January 2018 Blog Traffic & Income Report

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January 2018 Blog Traffic & Income Report

Hi there!

Gretchen here, with this month’s traffic and income report for Fit Mom Journey.

I have been doing these reports for 5 months now, but I started when I was actually making some money. Previously, before that first income report (link) I had blogged at Fit Mom Journey for 1.5 years, and at my other blogs for 3 years!

I do this for a couple of reasons.

The first is that I think it’s important to step back, evaluate, and regroup.

It’s a time to gather up all the number, the strategies, and the thought processes and take stock of what worked, and what didn’t. I also like to take this time to make sure that the actions I’m taking on Fit Mom Journey line up with my vision for the website. Is what I’m doing helping people? Am I providing you all with the best, most up-to-date information?

It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day running of the blog, that it’s easy to lose track of what it’s all about: helping people.

The second reason is that I think it’s important to share the struggle. My first blog was a result of financial desperation. I was pregnant, just out of college/in my first job, and so very scared. It provided our family with the means to get out of debt, save for the future, and let my husband be a stay-at-home parent for the first 1.5 years after our daughter was born.

Fit Mom Journey, though, was created strictly to share: information, recipes, inspiration, and of course the struggle of balancing mom life, family life, health, and work. The income it’s generated has just been a bonus – and a blessing.

But growing this blog hasn’t been without it’s fair share of struggles. Last month I shared my ad network frustrations, and this months I’m going to share some things that I’ve learned balancing mommyhood, blogging, my health and a day job.

While my struggles aren’t life-altering, I believe that if I’m experiencing them, someone else is too. And if I can share my struggle and it’s solution, then I’m achieving my vision for Fit Mom Journey: helping people.

My hope is that these reports both help you and encourage you.

You need to know that it takes a long time and a lot of work on a blog before you see any reward.

But if you’ve laid the foundation correctly, a helpful, informative blog can not only reach millions of individuals, it can really bless you and your family financially.

If starting a blog is something you are interested in doing, I created a tutorial that will help you start one cheaply, for as little as $3.95/month. In addition to the low price, you will get your free website domain name (a $15 value) through my link, if you purchase at least 12 months of hosting. Asking yourself “Can I make money with my blog?” – the best way to do that is to start with a self-hosted blog. Not only will you appear more professional, you will have more opportunities for monetization and growth. It was only after I switched to a self-hosted blog that I was able to explode my growth and income.

Let’s take a look at January’s numbers….

Here’s what we will cover in this months report:

Traffic Overview
Income Overview
Takeaways: Affiliate relationships updates and action items,Ad Network approval, upcoming side speed changes.

Let’s take a look at January’s numbers….

Note: Some of the below links are affiliate links. All of the products listed below are products and services we’ve used before and/or are currently using. If you have any questions about our income or expense, feel free to leave a comment or contact us via email and we’ll be happy to reply.

TRAFFIC BREAKDOWN

Below are some screenshots from Google Analytics for the month of December 2017

Traffic Overview

Top 10 Traffic Sources

Mobile Traffic

INCOME

Adsense: $842.11
Sovrn: $251.71
Media.net: $119.05
SmartAsset: $0
Ketologie: $221.45
Perfect Keto: $248.98
Keto Kookie: $0
Tailwind: $83.17
Ultimate Bundles: $0
Bluehost: $100.00
$5 Meal Plan: $3.00
Mother’s Lounge: $68.00
Amazon Associates: $359.16
Butcher Box: $427.00
Total Income: $2,723.63

EXPENSES

MiloTree: $6
Tailwind: $15
Tailwind Tribe Power-Up: $119 (1 year)
ConvertKit: $75
Jaxxy: $19
AppSumo: $20
BigScoots: $7.95
The Keto Box: $40

TOOL OF THE MONTH: BigStockPhoto.com

One of the tools I use, that has been invaluable over the years, is BigStockPhoto.com. This is a stock photo site, but it’s actually affordable.

Often, as a blogger, you will find yourself needing graphics for things you never imagined – that you don’t have time to shoot yourself.

And that’s where stock photo sites come in.

Unfortunately, many have terrible photos or are just too expensive for a medium-sized blogger.

But that’s why I love BigStockPhoto.

For $79/month, you can download 5 images per day, for a total of 150 images per month – which is only $0.53 per image!

Take advantage of a free trial of BigStockPhoto.com here.

I try to give action items every month that you can take and implement in your own blog or business, and this month is no exception.

But first, before we get to the to-do’s, there are a couple of things I’ve briefly mentioned in previous reports to let you know how they’re going.

Takeaway #1: Ad Network Approval

I had mentioned last month, that as my pageviews grew, I decided to apply with an ad network called Monumetric (formerly The Blogger Network).

Here is what I wrote in December’s Traffic & Income Report (so you don’t have to click over to read it):

“My other website’s ads are run by Monumetric and I love the fact that they completely manage them and I make 3x what I was making before without them.

However, it’s now the middle of January, and I have yet to be approved, even though I have north of 500,000 page views in the last 30 days.

