit over 30K sessions and over 37K pageviews in my 9th month blogging. But here I am to say that it IS possible. In November, I continued to utilize these 3 tactics which helped skyrocket my traffic growth. My number one traffic source is Pinterest, so it only makes sense to optimize Pinterest as much as possible in order to grow traffic. To do this, I use Tailwind which aids me in scheduling pins to go out on Pinterest automatically. It is, hands down, one of THE BEST investments I have made to date.

A few months ago, I decided to buy the year membership of Tailwind because it allows you to schedule unlimited pins. If you buy the monthly plan, you can only schedule 400 posts per month. The other reason it’s smart to invest in the yearly plan is because you ultimately get a 33% cost savings compared to the monthly plan. The annual plan is $9.99/month, or $119.88 annually. If you opt to buy the monthly plan, you’ll pay $15/month, or $180 annually. The fact that I paid less than $120 for an entire year to schedule an unlimited amount of pins is seriously a good deal.

Here’s a breakdown of my top-viewed posts:

INCOME REPORT

INCOME

Google Adsense – $446.72
Amazon Associates – $145.52
Other Affiliates – $10.93

Total Income: $603.17

EXPENSES

Tailwind – $9.99
ConvertKit – $29.00

Total Expenses: $38.99

Net Profit: $564.18

Some earnings during the month don’t get paid out until a later date, but I think this is the best way to track it for now.

This is the first month that I earned more from Google Adsense than I did from Amazon Associates. Amazon Associates has always been my largest income source, but I wasn’t surprised that these two income streams flip-flopped. Let me explain.

In October, I earned $59.04 from Google Adsense. While I was happy that this income stream increased from the prior month, I knew I could do better and make more money by optimizing the ads on my site. That’s why, in my previous income report, I noted one of my goals was to optimize Google Adsense for my site in November.

I’m so glad I made this a top priority because it clearly paid off. A Brick Home saw the highest amount of sessions and pageviews to date during November, and the optimized ads helped drastically increase my Google Adsense earnings. Because I optimized my ads in November as well as increased my traffic, I earned $446.72 from Google Adsense. This is an increase of $387.68 from the previous month.

ANALYSIS & GOALS

Overall, I am incredibly happy with the progress of A Brick Home. It’s hard to believe that my little blog is already 9 months old. Before you know it, A Brick Home will be turning one. It will be a bittersweet Valentine’s Day. Yep, she was born on love day, which is fitting I suppose because I do love this little blog of mine.

My little girl is growing up before my eyes and while I love being a stay at home mom, this blog has given me an outlet that I crave. I am able focus my creative energy, learn something new every single day, and work towards goals. The best part is that I am earning money doing what I love to do – how rare is that?

I have gotten so many questions lately about starting a blog – from how to get it started to how much money you can earn and everything in between. That’s why I created a free, 7 day email course that outlines how to start a blog step-by-step. I also put together a quick tutorial to start a blog for anyone who is ready to dive right in. Either way, you’ll learn how to start a blog so you can begin earning money right away!

Learn how to start a blog now.

I believe goal setting is an important part of blogging. Having a goal to work towards helps me align my marketing strategy and create monthly tasks. My goal for December is a lofty one: to earn $1,000 from my blog. Stay tuned, sweet friends!