Again it is the exciting time of the month where I share my blogging journey with all of you. This is something I look forward to because I like to share what went on with my blog, so I learn and implement new things and in turn, share all the things that helped me.
This month marks the completion of my six months blogging journey!!
Wow!! I remember the time when I was writing drafts every night even before launching my blog. It has been a GREAT journey for me, and it is all because of you……..my readers.
I have learnt so much from my blogger friends that I cannot imagine being here if it wasn’t for their inspiration.
I am so thankful to all of you:-)
This month was super awesome for many reasons. I had HUGE traffic numbers and reached a significant milestone regarding income. I completely owe this to some resources I have been using, which I will share further in the post.
I also reached some of the targets which I kept for myself last month. I firmly believe setting goals can make you very productive and this helped more because I work from home and it is very easy for me to get distracted.
The two reasons I share my blog update and income report, first to be accountable and then to show you no matter how young your blog is, you can make money from it.
Last month my traffic was over 85,000 and was working to reach 100,000 page views.
Did it work? Let’s see!
TRAFFIC
My traffic literally exploded!! I got over 126,000 page views. It’s an increase of 48 percent from previous month. I always thought of 100,000 page views as something which happens after a year or so. Maybe not.
How did I reach this huge number?
Pinterest has been a big part of it. I have been using different strategies for pinning, and they have worked.
Many of my posts are doing great on Pinterest, and that is getting me lots of traffic.
Make Money From Home As A Captioner (36.5k shares)
How to Make $1000 A Month Online Without A Job (13.3k shares)
How to Make Money from Your Hobbies (16.5k shares)
9 Online Jobs Paying Upto $15 An Hour (1.3k shares)
Become A Virtual Assistant and Make $35-50 An Hour (1k shares)
21+ Free Tools & Websites to Make Money (1.7k shares)
It is also good to see a decrease in the bounce rate (slowly, though). I plan on working to reduce it further by writing more longer posts.
If you are new to my income reports, here are my past month updates. Hope they help you for your blog growth.
How I Got over 16,000 Page Views in the First Month of Blogging
Month Two Traffic Update: How I Got Over 25,000 Page Views With A New Blog
Month 3 Blog Update: 50,000 Page Views and My First Income Report
How I Made $2,347.17 in 4th Month of Blogging
How I Made $3,226.89 in 5th Month of Blogging
SUBSCRIBERS
Another big win for me. My list is slowly growing and is at 650 now. I did not focus on list building much till now. But I plan on changing that in the coming months.
The biggest resource that helps me whenever I get stuck with something related to email is Meera Kothand’s blog. She knows anything and everything about email marketing and her blog is a reference guide for me.
My followers have increased to 2.6k. That’s an increase of 700 in one month!! It might not be huge for some, but I have not seen such an increase in past months. I still pin around 80 pins a day both mine and others.
I completely owe this increase in Pinterest traffic to many tools like Boardbooster and Tailwind, most importantly because of my manual pinning following Pinteresting Strategies. I cannot say enough about this ebook. It has helped me grow my Pinterest reach from 700,000 to over 1.5 million in just four months and it keeps growing.
I read a lot of manual pinning and wanted to test it. Now I am convinced that it is the primary factor for my reach. Though it takes time to pin manually, it is worth it.
I highly recommend this eBook to grow your Pinterest traffic as I have seen some fantastic figures myself in a very short time.
Another area where I see some good growth. The likes have increased to 815. The only tips and strategies I have been following for my Facebook growth are from the eBook, Strategies Worth Sharing. I am still experimenting with many factors like timing, type of posts and how many of them I do.
My Twitter following has grown to 315. I am still too slow with this social platform. To be honest, I am just sharing my posts and others on Twitter. Though I believe it has a great potential to bring traffic, it might take some time for me to see big numbers on this platform.
I might spend some time to understand this platform more in coming months.
I love Instagram but I am still finding a way to post regularly on it. I have been observing what works on this platform and I have noticed that two things matter a lot….hashtags and engagement.
