I had to double check the date, because I thought it was November 1st and time for another income report, but then I thought I was in some sort of alternate reality. It’s November, and 85 degrees in St. Louis. Something obviously isn’t right here…
Anyway, each month I publish my income and traffic report, no matter how bad it may be.
It’s a way for me to stay accountable, or publicly humiliate myself by not following through with my goals set in the previous month.
It’s only for blog related income, no offline income or investment income. My hope is for this to help some of you others out there looking to generate a few bucks with your blog or other web properties.
What Happened in October?
October was supposed to be a really good month. I had plans to accomplish a lot of things such as:
- Launch my coaching page (didn’t happen)
- Add a sub menu (it’s invisible)
- Polish my SEO guide (actually lost some of the content)
- Rework and Migrate my Autoresponder (didn’t happen)
- Launch FB ads campaign (Didn’t happen)
I had a hard drive issue, and still do have the same issue but hopefully most of the data will be recovered. For a large part of the month, I was dealing with just getting things set up properly on my main system.
I also had a few projects I’ve been working on outside of the blog which took up quite a bit of time.
Content production was also low, and if it weren’t for David’s guest post on getting free cable, then there wouldn’t have even been a new post since the last income report!
There’s no way to really sugar coat the lack of progress made here on the blog. I missed every goal I wanted to hit in October, and didn’t keep up with content production either.
That being said, let’s just dive into the numbers…
October 2016 Income and Traffic Stats
Self Created Income/Courses
Income: $1,534
Coaching Income
- 5 Sessions
Note: Page coming soon for coaching.
Income: 1,375
Affiliate Income
- Long Tail Pro – $316 (see my review here)
- NameHero Hosting – $50 (review)
- Clicks Magazine – $8.50
- Mobile Renegade – $ 0 (See it in action here)
- Mobile Renegade Mega Deal with Facebook Plugin – $0 (Blog post + Video)
- TeamWork Project Management – $6
- Social Pilot – $3
Affiliate Income – $383.50
TOTAL Income Bully Blog Income – $3,292.50
Thoughts on October Income
About a $5,000 decrease compared to September, but that was to be expected. Actually, I expected it to be a steeper decline than it was. I expected to be around $2,500 in October.
Considering that I’m actually above where I expected, and factoring in how awful October was in terms of progress, I have to be happy with the amount of revenue generated.
One major concern though, is the mobile renegade income completely dropped off. I didn’t realize it until now, going through all my stats. I will need to check to make sure the links are working and see what’s going on there. It could have been a pretty solid month for affiliate income if my mobile renegade sales were on point with the average over the past year.
OTHER METRICS FOR THE BLOG
Alexa Rank – 356,964
Twitter Followers – 3,316
Youtube Channel Subscribers – 72
Google+ Followers – 38
Aweber Email Subscribers – 2,586
More Metrics:
Unique Visitors – 3,703
Bounce Rate – 74.51%
Pages Per Session – 1.59
Average Time On Site – 1:34
Thoughts On Traffic and Blog Metrics
Nothing much to discuss here, considering the lack of content, the decline in unique visitors is expected. Twitter activity picked back up and will continue to increase. I expect a 400-500 follower increase in the month of November.
Email subscribers have been stagnant. Once again, it is a by-product of a lack of content published in October, and no outreach being done.
My bounce rate in the last couple months has increased which is a bit alarming. It could be due to a lack of new content, it could also be due to a lack of internal linking in new content as well. That’s something I will keep my eye on in the next few months and do a bit of testing to improve those numbers.
