Blogging
If you’re a blogger, my best advice to you is this – diversify your monetization strategy! Even though my pvs have fallen like crazy, I’ve been able to keep my income pretty steady by using different monetization strategies. I’m total earned for May after expenses was $1,402.90! I am also now receiving an income from my Young Living sales, so I’m including them along with my blog income because I make sales through the blog.
I also found out some amazing news….I’ll be speaking at this year’s FinCon!!! I’m super excited but super duper nervous as public speaking scares the crud out of me (not to mention that my accent comes out like crazy when I’m nervous)!
If you’re interested in how I work my affiliate sales, you can sign up here to grab my free Affiliate Marketing eBook!
| Income | |
|---|---|
| AdSense | $474.15 |
| Affiliate Sales | $175.50 |
| Book Sales | $37.45 |
| Media.Net | $254.74 |
| YL | $232.31 |
| Freelance | $25.00 |
| Sponsored Posts | $450.00 |
| Total: | $1,649.15 |
| Expenses | |
|---|---|
| eCourse (An Inbox of Opp & Kindle Launch Plan*) | $85.00 |
| Book Editor | $40.00 |
| iStock | $12.00 |
| MailChimp | $75.00 |
| Branded Business Materials | $34.25 |
| Total: | $246.25 |
Here are my blogging goals specifics:
- Finish creating my pinning schedule and strategy. (Done)
- Create my Facebook sharing strategy. (I got ahead and then behind again on this…..)
- Keep pageviews at 200,000 and increase to 500,000 by the end of the year. (You can read how I more than doubled my pageviews here.) (Ugh. My pvs have gone down again…..sad face….My pageviews for last month were 151,877. )
- Professional blog design. (Currently working with Pixel Me Designs) (Done)
- Find three brands to establish a working relationship with for underwritten posts. (I am working with 1 brand this month and I’m super excited about it!)
- Complete media kit by April 1st. (Done) I decided to purchase TwelveSkip’s media kit template and I’m in love! I have a much better and more professional looking media kit now than the homemade one that I made.
- Complete Business Plan by April 30th. (Done)
- Finish my next book by my birthday (March 29th) and publish by June on Amazon. (My book is ready to be published and I finally completed my launch plan and have my team ready! You can get a few of the details about my book here.)
- Increase my minimum writing goal from 500 words per post to 700 words per post. (I have been pretty consistent with this but I do like what Darren suggests in his book ProBlogger* that you should change up the types and lengths of your posts periodically to keep things fresh.)
- Keep editorial calendar with at least three months of posts, written and scheduled. (I’m still not at three months out, but I’ve been keeping up with my editorial calendar so much better now.)
- Attend one blog conference. (I’ll actually be speaking at this year’s FinCon! )
- Research and implement better SEO tactics and improve search engine traffic on my site. (So far the tactics that I’ve been using have really been paying off. If you don’t have the Yoast plugin, you should get it. It’s awesome sauce.)
- Bring Alexa Global rating below 100,000 and U.S. rating below 15,000. (My US ranking keeps going down but my global ranking keeps going up….. Global is currently: 185,566 and U.S. is currently: 35,363)
Personal
We found out what baby 3 is…….IT’S A GIRL! Seriously, we couldn’t believe it and let’s just say she didn’t want to show us that she was a girl but we’re pretty confident in what we didn’t see that she is in fact a girl but I won’t be getting rid of my boy clothes just yet….oh and we got a puppy….because I’m crazy. 🙂 Her name is Blue but we nicknamed her Bluebird.
Great news! My little brother is no longer going to Japan! Thank goodness he was able to trade orders with another guy as we received some pretty rough news. I won’t share which family member of ours we found out has cancer but let’s say that it’s taken a toll on us, so prayers are greatly appreciated.
Also, in other news, I was given the amazing opportunity to try out Crystal Paine’s (Money Saving Mom) new course, Make Over Your Mornings * and oh.my.word. Seriously, it could not have come at a better time for me as I’ve been struggling like crazy to regain control over my mornings and day. Crystal in all her awesomeness will walk you, step-by-step into setting up a morning routine that works for you and your family in 14 days and I can tell you that it works and you’ll be happy you tried it!
Here are my personal goals specifics:
- Begin working out using the Tupler Technique to fix my diastasis. (I am following the workouts in Lose Your Mummy Tummy *) (I have had to stop doing these but I’m going to leave this on the list as I plan to pick it back up after I have Charlotte.)
