Hey friends!  Cynthia here, back at it with another blog traffic and income report.  If you’re new ‘round these parts, you might be wondering why I’m inclined to share such personal deets about Home Beautifully.  As an educator, I recognize that information is the greatest tool we have for improvement.  And I hope that by sharing my journey with you, I not only allow myself space to reflect, but also I inspire you — at whatever phase of your blogging journey you may be!  Want to read more about the January 2018 monthly income and traffic?  Keep on reading!

Objectives of this January 2018 Monthly Income and Traffic Report

In reading (and writing) this report, I want to answer three main questions for you.

– How many people are reading Home Beautifully?
– How much money am I making writing Home Beautifully?
– What are my three biggest takeaways of the month?

Sound good? Let’s start answering these questions!

January 2018 Blog Traffic and Email Subscribers

You guys, January 2018 was a HUGE month for Home Beautifully.  Huge, monster-sized, elephant of a month for this blog. 

Why?  Let’s dive into the stats.  We’re gonna look three metrics: my page views, unique sessions, and email subscribers.

As a quick reminder, this is where we landed in December of last year:

December 2017 Blog Traffic Snapshot

I ended 2017 feeling just gravy about my blog’s progress.  By the end of the month, I had 12,270 page views. 

My goal for 2017 had been to stay over 10,000 page views per month.  So, traffic was looking great and right on pace with where I’d wanted.

In fact, in my last monthly income and traffic report, I wrote how happy I was that the blog grew kinda slowly.  (Hint: if you ever want a PLOT TWIST, say stuff like that!  Keep on reading.)

January 2018 Blog Traffic Snapshot

Dude.  Let’s just take a moment and say it together.  DUUUUUUDE.  Rub your eyes if you don’t believe it.  (I know I didn’t.)

My blog hit almost 25,000 unique sessions and 57,982 page views in January.  What?! 

See that mountain in my data, kinda to the left?  That’s what it looks like when a post goes viral.

Yup, the 2018 free printable calendar kinda hit it outta the park.  And what makes me super giddy is that the Home Beautifully readers provided lots of great input on what the planner should include.

I feel like it’s a team victory (because it is.)

I still believe that these super pretty design assets I used to mock up the planner made a world of difference.  I found these assets on Creative Market and will pin ‘em with an affiliate link if you wanna check them out.

January 2018 Email Subscribers

One of the best parts of having a post go viral?  Seeing conversions to my email list.  We ended the month with over 6500 amazing humans on the email list (and maybe a cat or two, I dunno.)

It still BLOWS MY MIND that every week I email that many people.  (And even more, that they like hearing from me.  Hello, imposter syndrome.)

While gaining all these new subscribers is great, I bumped up a price bracket on MailerLite.  So now I pay $35 per month (for between 5,000 and 10,000 subscribers.)  MailerLite is still crazily affordable compared to other platforms, where I’d be paying upwards of $80, so I’m not complaining.  (Okay, I AM complaining, but only because I’m kind of a cheapskate.  But it’s a good problem to have.)

January 2018 Monthly Income Report

So we covered all the good news.  Now let’s get to the not-so-good.  I am in the red, red, red.  My budget is sunburnt it’s so red.

Let’s take a look:

I landed some paid guest contributor spots on other blogs in my niche, which is AWESOME.  Getting paid to do what I love?  Done and done.  Plus, the SEO juice from those links?  HUZZAH.

January 2018 Blog Expenses

Tech Issues Dun Dun Duuuun!

Let’s just get the bad stuff outta the way so we can chat about fun expenses.  You’ll notice that I had to pay a whole lot to iMark Interactive.  What happened???

Massive tech issues.  I consider myself a savvy gal (and pet my doctoral diploma whenever I’m feeling low), but when it comes to tech issues, I feel like a MORON.

Which is funny ‘cause this blogging thang is pretty technical.  Oops.

I think in my last email to Grayson Bell (the tech guy who saves me from myself), I actually used the words “gobblety gook” referencing the problem.  Thank gosh his rates are affordable.

My Third Baby: My New iMac

I may or may not have also bought a new computer because my Mac Book Pro rolled over and died. 

So now I’m the proud (VERY VERY proud) owner of a fancy, dancy iMac.  And I’m also very very in the hole.  

Since I usually pay for my blogging expenses with my blogging income, my hubs and I made a deal (after some negotiation with the budget).  I’ll pay for half of my new precious with blogging expenses, and half will come from our savings.

So now I owe our family $806 bucks for my fancy new computer.

Thing is, though, I LOOOOOVE it.  I’ve been using photoshop like a real champion (just look at this before and after!) and this computer is fast, fast, fast. 

Here’s a super awkward selfie of my with my third baby.   Since I’m gonna be paying her off for awhile, I feel like I better name her.  Maybe we’ll call her Harriet.  (But isn’t she BEAUTIFUL???)

January 2018 Lessons Learned

We covered the first two questions — how many people read this blog and how much income do I make? — so let’s move to the third:

What are the three biggest blogging lessons I’ve learned this month?

Lesson #1: Capture Those Leads

Having a post go viral was super amazing awesomesauce sparkles.  But the thing about viral traffic?  It doesn’t last.  Like I talked about last month with Pinterest seasonality, viral traffic flows, then ebbs.

But those conversions for viral traffic?  This RIGHT HERE is why you need to start building your email list now if you’re not already.  If I hadn’t had a strong lead magnet, I never would have seen that traffic again.  Buh-bye, see ya.

If you peek back up at my Google stats, you’ll see a little pie chart that shows what percentage of visitors are first-timers versus returners.  In January, 92% of visitors were first-timers. 

Even if they never, ever come to my site again (although I hope they do!), I now have a way of communicating with them on the weekly.  (And I LOVE emailing Home Beautifully peeps lots of free goodies.)

Lesson #2: Ride the Emotional Tides

Blogging can be tough because of the emotional highs and lows.  I hit 57,000 page views — YAHOO!  And now I owe a million bajillion bucks because of tech issues.  SHUCKS. 

The back and forth is exhausting.

And as a new mama, I’m a very VERY emotional (read: hormonal) gal these days.

Throughout January, many moments reminded me not to lose my joy. 

Here’s something I know about myself: I can love something to pieces.  Honestly.  I love it so hard and hold onto it so tight, that it falls apart in my hands.

For me, riding the emotional tides means balance.  It means walking away.  It means sleeping instead of blogging.  And also, it means turning off my damn phone and playing with my toddler.

And I’m learning to feel grateful for the emotional tides because I see them as learning opportunities to practice who I wanna be.

Lesson #3:  Goal Setting, Goal Setting, Goal Setting

At the start of January, I mapped out my Q1 (first quarter) goals using this free quarterly planner.

A reader actually emailed me not too long ago asking me to walk through the process of mapping quarterly goals.  (I still need to do it and will soon!)

For January, I told myself that I’d finish my welcome sequence for new subscribers and optimize my opt-ins on every post.  And I did!  Done and done!

So now when people subscribe to the Home Beautifully email list, they get three GORGEOUS freebies not found in the Resource Library as my way of rollin’ out the welcome wagon.  You can see the opt-in at the bottom of this post.  Aren’t they pretty??

Anywho, if you’re still reading ALLLL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM, thank ya so much for sticking with me on this journey.  I love it, love it, love it.  And I’m so grateful to this community who’s making my dreams oh-so-much for colorful.

As always, lots of love, from my house to yours,

Cynthia