All Time Stats For The Blog
| Month & Year | Unique Visitors | Affiliate Income | Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 2014 | N/A | $18.10 | $3528.10 |
| January 2015 | 921 | $46.48 | $4062.48 |
| February 2015 | 1361 | $223.65 | $3239.65 |
| March 2015 | 2324 | $70.58 | $2697.58 |
| April 2015 | 2528 | $400.90 | $2391.90 |
| May 2015 | 6422 | $400.90 | $2829.90 |
| June 2015 | 9830 | $449.96 | $3378.27 |
| July 2015 | 8015 | $586 | $3621.86 |
| August 2015 | 6209 | $777.93 | $8386.24 |
| September 2015 | 2372 | $132.06 | $1912.06 |
| October 2015 | 2249 | $267.59 | $1277.59 |
| November 2015 | 2331 | $331.68 | $1757.68 |
| December 2015 | 2191 | $306.56 | $1981.56 |
| January 2016 | 4126 | $463.09 | $2411.09 |
| February 2016 | 4850 | $754.95 | $3219.95 |
| March 2016 | 4505 | $419.77 | $2239.77 |
| April 2016 | 7393 | $525.57 | $2821.57 |
| May 2016 | 6469 | $457.29 | $2585.29 |
| June 2016 | 7132 | $747.66 | $5472.66 |
| July 2016 | 4745 | $508.24 | $8226.24 |
| August 2016 | 3660 | $236.26 | $3457.23 |
| September 2016 | 4535 | $323.39 | $8316.39 |
| October 2016 | 3703 | $383.50 | $3292.50 |
| Month & Year | Unique Visitors | Bounce Rate | Pages Per Session | Time on Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2014 | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| January 2015 | 921 | 51.07% | 2.93 | 4:04 |
| February 2015 | 1361 | 49.74% | 2.63 | 3:22 |
| March 2015 | 2324 | 54.65% | 2.65 | 3:24 |
| April 2015 | 2528 | 54.36% | 2.09 | 2:06 |
| May 2015 | 6422 | 58.11% | 1.89 | 1:56 |
| June 2015 | 9830 | 61.4% | 1.82 | 1:58 |
| July 2015 | 8015 | 67.91% | 1.68 | 1:30 |
| August 2015 | 6209 | 65.03% | 1.72 | 1:57 |
| September 2015 | 2372 | 74.96% | 1.63 | 1:27 |
| October 2015 | 2249 | 75.94% | 1.62 | 1:30 |
| November 2015 | 2331 | 73.23% | 1.75 | 2:01 |
| December 2015 | 2191 | 72.71% | 1.64 | 1:53 |
| January 2016 | 4126 | 69.56% | 1.75 | 2:18 |
| February 2016 | 4850 | 69.96% | 1.71 | 2:29 |
| March 2016 | 4505 | 72.12% | 1.66 | 2:16 |
| April 2016 | 7393 | 72.14% | 1.69 | 2:27 |
| May 2016 | 6469 | 72.27% | 1.74 | 2:16 |
| June 2016 | 7132 | 71.75% | 1.75 | 2:25 |
| July 2016 | 4745 | 72.18% | 1.71 | 2:00 |
| August 2016 | 3660 | 72.40% | 1.67 | 1:57 |
| September 2016 | 4535 | 74.53% | 1.57 | 1:58 |
| October 2016 | 3703 | 74.51% | 1.59 | 1:34 |
| Month & Year | Alexa Rank | Email Subs | Youtube | Google+ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2014 | N/A | 69 | N/A | N/A | |
| January 2015 | 2918591 | 212 | 72 | 0 | N/A |
| February 2015 | 1492063 | 336 | 95 | 7 | N/A |
| March 2015 | 997051 | 419 | 125 | 13 | N/A |
| April 2015 | 786089 | 506 | 399 | 19 | 12 |
| May 2015 | 537433 | 611 | 573 | 26 | 11 |
| June 2015 | 377461 | 755 | 970 | 31 | 18 |
| July 2015 | 290185 | 896 | 1063 | 38 | 17 |
| August 2015 | 242955 | 1054 | 1339 | 40 | 19 |
| September 2015 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| October 2015 | 369324 | 1162 | 1261 | 42 | 20 |
| November 2015 | 372286 | 1190 | 1258 | 45 | 20 |
| December 2015 | 349370 | 1236 | 1238 | 45 | 22 |
| January 2016 | 350881 | 1374 | 1533 | 50 | 22 |
| February 2016 | 320070 | 1577 | 1674 | 51 | 26 |
| March 2016 | 344099 | 1675 | 1798 | 52 | 27 |
| April 2016 | 319884 | 1920 | 2210 | 53 | 35 |
| May 2016 | 338710 | 2074 | 2763 | 56 | 35 |
| June 2016 | 306944 | 2312 | 3273 | 63 | 37 |
| July 2016 | 293400 | 2414 | 3416 | 66 | 40 |
| August 2016 | 314510 | 2499 | 3310 | 68 | 40 |
| September 2016 | 356964 | 2537 | 3257 | 71 | 39 |
| October 2016 | 369677 | 2586 | 3316 | 72 | 38 |
*If you guys have a better idea on displaying historical data please let me know. It’s getting to be too much to list everything here. Should I just list the past 12 months and on the income report menu page, display all the data in one place? Let me know!
