April 2016

Page Views: 127,488 (more than 50,000 more than March)

Unique Visitors: 24,390 (up more than 4000 from March)

This is the month! This is the month! A banner month for Maman Loup’s Den! Nose to the ground, fingers on the keyboard, and we’re in business. I ran my first annual #Albertaversary promotion in honour of our first year living here in Calgary. I was so thrilled by the response from Alberta-based retailers who agreed to sponsor this event. The response from my fans was equally wonderful. 

Income:

Affiliate Sales:

I am an affiliate for two Canadian cloth diaper shops and also for Well.ca. This income comes from people clicking through my on-site links (or social media posts) and making a purchase. This month I also received commission for referring someone to my web-hosting provider, Green Geeks!

Bumbini: $0

Lagoon Baby: $23

Well.ca: $11.03

GreenGeeks: $50 USD ($65 CAD)

Total: $99.03

On-site Advertising:

My ads are supplied by SheBlogs Canada and by Media.net. I earn this income based on a fraction of a penny per page view. I also sell advertising at a monthly rate and currently have three businesses that advertise monthly.

SheBlogs:  $156.59 (Big increase thanks to those increased page views!)

Media.net: $21.78 USD/ $27.30 CAD (Big decrease as I reduced the amount of these ads on my page.)

Monthly ads: $130 

Total: $313.89

Sponsored Posts:

This month was an excellent one for compensated posts. I’ve invested a lot of unpaid hours building my social media following and increasing my blog’s monthly visits, and it’s paying off. Brands appreciate both the thoroughness and the quality of my posts, as well as the value of my social media reach. Included in this total is the income from my #Albertaversary promotion.

Total: $1015

Giveaways: 

I charge a fee for running most giveaways. I ran three such Facebook giveaways this month.

Facebook giveaways: $150 

Total: $150

Grand Total: $1577.92

Note that I do at times accept product in exchange for a review. I do not count this in my income report because I cannot pay bills or buy household goods with a product. This month, I reviewed Les Produits de Maya, the Huggaloops Multiway Sweater, the SprayPal Sprayer, sloomb trainers,  Sophie’s Seashell Scramble, Lenny Lamb and products by Garden by the Sea, for a retail value of about $450.

Blog expenses:

It takes money (and time) to make money. These are my monthly blog expenses. For many services, you save when paying for a year or more in advance, so I’ve calculated a monthly rate when applicable. I’ve used an affiliate link for any services that offer this perk!

I spilled tea on my keyboard and had to buy a new one: $62.69

I bought magnets and decals: $78.74

I paid guest bloggers to contribute posts this month: $100

McAfee Anti-Virus software:  $2.91

Vault Press Website Back Up Plug in: $6.23

Web hosting by Green Geeks (3 year subscription): $8.33

PicMonkey Image Editing: $3.91

Freshbooks accounting software: $22

InLinkz Linky service: $1.67

Mad Mimi Newsletter Service: $38.69 

Drop Box subscription: $9.08

Co-Schedule social media scheduler: $3.34*

Total Expenses: $337.59

In April 2016, I made $1240.33 profit from my blog.

Final thoughts:

This is the dream, folks. Please, please, Internet, do not disappear. (Because let’s face it, my business doesn’t exist if there are no Interwebs.) I have a dream. Once my children are in school full time, I will be able to increase my productivity and thus my earnings, and I will still be able to work from home! I feel like I have finally blended my need for creative expression with my desire to earn an income and be a stay-at-home Mom. If I could start over again with all of the knowledge I have now, this would’ve happened a whole lot faster, but I think I appreciate it so much more given the long road to get here.

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