Blog Income, Stats, & Goals - Month 6



Last month I started a new monthly feature where I write about my stats for the month, the income (or loss) for the month, and my goals for the upcoming month.  I was pleasantly surprised by how many people visited, commented, and shared my post.  So here I am back again this month to update how month 6 went.  See my month 5 post here.

I can't believe that I have actively been blogging for 6 months.  I look at my posts from January and see how much I have learned already.  The thing about this blogging process is that as soon as you think that you have one topic pretty much covered and you know what you are doing, you realize that there are 100+ more things to learn about.  It's fun though and I love using my mind and learning new skills.

                                                    Month 5 Stats                                          Month 6 Stats
Monthly Pageviews                     2018                                                       5815
Facebook Followers                    322                                                           575
Twitter Followers                         119                                                          139
Pinterest Followers                       271                                                          338
Instagram Followers                     118                                                          140

Okay, pageviews were amazing (for me).  My social following all grew nicely.  I'll take a minute to talk about how all of those increased.

Pageviews - This increased almost 200% in one month.  Most of my increase in pageviews was because of my Patriotic Wreath.  Normally I only get a few visits from Pinterest during the month, but this past month I had over 500 visits from Pinterest.  My wreath was pinned over 1,000 times!  I did share the wreath on a few different link parties, but the main amount of pageviews came from my submitting the wreath to the Craftgawker website.  Since my wreath was holiday related, I can't depend on that much traffic coming in again this month.  I will have to figure out another project that would be good to submit to that website.

For my social media following increase:
Facebook - a few followed me after finding me through a giveaway, but most of the followers were from 2 bloggers that shared my page with the people that follow them.  Thank you Tastefully Frugal and Crafty Wife!
Twitter - Most of the increase was from people following me after I follow them.  I haven't figured out the trick to Twitter.  Any tips you have would be appreciated.
Pinterest - Quite a few people started following my Blogging board.  I think most of the new people have found me through group boards that I have joined, from my increase in pinning, and from the link-up party I am doing this summer.
Instagram - For Instagram, I don't actually promote my blog much.  Most of my pictures have to do with behind the scenes of some projects, but mostly my nature photography, local events we go to, and food.  Quite a few of my new followers this month have been local eateries, local cities, and local brands.  I found it very strange when one day the official IG account for Provo followed me, then the next day Salt Lake City followed me.

Income Report for June
Expenses
Passionfruit Ads - $7.00 for 1 medium ad and one social media shout out
Giveaway - $10.00 for 3 social media links
Crafting supplies - $4.25 for future projects

Income
IZEA - $0.00 - did not get accepted for any ads this month.
Google Ads - $1.16 (increase from last month)
Sales - $12 wreath
Products - $65  2 free classes from Craftsy

Expenses -    - $ 21.25
Income -      +  $ 78.16
Overall -      +  $56.91

My plan is to increase listing my products on local Facebook sites to see if they sell. I haven't really had any luck with Etsy.  I have quite a few views of my listings, but no sales.  The one sale I had this month was from a friend buying a wreath.

So my goals for June went pretty well.  The only things I didn't succeed with were: getting more opportunities with IZEA, finding opportunities to review products, setting up a Passionfruit account to sell ads on my page, and my pictures are a constant work in progress.  I have started using Canva for setting up some of my main images and have liked them quite a bit.

Goals for July
  • Find a program to schedule pins
  • Set up a Passionfruit account and offer ads
  • Find additional places to guest post
  • Write blog post 3 times per week
  • Make some sales
  • teach my girls to sew
  • write About Me page
  • increase ads for Cricut and Craftsy on Twitter
  • focus on selling my crafts
  • increase traffic from Pinterest
What are goals that you are working on for growing your business or blog?  What program do you use that works best for scheduling pins?  I'd love to hear your thoughts or questions in the comments.

32 comments

  1. Thanks for sharing your monthly blog income. I love it when other blogs share, hope to be able to share mine one day. It is a lot of work growing your blog into a business. I wish you the best! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks for your kind words Linda. It is a lot of work! Much more than when I was working part time out of the house. I love it though!

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  2. Wow I can't believe you have only been actively blogging for 6 months - your numbers are great. I recently just restarted blogging, I am no where near your numbers but its inspiring! Thanks for sharing there are a few things I am going to try on my blog that you mentioned. Can't wait for the next report!

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    1. Glad I was able to give you some good information. I'd love to visit your page.

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  3. This is wonderful! I'm so glad your stats are climbing. I really need to be following my stats more. I don't think we are climbing as much as we would like and we've been doing this for a year. I'm glad you are having so much success! I hope you double that in a year's time.

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    1. I've really liked what you have been doing with your site. The videos have been great to watch.

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  4. I love this! You should post these on Monday Coffee Talk over on csandsblog.com as that is dedicated to just weekly goal posting. For pinterest posting I have to say I am in serious LOVE with tailwind. I did the free trail and my pinterest went crazy. Probably not as crazy as 1,000 pins but for me it increased by 4,000%. That's saying a lot! Can't wait to see what next weeks goals are #growyourblog

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    1. I love reading about goals that other people are working on. It gives me ideas for my own goals. I'll come by next Monday! Thanks for letting me know. I'm going to try the free trial of Tailwind and see how I like it. 4000%? That would be amazing!!

