The end of June marks the end of the first half of 2014 and the beginning of the second half. It’s the perfect time to reflect on the growth of this blog.
I spent all of June in Colombia. In the last two weeks, me, my girlfriend Johanna, and her two little cousins, travelled to Medellin, Cartagena, and Santa Marta. We had a fantastic time. Colombia is such a beautiful country and we had a blast watching Colombia flying high in the World Cup in June. Due to this trip, I did less work in the second half of the month; however I still managed to get some work completed for some clients.
Regular readers will know that these income reports document the ups and downs of this blog, as well as income from freelance blogging. The reports do not detail income from other websites I own such as Rise Forums.
As you know, my income has increased a little over the last few months since I started taking on more freelancing work. With me taking a two week holiday in June, my income should have dropped, but is that what happened? Let’s look at how June worked out for me.
Traffic Statistics
Traffic increased in June, which is not surprising since no traffic was reported in the first several days of May. The increase in overall average increase has came from an increase in search engine traffic. It continues to be the main source of this blog’s traffic.
I got approximately 40,000 page views. I don’t think I’ll be happy with the traffic here until it reaches at least 100,000 page views per month, so I have a lot of work still to do.
- Sessions (Visits) – 13,987 (+5,374)
- Users (Unique Visits) – 12,125 (+4,834)
- Pageviews – 39,876 (+14,248)
Readership & Social Media
My readership and social media following grew at about a similar rate as previous months. I noticed that I broke the 1,000 follower mark on Google+. I’m not sure whether that is a milestone or not as I rarely use the service. Though it’s worth remembering that I’m not very active on any social media service.
The stats below were taken yesterday (8 July 2014). The previous stats were taken on 5 June, therefore they show a few days more than a full month.
- Email Newsletter = 2,154 Subscribers (+59 subscribers)
- Facebook = 1,090 Followers (+9 Followers)
- Twitter = 2,057 Followers (+29 Followers)
- Google+ = 1,030 Followers (+49 Followers)
- YouTube = 38 Subscribers (+1 Follower)
Income & Expenses Details
As you can see from the stats below, I actually increased my freelancing income in June. This compensated me for the slight drop in income in affiliate and advertising revenue generated through the blog.
In total I earned $6,430.26 in June. I also paid out $357 for four guest posts, therefore my total profit was $6,073.26. This represents an increase of $625.55 from May 2014.
Income
- Freelance Blogging = $6,007.66 (+$948.53)
- Consultation = $100 (+$100)
- My Books – $109.68 (-$11.41). This includes digital and printed book sales.
- Affiliate Income = $212.92 (-$47.62)
- Advertising Revenue = $0 (-$225)
Expenditure
- Guest Posts = $357.00 (+$138.95)
* Difference in income and expenditure from previous month shown in brackets.
Income Report Overview
My income reports have proved quite popular with many readers, however regular readers will know that it was never something that I had planned on doing. I introduced the reports because many readers kept requesting them, but I always had reservations about sharing income details online.
Writing this month’s income report reminded me that publishing these reports not only inspires readers, it also gives me a kick up the ass to review the performance of my freelancing and the growth of this blog. Truth be told, I would not always make a point of reviewing my income unless I had was motivated by writing an income report.
I was genuinely surprised that I made more money from freelancing in June than in any other month as I spent the whole month in Colombia. The first two weeks or so was spent in my girlfriend’s apartment. I worked hard every day to get a lot of articles completed. At the end of the month, we travelled for 12 days. I had hoped to finish my work early so that I had at least a week of not working; however we left three or four days early to make the trip a bit longer. My plan was to just squeeze in the work in mornings and nights over the first few days and just enjoy a few extra days holiday at the end when I was at the beach in Santa Marta.
Unfortunately, things did not work out exactly as I had planned. I struggled to get internet access in Medellin so could not do any work. We were only there two or three days so I postponed my work until Cartagena. The internet situation was marginally better there as I could get internet access in the lobby of my hotel. Though it was far from ideal. All I was was some plastic chairs to sit on, and with people coming and going there, I did not enjoy trying to do work there. I was unable to do any serious work in our room as the internet would go on for 30 seconds and then stay off for minutes. This problem was caused by the room being too far away from the router.
So I ended up doing all the work in Santa Marta. We had a great three bedroom apartment there one block from the beach. I could watch the World Cup and get work done through a reliable(ish) internet connection. It was just a pity that I was not able to relax on the beach as much as I had hoped, but that is the risk you take when you leave work to do when you are travelling. Even today, you cannot rely on the internet connections supplied by hotels. Had I known in advance, I would have picked up as Pay As You Go internet dongle (I will not take this chance next time).
If I had not gone on holiday, I could have potentially made another $1,500 to $2,000 more in June. It’s motivating to think that if I manage my time efficiently, I could be earning close to $10,000 per month from freelancing alone. Perhaps I should set myself that target. What do you think?
What has also became blatantly obvious to me is that I need to invest more of my income back into this website. Being on holiday and writing for others has meant that I have not published many articles over the last few weeks. Affiliate income and advertising income has barely changed in the last year. Which is no surprise as I am not devoting enough time and resources to the blog.
Ideally, I should be aiming for five great articles here a week. That means increasing my writing expenses for this blog significantly, but it will be worth it if traffic, readership, and income, increases. It has just been difficult to find the time to find a good writer who can help me publish good content without having to spend a lot of time editing their posts.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this income report. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about it. I also encourage you to drop by Rise Forums. We have a great group of bloggers, developers and internet marketers on board. I’m really pleased with the quality of members who have been signing up and I have no doubt the community will continue to grow. It’s free to join too so you have nothing to lose :)
Be sure to subscribe to my blog to get updates of my next income report. Thanks for reading.
Kevin