How’d I do in my 4th month of serious blogging? Not so good. Ha. I thought June was bad, but I’ve been so busy and distracted by life that I’ve hardly sat at the computer all month! Whoops.
*There may be affiliate links throughout this post. That means if you click on a link I may earn a small commission at no cost to you! Here’s the details.
What happened? To start, I turned 30 this month. Yay me! I hate to say this, but I HATE my birthday with a passion. It never fails that something terrible happens. Growing up, we always seemed to loose a pet around my birthday. That was the beginning and ever since I’ve just come to expect something to happen.
This year, I discovered a few days before my birthday that someone had access to my bank account information! I’ve spent ALL of July fighting with the bank to get my money back and close all my accounts. It has been the longest month ever. Finally, this week, I have everything sorted out and done. I have a new bank and so far so good.
Around the same time, I found a fabulous deal on a collection of knitting machines. I decided to get myself a birthday gift 🙂
The last few weeks I have been a giddy little girl going through everything I received, sorting and cleaning everything. It’s been so much fun that I’ve barely gotten anything else done. I do not regret my decision even if it cut a little into my future house down-payment fund. I’m sure I can make up for it in knitting machine product sales at all my upcoming events!
Now that I’ve updated you on some of the craziness of my life, let’s get to the report! Be gentle, the numbers definitely reflect my failure to spend time on the computer this month.
Traffic and Income Report
Traffic/Page Views
Here we go. I’m going to once again post this month with the last two months for comparison. I think it helps to see a few month together so you can really get a good idea of how I’m growing, or not.
| May | June | July | |
| Blog Page Views | 573 | 412 | 469 |
| Blog Followers | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Facebook Followers | 46 | 50 | 53 |
| Newsletter Subscribers | 15 | 22 | 24 |
I must admit, I am surprised by this months numbers. While no where near my goal of 800 views, I still managed to get more views this month than last month. How in the world did I do that? I don’t have a clue. I was not very active this month, and yet I have more Facebook followers and Newsletter subscribers, too!
Can you imagine how many followers I could get if I actually focused on getting more? I will have to keep up the good work and see what happens this month!
Now that I am tracking all of my numbers, I’m wondering if they were all along growing at a slow but steady rate and I just never noticed before. If nothing else, I highly recommend keeping track of your numbers just so you have a visual record of how well your blog is doing.
Income
Another month where I am concerned about my numbers. I’m not sure I am getting any closer to my final goal of $3000 a month. I’m not giving up, I’m just concerned that I should be doing more to make it happen.
I participated in the Webster Waterfront Arts Festival this month and thought it went well. Like last month, the festival was a little disappointing. I thought the crowds would be better and I would sell more, but I did do well considering I’m selling winter ware in 80 degree weather.
Once again, I have put some Amazon Affiliate links out there. I’ve had some clicks but no one has purchased anything so I could earn a commission. I’m thinking I may not be able to make money via affiliate links on this particular blog. And that’s ok.
Google adsense was hurt by my not posting many articles this month. This, of course, sucks, but I’m not giving up. Because one day I’m hoping I will have an epic following. I can do it!
Last month, I did not post a single pattern. I have been so busy arguing with the bank about my fraud case, and cleaning knitting machines that I did not have any time to play with new patterns on my looms. I do have one pattern done for the 5ft triangle loom ready to go this month, and I am working on the 3ft Triangle loom book. That means there will be patterns posted this month for sure.
Here’s my income breakdown:
Google Adsense: $0.06
Amazon Affiliate: $0
Online Pattern Sales: $5.00
July Events: $250.00
Blog Income Total: $5.06
July All Together Total: $255.06
I did much better than last months total of $85.20. Go me! Events are definitely the best place for me to make money currently. This is a good thing, because we are headed into fall and I have 8 more events until Christmas. I’m hoping I can bring more money in at these events over the next few months.
And I’m hoping to have our next book released next month on the 3ft Triangle loom! Unfortunately when I write this report, I have not received my book sales report for the month. That’s why they are not included. I am currently averaging $50 a month in online book sales. I’m hoping to keep writing books and have that increase to $500 a month eventually.
I will continue to work towards my goal of $3000 a month in income from my small homemade business. Thank you for following my progress every month!
Expenses
This month I may have over spent a little. It was my birthday and I really wanted to expand my collection of knitting machines. I just couldn’t pass up a great deal even if it was a wee bit more expensive than I thought.
Though, once again, I do not have any monthly subscriptions (I’m a big fan of yearly, so I don’t have to worry about that money every month.) All my fiber expenses to create my products is harder to calculate. I’m keeping track of what I’ve spent for the year. At the end of the year, I will admit to that sickening number. Until then, we’re going to forget I buy yarn.
I have paid several vending fees this month for a few different shows
Expense Breakdown:
Vending Fees: $495
Knitting Machines: $950
Total Expenses: $1445
Total Profit: -$1189.94
Whelp, I definitely over spent this month. Whoops. I just keep telling myself I have a bunch of great events coming up, including one where I took home a 4 figure number in profits and another that is promising to be the same. I’ve also started making products on my knitting machines to sell at events. I am very hopeful that I can make up for this month over the next few months.
We will see as I post all my numbers over the next few months. And now that I have my big purchase equipment, I shouldn’t be buying anything that expensive for a while. I also only have one more vending fee to pay this month. That means I will not have very many expenses, besides yarn, over the next few months.
August 2019 Goals
I’m excited to create some new goals for myself this month! Yes, I have goals that a lot of the time I don’t end up reaching, but I like to have them anyway. They motivate me to keep pushing. In fact, I’m always hunting on realtor.com for a farm and today I found the perfect one! It’s now posted on my wall to keep me focused and moving forward. I can’t wait to own my farm!
On to my goals, what do I want to attempt to accomplish in August!
Publish 4 Blog posts
Ok ok, this has decreased this month. Why? Well July sucked. I only managed to post 2 posts. That is super depressing. I do have a few posts drafted from July, but I never got around to editing them and posting them. I’m hoping to get to them this month.
I’m thinking I can manage one blog post a week with my upcoming busy crazy schedule. This month starts all my fall events, Bret’s youngest brother is coming to live with us, and I am writing the next weaving pattern book. I need to use this month to restock my products so I’m going to be a busy busy girl once again.
Reach 800 Page Views
Here we go again. Why do I always pick 800? Because I’m a crazy optimistic lady. I really want to reach this number. I think it’d be amazing to have that many views in one month! I mean that’s on average 27 views a day! That’s pretty cool.
Since I’ll be working on the book all month, I’ll be on the computer more this month, so I should theoretically be able to put more effort into tailwind and social media to draw traffic to Bubbles ‘n Stitches.
4-8 Patterns
This is a higher goal because I’ll be writing the pattern book this month. I’m hoping I can release approximately 2 patterns a week for the 3ft triangle loom to promote our new book. Wish me luck!
That’s all my goals for August. I have so much going on that I don’t want to over do it on the goals. I’m trying to make them manageable and doable. I guess we will have to wait until September to find out if I managed to accomplish them all.
In the meantime, I am preparing for my fall events, working on the next weaving pattern book, cleaning knitting machines, making new products, house hunting, and staying as sane as I can in the process.
Until next time, take care,
Ashli