June is my new favorite month!
June was an amazing month for blog traffic and I reached over 10,000 page views for the first time. I feel like dancing in the street!
June 18th was the one year anniversary of Kids, Cash and Chaos. I can’t believe it’s been a year already. I’ve learned a ton but can see how much more I have to learn.
Some of the best parts of this last year have been connecting with other bloggers. You will see this month how much that makes a difference in what is possible.
The things that made a difference in my traffic are all things that anyone can do. If you are feeling stuck then take some time to reach out to other bloggers, answer their emails, share their posts and products. It all helps in the long run.
Some great publicity
The first awesome thing that happened actually started a few months ago. I submitted my ecourse Brand Your Small Business to be included in The Ultimate Work at Home bundle from Ultimate Bundles. I was so excited when I got the email that it had been accepted!
The sale started June 8th and lasted five days. I promoted the course and made one affiliate sale, BUT…almost 500 people have signed up to go through Brand Your Small Business! I am so thrilled to see such a great response to my course topic.
The second amazing thing that happened this month was I submitted my budgeting printable to Money Saving Mom and she shared it!!!!
Crystal who owns Money Saving Mom just started a new website called Your Blogging Mentor and I have been following her on Facebook. One day recently, Crystal posted about how Money Saving Mom will share freebies from other blogs that would benefit her readers.
On a whim I decided to submit my budgeting printable, not really thinking she would share something so basic. Suddenly later that day my blog traffic started skyrocketing!
You can see what a big spike that is for me. It was my best blog traffic day ever and gave me a good bump for about five days. Since so many people wanted to get the printable it also means I got a huge boost to my email list.
Now each of those things would have made this an amazing month just by themselves. But then one last amazing thing happened on June 29th.
A great end to the month
Rosemarie from The Busy Budgeter had asked for feedback on her income reports a few months ago. She has had a huge increase in income (yay!) but felt maybe that seemed unreachable to new bloggers and she should stop sharing.
I wrote to her that I loved her income reports but maybe she should also pick a newish blogger each month to go over what they could do to improve their income. She loved the idea!
So at the end of June she shared her latest income report and featured me! I still can’t believe it.
I have been trying to implement all her advice this month.
- Created a brand new freebie, the Small Biz Quick Start Checklist and have set up a follow up sequence in ConvertKit. I even added a tripwire product!
- Adding this freebie to all related posts.
- Read through Date Your List (and Core Affiliate Strategy cause I’m an overachiever 🤣) and have been writing tons of emails. I have four scheduled in ConvertKit and am planning some affiliate product promotion in the next few months.
- Going back through my old posts, updating titles (I know I suck at writing titles, it’s a serious problem) and creating new pins.
All of this attention to the blog and feedback on my work has really been such a great boost to me personally. I can’t thank Ultimate Bundles, Money Saving Mom and The Busy Budgeter enough. They all do some amazing work and amazing promotion of bloggers.
June Goals
- Continue to work on EBA – I’ve been pretty happy with my pace here.
- Prepare for and promote the Ultimate Work at Home Bundle – As I said above, such a great response to this bundle!
- Work on my email sequences in ConvertKit – I still have to do more work and tighten up my sequences. I think the work I am putting in with Rosemarie’s Date Your List ebook will help a lot.
July Goals
- Keep plugging away at EBA – Slow and steady is my motto.
- Use the info from How to Write Copy that Sells to improve my course sales pages – This is a fascinating book full of really practical information and I am looking forward to making it all work for me.
- Focus on connecting with my email list – Rosemarie stresses how important this is in Date Your List and I am going to make this a focus for the next few months.
June Expenses
BoardBooster – $40.00 – I think I am giving up on BoardBooster at this point. I stopped using it completely this week and saw absolutely no change in my traffic. I read this article about how many pins to pin a day and think I will just use Tailwind from now on.
ConvertKit – $49.91 – With the increase in subscribers comes an increase in my fee 🙁
SmarterQueue – $19.99
Teachable – $39 – I started paying again so I could provide a coupon code for the Ultimate Bundle sale.
