April 2017 Income Report - EdenFried.com (2024)

Welcome to my April 2017 Income Report. I'm really excited to write this report since I'm nearing the end of my first complete year writing income reports! It's crazy how time flies.

For those of you who are just joining me now for the first time, I'll give you a quick rundown.

In May 2016 (last year)I was scheduled to start law school in the fall. I had taken the LSAT (the law school admission test), applied to 12 schools, got accepted to 12 schools, visited tons of different schools and finally selected the right one for me. I paid my seat deposit and even put a down payment on an apartment in the heart of New York City. In the end, I decided not to go while at my brother's wedding reception in Budapest, Hungary. He and his friends made it their mission to convince me out of it and to try entrepreneurship instead.

So, I took a huge risk and decided to start a blog instead. I had no idea what was about to come but I was willing to take the risk. And so I did.

I published my first income report 11 months ago (I'll save you the energy of hunting that first income report down... I only made 60 bucks​). Those $60 were validating though, and my income just rose from there. In the early months, I was just freelancing to earn money. These days, I'm earning money through freelancing, affiliate marketing, and through the sales of my personal digital products.

So that's the story! I'm the almost-law-school student who started a blog on a whim and has spent the last 11 months trying her hardest to earn a comfortable living online. I'm happy to report that it's working.

On to the good stuff...

April 2017 Income Report

For lack of better phrasing, I'll start with this: April was a good month.

And I'm not just saying that for the sake of saying that. It wasn't good as in "I suddenly struck it rich as a blogger". Nope... not that kind of good.

It was good in the sense that I got a lot of sh*t done. Like a lot. And I had a ton of sudden realizations. Lots of "light bulb" moments if you will.

They say that blogging is much like anything else... you try some things, you fail... you learn from your mistakes and then you try again.

I agree with that sentiment. Blogging is a huge game of trial and error - but that's what I love about it. It's not all "pretty". You're not rewarded each day for your gallant effort. But you ARE rewarded for hard work, attention to detail, the ability to flex and respond to data, and your willingness to try new things. When you succeed, you damn well know it's because YOU did something right. Therein lies the joy of being self-employed.

But I'll stop rambling and give you what you really came here for... My April 2017 Income Report is:

Did I reach my goals last month?

While I had a lot of significant successes in April, I also had a lot of failures... which just means more opportunity to learn and grow. Here's a report.

My blogging goals for the month of April were:

• Grow my Pinterest account from 830 followers to 1000 - WIN (I grew it to 1125)
• Grow my Facebook group from 590 followers to 1000​ - WIN (It grew to 2750... woah)
• Send weekly emails to my list (Monday Munch) - FAILish (missed 1 week)
• Publish 8 blog posts (2 per week, including 1 income report and 1 guest post) - FAIL by 1 post
• Sell Bread & Butter Blogging at least 10 times - FAIL
• Sell Pinterest Unpuzzled 10 times - FAIL
• Prep a May giveaway (already in the works!) - WIN (coming soon!)
• Create a new opt-in freebie - WIN (check it out here >>)
• Grow my email list by 130 subscribers - WIN (grew by 242... woah woah woah!)

My Blog Goals for May

GROW MY EMAIL LIST BY 280 PEOPLE

If you're on my email list or in my Facebook group, you know that I've self-declared May as a month-long holiday for bloggers - List Building May. I'm currently running a challenge group for the month of may filled with just over 30 bloggers who are eager to skyrocket their email lists this month. It's really exciting stuff.

What spearheaded this?

Well, I've recently been a nut about growing my list. It's kind of my obsession (I have no shame). Truly, I wish I could rewind the clock a year and start growing my list sooner, but I didn't. So now I really feel like I'm trying to make up for lost time.

Also, I realized that I've been TOTALLY underestimating myself. In April, I set a goal to grow my list by 130 subscribers... but ended up growing it by 242... Damn I was REALLY underestimating myself. So, I realize I need to challenge myself more and really push to grow that list.

The number 280 scares the sh*t out of me. Sorry for the language, but it's true! But 130 scared the crap out of me, too... and I hit that goal right out of the park. So, I think it's possible. It's going to take A LOT of work, but I'm motivated, excited, and ready to go.

IMPLEMENT SALES FUNNELS FOR MY COURSES

As many of you know, I launched Bread & Butter Blogging and Pinterest Unpuzzled at the beginning of April. What I DIDN'T do is setup automated sales funnels for the courses (shame on me, truly). So, now I'm working backwards to implement some highly effective and strategic sales funnels. It's not easy but I'm sure it will be worth it long term for the passive income stream that I'm working to establish.

GO "FACEBOOK LIVE" IN BLOGGER INSIGHTS AT LEAST ONCE PER WEEK

So, I'll just be straight up honest with you: I'm not a camera gal. While I'm NOT shy and don't mind public speaking in the least, I've always hated seeing myself on camera or hearing the way my voice sounds on camera... don't know why, but it just irks me. BUT, I'm committed to making the Blogger Insights Facebook community as incredible as it can possibly be. One way I plan on doing that is by constantly providing free value to you in the form of videos.