- Work out three times a week for ten to fifteen minutes and then increase length of workouts to thirty minutes to an hour and to simultaneously increase the intensity. (Changed to the goal below)
- Spend 30 minutes every day in active play with the boys (walking the neighborhood, playing hide-n-seek, “monster”, or other games they want to play). (I keep struggling with making this a priority as this pregnancy is kicking my butt. )
- Write in gratitude journal every day. (I am using Money Saving Mom’s gratitude journal, Choose Gratitude * – amazing!) (I’ve totally failed on this one. I still haven’t written in my gratitude journal all month long….)
- Schedule a paid date night and paid family night/event once a quarter. (Haven’t even thought about this one….)
- Increase daily water intake to full eight glasses of water a day and continue detox regimen with lemon essential oil. (Now that I’m back into getting up before my family, this has become so much easier to make happen!)
- Spend thirty minutes to one hour two times a week working with Conner on preschool learning activities. Spend same time working with Collin on tot school activities. (We haven’t started our preschool curriculum with Conner yet and the boys got into the school supplies and decided to finger paint our downstairs…..ugh. So, now I have to gather more supplies in order to start school. But I have been more diligent about setting aside time in the day for learning activities. )
- Drastically reduce the amount of personal time spent on Facebook, by leaving groups and un-liking pages that just clog up my newsfeed. Use the News Feed Eradicator extension for Chrome to keep me from being sucked into Facebook’s “should-have-left-it-in-high-school” drama. (Slowly I’ve gotten better at this but honestly, FB rules the world I swear because before I know it, I’ll have 5 zillion notifications that I need to respond to…..work/balance act in full swing. )
We decided to start a water balloon fight with the neighbors…..
Financial
My hubs and I still have not started FPU but after my hubs’ doctor took almost all our money, we have been even more diligent about living our life by a budget. So, I’m hoping that we actually make this a priority by fall before our daughter arrives.
I paid off another loan!!!! That means we only have TWO student loans left to pay off by the end of year! I’m so freaking excited it ain’t even funny! 🙂
Here are our financial specifics:
- Pay off student loans by December 31st. Total balance at the beginning of the year: $20,106.81 (Student loan balance as of today 5/30/15: $11,643.19 )
- Contribute the max allowed percentage to hubs’ 401(k) plan and continue contributing $30 a week to my Roth IRA. Will increase my contribution amount if goal of paying off student loans is met before the end of the year. We will be decreasing the amount contributed to our emergency fund in order to build up our retirement funds. (Done.)
- Go back to carrying cash only for all purchases. (I’ve finally gotten into a routine of carrying only cash to the grocery store! I’m super proud of myself and it is truly amazing at how using cash can help you stick to your grocery budget.)
- Plan and implement a spending freeze. (Still have not done this…..)
- Set aside $10 every week towards our Christmas fund for a debt-free Christmas (it will be our third one!). (We’ve decided to save up our Swagbucks* earnings instead of this money coming out of our budget and we have actually already saved up enough Swagbucks to buy Christmas! I’m hoping to continue to save enough so we can give a hefty donation at the end of the year. ). **** Right now, until June 7th, when you sign up for Swagbucks* and start referring your friends and family and they earn 300SBs, you’ll earn 300 SBs! Not to mention that you’ll earn 10% for life of what they earn. This is a great way to help build up your Christmas fund, vacation fund, savings fund, debt-pay off fund, or whatever fund!
Reading List
If you’re in business for yourself or in a leadership role where you work, I encourage you to read Dave Ramsey’s EntreLeadership *. Seriously, it is amazing and has already had an amazing impact on my business! In fact, I finally got my business checking account figured out – I’m using PayPal’s business account and now have PayPal debit card. Hopefully one day I’ll make enough to justify the fees for business checking at my local banks.
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Linked Up To: The Thrifty Couple
STANDARD DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Affiliate links will have an asterisk (*) next to them. {Read my full disclosure policy here.}
Ahhh so excited to hear you speak at FinCon! I’m sorry to hear about your family member, but I’m glad they allowed him to trade orders. Not always the case, I know, so what a blessing.
