January blog income

First Month Income Report for my 2020 Blog

I cannot believe I am already writing my first month income report. It feels like I just launched my blog yesterday and so far I have loved every minute.

If you are wondering the steps I took to start my blog you can check that out here.

It is definitely a different feeling after launch. There is this “pressure” of getting things done, driving traffic and promoting. It is difficult to figure out what to do and what would be considered “good” statistics.

Related: 8 Steps to complete after launching your blog

Before I go into my stats for my first month I want to disclose why I am writing this post. When I decided to jump on the blogging train I read A LOT of how to’s on starting a blog. I found the most inspiration from monthly blog reports.

Now I am not talking about the ones that make 10k per month I am talking about the newbie blogs that kept it real. Of course the 10k per month posts were motivational and I hope one day I will be writing one of those but for now I want to document my blogging journey and hopefully inspire others just like I was.

There is a lot of unknowns with blogging so it was difficult this first month but at the end I feel like a learned a lot so lets get started.

First Month Income Report for my 2020 Blog

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.

Goals

One of the top recommendations for creating a successful blog was to create goals and ultimately treat it like a business. Here is what I came up with for my first month:

  • 500 Monthly page views
  • 200 Sessions
  • 10 Subscribers
  • 100 Pinterest Followers
  • 500 Instagram Followers
  • Create Pinterest Group Board

These were the goals that I came up with for my first month blogging. I have to say it was quite difficult coming up with specific numbers because I really had no idea what could happen. Now that I have finished my first month I have a much better idea of the types of goals to set.

So how did I do?

GoalActualMet (Y/N)?
500 Monthly Page Views992Y
200 Sessions484Y
10 Subscribers5N
100 Pinterest Followers81N
500 Instagram Followers1756Y
Create Pinterest Group BoardY

I met 4 out of 6 goals!

I am very happy with my numbers this first month. There is no “right” first month results because every blog is different but just under 1000 page views in my opinion is a great start.

Mommy Explained Google Analytics Audience for the month of January 2020

Furthermore, sessions are essentially the number of visits to my sight and I am shocked to see that there are 484 visits with 265 new users. In addition, have learned that average session duration is important also because this tells me how long someone was on my sight. 2 minutes an 19 seconds tells me people were reading what I wrote.

Now onto subscribers and followers. I ended the month with a total of 5 subscribers and honestly most of them are family. I do not have any opt-in’s or freebies so people would only be subscribing if they really loved my content. In regards to Pinterest people have been gradually following me so it seems that if I stay consistent the followers will come.

Instagram on the other hand is difficult. You need to do A LOT and I mean A LOT of engaging to gain followers. I am ecstatic at where I ended up but I honestly think I could have put more time into my blog instead. Instagram is something I want to focus less on but continue because it is a great place to get collaborations with companies. I have already worked with 3 companies and did turn down 4 others as they did not make sense for me.

Lastly, I wanted to start my own group board because it was difficult to get into the few I am a part of.

If you are in a Motherhood, Parenting, DIY, Home Decor or Lifestyle niche you can join my group board here.

Now let’s talk about Traffic

The majority of my traffic came from social media with Pinterest accounting for 80% then followed by Facebook and Instagram.

Google Analytics Acquisition for Mommy Explained website

I joined a few Facebook groups and participated in “Pinning” threads so that is how I got my traffic from Facebook. About a week or so into the launch of my blog I created a Link tree for my Instagram account. This is basically a landing page that includes all of your links. You are only able to have one link included in your bio so this sort of gets around the trouble of only being able to link one thing. Google analytics counts everyone who used my link in link tree as a “Referral” so technically the majority of my referrals could be considered social.

Pinterest

Since Pinterest is my biggest driver of traffic I will include a few of my stats on how my account is going. First I want to point out that when I launched on January 1st my average monthly viewers were 20,000. I ended the month at 26,000. This stat merely tells me my reach (or how many people see my pins) but does not indicate if I am performing well.

What does tell me if I am performing well is ultimately my link clicks. That is the whole point of using Pinterest right – to create pins that will get people to your site.

The total amount of link clinks for the month of January were 163.

I will continue to evaluate which pins get the most impressions, close ups, saves and link clicks because that will determine how I create my pins in the future.

Pinterest is going to be my biggest traffic driver for awhile or at least until I can start ranking in SEO (which is on my list to learn more about down the road).

Alright now the fun part. Did I make any money my first month blogging?

And the answer is YES!

I made a total of $3.96.

Notice my goals. I did not plan on making ANYTHING my first month blogging because I knew it was very unlikely. I am beyond excited that I made something (even though it will only get me a cup of coffee).

This tells me that I can make money from blogging and has sky rocked my motivation.

So how did I make $3.96?

Two words: Affiliate Income (from Amazon Affiliates)

You can read all about how I made my first sale here and only 1 week after launching my blog!

The income has not actually hit my bank yet because like most affiliate programs Amazon has a certain threshold you need to meet before you get paid.

For the sake of my income reports I will disclose what I made each month even if I did not get paid because I feel it makes sense to do it this way.

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

I’ve only spent $143 on my blog so far. I do plan to take a course or two down the road but my main focus is creating quality content and consistently pinning on Pinterest. There is so much to learn but blogging is a marathon NOT a sprint.

Last but not least a few pointers…

One of the biggest success factors I read was to be consistent so I decided to post once a week every Wednesday. Here are a round up of my posts:

  1. The exact steps I took to start a mom blog in 2020
  2. 8 steps to complete after launching your blog
  3. How I made my first affiliate sale only 1 week after launch
  4. 10 Things I did differently with baby number 2

Also note I launched my blog on January 1st 2020 with 10 published posts.

Goals for next month (February 2020):

  • 2000 page views
  • 800 sessions
  • 2 minute average session duration
  • 2000 Instagram Followers
  • 10 Subscribers
  • 100 Pinterest Followers
  • 400 Link Clicks
  • Make $10 in Affiliate Income

Overall, I am very proud of my first month blogging. I have a huge to do list but I will be taking it one step at a time because let me tell you it gets very overwhelming. My long term goal would be to turn this blog full-time and eventually sell products.

For now I hope to grow this little blog of mine each month and will post monthly income reports throughout my first year. I hope you enjoyed reading my first month income report and that it has sparked some inspiration.

If you too are new to blogging send me an email or comment below. I would love to connect with you!

Blog Income Reports

1st month blogging income report

11 thoughts on “First Month Income Report for my 2020 Blog”

  1. Pingback: How Much Money Do Bloggers Make? 57 Blog Income Reports – Start a Blog for Profit

    1. Hi Ruby, this is a good point. You can find everything on the internet nowadays so it is surprising newspapers are still a thing. On the contrary, people still enjoy reading a physical hard copy so my guess is it still will be around just not as prominent.

  2. I have been browsing online more than 3 hours today,
    yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me.
    Personally, if all website owners and bloggers made
    good content as you did, the net will be a lot more useful
    than ever before.

    1. Thank you so much this made my entire day! I try my best to showcase the reality of being a new blogger and not sugarcoat anything so hopefully people can learn from my experience.

  3. Pingback: 11th Month Income Report for my 2020 Blog - Mommy Explained

  4. Pingback: What I learned in my first year blogging - mistakes and strategies that worked - Mommy Explained

  5. Pingback: 5th Month Income Report for my 2020 blog - Mommy Explained

  6. Pingback: 4th Month Income Report for my 2020 blog - Mommy Explained

  7. Pingback: 2nd Month Income Report for my 2020 blog - Mommy Explained

  8. Pingback: 3rd Month Income Report for my 2020 blog - Mommy Explained

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *