June 2018 Blog Traffic & Income Report

June 2018 Blog Traffic & Income Report

Hey there!

Gretchen here, with June 2018’s Blog Traffic & Income Report for Fit Mom Journey.  

This is my 10th (!) income report here at FMJ.  You can see the very first report here, or all my income reports on this page.

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.

Let’s jump into June’s numbers….

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

• Traffic Overview
• Income Overview
• Takeaways: What does your audience want?, Organic Traffic {what, why, and how}

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 June 2018:

Traffic Overview

Top 10 Traffic Sources

Mobile Traffic

INCOME

• Mediavine: $6,902.66
• EBA: $4,568.00
• Keto-Mojo: $5.19
• Smart Baking Company: $1.12
• Perfect Keto: $651.69
• Ketologie: $122.12
• Tailwind: $75.72  <<—- from Explode Your Pinterest tutorial
• ConvertKit: $8.70
• Bluehost: $75.00  <<— from my How To Start a Blog tutorial
• Share a Sale: $93.00
• Ultimate Bundles: $11.99
• $5 Meal Plan: $3.00
• Plan To Eat: $1.00
• IZEA: $100.00
• Amazon Associates: $606.97
• Monumetric: $496.82
• Google: $130.37
• TapInfluence: $22.50
• Mother's Lounge: $60.00
• Total Income: $13,181

If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a month-by-month tutorial that will help you start a blog for only $3.95/month.  With that low pricing, you will receive a free domain name if you purchase at least 12 months of hosting.  Starting a blog has been one of the best thing I've ever done – and I'm NOT technical. Set yourself up for success with an inexpensive, self-hosted blog, and my Month-By-Month Tutorial.

EXPENSES

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

I have a couple of things to cover in June’s takeaways.

First up, What does YOUR Audience want?

I am not one of those people that run out of ideas.

The reality is that I have FAR too many ideas to ever create wonderful recipes out of them all.  While that’s wonderful, I struggle with narrowing down what I SHOULD create, rather than what sounds good or that I COULD create at any given moment.

But do you know what I had never done until this month?

Asked.

That’s right, I had never actually asked my audience what they wanted to see.

So on June 25th, I did, on my Facebook page, and the response – within less than 1 hour – where phenomenal!

I sometimes wonder how engaged my Facebook followers are, and now I know without a shadow of  doubt that they are wonderfully engaged:

Now, asking your audience does more than what it seems:

1. It gives you a change to meaningfully interact with your followers
2. It helps your reach (if done well)
3. It gives you plenty of ideas
4. It helps you focus

So first for June’s takeaways, I want to encourage to just ask your audience what they would like to see.  Feel free to use my post as the model for yours to save you some work!

Then, engage with commenters, and actually use the information they give you!

This is such a simple thing to do, I cannot believe I didn’t do it sooner – so do this for your audience as well ASAP!

The Second Takeaway for June is this: Organic Traffic.

Organic Traffic is readers who come to your website via a search engine.  Usually this is because they have searched for a specific term, and found a page on your website that was relevant to what they were looking for.

In the blogging world, Search Engine Traffic is the Gold Standard.  {This is why we focus so much on SEO: Search Engine Optimization}

Readers who come to your blog or website from search engines are more likely to click affiliate links and buy products, be engaged with your ads, and click through to other, relevant articles on your website that you’ve linked to.

Stricly income-speaking, they’re the most valuable type of traffic.

They’re also the hardest visitors to get.

Seach Engine competition is BRUTAL.

I’m not going to delve into HOW to get search engine traffic (I have a 10,000-word article/tutorial on exactly how to do this coming very, very soon) but I do want to encourage you to do something simple right now:

Start tracking what percentage of your traffic is Organic.

For example, I started tracking mine here at Fit Mom Journey, and found that since January 2018, my percentage of traffic from search engines has more than DOUBLED.

That’s right, it went from 7.70% in January 2018 to 17.91%% in June of 2018.

During that time, my traffic dropped by about ⅓ (because of sumer), but the percentage of traffic from search engines has greatly increased.

This is an important metric to keep track of, and if you’re not already I encourage you to start today!

Then, go check out my SEO Tutorial – it’s thorough, easy to follow, and free.

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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This post may contain affiliate links.  See my disclosures for more information.