Congrats on the gender! Girls seem to always try to hide in utero. 🙂
Yay! I can’t wait to meet you there Femme! 🙂 And thank you so much for your kind words and she definitely was hiding! 😉
Awww…a girl! Although, I know you would have been just excited if it were a boy, because all babies are special! Thanks for sharing these updates, Jessi. I love seeing what you are up to. I’ve just started working my way through Crystal’s “Make Over Your Mornings” and love it! In fact, that’s what I just wrote about this morning. Crystal is so inspiring. And congratulations – and good luck – at speaking at the conference. I’m sure you’ll do great!
Thank you so much Kristen! 🙂 I love Crystal and all her motivation – she’s awesome sauce and it’s no wonder how and why she’s successful! 🙂 Off to read your post!
I always love reading updates from other bloggers. Congrats on the getting one of the student loans paid off!
A little girl after two boys, what fun! I was convinced my third would be a third girl but ended up with a boy. It’s fun to get see the other perspective.
I was so convinced this was going to be a boy and I’m having a difficult time convincing myself it is in fact a girl. 🙂 But I’m super excited to see her and her Daddy together because there isn’t anything like a Daddy/Daughter bond! 🙂
i saw you would be speaking this year and I thought that was a wonderful opportunity for you! Your blog will grow just from that, I’m sure. We are on the fence about going – I was an award finalist last year, but I don’t really expect to be nominated again (much less win) AND we are in the middle of another major move. We shall see.
I would love to see you there Kirsten if you attend! 🙂 And that is awesome that you were an award finalist! Seriously that is awesome and I’m sure you’ll be nominated again! 🙂
Congratulations are in order! What a great month you had! A girl!!! I will send prayers your way. Sorry to hear about that.
About FinCon, this is awesome! Congratulations! I would be nervous too! What are you doing to prepare yourself? Books?
Thank you so much Joyce! 🙂 For FinCon, I’ll be speaking alongside members of my amazing Mastermind Group so we’re preparing together and I’m currently researching speaking classes (I’ve read Ken Davis’ book Secrets to Dynamic Communication which is amazing for speakers and for bloggers alike) and trying to see if my Alma Matter has something that I can participate in that is not outrageously expensive. 🙂
Congratulations on the baby news and the switching of your brother’s orders! I’m sorry your family is going through such a rough time right now. Thank you for sharing your monthly goals (and your income reports) – they are encouraging to follow.
Thank you so much Suzanna! I’m so happy that my goals can encourage you. 🙂 🙂
Congrats on the girl!! I’m willing to bet she’s going to have her daddy’s heart! Good luck on speaking at FinCon! I wish I could go and see that. Thanks for sharing your goals!
Thank you so much Charlee! Hopefully we’ll get to meet in person one day soon! 🙂
Ahh Jessi! So exciting to have a (modest) little girl on the way! Your boys are going to love on her so much!
And speaking at FinCon!? Crazy cool! I’ve never been to a blog conference before, but I can imagine I’d be pretty darn nervous to speak at one! That is super exciting for you! I wish I was going to be there to hear you. What’s the topic?
I’m sorry that amidst all the excitement and success that you have a heavy heart. Prayers for you and your family!
Thank you so much Stephanie for your prayers and kind words! 🙂 I’ll be speaking alongside other members of my mastermind group discussing the benefits of being part of a successful mastermind group. I’m super excited to share our topic as I’ve been in some pretty unhelpful mastermind groups before, but this one, we did “right” and we want to help others figure out how to make the most of their mastermind group. 🙂
Congrats on another great month. That is so awesome that you will be speaking at FinCon. Prayers for you and your family during this time. I finally signed up for Media.Net in May and made some money, so thank you for the recommendation!
You are so welcome Julie! 🙂 And thank you so much for your prayers!
Awww a girl!! We’re having a girl too! (With two boys already 🙂 )
Heck yes Brittany! Congratulations!
Congrats…it’s a girl!!! We are so happy for you guys. Great job on the goals too! Love it.
Thank you Tai! We have no idea what we’re going to do with a girl – I’m sure she’ll end up a Tomboy but then again I was a Tomboy and LOVE it growing up! 🙂
Jessi, you are so motivated and motivating! Congrats on your speaking engagement. I would love to hear more about it. I hope your family member kicks cancer to the curb.
Thank you so much Jayleen! I’ll be speaking with other members of my mastermind group on getting the most out of your mastermind group. I’m super excited about it as Jeff Goins will be there and he helped inspire a lot of what went into our mastermind group. 🙂
Congrats on your little girl. The poor darling will never be allowed to date, with two big brothers watching out for her. And why not add a puppy in the mix? Pregnant mama, busy blog, public speaking commitments, two young children, puppy – heck, throw in some intense home renovations, you don’t already have enough on your hands!
