Blog Traffic and Income Report : How I made $7,557.28 in June
I am so excited to be completing my sixth blog traffic and income report of 2017!! WOOHOOO!!
If you are new here…I started my blog in April of 2012 but just messed around with it for the first 2 years while I was soaking up as much info as I could about the art of blogging, marketing, & other biz strategies.
I am happy with how this accountability study and goal mastery went last year. Although, I will say it was a transitional year for me with the blog. I feel like 2017 is going to be a successful year for Arts & Classy! I have decided to keep up the accountability going for the year 2017. I really admire those that are making an income online and disclosing how they are doing it.
When I am writing my blogging articles, I am constantly saying to myself… what would I have wished I had found when I was learning who to blog?
This is the basis and mindset of ever blogging or business post I write. I want this to help you succeed! I am sharing my wins and my losses and let me tell you. I learned a lot last month!
If you haven’t seen my last monthly income of 2015, you can check it out Blog Traffic and Income Report: How I made $2,410.10 in May.
This post contains affiliate links at no additional cost to you. It helps to keep this blog up and running. I appreciate your support.
Check out all my Blog Traffic and Income Reports page!
What worked in June.
June was a month of fun sponsored opportunities, a refreshing blog conference, & learning a lot about my influence potential on Pinterest.
I was able to work with an amazing brand called Jasco. They are known for their amazing string light variations. I transformed my balcony at my apartment on a budget with these lights.
I attended the BlogHer Conference where I met a blogging friend of mine for the first time at the event. If you want to learn more about my experience… check out my post about my experience at 2016 BlogHer and 2017 BlogHer. It was at Blogher in Orlando that I realized some of the errors in my ways. Over the past year and a half or so, my vision of what A&C is and can be was a bit clouded from overwhelm. It’s amazing what taking a step back and surrounding yourself with the right people can do for your mind and spirit. It brings clarity, which was refreshing to experience.
Lastly, Pinterest is making me excited about life again! Since I monetized my Pinterest, I have been able to see where I have been missing out on income! All the hard work and focus building my Pinterest account is finally paying off. This month was my highest recorded income for my blog + social media income. I was even able to hire my boyfriend to help me manage my Pinterest. I taught him everything he knows.
What I learned in June.
What I knew I needed to do last month was….
- Play around with new fonts on the site.
- Get new photos taken of myself (for my site and social media handles).
- Update my logo.
- Creating a new imagery.
Things I actually completed…
- Changed the font on my site.
- Got new photos taken. Check out my about me page + my Instagram @artsandclassy & @meredithgetsfit to see more!
- Changed some of the imagery and updated my Pinterest board covers to the newer dimensions they changed to.
I am hoping that by giving my site a mini makeover, I can help boost my viewers experience on my site and boost my traffic numbers. My goal is to get back to where I was at 200k page views per month.
Here are the traffic analytics stats from May…
Here are the traffic analytics stats from June…
- My page views decreased by -11,229.00 in June.
- The average time on my site increased by +1 secs.
- My bounce rate increased by +.35%.
Here is the breakdown of how I did with my income…
- Pinterest Syndication Influencer……….$5,228.77
- AdThrive ………………………………………………$813.00
- Content.ad ……………………………………………$68.64
- Amazon ………………………………………………..$162.52
- Awin ……………………………………………………..$15.08
- Acorn Influence……………………………………$475.00
- SheKnows/BlogHer……………………………..$500.00
- Adsense (via youtube) …………………………$5.63
- Selling my furniture flips ……………………$130.00
Total …………………….$7,557.28
My Recommendations (if you have or want to start a blog)…
After switching to BlueHost as my web host at the end of April 2015, I am happy to report that my site has only crashed once.
I signed up for a 3-year deal where I pay an awesome price with BlueHost. Awesome hosting without killing my blog expense budget. This was not the case when I was hosting with Go Daddy after I started getting more traffic.
Also, did I mention that a lot of my photos from my transfer in hosting didn’t make it?? So now I am manually replacing photos on posts and galleries which can be super tedious work. This is still something I am working on. No fun!
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.
I purchased the EpicBlog Editorial Planner in December 2014 and have been staying true to my income and expense tracking for this year. I really wanted to see if this would make a difference in what was just my hobby and has helped me make this a lucrative side business. This has helped me tremendously.
I highly recommend it 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!
*BONUS* Here are a few investments/tools I started utilizing (once my blog was making $1,000 per month).
Now that I am making a decent side income each month, I don’t see any harm in freeing up my time to finish my ebook and work on more DIY projects.
- I’ve been using the social media automation tool Meet Edgar for 2 years now and I swear this was such a great move! I am saving so much more time every day by not having to be on my phone scheduling posts on FB, Twitter, and Linkedin. It is a little bit of a splurge costing me $49/month. But this is a solid investment because it frees up my time to other things.
- Another tool I began using is Tailwind. I heard about it from the fabulous Blogger, Erika, over at Olyvia.co. Since working with Tailwind and joining more group boards within my niche, I have increased my traffic substantially.
- LeadPages is another tool I implemented in 2016. I finally splurged for $37.00 to have access to lead boxes, pages, and other amazing features to automate my email sequences better.
- I used to use MailChimp and now I use Convertkit to send out my email newsletters. The pricing is the same for my email list size.
I didn’t realize how much I could still learn from Pinterest when I felt like I had a really good handle on it with my following when it was at 5,600k. I thought I had a lot of traffic coming to my site daily. But this article taught me so much and showed me Tailwind.
This automation tool is geared specifically towards Pinterest and Instagram. Now I have over 44k+ followers and I am gaining hundreds weekly.
That was pretty exciting. I attribute a lot of my success to Tailwind. Since 65% of my traffic comes from Pinterest, it was so it was worth the investment. I can schedule an unlimited amount of pins for weeks ahead of time with their easy interface.
I love setting it and forgetting it! Getting back to life to be present in the moment.
Best. Thing. Ever.
** You can try Tailwind for free and schedule up to 100 pins before they ask you to pay $15/mth for 400 pins a month + there are other plan options.
Since this platform is my largest traffic referrer, it was worth the investment and I paid for the annual membership.
Check out my I also have some great blog post brainstorming tips. for more info on other helpful resources.
Want to start a blog of your own?
Wow, that is awesome. Congrats. What is a pinterest syndication influencer and how do you become one? It sounds like you were able to use your strong following both for that and for traffic w/ your website. Way to go.
Wow, that is awesome. Congrats. What is a pinterest syndication influencer and how do you become one? It sounds like you were able to use your strong following both for that and for traffic w/ your website. Way to go.