Income Report for October 2020
Welcome to my October 2020 income report. I continue to publish income reports on this blog for the sake of anyone who wonders how people make money online.
No, I’m not making thousands of dollars each month. However, I have made significant progress since last year, and I’m sharing the behind-the-scenes numbers with you each month.
It’s a way to track my progress, keep myself accountable, and hopefully show you how to scale a blog to a full-time income.
I’m not there yet, but I plan to get there eventually.
Anyway, on to the numbers for the month.
October STATS:
Note: The numbers in parentheses are from last month. I’m retrieving these numbers from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush, Convertkit, and my social media platforms.
Pageviews: 34,960 (36,386)
Sessions: 28,624 (30,094)
Users: 25,345 (26,648)
Organic Sessions (Google): 10,874 (11,947)
Social Sessions: 11,947 (15,609)
Mailing List Subscribers: 4175 (3948)
Pinterest Followers: 4k (4k)
Facebook Followers: 5.3k (5.3k)
Facebook group members: 48 (40)
Twitter Followers: 3.2k (3.2k)
Instagram Followers: 337 (323)
Tik Tok Followers: 497 (167)
Total Social Media Followers: 13k (12k)
Posts published: 7 (9)
So overall, my traffic was down this month. However, my income was not down (as you’ll see later in this post.
That’s because I don’t rely solely on ads for revenue. I also promote affiliate offers and sell my own products.
However, my goal is to hit 100k pageviews by the end of this year. And so, I certainly have a long way to go.
Google Search Console stats
Google Search Console total impressions: 531k (398k)
Google Search Console total clicks: 9.39k (9.72k)
Average Click through rate: 1.8% (2.4%)
Average Position: 16.7 (18.4)
So the pattern is the same as last month. My impressions are increasing but my clicks are not.
I’m right in the middle of completing the Stupid Simple SEO course, and I’ve learned that if I can bump up my rankings for posts that are in the 3 to 7 spot in Google, that will significantly increase the number of clicks I get.
So, I have a list of articles that match that criteria and are good candidates because they get a lot of traffic. I’ll be working on those.
SEMRUSH stats
Organic search: 11.3k (11.8k)
Backlinks: 2.3k (1.9k)
Organic keywords: 3177 (3036)
MOZ Domain Authority: 19 (19)
These numbers are pretty steady from last month. I hope that they keep growing.
October BLOG INCOME REPORT:
Advertising
Mediavine: $416.27 ($397.40)
Pageview RPM: $14.54 ($13.21)
Affiliates
Amazon OVERALL: $92.75 ($58.58)
Note: I’m reporting everything in US Dollars.
Amazon US: $70.70 ($43)
Amazon CANADA: 13.74 ($5.27)
Amazon UK: $8.31 ($10.31)
goal was to make $100 /month
Betterhelp: $675 ($0)
ShareASale: $0 ($27.50)
Awin: $7.24 ($2.84)
Clickbank: $0 ($0)
So as for the affiliate sales this month, I’m quite pleased. I did a promotion for Amazon Prime Day and that boosted my Amazon commissions nearly to $100 for the month.
I’m also noticing I’m getting a handful of bounties, which are for things like Audible Memberships. So I think I will promote these more.
I had three Betterhelp conversions, which is always helpful for boosting my income. I did not run a Betterhelp promotion this month, so I’m not sure how to account for that cluster of conversions. I did add Betterhelp to my welcome sequence, but the conversions were only in the first part of the month.
The surprise this month was Awin, which is actually just Etsy for me. I think I only have two posts that promote Etsy products, but I made nearly $10 from those posts this month. I think I will do more Etsy-based posts.
I’d also like to open my own Etsy shop!
Products
Products overall: $136 ($154)
Social Anxiety Masterclass: 2 sold (0 sold)
Art Therapy-Inspired Coloring Bundle: 0 sold (0 sold)
CBT + Mindfulness Workbook Tripwire: 5 sold (11 sold)
Social Skills Workbook: 1 sold (2 sold)
Self Confidence Journal: 0 sold
Again, I did not launch anything this month and I also did not run any flash sales. So overally, I’m pleased with sales, but know that I could push this number much higher with another launch.
Total income: $1327.26 ($640.32)
Income per subscriber: $0.32 ($0.16)
My income per subscriber was higher this month, mostly due to those Betterhelp conversions. I’m planning to “clean” my email list this month so that number should improve.
Monthly expenses:
Email (Convertkit): $79
: $13.60 (use and discount code KSDISC to save 20%)
Teachable: $39
Canva: $12.82
Tailwind: $14.99
Kara Fidd Templates Membership: $15
Faith Mariah Blogging Mastermind: $50
WordPress Support from iMark Interactive: $27
Total expenses: $251.41 ($251.41)
I actually did sign up for Leadpages this month but quickly cancelled. I’m just not at the point of being ready to switch, since I will need templates for sales pages, etc.
Net blog income: $1075.85 ($388.91)
Thoughts about this month’s income report:
It’s always nice to have a high income month, but I really want to have income sources that are more stable. I believe this means writing more posts, promoting more affiliates, and creating more products.
The problem I’ve had all along is that I’m trying to do all of this while still working my regular job. Last month I was worried I would burnt out on writing, and that’s what happened at the end of this month. It’s just too much writing. Something needs to change!
Goals for November:
Here is what I’ve laid out for November. I decided to cut my list down to just four things so that it is more doable.
- Finish Stupid Simple SEO
- Do an affiliate launch for Get Your Pretty On
- Clean my email list
- Plan or create a product/membership
Do you want to learn to start your own blog? I’ve put together my ultimate guide to starting a blog in this post.
Past Income Reports
- May 2020 Income Report ($442.24)
- June 2020 Income Report ($942.64)
- July 2020 Income Report ($515.94)
- August 2020 Income Report (1347.67)
- September 2020 Income Report (640.32)
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