I’m sorry to hear about the cancer. I hope it is a type that is easily treatable and that the prognosis is good. Cancer is always so scary. I’m glad your brother was able to change his assignment.
It’s winter here, which means mornings are very hard – It’s dark and cold and staying in bed seems like a much nicer option . . . Sometimes I think I’m part bear, I can be terribly grizzly and I’d rather just hibernate through the winter months . . .
Thank you so much Becca! I know, when my hubs came home with the puppy I think my neighbors thought I was going to kill him. And some days I want to. 🙂 I think I just like to torture myself as I find myself in these crazy situations all.the.time! I cannot imagine winter in Australia – do y’all get snow? Listen to me, sounding all like a naive tourist…which I totally am. 🙂 What is interesting is that I actually do better in the colder months with getting up early….I have no idea why. Summertime always makes me lazy. I swear I could live in a hammock all summer long and not complain. 🙂
There are a handful of places in Australia that get snow. We aren’t one of them. Maybe once every 6 years it’ll snow but it always melts the second it hits the ground. Once, 11 years ago, we had snow that didn’t melt. You could see the grass under the snow but the snow was on top of the grass. People tried to tell me it was an inch of snow. I’m from the US originally so I know snow. I was like, “No, the grass is an inch high and the snow is resting on the grass, but that doesn’t mean it’s an inch of snow.” They wouldn’t believe me. People started asking me for advice on how to drive in it – never mind it wasn’t sticking to the roads. It was really funny.
I live in Victoria, which is one of the colder states, and I live in one of the colder places in Victoria. Winter, for us, means daily highs of between 9-15 Celsius, and a handful of nights where it gets down to 0 Celsius. So, by American standards, it’s not bad; but our houses are not built for the cold. Australian houses have lots of very big windows (almost always single pane), they aren’t insulated very well, and most homes don’t have central heat. People here think I’m crazy for complaining about the cold because “it’s so much colder where you’re from” but what they don’t get is that American homes and buildings are built for cold weather – so you go from one warm place to another. Here, everywhere is cold, because they like to pretend we live in a nice, moderate climate. (The liars.)
Hahahhaa! I get the opposite of that when I go up North to visit family during the summer and they say “why are you complaining that it’s hot, you’re from the South”? I’m like, well in the South everyone and their dog has A/C because it gets hotter than the hinges of hell so even though it’s only 90 degrees up here and we’re on the second story, there’s no A/C so I’m not prepared to never be able to cool off. 🙂
Yeah for girls!! I have two. 🙂
Nice work on your goals, as usual. I read “Keep editorial calendar with at least three months of posts, written and scheduled” and it makes me shutter. I have never had one week of posts written and scheduled! I am still getting a handle on this blog world. 😉
Fun that you are adding Young Living into your blog business.
Sorry one more thing…I have just started some of the Tupler Technique for diastasis. Have you used a splint? I am just curious how much they work before I spend any money. There isn’t a lot of room in our budget for it…
I have not used a splint. I am currently using a belly band to help hold up my growing tummy to hopefully prevent too much stretching (and I have a hernia….not fun. 🙁 ) but I am planning to purchase closer to her arrival a…not sure exactly what they are called but similar to a garter to help while I do the Tupler Technique. I have a friend who just used a really long scarf and tied it around her as a splint. There’s apparently a YouTube video on and I’ll see if she still has the link to the video to share with you.
oooh. Do share the video if you find it! Otherwise I can just look myself. 😉
Sorry about the hernia…
I’m still struggling with the three months part and I’m considering changing that goal as I’m beginning to realize that I may have been over ambitious…at least for this year. 🙂
Congrats on your little girl! I had a girl last year after 4 boys and I can say that I love them all the same… but definitely love and treat her differently. I think the coolest thing to see is how my husband interacts with her. I’m sure it’ll be the same for you… a huge blessing! Love to read these from you each month, thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much Janeen! 🙂 I can’t wait to see my hubs interact with her. I’m a firm believer that Daddys need a little girl because there’s no other love quite like it! 🙂
Congrats on paying off a loan, FinCon, and Charlotte!! (Love that name!)
Thank you Amy!! 🙂
I know I’ll be waiting a good while, but I’m anxious to see your adjusted grocery budget with the new addition!!