Blog Traffic and Income Report : How I made $1,340.62 in March
I am so excited to be completing my 3rd blog traffic and income report. If you haven’t seen my last month’s income, you can check it out Blog Traffic & Income Report: How I made $779.23 in February.
I really wanted to start April off right by taking care of my monthly analysis first thing! I have received so many lovely and supportive comments and emails about my first couple income reports that I wanted to share March with you all ASAP.
This post contains affiliate links*
The process of really tracking my earnings along with my blogging expenses has been so helpful! It is quite eye opening to the amount of change that can occur within a month! I have just been implementing little things into my blogging daily schedule to see if it would make a difference in my traffic and my income. I am happy to report that it did help!
To reach my $15,000 goal for the year, my income goal was to reach $1,500 income goal for the month of March.
I didn’t quite make my goal, earning $1,340.62 for the month, but I am happy to say I did better than last month making $779.23 in February. That is a +$561.39 increase in earnings.
If you want to learn more about the art of blogging (because it is an art form) you should check out my Essential Bloggers Resource Guide to get more details if you are thinking of starting a blog to even just improving the one you already have.
I am really trying to put myself out there to (hopefully) inspire newer bloggers with my current and future monthly blog income reports. I am also doing this to hold myself accountable to continue pushing forward with my income goals for the year.
Moving on to the details from March…
I was really trying to focus on creating beautiful images… specifically, pin worthy images. I have also been working more and more with canva.com to do this. I had a couple posts go viral on Pinterest last month because of my images! Super happy about that one.
I wrote an article about how to make your space look more expensive on a dime that went absolutely completely viral on Pinterest bringing me an additional 49,000 page views for that post alone! I have tried to brainstorm more posts that I would want to read online and with that logic behind this post, I am pleased to say that it worked really well!
Another thing I really worked on in March was building my following on my social media platforms a bit more and applying for more affiliates and media groups. I worked with one new company last month (iSway) and had such a lovely experience with all of them on an awesome Pringles Campaign where I found some awesome thrifted gold trays that I spruced up for a girls night fiesta. I hope to do more campaigns with them in the near future!
Here is my March Google Analytics traffic summary.
I am SOOOOO pleased with the progress I made last month! I made some amazing headway and I was jumping up and down when I found out my total income. Especially making more than the pervious month! Yippee!
- My Page Views increased by +65,090
- The Average Time on my site increased by +12secs
- My Bounce Rate also increased (which is not a good thing) by +1.07%. As I try to approach my site as a reader, I have really been trying to tweak it to make navigation more seamless. I have also really been working on back linking in my posts to related articles to keep readers engaged & on my site longer. I suppose I need to just keep working at it.
My top referrers for the month…
Pinterest is the best traffic driving tool ever and I really trying to create more compelling images that people will want click on and hopefully pin to their boards.
I have been working so hard on my SEO and my keyword research prior to writing my articles and I am elated that I am showing up in search engines in the #4 position.
The sources of my earnings…I set a goal for myself at the beginning of March to make at least $1500 during the month. I am trying to set reasonable goals each month to reach my ultimate goal for 2015 of $15,000. Here is the breakdown of how I did.
- Adsense ………… $753.27 increase of +$451.30 from last month NEW RECORD FOR ME!!
- Infolinks …………..$33.99 increase of +$22.07 from last month
- Content.ad ………$106.06 increase of +$63.66 from last month
- Amazon …………..$119.30 increase of +$85.36 from last month
- Izea* ………………..$18.00 increase of -$2.00 from last month
- iSway…$250.00 This was my first time working with them!
- Blogher………………..$50.00 I worked on my first social media campaign with them on Facebook!
- Mom’s Affiliate*…..$10.00 increase of +$5.00 from last month
Total ………………$1,340.62
I did receive products this month! Some awesome Transform Mason accessories that I am excited to play with in April for my #30dayFLIP Challenge.
Blogging has really opened so many opportunities for me and I am so grateful to be able to continue to do it!
I attribute a lot of my success last month with my goal of getting organized. I purchased the EPIC BLOG One-Year Editorial Planner* and it has changed the way I do everything. I seriously love this thing! I bring it with me pretty much everywhere OR a notebook to write in if an idea strikes. I love how organized I am staying while planning my posts months in advance. What a relief it is to have things pre-planned!
I highly recommend this awesome planner if you are ready to get serious about blogging. The creator Regina is absolutely fantastic. I have learned so much about blogging and business from her!
I hope some of you found this traffic and income report helpful! I am planning on doing one of these monthly to help track my progress.
Also, make sure to download the “Networks to Join to Get Paid as a Blogger” FREE Checklist that I created for you.
Let me know what you think! Is there anything you want to know more about? Did you like this article? Let me know in the comments below. Your feedback really helps me to figure out how I can best help YOU!
Way to CRUSH it!
Just discovered your earlier reports and to see such a dramatic increase in your month-over-month earnings AND traffic is really impressive. Congrats!!
Thank you so much Mallory! It really is amazing what you can accomplish when you create a manageable plan! http://www.byregina.com and http://www.hobbytohot.com have helped me in that area. Thanks so much for the support and amazing feedback.
This was such a great read! I love seeing realistic, reachable numbers. I’m amazed at how much you made through AdSense! Any ideas on why such the big jump?
Hi Sydney! Thank you so much! I am happy you found it to be such a great read. I really do try to lay it all out for people to absorb. I think th big jump had a lot todo with my post that went viral. I joined some pretty successful group boards on pinterest and that has helped me gain so much more exposure and helped me gain a greatness audience. I am still amazed by my jump in adsense earnings! So excited….
Hey! Congrats on the huge jump of income! I think that’s fabulous!!!
I had the same questions about adsense so I’m glad she asked. My next question is, can you tell us where you place your adsense ads, and what size? Sidebar, header, leaderboard, square, etc.?
I mean… I can see your ads, but I’m not sure which ones are adsense ads or something else.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to get my large leaderboard ad on the top of my site, good for mobile friendly, and I haven’t figured it out quite yet!
I’d love any advice you have on that! thank you!
Hi Jessica! Apologies for my delayed response! Thank you so much for your comment! I am pretty excited about the income jump. I have been working really hard to get there.
I placed my ads:
Above my header and below my footer (728×90)
Side bar Qty. 3 – (300×250)
In each blog post Qty. 3 – (300×250)just under my pinterest graphic, in the middle of the article and under my signature at the bottom.
This will all be changing soon for me though because I have hired a blog ad management team at http://www.thebloggernetwork.com!! Pretty excited about making the change and hopefully increasing my income. But I hope this helps. Another book that helped me with Adsense was this book : How To Make Money Blogging: How I Replaced My Day Job With My Blog by Bob Loitch. It’s a short read and really helpful! I highly recommend. I hope this helps. I f you have any other questions… please email me at [email protected]. Xo Meredith
Thank you so much! That is so exciting! I have been reaching out to them too, and I’m crossing my fingers we get something going soon! Thank you so much for the advice! I really appreciate it! 🙂
love reading monthly reports. I’m so happy for you and amazed at all the increases to your income. I also bought the epic blog planner and can’t wait to really utilize it as you’ve done!
Hey Liv! I your comment just made my day… my week! You are so sweet to stop by for my income and traffic reports. Isn’t the EPIC BLOG Planner the best? It has helped me so much. I get excited to plan out my months and goals with that planner. Good luck in your blogging quest and keep in touch with your progress!!
Congrats on an awesome month! I read February’s report and it is inspiring to see your progress. You’re so right that Pinterest is key for driving traffic. Once I dedicated myself to “learning” it, I saw a big increase in visits. No pins have gone crazy viral like yours, but I’m working on it 🙂
Stacey! Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my income reports! Yes pinterest is key. I have noticed that joining group boards via http://www.pingroupie.com has helped me target the group boards that have helped my pins go viral. Well that and using canva.com for all my pinterest graphics. Has helped immensely and I am happy to hear that you are having a positive experience tweaking your images too! Keep me posted! If you ever have any questions… don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected]. Would love to help!
Nice work Meredith! It’s great to see your progress. Check out our blog for some tips on increasing your earnings with Izea
http://www.thebloggernetwork.com/katie-reed-of-amotherthing-how-i-make-3000-a-month-with-izea
The Blogger Network can also help increase ad revenue and mobile ads (which tend to pay MUCH higher than desktop ads).
Also, I bought the blog planner for myself. I’ve always been curious and your post pushed me to go ahead and get it.
Blog On!
Janet
Thank you so much! I am chatting with Jordan tomorrow morning about the blogger network! Excited!!