November 2016 Traffic and Income Report

Blogging, Online Business- How to Plan Out Future Content for Your Blog, Editorial Calendar
May 2015 Income Report | JustAGirlAndHerBlog.com

With all of the Christmas craziness, we almost missed this month’s income report, but we’re sneaking it in at the last minute! 🙂 It may seem odd to see an income report on a home decor blog, but we add up the numbers each month and share them in hopes that seeing what is working (and not working) for us will help others who are trying to grow their online businesses as well.

Before we jump into the numbers, though, I thought I’d talk about something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: planning content for the new year.

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Our biggest takeaway from November: Planning Content for the New Year

I admit, I’m typically a “fly by the seat of your pants” type of blogger. I usually blog about whatever happens to be going on in our lives in the moment or whatever strikes me on a particular day. Sure, I have some semblance of a plan and a loose list of possible post ideas, but I knew that planning out my editorial calendar was an area I could definitely improve upon, so recently I sat down to come up with a content plan for the new year.

Now, I know that things always come up, and it’s hard to judge how long some projects will take, so rather than writing down exact dates for future posts, I came up with an outline of what I wanted the year to look like, taking three main areas into consideration:

1. What projects do we have coming up?

Since we just moved into a new house a few months ago, we have a list a mile long of things we’d like to accomplish. Donnie and I have talked about which spaces are our priorities, though, so I made a list of projects we’d like to complete in those spaces as well as possible blog posts to go along with them. This gave me a nice long list of content ideas to get me started!

2. What would be most helpful for my readers?

I’ve often asked my readers– either on the blog or in my newsletter– what types of posts would be the most helpful for them. That’s what this blog is meant for, after all! I looked back over their answers that I had saved in a Google Doc, and those sparked even more ideas for potential posts.

Since I’ve never really been much of a “plan ahead” blogger, I’ve been absolutely terrible about sharing timely seasonal posts. This year I really tried to look ahead at each month and think up some relevant content ideas that are more seasonally focused. To help me do this, I actually used an awesome free resource I found recently, a Pinterest Planner put out by Simple Pin Media.

You have to enter your email address to get the planner, but I think it is WELL worth it. It lists trending topics for each month of the year so I can plan my content around those topics (and pin them when the time comes!), and it also gives tips and tricks for organizing and growing my Pinterest account, which I’m always looking to do. You can get it here if you’re interested. (I promise they did not ask me to promote this at all– I’ve just been telling everyone about it because it is awesome!)

So now, for the first time in nearly 4 years of blogging, I have an organized GoogleDoc full of post ideas and a solid content plan in place before the new year even begins! I know everything probably won’t work out exactly the way I planned, but I already feel less stressed about the upcoming year because I know I have a list of ideas to pull from, and it’s always better to be prepared! 🙂

And now on to the numbers…

November 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. Abby blogged for many months before we earned our first dollar.

We strive to make these reports as accurate as possible, but our business accounting 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!

Total Income: $40,124

Expenses

  • Affiliate Payouts – $827
  • Paid Advertising – $1,009
  • Assistant, Accounting / Legal, Coaching – $1,333
  • ConvertKit – $668 –> Why We Switched from MailChimp to ConvertKit, The Best Email Marketing Services
  • Design Work – $475
  • Autopilot – $450
  • Stripe Transaction Fees – $391
  • Gumroad Transaction Fees – $123
  • PayPal Transaction Fees – $331
  • Instapage – $69
  • Synthesis Hosting – $67
  • 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: $5,985

November 2016 Net Profit: $34,139

just a girl november 2016 income

just a girl november 2016 blog traffic
just a girl november 2016 email subscribers
just a girl november 2016 blog rpm

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.

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Abby

Thank you so much for sticking with us month after month and year after year! We really do appreciate you more than you know! I hope you’ll get to enjoy some extra time with family and friends over the coming weeks and have a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

You can see our other income reports here:

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

30 Comments

  1. suzi whitford says:

    Great job Team!! It’s wonderful to follow you every month and see your amazing success. Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

    xoxo

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thank you so much, Suzi! Merry Christmas!

      ~Abby =)

  2. Megan @ Adventure & Home says:

    Nice work Abby & Donnie! Abby– It’s like you read my mind with that bit about pre-planning content. Especially because I have some bigger projects going on over the course of the next few months, I feel like it’s a necessity to sit down and plan out posts much further in advance (as in, not the day before) just because I have so much going on! I always find it fascinating to read through how you guys are doing. Plus, I love that I always learn something more than just what you guys are making when I read these posts. Keep up the good work! 😀

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thank you so much for your sweet words, Megan! Merry Christmas!

      ~Abby =)

  3. Karim | Growcheap says:

    Awesome job! You both have a wonderful new year and merry Christmas.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thanks so much, Karim! You too!

      ~Abby =)

  4. Shannon Mehring says:

    I look forward to your income report post each month. It gives me motivation and shows just how much is possible when you truly put your heart and mind to it! You’re such an inspiration and motivator! Keep up the amazing work!!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thank you so much for your sweet words, Shannon! I’m so glad that the income reports are helpful! Merry Christmas!

      ~Abby =)

  5. What a great post! I am new to blogging and haven’t even considered “planning future content.” You’ve given me a lot to think about. Thanks!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      So glad it was helpful, Melanie! Best of luck with your site! Merry Christmas!

      ~Abby =)

  6. Rachel | A Mother Far from Home says:

    I’d love if you and Donnie would share where you’re putting your advertising money. I’d like to move into this direction for a few things and wonder if you are doing promoted pins or FB ads, etc.

