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How have two months already passed? Seriously, guys time is flying.
I have been so blessed to get to know so many of you. Each of your emails or comments give me the biggest smile.
The growth of Moms Make Cents has been even more than I anticipated. Last week, I talked about one of my secret weapons and how that contributed to my growth, but in this recap I want to cover what else worked and what was a flop this month!
If you want to blog too I’ve created an in-depth beginners guide with my best tips I’ve learned over seven years of blogging. Read how to start a blog and make money (it’s over 15k words + videos!).
PAGE VIEWS – 9,656
7/22 – 4,907 8/21 – 9,656
Difference – 4,749 Increase – 97%
Last month I was super excited to have 4,900 page views and this month my page views nearly doubled. I had a few posts do especially well on Pinterest…
How I Make Money On Pinterest Using Affiliate Links 1.4k Pins
How To Make A Big Impressions With A Tiny Pinterest Following 1.1k Pins
How I Started Three Businesses My First Year As A SAHM 1.1k Pins
Each of these had 1000+ pins and are continuing to grow!
No surprise here, but the majority of my traffic was via Pinterest approximately 80% the remainder was from Facebook and other referral traffic.
EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS – 356
7/22 – 146 8/21 – 356
Difference – 210 Increase – 144%
This month I launched my Free Pinterest Course had over 100 people sign up in the first two weeks! This significantly increased my email subscribers. I also continued to receive subscribers from my opt-in The Mompreneur Tool Kit.
PINTEREST – 1376
7/22 – 859 8/21 – 1376
Difference – 517 Increase – 60%
It was another great month for Pinterest growth! In this post I talked about Tailwind and how using it to schedule my pins helped me grow my followers, traffic and views on my pins.
Ever since starting this blog I have been tweaking my Pinterest strategy.
Currently, I use Tailwind + their SmartLoop tool to plan my Pinterest posts.
TWITTER – 622
7/22 – 384 8/21 – 622
Difference – 238 Increase – 62%
This month I transitioned from scheduling my pins with buffer to using a looping system with IFTTT. It was a bit tricky to set up, but has been a major time saver!
Twitter has been great for connecting with other bloggers and fostering new relationships. Overall, however, I don’t see much traffic from my Twitter account.
FACEBOOK – 32
7/22 – 16 8/21 – 32
Difference – 16 Increase – 100%
If you follow me on Facebook you are a gem. I haven’t been super active on there, but hope to increase my activity and possibly add a Facebook group in the future.
INSTAGRAM – 49
7/22 – 35 8/21 – 49
Difference – 14 Increase – 40%
Similar Story. I technically have an Instagram account, but haven’t been active. My goal this month is to start posting on Instagram at least once a week.
WHAT WORKED?
Creating my email course to grow my list. Holy Moly! You guys ate this up. In the first week, I had almost 80 new email subscribers. That is insane considering that my list was only in the mid one hundreds when I launched it.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK?
Because of all of my new email subscribers, things started to get tricky. I originally had it set up so that I had a separate list for each content upgrade. However, when I wanted to send out an email to you lovelies I could only send it to one of my lists or some of you would have gotten duplicate emails.
This month I spent what felt like a million hours figuring out how to segment my MailChimp list to have groups for each content upgrade. Eventually, I ended up getting a year plan to OptinMonster which made things so much easier. There are still a few things that need to be tweaked, but I am so relieved!
TOTAL # OF POSTS
My goal has been to write at least post one blog post each week. Every Tuesday I have a new post up for your beautiful ladies to read. If my schedule permits, I will add an additional post on Thursday’s. This month I also did my first guest post which was super exciting!
12 Revolutionary Tools To Perfect Your Pinning
How To Use Tailwind To Skyrocket Traffic To Your Blog
15 Ways To Boost Productivity As A Mommy Blogger
How to Make Money on Pinterest With Affiliate Links
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing: The Secret to Making $50,000 a Month Blogging.
One Month Recap: Zero to 4,900 Pageviews in 30 Days
How To Write An Epic Pinterest Bio (Guest Post on Wonderfelle.com)
SURPRISE!
When I checked my site search queries this month I was surprised to find that most people were searching for my income or income reports. Well I have exciting news…this month I will be sharing my first income report!
Yep! This month I made my first bit of money on my blog! Now to be totally transparent this was earned this month, not paid out. Remember to take that into consideration.
If you want to start a blog check out my post on How To Start A Blog In 10 Minutes Or Less!
I am sharing this because reading others income reports was one of the factors that finally motivated me to start this blog. Plus, I want my experiences to be a case study for you. You can learn from what I did right and what I did wrong so you can rock it on your blog.
This month’s income was all generated via affiliate marketing. I do not have my own products yet, and have chosen to not have ads. This income does not include income earned from my freelance clients and consultations as I don’t count that as income directly from my blog.
If in the future I do a total online income report (but just not specifically blogging), I will include those numbers.
INCOME REPORT
TOTAL: $379.87
+ STORE CREDIT
$15 to Tailwind
$10 to BoardBooster
$30 to MailChimp
Total Monthly Income (Cash + Credits) = $434.87
EXPENSES:
Mailchimp $0 (Usually $10, this month was covered by referral credit)
Tailwind $0 (Usually $15, this month was covered by referral credit)
BoardBooster $0 (Usually $5, this month was covered by referral credit)
OptinMonster $49
Total Expenses: $93
Trello For Business was a course I signed up for to help me become more organized in my business. The $29 was a one time fee for the course.
