The past two months have been an interesting mix of exciting opportunities, but have also had some disappointments. I did a fun paid competition and upcycle and have a few possible opportunities lined up. A few of my favourite posts were sharing my 5 simple tips to improve your blog photography with things you probably already have, my new cork mousepad and of course the delicious oat waffles.
Why am I Sharing my Blog Income Report?
The point of showing you my traffic and income report is so that you can come along with me on the journey of improving Pure Sweet Joy. I’m aiming for transparency that can keep me striving for my best, as well as help you in your own blogging journey. I know, I know, it’s not only about the numbers, but it is a good way to measure progress. I intend to post my monthly Google Analytics stats, along with any expenses and earnings that I may have received. I’ll also speak about any changes or improvements made, accomplishments achieved and challenges faced.
Challenges
Unfortunately there was a drop in my Etsy sales. From what I can see, sales seem to be largely driven by a couple viral Pinterest pins. Having only a few channels doing all the promotion is not a good idea, as when those channels change, I see a huge change in sales. Sales do also just naturally fluctuate, so hopefully it’s just one of those months. There has also been a gradual decline in Google Adsense revenue lately. This may be partly because of mobile view the adds only show way down below the post, so will hardly even be seen.
Changes
Adsense: I am testing out the page-level ads, as well as changing my side bar ads to responsive ads.
Blog post promotion: I have been trying to find more places to promote my blog posts. This has included trying to find some useful Pinterest Group Boards to pin posts too, as well as trying out Board Booster. Board Booster seems, so far, to be a really great tool for scheduling Pinterest pins. Since much of my traffic (and Pinterest’s general users) are from the US, the times that I would be pinning just do not match up with when they would be around. Board Booster allows you to add a whole bunch of pins in one go and then it’ll slowly pin them out to the correct board. My favourite feature though is that you can set up a campaign. By adding a pin to the campaign (e.g. a new DIY post) it will then pin to all the boards (my own board and group boards) that I have selected for my DIY pin campaign. The campaign can run over a number of days, spacing out the pin.
I have also been trying to be more active in useful Facebook groups and on Instagram to build relationships there.
Photography: I have still been loving using Lightroom. It has changed the way that I store photos to a logical one. Yay!
Goals
In the next two months I aim to keep finding new ways to promote my blog posts and also to try to be more active on Instagram and Facebook. If I don’t actively think about what to post, but just wait until something is obvious to me, then more often than not I just don’t post. Life just takes over.
I’ve had a Creative Market shop open for a while now, but I need to get all my Etsy content loaded onto Creative Market. I’m also aiming to redesign the images used for these items, as the images are quite outdated now.
Expenses – May:
Supplies – R2466
Google Account – R80
Lightroom & Photoshop – R159
Hosting – R18
Total Expenses – R2723
Earnings – May:
Adsense – R246
Etsy & Creative Market – R2359
Guest posting – R500
Sponsored posts – R3000
Total Earnings – R6105
Expenses – June:
Supplies – R361
Google Account – R79
Lightroom & Photoshop – R152
Hosting – R18
Total Expenses – R610
Earnings – June:
Adsense – R270
Etsy & Creative Market – R1215
Guest posting – R500
Total Earnings – R1985
What are your goals for your blog? Is there anything that you’re struggling with or something that surprised you by how well it worked?
I’d love to see your Pure Sweet Joy DIYs. Show me on Instagram using #puresweetjoyblog or email me at deborah [at] puresweetjoy [dot] com. Like what you see here? Follow along on Facebook, Twitter or Bloglovin.
Ana says
Love your blog – this year my goals were to get my social media platforms to 1000 it’s been pretty slow but I’m getting there
Deborah says
Hi Ana. Thanks so much for hanging out with Pure Sweet Joy! Social media can be a slow process sometimes. I’m working on mine too.