October 2013 Income Report

It’s that time again where I take a look back at what I have achieved over the previous month. October had its fair share of ups and downs, however I am fairly pleased with what I have managed to do. There is, of course, always room for improvement.

Without further ado, let’s look start the income report.

Traffic Statistics

Traffic to this blog had been dropping for quite a few months. October was the first month in a while where traffic actually increased. I only published twelve posts, so I suspect the increase in traffic was due to some older posts gaining some traction on Google (I know I need to analyse my traffic more!).

October 2013 Income Report
  • Visits – 10,089 (+1,062)
  • Unique Visits – 8,668 (+753)
  • Pageviews – 29,960 (+3,999)

* Difference in traffic from previous month shown in brackets.

Last month my global Alexa rank was 91,016. It currently stands at 86,715, a slight improvement over last month.

Readership & Social Media

Small gains were made in readership in October. The increase is nothing spectacular, however I am not active on many social media services so I do not expect big jumps.

I would like to see an increase in the number of email subscribers. 15 new subscribers in a month is terrible in my opinion. I need to make a conscious effort to increase readership through email.

Income Details

As you all know, most of my income through this blog still comes from freelance blogging. Last month I noted that I had started writing full time for another blog. That unfortunately did not work out. The owner of the website kept asking me to do more and more work without increasing my pay. He also did not give me any credit for the articles I had written, which is something I charge a higher rate for. Therefore, in the middle of the month I politely advised him that it wasn’t working out.

I took on one or two other writing jobs so it was not a bad month overall. Book sales were very disappointing, which is making me reconsider whether it is worth writing for Amazon. I may revisit my idea of releasing books there first and then offering them free later through this website.

Total income for October was $3,208.29; which is an increase of $428.44 from the previous month. It was generated through:

  • Freelance Blogging = $2,429.80 (+$398.10)
  • Consultation = $550.00 (+$400)
  • My Books – $126.37 (-81.20). This includes digital and printed book sales.
  • Affiliate Income = $142.12 (-$148.46)
  • Advertising Revenue = $150 (+$50)

* Difference in income from previous month show in brackets.

Overview

One of the most pleasing things for me in October was finally launching my new Webmaster Resources section. It was an important milestone in the development in this blog. In the long term, I need to increase traffic to this blog. Advertising revenue and affiliate commissions should increase in line with traffic jumps.

Over this weekend, I am working on finishing my first guide. The guide will focus on website hosting. It will feature close to twenty articles and be a useful reference for beginners and advanced users alike. Some of the articles may be quite long, so it may not be completed until next week. My plan is to start publishing in-depth guides like this through this blog rather than automatically looking to profit from it through book sales or a membership website. This plan is, in part, a test. If I see an increase in traffic due to publishing more useful guides like this, I am going to spend more of my time publishing guides.

As I noted in the income section, book revenue was poor again. This is partly due to my books being older. One way to address this is to release more books. I have one book half written and another three or four that I have outlined (i.e. detailed the chapters etc). One idea is to release books through Amazon and then at a later date release them through here free. What do you think of that idea?

I hope you enjoyed this months income report. As always, if you have any questions regarding this month’s income report, please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

Kevin

I am an experienced blogger who has been working on the internet since 2000. On this blog, I talk about WordPress, internet marketing, YouTube, technology and travelling.
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