You might be wondering WHY it took me so long to publish the December blog income report, here’s why:
I didn’t want to.
Plain and simple. I didn’t feel like revisiting the month of December for reasons listed below, and also didn’t feel like writing the post.
“It really doesn’t contain a lot of value for bloggers anyways…” I told myself. “I’ll just skip Dec and pick back up in January when I have something to report.”
Heck, I even tried to reason my way out of doing it via a tweet…
Then it hit me…
THIS INTRO is the valuable part.
- Why was I hesitant/fearful to publish this?
- Why didn’t I want to write it?
- Why did I feel it lacked value?
The answer to these questions is what is going to prove valuable to you this month, and it boils down to this:
So what really happened in December?
Nothing exciting at all.
- Revenues were down, as I didn’t quite hit the Online Impact. pre-launch sales figure I wanted to (I expected 3-5 more buyers).
- Traffic was fine, though I didn’t work on this at all.
- Email list actually decreased, as I’ve had unsubscribes and haven’t focused on growth.
- Blogger U IS starting to come together, but progress is slower than I planned for
- Vacation was fun, but I feel guilty for not working.
Podcast downloads DID increase (if you’ll remember from November’s report, this is something I wanted to have happen), so I’m thankful for that.
But the bottom line is: It feels like I didn’t work during December.
This is potentially embarrassing for somebody whose self-proclaimed purpose in life right now is to teach people blogging. I didn’t actually do a ton of blogging. Or if I did, it certainly didn’t manifest itself into a whole lot.
This got me down.
This made me want to scrap the December income report in an attempt to ignore the problem, and distract myself with other work.
No, publishing the post below is the hard part. I’m doing the hard part right now. What’s your hard part?
Forget your blog. What don’t you want to do today? This week?
What juicy, idealistic, opinionated thing do you want to say…but have been afraid to?
What are you embarrassed to write about, even though you probably should? Or even if you’re responsible for?
What’s the hard part of you’re blog right now, and how can you just get it done?
**
Truth be told, I’m hoping the intro above will increase your loyalty to Do You Even Blog. Not even me, Pete, but the brand.
The brand of helping bloggers push through blog mediocrity and come out on the other side not only alive, but thriving. Reaching people, despite the uncomfortable process.
Teaching people with your failures, in addition to your successes.
Now that I’ve explained the delay in this post, as well as lowered all expectations…let’s dig in.
Monthly Blog Income Report
Did I reach my blogging goals last month?
Last months goals were
- Traffic: 3,000 YES – 4,903
- Email subs: 950 NO – 930
- Revenues: $2,000 NO – $1,206
- Project: Work on Blogger U! YES
Honestly, my entire focus was on building out Blogger U curriculum, content planning, and trying to line up affiliates for that. In this case, I was successful.
The big fail (which we’ll discuss in a second), was not getting 2-3 more B.U. students. :-/
Other blog metrics
Podcast downloads = 3,096!
THIS was a pretty big win, as I’ve been really wanting to increase my podcast downloads lately, and expand my reach that way. I care way more about this than I do blog traffic right now.
Private Facebook group = 160 members. I’ve been pretty selective in who I let in honestly. If they don’t actually answer the 2 easy questions I set forth, why on Earth would I want them in the group?
I want to keep it small, tight-knit, healthy, and helpful. I like it the way it currently is lol.
That’s why I’m limiting the group to 500 members max.
Next month’s goals and how I’m going to get there:
- Revenue: $1,000
- Traffic: 4,000 visits
- Subs: 950
- WORK ON B.U.
Focus: GET B.U. content done! It’s so incredibly important. This might be the single biggest revenue driver for my business over the next 5 years. On top of that, I already have students eagerly awaiting the content.
Gotta get it done.
How I’m going to get revenue
Honestly? Client work for other bloggers, and maybe some affiliate revenues. I do not care.
How I’m going to get traffic
Who gives a shit.
How I’m going to get email subscribers
Not my focus this month.
How I’m going to get podcast downloads
Produce good content that changes people. First and foremost, nothing else I can do right now is as important or as effective as this….for the long run.
Published this month:
- BONUS: Mrs. Adventure Rich hosts the DYEB podcast, live from FinCon 2017!
- BONUS: “Do people want to read your stuff?” An unedited chat w/ Bobby Hoyt!
- How Nick True is Navigating from Full-Time Employee to Full-Time Blogger.
- The Golden Rule of Building a Thriving Blog: Tanja from Our Next Life
- How to run a crazy successful blog giveaway [case study]
- Methodically Dissecting Blog Traffic and Monetization – John from ESI Money (+ special guest)
- An 80/20 Info Product Launch Checklist [+ case study]
Oh. Look at that. I did do something in December 😉
Final thoughts on what worked and what didn’t.
Things I’m proud of:
Blogger U content is seriously shaping up to be a game-changer for entrepreneurs and content creators. Proud of what it’s becoming.
Also, I published some truly awesome interviews in December. In fact, there were no duds. Tanja, Nick, Bobby, Mrs. AR, ESI John…they all delivered and then some.
Things that didn’t work:
Growth. It didn’t happen.
I may or may not have tried (I didn’t). No growth = well, no goals.
After Blogger U is up and running, I NEED to revisit growth for DYEB in order to meet my 2018 goals.
The theme for NEXT month:
Produce.
Produce killer podcast content, produce Blogger U. Get it done so I can make a difference and return to a focus on growth.
Please, please leave a comment below! I’d love to hear…
- Do you publish your own monthly stats? Drop a link!
- Did I do ok reporting on December?
- What’s your theme for January, if you have one?
<3
Pete