• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Meet the Girl ↡
    • About Abby
    • Contact
  • Projects ↡
    • Organization
      • All Organization
      • Printables Library
      • Productivity
    • Decorating
      • Our Home Tour
        • Current House Home Tour
        • Townhouse Home Tour
      • All Decorating
      • DIY
      • Furniture Makeovers
      • Crafts
      • Holidays
    • Blogging
      • All Blogging
      • Income Reports
    • Happy Thoughts
  • My Products ↡
    • Impactful Habits, Organized Home Organizing Course
    • Browser to Buyer
    • Blogging Binder Printables
    • Home Binder Printables
    • Student Binder Printables
    • Christmas / Holiday Planner
    • Fitness Journal
  • Free Resources ↡
    • ClarityList for Bloggers
    • How to Start a Blog in 2020
    • 100+ Blogging Tips, Tools, and Resources to Grow Your Business
    • My Favorite Organizing Items
  • Income Reports

Abby Lawson logo

January 1, 2015 By Abby Lawson 1 Comment

December 2014 Traffic and Income Report

Pin11
Share
Tweet
Email
11 Shares
Income Report December 2014
December 2014 Traffic & Income Report
How to Start a Blog

Learn How to Start a Blog!

Get your new blog set up in a few short minutes with our easy-to-follow guide, and start growing your site today!

Visit the Guide!

Income

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

  • Framework eBook - $2,078
  • Ad Thrive - $1,440
  • Bluehost Affiliate* - $1,360
  • Amazon Associates - $358
  • Silhouette America Affiliate* - $256
  • Evernote Essentials Affiliate* - $135
  • StudioPress Affiliate* - $104
  • Restored 316 Themes Affiliate* - $58
  • Contributor Post - $35
  • PicMonkey Affiliate - $17

Total Income: $5,841

Expenses

  • Affiliate Payouts - $263
  • Mailchimp* - $150
  • Synthesis Hosting - $67
  • Paypal Transaction Fees - $45
  • Gumroad Transaction Fees - $31
  • Stripe Transaction Fees - $23
  • SendOwl* - $15
  • Zapier - $15
  • Crashplan - $14
  • Viral Tag - $12
  • Adobe Creative Cloud - $11
  • Fizzle.co* - $0 (Usually $35)

Total Expenses: $646

Net Profit: $5,195

If you would like to start a blog, make sure you check out our ultimate guide!

Income Analysis

Abby and I are really excited about the December income. To be honest, I worried things would fall off a cliff during the busy Christmas season. Abby ran a 20% off sale on her eBook during Christmas and that certainly helped sales. I don't think it's so much the 20% off but rather just another opportunity to email her list and post the sale on some social media channels. Certainly we can't do this too many times a year, but I think a 3 to 4 sales per year is normal and healthy.

Ad revenue was strong this month. I am beyond thrilled with our decision many months ago to completely hand off ad management to Ad Thrive. It's just one less thing to worry about and they honestly do a better job than I could ever do. Ad revenue numbers are inflated in December because of massive end of year ad buys. Ad revenue should be significantly less in January.

Bluehost affiliate income was great in December! I've been planning a redesign of Abby's How to Start a Blog Page but that hasn't happened yet. I'm thinking the increased Bluehost income happened for two reasons.

  1. Strong Framework eBook sales in November caused many of Abby's readers to finally start a blog and sign up for hosting. When someone purchases her eBook they are put onto a specific email list and are eventually reminded to go to her How to Start a Blog Page and sign up for hosting.
  2. End of year goal setting. The beginning of the year is great time to start a blog! I'm sure many people have a similar goal or resolution and make their way to Abby's page. Two years ago Abby informed me near the end of December that she wanted to start a blog for the new year. She told me what domain name she wanted and then had me go out and set up hosting. A lot of people find themselves in the same situation.
Three Legs of Blog Income

Our December blog income came from three categories:

  1. Product sales - $2,078 (36%)
  2. Ad revenue - $1,440 (24%)
  3. Affiliate income - $2,323 (40%)

Traffic Report

December 2014 Traffic for Just A Girl

December was officially our best month ever for blog traffic. It just seems like every month or at least every other month Abby sets a new personal record for traffic. I think this is just a byproduct of a larger and larger content base. This leads to more Google and Pinterest traffic which are the two largest drivers of traffic (by far!) to Abby's site.

The screenshot from Google Analytics above is actually deceiving. Those numbers are  missing an entire day from early December. We had a little hiccup with a plugin and Google didn't track any stats for a day. According to Jetpack (see below) Abby actually broke the 300,000 pageview barrier for the first time.

just a girl daily blog traffic december 2014

Abby's traffic exploded near the end of December. For whatever reason Pinterest started sending her massive amounts of traffic. So far it hasn't slowed down and has continued into January. Time will tell if it will last. We haven't done anything different to cause this.

just a girl december jetpack site stats

This brings up another interesting and very important point. Abby and I have consciously ignored all SEO and non-content related traffic strategies. We simply ignore all that "noise." I can't tell you how many times we've heard about this or that Penguin or Panda update from Google, and the negative traffic consequences for some or some change to  the Facebook or Pinterest algorithm. Some people lose massive amounts of traffic after those updates. I'm always suspicious that they are using some type of strategy to try and game the system. Every time there has been some type of update like that Abby has gained traffic. Every single time. Maybe it's because we ignore SEO, link-building, keyword stuffing, and any other traffic strategy that is not content-related. I say bring on the algorithm changes...we always seem to benefit. (Let's hope I don't have to eat my words!)

