Kaitlin and I were pretty busy over the holidays. We jetted off to Punta Gorda, Florida to visit with part of my family. On the way back we took a pit stop in Las Vegas for a couple nights to bring in the New Year. I had the pleasure of boxing out drunk 30-something year old women and gay men as Britney Spears transported them into their crazed teenage selves. But the look on Kaitlin’s face and utter glee was worth it. We saw Maroon 5 on New Year’s Eve which was a bit more tolerable.

So why am I telling you this? Because this was the first month where Kaitlin’s Etsy shop went MIA. She put that baby on vacation and was terribly worried what it would do to her month’s earnings. Good news, it wasn’t a disaster!

Let’s get into it.

The quick stats:

Traffic: 9,653 unique visitors; +2.5% m/m

Gross Revenue: $4,329.27; -4.1% m/m

Net Revenue: $3,421.37; +17.2% m/m

The Chart Porn:

To the keen observer, you’ll notice something interesting. Gross revenue was lower than November, but net revenue was higher. If you didn’t notice this, don’t worry… I’m only slightly judging you. We’ll get into how and why this happened below.

Miss Bizi Bee Traffic Breakdown

It was nice to see blog traffic slightly higher than November. I expected it to be a down month with most people checked out completely for Christmas. So that was a nice surprise.

Here’s a look at the different traffic channels compared to November:

I normally breakout what happened with each traffic channel, but not much really happened this month. Organic gained about as much (on a percentage basis) as Social lost. Direct traffic gained a bit and referral traffic was largely unchanged.

This was Kaitlin’s second best month in terms of traffic, but only slightly. It was still far off October’s record, but it feels like we’re stuck in the holiday lull yet. I wouldn’t be surprised to see things really start picking up in January.

Miss Bizi Bee Revenue Breakdown

As I mentioned above, Kaitlin’s Etsy shop was on vacation for much of December. She didn’t completely close it, but set it so that everything had two-week lead times. That way, if people ordered things she’d still have time to get home and fulfill them.

Since Etsy is by far Kaitlin’s largest revenue channel, this made her a bit nervous. But I’m happy to report that Etsy revenue was still quite solid.

Of the $4,329 in revenue here’s how it broke out by channel: Etsy (93.3%), Amazon affiliate links (6.5%), Commission Junction (0.08%), digital revenue (0.12%):

Etsy Revenue

Once again, Etsy was the big driver. Until we start seeing some more blog traffic growth and Kaitlin has more time to write new content, this is probably going to continue.

Amazon Affiliate Revenue

Amazon registered $281 in December. This was only $7 lower than November’s total, so it’s nice to see a bit of correlation with blog traffic. Remember, blog traffic was nearly the same as last month, so you’d expect Amazon revenue to be about the same too.

I’m hoping we start seeing this channel mature in early 2016 and it becomes a bigger contributor.

Commission Junction & Digital Revenue

Again, these segments are a tiny part of the revenue pie. I think Kaitlin could boost her revenue a bit by replacing commission junction ads with Google Adsense, but we haven’t gotten around to implementing it. Even still, I’m not sure it would really do all that much more.

Miss Bizi Bee Expenses Breakdown

Kaitlin really managed her expenses this month, so well that she made more net profit than November on less top-line revenue. I asked her why this was and she explained that she had loaded up on some common Etsy materials in November.

So even though we weren’t aware of it, Kaitlin’s November expenses were slightly inflated. She decided it was worth taking a bit more of a hit in November to have a psychologically better December. I think it was a great move.

As a result, Kaitlin’s expenses as a percentage of revenue were the lowest they’ve ever been:

Looking Toward January

January is going to be an even more interesting month. Kaitlin and I are taking off to Thailand for two weeks. We’ve been looking forward to this trip for a long time, but Kaitlin’s not looking forward to the damage it’s going to do to her business.

Since we’ll be a bit more off the grid being so far away, I don’t think she’s going to be able to hack it with a two-week lead time on all orders. But hey, I wouldn’t put it past her. But if Kaitlin has to put her entire shop on permanent vacation it could really hurt her numbers.

But all work and no play makes Kaitlin a dull girl. You have to take time for yourself, especially when running your own business. You can’t say she hasn’t earned it.

I hope you all had an amazing holiday season. Looking forward to a new year of Miss Bizi Bee!