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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 exactly 1 year 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”?
February 2017 Income
- AdThrive: $2,519.58
- Sponsored Content: $3,250
- Sponsored video: $2,550
- Sponsored blog posts: $700
- Youtube: $201.96
- Amazon Associates: $21.05
- Bluehost: $910
- Beautiful Dawn Designs Affiliate: $87
- Etsy Pattern Sales: $534.51
- MadMimi: $42
- Adobe Creative Cloud: $9.99
- Etsy Seller Fees: $85.48
- Supplies for blog posts: $100
*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!
February 2017 Traffic
Some screenshots from google analytics:
Pageviews for the month of February:
Top ten traffic sources:
- AdThrive is turning out to be a great decision for my blog. Their customer connection has been nothing short of super communicative & I couldn’t be happier with that end of things.
- Also, the numbers are QUITE pleasing! I’ve seen more than $3.70 increase in my RPM since January – and my February RPM is about double what it was when I left Mediavine at the beginning of the year. Yay!
- Even though I did WAY fewer pageviews than January, I still managed to come out with more dough in my pocket. Which is what I like to see.
- I’ve worked on YouTube videos even more this month and it’s helping my channel to continue growing. I uploaded 7 new videos this month and I’m proud that I was able to publish that many in 28 days. (Average – 1 video every 4 days!)
- More videos to come – make sure you’re subscribed to my channel!
- Sponsored content was really great this month (Super grateful to them, thanks guys!). This is one of those areas that’s always changing and will never be predictable income. So even though I’m super motivated to work with sponsors, I don’t count on this number to constantly trend in one direction or another. I just take each month as it comes and thank the heavens when I get lots of opportunities!
- Those page view counts are less than stellar, considering the counts I’ve had over the last few months. I took a big dip in a less than ideal direction but I attribute this to a few things:
- I moved right in the middle of February – so all in all I missed about 5 days of work time. Between packing, moving, and unpacking there were a lot of hours lost that I would have spent working. At least that part is over with and I won’t have to deal with it again for a while!
- We are in the thick of the Quarter 1 slump. Companies I usually work with are pulling back on advertising expenditures and this is the part of the year when everyone is stingy with their pennies. The populous is spending less frivolously and creative industries are seen more as a luxury than a necessity.
- There are a few less days in February. With only 28 days instead of 30/31, there is less time to try to make the same numbers. So it isn’t surprising that pageview counts dipped some! And if you look at the number of days I spent actively working this month (not as many as usual) it cuts into that “earning money time” even more.
- Almost no money from Amazon Associates this month, but as a lot of my projects have been sponsored, I don’t link to separate affiliate items on Amazon. So that’s understandable. I haven’t posted anything with their links in a while, but I don’t usually make lots of money there anyway.
- 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. I bought some craft store supplies here and there, and spent a few bucks on putting together my new workspace but all in all, little was spent.
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!
Mary says
Hi Ashleigh!
I am shocked that you have only been blogging for a year! That’s crazy, girl! I can’t even imagine all the hard work that you do. I have been following you for about 6 months and I love how you are always changing things up. You’re always thinking outside the box! Just as a side note, I just started my blog, Croyden Crochet about 2 months ago. The one thing I would like to ask is what is the best way to go about getting sponsored posts? I feel this is tough because crochet is such a concentrated niche. Any thoughts?