    1. Donnie Lawson says:

      We’ve done both but we are so far from experts or even proficient at it that we haven’t written much about it. There’s a lot of potential there but it also takes a lot of time and testing to make it profitable. During one of our product launches I found it very easy to break even with Facebook Ads. I guess when you consider the lifetime value of the customer we were coming out ahead.

  7. Wow, that’s awesome! You guys have such a great partnership. My husband is being so sweet and supportive even though he still doesn’t really have an idea of what a blog is… it makes all the difference:] I love Google Docs too and use Google Sheets instead of Excel- could not do without those tools! Merry Christmas to your family!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Aw yay for a supportive husband! It really does make a huge difference! Hope you have a Merry Christmas, Misty!

      ~Abby =)

  8. Melanie B says:

    Hey there! I am a total Abby fan-girl, and am almost finished with “Building A Framework”. I have to ask you though, how do you and Donnie work together all day, every day? My husband and I have our “day jobs”, but we run a cattle farm together, and I am trying to start a blog about it to monetize, and generate income between calving season. Because we have the business (and jobs, and a human kid…lol), it is hard to find “us” time. Since you and Donnie work together, have a home together, have kids together, how do you find just Donnie and Abby together? I love what y’all do, and thank you so much for encouraging folks like me who are trying so hard to get started (in addition to everything else).

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Oh I hear ya! It’s always a balancing act! It helps that within the business we each have different strengths, so he does his stuff and I do my stuff and we don’t intrude on each other’s “stuff” too much. 🙂 We also have different working styles. I like to work at our house and he usually goes to Starbucks or somewhere like that, so it’s not like we’re sitting beside each other at a desk all day. We are trying to make more of an effort to turn off computers, etc. and spend time together after we put the kids in bed. We’re a work in progress for sure, though! Hope you’re having a wonderful week, Melanie!

      ~Abby =)

  9. Thanks so much for sharing! These income reports are always super interesting!

    One quick question: Was your income during November about what you expected it to be? I know Q4 is often a high trsffic + high income time for many bloggers/businesses, but I didn’t see much of that myself.. Maybe next year. ;P

    Thanks again Abby & Donnie! 🙂

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Our traffic was definitely down compared to November last year, so that probably meant a little hit on our income, but I don’t think it affected it too badly. We don’t have ads, and our income doesn’t necessarily correlate with traffic directly. I’ve heard from a lot of bloggers that the past few months traffic has been down compared with the same time during other years, mostly due to Pinterest. Hopefully everything will settle out and Pinterest traffic will come back soon! 🙂 Have a great day, Sarah!

      ~Abby =)

  10. Ben Bergmann says:

    Well done! My blog is relatively new, but I’ve been running my own etsy shop for years and I know exactly what you mean about being terrible at seasonal things.

    I always tell myself this time you have to create things for Halloween 2 or 3 months beforehand and then I start panicking when it’s only two weeks to go and I still haven’t put anything in my shop! The same with Christmas, Valentine’s day and most other holidays!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thanks so much, Ben!

      ~Abby =)

  11. Abby and Donnie ~ These income reports are so inspirational to me! It’s hard to even imagine what $30k and up a month looks like. (Wow!)
    I’ve actually just started planning future content this month, in hopes it will help me post more relevant topics and stay on track in 2017!
    Hoping you guys surpass your own goals this year ~ xoxo.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Thanks so much, Amanda! So glad they are helpful to you! Have a wonderful week and happy blogging! <3

      ~Abby =)

  12. Tasia @ The Frugal Farm Girl says:

    I love following your income reports. I just get that feeling that you are both honest and tell it like it is no fluff or bragging. I have been struggling with sharing my income reports and feel that I want to but yet not sure because I don’t want to come across as bragging or put others into comparison more than encouragement.

    I think I may start and just do it this year. We are using only one stream of income to pay off our mortgage and I want to share it with others and to keep us on track. 🙂

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Ooh we struggle with this a lot! It is such a fine line between wanting to be helpful and coming across like we’re bragging, which we would never want to do! I think many people are inspired by income reports and learn a lot from them, so if it is something you feel like would be helpful for your readers, definitely go for it! Have a great day, Tasia!

      ~Abby =)

  13. David & Maxine says:

    Abbey and Donnie, Thanks for your blog and your inspiration. After 1 year of following your blog, my wife and I are finally ready to get started. It’s a little rough, but we’ve worked hard these past 6 months or so to clear our plates and make our new focus this year blogging and helping others like us. Thanks so much! Keep the content coming!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Yay! So excited for you guys! Best of luck with your blog!

      ~Abby =)

  14. Seems like a re-occurring theme for some of the top bloggers to have a lot of income coming from their own products. It’s been the case for me although just a small % of what you have. Guess I need to stop procrastinating on the next one.

    I also struggle with having content planned, and consistency is a major problem for me. If I can actually manage to work on content ahead of time, it would solve a major problem. I look forward to seeing more of your success in 2017!

    1. justagirlabby says:

      Yes! That is my goal for 2017 as well! To be more organized and be a month ahead at all times. We’ll see how it goes! 🙂

      ~Abby =)

  15. The beauty about the internet is when you interact with different groups you get to see things from a different perspective. I am really familiar with affiliate marketing but looking at income reports online has opened up my eyes to blogging. I am in the process of diversifying my site income so the income reports helps. I wish you would continue posting them but I understand your reasons.

    1. justagirlabby says:

      So glad it was helpful for you, Grace! <3

      ~Abby =)

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