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Well, I have officially started doing income and traffic reports. Even though I have been blogging for a year this is my first report and I am super excited to dive right in! I know, I know I am super late but better late than never right?! Ha!
Each month I will share my progress on my biz journey in hopes to inspire others to keep pushing with their blog + biz even when things seem slow. Trust me, you can make a full-time income doing what you love.
I believe YOU… Yes, YOU! Can do anything you put your mind too –Philippians 1.13.
I can’t wait to see my end of the year report to compare my growth as well as hear about the growth of my different readers!
Oh! If you are thinking about starting a blog! You’re in the right place! Woo hoo! I have a tutorial that will show you how to start a profitable blog TODAY! I’m currently blogging full-time after quitting my day job and it has been the BEST decision I have made thus far! Making money from blogging is TOTALLY possible! You can check out the tutorial on how to start a profitable blog by clicking here!
So let’s do this!
June Income & Traffic Report
Traffic Report
So, something MAJOR happened with my page views this month! While finishing up creating my first Social Media E-course, I started implementing a NEW strategy (that will be in the course) and guess what? The results knocked my socks off! When I started testing my new social media strategy out it skyrocketed my site traffic. Below is a snapshot of one of the days in May when I first started the new strategy. I had over 4,509 page views in ONE DAY! Whattttttttt! Are YOU serious??!
And with a total of over 59,000 this month! OH! MY! GLEE! I went from having 6,000 monthly page views at the end of last year to over 59,000 last month! #WOW!
Also, after utilizing my new online strategy I got indexed by Google in their search results! Whattttt!
Next Goal: 60,000 page views for the month of July!
End of the year goal: 100,000 page views
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So How Did This Happen?
In the month of June, I focused on 3 major things to grow my blog.
The three areas of focus were the following:
Longer Posts With A Ton Of Value
So a huge part of May was focusing on creating high-quality content for my readers. I spent a whole week writing 7 new blog posts with tons of value of over 1200 words! IT WAS INSANE! Buttttt, it was so worth it! By doing that I noticed that my content became a lot more shareable. Google is a huge fan of long detailed blog posts and so are readers! DETAILS! DETAILS! DETAILS! People want details with charts and numbers on how you achieve what you achieve with your blog. I believe you can create value with your posts by packing it full of information that teaches your audience something or inspires them to achieve their goals. Going the extra mile and writing longer posts definitely paid off, because it’s one of the reasons I saw a boost in my traffic. I’m also more of a quality over quantity type a girl, so posting up one post per week with a ton of value is totally fine with me.
SEO (Keywords)
Let me just say… I am currently OBSESSED with SEO and finding the right keywords for my blog + posts! I stepped up my SEO game and started putting relevant keywords throughout all my blog posts, titles, and pictures used in my blog posts. To help with this, I have been using the WordPress plugin Yoast and it has been super AMAZING. I am currently in the process of updating all my old posts to make sure they are SEO friendly. I used the tool as well Google Keyword Planner and let me tell you I love it! I believe this strategy was the reason that my site got indexed by Google so quickly.
Facebook & Pinterest!
I can’t say enough about using Facebook and Pinterest together! Seriously, using both have been game changer for me! On Pinterest, I stepped up my pinning game and started to pinning more throughout the day (using Tailwind to help with this) and I also put in a ton of effort to make sure my overall Pinterest profile (Bio, pin description, pin titles, etc.) were packed with the right keywords.
On Facebook, I participated in Facebook group promo threads to help boost traffic to my blog, and so far I have been seeing great results!
Social Media Report
Instagram: Goal (1k Followers)
Yippeeee! Goal accomplished! Woo hoo! I have been growing my Instagram following and engagement like CRAZY!!! I grew my following from 2k to 10k in less than 3 months. Next Goal: Hit 11k by end of July 2017!
Twitter: Goal (1k Followers)
Yaaay! We did it! I just started growing my Twitter following last month but happy to find out that my strategies are working on Twitter as well. Next Goal: Hit 4k by the end of July 2017
Pinterest: Goal (500 Followers)
SCORE! I went from 107.9k page views to over 920.4k monthly Pinterest page views in June! I also gained about 800 new followers in the month of June making that month my BEST month yet on Pinterest!
I share this Pinterest strategy and how I rapidly grew my blog traffic in my new upcoming E-course
coming out this summer!
Want to join the VIP list to be the first to hear about it? You can sign up by Clicking Here!
