Pretty Passive

April 2018 Blogress Report

Income Reports· Online Business

this post contains affiliate links.

We’re back for the April 2018 blog income report. Otherwise known as my Blogress Reports. I started this blog at the beginning of July 2017 and have since committed to blogging and building a digital business. This is really for me to document my blog’s progress, set new goals, inspire others, and hold myself accountable. No turning back now, it’s on the internet.

***Please note I do not plan on sharing income received from services I provide as my other side hustles. This is strictly blogging income. There is a lot of supplementary income to be made these days, but this will only detail the money I see from my blog.***

Reports like these are exactly what built up my confidence before ditching the 9-to-5 and pursuing a life I love. Creating a passive income stream might not be easy, but neither is limiting your income to the time you spend in a chair. Amirite?

You might think I’m crazy (most people think I am), but if I can share a little optimism for struggling moms like me, then I’ll be happy! I want to reassure hardworking newcomers of blogging possibilities and how fast (or slow) things can grow.

But most importantly, I want to document my strategies and figure this whole game out. This is my way to keep track of what works, and what definitely doesn’t.

moving on…

Things have been… sad… on the blog. It’s been exciting and I feel like I’ve been heading in the right direction(s), but my traffic is – f*cked. Because of that, my ad revenue has dropped, but these things happen! Also, April through August are generally slow blogging months. This is my first April blogging for traffic soooo there’s that.

Pinterest also rolled out a huge update, and I’ve been obsessing over this Facebook Live collab with Pinterest and Tailwind. It’s obvious that Tailwind and Pinterest are working together (I mean, there are 1.5 hours to prove it lol) and it only makes sense. I’ve been using Tailwind, but not for scheduling pins. My strategy is/was Manual Pinning with Carly Campbell’s method from Pinteresting Strategies, and it’s been GREAT for my blog. But I’m a mom and I’m needed for mom reasons, so I can’t commit enough time to manual pinning alongside content development, EBA, etc. Sooo bring on the schedulers.

Pinterest says we aren’t penalized for scheduling and we may even be favored for using Tailwind. That was the gist I was picking up on. It’s all tricky and technical, and everything could change overnight so have a grain of salt.

You can check out the Facebook Live below, and feel free to cash in on a free month of Tailwind with my link HERE. (Shameless affiliate plug)

Personally

I am writing from NEW YORK! I’m here for the week 🙂 We last saw my husband/baby daddy at the end of his spring break on March 24th (we broke the three week rule). I knew I wanted to get the gang together for our daughter’s second birthday! It worked out to have the party at home the weekend before her birthday, and daddy was there. But we missed him so much over the month of April, so we followed him back to New York.

You can check out how I spent less than $150 on her Taco TWOsday Party here!

I spent April struggling to care for my blog AND my daughter – so I’ll let you guess which one won my affection. My goals have been very money oriented and that’s where my focus has been, but you know, FAMILY over everythang.

My kid brother got into personal development and lent me the book Think and Grow Rich, so I’ve been reading that and feeling even more inspired by my blogging/business/passive income goals.

Professionally

I’m chugging along with EBA, I’d like to network harder and, CALL ME CRAZY, but I kinda keep “restarting” lol. I want to get it right the first time, but I’d rather go back to the beginning when I start to feel like I’m not on the perfect path. Now I’m no perfectionist, and I definitely see the error of my ways with this thinking.

I firmly believe that done is better than perfect, but I’ve been neglecting entire avenues on my blog.

Specifically, I have been spending more time on mommy content than passive income and flexible work. These are the reasons I started blogging, but I’ve had so much success with mom stuff that I was trying to recreate it. I’m holding myself to a more strict editorial calendar and trying to spend only one week a month dedicated to mom blogging.

The Stats

Income: $205.45

Ad Income: $163.32

Affiliates: $42.13

Page Views:17,174

Instagram: 1270 // 1447 (?!?!!)

Facebook: 83 // 86

Pinterest: 643 // 734 (just 16 shy of my 750 goal!)

Twitter: 351 // 382

My Pinterest growth makes me the happiest. That’s where most ALL of my marketing efforts are placed. Overall, that income was ENTIRELY PASSIVE. There was really no work from me, other than half-assed Pinteresting.

 

Goals from last month

  • Keep on keepin’ on with EBA! I’d like to finish the unit I’m in and move on to the next one.- PASS
  • Post at least once a week (and maybe throw in a bonus post each month). – PASS

Goals for this month

  • I’m officially a quarter of the way through EBA, but like I said – I’m continuing to focus on ALL the things I’ve covered. I’m not quite ready to move on. I’d like to master those first bits and the unit I’m in by the end of May.
  • I successfully posted TWICE a week. I want to keep that up! Getting my desired content out there and all.
  • Network! I desperately need to make blog friends. I’ve been so busy caring for my babies (baby, blog, and dog), and I really need to talk bloggy.
  • Get more active in the communities I’m apart of. I guess these two go together but I’m keeping them separate!
  • Diversify my income with affiliate/sponsored posts.
  • Finish Think and Grow Rich and start Girl, Wash Your Face

 

Takeaways & Tips

Balance is beautiful, or so I’ve heard. I’m struggling to keep up with my babies but working on personal growth to help me handle everything with poise. I think I’m doing well, with a few angry outbursts here and there. Seriously though, why do toddlers do EXACTLY what you ask them not to do? The first thing my baby grabs in a public restroom is the TOILET SEAT. WTF

I’m focusing on improving my mind because that’s where everything begins. I think everyone should maximize their mental health and personal development.

Google’s Office Suite is sweet. I live for it. I use google docs to draft all my posts, google sheets to track pins, expenses, EVERYTHING, google slides for opt-ins/lead magnets, and most recently google CALENDAR for my editorial calendar. Love love love everything about google. Maybe I’ll do a post about it ha.

My advice to new bloggers:

Invest in yourself. It pays to know what you’re doing. When I think about how much I spent on my college degree, it only makes sense that I would put some money into building my blog. Because let’s be real, they don’t teach this stuff in school.

Organization is key. More on that later.

NEW POSTS this month:

 

Previous Blogress Reports:

 

 

 

 

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