Page Views: 87,556 (Holding steady from May)
Unique Visitors: 19,793 (Holding steady from May)
The big news in June was the launch of Made in Canada Baby (MICB) 2016 with Olivia of This West Coast Mommy. I first participated in this giveaway as an entrant back in 2013. I actually won a prize pack which is how I discovered AppleCheeks! In 2014, I was asked to be a co-host of the giveaway. In 2015, I took over MICB and recruited Olivia as my partner in crime. This year, 2016, was the first year we made it a pay-to-participate event after realizing how many hours we invested in 2015 and considering the value of the exposure for participating brands and shops. MICB 2016 featured six prize packs, each worth over $300.
Income:
Affiliate Sales:
I know some bloggers generate excellent revenue from affiliate sales. Affiliate sales are when someone clicks through a special “affiliate link” on your blog or social media and decide to make a purchase. You earn a small commission on their purchase. For me, revenue from affiliate sales is modest at best.
Bumbini: $0
Lagoon Baby: $24.07
Well.ca: $13
Total: $37.07
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 four businesses that advertise monthly. I have another new advertiser this month and an ambassadorship. My ambassadorship involves sharing promotional posts on Facebook and Instagram.
SheBlogs: $126.31
Media.net: $17.61 USD/ $23 CAD
Monthly ads & ambassadorships: $230
Total: $379.31
Sponsored Posts:
Evidently, a large chunk of my June income comes from Made in Canada Baby 2016. I also worked on some sponsored posts that I’m particularly proud of because of their “evergreen” nature. In the blogging world, “evergreen” refers to content that is not limited in its usefulness. For example, a post promoting a giveaway or a sale is only going to generate traffic during the period of the sale or giveaway. For a post to be considered “evergreen,” it never loses its usefulness. For example, my cloth diaper reviews are evergreen content for me. Parents will always be looking for reviews when they shop for cloth diapers. If the review also contains a giveaway, I just remove the giveaway portion once it has closed. This month, I wrote a post for Chinook City Doulas which I am very proud of. While the post does promote the services of a doula company local to me, I wrote it to be of interest to anyone curious about hiring a doula, regardless of where they live. I also worked with a PR company to create a few paid Facebook posts that did not require an associated blog post. You might have seen my fun posts promoting AERO bars and Crispy Minis!
Total: $2,300
Grand Total: $2,716.38
Blog expenses:
This month I started some new services. I am now using Sendible to schedule my tweets and Facebook posts instead of Co-Schedule. Sendible lets me repeat the same tweet daily, which is PERFECT when I have a giveaway to promote. This is a huge time saver and well worth the price of an annual subscription. I use the “Taster” package (It’s the last one listed here, which is USD $9 per month. You can even save 10% using my referral code: 170220)
I also finally caved and subscribed to Canva’s paid plan, “Canva for Work.” I am NOT good at graphic design, but Canva has helped me make at least passable graphics for my site. The main feature of “Canva for Work” that is not available using the free version is the ability to automatically resize your images for various social platforms. I started a free trial and realized I couldn’t live without it—it saves me so much time! With the exchange rate, Canva for Work costs $158 per year.
I’ve also signed up for Tailwind, which is a Pinterest scheduler. I am on a mission to improve my use of Pinterest. I am finally making good, “pinnable” images for my posts, and I’m even going back through my old posts to redo their graphics and Pinterest descriptions. Pinterest used to be my fourth or fifth biggest referrer from a social platform, and it is now my second after Facebook. You can sign up for Tailwind with my referral link and save $15! With the referral rebate and the exchange rate, Tailwind cost me $137 for the year.
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 (I won’t renew this now that I’m paying for Canva, but I had already paid for the year.)
Freshbooks accounting software: $22
InLinkz Linky service: $1.67
Mad Mimi Newsletter Service: $35
Drop Box subscription: $9.08 (I won’t be renewing in July, since I now use OneDrive!)
Prize for newsletter giveaway: $23.51
Swim diapers for upcoming non-sponsored blog post: $70
New services:
Canva $13
Tailwind $11.40
Sendible $9.23 (Use my Sendible promo code, 170220, and get 10% off your Sendible plan. Redeem from the sign up page.)
Total Expenses: $216.27
Total income minus expenses: $2,500.11
Final thoughts:
In June I created a lot of unique content alongside my well-paid, sponsored content. It’s hard to find the time to write blog posts that are not paid, but it’s my favourite content to write. While these posts don’t bring in direct revenue, I owe it to my loyal readers to not always be selling them something, and I owe it to myself to maintain my vision of a blog that helps and entertains my fellow mamas.
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