Webinar
So, in June I teamed up with Meg Svec from Your First Shop.Co and did my first joint webinar. The webinar was focused on how to rapidly grow traffic + find your target audience online. It was my FIRST webinar and I was super nervous but it went great! You would think since I have been performing in theaters most of my adult life that I wouldn’t have been nervous but I definitely was at the beginning of the presentation. After that, I got super comfortable and it went well. I look forward to doing more webinars this YEAR! Woo hoo!
Blog +Biz Income
Can you believe that I JUST recently starting focusing on making a full-time income with my blog?! I know! I know! The first year of blogging I didn’t blog as much and only put up about 10 blog posts lol! I started to get serious with my blog at the beginning of this year after becoming a new mommy and working from home. So, I count this as my FIRST income & traffic report which I am super happy about! I am looking forward to seeing how this blog + biz grows throughout the remainder of this year!
Let’s dive into the report!
Ad Revenue: $688
Affiliate Income: $1114 (*Survey Affiliates & *Bluehost)
Grand Total: $ 1,802 (Anything with an * next to it is an affiliate link)
Next Goal: 2.0k for July!
June Expenses
- Tailwind – $0 (Paid for the whole year)
- Board Booster – $5
- BlueHost – $0 (Paid for the whole year)
- OptinMonster- $99
- Leadpages- $37
WHAT I’M DOING DIFFERENTLY IN JULY
Preparing to Launch A New Ecourse
Can you believe we are already in July! So, I am actually launching TWO new courses (one email course and one full signature course). I have been super busy putting together a full course that shows how rapidly I grew my traffic from 5,000 page views to over 55,000 page views working Pinterest, Facebook groups, and Instagram together! So, for this month I will focus a lot of my attention of getting prepared to launch both and making sure everything is good to go! In preparation for that, I will be doing another webinar that I am super excited about as well! In addition, I will start doing Facebook LIVE videos in my Facebook Group Creative Ninja Nation!
New Brand Photos
Lastly, I am gearing up to take some new BRAND photos for my site and promo! Yup! Seriously pumped about this! I am a very an outgoing person and I want to make sure YOU guys SEE that throughout my brand! I would probably compare my personality to this photo below that I recently took! I love bright colors and having fun!
Email List
I just recently developed a new email welcome series to really strengthen the email newsletter of Arts and Budgets. My goal is to send out bi-weekly emails to help my subscribers grow their income, blog + biz, and social media profiles!
I also just hit a goal of 1k subscribers so my next goal would be to add 100 new subscribers for the month of July! I switched over to Mailerlite, but it was difficult to use with Leadpages so I ended up going back to Mailchimp. Currently, I’m looking to really test out some new email providers such as Convert Kit and Drip in July.
Creative Ninja Nation Facebook Group
Let me tell ya, I love my Facebook Group Creative Ninja Nation! I just can’t believe we’re already over 1300 members in less than 4 months! #Wowzers! I have some awesome creatives in the group who engage and support each other A LOT! We have both promo and support threads! I’m also gearing up to do Facebook live videos in the group this month as well. Lastly, I will be compiling an exclusive list of resources for my awesome group members! My goal is to hit 1500 by the end of the month! 🙂
Manually Pinning on Pinterest
I have been hearing so many AWESOME things about manually pinning on Pinterest so I am going to give it a shot! Sounds like a lot of work, I know! But I have been hearing so many great reviews on how many bloggers use this method and have seen an increase in their traffic! I will report back next month to let you guys know my results.
So that’s it for now! I truly enjoyed writing this report, and I hope it inspires you guys to ROCK YOUR BLOG + BIZ!
Let’s do this!!
It’s so helpful when bloggers share how their month went! Thanks for sharing the details.
Yay! So happy to hear this post helped! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, Theresa!
Wow, you have really stepped up your game. The traffic increase is very amazing! I would love to learn more about your strategies. Also, do you have any tips for Instagram? I feel like I’ve been stuck around 3500 for 6 months or so.
Kecia recently posted…9 Ways to Prevent Money from Ruining your Marriage
Hey, Kecia! 🙂 Oh, Yeah! Thanks so much! I do have some tips for Instagram! I wrote a whole post on some tips to help others rapidly grow their following. You can check out this post here: http://artsandbudgets.com/10-ways-increase-instagram-presence/.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out to me! 🙂
This was SO helpful! Thank you so much for sharing. I have been trying to decide what is better- shorter or longer posts? It’s nice to hear that you had some real-life experience with this. I will have to try that on my next post. I also joined your Facebook group and followed you on Pinterest. Can’t wait to learn more!
Yay! So glad to hear, Chevelle! 🙂 Also, Welcome to my Facebook Group! I am excited to have you apart!
