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Hey there everyone!
As some of you may know I started this little bloggy right at the beginning of last year (2016) with yarn in hand, creativity abounding, and no expectations.
It’s been a while since then and BOY have things changed.
Below is a breakdown of my current traffic and income here on the blog, and some factors that led me here.
Now, you may be asking yourself “Why on EARTH would she put her income and numbers out there for all the world to see? Isn’t that part of the secret sauce?”
Nope! I started this blog a short while ago and have found great success (considering how long I’ve been working on it).
I want to encourage others to blog too!
Actually I put together my 3 Easy Steps to starting your own DIY blog HERE!
In the crochet niche of the internet, I’ve found one thing to be true – lots of people crochet, but not very many are publishing new patterns and putting out content.
There is a very small group of crochet bloggers out there (spend any time on Pinterest and you’ll quickly name several) dominating the market.
And this job is not hard to do!
Let me repeat that. THIS JOB IS NOT HARD TO DO.
It took me about half an hour to set up my blog initially and although I’ve made many adjustments along the way, my blog has been earning me good money with a really basic setup.
Now what do I mean by “good money”?
September 2017 Income
- AdThrive: $3,626
- Sponsored Content: $2,075
- Sponsored video: $250
- Sponsored blog posts: $1,825
- Youtube: $458.72
- Amazon Associates: $25.01
- Bluehost: $260
- Beautiful Dawn Designs Affiliate: $46.50
- Etsy Pattern Sales: $390.25
- MadMimi: $42
- Adobe Creative Cloud: $9.99
- Etsy Seller Fees: $48.60
- Supplies for blog posts: $0
*Keep in mind that not all of this money is mine forever. I am the sole proprietor of my business and will pay taxes, am responsible for my own health insurance, and other expenses that a traditional job would supply. That’s still a lot of dough for playing with yarn though!
September 2017 Traffic
Some screenshots from google analytics:
Let’s talk about what happened this month:
Quite a few things changed as far as income, expenses, and traffic. Let’s look at it a little more closely!
- First, I’d like to say that this income report marks one year of reporting my income and encouraging you guys to blog! I’m so proud of some of the amazing folks I’ve been able to help by putting all my numbers on the internet and wouldn’t have it any other way. THANK YOU GUYS for keeping this blog going and supporting my love of crochet blogging and teaching others too!
- AdThrive is still amazing.
- My RPM (Rate per 1000 pageviews) is still making over $10 which is amazing! Such a difference from this time last year.
- The AdThrive video player is continuing to make more money, which is awesome! I’m excited to see how this continues to grow when I add more and more videos to the player. Thanks for watching my videos, guys!
- I’ve worked on YouTube videos some this month and it’s helping my channel to continue growing. I uploaded several new videos this month & I’m continying to restructure things to devote more time to YouTube.
- More videos to come – make sure you’re subscribed to my channel!
- I’ve earned a few more dollars here than in previous months, but YouTube is not a world of quick gratification (maybe it is if you go viral). For my niche and my videos, its a slow and steady climb to great income. I’m still at the bottom of that hill, but with time and consistent watering – this plant is sure to grow.
- My subscriber count is really starting to grow! I’m nearing 50,000 subscribers which is amazing! I hope to create lots more video tutorials during the coming winter months – let’s really take advantage of that busy season!
- Sponsored content AMAZING this month. This is one of those areas that’s always changing and will never be predictable income. This is the time of year when sponsors are starting to spend more money on campaigns for the holidays, especially in my niche.
- I’ve hit a nice stride with one of my regular sponsors, and I think we are moving and grooving through the season. Yay! Also, I’ve gotten all of my supplies covered, so the money I’m saving on supplies is in the neighborhood of HUNDREDS per month. Not a bad gig, y’all!
- Pageviews are growing!! yay!
- Still not numbers I’d like to see moving through the season, but these next few months will bring higher numbers in this area, and thus – more ad revenue.
- I’m still not producing content at the speed of lighting like I was last year, but I’ve got a few guest posters coming on the team to help bring you more free patterns & that’s bringing me a little boost in traffic while letting them start growing their blogs! Win/win for everyone!
- With getting my new spinoff business (Happy Yarn Mail) up and running, my blog has gotten less attention than it usually would. I’m trying to pay as much attention to my blog as possible, but I’m not posting as much as I was before starting up HYM. It’s all good though, because there are entire weeks of the month I don’t touch or think about my blog but guess what? IT’S STILL EARNING MONEY.
- All of these things combined resulted in less traffic and less moo-lah. I’ve still got enough to pay the bills, though so I’m a happy camper!
- HAPPY YARN MAIL IS STILL AMAZING! (Click HERE if you haven’t heard of HYM!) We sold out again this month and that means that where my Sewrella productivity has dipped, HYM is making up for it.
- I’m not including those numbers here because it’s really a separate business from my blogging business.
- Bluehost and Beautiful Dawn Designs have continued to do well – I’m so glad you guys are taking what I write to heart and starting those blogs!
- If you haven’t started your blog yet, need I say more?? Click here to get started!
- Expenses were low this month, without spending much money on reinvestment in my blog, and a lot of my supplies being donated or sent for free via sponsorship collabs.
What do you want to see from my blog in 2017? I have so many ideas up my sleeve, it’s hard not to start them all at once! Leave me a suggestion in the comments below.
If you want to quit that dead-end job and make amazing money blogging at home, check out my FREE START A BLOG GUIDE!
Val says
Yep, you made a pile of money and good for you girl. I did the same thing back in the 90’s before everyone was “blogging.” But I can tell you one thing; I came here looking for a specific pattern and I may or may not get it if I have to buy it on Etsy, but I will never come to your site again specifically because of how ad heavy it is. I had to close at least four things before I could work my way down to the page. Perhaps you should take a look at how that short term gain of running every ad you can will impact your longevity when people never come back.
Ashleigh says
I actually don’t have as many ads as a lot of blogs out there – the number of ads I have are industry average according to my network. The way to support free content and free patterns is through ads, just like watching cable TV and dealing with commercials. None of us like them, but we don’t like paying for our entertainment either (certainly not paying enough for the producers of said content to make a fair wage). I hope you’ll stick around, and see that there’s a lot more to my blog than ads!
Lou | mallooknits says
I am always amazed when I read your income reports! You are working really hard on this!
You mentioned that you are going to have some guest post in the following months. Does this mean that you are accepting requests? And if yes, how can I apply?
Ashleigh says
Hey there! You can send in an application with a link to your blog to [email protected]
Tae says
I bought my domain after reading and seeing your income reports and stuff. You influenced me in a good way. I’ve been sharing my patterns and contents slowly so hopefully I can share more. (And I wish I can apply for Ad contents so I can start making money! My number is too small right now to apply :’[ )
I wanted to check my Google Analytics and see same table as yours (screenshot). I looked everywhere but I can’t figure out where you can see that table! Can you tell me where I can find it??