August 2020 Blog Income Report – $4,832.62
This month was a whirlwind for me. School resumed for my daughter who is distance learning from home. While she and I would both prefer in class learning, realistically I’m not comfortable with that yet so it all works out.
On the blogging front, let’s just say I have a lot of irons in the fire. It’s great because that’s how my mind works. It’s also not great because I know that means that instead of putting 30 articles at one site, for example, I might have one site with 3, another with 10, and another with 1.
Essentially that means that each site will take longer to grow.
Overall, income is up so I can’t complain. This is in spite of traffic being down on a few sites.
π½οΈ Income School Interview π₯
In case you missed it, this month my interview with Ricky Kesler went live where I talk about how Project 24 has made such a huge change in my income in just 1 year. In fact, here is that video in case you want to watch it.
The result has been an enormous amount of positivity and outreach that I am very thankful for. It has also gotten a lot more eyes on these income reports. No pressure!
π°NEW THIS MONTHπ°
- 3 New Sites πΌ – I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. Two have 5 articles, and one just has 1. I would love some feedback on these (and future sites, more on that in a separate section)
- I hired 2 New Writers – These are specialized, US-based writers for two of my larger sites. I hired them on Upwork. That brings my total to 9.
- I Ran Out of Content – Not really, but I provide a basic outline of my posts for my team and, in getting distracted with other things the “Available” list dwindled to nothing. I’ve now trained my VA to help with this task so hopefully, it won’t happen again.
π€ Feedback Request π‘π
As I add new sites I think about 3 things:
- When they are really little, they usually have no traffic. I think it is probably encouraging for others with baby sites to see that yeah, that’s normal, but if I have one post on that one site, is it worth even putting on this report?
- Do I add them to the income log. Maybe I need help thinking outside the box but big data tables like my Income Report Overview just weren’t made for the web, at least not the one I am using. It looks horrible on mobile, practically unusable, so is it providing value? Is there a better format or layout I should be using to show this much data? About 60% of my traffic here is from desktop so maybe its fine?
- Names: Right now they are called NSP 1, 2, 3, etc, and then the niche. I’m thinking about redoing the naming convention to something like Project Rosebud – Gardening. I don’t know. I do know I have 16 in my list right now….sites with actual posts on them. 10 are earning money already. If you ask me what NSP3 is, I don’t know without looking it up.
Maybe I am overthinking it? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
π August 2020 BASIC STATS π
15 “Active” Sites – More or less this means a site that I am actively doing keyword research for and having writers write content for. Not every “active” site gets new content every month.
- 71 Posts Published
- 96,546 Words Published
- $70.40 in Product Sales
Combined Traffic for 16 Total Sites
- 219,257 Sessions
- 263,973 Combined Pageviews
- 195,511 Organic Pageviews
π° August 2020 Income for My Sites π°
- Niche Site Project 1: $2,673.41 π
- Niche Site Project 2: $142.93 π»
- Niche Site Project 3: $1,515.42 π
- Niche Site Project 4: $314.77 π»
- Niche Site Project 5: $14.92 π
- Niche Site Project 6: $3.02 π
- Niche Site Project 7: $0
- Niche Site Project 8: $5.48 ππ
- Niche Site Project 9: $16.46 π
- Niche Site Project 10: $0
- Printable Site: $14.00 π (for products not related to NSP1)
- This Site: $146.21 π
Total Gross Revenue for August 2020: $4,832.62
Keep in mind this is money earned, NOT received, in the month of August.
πΈ August Blogging ExpensesπΈ
- Virtual Assistant – $336.00
- Pinterest VA – $87.14
- Graphic Design – $302.00
- Domain Names – $69.91
- Hosting – $111.90
- Pin Template Starter Kit – $15.00 (but this link has 10 free!)
- PicMonkey – $12.99
- Canva – $25.90
- SEM Rush – $99.95
- Manage WP – $26.60
- Shopify – $29.00
- Copyscape – $20.00
- SendOwl – $24.00
- Zapier – $24.99
- GeniusLink – $5.00
- Education – $182.00
- OnlineJobs.ph – $69
- HP Instant Ink – $5.46
- Microsoft – $6.99
- Graphic Templates – $12.80
- AppSumo – Frase – $124.20
- AppSumo – Tyle (for Videos) – $53.10
- Other Lifetime Software – $366.85 (trying these, not sure if I am keeping them)
- Affiliate Payout – $5.00
Total Expenses: $1,754.78
Net Blogging Income for August – $3,077.84
- July Net Income: $2,909.54
- June Net Income: $1,657.20
- May Net Income: $2,225.68
August Content Expenses
Content expenses are up a bit from last month which was $1,362.89. My new writers are working well in the system. Right now I am pretty happy with my current crew so I shouldn’t be adding any new writers in September. But we’ll see how things play out. I’d be comfortable with a $2,000 a month investment in content at this point so it really will depend on production.