Plans for November
I don’t really need to outline everything I want to accomplish all over again. The plans I have for this month, are to complete all the things I wanted to do in October but didn’t.
When I look at the time invested in this blog during October, I spent 3-4 hours between responding to emails, formatting the guest post, emailing the subscriber list, and last month’s income report, I realize how just a little more focus could really improve the blog.
My ultimate goal for the month of November is to spend at least 1 hour each day working on the blog. That might include content production, emails, outreach, planning, etc. The point is to spend a little bit of time each day. One hour a day isn’t that much. I’m curious to see the difference it makes by the next income report.
Final Thoughts
Growing a blog is tough. No wonder Matthew Woodward and other successful bloggers spend long hours each and every day on their blog. People like Pat Flynn are grinding away at different types of content to maximize their reach.
It seems like months like these, should really bring more motivation and I guess sometimes they do, but it’s hard to stay motivated when the goals you set aren’t being met, and progress isn’t happening.
I guess it ultimately leads to a decision we all have to make when things aren’t going how we want. You either give up altogether or you make adjustments to get the results you want.
I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like the giving up method.
Thanks for sharing and I guess the positive is you earned $823 per hour :-). When I am getting a bit down or unmotivated which happens with blogging for sure I watch good old Gary V who tells you to perk The %$#@% up LOL
What a character he is but i find it very motivating
Hope November goes well for you and you achieve your goals
I guess I didn’t factor in time for the coaching calls, so it is a bit less than that, but either way, I suppose that is pretty good. Unfortunately, I don’t think that number can be scaled. For example, if I blogged every day and spent 5 hours a day on the blog, it wouldn’t reflect in income, at least not right away.
I think it might be time for me to watch a bit more of the great Gary V
You know what would be interesting – doing a blog post and calculating the value in monthly recurring $dollars$ that your followers, and those you teach to make each month – or a one time deal to calculate how much money you helped guys like me make.
Here’s the thing – I don’t follow anyone else anymore, I bulk unsubscribed to everything – your advice turned me from ‘silver bullet’ junkie – into massive action taker. Landing clients, closing deals and massive improvements in rankings.
Knowing the way you are, how much time you give to us in the mastermind, the advice, the help and the encouragement you provide (in the form of massive ass kickings!) – maybe that would fuel you more than anything else?
Just saying –
Mj
That’s not a bad idea Martin. I could use the motivation for sure, but at the same time, I feel like that might be seen as unnecessary bragging and posturing.
Sorry to hear October was rough. I hope November will be better with no computer issues to tackle.
I’m not sure about displaying historic data. I posted my own report and it’s much messier on mine even though it’s only five months of reporting! What I do is I just provide a link for readers to skip to the bottom line, and hope they won’t mind the mess 😉
Thanks for the comment Anne. I need to get my motivation back on track, I’ve been slacking a lot. No computer issues this month, but just a feeling of BLAH!
Hi Bully,
Thanks for sharing information about October month income .i am got confidence by reading your blog income report. your earning is very good with traffic. i think there is lot of scope to make money from blogging by promoting third party products.
Thanks for the comment Rudra!
Why does your bounce rate in January 2015 only 51% and over 74% in October of 2016? I’m just curious. By the way, I love how you structure your income report so neatly and tidy! It’s truly amazing and inspiring!
Thanks for the comment and question. Early on with the blog, there was more regularly updated content, the visitors were new and would be more likely to click around and see everything. Now, unfortunately, I’ve been slacking with new content, so when subscribers or regular visitors of the blog come back, they see there’s no new content and don’t bother clicking anywhere else.
Another contributing factor could be that a lot of organic traffic bounces after finding what they want. That type of traffic typically converts lower than all other forms. I don’t believe I can get it back to 51%… but I think with regular content, and maybe a change in navigation, I could get it to the mid 60s.
Thank you so much for sharing all this great income statement that you have offered us here on your blog.
It is really encouraging to see all this great information that you are offering us.
Thanks for the comment Solomon!