Miss Bizi Bee Traffic and Revenue Report: January, 2016

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Last month I mentioned that Kaitlin and I would be taking off to Thailand for two weeks in January so she’d have only a half month of potential Etsy revenue. The trip was amazing and I think we both needed some time away to recharge. But by the end, we were ready to get back to it.

Kaitlin left her Etsy shop on vacation the entire time we were gone. There was just no way she was going to be able to hack it like she did while we were in Florida for the holidays. As you’d imagine, her revenue was lower this month than it’s been in awhile.

But there are some other interesting stats to report where January set some records even while Kaitlin was away!

The quick stats:

Traffic: 15,706 unique visitors; +62.7% m/m

Gross Revenue: $3,392.9; -21.6% m/m

Net Revenue: $2,457.67; -28.2% m/m

The Chart Porn:

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There’s one obvious change here you probably noticed, and that’s a huge bump in blog traffic. Let’s dig into the details and see where it came from (and if it’s here to stay).

Miss Bizi Bee Traffic Breakdown

Kaitlin’s blog crushed it in January with a huge jump in traffic. This was a nice surprise during a month she was largely MIA. It wasn’t just a month-over-month increase, but a huge beat over her previous record month in October. So what was the cause of this uptick in traffic?

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

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As you can see, social traffic led the charge here with a massive 129% increase over December’s numbers. I wish I could say I had an answer for why social traffic had such a huge gain. It could be seasonality, but we don’t really know because this is really Miss Bizi Bee’s first January with any decent traffic sample size. It could be some of her pins simply getting more traction.

What will be interesting to see is whether this is a one-month anomaly or if the social traffic has reached a new normal. We’re obviously hoping for the latter for reasons I’ll get into later.

But social traffic wasn’t the only contributor. Organic traffic increased a solid 23% over December. After two months of basing, organic traffic finally crested October’s high of about 6,000 visits. So it’s really nice to see this channel continue its gains.

Direct traffic to Miss Bizi Bee also grew 100% over December’s numbers. With more than 4,000 direct visits, this channel is starting to be a real contributor.

It will be interesting to see if these trends continue into February or if there’s a couple more months of basing before traffic increases again. Regardless, it’s awesome to see the continued growth here for blog posts that Kaitlin produced months ago.

Miss Bizi Bee Revenue Breakdown

As mentioned above, Kaitlin’s Etsy shop (her big money maker) was completely closed for two-weeks while traveled Thailand. The lost income was definitely worth it though. Thailand is an amazing and gorgeous country!

Of the $3,392.90 in revenue here’s how it broke out by channel: Etsy (86.63%), Amazon affiliate links (13.37%):

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Etsy Revenue

As usual, even with her time away, Etsy was the big revenue driver in January. Kaitlin was pretty swamped with orders once we returned (pent up demand, I guess), but you’ll notice that Etsy wasn’t as big of a piece of the pie as it normally is.

Amazon Affiliate Revenue

One of the reasons Etsy didn’t account for 90%+ of Kaitlin’s revenue was because of Amazon affiliate earnings putting up a record month. Amazon generated $453.73 in revenue shattering October’s previous record of $375.

As I’ve mentioned in previous reports, Amazon revenue should be directly correlated with blog traffic. As Miss Bizi Bee’s traffic numbers go up, the click throughs to Amazon should increase which drive more purchases and more affiliate income.

This is exactly what played out in January with a record traffic month. So as long as traffic keeps going up, so should Amazon revenue.

Obviously this income channel would not have made up 13% of total income on a month Kaitlin’s Etsy shop was open the entire time. But even if this had been a normal month, this channel would have been a larger contributor than ever before. Very exciting!

Miss Bizi Bee Expenses Breakdown

After last month’s all-time low expenses to revenue ratio, things are back to something more typical. The ratio came in at 27.56% this month which is still Kaitlin’s second lowest ever:

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Looking Toward February

Overall, January was a really cool month for Miss Bizi Bee. Blog traffic popped to new records and Amazon put up big numbers for Kaitlin while she was on vacation. It doesn’t get much better than that! It’d be really nice to see Miss Bizi Bee’s traffic increase again in February or at least put up similar numbers as January. I’m really hoping it wasn’t just a fluke. We’ll see!

Kaitlin has been trying to find more time to blog, especially now that she’s really starting to see the power of monetizing her traffic.

Beyond that, it’s tough for her to do much more. We’ll be getting a puppy in late February and we have a baby boy on the way. So things are extra busy and it’s hard to find time to further monetize blog traffic.

Comments

  1. says

    Hey there, first time reader here. Great Income Report! I discovered your blog through Matthew Woodwards Income roundups. Nice to see semi-passive Amazon revenue going up. Mine has actually been shrinking slowly due to focusing on other projects than my Amazon Affiliate sites.

    Take care and looking forward to more posts!

    • says

      Hey Dave, sorry just getting to this one! Yes, Matthew Woodward has an awesome roundup and amazing journey himself. Very inspiring!

      That’s interesting your Amazon revenue has been shrinking, I wonder if it’s just seasonality? If you’re writing high-quality posts they should gain more traction over time.

  2. says

    Hi, I found your blog from the same report Dave did. Great job! I’m working on Amazon Affiliate income, too. Obviously, the reason I jumped on over here after seeing the post. I wanted to see what you are doing. 🙂 I wish you much success in 2016!

    • says

      Thanks, Stacy; I’m glad you found Kaitlin’s blog! I don’t do much beyond my once-month appearance to crunch numbers and write up her monthly report. Amazon affiliate income has been great and growing! I’m really intrigued by their new CPM model too. We just haven’t had the time to dig into all that quite yet.

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