December Traffic and Income Report
It’s the final month of what has been a very busy year!! For the first time since I started this blog I have failed to publish any new content.
But as usual I will publish my Traffic and Income report and share everything I have got up too this month
What have I got up to in December
For the first time ever I have not had chance to publish any new content on the blog, which I am a little disappointed about!
I have been tied up with my other businesses and after a long hard think, I realised that I should be working hard on something that is already doing well to make it great!!
I have spent a lot of time on this blog over the last 12 months and I don’t seem to be progressing as well as I had hoped.
Now this does not mean I am quiting or giving up on the blog, It just means my priorities lie elsewhere.
So where does leave the blog?
I will still continue to publish new content and produce these traffic and income reports for the next 12 months and then I will asses the situation to see where we are at.
Google Is not playing nice!!
Although Google has finally pushed me up to number 1 for my Brand name and main keyword ‘Do SEO Yourself’, it is not being very generous for other targeted keywords!
Now although this blog is about SEO, you might think I will be able to get top rankings with ease because I know what I am doing!
Well, since starting the blog I have not actively done any SEO on it, apart from on-page stuff
I wanted to the blog to grow naturally on the basis of great content!
But so far that is not happening and I feel it may have something to do with the domain name. I built this blog on an expired domain which I purchased years ago.
I’m starting to wonder if it would have been better to start with a fresh domain.
My Conversion rate optimisation worked!!
Last month I told you how I was missing out on new subscribers and how I implemented a few changes to try and increase my opt in rate.
These included adding an exit pop up, improving the sidebar opt in by offering an incentive and adding a couple of ‘in content opt ins’.
It seems the change I made paid off as conversion was up in December.
The exit pop up worked well, converting at 6% which has meant that I now have an extra 65 subscribers that I wouldn’t of had!
Traffic
I get the feeling traffic will be down quite a bit on last month due to the post which I published in November which drove a chunk of traffic to the blog.
4,059 visitors this month, down from 5785 last month!!
Where did that traffic come from
Google organic traffic is down, which pisses me off a bit, as I said before, Google are not being kind to us at the minute!!
Most popular pages
Again its the latest post I did about On-page SEO
Email, sign ups and social media
Email subscribers = 385 (+55)
Twitter = 605 (+15)
Google+ = 316 (+24)
Earnings
HMA = $7.53
SEO Powersuite = $38
Services $50
Profit from purchased websites
Site 1 = +$2183
Expenses
-$20 WPEngine
Total Overal Profit = +$2,258.53
Metrics
A nice increase in Domain and Page authority this month, mainly down to the number of shares and links from the post last month!
Summary
Not much to report this month as I have done nothing to the blog due to other commitments + the Christmas period. I did manage to increase opt in conversion rates throughout the blog which is good, and we also saw an increase in my Domain and Page authority which is always a good sign.
My ‘purchased’ niche site is doing great and profits are increasing each month!
Plans for next month
Next month I plan on working on 1 quality post again, hopefully I will get it published on time! I also need to think about publishing more ‘tutorial’ based posts which will in turn help to improve my affiliate commission.
I also have a couple of trips planned for January which I am looking forward too.
I believe one day you will benefit from your blogging, don’t give up! Looking forward to your next blog post.
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Jason Chesters Reply:
January 6th, 2015 at 2:53 pm
Thanks Joseph
Appreciated!!
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Don’t give up, I’ve read this blog since day one and it has been great watching it develop.
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I check your website every 3-4 days for new posts & I have to say I’m a bit disappointed by the absence of new content. But I think you’ll putting a little too much effort into every post and when it doesn’t get the attention it deserves you think it’s not working. Trust me a lot of people come back regularly and read every single word you write! I suggest you make your posts shorter and you can always update them with more content later.
BTW what happened to that amazon affiliate site you had posted about? I’m really eager to hear about it. Keep up the good work!
[Reply]
Jason Chesters Reply:
January 6th, 2015 at 11:28 pm
Thanks for your feedback George, I’ll take that on board. I’ll hopefully get an Amazon niche site update out in the next few weeks
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That income is just from this blog or its your total income?
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Jason Chesters Reply:
January 7th, 2015 at 1:04 pm
Its just from this blog and any sites I have started or purchased as a result of this blog! I don’t publish my other income sources
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Tutorial sites are always awesome do work on them .. Also one post a week will be really helpful to increase your traffic instead of one quality post a month ..
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