February 2018 Blog Traffic & Income Report
Hi There,
Gretchen here, with this month’s traffic and income report for Fit Mom Journey in February 2018.
First time here? Let me give you a quick rundown of what these reports are all about.
I started Fit Mom Journey 2 years ago as a hobby. I was doing Trim Healthy Mama (and bounce back and forth between Keto and Trim Healthy Mama – a form of carb cycling). I had built blogs from scratch into income-making machines before, but was curious how this would work in the health & fitness niche.
I started publishing these reports in September 2017 as a way to document the process ( and struggles) of building a blog into a business. You can see the first report here and all my income reports here.
My goal is to share things I’m learning along the way and inspire you to make purposeful decisions with your own blog, business, or non-profit.
Let’s get started with the traffic and income numbers for February 2018, and then I’ll share some takeaways and action steps from the month.
TRAFFIC OVERVIEW
All Traffic for February 2018
Top Ten Traffic Sources
Mobile vs. Desktop Traffic
INCOME
- Adsense: $839.01
- MediaVine: $4,960.67
- Sovrn: $273.76
- Media.net: $102.69
- SmartAsset: $0.00
- Ketologie: $220.15
- Perfect Keto: $454.04
- Tailwind: $29.01
- Ultimate Bundles: $40.40
- Bluehost: $0.00
- $5 Meal Plan: $3.00
- Mother’s Lounge: $62.00
- Amazon: $369.68
- Butcher Box: $0.00
- Total Income: $7,354.41
EXPENSES
- MiloTree: $6 <<—–Why ALL bloggers should be using this awesome plugin
- Tailwind: $15
- Tailwind Tribe Power-Up: $119 (1 year)
- ConvertKit: $75
- Jaxxy: $19
- AppSumo: $20
- BigScoots: $7.95
- BigScoots: $98.00
- The Keto Box: $40
- New Computer (Best Buy): $1,168.81
TOOL OF THE MONTH – Elite Blog Academy
The doors for Elite Blog Academy are now OPEN. Registration opens to the public only once a year, so this is a pretty big deal.
If you’re wondering if this course could help your business, read through my comprehensive explanation of EBA in a blog post here
5 months ago, I started earning a regular income from this blog.
To the tune of $1,200 – $1,500 a month. Not fantastic, but not terrible either! I was working too many hours at a job I hated, missing out on precious time with my family, and this blog was my only relief from the drudgery of feeling like my family didn't see enough of me.
I desperately wanted to be able to strike a better balance between work/family/side hustle, and even though I didn't want to admit it to myself, I wanted to be able to work from home. I wanted to be able to watch my little girl grow up, actually spend some time out in the sunshine, and have the time to cook from-scratch meals while still working on my career from home.
So I decided to take a leap of faith, and join a blogging course, called Elite Blog Academy.
Since then, I've done a 180-degree turn with my life.
I've started making MORE money from blogging than I did at my day job (I'm set to make $60,000 in profit in 2018)
I've been home with my daughter – we're starting homeschool in the fall!
I've had the time to exercise, be with family, and take some amazing trips!
And it's all because of Elite Blog Academy.
Elite Blog Academy is a step-by-step blogging course that starts with the basics, from getting your blog off the ground and creating KILLER content (for those of you that are beginners) to developing revenue streams and marketing on social media (for those of you in the mid-region of growth), and all the way to turning your blog into a business!
This course taught me how to now only run my blog and my business correctly, but how to have the correct mindset and entrepreneurial spirit that will set my business up for long-term success. And that's exactly what I want!
Through a powerful combination of effective videos, practical and insightful handouts, purposeful assignments, and interactive live webinars, Elite Blog Academy will empower, enable, and inspire you to take the specific steps necessary to refine your message, grow your audience, monetize your platform, and transform your blog into a successful and profitable business.
Here is what the course includes:
1. Start with Awesome – Learn the secret to successful blogging and master the 3 steps to starting with awesome. Understand what makes YOUR blog unique (and therefore marketable), and create the framework for a powerful platform that gets results.
2. Content is King – Discover why the key to a successful, popular, and profitable blog starts with amazing content, master the four essential strategies for creating content that rocks, and learn exactly how to FOCUS™—the secret to creating a killer blog post every single time.
3. Presentation is Everything – Uncover the three visual areas every blogger must focus on in order to be successful and learn not only why Pinterest is the most powerful marketing tool ever created, and how to harness that power through creating the Perfect Pin™.
4. Grow Your Platform – Learn how to increase, diversify, and stabilize your platform through eight proven strategic growth strategies. Develop the confidence to promote your core message with an authority that draws people in, master field-tested techniques for networking and collaboration, find out exactly how to grow your subscriber list, and discover why good SEO really isn’t as complicated as everyone makes it out to be.
