The Courageous Chicken may earn a commission for purchases made after clicking links on this page. Learn More.

Welcome!

Today I want to share my second month blogging traffic, income and expenses review.

Last month, I shared my first month blogging report and I was completely blown away by the traffic that I was able to generate my very first month. I am so happy that I made the decision to do these blogging traffic and income reports since there are so many lessons that we learn each month. It is definitely a bit of trial and error but I am plugging away.

This blog officially launched April 1^st, 2018 and I hope to eventually turn this into a fulltime business. So this review covers May 2018 traffic, income, and expenses.

Honestly, I couldn’t be more excited to see how my blog is growing and all the future potential that it has. Starting this blog was one of the best decisions I made. I enjoy all the different aspects of this and the great part is that I can actually earn a bit of money from it.

If you are on the fence about whether or not you can start your very own blog, my advice is, just go for it. Blogging is a great avenue for all of your thoughts and opinions and there is room for everyone. Just take that leap and just do it!

So let’s get into my first month blogging traffic overview.

For the month of May, I had a total of 14,318 pageviews. 

Almost 100% of these page views come from Pinterest. This is almost exactly double the pageviews of April so I am ecstatic with this number.

I have really just been plugging away with Pinterest. Pinterest seems to be an everchanging beast and I don’t think that there is just one strategy that is the “right way”. Pinterest group boards are still a work in progress but “Progress over perfection”.

I have really found that Board Booster is clunky and I don’t like not being able to see what exactly is going out so that is why I am just focusing on Tailwind. Tailwind is a total game changer and without it, I would be spending all day manually pinning on Pinterest. I will do a full review of my tailwind and how I use it soon.

If you want to jump right in to reach more people, get more comments, grow your traffic and more, sign up to Tailwind for free and start scheduling!

Here are my average daily impressions and viewers on Pinterest for my second month blogging. 

Impressions are up from 17k my first month to over 44k impressions. Monthly viewers are up from 173k last month to over 650k viewers. Seeing this growth is what is keeping me in the Pinterest game!

Second Month Blogging Income Report

My second month blogging income came to a grand total of $34.77.

This is about double of last month and completely awesome. I figure if I can just keep this doubling each month I’ll reach my goals sooner than expected!

A total of $2.87 came from affiliate commisions on Amazon.

Honestly, I am not nearly as excited about Amazon affiliates because they seem to be the lowest paying and to have the shortest cookie out there. This is a real bummer. But,  I have started looking at other affiliate programs through Share A Sale and brands that I really love. I think I will continue to add amazon affiliate links where they apply but going forward I want to start looking at Affiliates as more of a long-term game.

I am considering Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course. Michelle earns over $50,000 a month through affiliate marketing and she teaches the exact steps and strategies that she took. There is also access to a private facebook group where you can find tons of help from other bloggers who have gone through the course. So I’m thinking it could be a worthwhile investment,  but I will keep you updated on how that goes.

The remaining $31.90 for the month came from Gourmet Ads.  The RPM has steadily increased with pageviews so every day I earn just a few more cents per 1000 page views.

So far I have really loved Gourmet Ads and don’t have one negative to say about them. They did a custom set up on my site and when I need something changed or I notice an ad running slow, I just email them and they have it fixed within the hour. Great customer service.

I am thinking of doing a full review of my experience with Gourmet Ads and why I chose them over the other small ad networks. Please let me know if that is something that you would be interested in.

Second Month Blogging Expenses

Domain and Hosting through SiteGround – $75.35 for the entire year (which was paid in April). This comes out to $6.28 per month.

I chose SiteGround for my hosting mainly because of their amazing support services and how fast they’re hosting it. They support my entire blog, not just the back end hosting. Any issue that I have on WordPress I don’t waste time trying to find answers on google. It is so nice to just call or chat with SiteGround and they have always fixed everything within minutes.

I didn’t buy any courses or anything else this month and am still using all the free version and trial runs of schedulers, mail platforms, and themes.

So, technically my only expense was the hosting and domain at $6.28 for the month.

Conclusion

Overall, I am ecstatic with these numbers and excited to keep going forward.

I am happy with the progress made in the second month blogging and am looking forward to seeing what happens in June. And I will certainly let you all know.

Remember,

Progress Over Perfection!