December Blogging and Income Report

Hey there! Welcome to this month’s dive into the behind the scenes stuff at Kate Moving Forward! I’m always excited to share the nuances of blogging and learn from each other! That is why I share these reports, I wanted to encourage those who read huge income reports that there are small(ish) blogs out there making a nice part-time income from blogging. A few of my favorite income reports to read are: Pinch of Yum, By Regina, and Eat Pray Run DC .

December Blogging and Income Report

I had 16,000 pageviews in December and 13,0000 monthly visitors. So my traffic dipped pretty significantly, but I took time off during Christmas and New Years and expect that my readers were  also busy being with their friends and family and celebrating the season. I fully anticipated my stats to be down (they were in December last year too) and am completely cool with it. 🙂  My top three referrers were Pinterest, direct input (aka you type in katemovingforward.com or bookmark it), and then organic google search traffic. 

My social media followers grew by 165! My email list grew by 19 subscribers as well. Once again I added the most new followers on Pinterest (over 100!) and Instagram, but Facebook managed to pull in a few new followers as well.

DECEMBER REVENUE:

Represents what I EARNED this month, not what was paid out. Most campaigns and ad fees pay 30-60 days from their completion.

Sponsored Posts: $367

Social Media only campaigns: $100

Ads: $42.88

Amazon Affiliates: $14.46 (Mostly driven by my Christmas wish list posts! The highest converting list was the one for Babies and Toddlers.)

Total Revenue: $537.34

My RPM (fancy blog-speak for how much money I generate per 1000 visitors) for the month is $33.58. <<< That is a great number and it’s an amazing feeling to know that even though I don’t have the highest traffic I am leveraging well. Also, I just crunched the numbers and the official monthly average for my blog revenue was $502.18! So I totally nailed my goal of averaging $500 in revenue each month with $2.18 to spare! I like that I set a challenging goal and achieved it. It took work and hustle, and I did it.

Once again, diversifying my income is still a work in progress. I plan to complete my e-book in February. Then I just have to decide if I’d rather launch it in the last month of my pregnancy/when I’m due or wait till a couple of months post-baby…maybe June? Thoughts on this launch timeline from others who have launched e-books?

I also partnered with the makers of P90X, Insanity, and Piyo (aka Beachbody) and Team Inspire as a fitness coach in early December. This is a strategic move to offer more fitness resources on Kate Moving Forward to my readers. I felt like going after a personal or group fitness training certificate would be difficult this year and I want to have high value workout programs to offer to my followers! Right now I am taking things in and learning a lot, and will implement more active growth strategies following having my baby. I’m looking forward to hosting a 21 Day Fix challenge group and upping my nutrition game with Shakeology when I am cleared for fitness post-baby! If you are interested in getting a killer at-home workout, leave me a comment and I would LOVE to help you find a program to meet your needs! 

DECEMBER EXPENSES: 

This section contains affiliate links to blogging tools and resources I regularly use to benefit my blog.

CoSchedule (blog calendar & social media scheduling. I LOVE it! ): $5

Tailwind (Pinterest scheduling tool–so great and simple to use!): $10

Mailchimp (email service): $10

Blog hosting & site fees: $10

Food Blogger Pro Membership: $29 –I’m really enjoying the membership site both for the helpful video tutorials and the amazing forum where you can ask questions, get support, and learn even more!

Total Expenses: $64

TOP DECEMBER POSTS

My top post written in December was my recipe for Chewy Walnut Treasures. These are absolutely ah-mazing, prize-winning cookies, and my personal favorite cookie ever. Seriously, make them!

The second highest trafficked post was my November Blogging Report, which I found interesting and is also a first that a blog report has done so well. Rounding out my top three posts this month is Healthy Sleep Tips which is a great checklist to calm you down and set you up for a great night of sleep. This post also got a lot of social love from the SweatPink and FitFluential communities.

[tweetthis remove_twitter_handles=”true”]December Income Report from @katemoving – plus great blogging resources and strategizing! [/tweetthis]

I hope this report was encouraging to you as a blogger! It’s always fun for me to look back on the month and see how I’ve grown. These income reports also give me clarity and purpose as I move forward next month–I’m excited to serve and encourage even MORE people in 2016!

What questions do you have about blogging? What tips do you have for growing your blog?