You’re doing amazing Latasha! I loved reading this because it was so honest. You’re so right when you say people want DETAILS. My traffic grew tremendously once I started creating longer and more detailed posts.
Tiffany Griffin recently posted…8 Free Script Fonts | Font Series #27
Hey, Tiffany! Thanks a ton! 🙂 I agree writing longer posts has definitely helped me grow my traffic. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.
Congratulations! That’s an awesome achievement and you’ve had such a great month! Such a huge increase in pageviews. Do you use the premium Yoast or free? I have the free but haven’t found SEO working that great for me.
Hi, Cassie!
Thanks so much! 🙂 I currently use the free Yoast SEO plugin too. I also use Google Keyword planner to help with picking out the right keywords for my posts. 🙂
Yay, you are doing so awesome! Keep doing what you are doing because it is working!! Congrats lady!
Thanks so much, Robin! 🙂
These are fantastic. I am glad you are seeing amazing results. Manual pinning is the best ! Let me know how it goes.
Thanks so much, Marie! 🙂 and I sure will! 🙂
Excellent post!!
Congratulations on hitting your targets, can’t wait to read next month.
I’m also hearing great things about manual pinning on Pinterest so will start this very soon.
Thanks for sharing ?
Hi, Mark!
Thanks so much and definitely let me know how manual pinning goes for you too! 🙂
Your blog is definitely the blog I go to for tips. I look forward to your e-course coming. As I would love to put that on my list of courses I want to take by the end of the year
Sounds like you had an amazing month, hitting all your traffic and following goals! That is awesome and if you continue what you’re doing, I’m sure you’re going to reap the rewards by the end of the year. Congratulations!
Congrats on your success. I hope that your next year of blogging is even better. May you reach all of your goals.
Those are great tips to increase traffic and make more. I never realized a longer post can increase traffic, I will have to try it out.
Wow this is amazing! I’ve been trying to crack the whole social media game and will definitely need your e-course to figure it out.
I can see why you’re moving up Latasha. I got so much value from this post. Thanks for sharing what works! By the way, I also requested to join your Facebook group.
Brian recently posted…17 Simple Ways To Secure Your WordPress Blog For Free
Congratulations! Loved reading about your strategies, and so appreciate your transparency as far as your earnings. I’m tempted to try ads but am so worried about interrupting the peaceful site experience I have right now. You’re making a case for it! 🙂
I need you in my life!
This is helpful. I get so focused on creating content that I lose sight of the part that maybe I could make money from my blog. I haven’t figured that part out yet!
What a great post to read, thanks for sharing which was good for me and enjoyed. Your doing so well and have so much motivation. Well Done 🙂
Wow! This is really inspirational. I need to start looking at SEO and pinning more, that’s for sure.
Thanks for sharing your journey with us 🙂
I would be interested to know more about your course and would love to reach the impressive stats that you have. I boosted my traffic from 15,000 to 35,000 + in two months so I am ready to take it to the next level. Well done for earning so much as well x
Wow you did amazingly in June! My blog is only my hobby so I don’t have as much time to spend on social media as I’d like x
Thank you so much for sharing this! I thought it was really encouraging to read and was a great resource to me!
I love seeing bloggers hit their goals for the month! This is awesome and it’s all well-deserved. You hard work is truly paying off and you can definitely see it in the stats!
First off, congratulations, that’s amazing!
Secondly, thank you for this information packed post! It really gets my hopes up 🙂
Ah I already use most of these strategies and saw nearly 5000 pageviews my first month! It is so empowering to see them working for you on a larger scale wow! I’m excited!
Amanda @ The Light Owl recently posted…July Goals
Hey congrats on all the success! This type of post is so inspiring for me. It took me six months to start making money from my bog, but the first month I did, I made $90! I would have given up forever ago if it weren’t for all the bloggers posting their income reports. So thanks! Also– do you happen to know why manually pinning helps people get results?
Wow…congrats on all the success! It is amazing what you can do with hard work. And I’m with you on the SEO. I knew nothing about that when I first started blogging. It is amazing how obsessed you can become with it.
I keep seeing a lot about affiliate marketing. I’m banking it all up for when my DA goes up!
Samantha Bye recently posted…Star Wars Identities: May the force (to go) be with you
It sounds like you had a really great month! I really like reading how other bloggers did and what worked and what didn’t. I love that we all really share well with each other lol
Jessica Joachim recently posted…30 Dollar Tree Must Buys And A Few To Avoid
Traffic and income reports are so helpful and interesting. It’s great to see what works for other sites and what doesn’t. Thanks for writing these and congrats and your success!
