(This post, as with any on BOTS, may contain affiliate links)
Pageviews: My page views this month were at 2.9 million (I owe it to a lot of Christmas posts that went viral, like my “25 reasons why my Elf on the Shelf forgot to move” post…). I am not expecting it to stay that way in January, but I’ll enjoy it for now!
Background: I was an elementary school teacher, before I became a stay-at-home-mom and one-day-a-week play therapist. I worked from 7:30-4:00 every day. I quit nine years ago to have children. This month, with my blog, Yourmodernfamily.com, I reached that amount, in one month. I was thrilled and shocked (as I am every month!)
When I started blogging, I had no idea that I would be able to earn this sort of income in the amount of time that I have been blogging- two years this month.
If you are trying to make money on your blog, I hope that you will learn a lot from reading this post and walk about with inspiration and tips to put into practice on your blog. I owe my success to a lot of effort right from the very beginning. I hit the ground RUNNING (and stay up late, watching hours of youtube.com videos on how to set up a blog… while our kids were snug in their beds!)
Before I begin- here are two things that you need to know.
1- WE DO NOT SPEND THIS MONEY (we have four kids and this money is in a separate account, at a separate bank and we will use it to pay off our mortgage and to pay for our children to go to college).
2- This income does NOT include Becky & Paula OR Essential Oils.
Our Blogging On The Side book about how to have a successful blog, is doing amazingly well (yay!!), but we are not adding that to our income. I am also not including my Young Living Essential Oils just yet, even though I was very surprised and excited with the income that was earned in the first month (November).
Here is the breakdown of most of my income:
(rounding here…)
Sponsored posts 20% of income
Affiliates: 20%:
Ebooks 30%
Ads: 40%
My e-books: POTTY TRAIN IN A WEEKEND and You can be a Stay at Home Mom on One Income.
I had a lot of outgoing expenses, too: hosting ($150), editing ($250), having someone help me with technical issues ($90), pic monkey, e-junkie, paying contributors for writing roundups, buying supplies for posts, etc…
TRAFFIC TALK:
~Here are my top viewed posts (that bring in the most traffic): http://www.yourmodernfamily.com/top-viewed-posts-2014/
~This one does well, too, and has really picked up momentum, resulting in higher affiliate sales: http://www.yourmodernfamily.com/freebie-websites/
FOUR THINGS THAT HAVE WORKED WELL IN DECEMBER:
1- Working on my Facebook Images. I was always a Pinterest-image-only girl, but I have started to focus on my Facebook image. A perfect square, not too fancy or detailed, very clear and to the point. This is not the one for the Facebook link, but just the one that I share on my page (I share a link and then add my own square image to the link on Facebook). I have been using dollar photo club for a lot of pictures. ($1 per photo)
2. I am updating my posts to include more related posts. “if you liked this post, I think you will like this one, as well” at the bottom of my posts. I then include a linked image to another post. I am keeping them in my blog by taking them from post to post to post.
3. I {finally} started my Newsletter! Every Sunday at 5:00 am it goes out to my readers. It is short, sweet and to the point.
4. My new blog layout. It is easier for the readers to see what is going on. I really love it!
FOUR THINGS THAT I WANT TO DO BETTER NEXT MONTH:
1. Add a call to action button below each post. I want to include a link to my newsletter at the bottom of each post.
2. Work on bettering my brand new newsletter. How do I want to write it? What do I want the title to show? Should I send it more often?
3. Trying to keep up the traffic from December. December was a great month for traffic because of Christmas, but I am worried about how well January and February will go.
4. Promoting my FREED FROM CLUTTER book that has taken me over a year. It is a combination of many posts and some added features and I just want to finish it already! It was literally in the last hours before being released for months, so I can’t wait to just put it out there for the world to read! I have it on my blog, but I haven’t set up my landing page, etc… yet. This is on my to-do list! (ps- affiliates will make 50% of $9.99, just like my other books!)
TWO PLUGINS I WOULD BE LOST WITHOUT…
1. My WordPress Editorial Calendar. I love seeing my posts on a calendar!
2. Ultimate Nofollow. This plugin has made sponsored posts SO much easier because I don’t need to know the code for NoFollow, I just check the little Nofollow box! Easy!
I hope that you found that to be helpful! Happy Blogging!
PS- you can read any of my income reports by clicking here.
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