OptinMonster – This month my biggest issue by far was figuring out how to segment my list on MailChimp. OptinMonster helped me to save users into groups on my email list based on what content upgrade they opted in to. Also, now when you click on one of my links to an opt-in or a promo for a freebie you now have a pretty popup box instead of being redirected to a landing page. The $49 was for 12 months of OptinMonster.
Screencast-o-matic – This is a tool that allows me to record my screen. I’ve been working on a special project and I have been using this to make videos. The $15 expense was for 12 months of this service.
TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
Overall, I am very pleased with this second month. Here are a few tools that helped me meet my goals.
1. Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing – If you want to monetize your blog I highly recommend this course! The course creator Michelle from Making Sense of Cents makes over $50,000 a month from affiliate marketing. I have been reading her income reports for years so I had to jump when she launched her course.
The focus of this course is affiliate marketing, but she also covers information on how to direct traffic to your blog and optimize your posts that have the most traffic. I had my first affiliate sale within two days of starting this course and ALL of my blog income this month was from affiliate marketing.
You can check out my full review of the course and interview with Michelle here.
2. OptinMonster – This seriously has been such a lifesaver for me this month. I am not super techy, but needed a way to incorporate all of my opt-ins in a master email list.
The pop up boxes for my opt-ins also look much more professional compared to re-directing to a landing page. My opt-ins have been converting super well too!
3. MailChimp – Growing my email list has been one of my main goals for the first two months of this blog. Using MailChimp’s automation features I have been able to set a free course which has exploded my list growth.
Hopefully, in the next couple months I will be able to roll out a welcome series as well!
4. Blog & Be Legal – Since the beginning I have viewed this blog as a business and as a businesses there are certain legal matters to consider. Blog & Be Legal is an all inclusive guide to the legal aspects of blogging. The course includes videos on every legal topic and legal templates!
5. Tailwind – This month I have been more aggressive with using Tailwind. I’ve been implementing more of its features and utilizing its analytics software. This has been a big contributor to my increase and traffic and income.
Alright, that’s a wrap on my two month blog update and first ever income report! Are these types of post you enjoy reading? Should I continue with growth/income reports in the future?
Do you have a blog? If so comment below with the link so I can check it out, or click here to learn how to start your blog!
17 thoughts on “Month Two Update: How I Made Over $400 In My Second Month Blogging”
Awesome post. Thanks for the help
Awesome post! It’s so awesome to see such great growth for your blog!
Thanks so much! It’s crazy this was over two years ago. I now make a full-time income blogging!
I love reading early income reports! It’s so motivating seeing bloggers finally get that first bit of money, that seems so unlikely when you first start.
Go you!! 🙂
Hi Emily!
Thank you so much! I totally remember how exhilarating it was when I first started! Flash forward 2.5 years and my blog has allowed my husband to quit his job. Seriously such a blessing ❤️
seriously your words are like a green signal to me, I’m planning to for a blog from last 2 months but didn’t have courage till now. I’m gonna start writing from tonight only 🙂
Hi Poonam!
I’m so glad that this blog post inspired you! Best of luck on starting your blog!
Thanks for this! So helpful and encouraging! I have just completed my first month of blogging and you have motivated me!
Hi Kim!
I just looked at your blog and it is so pretty! Very Joanna Gaines 🙂
Best of luck to you with growing your blog. You’ll do great!
XO,
McKinzie
Love this! Tailwind is such a great resource for bloggers. I started using it very recently for my female entrepreneurship blog, Startup Chic! (https://startupchic.online/) I’ve used Screencast-O-Matic many times throughout college + love it as well.
This post was super helpful! I am in my second month of blogging and I unfortunately have only made $3 so far, but that has motivated me because I didn’t expect to make anything yet! My blog is savingsimplywithkeira.com and I would love if you checked it out! I am about to subscribe to yours now.
Hey Keira!
That is so exciting that you are starting to make money. For most people, it takes six months or so before they start seeing a profit! Stick with it 🙂 I am so excited for you.
As a little update, my blog now makes a full-time income!
Hello there!, thanks so much for the encouragement! As a new blogger, it’s great to hear & see. Any tips on monitoring/publishing an income report for future??
My lifestyle blog is http://www.margeswearin.com – I’d greatly appreciate any tips or feedback!
Loved the information and the transparency! I am one week into my blogging journey. I have been learning so much, but know there is so much more to learn! I have to slow down every little bit, and just breathe! Thanks for sharing your information!!
Hey Mattracea!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. There definitely is a lot to learn. As a new blogger you might also find this post on how to start a blog helpful. It goes way beyond just setting up your blog.
XO,
McKinzie
Great post! I am coming up on the end of month 1! No money made yet, but I’m hoping to start making a profit so maybe my husband can go down to part time next semester!
Love this. Very new blogger here. 1 month in. It’s so much that I feel a little overwhelmed but I’m going to stick with it. I would love to be able to stay home, take care of my children and live freely. Big dream of mine. Happyhealthysheila.com