July 12, 2016 By Donnie Lawson 33 Comments

June 2016 Traffic and Income Report

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Friends, summer can be absolutely crazy on a normal basis, but with adding a move to the mix, it’s been even crazier than usual around here! In this month’s income report we wanted to focus on balancing work and kids and life in the summer, and how we’re attempting to stay sane in the midst of it all!

If you’re thinking, “An income report? Why are you posting an income report on a home decor and organization blog?” I don’t blame you one bit. 🙂 It’s not something you see every day! But Donnie and I decided a few years ago that if sharing what we make online and how we make it would help others pursue their online business goals and gain some financial freedom, then that would be totally worth it for us. We hope that our transparency will give you some ideas for growing your own blog and business and also gives you the guts to go for those goals you’ve been dreaming about! I’ll let Donnie take it from here…

Our biggest takeaway from June: Work goals and expectations must be adjusted in the summer.

I LOVE the summer. Warm weather, more time with the boys, camping, vacation, weekend trips, and long days make it my favorite time of the year. As much as I look forward to summer, I’m realizing now more than ever our need to alter our expectations for productivity and business progress. Recently Abby took to Facebook Live to talk about how we handle summer as work at home parents…

How We Handle Summer as Work at Home Parents

1. Adjust your mindset; expect a different level of productivity in the summer.

Our kids are the reason that we wanted to be our own bosses and have a flexible schedule in the first place, so if we do less projects and make less money in the summer because we are spending more time with them, we are fine with that!

2. Get help if possible.

Our kids go to camp for 1/2 day each week, and we have a babysitter that comes one day per week. We split the rest of the work time: Abby watches the kids while I work, I spend time with the kids while she works. This allows us to focus on our kids when we are with them instead of being only sort of present and being on our phone when we are supposed to be spending time with them!

3. Consider hosting a guest post series.

This is the third summer in a row that Abby has hosted a guest post series, and it really is a win-win. It’s beneficial to Abby because she has to create less content herself, and it’s beneficial for the guest bloggers because they can get their name and their blog in front of a new audience.

4. Think about changes you can make to systems you have in place.

We have a Facebook group for our Building a Framework students that we manage and comment in regularly. Because Abby knew she was going to be around less than usual to comment and answer questions this summer, she decided that she would do periodic FB lives for the group to answer all of their questions at once so she could still support them.

5. Hire it out!

Consider hiring someone to help with email, social media, graphic design, etc. Our first “hires” were an assistant that helps with email and social media scheduling and a graphic designer that helps with images.

6. Take time to refocus your business.

The summer is a great time to take a step back, evaluate your systems, determine what’s working and what’s not, and make some changes for the future.

June 2016 Blog Income

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

We’ve been publishing monthly income reports since February of 2014. You can click here to see a running tally of past income reports. As you read this report, it’s important to remember that this income didn’t happen overnight. It’s been a long process and a lot of work! Our blog income our first year was very minimal, and we didn’t publish the first income report until we had been blogging for a little over a year.

We strive to make these reports as accurate as possible, but our business accounting typically does not match these numbers exactly. These reports count income which was earned during the month, but not necessarily paid out to us within that month. With many affiliate programs there is sometimes a significant delay between earning a commission and actual payment to us. We hope you find the reports helpful!

Building a Framework eBook and course – $11,362

Bluehost – $7,410 –> How to Start a Blog

Ultimate Bundles – $5,359

ConvertKit – $1,814

AdThrive – $1,674

Simplify eBook – $1,316

BookBoss – $788

Genesis Framework – $706

Paperless Home eBook – $584

Amazon Associates – $508

Restored 316 – $260

Media Temple – $250

2016 Intentional Life Planner – $170

Make Over Your Evenings / Make Over Your Mornings Affiliate: $164

Siteground – $150

PicMonkey – $128

Pretty Darn Cute Themes – $103

Misc. Affiliate Income – $45

Fizzle.co – $47

Flywheel Hosting – $45

Food Photography School – $30

Total Income: $32,913

Expenses

Design Work – $2,106
Assistant – $1,279
Building a Framework Affiliate Payouts – $1,162
Paid Advertising – $760
Gumroad Transaction Fees – $625
ConvertKit – $439 –> We We Switched from MailChimp to ConvertKit, The Best Email Marketing Services of 2016
Training – $296
Teachable – $200
Stripe Transaction Fees – $189
Autopilot – $181
PayPal Transaction Fees – $157
Tailwind – $120
Instapage – $69
Synthesis Hosting – $67
Crowdcast.io – $49
Adobe Creative Cloud – $53
Zapier – $49
Meet Edgar – $49
Flywheel Hosting – $40
Typeform – $35
Wistia – $25
SendOwl – $24
CloudFlare – $20
Board Booster – $20
Google Apps – $15
BackBlaze – $10
Motion Mail Timer – $10
Backupify – $3
Fizzle.co – $0 (usually $35)

Total Expenses: $8,052

June 2016 Net Profit: $24,861

RPM is a metric to track revenue per thousand pageviews. This is a measure of the overall effectiveness of a blog and is a handy benchmark for comparing blogs even if they have vastly different traffic numbers.

New Posts from Just a Girl and Her Blog

New Posts from Building a Framework

Action step for the month

Evaluate your to-do list and get realistic about what you can accomplish this summer. It’s better to commit to less and actually accomplish something than committing to many things getting down when you don’t get everything done. The summer is the perfect time to do a little mid-year goal setting and planning while reflecting back on what you were able to accomplish in the first half of the year.

Most importantly, enjoy some downtime. Relax with your spouse and plan adventures and quality time with your kids.

Abby

So that was our June! I hope you are enjoying your summer and soaking in every spare moment with the kiddos! Growing our business and our income is nice, but they are the real reason that we do this, and we are so grateful to have the flexibility to spend their summer break with them. Have a wonderful week!

You can see our other income reports here: