January 2016 Blog Income and Traffic Report
I’ve been blogging since my oldest son was born in 2001. It was 2011, though, before I realized I could turn my passion for sharing helpful info to moms into something more than a hobby.
While my journey to becoming a full-time, professional blogger hasn’t been a straight path, I’ve worked hard over the past five years to learn, to create and, most of all, to provide value for my readers.
In June I will leave my full-time job to focus on my online work. After years of hard work on my website, it finally supports itself and provides extra income for my family. I’ve watched it grow tremendously over the past three years and last year it grew more than any year previously.
The Purpose of Sharing Blog Income and Traffic Reports
I’m sharing my blog income reports to encourage and inspire other bloggers who want to become full-time bloggers. When I first began blogging, no one wanted to talk about how much they made from blogging. I understand that talking about your income is not a classy choice to make. I also remember how inspired I was when successful bloggers shared their income and how they earned it when I was just starting out. I never thought less of them, but was instead incredibly grateful for their transparency.
The truth is that I would continue to run Our Small Hours even if it didn’t make a dime. I don’t know a single blogger who does this just for the money. It is a wonderful perk though when your passion puts food on the table.
Now, on to what you came here for!
Our Small Hours January 2016 Blog Income and Traffic Report
First you need to know:
The income reported is the income that was actually paid to me in the month of January. It does not include income I made this month, 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.
January 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.
(I’m currently reading How I Went From 17K to 350K+ Monthly Page Views in 9 Months and highly recommend it!)
Here is my traffic breakdown for January 2016:
Mobile traffic: 68%
Desktop traffic: 17%
Tablet traffic: 15%
January 2016 Blog Income
Advertising Revenue
Sovrn (desktop ads only) – $107.65
PadSquad (mobile ads only) – $181.17
The Blogger Network (desktop ads only) – $164.61
Google Adsense (desktop ads only) – $148.05 (this was two months payout)
Amazon Ads (desktop ads only) – $33.14
Affiliate Revenue
Real Plans – $86.00
Oh Lardy – $.50
Amazon – $142.01
Sponsored Posts
Clever Girls Collective – $175
IZEA – $694.85
Tomoson – $100
Sverve/Activate – $0
Networking Marketing
Young Living – $589.80
Other Online Revenue
Consulting and/or VA work – $246
Total Blog Income – $2668.78
January 2016 Blog Expenses
Rafflecopter – $13.00
IZEA – $5.00
Depositphotos – $34.00
Archie.co – $29.00
Crowdfire – $9.99
Facebook Ads – $52.85
PostMyParty.com – $9.99
DaniJohnson.com – $14.95
ViralTag – $29.00
BoardBooster – $34.96
MailChimp – $20.00
Total Blog Expenses – $252.94
January Overview and Goals for February
After the frantic pace of the 4th quarter, the quietness of January was a welcomed thing. I feel as if last year was a testament of how far I can push myself without breaking. (Or maybe there was a breakdown at some point that I’ve blocked out!)
I had to fit in my online work among my full-time job (which threw me some new and interesting curves last year), my husband’s increasingly demanding schedule, my oldest son’s involvement in competitive soccer, homeschooling, . . . well, you get it. We’re all busy. There’s nothing unique about my situation.
But, I came through it and was still able to grow my blog by setting a pace that I could maintain, being consistent, networking and – more than anything else – remaining committed to providing value for my readers.
Blogging Tools and Tips
I tried out some new tools in January that worked well for me and I will keep. Here they are:
Archie.co – Archie helps you grow your Instagram and Twitter traffic by connecting you with other Instagram and Twitter users that you may have never found before. (I pay for Archie, but I think there is a free version or at least a free trial.)
CoPromote – Another tool that helps you reach others on social media. You can select certain topics (for me it’s food, lifestyle, and spirituality) and CoPromote will list posts from others in this category. When you share those posts to Twitter you get credits that you can use to get reach when you share a post.
So, if you’ve got a post on Twitter (or YouTube, Tumblr or Vine) that needs some love, CoPromote can help you get it. It’s an excellent way to find great content to share with your followers, as well. Oh, and it’s free!
The Unofficial Tax Handbook for Bloggers – Get this now because April 15th is closer than you think! My husband always does our taxes and I stay happily out of the way. However, I needed to be able to offer insight this year since my blogging income will make a significant difference the amount of taxes we pay. Here’s to hoping we’ve saved enough.
ViralTag and Board Booster – So, I didn’t discover ViralTag or Board Booster just last month, but they are such incredible tools that I couldn’t go without mentioning them. Pinterest accounted for 58% of my traffic in January. I couldn’t have the Pinterest traffic growth I have without help from ViralTag and Board Booster.
I intend to write a post about each service in the future, but until then, here is a brief overview of how I use them:
Viral Tag offers more than just Pinterest scheduling, but I use it to schedule repins from other pinners as well as my own pins. It costs a flat fee per month, so I can repin to my heart’s content. Pinning content other than your own is not only part of being a good blogger friend, but it also helps to increase your reach on Pinterest. I also use Viral Tag to schedule Instagram and Twitter posts. (ViralTag also has Facebook scheduler, but I prefer to schedule Facebook from its own scheduler.)
Board Booster lets you set-it-and-forget it. I create campaigns in Board Booster that continually pin my articles at a rate that I decide and to boards that I set. And the reports feature . . . Oh my! Analytics to make you swoon.
Goals for February
Did you see my abysmal affiliate income from January? Yes, I’ve let go of my affiliate marketing game and I’ve got to get it back. I would like to up my affiliate income and remove some of the ads from my site. Eventually I’d like to have only two advertising services – one for mobile and one for desktop – and FAR fewer ads.
I also want to explore more of the options offer by SumoMe. I’m loving it as a list builder and there are many other great features that I want to test.
What would you like to see as part of my monthly blog income report? Tag me on Twitter – @oursmallhours and let me know.
Since I’m new to this, I’d love to know what questions you have about blogging that I can answer in future income report posts.
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