Woah it’s the first of March already - time for a roundup of my February blog stats. Yet again I thrashed my £500 target which is amazing.  I feel like perhaps I should have a £800-1000 target, but I don’t want to make my target unreachable!  It’s my first year of totally focusing on my blog, so I shall start modestly.

February 2017 Blog Income: £820.97

I’m actually owed over £200 for blog posts too, so I would have gone over the thousand pound mark if these payments were quicker, but they’re a nice starting point for my March blog income.

Most of this income is from sponsored posts, £4 is from a PPC campaign and £10 is from one new ad on my business/blog ads page.

Next month I should have some income from affiliate marketing too.  I’m getting rid of Google ads and replacing them with affiliate ads instead.  I’m hoping these will be more profitable.  I only make about £60 every 6-8 months from Google ads.  I think you need HUGE amounts of traffic to make a lot of money from their AdSense scheme.  I also only have them at the bottom of my blog posts and one in the footer of my website.  I could add them to the top and sides of my website, but I’d rather keep the ads to a minimum and not clutter my website.

I know I’m already up to about £40 in affiliate sales since starting in February, so this is much better than the ads already.

February 2017 Google Analytics

I’m pleased to see my stats have increased from last month and they are so much higher than last year:

Page Views:  14500 (Jan: 12300)
Sessions: 8167 (Jan: 6600)
New Users: 4600  (Jan: 4400)

February Blogging Goals & whether I achieved them:

• Increase Instagram followers – Yes this has been achieved.  My followers are now at 3150 and have been steadily increasing.  I didn’t make a note of the number last month, but we'll now know for next month!
• Try to post at least once per day to Instagram – I’ve not posted once per day, but much more than usual, I’ll try again next month
• Increase newsletter subscribers and send new blog posts via newsletter twice per week – done, but opens are quite low.  Perhaps newsletters are like this?  I’d like to increase clicks.
• Run two giveaways – I’ve ran three and they’ve had a great response!  Two are still active in my giveaway section.
• Make £500 from blogging – smashed this target – over £800!
• Write at least two personal blog posts per week – I must have hit this target as there are over 50 blog posts this month!  Lots of sponsored ones, but I’ve had great fun relating these to my own experiences and writing about my own life within many of them.
• Add all blog posts to a spreadsheet (640ish, phew!) in order to find evergreen posts and add to a Social Oomph queue – done!  What a mammoth task!  It’s also inspired me to spring clean out old irrelevant blog posts or things I don’t want to promote anymore like foods with refined sugar, etc.
• Promote 3 blog posts a day with Pick a Blogger – I’ve done this most days, but some days I have forgot or just not had enough time.  It would be fab if there was a way to link to our RSS feeds and this is done automatically.
• Write at least two guest posts –done!  One has been published and I think the other is scheduled.  I’ve also featured in lots of interviews on blogs this month.  I love answering interview questions!
• Enjoy blogging, stay positive and focused – yes, yes and yes.  It’s scary trying to make my main income from blogging, but also so rewarding.  There are quiet days, but then there are days filled with opportunities.  Things will get much easier once Reuben is at nursery/play school more and I have more time to devote to improving my blog.

March Blogging Goals:

• Increase Instagram followers by 250
• Instagram at least once every other day
• Make £500 from blogging
• Change all ads to affiliate ads
• Have a blog spring clean and clear out old irrelevant posts
• Add internal links, check image descriptions and add keywords to at least 20 posts
• Research SEO for blogs
• Send out new blog posts daily via newsletter to test if it increases click through rate
• Run two giveaways
• Revise Social Oomph blog updates

Want to know how I find paid opportunities?  Click here: 4 ways to find paid blog opportunities