April 2016 Blog Income and Traffic Report
Welcome to April’s blog income report. April was a whirlwind month in both my personal and professional lives. I haven’t felt so far away from my blogging in a while. I was able to post three times per week for most of the month, but doing so was difficult. There were many days this month I barely had time to check my email, much less write great posts. I think my traffic numbers (see below) show how little time I had to write and promote my posts.
I’m about 8 weeks away from quitting my corporate job and working for myself full-time. I am looking forward to it with an excitement that’s sometimes hard to hide. I’ve loved my job and given it my all in the 3.5 years I’ve worked there, but I’m so glad that I’m moving on to more creative endeavors that allow me to inspire and motivate other moms, to be who I am and to be my own boss.
The Purpose of Sharing Blog Income and Traffic Reports
I talk about why I’m sharing my blog income and traffic reports in my first income report. You can read it here.
See my January, February and March blog income reports.
Now, on to what you came here for!
Our Small Hours April 2016 Blog Income and Traffic Report
First you need to know:
As always, the income reported is the income that was actually paid to me in the month of April. It does not include income I earned in April, but have not yet received. Most companies pay on a net 30, 60 or 90 basis.
Blogging is like any other business in that some quarters are better than others. Typically the 2nd and 4th quarters have brought me the most revenue. It’s important not to get down about the lack of income or traffic during these months. The boom will come around again. It always does.
That’s why I didn’t start doing income reports in the 3rd quarter. I felt it would give newer bloggers a false sense of how much I really made. Starting these reports in January will allow you see the ebb and flow over the course of a year.
Ok, so now on to what you came here for! For real this time.
April 2016 Blog Traffic
Most advertisers and sponsors want to know what your Unique Monthly Visitors (UMV) are and they usually want it for a 30-, 60- or 90-day period. This is the number reflected under “Users”. This is the number I pay the most attention to.
It’s also important to note my traffic breakdown between mobile, tablet and desktop. As you’ll see in the income report, I have ads that are served exclusively to mobile users and ads that are served exclusively to desktop users. Ads for tablet users can go either way depending on the tablet. This explains why certain ad revenue is low for the number of pageviews.
Here is my traffic breakdown for April 2016:
Mobile traffic: 70%
Desktop traffic: 15%
Tablet traffic: 14%
Here are my Google Analytics for April. Pinterest was a little kinder to me this month. My traffic from social went back up. Google also provided more traffic for me than the previous month, but overall, my traffic was down 12.3%. Yikes! I had no time to promote my new posts this month and my referral traffic was down.
I kept my social media alive during this busy month using ViralTag and Board Booster. You must try them both! They have saved me so much time and sanity and kept my social media posting consistent and interesting for my readers.
If you want to increase your blog traffic, I strongly recommend How I Went From 17K to 350K+ Monthly Page Views in 9 Months.
April 2016 Blog Income
Advertising Revenue
Sovrn (desktop ads only) – $102.01
PadSquad (mobile ads only) – $319.91
The Blogger Network (desktop ads only) – $158.59
Google Adsense (desktop ads only) – $0.00 – (You have to earn $100 to get a payout from Adsense. I usually hit this every other month. The next time I cash out I’ll be removing Adsense ads from my blog due to low performance)
Amazon Ads (desktop ads only) – $0.00 – (I have removed Amazon Ads from my website for low performance.)
Affiliate Revenue
Real Plans – $21.00
Oh Lardy – $0
Amazon – $120.64
Potty Train Your Child in a Weekend – $0.00
Ditch The Wheat – $12.50
Money Saving Mom – $34.00
Motivated Moms – $2.00
Blog Traffic E-Book – $10.00
Sponsored Posts
Clever Girls Collective – $0
IZEA – $10.00
Tomoson – $0
Sverve/Activate – $0
Massive Sway – $275.00
Socialix – 250.00
Networking Marketing
Young Living – $528.38
Other Online Revenue
Consulting and/or VA work – $0 (I’m not currently taking any consulting or VA work, but may start back again later this year.)
Total Blog Income – $1844.03
February 2016 Blog Expenses
Bluehost – $74.99
Rafflecopter – $0.00
iTOVi – $39.99
IZEA – $5.00
123RF.com – $39.00
Archie.co – $29.00
Autopin – $19.99
Crowdfire – $9.99
Facebook Ads – $5.00
PostMyParty.com – $9.99
ViralTag – $29.00
BoardBooster – $30.00
MailChimp – $20.00
SumoMe – $20.00
Total Blog Expenses – $344.97
April Overview and Goals for May
My goals for April were simple – post three times per week, send a weekly email and keep my social media consistent. That was all I could do. I had little time for networking, promoting or anything else.
May is shaping up to be pretty hectic, as well, so again my goals are to maintain what I’ve got and not push for growth just yet. I’ll have plenty of time this summer to grow once my 9-5 days are behind me!
Blogging Tools and Tips
I’m still loving Archie.co and CoPromote. See January’s tips and tools for more info about how to grow your Instagram and Twitter with them.
Autopin is still working well for me. My Pinterest is growing like crazy.
Board Booster and Viral Tag are must-haves, as well.
For Traffic Growth:
Recently, I stumbled onto How I Went from 17K Pageviews to 350k+ in 9 Months from What Mommy Does. If you feel stuck and need ideas to increase your traffic, you need this book. I’m reading it now and Lena’s insights are incredible. She knows what’s she doing and it shows on her blog and in this book. Check it out.
Don’t have a blog but want to step into the world of blogging? Find out how to start a blog!