It’s that time of the month where I take a quick look back at how this blog performed in the previous month (you can see a list of my previous income reports here). July was not a profitable month for me due to my move back to the UK from South America. August was a little better.
Traffic Statistics
Less high quality posts is the main reason why my traffic continues to drop. I seem to be receiving less traffic for some of the keywords that were bringing in good traffic before. This is to be expected. I can’t really complain too much as I have not been updating this blog as much as I used to. Over the next few months, I am keen to bring in a few writers to help me publish content here.
Traffic reduced by about the same level as the previous month:
- Visits – 11,771 (-1,577)
- Unique Visits – 10,305 (-1,397)
- Pageviews – 33,138 (-4,010)
* Difference in traffic from previous month shown in brackets.
Last month my global Alexa rank was 78,925. It currently stands at 88,105 .
Readership & Social Media
My RSS stats have not moved much, but hopefully the introduction of a newsletter pop up will increase newsletter sign ups. As you can see, across the board, my figures have not changed much over the last month.
- RSS = 1452 Subscribers (-35 Subscribers)
- Email Newsletter = 1,862 Subscribers (+24 subscribers)
- Facebook = 312 Followers (+26 Followers)
- Twitter = 1,986 Followers (+5 Followers)
- Google+ = 468 Followers (+10 Followers)
- YouTube= 27 Subscribers (+1 Subscriber)
* RSS stats are tracked by Simple Feed Stats.
Income Details
You may remember that July not a profitable month due to me not doing any freelance writing. As a result, I only made $446.07. I had more time in August to write, therefore my income was higher. My total income for August was $2,184.89.
It was generated through:
- Freelance Blogging = $1,652.10 (+$1,652.10)
- My Books – $191.94 (-$33.36). This includes digital and printed book sales.
- Affiliate Income = $240.85 (+$20.08)
- Banner Sales = $100 (+$100)
* Difference in income from previous month show in brackets.
Ever since offering my book, The Art of Freelance Blogging, for free a second time, my rankings on Amazon have been terrible. This has been the main reason why my income from book sales has dropped over the last few months. It is very frustrating. On the plus side, I sold a banner. I am not actively looking to sell banners on the site (at the moment), though every little helps.
Overview
My freelance writing is the main reason that my income was higher in August 2013. This, unfortunately, comes at a price. The articles I wrote took longer than expected to complete, which left me with little free time to work on additional projects such as my next book.
Moving forward, I am unsure about how I should profit from the content that I write. Books is a good for exposure, though I thinking of looking at alternatives such as a membership website. Who knows, perhaps I should publish all my guides for free and generate income from the additional income I received. This is something I will discuss next week on the blog, so make sure you look out for that :)
I hope you enjoyed this quick look back at my income from last month.
Thanks for reading,
Kevin