Blog Income, Stats, & Goals - Month 7

My post last month for my statistics for Month 6 was the most popular post from July.  I guess people out there like to see the growth and change that happens month to month for bloggers.  I know I love to read monthly stats for blogs to see what is working for other people and to find things that I can use for myself.


Let me start out by letting you know that for July, I didn't market my blog posts as much and I took quite a bit of the month off of blogging so I could spend time with my family.  We had some fun adventures and I loved spending time with my girls while they were out of school.  Since I did that, my numbers for visits to my blog are down quite a bit for the month.  My social media following keeps growing though.

Pageviews - Yes, my pageviews went down quite significantly.  As I said, partly due to the fact that I didn't actively promote my blog posts as much as I usually do.  I belong to a few Facebook blogging groups where we ask others to comment on, share, and pin our posts.  We help out other bloggers and get to know each other.  I have found quite a few blogs that I like to follow by those groups.  I didn't use these groups as much over the past month because I knew that I wouldn't be able to take the time to comment or share while I was out exploring with my family.  The other part of not as many people visiting is because it was after the seasonal time that my biggest post (DIY Patriotic Wreath) was relevant.  Even so, if you compare my pageviews from before my wreath with this month, the numbers have gone up over 2,000.  Also, I generally link up to quite a few different link parties each week and didn't do that at all during July.  I did link up at the Bloggers Brags party that I co-host and 3 of the 4 weeks I was featured on the party because my post was tied with others for the most clicks. On average, I get about 30-40 new views after being featured.

Social Media increase
Facebook - Every week I have new followers because of co-hosting the Bloggers Brags link party.  There are quite a few bloggers who comment on my page that they have visited and ask me to visit them as well.  I'm not really a "follow for follow" type of person.  I check out their site and decide if I genuinely like it.  As a thank you to my Facebook followers when I reached 600 likes, I hosted a short giveaway for a JoAnn's gift card.

Twitter - I have absolutely no idea how people on Twitter find me.  Some are through the Bloggers Brags link party (a few people each week follow on all the social media outlets).  I don't get a whole lot of interaction on my tweets, but I have a steady build of followers. One of my blogging friends, Kim from The Resourceful Mama re-tweets most of my tweets and she has a bigger following, so it might be from her.

Pinterest - Isn't this the one that brings the most social media referrals, the one that bloggers are always trying to get larger following on?  This month I worked a lot on Pinterest.  I read an awesome post from Being Spiffy on how she doubled her Pinterest following in 1 month (click here to read her advice).  I didn't reach her double of numbers because I didn't follow every single tip for the month, but my followers increased quite a bit with what I did use from her post.  The past week I have been increasing my posting schedule and it has helped quite a bit.  I signed up for the free trial of Tailwind to schedule pins instead of my pinning huge amounts at one time.  You get 100 free pins in the free trial.  I have scheduled a little over half of those.  Also, Tailwind has an analytics section that automatically tells you which boards have the most followers and I used those numbers to specifically work on adding pins to my two biggest boards.  I've seen an increase in followers to the two boards I decided to focus on and repins as well, which makes me think that the more you pin to a certain board the more often your board and pins are on the "weekly recommendation" in the newsletter emails that Pinterest sends out.  I do know that my Blogging board receives the most individual followers each month.  I just started a new board dedicated to Blogging Social Media and hope that it grows as well.  The referrals to my blog for the month from Pinterest increased 45% from the month before.

Instagram - I continue to use this for "behind the scenes" photos.  I share pictures of items I use in projects, places we visit or travel to, and random everyday things.  No pics of my family still since I try to keep my girls out of the public eye.  Most of the likes and follows are of my landscape photography or local events.  I think that if I try to sell my photographs in the future this would be a good way to reach the people that are interested in my nature photos. My most popular Instagram picture for the past month?  My cat helping me finish getting my craft room ready for moving things in. Check it out here.

Income Report for July
Expenses
$15 - gift card for Facebook follower appreciation
$3.25 - Supplies for two craft projects

Income
Google Ads - .01
Sovrn Ads (new) - .65
Products - $45 (book and free Craftsy class for being an affiliate)

Expenses      -$18.25
Income         +$45.66
Overall         +$27.41 

Since I was traveling and sightseeing so much, I didn't list any of my products on Indoor Yard Sale sites or my Etsy page.  I am going to add items to my Etsy page this week because I am donating a few Scrabble Tile Pendant necklaces to a blogging activity where I will in return have mentions of my Etsy page.

A note about Sovrn - most of the other ad networks for beginning bloggers are a pay-per-click or pay-per-sale.  Sovrn is a pay by impression.  So every time someone scrolls down your blog and passes by the Sovrn ad on your page, it counts as an impression and after a certain amount of impressions you receive earnings.  I really wish I had know about this for the month of June when my page views were so high!  You set the price that you want to earn and your ad is filled depending on how much you request.  As a beginner to the site, the lower amount you place, the more likely your ad will be filled and you will receive a better amount.  As your ads are more successful and you have more page views, you can increase your asking price and make more money.  I know that .65 does not seem like much to an experienced blogger, but as a new blogger it is actually a nice amount.  As I focus in August on posting more often and promoting my posts, I expect to have an increase in earnings.

As for my goals for July, I didn't reach many of them except to focus on Pinterest, find a pin scheduler, and find a place to guest post (coming up later this month!).  I'm okay with that though because I will be able to focus on blogging more when my kids go to school next week.

Goals for Month 8 (August)

• Consistently blog with quality posts
• Write About Me page
• Stock Etsy shop
• Continue to focus on Pinterest
• Create more projects that I can submit to Craftgawker
• Plan seasonal projects that will be of interest
• Practice taking better photographs for my blog
• Figure out how to do Rich Pins for my pictures

I would love to hear your goals for the month or week.  I think it's great when we can share with each other as bloggers and learn more.  What have you found to work for your social media growth?