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  5. So fun to see your blog growth! And smart you are keeping track of it. You are doing great!

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  6. I think you're doing awesome for only blogging for 6 months! Thanks for sharing your blogging success. It's motivating.

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  7. Yeah, the learning part never ends. But that's a good thing! Your blog has made quite the jump when comparing month 5 to month 6 stats (impressive). Congrats! Also, have you considered moving to a self-hosted WordPress blog Ali? It's great for bloggers who are ready to start monetizing! Definitely something to consider, considering how quickly your blog seems to be growing!

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    1. I actually have a domain name purchased and my husband has worked a bit on building a non-Blogger blog for me. It's been a thought at the back of my mind of something that I should look into.

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  8. It is so much fun to see how other bloggers are doing with their blog! I should start to do this.

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    1. You should Ashley! I love visiting other blogs that have this information. I usually get some good information or new ideas when I visit.

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  9. You are doing awesome! I haven't done much with generating income besides having Google Ads, but I'm working on finding places that'll give me sponsored posts to write!

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    1. I'm in the same boat as your Jaime. It's hard when your blog hasn't gotten the huge numbers that lots of the bigger ad networks want.

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  10. Loved your recap! Are you sure you've only been blogging for 6 months? You are super savvy! And congrats on the pageviews growth.
    xo Chelsea
    http://chelseapearl.com

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  11. Thanks for sharing. It's nice to see someone that is in a comparable range to me. I always get depressed rather than being inspired when I see these blogs that have zillions of followers and are making more money than I can imagine. I'm happy for them, but danged if I can figure out what they're doing differently. I've kind of given up on Twitter - it was just a huge time waster for me. But Pinterest is fabulous for me. I don't remember if you are on my Pinterest group boards or not? I have about six different group boards that are doing really well and you are completely welcome to join them. Also, if you'll go to my site and search on Pinterest, I have at least three really helpful posts on how to use Viral Tag and general pinning strategies. Maybe you'll find some tips that will help you out.

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    1. I know what you mean Adrian! When I search for income reports or blog stats, I come up with these huge blogs that have been around for 5+ years and think I will never get their amount of visits....or income. That is why I decided to do this, share my growth each month and help out other people in the same situation.

      I will have to check out your Pinterest boards and send you a message. =)

      Thanks for taking the time to comment Adrian. I appreciate it.

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  12. I love how in depth you are with your reporting! Do you follow A Pinch of Yum? They are killing it in the blog world and totally inspirational.

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    1. Lauren, I just hopped over to A Pinch of Yum and spent half an hour looking at their early income reports and it was amazing the growth they achieved each month. Although I am not a specific food blogger, some of their tips are applicable to other blogs as well. Thanks for the suggestion.

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  13. Wow, you are doing great! A start is a start, no matter how small and it can only go up from here! I found that posting consistently really helped with my page views!

    xo, Chelsie @ Life with Rosie

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    1. Thanks for your comment Chelsie. I'm working right now on posting on a consistent basis. It helps me to stick with a schedule too. =)

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  14. Thanks for sharing these stats! My mom has also struggled with getting sales on her Etsy site except for friends so I'm curious how to increase those...please share if you find great tips!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by Julie. I personally feel that Etsy is very hard to start with. You have to find a way to make yourself stand out from the crowd of 100's of others that are selling the same thing you are. Good luck to your mom!

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  15. I love this, if I was just beginning I would do it like you are, monetize from the beginning and track it, I have put you on my 'Must Watch" list, I'll be back, it will be so fun to watch you grow! Congrats.

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    1. Thank you Nikki! I'm glad to know that you want to keep up with what's happening on my blog. =)

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  16. Ali, I saw a link to this post on a bloggers facebook group and I am so glad I clicked over. It inspires me that you post this on here even though you're not yet making 6 figures. I have read several big-time blogger income reports but never someone's from the very beginning. Congratulations on the growth and progress you've made so far. Maybe I'll get up the guts to post my "income" and numbers reports sometime :) Though I kept a personal blog for 5 years, I just moved to wordpress.org and am now making a "go" of it! (p.s. moving to wordpress from blogger was the BEST thing I ever did. I thought about it for a couple years before finally taking the plunge. There are bloggers who do GREAT on blogger platform, so no pressure. But just wanted to mention that it's possible and there are many more options on wordpress, in my opinion. I wish I would have done it sooner.) Find my contact info on my blog if you want tips!! I'd be happy to send you some of the tutorials and resources I found most helpful if you ever decide to switch. For now I'll be poking around at all your fun projects! Happy blogging :)

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    1. Renee, thank you for your comments. I always love to hear that my post has reached someone. =) I have been contemplating moving from Blogger, but it is so easy that I have a hard time imagining going to a platform where I have to design everything and take care of plug-ins and such. Was it hard to make the switch? I will have to visit your blog and reach out, we can talk about your experience.

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