Well July did not go the way I wanted it to but I still learned a lot and I am excited to keep on keeping on.
Like June, I had hoped to get back to a “normal” posting schedule of once per week. I actually wanted to exceed this but life happens and my time had to be put elsewhere. But hey this is WHY I started my blog. I need the utmost flexibility.
Before I go into my stats for my 7th month I want to disclose why I am writing this post. Blog income reports are what got me here today. They have inspired me and keep my motivation going so I want to do the same for you! It also holds me accountable and allows me to track my progress.
So I hope you find this report helpful.
If you are wondering the steps I took to start my blog you can check that out here.
This post contains affiliate links which means if you purchase a product through my link I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more information you can read my disclosure here.
Month number 7 blog results
Goals
Seventh month goals:
- 10,000 page views
- 8000 sessions
- Increased Link Click Rate
- Make $200 Affiliate Income
- Continue learning SEO & update old posts
I based these goals off my sixth month results which you can read here.
So how did I do?
Goal | Actual | Met (Y/N)? |
10,000 Monthly Page Views | 2,585 (5,184) | N |
8000 Sessions | 1,886 (3,599) | N |
Increased Link Click Rate | 2.99% (4.91%) | N |
Make $200 Affiliate Income | $1.96 ($24.36) | N |
Continue learning SEO & update old posts | – | – |
Well I knew the month of July would look similar to this in regards to pageviews since my best performing pin basically dropped off the face of the earth (You can read more about it in my last income report). My Pinterest account was also flagged as spam (more on this later) so that did not help at all. July is also apparently the “worst” month for bloggers.
Here is what my 7th month blogging looked like:
Once again I had very steady traffic so I am pleased to see that. This tells me that if I simply keep going that the steady traffic will continue to increase.
Where am I getting my Traffic from?
95.8% of my traffic came from social media with Pinterest accounting for 98.78%.
I also am continuing to get a few hits from Organic Search (Aka Google) and hope to see this increase as I optimize for SEO and write more content.
Google traffic is by far more valuable than Pinterest traffic for 2 reasons:
- It is passive (meaning no constant work to drive traffic. Just post and your’e done)
- It converts better (meaning more money)
Additionally, it can take up to 6-12 months for Google to start ranking your posts, however, they will not have a chance if they are not optimized for SEO. I do not think I would be getting ANY traffic from Google if it weren’t for Debbie Gartner’s amazing Ebooks (which are very affordable by the way).
You can check out her ebooks below:
Additionally, you can buy both books here for a discounted price which is what I did.
Now I feel confident when I publish my posts and know they will have a good chance of ranking on google 4-6 months down the road.
Now lets talk about Pinterest
My Pinterest stats continued to go down and down and I noticed my fresh pins were getting basically zero impressions and clicks. Many and I mean thousands of people have complained of this issue with Pinterest. Long story short, Pinterest updated their algorithm to fight spam and favor “fresh” content but it actually flagged so many bloggers as spam.
Now I am not talking about bloggers getting a notification from Pinterest saying they were marked as spam because this does happen and they suspend your account (luckily I have not experienced this).
What I am talking about is bloggers unknowingly (and Pinterest for that matter) getting flagged by the algorithm and not showing their posts to Pinterest users.
In this case people have been emailing Pinterest asking them to figure out if there is anything wrong with their account. The majority of these people got the same generic response that “Pinterest’s new changes have mistakenly flagged accounts as spam and the account should not begin to return to normal within the next few days”.
Now this seems great, however, no one has really said if it changed anything. Anyways I figured it would not hurt to do the same so I sent a message to Pinterest and within 24 hours I received a response basically stating the same thing.
Well by the end of July my stats slowly started going back up. Coincidence? I am not sure because it could have been the consistency on my strategy this month. Regardless I am glad I sent them the email so I no longer have to wonder.
As far as my current strategy, I am focusing on only pinning to 4-5 boards to make them stronger. I am also scheduling 2-3 new pins a day and I randomly manually pin others peoples content throughout the day as well.
I would not be able to do this without my Pinterest scheduler app Tailwind. It is seriously a lifesaver. You can get a free trial here!
How did I make money this month?
With a affiliate marketing per usual.
Amazon – $1.96
This is rough because I actually made more money my first month blogging and I only had 900 pageviews then. I am still trying to figure out why my conversion rate was only 0.59% compared to my usual 4-6%.
Just another reason why you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. My goal is to continue with more affiliate programs, join an ad network and offer my own products. The key here is just having the time to do it.
Here are some other affiliates that I am a part of:
I also get a ton of clicks from Rewardstyle. If you are interested in joining send me and email here (Include first and last name & website url) and I will send you a referral email. If you get accepted we each would get $25!
Related: How I made my first affiliate sale only 1 week after launch
I could not have made money through affiliate income without my own domain and web hosting. You can sign up using my link here for only $3.95 per month!
Expenses
Last but not least…
I will continue to focus on creating quality content, posting consistently (once per week), growing my Pinterest and SEO.
Here are a round up of my posts:
- The Best Cleaning Schedule for Working Moms
- 6th Month Income Report for my 2020 Blog
- Meaningful Christmas Traditions to start with your kids
Goals for next month (August 2020):
- 10,000 page views
- Publish 6 posts
- Update 2 old posts for SEO
- Consistent on Pinterest Strategy
- Analyze content that converts well
Well I hope you enjoyed reading my 7th month results! Don’t forget to check back for next months report!
Blog Income Reports
- January 2020 – $3.95
- February 2020 – $48.28
- March 2020 – $126.96
- April 2020 – $41.97
- May 2020 – $91.57
- June 2020 – $24.36
- July 2020 – $1.96
- August 2020 – $0.73
- September 2020 – $1.07
- October 2020 – $7.69
- November – $7.46
- December – $20.61
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