January 2018 Blog Income Report: -$20.72

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I'm back at it and kicking some blog butt!

After seeing how much my numbers tanked in December and January, I had to make sure that I got back on track with the blog.

I had a little self-pity party for about 3 minutes when I was going over my KPI's for the month of January, but then I brushed myself off and put my big girl pants on and got to work!

4th official income report here, and I'm going to make this one short and sweet, mostly because if you already read the December income report, you know that January is going to suck also! LOL
Review of Goals
So in last month's income report, I wanted to focus more on blogging goals for the year rather than just for January, considering I wrote the post at the END of January .

Content Calendar

I have started to flush out most of my content calendar, which I feel great about. I found a post somewhere that had a Google calendar that I added to mine with ALL the holidays throughout the year, like National Pizza Day!

Why is this important...?

Think trending! If I can plan my posts about what will be trending and popular at certain times of the year that should (cross my fingers ) lead to more pageviews!

For example, I went onto Pinterest before I wrote my last post and realized pretty much anything Valentine's Day related was in the trending pins-duh! So logically my last two posts revolved around Valentine's Day!

The first post was about how to have a frugal yet fun Valentine's Day. I was super excited to see that pin has already gotten some traction:

This post has actually been the most visited post since the beginning of February.



The second post I wrote was an affiliate based post that I wanted to experiment with to see if I could increase affiliate sales. This one doesn't seem like it has gotten any traction. I know I need to come up with a better system for sharing pins, getting on more group boards, etc.

I kind of feel like I have been shooting in the dark a little bit with pinning and just throwing stuff up there hoping it sticks.

Also, I should have written the Valentine's themed posts and started sharing it like a month BEFORE Valentine's Day rather than just a week or so before.

Back to the goals...

Sticking to a schedule

I think I am getting better with this, but there is always room for improvement!

I do my best to get as much done during naptime and know what I should be working on before I sit down to actually work on it.

I have also been trying to get out of the house and work more when I can. I feel like I can really buckle down and focus better when I'm not surrounded my tiny screaming humans (I love my children but they are not by any means conducive to my productivity!)

Get more affiliate sales

I have been doing a lot of research on how to use ShopStyle Collective to earn more affiliate commissions and am taking this into consideration when pinning out in Tailwind. I have been making pretty, custom affiliate pins for products, mostly off of Etsy. You can check one out here! The cool thing about ShopStyle Collective is it is a pay per click affiliate program, which means someone DOESN'T have to buy something for you to get a commission!

(I will be writing a post on this in the near future for those of you that are interested in earning affiliate commissions from Pinterest WITHOUT having to have a blog ).

Create my own course

Stay tuned for updates on this within the next few months.

Get sponsored work

Still researching on how to go about doing this for the personal finance/frugal living niche.
Income
Ads-$14.17

Adsense-$9.40
Media.net-$13.65

Affiliates- $9.05

ShopStyle Collective-$1.41
Amazon Associate-$0.52
SmartAsset-$7.12

Gross Income = $23.22
Well, not much to talk about here .
Pageviews
Just another sad state of affairs here. They were even worse than they were for December, blah!



As you can see, pageviews dropped again.

BUT...

I'm hoping with getting my Pinterest presence up again that these will increase significantly.
Expenses

Hostgator-$11.95
Google Drive-$1.99
Canva for Work-$12.95
ConvertKit-$29
Tailwind-$14.99
FollowLiker-$5.99
BoardBooster-$5

Another month of just sticking with the bare essentials .

So, unfortunately, due to the dive in pageviews and my lack of activity on Pinterest, my "income" ended up being -$20.72. Sad but true.

But if my calculations are correct, I should actually be getting my payouts from Media.net at the end of this month, so that's exciting!
February Goals
Above all else, my main goal for February is consistency!

Consistency

Being consistent in writing, pinning, other social media engagement, and posting twice per week. My original days were Sunday and Wednesdays, but I'm not sure Sundays work really well for me, I feel like the weekends just FLY by! I' going to switch my posting dates to Mondays and Thursday and see if that works better.

Use analytics to my advantage

Making sure that I am looking at my content calendar and planning things out accordingly. Taking my analytics into consideration and basing new content off of what has already done well.

For example, my  25 Ways to Save Money Everyday posts have done really well.

So what does this tell me?

Finish the 4th in the series
Create more lists posts
Create more "ways to save" posts

It's all about using what you know to your advantage!

It's all about using what you know to your advantage! Click To Tweet
Top 10 Posts from January

Pay Off Your Debt Fast With the Debt Snowball Method!
October Blog Income Report: -$141.88
November Blog Income Report: $60.71
How to STOP Living Paycheck to Paycheck Without Losing Your Sanity!
25 Useful Ways to Save Money Everyday Part 3
25 Useful Ways to Save Money Everyday Part 2
25 Useful Ways to Save Money Everyday Part 1
How to Start a Successful Blog: The Complete Newbie Guide
Love and Money: What You Need to Know to Create a Healthy Relationship with Both
Don't Overspend On Your Kid's Christmas Gifts This Year, Try This Instead!

How have you been being productive in 2018 so far?
 

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