Here is my first official income & traffic report since launching the Make Money From Home 2015 Challenge. I won't even pretend it has been smooth sailing, but it definitely has been 100% fun. I LOVE meeting & learning from other moms who are interested in working & making money online.
My main struggle right now is finding the time to put out the volume & quality of content I would like to produce. I try to dedicate as much time as I can to the site, but with 2 little kids I find myself straddling the fence between play dates & computer time. I know they are growing up too fast, so I do love my time with them – and in the meantime my list of articles to write & mompreneur interviews to publish is rapidly growing!
I am a little behind schedule in posting this January report, but have no fear – I am committed to sharing my income & traffic numbers with you each month. The Make Money From Home 2015 Challenge is all about sharing with you what is working for me, so you can try it yourself. It also helps keep me motivated which is critical in the beginning stages when the numbers are small!
I am very proud of a very small accomplishment… I wrote my first sponsored post! It only paid $15, but I felt like I needed to do it to prove to myself that it can be done. Plus, everyone starts somewhere & I know I can't compete (yet!) with some of the big bloggers receive more than $2,000 per post.
How did I get my first sponsored post? I signed up with Moms Affiliate & they have companies looking to advertise with mom bloggers. I would HIGHLY recommend joining Moms Affiliate because they are already connected with brands who want to advertise specifically with moms. The site is VERY user-friendly, and it has already paid off for me as someone just starting out with relatively low traffic!
You can click on this banner below to sign up with Moms Affiliate for free.
Make sure you, SIGN UP below to find out as soon as a new income report is up. There are some exciting things brewing at Mom Resource, so stay tuned!
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What IS Included My Numbers
Each month I'll share both my income & traffic numbers. For income, I'll combine both of my websites MomResource.com and BathTimeFunTime.com, since my income accounts are all linked up together anyway. For traffic, I'm only sharing MomResource.com numbers because that is where I'm focusing my efforts. If it becomes interesting to also share my BathTimeFunTime.com traffic I will, but I don't expect there to be any major changes.
What Is NOT Included: Amazon FBA Sales
I am still selling as an Amazon FBA seller, but I'm not including these figures in the net profit calculation. This is because I would need to include the costs I spent buying the items in order to calculate net profit accurately. I am liquidating my Amazon inventory to focus on this blog, so I have shared my Amazon FBA income below, but I've excluded it from net profit since many of the cost were incurred in the past.
This will likely be the last big spike in Amazon merchandise sales for a while, because I'm running out of stock! Last year I spent 6 months (March – September) buying & shipping inventory to Amazon ahead of the birth of my daughter in October. Since then I have not sent any inventory & instead have been focusing my efforts on Mom Resource!
I shared my experiences as an Amazon seller in an article called How To Sell on Amazon. Click here to read the full story.
To see my Amazon sales for 2014, click here for my 2014 online income report.
Below are the details for my January 2015 Amazon sales. Click here to see exactly what kinds of products I sell on Amazon.
Without further delay, here are the numbers for January!
The Numbers
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you have any questions about any of the income or expenses you can leave a comment, and I’ll do my best to reply.
Income Totals
- Printable Baby Shower Games: $65.45
- Sponsored Post via Moms Affiliate: $15
- Amazon Associates: $11
- Google Adsense: $14.79
- Ebates: $8.63
Total Income: $114.87
Expense Totals
- Aweber: $29
- Quickbooks: $9.95
- Web hosting for both MomResource.com & BathTimeFunTime.com: $23.10
- Crowdfire – for Twitter & Instagram Growth (see Twitter below): $4.99
- Paypal Transaction Fees for Printable Baby Shower Games: $6.49
- Payhip Transaction Fees for Printable Baby Shower Games: $3.30
Total Expenses: $76.83
Net Profit $38.04
OK I do realize this is not a staggering figure, but this is only my FIRST month. I'm not discouraged, but truly happy to be “in the black” & turning a profit at all. I know everyone starts from the bottom & I really am enjoying & learning so much from this startup process.
Traffic Totals
Below are some screenshots from Google Analytics. You can click on these images to view a larger size.
Traffic Overview
Of course pageview & user numbers have a long way to go, but I'm amazed by the bounce rate and pages per session. A bounce rate of 2.22% means 97.78% of visitors view at least two pages when they visit MomResource.com, and the average pages per session for January is 5.69! I am so happy that I seem to be communicating a cohesive message & people are enjoying Mom Resource enough to stick around even in the early days.
Traffic Channels
Social Network User Flow
Growth
Unsurprisingly there has been a lot more activity on the site since the New Year. The biggest traffic spike on January 27th & 28th followed my interview with mompreneur Johlene Orton – click here to find out why we like her so much!
Many of you have commented on the growth in my number of Twitter followers recently. You can get the same results if you follow my strategy. Click here to read Twitter for Beginners for quick & proven results!
There are 2 FREE tools I tried in January that have been successful for me:
- Crowdfire – for Twitter & Instagram Growth – This is an app that you can try for free on your iphone. I ended up spending $4.99 to get the upgraded version because it really really works. Have a look for free & let me know if you have specific questions about using the app.
- Hootsuite – I originally starting using Hootsuite to schedule tweets, but now I also use the streams to keep track of hashtags that I regularly use.
While my overall website traffic has not significantly changed, I know that having a good Twitter following enhances my marketability to sponsors. Plus, it's fun & I love using it as a way to meet, support & chat with other online moms.
Because of You
I am so motivated every day by how many interesting projects everyone is working on. Mom Resource is here not only to provide information but also inspiration: read about other successful online moms in the mompreneur interviews, share links to your own posts at the weekly mom blog parties, get a little recognition when you're featured as a trending mom blogger. There are opportunities for you to be in the spotlight every week.
If you've read this far, you will want to click here to join Mom Resource. It's 100% free and is the best way to connect with other Mom Resource moms through our Facebook group, Pinterest group boards, and email updates.
Even if you're not a mom, you can keep an eye on my progress by signing up below to track my income reports.
Please leave your comments below & let me know what other resources you are looking for. I absolutely love working with other online moms & I will always do my best to research & share what I'm learning, so we can all grow together!
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