Wow, congrats! That must be such an amazing feeling. I definitely need to start utilizing Pinterest more.
Way to go! Definitely a successful month–$1800 is nothing to shake it! Great work! And thanks for sharing your insights with us and showing other newer bloggers how they can make money, too!
Well done! I just wrapped up my third month of blogging and I would love to be where you are at the 1 year mark! Thanks for sharing this!
Umm, girl, this is awesome!!
You go girl! I wish I made that much from affiliates haha.
You are rocking it! Congratulations and thanks so much for sharing your tricks and tips!
omg that is amazing. My goal is definitely to increase my Pinterest & FB as well. I’m definitely getting a handle on my Insta already.
I am in awe of your adult. I feel like I am doing the right things but not getting the results. Thanks for sharing what you do!
I loved reading this, Latasha! I’ve followed you for a while now and joined Creative Ninja Nation – which is one of my favorite groups (BTW!!). I’m excited to read your end-of-July post to see how much you grow over the next month! Much love!
As a newbie blogger I see these income reports, which are encouraging. However, they done really explain how they achieve their goals. Thanks for sharing how you achieved your goals. Now I can see what action steps I can take with my own blog to eventually be able to accomplish my goals.
This is awesome! you are doing great! What a great month it sounds like. I can’t wait to hear how the manual pinning goes, I’m curious to know!
Wow looks like you have come along leaps and bounds and that traffic is really impressive! I love your tips too and I will check out google keywords and see if I am missing anything there!
Charlotte recently posted…Pregnant and…Parenting
This is so great! One of my friends recently started blogging and she has been looking at income reports as inspiration. I will for sure have to link her. This is great for her to see, and try to learn from!
Congrats on your success! SEO and keywords are something that a lot of bloggers seem to over look.
Girl this is amazing! I’m struggling to get past the 5k mark on pageviews each month, I’m just totally stuck! I’ve been using Pinterest and Facebook Groups for ages too so I must be doing something wrong.
So much info packed into this post and I didn’t realise it was so long until I got right down to the bottom! Thank you so much for sharing your journey and amazing achievements with us
Dani x | http://www.flourishingfreelancer.com
Dani recently posted…Blogging Bosses – An Interview with Ana from The She Approach
Thanks for sharing this! Further confirmation that I need to get a pinterest account.
How awesome! It is so great that you are keeping track of your stats, income and goals. I need to do a better job of that!
WOW, this is really impressive! Congrats on getting so many page views and meeting your Social media goals. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Wow, great results, well done for getting your strategy spot on! It is important to know exactly what your identity is online and once you get that right people who are interested will come. A lot of people don’t really have an online identity.
Enjoy the journey!
Wow, it sounds like you’re doing amazingly well at the moment! It shows that hard work really does pay off and that there is money to be made from blogging.
You are on fire! You really have this down to the tee! I’m just starting with my blog so I’m looking forward to getting my posts seen by people who could benefit from my posts!
I’ve tried a lot of you are doing too. I find Stumbleupon works increasing the views a lot.
Omg you are doing amazing!!!! Isn’t it the best feeling ever seeing all of your hard work paying off? COngrats on the success
Awesome! So inspirational 🙂 Your page views are amazing, congrats! Increasing your traffic is such a tricky thing. I find social media channels much easier.
Nadine Cathleen recently posted…How to Reclaim Your Beauty With the Power of Nature
Congrats Latasha!
Love how you broke everything down. I really need to up my game and increase my traffic.
Nadalie recently posted…6 Simple Secrets to Setting Achievable Goals
Congrats on your progress! That’s super cool.
Yoast SEO is one of my very very favorite plugins – that stuff plain works! The premium version of the plugin is nice too FYI. And yeah, the Google Keyword Planner is the bee’s knees 🙂
Another tip to get you indexed more quickly: after you publish something, add it to your Google Search Console > Fetch as Google 😉 I’ve seen brand new blog posts show up in search after TWO HOURS when using Fetch as Google!
I have a blog post with other similar tips (nothing to buy!) here if you’re interested: https://website-superhero.com/2017/05/31/seo-for-bloggers-checklist/
Am sharing your post!
There is such good information here, great work on getting so much done this last month! I also love the colorful wall picture near the end!
Your income reports are so fascinating. Thank you for being so transparent with what you are doing and I am so happy that you are making a success out of blogging.
Congratulations! You are a rock star. I’m working on a social media course also. Good luck with everything!