I'm already 1/5th of the way to my goal because I hosted today (May 1st) a Facebook live session on Facebook groups. The live stream actually lasted exactly an hour... time flew by and I had NO idea we'd gone for that long. But I covered a lot of ground in that short amount of time (why start a Facebook group, how it can benefit your blog, how to successfully admin a group, what to do to ensure your group grows, how I grew my group from 0-3000 members in just 4 months... etc). If you want to watch the video, join the group and go to "videos" to access the recording.

April Blog Income - the numbers

April Blog Income

• Client Work - $4,500 (this income is from clients whopay a monthly fee to retain me for my services - social media marketing, SEO, website development, etc...the whole marketing shabang)
• Bread & Butter Blogging & Pinterst Unpuzzled - $200.25
• Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (ecourse for anyone looking to make money through affiliate marketing) - $185.20
• Find Your Tribe Online- $26.80
• How to Make Your First Affiliate Sale in 24 Hours Using Pinterest (an ebook!) - $10.00
• ConvertKit (email marketing tool that I use and love) - $17.40

Total AprilBlog Income: $4,939.65

My April Blog Expenses

• Canva for Work - $12
• ConvertKit (my email service provider) - $29 >> Read how to setup an email funnel with CK
• ​BoardBooster (what I use to put Pinterest on auto-pilot) - $15 >> Read the BoardBooster review here
• Freelancer/VA - $60
• Teachable (what I use to create and host my ecourses) - $39

Check out the full list of tools and resources I use for my blog.

Total April Blog Expenses: $155

TOTAL NET BLOG INCOME FOR APRIL: $4,784.65

Major WIN This Month

Obviously I'm overjoyed with the fact that my email list grew SO SO SO much this past month (242 subscribers - more than I've EVER gained in one month). I attribute that success largely because I implemented a few new strategies to grow my list:

1. I've been using BoardBooster to advertise my opt in freebies on loop usingto all of my Pinterest Group Boards​
2. I've been writing more blog posts (I published 7 this month which means I was constantly promoting my blog posts and getting more traffic to the site)
3. I inserted opt in freebie incentives throughout the text of all of my blog posts (not just in the sidebar or at the very bottom of the post)

I also created a really exciting new freebie this month and it's been all the rave with lots of people. Check out what Sian, one of my followers said about the new freebie:

When starting out on Social Media, it’s easy to feel daunted by the various platforms, their protocols and etiquette. In this handy workbook, Eden breaks each platform down, shares its etiquette and gives you her top tips for thriving on it. You’ll want to hang on to this guide for when you’re ready to add each new platform to your social media arsenal. I wish this had been around 4 months ago when I started out! - Sian Burns (HealtheirByNature.co.uk)

You can grab the freebie, too, if you want. It's all about social media for bloggers - tons of information stuffed into an ebook/workbook for you to use and enjoy.​

​

Blog Posts Published this month

How to Get 10,000 Page Views On Your Site (for the blogger who needs help learning how to promote content)

15 Opt In Freebie Ideas to Grow Your Email List Like Crazy (A great read if you're not sure what opt in to offer your audience and need something to help get the creative juices flowing)

How to Auto Deliver an Opt In Freebie with Mailchimp (the free version)

Blog Tasks You Can Tackle When You Have Less Than20 Minutes to Spare​ (great for busy bloggers who need to be productive in very short increments of time... mom bloggers, this is for you!)

​ (If you struggle getting people to stay on your site, you might want to give this a quick read)

Can You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing? (Guest post by Divine of Ladies Make Money)

March 2017 Income Report​

Why I think I was Successful This Month

Again, I think my success this month was because I created a lot of new content and promoted the hell out of each new blog post. I always say, only create as much content as you have time to promote. This month I had time to create and promote 7 blog posts and it really helped the blog.

I also batched the majority of my blog writing to the beginning of the month. The first week of April was dedicated to writing all 8 blog posts for the month. Admittedly, I didn't reach that goal. Instead, I wrote 5 blog posts during that first week, and the rest were written throughout the course of the month.

Health & Fitness

CrossFit wise (yes, I'm a XFit junkie... no shame, people!) I was okay. I went a good number of times per week (between 3-4 times) and I hit some PRs in the gym, so I'm happy. That said, this past week wasn't the best. I took a week off basically. I think I just needed some time sweat-free... not going to let myself feel bad about. I'm headed back to the gym this week and I'll quickly get back into the swing of things soon enough.

I also feel like I finally found my weekend groove to keep me sane (yes, this needs to be categorized under the health & fitness section). I finally figured out that I'm most happy and productive when I put in between 4-5 hours of solid work on Saturday AND on Sunday. Working on Sundays make my Mondays SO much easier and less overwhelming. The time on I spend on Sundays allows me to prepare for the week, tick of easy to tackle to-do list items, and work on things I don't have time to do during the chaos of the work week. I'm glad I finally found the perfect balance for me and I'm excited to see how it continues to help grow my biz.

Final Thoughts

With April in the books, I'm looking head on to May and I'm really excited for what's to come. As I mentioned earlier, May marks my 1 year anniversary of deciding to start a blog. This is a big deal for me. So I'm going to be publishing some personal content on the blog to document this and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Leave your comments below!

You just read my April2017 Income Report. Want to travel back in time and read March's?​