Welcome!
Welcome to my strange income report.
The rollercoaster up and down from last year has turned into a simple downward slide.
Here is a screenshot showing approximately October 8 – October 31 (only b/c I forgot to take a screenshot earlier). Pageviews were much higher that first week, with a total of 5,677 for the week, which averages out to about 811/day.
As you can see above, my blog stats from October 2018 prove how truly volatile blog traffic can be! And you really need to be prepared for anything!
I just take it as a reminder to hang on for the ride, never get complacent, and diversify!
The low points were even worse than that one-week exception back in June. It’s like the summer slump hit us late…but who knows for sure.
I still wonder if my theory from last month is the culprit.
I’ve continued cleaning up my Pinterest account. And I think that somewhat unusual activity may have flagged my account with Pinterest and thinned out my traffic for a while until they can figure out what I was doing.
Kind of like when you spring clean your home, it always looks worse before it gets better. Crossing my fingers that’s all it is.
I’m curious what things will look like as we continue into fall and winter.
I’d love to start hitting 30,000 pageviews per month sooner than later. My search engine traffic seems to be picking up, which is really awesome!
Now on to the good stuff…let’s talk about money, honey!
Why Publish An Income Report?
Well, there are a number of reasons, including:
- It’s a great excuse for me to sit down each month to see what is working, what is not, and where I landed for the month.
- I love reading other people’s income reports. I find them fascinating, but they are getting harder to find. So why not make my own?
- It can be helpful for newer bloggers to see one example like this from a smaller blog.
- And it will be fun to see the change over time.
October 2018 Blogging Income Update
Before expenses, I earned $302.56 blogging in October 2018.
I earned exactly $0.11 more in October than I did in September.
The composition of my affiliate sales changed this month compared with the past few months. Luckily it increased overall, so I didn’t feel the reduction in my ad revenue due to the steep drop in traffic.
$300 is really the baseline that I’m gauging success on these days, so I’m still on track. Barely, but I’m hanging on!
I still cannot believe that it’s possible to make money like this from a blog. Can you? It’s just crazy to me!
Anyway, I’m very curious to see what the next few months hold income wise. November hasn’t started off much different than October ended, so we’ll have to wait and see what’s in store!
October 2018 Online Income Breakdown – 302.56
- Affiliate Income – $114.96 total:
- Milkology Affiliate Income – $18.02
- Amazon Affiliate Income – $96.94
- Mediavine Display Advertising – $187.60
Total: $302.56
How Are Things Going at Frugal Nesting?
Frugal Nesting is just riding the wave! Through all of the ups and downs, things eventually seem to level out for the most part.
I’m thankful for that because the extra income is really nice to have. And it makes me happy to see that people are enjoying the content that I so love creating!
Things on the personal front have calmed down somewhat. It’s been about 3 months since we lost my father and we’re learning how to move forward.
It’s helped to be as busy as we are. We are in the thick of school, sports, and family activities so there is barely time to catch our breath!
GQ is doing well in 3rd grade. He’s an avid reader and we have worked out a great compromise regarding reading material. For every Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dogman book, he has to then read something of my choosing. So I’ve been selecting some of my childhood favorites – mostly award-winning selections of one kind or another.
He continues to play soccer and prefers the goalkeeper position. He has adjusted well to the new team, but it sure helped to have two of the kiddos from the Grizzlies along for the ride!
In addition to all of that, Logi is about to turn 3 and we are trying to get ready for our Baby Girl’s arrival in January. So we’ve been BUSY!!
I’ve got a ton of fun business ideas for while I’m on maternity leave, so stay tuned!!
Past Income Reports
September 2018 Small Blog Income Report
August 2018 Small Blog Income Report
May 2018 Small Blog Income Report
Recent Updates
I haven’t changed much with the blog since the huge facelift back in May. Though I have been adding more images to some of my most popular posts. I hope it looks okay.
I’ve been sending out my biweekly newsletter using MailerLite to my sweet subscribers so you guys always have the inside scoop on what’s going on behind the scenes.
And I’m thinking about changing my posting schedule to every other Tuesday temporarily. Would you guys mind?
I continue to work my way through Elite Blog Academy (EBA) by Ruth Soukup. It’s truly THE best option for building a successful blog from the ground up. Get on the waiting list now if you’re not already!
For the most part, we’ve just been in maintenance mode for the past few months. Now I look forward to getting back on track as soon as I can catch my breath!
Traffic
In October 2018 we had a total of 17,348 page views, which is slightly more than we had in September. Though most of that was from the beginning of the month, so it’s not really indicative of the current trend.
The numbers are not what I would have expected heading into fall, but I’m just going to keep pushing and stay positive!
I like to include a year over year screenshot to show the progress. Progress is really the only metric that means anything, particularly for smaller blogs.
This is the first month in a *long* time where the year over year doesn’t look so hot, particularly as the month progressed.
The one place where there was definitely progress was in the income category. I only made $92.90 in October of 2017. We more than tripled that for October 2018! So that’s something!
See what I was working on last month below…
Most Popular New Posts from October 2018
How To Keep Your Kids from Getting Sick
Lactation Smoothie Recipes for Nursing Moms
Healthy Family Thanksgiving Menu
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Don’t forget to check out all of my favorite things on my recommendations pages for the best things to make your life easier whether it’s parenting, budgeting, family living or blog related. Thanks again for visiting…I hope to see you again!!
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