For those of you who’re here for the home decor (like, helloooo these cute fall front porch decorations!), you may be surprised to learn that I post blogging related content on occasion.  Why?  Because if you know any teachers in your life, you know darn well that they just can’t help, well, teaching.  And, yep, education’s my background.  In particular, I find enormous value in publishing blog traffic and income reports.  These reports allow me to reflect thoughtfully on the direction for this blog.  Plus, and maybe even more importantly, they remind me of the power of incremental growth and small steps in reaching big, bold dreams.  So, without further ago, keep on reading for my September 2017 traffic and income report.  

September Retrospective

The Biggest Lesson Learned This Month

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned this month that’s fundamentally changed this blog it’s this:

Return on investment is everything.

What do I mean?  As a working mama with two kids, time is super precious and limited.  I have to be very choosy about how I spend my time and only spend it where I see the greatest return.  For all those tasks that have me spinning my wheels, I’ve decided to stop doing them all together.  If it’s not working, I’m cutting it.

Focusing on Growth

What do I mean?  To maximize my ROI, I’m focusing only on tasks and platforms that have high dividends in terms of growth and revenue.

So let’s first talk about what got cut.  That is, what’s not working?

This month, I walked away from Twitter, even though I have 14600 followers.  True story.  Why?  Because my goal is to build my blog.  As much as I’ve worked to grow my Twitter following, my data tells me that my Twitter activity isn’t converting to website traffic.

As much as it breaks my heart, I’ve also scaled back on Instagram.  While I still post regularly and interact with my community, I’ve stepped away from engagement groups (which are an awesome way for small accounts to gain followers!) and have declined paid influencer marketing campaigns.  Why?  Because as much as I adore Instagram, another platform drives much, much more traffic to my site: Pinterest.

This month, almost 95% of my traffic’s come from Pinterest, specifically from a few pins that’ve gone moderately viral.  Leveraging all my extra time towards pinning has really helped drive momentum where the return on investment was high.

Traffic Analysis

Hitting Major Milestones in September 2017

September saw a Home Beautifully hit a pretty major traffic milestone.  That’s right, this month, this blog had 10,000 page views!  (That number still makes my mind spin!)

When I started blogging a year ago, the idea of having my website content visited 10,000 times in one month seemed practically impossible.  In my blogging Facebook groups, whenever a blogger would mention that she had 10,000 pageviews, I always thought something like this:

WHOA.  That girl must amazing.  And then I thought almost immediately I want that for myself.

Traffic Growth from May to September 2017

Towards the beginning of this year, when I joined a crazy good blogging course called Elite Blog Academy, I set a goal to hit 10K pageviews by December 2017.   I really began working my way through the course content in May 2017.

Since joining the course, I’ve made an incredibly important mental shift and now realize that success in blogging is entirely possible.  And now the big goal?  100,000 page views AND a full-time income by September 2018.  I no longer think it’s impossible and really believe it’s a question of when, not if.

Since May of this year, when I started working through Elite Blog Academy, here’s how my traffic has risen:

Nutty, right?  What’s made the difference?  Focusing on ROI and concentrating my marketing efforts on the platform that really drives traffic to my site: Pinterest.

Email Subscriber Growth

In addition to website traffic, I’ve also focused substantially on growing my website subscribers.  Why?  Because email newsletters are an incredible way to build relationships and trust with readers.

You can see from my MailerLite dashboard that I gained almost 1000 new email subscribers in September, which is awesome! Building a resource library was an incredible way to provide value to readers while also building my subscriber base.  Haven’t visited the resource collection yet?  Click the button below to hop to the home decor playground (it’s awesome, for really reals.)

Also, if you’re a blogger looking for an email service to use, I whole-heartedly recommend MailerLite.  The team is so friendly and helpful, the plan is super affordable, and the system is really beginner friendly.  Honestly, I couldn’t speak highly enough about MailerLite.  (And, yep, that’s an affiliate link I like them so much!)

Income Analysis

Revenue September 2017

Influencer Marketing: $50

Affiliate Marketing: $.41

Expenses September 2017

I continue to spend money on the following:

MailerLite: $10

Canva for Work: $9.95

Microsoft Suite: $6.99

Total Income: $23.47

I’m still not making fistfuls of money on my blog …and I’m okay with that!  Why?  Because my focus, until recently, has been elsewhere, like building systems and crafting amazing content.  I have a strong sense that when I do implement my revenue strategy (yup, I have a whole strategy!) that I’ll hit the ground running.

For now, I’m working my way through the Elite Blog Academy coursework and focusing on taking the content a unit at a time.