Things are continuing to look up and I’m trying not to get too excited by it, because I KNOW that this is my busiest season, so I have to keep reminding myself that it’s not all me. Some of it is just circumstance. That said, I’m busting my ass in the hopes that I can use the momentum to keep things going into January when stats naturally start to taper downward.
I think the biggest thing this month is that I was accepted to influencer network, Social Fabric (also called SoFab or Collective Bias) and got my first blog post gig! They’re not the best paying social network, but it seems pretty well agreed upon by the bloggers I’m conversing with that they provide the most steady work. Which, yay! They also have a private Facebook support group, so I’m loving meeting all these great bloggers!
I was also accepted to the BlogHer social media influencing network and accepted two Twitter jobs. This network is just for using your social media outlets (Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Google+, etc) to promote. BlogHer does offer blog post promoting, but you have to be a part of their ad network, which I am not. It’s my understanding that BlogHer requires exclusivity with their network, so I have not applied.
With respect to ads, The Blogger Network still hasn’t returned to its September glory, but then Gourmet Ads hasn’t knocked my socks off either, so I’m not sure what I’m going to do about all that. Trying to work with my assigned account people to get better revenue. A new ad service I’m trying though is InfoLinks. They have a variety of monetization options including in-text link making, sidebar ads, slide ups, and header/footer text links. I have opted to try the header/footer text links as well as the bottom pop-up. This month it has yielded around $1/day, which isn’t insignificant if you think about it over the course of a year.
I also added an affiliate ad for BuckBooks to my sidebar, just to see if the conversion is better with that. It’s a service that emails people every day with a selection of books that are $1 or less on Amazon that day. It’s actually a pretty great service. I’m not giving it a high priority spot though, so I don’t expect anything miraculous. That said, the affiliate rate is $1 per email they gather, so that’s really really good. It’s been confirmed as legit by people I actually know, so hey – can’t hurt to try, right?
Something I did that was fantastic for my Facebook page, was take part in a round robin giveaway. It’s where a group of page owners will all give away something (the criteria for this one was at least one item worth minimum of $15, I chose a gift card), and in the giveaway post you tell people that after they’ve entered your contest they should jump to the next one and enter there. Each one links to the next until it’s a full circle, and the entire process happens on Facebook. You’re not allowed to require “likes” for entry, but people tend to like your page naturally if you’re hosting a contest.
The biggest downer in November is that Pinterest’s new algorithm hit my account and toward the end of the month my Pinterest referral traffic bottomed out. Enormous bummer considering that Pinterest has been my best traffic source for a long time. Guess it’s good that I’m branching out.
So, tell me, tell me. How does your garden grow?
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NOVEMBER 2014 – EARNED: $1,095.85
Money that I earned during this month, but have not necessarily been paid yet. For example, most advertising companies don’t pay until 30 – 90 days after your impressions, and many sponsors don’t pay until your post has been live for 30 days.
- Google Adsense: $85.10
- The Blogger Network: $313.16
- Amazon Affiliate: $2.73
- Gourmet Ads: $102.41
- InfoLinks: $30.77
- BuckBooks: $15.00
- Izea: $266.68
- Social Fabric: $180.00
- BlogHer: $100.00
NOVEMBER – COLLECTED: $563.72
Money that actually made it into my pocket this month.
- The Blogger Network: $303.47
- SoFab: $30.00
- Izea: $230.25
NOVEMBER 2014 – EXPENSES: $53.00
- Izea membership: $1.00
- PicMonkey subscription: $33.00
- Amazon gift card for contest: $15.00
- Stockfresh stock photo: $4.00
NOVEMBER 2014 – TRAFFIC: 107,041
NOVEMBER 2014 FACEBOOK:
- Likes: 2,175
PREVIOUS REPORTS:
Income and Traffic Report August 2014 – $227.49
Income and Traffic Report September 2014 – $664.88
Income and Traffic Report October 2014 – $797.11
Make sure you’re following me on Facebook for regular food and family updates!
Rachael @ Love Yourself Green says
I was happy to find you in a Google alert that I get for "food blog income"! You're doing awesome! 😉 How long have you been blogging now?
I just signed up for The Blogger Network – that one was new to me! I just started my last blog 23 days ago and only have had 25,000 pageviews in this month. Looks like they want you to have 80,000 right now. I'll get there soon, I'm sure! 😉
P.S. I tried to comment this before, so if you get a duplicate, you can delete it. I think it disappeared, though. 🙂
April says
that's fantastic!
i started blogging in 2008, but have been on and off since then. i made some decent money in 2010, and have had short bursts of profitability here and there, but with the babies and starting another (not blog related) business in that time, it' hasn't been much of a focus for me. more a place to stash my recipes and hope that i'll make something "real" of it one day. 🙂
25k pvs in less than a month is huge though, i'm sure you'll be running laps around me in no time! and what a good idea to have a google alert!