April 2019 Income Report
Here we are at Month 4 of my 12 Months of Crochet Blog Income Reports.
For one year, I am sharing my monthly blogging income and expenses as well as insights to changes made on the blog in the past month.
Why I Publish Income Reports
It can be a little weird publishing income reports for all the world to see (including family, friends and loved ones). They are not intended to brag. Instead they are meant to be helpful and to show readers, followers and fellow bloggers that it truly IS possible to make a good income online with a small blog, hard work and persistence.
If I can do this.. YOU can do this!
Why JUST One Year of Income Reports?
I’ve noticed most bloggers eventually STOP sharing income reports. Why? Three main reasons:
- Privacy: Sharing income is really intrusive; think about it. Would you publicly post your salary from your day job? While sharing income statistics are useful on one hand, on the other hand, there are some definite ‘cons’ to being public with your income.
- Relate-ability: As success grows, income can grow to the point that the everyday person just can’t relate to it any more. When a reader sees a blogger making 100,000 in ONE month, for instance, it can feel completely out of reach. That defeats the entire point of publishing income reports–to inspire others to do the same!
- Finally it can take considerable time to honestly track and compile the information in a way that is meaningful.
For that reason, this is a one-year project. Enough to show you what is possible and to inspire you to achieve more with your online business–but not so much that it “overstays its welcome’ so to speak.
My hope is that the honesty and transparency that I provide through my successes and failures with my crochet blog over this year helps you on your blogging journey!
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Let’s dive into the April 2019 Income report
April 2019 Blogging Revenues
Total Revenues from Crochet 365 Knit Too: $5,286
The number above does not include blogging expenses. Some of the expenses that I incur on a monthly basis include the following:
- Convertkit: I use Convertkit for my mailing list and love it! Mailerlite is also a good option and you can read this post here to get my opinion on them both.
- Hosting: I currently use BigScoots and highly recommend them. My site speed is great, my site doesn’t go down and they are are amazingly responsive whenever I’ve needed them. I’ve been on the starter plan since I switched to them last summer. Before that I was with Bluehost. I actually recommend Bluehost for beginners because it’s so affordable when you are starting out and maybe you’re not sure if “this thing” is going to fly!
- Tailwind: I use Tailwind to schedule pins on Pinterest. My life is busy and schedulers are a lifesaver. Tailwind is the first thing I invested in after I started my blog and it helped propel my blog to where it is today.
- Smarterqueue: I use Smarterqueue to schedule posts to my Facebook business page. It’s amazing and you can get double the normal free trial with my special affiliate link here, if you want to check it out.
Here is the income breakdown:
- Adthrive: $1,841
- Kitted Patterns: $1,725
- Pattern Sales on Etsy & Ravelry: $1,105
- Affiliate Income: $615
Changes in April
Recently Published Blog Posts:
Let’s talk about April in more detail. As I’m typing this report, it is actually June (and YES, I am WAY late in getting up this income report). I think the really important thing to realize about an online business like this one is that income fluctuates wildly! Certain times of year are better for crocheters. The fall leading up to Christmas is probably the hottest time.
And then when “life returns to normal” pageviews to the website drop and advertisers pay less. Since ad revenue equals the amount of traffic times the rate advertisers are willing to pay, if both things drop, ad revenue can plummet quickly. So you’ll notice that ad revenue in April was down from March.
I also receive revenue from a company that kits a few of my patterns. They have a U.S. and Canadian branch and I receive separate checks from them on a quarterly basis. So April reflects the revenue on their U.S. sales for January to March and then, typically, one month later, I receive a check for the Canadian sales for the same time period.
I mention this because it distorts my income. In April I received over $1700 for January through March. It makes April higher because it includes money that really “belongs” with January, February and March. And because I don’t know what April is actually earning, I can’t add that number into April. This is just the way I’m paid and the information I’m given. But it’s important to share and to mention so you realize that you can’t just look at the dollars and say.. ‘oh this is growing’ or ‘wow..this is declining’.
A better way to compare is to look at the data in context with the previous April. When I do that, this is what I find:
- Pageviews (traffic) increased 69%
- Ad revenue more than doubled. Since this increased at a higher rate than the traffic, this tells me the rate I was paid increased by a lot. At the end of May last year, I switched ad companies from Mediavine to Adthrive. This was a great decision for my business (though I really love both companies)
- Pattern sales more than doubled. In January 2018 I started selling the blog patterns as nicely formatted ad-free PDFs as a service to my readers. I started with a few patterns and added more over time. So a big part of the pattern sales increase was due to adding the ad-free blog patterns to the pattern library over on Etsy and Ravelry.
Based on this I am really growing! This has turned my little side gig into something that is more like a full time income stream. I still do this on the side, while working a full time job. And I still have time for my family, housework and other responsibilities. Am I busy? I sure am! But this goes to show that little hard work pays off!
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I love that starting a blog is within the reach of most people. The cost per month is less than the cost of a fancy cup of coffee! I really do feel that blogging is like the Wild West — there is still room for people with an entrepreneur spirit to explore with a chance to ‘make it big’! If this sounds fun to you, here is a great get-started guide starting at just $3.95 a month.
Expenses:
April expenses were just the normal day-to-day expenses. Nothing exciting here. We’re still in “move recovery” mode here, so I’ve mostly been crocheting from my stash–or from whatever yarn I can find as a lot of it is still in boxes!
What Happened In Our Lives This Month:
I feel like the theme here is that MOVING TAKES FOREVER. Or rather.. the settling in and unpacking takes forever. I’m fortunate enough to have a dedicated space in the new house for my crafting and blogging. It needed some upgrades. So this month we spent a good share of the month painting the blog room and attached walk in closet–which is quite large. The closet has bookcases and will house all my books, binders and notebooks. The blog room itself will house my yarn and workspaces and hopefully a comfy place to sit and crochet!
Thanks for reading to the end of Month 4 of my Year Long Income reports. Drop me a line in the comments and tell me what you think!
~ Cheryl
I love seeing your finished projects! If you enjoyed making one of my patterns I’d love to see yours on Instagram, be sure to tag me @crochet365knittoo. If you are on Facebook, stop over to the Crochet 365 Knit Too Facebook page or pop over to the Crochet365KnitToo Club and share a photo! I’d love to see your work!
