How I Make Money Blogging- January 2017 Blog Income Report

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This is my January 2017 blog income report in my fifth month of blogging. In this post, I explain how I make money blogging and all other important blogging events that took place in the last month.

Before I start, I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years Holiday!

I did not celebrate New years too much. In fact, I was working on my blog for New years.

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer for more information.

 

 

Why I’m Blogging My Income & Traffic Reports

When I created this blog, it was to show people how to make money online through online jobs, online businesses, blogs, websites and so on. What better way to do that than to allow them to see me doing it right along with them, right?

1. I want to be able to document the growth of my blog.

2. I want people to see that it is possible to make money blogging and ultimately create a better life with more choices for themselves and their loved ones.

3. I love writing, so I will take the opportunity to write anything!

Plus it’s all the rave these days and everyone’s doing it! Just kidding! I’m not one to follow the crowd, but I am particularly interested in making money and sharing my experiences trying to do so online.

4. The main aim of my monthly blog income and traffic report is to help someone, somewhere, learn something from this, and create a better life for themselves by starting their own blog, if that’s what interests them, but they’ve been afraid to take the leap!

So, if you’re that someone who would like to create your own blog, I created a detailed, step by step guide on how to setup a blog in 30 minutes or less with SiteGround. If you use my link, you can receive a 60% discount and start blogging for just $3.95 per month (unbeatable value!!!). I recently learned that it is really possible to make money from a blog and I am determined to do this right and have a super successful blog. I would love for you to join me along the way!

I am super excited to share my January 2017  blog income report for my 5th month of blogging (January 2017). This month was awesome since I came at it with a vigor…all thanks to new years resolutions!

I notice that many bloggers start income and traffic reports when their blog actually starts to make money, rather than when they first start their blog. I get this since:

1. Many bloggers start their blogs with no idea that they can even generate an income from it, or with no desire to even do so.

2. Some do not even know the concept of a blog income and traffic report when they first start out blogging.

But, I do, and I want to be different and share the progress of my blog from the very beginning rather than from when it starts to actually make progress.

 

I’M SHARING MY INCOME AND TRAFFIC REPORTS TO KEEP YOU AND ME MOTIVATED!

Here’s what I think

I suspect that many people who start blogging quit before really giving it a chance because they don’t seem to see much progress in terms of traffic and income in the first few months of blogging (month 1-3). Therefore, blogging seems useless to them.

Moreover, many people don’t see bloggers ‘like them’ who aren’t making much money and getting much traffic as yet. After all, the blogosphere is filled with income and traffic reports from bloggers who choose to share their income and traffic reports when they ‘look better’

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. But this blog is about helping the newbies, like me, see full, unedited progress and pitfalls from day one.

I share this in the hope that it will keep newbies motivated and let them see that they aren’t doing anything wrong, they are merely learning and progressing at a typical pace.

Also, if you’re not yet a blogger, I hope my income and traffic reports, as well as all my other juicy articles for newbie bloggers, will help you build up the courage to start your own profitable blog as you see that anything is possible with it no matter what your stats are in the beginning. It will get better, way better, if you do the right things consistently.

 

A FEW HIGHLIGHTS FOR JANUARY

Pinterest traffic continues to grow! Can you imagine that one day last month I got 891 page views from Pinterest! This blew my mind! More tips on this below!

I focused on keywords for Pinterest. This helped me out a lot! I am currently adding finishing touches to my post about using keywords on Pinterest and how this helped to increase my page views in January. I will link it here when it is published.

 

Overall, January was the best month I’ve had in terms of traffic and income.

As you may know, this blog was launched on September 1st, 2016 and this is my 5th blog income and traffic report.

As you can imagine, I am still learning so much every day!

If you would like to see my progress over the last four months, you should have a look at my previous blog income and traffic reports below.

• September 2016 income and traffic report ($51.29)

• October 2016 income and traffic report ($145.89)

• November 2016 income and traffic report ($245.36)

• December 2016 income and traffic report ($334.51)

 

These Were My Goals For January 2017 – Was I successful Or Not?

