August 2017 Blog Income Report and Stat Breakdown

August was an INCREDIBLE month for the DYEB. So grateful for the Do You Even Tribe…now let’s take a look at what worked, and what didn’t!

Let’s be honest…

There are a ton of really useless blog income reports out there, with loads of Blueeeeehooosttt!!1! affiliate links and inflated numbers.

Those usually aren’t useful to you as a blogger.

Am I right?

My goal: I publish ALL of DYEB stats for 3 reasons:

1. Do You Even Blog is a business, and I treat it as such
2. Transparency is a MUST for ANYONE teaching others how to blog…
3. Showing you my goals, wins, failures, and monthly strategies will hopefully add value to your own blogging journey.

The purpose of these monthly income reports is to be an open-book for the Do You Even Tribe.

Those of us fighting blog mediocrity and seeking-income via our blogs.

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Monthly Blog Income Report

Woot woot! I hit my goal this month without too much effort!

I didn’t pitch any sponsors (though I tweeted a broad sponsor opportunity for the heck of it).

Did I reach my blogging goals last month?

Traffic goal of 3,000 views

• FAIL – 2,894 [so close..look at that last day!]
• +28% from prior month

Email list goal of 400

• FAIL – 395 (aw come on! So close!)
• +14% from prior month

Revenue Goal of $100 (with no sponsors or ads)

• WIN – $103.95
• -1.4% from prior month

Other blog metrics

Podcast downloads –> woot woot woot!

• 2,715!!!! This gives me such encouragement, it’s incredible. So happy.
• +123% from prior month

Yeahhhhhh if I could go ahead and continue this growth that’d be greeeaattt

Facebook Group – 29 folks

I haven’t focused on growing this at all, but I’m super happy about the small group of people in the FB group. I thoroughly enjoy real engagement, as opposed to manufactured FB group marketing or link spamming.

Feel free to come join us, or not. I like our tribe lol.

Next month’s goals and how I’m going to get there:

• Revenue – $750
• Traffic – 4,000 views
• Email – 500

How I’m going to get revenue

Ok, September is going to be “hustle month” (see below), and I’m going to focus on growing revenues a few different ways.

• I’ve landed a freelance blog marketing gig with a blogger friend of mine.
• I’m going to take on 1-2 sponsors in September.

How I’m going to get traffic

Same way I’ve gotten traffic so far…work my ass off producing content people care about.

Simple, not easy.

How I’m going to get email subscribers

I don’t really know, and I don’t want to think about this in September.

Going to push out the best content I can, and hope to continue organic growth this month. The Podcast for Bloggers course is starting to gain a few subs every day, so that’s nice.

Published this month:

Holy cow. It didn’t FEEL like such a productive month, but dang if I didn’t get some stuff done. Really satisfied with this content.

• How to crank out content that drives massive traffic and fans – Sarah Peterson
• John Lee Dumas on building a 7-figure online business empire
• From 0 to 2,000,000 views a month in ONE year – Chasing Foxes
• How to perfect your blog post schedule.
• An inside look at 2 new bloggers who are crushing it – Lily and Ms. FAF
• Maximizing blog impact – FinCon founder PT Money

Final thoughts on what worked and what didn’t.

Things I’m proud of:

I’m over the moon about my podcast downloads, and the feedback I’ve received via Twitter and email. Over the moon.

It means the world to me that people tune into my content, but to hear some of you say you got value out of it?

I’m over the moon grateful.

It’s been a fantastic month in Pete-town. I’ve had a blast chatting with the bloggers and entrepreneurs I had on the podcast.

I woke up one morning to my first few Patreon backers (Thank you ADRIENNE for being the first $30/month supporter. You are amazing, and I’m damn-sure going to drive traffic your way over the coming months).

Things that didn’t work:

2 guests posts.

They didn’t work, period…and *I* thought they were spectacular content.

• How to Make Passive Income: A Guide for Real People
• How to Build Real Relationships with Powerful Bloggers

I got really great feedback on both of the posts, and the 2 hosting bloggers seemed quite happy with the content…but they did not convert into traffic and email subscribers for me.

My next few guests posting opportunities are going to be on bigger sites, such as SmartBlogger, ProBlogger, Entrepreneur.com, Inc.com, Forbes, Lifehacker, and possibly Huffington Post.

These are on my radar over the next few months.

The theme for NEXT month:

September is *Hustle Month.*

Here’s why:

In late October, I’ll be flying out to FinCon in Dallas (plane tickets cost me $11. I’m a bit of a travel hacker)…and I need some equipment.

I’m planning on conducting as many fruitful and interesting conversations as I can…and I’d love to own the Zoom H6 to take with me!

I KNOW a few amazing podcasts could come out of the weekend, but I need to raise some cash to step up my equipment game.

So I’m going to hustle.

The goal is to work my tail off for my blog marketing client, grab 1-2 podcast sponsorships, and figure something else out as well. Not sure yet 🙂

Please, please leave a comment below! I’d love to hear…

1. Do you publish your own monthly stats? Drop a link!
2. How can I hustle for some cash in September?? (ethically, legally, and morally of course. It needs to add value)

<3

Pete