Canva – $12.95
SendOwl – $9.00 – I’m selling my ebook at a discount for new subscribers.
Moo.com – $33.98 – I got some mini business card that are so cute!
Total – $204.83
Income
$202.45!!! Do you see this? I almost broke even!!!!
This month my income came from selling a few of my ecourses, affiliate sales and the increase in traffic helped my ad income too. In fact, I finally hit the $100 minimum to get a payout from Adsense!
This has been such a great month. I hope I can keep some of this blog traffic momentum going in to July. It helps that I have some clear goals and a plan for how to put them in to practice.
I’m taking part in the Money Making Madness Linky hosted by Charlotte Burns from Lotty Earns, Emma Bradley from Mum’s Savvy Savings, Emma Drew from EmmaDrew.Info and Lynn from Mrs Mummy Penny.
Woohoo! You’re doing amazing things! And what an awesome boost in your subscriber list 🙂 I’m heading over to Moo now, too. I need some cute cards 🙂
Thanks Ashli! It has been a great month for sure. You will love Moo, the mini cards are so cute! I’m really loving mine.
That is simply awesome, Emma. Way to go in crushing our goals. You are on your way and it will just go up and up from here. Oh, and I know what’s it’s like to hit that $100 threshold for the first time. I have another coming this month. I think they pay/transfer on the 21st or so. Eventually, you’ll have more traffic and can work with the other places where you’ll make even more.
Way to go on the networking. I’ve been focused more on local networking and that has helped. And, it looks like we have another member of the course who just moved to my county, so I’m going to try to call her later in the week.
Sounds like a lot of good things are happening for you too Debbie! Let’s connect again soon.
OMG, so happy for your growth, I found your blog through Rosemary Groner and I had to pop in to see what you were about. Your enthusiasm and joy is contagious, I kept smiling through the entire post
Oh my gosh Anne, what a sweet comment! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Incredible progress, well done 🙂
Thank you so much Clare!
I’m so happy for you! That is great news all around and those were such amazing opportunities! All of the blogs I subscribed to before blogging myself were through guest posts on Money Saving Mom.
Thanks Stephanie! Doesn’t Money Saving Mom always have such interesting guest posts?
I actually read the feature you had on Rosemarie’s site and I loved the advice she gave you! I visited your site once I read the feature and I love it! I You coming up with the idea to have her look at newer bloggers and give them tips is so helpful!! Income reports are always inspiring to me and you had so much growth so quickly! I want to implement some of the things you did, thanks for the inspiration!!
Good luck with your growth!
That really is an awesome month for you! I need some business cards so I think I’ll try Moo like you suggested. I’m working on building my list and making an income, its slow going but I’ll get there!
Keep up the great work!
I really love my cards from Moo, I hope you do too!
Congrats to a year on your blog and breaking even! Good luck with blogging in the future. Hope to see you at Activate!
Thanks Julie and you will for sure see me at Activate!
I loved reading this! It can be so frustrating to read income reports like, “How I made 8 zillion dollars while I got my nails done in the Bahamas.” Reading about the real WORK that goes into building a successful business is SO, SO, SO refreshing. <3
Thanks, Abbi! It can be so disheartening to read the reports that seem braggy but it is also inspiring to see what people can achieve. I hope I am able to build on this and continue to provide helpful reports in the future.
This was a great post for me to read since I’m just starting out. I enjoy reading the income reports of other bloggers it helps me realize this is a steady process and not to get discouraged. I’ve clicked on and saved the article on How often to Post to social media and will check out the bloggers you mention. It’s not my niche but I’m sure it will help. Great job on your accomplishments!
Thanks, Carrie! I’m so glad you stopped by!
Emma!
Congrats on a great month. I LOVE blogger outreach and networking. It’s a foundational element to make a successful blog!
You can’t build your blog by yourself!!!
What a great tip for Rosemarie! And what’s neat is that her audience fits your blog so way to go! Can’t wait to hear more traffic building and income success from you! Love your blog and the behind the scenes of building your online business!
Thanks Elna! I have to say you are one of the many wonderful bloggers I have met and I love all that you do for new bloggers!