 

GOAL #1: Get 12,000 page views by the last day of January 2017

Successful!

I set a goal to reach 12,000 page views in January, and I wasn’t sure if I could achieve it, but I did! I am so glad that my blog is growing.

 

GOAL #2:  Engage with bloggers more in facebook groups and grow my own to 100 members.

Failed

I engaged with many bloggers last month, particularly in other facebook groups. However, I did not grow my own facebook group to 100 members. New Bloggers Network now has  63 wonderful members!

 

This is how I was able to make money blogging this month.

GOAL #3: Make $560 from my blog.

Successful 🙂

INCOME

Ad networks: $70.56

Web hosting: $600.00

Survey affiliates: $72.20

Jaxxy Affiliate: $20.00

Shareasale: $1.00

TOTAL INCOME: $763.76

 EXPENSES

Web Hosting: $3.95

Tailwind: $15.00

TOTAL EXPENSES: $18.95

Net income: $744.81

 

GOAL #4: Publish 4 blog posts (each 1500 + words). 

Successful (although some of the posts I published are short tutorials that are 500 words or less)

My editorial calendar seems to be doing the trick! I’m so glad I  was able to publish more than 4 posts last month!

 

Here Are My Blog Related Posts I  Published In January 2017

1. Fourth Income and Traffic Report

2. How to Set Goals for your blog this year. 

3. How to choose and install a WordPress theme.

4.  How to add plugins to your WordPress blog.

5. How to activate your WordPress after you’ve gotten web hosting.

6. Adding pages and posts to your WordPress blog

 

GOAL #5: Get 100 more email subscribers

Failed

I was able to get 44 new email subscribers in January! I am happy about my progress, but I know that I can do better.

My opt-ins seems to be lacking this ‘thing’ that will encourage sign ups. I’m going to have to put some time and real thought into my email opt-ins. Anyways, since I’m writing this to you, yes you, my lovely reader…What is it that my opt-in is missing? What aren’t you getting from it that’s preventing you from signing up? I would really love your feedback on this as this can help me out a lot.  Please feel free to leave a comment below or use my contact form to send me an email 🙂

GOAL #6: Get 180 more Pinterest followers

Failed

I got 164 beautiful,  new Pinterest followers this month!

GOAL #7: Complete a super detailed content upgrade for my ‘How To Start A Blog’ post

I have not been able to finish this yet since it is a bit more work than I had expected, but I made some good progress last month!

That was how my January went! What do you think of my accomplishments for January? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

 

Takeaways From January 2017

Each month I set goals (for accountability and focus). Sometimes I think I’m crazy for sharing my goals publicly, and thus having to dedicate myself to accomplishing them. However, I am well aware that I can get really lazy, really quickly, therefore, I know it is best to do it this way. The fact that I have outlined my goals to you, my lovely reader, encourages me to work hard and not disappoint you or myself by slacking off!  I did not accomplish all my goals for the month of January,  but I am super happy with my progress this month.

At the beginning of every month, I will set some goals and we will see if I accomplish them! I will outline my goals for February at the end of this post, so please read on.

 

BUT FIRST, FOR THE TAKEAWAYS FROM January

 

PINTEREST

I continued to see great progress from Pinterest. Both my Pinterest traffic and followers grew. In January, I got an average of 400 daily page views from Pinterest and an average of 5 followers daily.

I focused a lot on implementing great keywords in my pin descriptions. This helped increase my traffic a lot! If you’re on Pinterest and you aren’t using good keywords, I highly suggest starting as soon as possible.

I also spent a considerable amount of time trying to come up with a Pinterest template that I actually like. To be honest, I hate most of the pins that I have floating around on Pinterest. I cringe when I see some of them, but I’ve read from multiple other bloggers that it is a bad practice to delete pins, so I will keep them there.

Since I’ve started blogging, I have been trying hard to get a template that I like and I think I finally have one! What do you guys think of my new Pinterest images?

In case you want to start using Pinterest to get blog traffic, I suggest you take advantage of this free month trial of Tailwind by clicking this link. This is the scheduling tool I use to schedule my pins. I love this tool guys! It saves me tons of time plus, it gives me detailed insights on how my pins are performing and how my Pinterest boards are performing. I love this since it helps me understand where to put my focus when it comes to my Pinterest account.