You should not be using the common hashtags as your post can get lost in the famous ones. I plan on posting more frequently and try new things on Instagram soon.
Now for my Income update:
My income in the previous month was over $3000 and it was predominantly from affiliate marketing. There was some income from Mediavine too.
INCOME REPORT
Affiliate Income
Survey Affiliates (iGain, Maxbounty, Panthera) – $3,833.31
30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success – $47.60
Bluehost -$130
Strategies Worth Sharing – $28
Pinteresting Strategies – $19.20
Amazon – $16
Indeed – $4.42
Bookscouter – $2.70
Flex Offers – $5.44
Grammarly – $1.80
Ads – $1,038.12
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EXPENSES
Boardbooster – $15
Grum – $18
NET INCOME – $5,093.59
I am so happy with the way my income is growing. It’s amazing to achieve this revenue with a 6-month-old blog, it might not be a big number for many, but it’s a full-time income when it comes to Australian dollars. I used to think that earning such income from a new blog is unattainable.
I am still working on diversifying the revenue from different sources, and as I always say of all the ways of making money from a blog, affiliate marketing is the best way.
If you are toying with the idea of starting a blog and are confused if you can make money with it early on, it is possible to make money even from a new blog. Invest, learn and test. That is what I did in these six months.Â
Things I did
Last month with the year end, I wanted to change a few things on the blog. The biggest thing that I did is changing the opt-in. I have two freebies for my readers, and my list is already growing fast because of them. Now, I understand the power of having an email list.
I made a 5 point checklist to grow your blog traffic, this is the first blogging freebie that I have ever created, and I am getting some great feedback from my readers.
I still continue to learn more about different aspects of blogging, especially with Facebook. Facebook is my second biggest traffic referral, and I want to grow my reach there.
What I learned
I discovered a lot of things in the last six months, and I know there is a wealth of information out there. One key point I have observed is, if your traffic is majorly from social media, then you implement different strategies for different platforms.
You cannot totally depend on one social media for your traffic because if something changes, you get affected a lot.
I have understood the importance of having a great email list and what it means for your blog.
What’s Next
I have many things planned for this year. Along with growing my list, I will focus on diversifying my traffic and income.
I will be learning more about building my email list. With so many new side-hustles coming up every day, I want to explore more ways of making money online and share it with my readers.
Traffic
I want to increase my page views to 150,000. That is a big target, but it might be achievable if I work on my strategies more. As I am also focusing on Facebook, the page views might go up if things work out.
Income
I never set a goal for income. I am happy if I see an increase from last month. Any growth is good growth. Hopefully, I see bigger figures than this month.
Subscribers
Last month without any opt-in or freebie I reached 500, and this month my list is at 650. With the new opt-ins, I am hoping to see the numbers rise. I would love to see it grow to 800 by next month.
As a new blogger, the whole blogging thing can be too much to handle when it comes to some aspects of getting traffic, making money, increasing followers.
But it can be a smooth process if you implement the right strategies, here are some resources which helped me to reach this stage, I highly recommend them, and they can be quite helpful no matter at what stage of blogging you are.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – This is by far the best course I took, and it has helped me in many aspects of affiliate marketing. This course is a must for anyone who is serious about making money from their blog.
Pinteresting Strategies – Carly’s Pinterest strategies helped me grow my traffic exponentially and in turn my income. I have tested them, and they work.
Traffic Transformation – I love Lena’s Ebook for the fact that she dives into the areas of getting traffic from less frequently used platforms like Stumbleupon and Google+. Â
Strategies Worth Sharing – An Ebook which I bought even before starting my blog, and it helped me to reach 700+ likes on Facebook. With Facebook being the second biggest referral for traffic for many bloggers, you need to invest in this to grow your traffic.
Bluehost – I have had a great experience with Bluehost. Blogging is a great side hustle, and if you are waiting to start a money-making blog on a budget, then Bluehost is the way to go.
It has been an incredible journey in these six months, learning and getting to know many awesome bloggers. I hope to achieve bigger milestones, grow my blog and help my readers.
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