Monthly Income Report For August: $219.06

With summer winding down and people taking advantage of remaining vacation days I really didn’t expect August to be a good month for the blog. True to form, my income for this month was not as good as last month but I’m still happy with it. I’m making progress in elements that are within my control. This month I also decided to do a bit of testing with Facebook advertising so that accounts for some of the loss on the blog as well.

This month I all but doubled my best ever traffic stats. I can’t really explain how or why this is happening other than through my Pinterest posts. Again, this is mostly thanks to the Iceland Itinerary post I wrote back in May. I was also lucky enough to be featured by Matthew Woodward’s Income Roundup which brought some new traffic my way as well (thank you Matthew!).

As my traffic grows I want to make sure it stays keeps growing which can sometimes be daunting. I’m trying to do this through; regular blog posts, using Pinterest more diligently and this month I’ve become much more active through Facebook.

There are a couple of future goals I still have for my blog to help bring it to the next level. Some may take longer than others, but overall I believe the will only help me make this blog better:

• Continue to increase affiliate links placed throughout the site
• Find more affiliate links
• Look at alternative advertising streams
• Increase my outreach to work with companies
• Have more guests post on the blog and write more guest posts for other blogs
• Create an actual email marketing list and expand on this to drive return traffic
• Look at optimizing images

For any of you who follow these posts, you know that most of these goals tend to repeat themselves month over month. I find it so hard to get some of this done sometimes while just doing regular maintenance. Recently I discovered that I’m having quite a bit of trouble with images pulling into third party websites. I’ve been looking into how to do this effectively so they show up in platforms like Facebook or Twitter when I want them to. It is likely going to take me quite a bit of time. I’m always looking for helps and tips with this if anyone is willing to offer a lending hand!

August Monthly Income Report

All of the money that I’ve made on this blog is converted to USD*

Copypress – $204 (+$98)
Sponsored Posts – 0 (-$150)
Google AdSense – $19.72 (+$1.42)
Amazon Affiliate – $1.32
Bluehost Affiliate – $0
Booking.com Affiliate – $0
Station Seven – $0

Made: $225.04 

Expenses

All expenses are priced out in USD*

Facebook Advertising – $6.00

Total: $219.06 (-$55.26)

My Biggest Takeaway in August

I think the biggest lesson I learned in August is that blogging takes time. As I come to almost a full year with my blog being self-hosted I have seen the traffic jump up and down but mostly up over the course of a couple months. Making money from my blog didn’t happen overnight and I still have a lot to learn but when I think about how I was several months ago when I first integrated Google Ads onto my blog and made $0.10, I’ve come a long way.

I’ve also learned that not every month is going to be a great one. Sometimes it’s better in the long run to invest money into the blog and spend a few more hours making tweaks here and there.

Next month I hope to expand or build more posts around affiliate links (obviously only ones that make sense) and see if that helps me to make more money with my increase in traffic.

Top 5 Posts Published In August

How to see New York City in 3 days: We travelled to NYC for a quick (and very busy) three days in August. Even though it was STINKING hot, I still had such a good time. This post showcases our itinerary over three days as we rushed around trying to fit in most of the major tourist sights New York has to offer.

Iceland budget for 10 days: The Iceland posts continue. Iceland is an expensive country to travel to, no one will deny that so I thought I would add together all of the money I spent during our 10 day trip to help give other travellers a taste of what they could expect.

July monthly income $275: As my best ever income report I’m not surprised this post did so well, especially because it was featured on a more popular blog. I hope to start adding more substance to these posts down the line, once I figure out more ways to make money and how to wrap my head around showcasing my traffic.

How I find and book the best flight deals: People are always asking me how I can afford to travel so often. It’s not really a secret but I’ve put together the train of thought / list I usually go through to find the cheapest flights possible.

What to do in Lake Myvatn: This was one of the best areas in Iceland that we visited, there was so much to do and see but yet we managed to do it all in one day. I put together a post that showcased the beautiful landscape and activities there were to do in the area.