Can You Make Money Blogging? March 2015 Revenue Report

Hey guys! Business Kaitlin here. I’m baaack. Can you believe this is the 4th month I’ve been up and running? Time sure flies when you’re having fun.

Back in January I told you that I was going to be completely transparent about my blog traffic, expenditures, and revenue. And boy, has it been a roller coaster ride! Last month is was THIS close to stopping these posts, because I have to be honest, it’s extremely hard to be so exposed when it seems like I’m consistently losing money and not gaining traction fast enough.

But, due to popular demand (and my promise to you) I’ve pushed through and will continue to share my triumphs and struggles with you all.

These revenue reports have become some of my most popular posts, and rightfully so. It’s intriguing to see what goes into this “blogging” thing, and how one gets their return on their time and money. Is it worth it? Can it be done? Can you make money blogging?

Well, even though I questioned myself last month, I can finally tell you that my answer to all these questions is: ABSOLUTELY! For in March 2015, I saw my FIRST PROFIT on my blogging venture. It’s a measly $177.74 – not even a fraction of what I was making in the corporate world, but it’s a start. And to be honest with you, and with myself, I will probably yo-yo with bringing in a profit and losing money for the next few months. But that is ok.

Here is what the overview of my March 2015 expenditures and revenue looked like:

I am in this for the long haul, and I can see how putting time and effort into creating great content builds traction over time. The more great content I create, the more outlets I give my audience to find me, and the faster my traffic (and revenue)  growth follows. Let me show you what I’m talking about…

March 2015 Blog Traffic

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I keep going! It’s so satisfying to see traction growing month after month. Most of my traffic metrics grew in March 2015 over the previous month. 41% growth in users (2,069 in March vs. 1,465 in February), 83% growth in direct traffic (450 users in March vs. 246 in February), 91% growth in organic search (405 users in March vs. 243 users in February), and 241% referral growth (335 users in March vs. 98 users in February).

The only disappointing metric and decline in number of users was from Social Media, at a -7% (722 users in March vs. 780 in February). But this is a skewed number, which I explain a bit further down in this section.

Overall, I gained great traction in March. I attribute this to a few things. Firstly, I am continuing to check the Google “Keyword Planner” before I write every post. I search for keywords that have to do with what I want to write about, have an impressive monthly search volume, and are ranked “low” to “medium” competitiveness. Then, I write my post around the keyword I have chosen, making sure my WordPress deems each post to have “GOOD” SEO.

Secondly, I have more content. The more content I have, and the longer it stays indexed by Google, the better chance I have of people discovering me. The long term play is starting to pay off. My wedding posts from 3 months ago are really starting to take off- maybe because wedding season is starting, or maybe because they’re easier to find now that Google has indexed them. Either way, I believe it’s just a matter of time before the content I’m posting now starts to really take off.

Lastly, Pinterest really has helped me snowball. Almost 20% of my blog traffic is coming from that site. I explain a little bit more in depth below.

Pinterest is AMAZING

Last month I talked about my Lululemon scarf post that was gaining a lot of organic traffic and traffic from Pinterest. However, with wedding season in full swing, and future brides Pinteresting their lives away, I have other posts that have been blowing that one out of the water.

Most notably, my post on a DIY Rustic Wedding: Getting the Rustic Touch Without Breaking the Bank! I always Pin every single picture in every single post I have on Pinterest, no matter what it looks like. I never know which pictures are going to take off and which ones won’t. Well, in March, the post above was exponentially pinned: a record for me at 559 pins, and 49 likes. And that number is growing every day (I wrote this post on April 4th. Today, a week later, that number has DOUBLED). It’s snowballing, and it’s showing in my analytics!

Of the 2,069 people that visited my site last month, 1,057 came from referral sources. And of those 1,057, 406 came from Pinterest. That’s  38% of my referral traffic and 20% of my total traffic – and a 294% increase over February! I’m not even spending any money to promote my blog on there! Love it! Oh lookie lookie, as I type it’s pinned once more. So crazy to me 🙂

Now I just need to figure out how to replicate this with all my posts, so that people engage in my pins on Pinterest and snowball traffic to my site as I add more and more content. Maybe there’s a trick? Or maybe the trick is just more content and longevity? I will soon find out.