 What I Did In January

• I scheduled and pinned 120 pins daily. Use the free trial of Tailwind to make this easy breezy!
• I joined a few more Pinterest Group Boards.
• I spent some time away from Facebook groups and STUDIED Pinterest, particularly, what successful bloggers who are getting boatloads of traffic from Pinterest are doing.

Why?

I really want to do well with this blog, and in order to do so, I must implement strategies that work to get more visitors to my blog. However, I cannot yet afford courses from Pinterest gurus. Therefore, I have to take it upon myself to study and learn from the bloggers who are successful at their Pinterest marketing strategy. I must say, I learned some valuable information last month.

Therefore, if you want to get tons of visitors from Pinterest but can’t afford courses as yet, please take some time to study the techniques that the gurus are using. The information you learn may be really invaluable.

 

What I Plan To Do In February

• Continue to work on improving the keywords in my pin descriptions.
• Spend more time studying the strategies of successful bloggers who are getting great results from Pinterest
• Join more niche group boards.
• Stick to my Pin template and update the old pins in my older posts.

 

FACEBOOK GROUPS

What I did in January.

• I networked a lot in Facebook groups. My focus was on giving value to members of those awesome Facebook groups who needed help, It feels good to be of help to newbies like myself!
• I also worked on my own facebook group called New Bloggers Network, although I did not spend all the time I had planned to improve the group. It’s specifically for bloggers under 2 years who are looking for a place to network, grow and support each other. You can join here!

What I will do in February

• Continue to network and build relationships with bloggers in the awesome facebook groups that I have joined
• Work on growing my Facebook Group and connecting with bloggers and online business owners like myself.
• Implement more daily threads within New Bloggers Network that will help our members.

 

ORGANIC TRAFFIC

Organic traffic was okay this month although it did not grow as I had hoped. I was able to grow my organic traffic by 20% last month.

What I did in January

• I placed so much focus on learning Pinterest strategies, therefore, I did not do very well with the keywords and SEO practices in my blog posts last month.

 

What I will do in February

• Section out some time this month to update my January blog posts and make them SEO friendly.
• Make sure to implement great SEO strategies to all posts I publish in January.

 

If you want to improve your own SEO and search traffic,  have a look at the exact steps I will be following for my own blog. Read this article on a proper keyword research tool, that’s way better than Google Keywords Planner.

Also, read this article on the basics of understanding and implementing good SEO strategies

 

What were your takeaways in January 2017?

I’d love to know what you were up to, as well as what failures, successes and lessons you learned this month, so share with me in the comments below! 🙂

 

Blog goals for February 2017!

1. Get 15,000 page views by the last day of February 2017. In 28 days guys! Can I do this?

2. Engage more in my facebook group and grow it to 100 members.

4. Increase my income by 30% = Make $984.10

5. Publish 4 blog posts (each 1500 + words).

6. Get 100 more email subscribers.

7. Get 200 more Pinterest followers.

8. Work on and test out more content upgrades.

Will I achieve these goals at the end of February? Stick around to find out how I’m doing!!

Also, if you have any questions at all, leave a comment and I will help out! 🙂

I would love to know your plans for your blog this month! Share with me in the comments below!

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Learning Material That I Highly Recommend

 

Pinteresting Strategies: This e-book helped me increase my page views drastically. My blog went from 12,000 page views to 56,000 page views in a few months!

Making Sense Of Affiliate Marketing: This course is a must for anyone interested in making money online through affiliate marketing. I’ve learned so much about affiliate marketing just from this course and I have been able to grow my blog’s income from $1700 to $3000 exactly 1 month after getting the e-course and implementing some of its strategies.

Pinterest Traffic Avalanche: This e-course walks you through absolutely everything you need to know about succeeding on Pinterest. It’s super in depth and will teach you some amazing Pinterest strategies that you won’t find anywhere else. This course is especially great for helping you create the best pins which in return, help you get loads of traffic from Pinterest.