- Upwork β $1,471.45
Net Income after content investment: $1,606.39
- July Net Income after Content: $1,546.65
- June Net Income after Content: $1,267.16
- May Net Income after Content: $1,960.64
Net income is up compared to last month, which is a good thing. I’m experimenting with different software to try and monetize some of the sites and increase conversions. I’ll provide more details on those software programs if they work out (and possibly if they don’t).
Important to Note
This income report may look glamorous but I want to point out a fact. I had to put $500 of my own money into the business at the end of this month. Now, granted that is to cover some big expenses coming up the first couple of days in September before my Mediavine payment comes in.
While income reports, like these, may look glamorous, they don’t reflect actual cash in the bank. I try to be transparent that this is income earned, and not received, and this is a prime example of that.
Granted, I could have budgeted a little bit better and not let the account get low but, the fact that this business mostly pays for itself is already a blessing. I just wanted to point that out.
My bank account balance has nothing to do with these income reports because the biggest income source, MediaVine, pays out 3 months after the money is earned.
Once that payment hits though, this will be the first time I actually pull money out the other way i.e. back into my account (even if just to pay me back for the 3 day “loan”.
August 2020 Blog Income Screenshots
Here are the screenshots from my biggest income producers during the month of August.
Traffic Reports
NSP1 πΉ β 5.18% Decrease in Sessions!
Most of this decrease is due to Pinterest. I need to be more consistent. This follows on the heels of a 5.21% decrease last month as well. Surprisingly though, RPM’s are up which means income is up.
Pinterest overall is down almost 30%. There is also a 5.58% decrease in organic. The good news is, overall the site is holding pretty steady.
I can see that when I log into the P24 Dashboard dashboard which has all of my sites trends at a glance. I’ve also been working with Yanis, the founder, on developing an amazing tool for those of us that use Pinterest. I can’t wait for it to be release to show it to you!
This site’s data is in red.
In spite of a 10k pageview drop from the last two months, the site still earned more in July than it did in May which I think is great.
Month | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews | Revenue |
June | 3 | 285* | 4649 | 140,385 | $2,666.77 |
July | 9 | 294 | 16,304 | 130,682 | $2,576.22 |
August | 10 | 305 | 17,711 | 124,192 | $2,673.41 |
View the detailed profile for this site here.
NSP 2 π² – 5.72% Decrease in Sessions
I think part of the reason this site didn’t break even with page views from last month is because I didn’t email my audience. With over 6,000 subscribers now, emailing them can make a huge traffic difference for this site, especially since it is only at 7,421 total sessions.
This month my focus is mostly on this site. The prime time for this is this site is December and January due to people setting their new year’s resolutions. That means I really need to get in gear and get a product on here.
This is priority 1 for September, superseding even the Project 24 Content Warrior Challenge βοΈ.
Month | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews | Revenue |
June | 0 | 65 | 0 | 12,523 | $127.66 |
July | 1 | 66 | 791 | 14,170 | $156.35 |
August | 3 | 69 | 3506 | 12,338 | $142.93 |
View the profile for this site here.
NSP 3 π‘ β 19.42% Increase in Sessions
This site is continuing to climb up. In April it got an unnatural boost to over 150k views as Google played with one of my articles. Things were stabilizing (decreasing in May and June) and finally started rising back up more naturally last month.
I’m happy to see that trend continue this month with over 19.42% increase in sessions (and a similar increase for pageviews).
Month | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews | Revenue |
May | 6 | 69 | 8144 | 104694 | $1,028.67 |
June | 5 | 74 | 8310 | 73,201 | $963.46 |
July | 7 | 81 | 11715 | 82,148 | $1,129.63 |
August | 20 | 102 | 25567 | 97,785 | $1,515.42 |
View the profile for this site here.
NSP 4 πΎ – 11.95% Decrease in Sessions
Almost a 12% drop this month. Over the past 3 months the site has gone down almost 18% based on sessions, around 10,000 sessions total for the period.
While not the end of the world, I’m hoping to be able to turn things around but I haven’t spent as much time as maybe I could analyzing the project and looking for keyword gaps.
I did add quite a bit more articles this month so hopefully we’ll start to see a little growth in the right direction soon.
Month | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews | Revenue |
June | 2 | 43 | 2887 | 20,174 | $323.37 |
July | 2 | 45 | 3433 | 18,298 | $338.93 |
August | 10 | 55 | 13,091 | 14,555 | $314.77 |
View the profile for this site here.
NSP 5 π β 26.55% Increase in Sessions
Another month with nice growth for this site. Unfortunately, the majority of the traffic is to one post. That’s OK though, it’s kind of the kick in the butt I needed to get this site going.
I mean, it’s a consistent money earner now!!
Month | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews | Revenue |
June | 2 | 14 | 2135 | 995 | 0 |
July | 2 | 16 | 2440 | 1546 | $6.65 |
August | 1 | 17 | 1222 | 1932 | $14.92 |
View the profile for this site here.