Facebook is Still a Staple

I still rely on Facebook heavily to engage new users. However, my traffic numbers are not as impressive this month from Facebook because as I mentioned in my February report, my post on Why I Quit my Corporate Job blew up! It drove an unusually high number of people to my site, and skewed all my numbers for February (making my March numbers look horrible).

To me, the traffic numbers look pretty steady from Facebook (taking out the one post that’s skewing everything). I’m continuing to “boost” each post on Facebook as they are published, and I have yet to decide if that is doing any good for me. I am tweaking my audience each time, and have not found a sweet spot yet.

However, I can note that my post that performed the BEST on Facebook wasn’t even a true DIY post – it was a recipe post of stuffed french toast I made for a party. Now I understand why food blogs can do so well. People LOVE their food.

I will continue my Facebook “boosts” for another few months until I have some real data to compare and evaluate, tweaking my target audience as I go and possibly running some true “ads” to see which pictures perform best for click through rates. I’ll keep you posted as I go.

How I’m Making Money

March 2015 was a record month for me, mostly due to sales from my Etsy shop! But, as you can see from the chart I posted in the first section above, I also had some increased income from custom orders and Amazon affiliate links, as well.

As I mentioned last month, the word of my craftiness is spreading amongst the people I know in the SF Bay area. In March, I had more people reach out to me to make custom items for their weddings, hem curtains for them, etc. DIY projects they’d rather not do, or don’t know how to do, themselves. People always like dealing with, and supporting, someone they trust.

I’m not doing anything besides promoting my blog and Etsy shop to get these customers. Maybe in the future I’ll try promoting my custom services a little harder. But for now, I’ll take them as they come, and with open arms!

Etsy Shop

In March, my Etsy shop saw the most traffic and the most orders it has seen since I hoped it mid-December 2014. What do I attribute this increase in traffic and sales to? A couple things.

Firstly, as I mentioned last month, I has not yet begun to play with “promoting” my listings on Etsy. What does this do for me? Well, “promoting” a listing is much like paying for an add on Google. Depending on how much an item is searched, Etsy places a price on each listing for it to be “promoted”. If I “promote” the listing, it shows up in the first page or two of the search when a person searches for an item like mine.  And I only pay for the “promoted” listing, if a customer clicks on my product, and not for every impression.

I began to promote a few of my listings at the beginning of March (March 3rd to be exact), and by the middle of the month, realized I should just promote ALL of my listings! I set a maximum budget of $3 per day.

In total, my “promoted” listings got 16,827 impressions, 327 clicks, cost me $73.69, and made me $211 (all revenue was made in the last 6 days of the month). Not an impressive conversion rate, but an impressive revenue to expenditure ratio. So I will continue to promote my listings and see how April fairs!

Secondly, I began utilizing my vendor status on WeddingChicks.com to my advantage. As I mentioned in my January Report, I became a vendor on the popular wedding blog. What this allows me to do is post my work directly to their “inspiration board”. These pictures link back to my Etsy site, where future brides can purchase what I’m selling.

I had only posted on their once previously, and realized I was not taking full advantage of my vendor status. Towards the middle of March, I began to post my work on their inspiration board religiously, every 2 or 3 days (just to keep myself towards the top). Over the course of that time, I received 193 views from those postings, as well as an additional 17 views from my vendor shop on the WeddingChicks site.

You may be wondering my my revenue on the chart is less than the $497.35 I reported. Well, this chart only shows “product revenue” and doesn’t include the shipping and tax that I charged each customer.

But what you very well can tell is that once I stated to promote ALL my listings, and started heavily promoting myself on a website where I’m a featured vendor, there was a large increase in people that viewed my listings and shop. This directly correlated with an increase in revenue!

Therefore, I will continue to promote my listings – both paid on Etsy and non-paid through my vendor listing on WeddingChicks.com. It seems to be paying off, and I am hoping to get a jump start on that revenue earlier in April.

Amazon Affiliate Links

Not only was it my best month with custom orders, and in my Etsy shop, but it was my best month with Amazon affiliate links, too!

As I mentioned above, people were loving my Rustic wedding post, and it gained a ton of traction on Pinterest in March. Probably because it’s wedding season, and brides are looking to make their wedding decorations for cheap, but most of my revenue came from people buying the supplies to make their own rustic wedding decor (and a few people replicating the Lululemon scarf).

It is not a coincidence that 2 of my best performing posts are the links people are converting from on Amazon!