If you are just starting out, I recommend the same thing: ignore SEO. Focus all your energy on writing compelling content and thinking of compelling headlines. Spend time and money improving your writing and photography instead of spending time and money learning various tricks to increase traffic.

Email Subscriber Statistics

  • 1,479 New Subscribers
  • 13,691 Total Subscribers

Near the end of December one of Abby's posts took off: Our Secret Weapon for Saving Money: The 2015 Budget Binder. It did really well on Pinterest and then subsequently started getting lots of Google traffic. In fact, if you search "Budget Binder" on Google, you'll see it show up as the #2 search result. Pretty cool. Abby made a simple change to the post that captured lots of new email subscribers. Notice the little text blurb right below the first picture in the post:

2015 budget binder email subscriber blurb

So all of the new visitors to her blog (through this post) were met with this little paragraph about creating their own printables. New subscribers for the month would've been half of what they were in December if Abby hadn't made this little change when she saw that this post was getting lots of traffic.

RPM

RPM is a metric to track revenue per thousand pageviews. This is a measure of the overall effectiveness of the blog.

RPM: $19.90

and to recap our income...

Gross Income: $5,841
Net Income: $5,195

You can see our other income reports here:

  • December 2016- $41,700
  • November 2016 – $40,124
  • October 2016 – $51,803
  • September 2016 – $33,659
  • August 2016 – $44,940
  • July 2016 – $34,721
  • June 2016 – $32,913
  • May 2016- $37,967
  • April 2016 – $48,900
  • March 2016 – $40,358
  • February 2016 – $36,234
  • January 2016 – $34,662
  • December 2015- $20,441
  • November 2015 – $23,663
  • October 2015 – $17,639
  • September 2015 – $18,225
  • August 2015 – $17,162
  • July 2015 – $18,334
  • June 2015 – $26,041
  • May 2015 – $10,593
  • April 2015 – $13,322
  • March 2015 – $13,887
  • February 2015 – $11,138
  • January 2015 – $13,991
  • November 2014 – $4,920
  • October 2014 – $5,330
  • September 2014 – $3,396
  • August 2014 – $3,254
  • July 2014 – $2,659
  • June 2014 – $6,956
  • May 2014 – $1,620
  • April 2014 – $894
  • March 2014 – $1,010
  • February 2014 – $2,446
Blogging Tips, Tools, and Resources

We're sharing ALL of the tools we've used to grow our blog!

Stop the guessing game! Get our list of 100+ proven tips, tools, and resources that can take your blog/online business to the next level!

See the List!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: blogging, income report, online business

Pin11
Share
Tweet
Email
11 Shares
ClarityList | claritylist.com

Get ClarityList!

Join thousands of bloggers who receive the most important blogging and online business news in their inbox every Friday morning!

I'M IN!
Previous Post: « The Best of Just a Girl and Her Blog 2014
Next Post: The Least Offensive Room in Our House »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marjorie @APinchOfHealthy says

    February 13, 2015 at 4:52 pm

    Hey Abby! I didn't realize you guys were publishing these now. SO funny...I recognized Donnie's name over on another blog and followed his recent comment over here! 🙂

    Anyway - congrats and I really enjoy reading these types of reports from other bloggers. I am starting to monetize a little, and it helps to see what other bloggers are doing. I am pinning this to my blogging board on Pinterest!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You have to agree to the comment policy.

Primary Sidebar

Hey there, friend! I'm Abby, and I'm so thrilled you stopped by! I love working to create a beautiful, thriving home, life and business and helping others do the same.

Read my story→

Let's Connect!

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Let's Get Organized!

Impactful Habits, Organized Home organizing course | https://abbylawson.com/ihoh
Deluxe Home Binder Printables | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-home-binder-printables

Stick to your fitness goals!

Deluxe Fitness Journal | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-fitness-journal-printables

How to Start a Blog

How to Start a Blog: The Definitive Guide

Our Course for Bloggers

Blogging: Organized

Deluxe Blogging Binder Printables | https://www.abbylawson.com/deluxe-blogging-binder-printables

Favorite Posts

Free Printable Library | 50+ Free Organizing Printables

50+ Free Printables to Organize Every Area of Your Life

home- cozy office nook, feminine home office, organized home office, small office, decorating, farmhouse office

A Cozy Office Nook

Ryan Homes Palermo Before and After Home Tour 2.5 Years In

Before and After Home Tour: Two and a Half Year Update

Free Printable Budget Binder Cover

Budget Binder for 2021 (with FREE Printables!)

Home organization- How to Organize Every Space in Your House, declutter, organizing, small space organization

How to Organize Every Space in Your House

Student Binder Printable Organizing Pages

Printable Student Binder

Personal Posts

Breast Cancer Awareness Month My Story by Just a Girl and Her Blog

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: My Story

This girl started out knowing nothing about blogging or online business and made 6 figures last year. Time to start that blog I've been thinking about!

From Hobby Blog to Thriving Business: My Blogging Story

Archives

Post Categories

Copyright

I love it when you share! Please keep in mind that all images and text on this site are property of Just a Girl and Her Blog. Feel free to use one or two photos provided that a link back to my original post is included. Please do not remove any watermarks, crop, or edit any of my images without first obtaining written permission from me. All free printables offered are for personal use only. Pinning is always welcome and appreciated! Thank you!

Privacy Policy & Disclosures

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Read our privacy policy and disclosures →

© 2021 Twenty Three Publishing LLC