NSP 6 π¦ – 15.51% Increase in Sessions
Man, I wish this site were growing faster! I have a few more pieces of content I need to add to it and then it is back to keyword research for this baby. Pageviews and income are up this month but I’d love to break 1,000 pageviews in a month!
Month | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews | Revenue |
June | 2 | 56 | 7146 | 560 | 0 |
July | 3 | 59 | 6454 | 478 | $1.71 |
August | 0 | 59 | 0 | 534 | $3.02 |
View the profile for this site here.
NSP 7 πΆ β Not Forgotten
My parenting blog is not a focus right now. Traffic is less than 200 pageviews per month. I havenβt added a post in over a year. At some point I might do something about it but now is not that point. Just adding it in here so you werenβt wondering how we went from project 6 β 8.
NSP 8 π§° – 195.21% Increase in Sessions π
Yay for baby sites that can pull huge percentage increases! This site went from 167 sessions last month to 493 this month. That’s a nice jump up!! Every metric improved which is nice. Thanks to Ezoic, this site has hit Pizza Day ππ!!
Month | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews | Revenue |
June | 0 | 34 | 0 | 147 | 0 |
July | 0 | 34 | 0 | 177 | $0.94 |
August | 1 | 35 | 3579 | 534 | $5.48 |
View the profile for this site here.
πͺ NSP 9 – 1.28% Increase in Sessions
Considering this site is only 5 months old I am very pleased with it’s progress. The traffic increase wasn’t as great this month, in fact pageviews are down in spite of sessions being up, but it’s still nice.
Month | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews | Revenue |
June | 6 | 16 | 7618 | 1219 | $0 |
July | 18 | 34 | 21535 | 1405 | $9.33 |
August | 7 | 41 | 10264 | 1393 | $16.46 |
View the profile for this site here.
New Project Stats
These sites are so new I normally wouldn’t post about them but, maybe you would like to get to know them a bit. None of them are running ads yet.
Site Niche | Age (months) | # Posts Added | Total Posts | # Words Added | Pageviews |
π₯¬ Health & Fitness | 1 | 5 | 5 | 6575 | 63 |
π Lifestyle | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1040 | 47 |
π― Agriculture | 1 | 5 | 5 | 6094 | 93 |
π Sewing | 2 | 6 | 7 | 5898 | 78 |
π Lifestyle / Fitness | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 294 |
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MY NICHE SITE PROJECTS
Interested in reading about my niche site projects? Check out my Niche Site Project List to see my projects & their individual status.
RESOURCES I USE
I keep an up to date list of all of the tools and resources I use to manage my blogs, including how I create the awesome dashboards in my income reports, on my Tools and Resources page.
These are my top tools:
- ClickUp β It has easily helped me 10x my productivity.
- Big Scoots Hosting β (or, alternately, SiteGround)
- Tailwind for Pinterest
- ConvertKit for Email List
- Airtable for data tracking/spreadsheets when I first started (though I use ClickUp Exclusively now)
- Project24 the main course I took to learn how to blog, and my primary blog course recommendation.
- BloggerPlot for Analytics and Search Console Analysis in one place.
- Amalinks Pro for Amazon links and awesome tables.
- OnlineJobs.ph for my Virtual Assistants
- Pinteresting Strategies Course for Pinterest
NEWSLETTER SIGNUP
If you want to be updated when I write a new blog post, use this form below. It isnβt pretty but it works :D. I promise to try to remember to email you!
Hi! I am one of those people that found you after the Project 24 interview. Congrats!
For feedback:
1. Yes, include them.
2. Yes, it is helpful. Perhaps an option to trim down the table to just a running total instead of a by site view on mobile or a note to say it’s better viewed on the desktop. I do like it no matter how you care to share.
3. Yes, give them more descriptive names for your sanity + readability.
I am a data analyst, and I rarely like to turn down data. π If it adds a lot of work to do these things, then I might be more hesitant to keep you focused on your revenue generating tasks.
Awesome stuff. Good job on all the sites!
Hi April, I searched you after Ricky’s interview on Youtube even if he didn’t put a link / your name in the description. Your blog is very impressive with all these Niche sites that you are building! You spent 24 hours a day to build them?! LoL
It’s like you’re managing a company with all these tools and writers.
I just wonder why you use BigScoots Hosting β as at $35/month for 1 site that’s SUPER expensive! (Never heard of them before)
I also clicked on Ezoic and read their website but I didn’t understand what they are for.
Thanks for your detailed reports!
Hi April! Thank you for your blog and reports. Since I have a 7m.o. site, yes, it would be nice to know how other younger sites in terms of traffic are doing. Also, it’s a great idea to rename your projects. Personally I would understand if you name them (for example) Pets1 and Pets2, because hronological order does not change even with the same name. Thanks again
Thanks for the feedback Catherine!
Also, your tables are fine on the mobile, as long as you get used to scrolling them to the side. May be include a note for new people that will probably miss a lot of info otherwise.