I know that some things are out of their hands, but I could be making so much more money with ads right now and it’s really bothering me. Free money is basically being left on the table.

So, I made a very hard decision to apply with MediaVine and AdThrive in addition to Monumetric. Both are similar to Monumetric, in that they manage your ads. You make more money and they take a cut.”

Just a few days ago, on January 31st, I was approved with MediaVine!

At the time of writing, I just signed the agreement, so ads have not yet been placed on Fit Mom Journey, but that will be happening soon and I’m so excited!

If you’re in the same predicament I was, there is a lesson here: don’t give up!

And also, don’t box yourself in. I was loyal to Monumetric because they treated me well before, but by giving them to long to approve me, I cost myself 4 months of lost revenue.

I’m kicking myself just thinking about it.

If you’ve been thinking about applying to network like Monumetric, AdThrive, or MediaVine, I would suggest applying to all of them, and then sorting out which to go with in the future. Please don’t waste months of income based on loyalty like I did!

Takeaway #2: Site Speed

The downside to running my own ads is that they often drag down my average load time (page speed).

And Google does not like slow sites.

When I refer to slow websites, I am not talking about 10 minutes load times, I’m talking milliseconds in load times that separate the “fast” sites from the “slow” ones in Google eyes.

Why is this important?

I’ve been working really hard on my SEO (search engine optimization) and now have more than 20 pages ranking on the first page of Google.

Unfortunately, Google could (and maybe already is) bumping my pages lower than faster sites.

So site speed is a concern.

I don’t want to take up your entire day reading an in-depth SEO tutorial, since you can find that here. Maybe pin it for later, and read it when you have time.

What I’ve already done…

Last month, I upgraded the hosting on Fit Mom Journey to use CloudFlare, which has already lowered my load times.

But besides switching up my hosting package, the other two things affecting load times are images and ads.

I’ll follow up next month with more information on this, but switching to MediaVine should help my ad load speed, and I’ll continue working on keeping my images small and loading fast.

If you look at the chart above, you can see that so far in February, load times are even faster than before – and that’s because of switching to Mediavine!

I’ll keep you posted on the site speed situation: what’s working, what’s not, and what the plan is.

Takeaway #3: Affiliate Relationship and promotions.

It’s no secret that I’ve been working my affiliate relationships like it’s my job.

Because, well, it is.

If you haven’t seen the first two posts with action steps you should take if just starting out with affiliates, go back and read those now in previous income reports. You can find them here and here. (I also have plans to put the whole set of mini-affiliate series’ into a post in the near future, and I’ll put that link in when it’s done.)

What we’re going to talk about today assumes you’ve already been accepted to several affiliates within your niche, and you’re starting to make money from them.

The natural next phase is maintaining and improving affiliate relationships.

So today I am going to walk you through 3 actions step you can take – and that I’m currently taking myself – to improve your affiliate relationships and conversions.

Ask about the sales schedule and/or any current promotions.
Ask for a discount code.
Ask about commission structure.

Ask about the sales schedule and/or any current promotions.

Hopefully, if you’ve been following along with my affiliate journey, you’ve been working your affiliates on your website, social channels, and email list. Asking you affiliate managers about sales schedules and promotions will only help you with your process.

Send you affiliate manager something like this:

“Hi {name},

I am working on my affiliate strategy for 2018, and as I plan, I was wondering if {affiliate} would be having any sales during the year.

Would you be able to give me an advance look at your sale schedule for the year?

Thank you for your time!”

Most brands will run sales at several times during the year – especially closer to the holidays!

And if you are able to get the sales scheduled ahead of time, first make sure that you keep it confidential.

Second, make sure that you work it.

Prepare your social media posts, blog posts, and email campaigns ahead of time. This will reduce your stress and workload during busy sale times.

Ask for a discount code.

Want to boos your affiliate sales?

Ask your affiliate managers for exclusive discount codes you can share with your audience:

“Hello! I hope you are doing well!
I had a couple of questions I hoped you could answer.
1: Is there a system in place in the affiliate program that allows commission increases if I hit X amount of conversions? If so, what is the commission increase and what do I have to do to qualify? Question 2: Do you have a system of personalized discounts that affiliates can share with their readers? If so, what is the discount and how can I get one to share with mine?
Thank you! “

Even a 10% discount code that you share with your audience (make sure to mention it everywhere you mention the product!) can boost your conversions!

Ask about commission structure.

I mentioned this in the above example, and you can either ask about it together, or separately.

But often, companies have tiered commission structures, where when you hit “X” in conversions, your commission percentage is increased.

Take advantage of these whenever you can both to drive yourself to have more conversions on your affiliates, and ultimately earn more money.

The biggest thing I want you to take from this is that affiliate manager are there to help you – in fact, they want to!

More sales from you = more sales for their company. It’s a win win!

Don’t be afraid to reach out and maintain a good working relationship with your affiliate manager – their job is to help you.

Every time I write an income report, I have a wash of gratitude come over because I realize that I am here, writing this, because of you.

I am so grateful for every one of you!

Xoxo,
Gretchen

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