Blog Income Report: (October) November 2016… an honest look at what income the Fantabulosity blog brings in each month, and which revenue streams are used.
Blog Income Report
I totally slacked. I didn’t do an income report for the month of October. I’m not really sure what happened, besides being incredibly busy preparing for the holiday season. November and December tend to be the craziest months all year long for me in the blogging world, and personally. So I’ll just say it was that.
However, I’m still happy to include the income for the month of October, but I just won’t create a whole separate post for it. You can see the details for October below, but then I’ll go in to November’s income report in full detail as always!
But first, a DISCLAIMER that I want to mention every month:
EXPENSES?
Now… YES, there are “expenses,” to owning and operating a blog. Why didn’t I include those on my report? Mainly because I truly feel that each blogger is different. For me, I would rather outsource some of the “tech,” details, some of the copyrighting details, etc. So I’m willing to pay more than some bloggers, for those types of things. I also pay to have a team, that can help me get more things accomplished during the day, and sent out during the week. So what I pay one person, may be completely different than what someone in a whole other territory may pay.
I would also rather spend more time with my family, than sit on my computer in the evenings, working on the parts of blogging that I’m not “in love” with. So where I am willing to spend money in some areas, you may not be. You may LOVE the tech side of blogging, and want to do it yourself. (Hence, save money.) So I feel that by showing my expenses in blogging, it may give a “false,” perception of what could actually be accomplished.
Each Blogger is Different:
Just remember when blogging, you’ll have the “musts,” of expenses. Things like, “hosting,” “subscriptions,” for a newsletter, etc. But those all depend on what types of plans that you want, and what fits YOUR blog size and preference. Honestly, I feel that someone could own and operate a blog for next to nothing in the beginning. As you grow, your expenses may too… but as in any business, it takes responsibility of planning and deciding what is best for you business wallet.
A quick look: October 2016 Income Report
Sponsored Posts: $2,925
Affiliates: $13.41
Contributor Posts: $50.00
Advertising: $776.50
Product Sales: $246.59
Total: $4,011.50
Shored up for Next Month: $350.00
Grand Total for October: $4,361.50
Ok, so there is October in a nutshell. Remember what I said back in September’s Income Report, when it was over $10,000? If not, head over and read the September 2016 blog income report. I mentioned that every month isn’t like that for me… right now. Do I hope it gets to that point? Of course! But that’s not the averagemonthly income at the moment.
(But I do have to admit that I’ve made it a goal of mine the last couple of months, to increase my pageviews, so itwill increase my ad revenue, getting me closer to that amount each month… and I’ve met that goal!!!!
Stay tuned for something I’m launching soon, that will tell you word for word how I made this happen! I can’t wait to share it with you, so you can implement some of the same things for your blog too!)
Ok, let’s get on with November’s Income Report, shall we?
Blog Income Report: November 2016
Take a look at the chart I’ve made below, that breaks each income stream up, to better explain how I make an income with the blog. I’ll fill you in after you look, to explain why it’s lower than October, (during one of the busiest months of the year.)
So the grand total for the month of November is $4,162.98. Why is it lower than October, when really… November should be one of the busiest months of the year? For two reasons…
- I closed the boutique. Yes… it’s true. A little sad, but absolutely ok in the grand scheme of things. The beautiful thing about the boutique is that for YEARS I’ve wanted to own a cute little store that sold adorable little trinkets. But with my husband in the commercial development business, he always told me, “Jessica, you don’t want to do it. A retail store is WAY more work than you realize, and you have a good thing going with the blog.”
But the passion was ALWAYS hanging there telling me to do something. So with helpful advice from some of my favorite mentors, I launched the online boutique with a “limited edition,” style, that allowed me to sell only one product at a time. This way, I could “test it,” and I wouldn’t be flooded with a ton of merchandise, overhead, and the stress overload of trying to run my blog on top of it.
With a little time, (my husband was right) I learned that although I loved looking for new products to sell in the boutique, the extra work of trying to find packaging material, shipping the items, and all of the things that go in to having an online store… I was quickly getting burnt out. So I decided to pull the plug. BUT, I didn’t totally “get rid of it.” It’s still there in case I get the urge to sell some type of products in it again! As a wrap, I was able to fulfill the dream of swooning over cute boutique items, I learned a TON about retail, and the little amount of items that I do have left, I can give away for fun giveaways to my readers! - I backed off of sponsored posts & pitching to brands for a month. I spent the majority of my time in November, taking advantage of the online “busy” time of the year, by working on increasing my pageviews. Why? Well, because when I increase my pageviews, that’s so good on so many levels.
• More ad revenue
• Higher amounts of blog pageviews look really good to brands
• More people subscribing to the email list, and becoming permanent new readers of the blog.I can not BELIEVE the difference this made. For instance… look at the screenshots of the last few months of my pageviews below, and how they grew. (Now, showing your pageviews as a blogger, can sometimes be “voo-doo.” I’m not sure why, but it’s always been a “hush-hush,” instrusive type of thing to ask someone. But you KNOW I love being transparent with you all, and I have yet to see a downside of being transparent. So here we go…
October 2016 Pageviews: 80,363
November 2016 Pageviews: 137,401
December 2016 Pageviews: (Dec. 1st-Dec. 25th only) 268,819
I had to cut it off at the 25th,due to the timing of generating this income report and typing this blog post. So it will only go up from here!
Isn’t that INCREDIBLE!? I can’t wait to show you how I did that, and show you what a difference it will make in my monthly ad revenue income, even come December. I’ll try to have that wrapped up soon at the first of the year, just so you can see the difference. But I’ll give you a sneak peek of what it is already this month…
Ad Revenue is What!?
The ad revenue for the month of December is already $3,518.32. That’s already generating more than I averaged with sponsored posts for the year of 2016. Absolutely crazy. Also note that the last quarter of the year is typically generating more pageviews for a LOT of bloggers. So some of the growth may not have something to do with what I’ve implemented. But I feel confident enough to say thatI KNOW some of the changes I’ve implemented have resulted in the growth. I also want to say that it was my GOAL to generate more pageviews. So the next few months may not reflect as well as it did in November/December, when I start focusing on creating more products for you all!
Now, I show you all of this, not to toot my horn. I hope you all know that by now. But I do show you all this, so you know that you CAN actually make money with a blog.
How do I increase my pageviews?
I’m currently working on creating a product that will guide you through how I practically tripled my pageviews in just a couple of months. Rumor has it, you all prefer video courses, like my “How to Make Money Blogging,” ecourse that I created at the beginning of this year. But if you’re a book-reader, or prefer a different type of learning strategy… I’m all ears! Let me know how you’d prefer to learn how, in the comments below!
Did you also hear the good news!?
I announced on Facebook the other day, that I’m launching my NEW Blogging Consulting service in January, where I will work one-on-one with you to help you start a blog/grow your blog/find your passions in blogging/or whatever your little heart desires!
The one-hour sessions can be by phone or video call, whichever you prefer and feel most comfortable with.
Stay tuned for more details on this, but for now, feel free to fill out my 2-minute survey to help me better understand what you all are looking for help with!
Click here:Blogging Consulting Survey
Here’s a quick little video to fill you in on what to expect in the “How to Make Money Blogging” course.
Buy It Now!
Whew, that was a much longer post than normal, but I feel that when I’m putting out an income report, I need to explain as much as I can, so it will help make more sense.
I appreciate each and every one of you, and look so forward to bringing you December’s monthly income report.