This is awesome! I’m really curious about the manual pinning on Pinterest. Do you have more information on that? Should we be doing it daily? In addition to scheduling pins with tools like Tailwind and/or Boardbooster? Thansk for any further insight you might be able to provide!
Wow.. Great going Latasha.
I am sure having your own course would skyrocket your earnings (especially when you already have started webinars).
It would be great to learn how you’re using Pinterest and the kind of RoI you see.
Sumit recently posted…Using IMPORTFEED in Google Sheets to Fetch Feed from URL
I can’t wait for your Pinterest course. I’m trying to give my Pinterest more love and attention this month!
Congrats on your success!
Thanks for sharing your tips. You are really killing it. I hope to be killing it soon?
This is so much help! Thank you. I’m looking forward to learning more from you
Looks like you had a great month, congratulations! I love seeing the income reports and success of others bloggers. So inspiring!
I really need to make my posts longer. I get behind and end up writing the day of and they aren’t as long as I want. I need to be making more quality posts.
Congrats to you! Isn’t it a great feeling?! I love blogging and seeing that my hard work is paying off.
That’s amazing, congratulations on making all those milestones!
Congratulations on a successful month, and thanks for sharing some of the secrets to your success!!! Lately, I have been putting more effort into improving the SEO for my older blog posts. I’m currently working on building my email list. I recently joined the Creative Ninjas Facebook Group, and I love it!!
Hei, searched so many sites about how to promote your websites, but so far your was the best!!! Thank you
I love hearing how well other bloggers are doing. It really solidifies in my mind how well a person can do when they really put their mind to it. Hard work really does pay off.
Thank you for sharing this, it has been very inspiring for me.
P.S. Just found your blog, definitely going to looking around a little more.
You are doing awesome! Keep it up!!
This is really helpful and gives me hope need to get my work on. Thank you
Amazing! That’s the kind of growth I’m looking for In year two of my blog. Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi, Kimberly!
Yay! Awesomenesssssss! I am totally looking forward to seeing your reports too! 🙂 You totally got this. Thanks for stopping by.
All of these details were incredibly valuable, thank you for sharing! You have a new joiner of your Facebook blogging group coming your way. See you on the FB side!
Hi, Christine! 🙂
Yay! Happy to have you apart of Creative Ninja Nation! 🙂 Woo hoo!
i love when you share your ups and downs
so much to learn
Thanks Latasha!
Thanks a ton, Ike! 🙂
Super awesome results! Teach us your secrets regarding SEO! As for manual pinning, I, too, have been hearing all the raves in FB groups. I’ve recently started too. It van be a bit tedious, but, I’m committed to see it through. Congrats on the page views and income! You’ll get to 100K before the year ends for sure.
Belle recently posted…June 2017 Income and Traffic Report
Hi, Belle! 🙂
Thanks so much. I am committed to seeing manual pinning through too. Thanks again for visiting. :0
Happy for you that you are getting dramatic results. Thanks for sharing your tips with us. I so need to start Pinterest!
Hi Latasha,
Great results and thanks for sharing such a detailed report. I’ve started focusing on Pinterest more seriously.
I’ve been using it for about 5 months but haven’t really given it enough time.
So I am trying to learn as much as I can this month about it. We’ll see how it goes.
Hopefully, my blog will grow with targetted traffic.
Congrats on the success of your blog, that’s awesome.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan
Lots of detail – this is an awesome income report! This really helps readers figure out what to do next. Congratulations on all of your KILLER success. Great post xx
Keep up the good work. I pick some tips from inspiring posts like this that I can implement on my blog. Thanks.
Hello Latasha,
This is truly an inspiring post which is what even veteran Bloggers/Marketers need to read. I definitely give you kudos on your monthly report and you are already helping people out so I see a great future for you in all that you do online.
Just a little something I noticed was your comments go from oldest (2017) to newest? Mine, of course, will be the last being in 2019 is there any particular reason that you don’t go from the newest to the oldest? I ask simply because I almost didn’t scroll on down seeing mainly comments from 2017 thinking WOW, has she abandoned her Blog?
I did get on one of your mailing lists and great upsell by the way. Kudos on that as well 😉 and I’ll be looking forward to your reply and thanks again for such a great and inspiring post.
To your continued success, I wish the very best!
Hi David!
Thanks for stopping by. I think the comments go from oldest to newest because of my blog theme. 🙂
Thanks for joining my mailing list. I have great resources and tips about ways to make extra money, how to side hustle and ways to save money coming your way.
My hope this year is to write a ton of great content guides to help creatives and bloggers.
Thanks again for stopping I truly appreciate all your support.