Overall, I had a 7.1% conversion rate on my Amazon links (which was a huge jump over my 3.95% conversion rate in February). I also saw my link click more than DOUBLE in March from where they were in February.

What does this mean? The more content I have, the easier it is for people to find me, and the better chance I have of converting them into either customers of my shop, or getting advertising fees from their purchases to DIY. However, now I must hone in on HOW to get my conversion rate up, and how to keep the stamina going from month to month. I can’t afford to have another dismal month, like February.

Where I’m Spending Money

As you can see in my chart, I am pretty consistent with my expenditures. My Etsy costs increased this month over the last few months due to my promoted listing (which I have already explained were well worth it and I will continue to spend money on).

My Facebook boosts ($5 per post, posting twice per week) are bringing users to my blog. However, I have yet to determine how useful these boosts are to me (as I explained above). I will continue to spend money for the next couple months to determine their efficacy, and try to refine my audience and what kinds of posts perform best.

Additionally, you can see a large increase in what I spent on postage, and rightfully so. My Etsy shop was booming and I , therefore, had much more to send out. A couple orders were extremely heavy (glass items) and one even went overseas! I charge my customers for the shipping costs, but I am still getting used to how much packages cost, and undercharged for a couple orders. As I get better at determining shipping, this should pay for itself!

The rest of my expenditures are just crafting expenses. I didn’t invest in anything big this month (thank goodness!), and just bought was was needed for my upcoming tutorials. I am beginning to see I spend an average of about $300 per month on crafting supplies. Not terrible, if you ask me, for as many crafts as I’m doing each month! Jo-Ann’s must love me by now….

Coming Up: What I Need to Focus On

Ads

As I mentioned last month, I REALLY need to focus on my other affiliate advertising – with banner ads on my site.

I set some up in January, as “set and forget” ads. And BOY, have I forgotten them. I need to go in and change these, put up the promotions when they send them to me, and make sure my users are seeing specifically targeted ads.

I plan on ramping this up in April, but not focusing on it heavily. As I mentioned in previous posts, right now my main focus is good content. And when I feel like I have a strong hold on that, then I will dive head first into ads and targeting.

But that doesn’t mean I can just forget them. A few tweaks every now and then are needed, and I will start paying attention to these ads on a regular basis to try and gain more engagement on my site through ads.

Referrals – Partner Up!

Even more than focusing on ads, I want to focus on partnering with bloggers and business that would serve as mutually beneficial.

For example, an old high school girlfriend (who now owns her own wedding and party planning business) reached out to me through my blog post – Why I Quit My Job. I mentioned in the post that I was interested in event planning, and she mentioned that she may have an opportunity for us to work together.

Additionally, I was featured on an awesome Blog Income Report Roundup which showcases bloggers (just like me) who blog about their monthly expenditures, revenue, and traffic. People love reading about this stuff, and it brought 68 users to my site in just the last 2 days of March alone. Pretty impressive!

This got my wheels turning, and made me realize that there are MANY more opportunities like this. Not necessarily going out and working outside of my “blogging” world, but possibly partnering with others to promote both my business as well as theirs. The more eyes I can get, the better. And what better way than to reach out to those who it can benefit, too!

My plan is to focus heavily on partnerships as a way to build my audience. How I’m going to do this, I don’t quite know yet. But I know I’m going to try to start this in April, and I’m sure I’ll have some fun stories for you in my April report…

Content

The theme of this entire report is content. How I’m building it, and how it’s snowballing to increase my exposure and revenue. I know many people dig on relying on content alone as a way to increase traffic and revenue. And I’m not saying that this is ideal for everyone. But at the stage I’m at in the game, I feel this is the most important thing for me to focus on right now – solid content!

It’s clearly working on increasing my site traffic, month over month. If I can continue to produce content that people are interested in (in conjunction with promoting myself in the ways I mentioned above on Pinterest, Facebook, and through partnerships) then it’s only a matter of time before I have enough traction to start drilling down on the other things that may help me grow.

In summary, I am extremely happy with my performance in March. I can only hope to grow again in April (through the channels I have acknowledged to be successful potentially successful) and to keep refining my growth strategy to make it the most efficient and effective!

And as always, I welcome any constructive criticism, advise, or strategy you may through my way! I’m still a novice, and appreciate all the love, support, and help I can get.