5. Social Media & Viral Growth – Uncover the mysteries of capturing and retaining viral blog traffic through social media and learn to determine which social media platforms are most valuable for your own audience. Find out the ten crucial steps to take if your blog post goes viral, then create comprehensive marketing plans for both Facebook and Pinterest in order to develop a cohesive social media strategy that gets results.
After that it gets more into monetising through ad networks, affiliate sales, private advertising and creating products.
Lastly it gets into working smart/efficiently and being strategic to grow your business.
Enrollment for Elite Blog Academy will be open only until 3/9/2018. If you miss out on this chance to build your business, you will have to wait until nearly a year from now!
Blogging is not for the faint of heart, and this course requires a willingness to buckle down and get to work.
That said, for those who are willing to do the work, it also comes with a 100% money-back guarantee. Anyone who completes the course and has not seen measurable results in both traffic and income growth will get your money back, no questions asked.
That’s a pretty incredible promise, but it means that you’ve literally got nothing to lose.
For five days only, starting today, you can enroll and get started right away. Don’t wait though–doors will close March 9th!
Learn to grow your blog the right way with EBA.
I BOUGHT A NEW COMPUTER + WORKING FROM HOME
As of 3/5/2018, I am officially 100% self-employed. I left my day job to get this website and all of it’s processes set up for something super fun: Homeschooling our daughter in the fall!
When I was working my day job, I was honestly only putting in about 4 hours per week, and still making the numbers you see above. But, having a 4-year-old home with me and homeschooling while managing the blog and home presents a very new challenge.
Our daughter will still be going to daycare for 3 full days a week, completing her pre-kindergarten class, and I’m using that time to build up a backlog of posts, researching SEO, scheduling social media posts out pretty far (especially seasonal content), and doing some projects I’ve had my eye on for a while.
With that in mind, I purchased an all-in-one computer with a HUGE screen while it was on sale. With that purchase, I also bought a sitting/standing desk.
I was hesitant to spend the money on a new computer – my laptop still works fine – but I’m finding having the all-in-one computer is already helping my productivity and processes.
In case you’re interested, I bought this Dell All-In-One from Best Buy and also purchased the Geek Squad protection plan, bringing the total to $1,138.81.
As far as the desk went, I wanted to go pretty cheap, so I purchased this Alvin Drafting Table (black with woodgrain top) and so far it’s working out really well and only cost me about $46 since I purchased it used through the Amazon Warehouse Deals.
I’ll definitely keep you updated with how the working from home while homeschooling situation goes!
AD REVENUE CHANGES + UPDATE
In February, I accepted an invitation to join MediaVine.
If you’re unfamiliar, MediaVine is an ad management service that will implement and manage ads for your – in exchange for a 25% cut for the revenue.
Previously, I applied to Monumetric, but after a 4 month wait, I also applied to AdThrive and MediaVine. I went with MediaVine because I was accepted with them first and I am happy to report that my ad revenue went up almost 6 TIMES MORE than it was just running Google Adsense ads. (see MediaVine ad revenue in my income section above)
Even better, if you’ve been considering having someone else manage your ads to take one more thing off of your plate, and to make more money, definitely give MediaVine a try. You can apply when you have as few as 25,000 sessions every month.
ARE YOU DOING WHAT YOU LOVE?
Let’s get a little personal: I am a very impatient person.
I want things done, I want them done right, and I want them done now.
This trait sometimes serves me well, but more often than not it is my detriment.
And you know what?
I hear from other bloggers nearly every day who have this same trait and become frustrated with the process of trying to build their blog overnight.
So here’s my nugget of wisdom on this topic:
You have to making blogging (or working with clients, or serving, or whatever it is that you do) more about the process than the end result.
Do you love what you do?
Are you putting the work daily because you love doing the work, or because you want some reward – be it monetary or something else?
For me, I love writing, editing, and even doing a bit of photography. And I really, really love cooking.
Blogging on Fit Mom Journey allows me to combine all of those things things into a process that changes frequently enough that I never get bored, and provides me with an end result: an income.
So are you doing what you love?
If you aren’t, what do you love? Take a few minutes and write those things down. Then, figure out what you can do that combines all of those things.
The end result will come.
Just put in the work. Worry about the results later.
A BIG THANK YOU
I am acutely aware that without you, my reader, I would not be able to be writing this right now, and for that I am so grateful.
I hope that the things I write provide value to your, your family, and your life.
So thank you!
From the bottom of my heart – thank you!
Xoxo,
Gretchen
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Katii says
Thanks darling!