August 2014 Income Report

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It’s that time again where I look back at how this blog performed over the previous month. While these reports were initially published due to reader demand, they have become useful to me as a way of seeing where I need to improve.

As you know, my income reports track how much I have earned through this blog and through freelance blogging. It does not take into account earnings from other websites I own such as Rise Forums.

Let us take a closer look at the ups and downs of this blog in August 2014.

Traffic Statistics

Despite my problems with GetResponse, traffic continued to increase in August. A quick look back at my May 2014 income report shows that traffic has more than doubled over the last three months (around 2.5 times more traffic in August than May).

It is encouraging to see traffic growing. Part of the reason blog traffic is going up is due to an increase in posting frequency, both by myself and by guest posters. If I can resolve the issue with my weekly newsletter within the next week, I expect traffic to continue to grow in September.

August 2014 Traffic

Total pageviews increased by around 25%. If I can maintain this momentum, I might be able to reach 100,000 monthl page impressions by the end of the month.

  • Sessions (Visits) – 22,730 (+4,884)
  • Users (Unique Visits) – 19,912 (+4,477)
  • Pageviews – 63,474 (+12,558)

Readership & Social Media

If there is one thing that is consistent in my income reports, it is the slow growth of my social media following. Unless I start paying to promote my Facebook and Twitter accounts, I do not see this trend changing.

Income & Expenses Details

Income dropped again in August, though it is not something that concerns me. The majority of my income still comes from freelance writing, so when I work less, I make less. If I were to take on my writing gigs in September, I could double or even treble my earnings. However, that is not what I am striving for as I do not want to burn myself out.

There are a few reasons why I worked less in August. One of the main reasons I worked less is that for two separate weeks in August, me and my girlfriend stayed at my parents house to watch their dogs while they were on holiday.

It is difficult for me to be productive when I am dog sitting. I need to walk the dogs two or three times per day. I spend a lot of time playing around with the dogs so they do not get bored either. But even when I do try and get some work done, it is hard to be as productive as I am back in my own house.

I had considered returning home every day to work, but I did not do that in the end as it would have involved a lot of back and forth between our houses. Therefore, I just took advantage of staying over at my parents house and relaxed more. :)

In total I earned $3,367.56 in August. I also paid out $287.44 for guest posts, therefore my total profit was $3,080.12. This represents an decrease of $1,100.98 from July 2014.

Income

  • Freelance Blogging = $2,815 (-$1,447.85)
  • Consultation = $0 (No Change)
  • My Books – $118.26 (-$25.21). This includes digital and printed book sales.
  • Affiliate Income = $434.30 (-$115.85)
  • Advertising Revenue = $0 (-$150)

Expenditure

  • Guest Posts = $287.44 (+$153.25)

* Difference in income and expenditure from previous month shown in brackets.

Accurate Tracking

On my income reports page there is a note about the accuracy of my income reports. It is worth me expanding upon this issue again briefly.

Over the course of a year, the overall figure given in these reports for income is correct; however there is some discrepancy in the figures between months. This is due to the impracticality of checking dozens of affiliate accounts every month.

Some affiliate links only generate a couple of dollars per month and do not reach the payment threshold for many months. Others generate no affiliate sales for months and then generate a commission randomly. It is impractical for me to add up small amounts of affiliate income from affiliate accounts every single month; particularly as many of those commissions will not be paid out for months, or even years.

Therefore, what I do is track the main affiliate accounts that generate income every month and then track revenue from other accounts in the month they are paid. It is not a perfect solution, but for the purpose of tracking my revenue, I think it works.

Due to this setup, the figures can be a little misleading. For example, one website that did not use to earn me a lot of money has earned me over $300 in affiliate commissions over the last three months (around $111 in August). Yet these amounts have not been tracked as yet because they have not been paid. Since this website is now generating more income, I should really start tracking income in the months they are earned, not the month they are paid. However, for me to do this, the figures are going to be skewed incorrectly for a month as I normally track them when they are paid.

Over time, the issue of certain websites earning more than usual will not affect the total income tracked in a year. But on a month to month basis, they can make reported earnings smaller or larger than they actually are. Please bear this in mind when reading my reports :)

Overview

My income has halved since June, however this is not something for me to be concerned about as the drop in income is due to me working less hours.

The most important thing to me is that traffic to this blog is increasing. That is really encouraging me to focus more of my attention on this blog.

Last month I stated my goal was to increase traffic and income on this blog. Affiliate income was slightly lower, however traffic increased considerably, even though I lost thousands of impressions due to GetResponse’s buggy service. This is encouraging as if I start selling banner ads through a service such as BuySellAds, I could generate a lot more money through this blog. This additional income could be used to hire other writers and increase publishing frequency; which in turn increases traffic and income.

My goal for September remains the same. I want to increase traffic to this blog. I had around 63,500 impressions in August and would be ecstatic if I could increase this to 75,000 in September (around 2,500 page impressions per day). That is an increase of around 18 per cent. It is definitely achievable if I continue to blog regularly.

I hope you have enjoyed this income report. If so, I encourage you to subscribe to my newsletter. If my experience with GetResponse is anything to go by, you should receive my next newsletter in mid 2015 :)

Thanks for reading.

Kevin

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