I’ve been itching to write my January 2017 income reportsince about January 1st.I’m not entirely sure why, honestly. Income wise, not much has changed. I knew I wasn’t going to see a huge spike in income this month but what I DID know was that this month was going to bring a lot of positive change and restructuring and that's exciting.
Thenew year reignited the flame and got me extremely excited for all the possibilities this year has to offer. I spent the majority of the month creating a lot of new content, and positioning myself for success this year. So, good things are coming!
But, I'll skip to the part you're really interested in...
Without further ado... here's my January 2017 Income Report:
$4425January 2017 Income
Goals
I’ve decided to structure my income reports more formally and I'm starting right now with my January 2107 Income Report. Rather than my free-form approach, I’m going to start setting goals for each month and then I’ll highlight whether I achieved the goal or missed it in each month's income report.
While I didn’t formally set goals for January in December, I did so informally.
January Goals
- Get 250 Pinterest Followers by Feb 1st – WIN (I got 350!)
- Get 600 Twitter Followers by Feb 1st - Miss
- Grow Facebook Group to 70 People by Feb 1st - WIN (I'm at 77)
- Create a blogging related email Opt-in - WIN
- Finish and launch my ebook on how to build a profitable blog - WIN
- Gain 20 new email subscribers by Feb 1st - WIN (I gained over 30!)
- Create some sort of email marketing strategy - WIN/ish
- Publish 4 posts (December income report, 1 guest post 2 of my posts) - WIN
I made a LOT of progress this month with my blog, especially on social media. It was my "get my social media sh*t together" month - and I pretty much did that.
I alsofocused a TON of energy on email marketing and started that off by creating a few new email opt-ins to help grow my subscriber list.
- Profitable Blog
- Profitable Pinning
- 80 Snag N' Go Blog Titles
- Blogging Printables - blog post planner & weekly blog scheduler (view in sidebar)
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I was scared for a little while since I sort of broke the golden rule of blogging, which is "don't switch your niche". But I switched my niche - I'm a rule breaker, I guess.
Whereas before I focused on being a freelancer and making money that way, I now focusing 100% of my efforts on blogging about blogging – showing people that it’s possible to start a blog and make money from it (because I’m doing that). So I stopped advertising my freelance email course and created new relevant opt-ins (those listed above). This caused me to see a lull in my email list subscription rates. Thankfully they've started to pick up again and with steam, too! It also helps that I’m able to deliver my opt-ins easily and automatically to my email list through ConvertKit.
February Goals
I’m going to be in Florida for the large part of February – woohoo, the benefit of being self employed! But I’ll still be plugging in and working. Here are my goals for the month:
- Grow to 600 Pinterest Followers
- Join 5 more Pinterest Group Boards
- Grow to 650 Twitter Followers
- Get FB group to 100 members (I'm at 75 now)
- Gain 50 new email subscribers
- Email my list 4 times (once per week)
- Publish 4 posts (income report, guest post, 2 of my other posts)
- Guest post on 2 sites
I plan on continuing to grow my Pinterest presence since it’s been highly effective so far in such a short period of time! Twitter has been less effective but I’m not going to overlook it – still trying to grow that following.
As far as growing my Facebook group membership, I’m hoping this will happen naturally. There are already 75 incredible people within the group who have been so awesome, supportive and engaged. I’m really looking forward to working with this community not from a self-promotional perspective, but more so to help other bloggers grow their blogs. My group is advertised on the home page of my site, and I occasionally share it in other Facebook group on promo days. If you're interested in joining the FB group, click here to request accessand I'll let you in.
I’m confident my email list will continue to grow as I publish more blogs and promote them on social media. In the last 7 days alone, I've had over 30 people subscribe to my email list. This has been incredible! I'm celebrating that victory. I attribute this success largely to the fact that my email service provider is now ConvertKit(which has been such a relief from my previous provider Aweber)and because I created some new email opt-ins that are more geared towards bloggers.
Major WIN this month
I mentioned this earlier but it's worth reiterating since this was a major win for me... I launched my ebook for sale on how to build and monetize a successful blog. It's nearly 60 pages and over 9000 words of strategies and tactics that worked for me. The book is on sale for $29.00. If you're interested in me sending you a 40% off coupon codeto your inbox, submit your email below. This ebook is for anyone who's looking to monetize their site (whether your currently have one or not).
Why I think I was Successful This Month
I'm adding this section into my income reports because I'm usually really hard on myself. I always highlight the things I could do better instead of commending myself for the things I've done well. So this section is essentially my way of forcing myself to reflect on the progress I made, commend myself for it, and highlight WHY I think this month went well.
So, earlier in January I enrolled in a course called Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Since that course, I've completely reconfigured my approach to blogging and affiliate marketing. It's helped me boost my monthly earnings and I know I'm only going to see my income reports continue to climb from here. The course was created by Michelle of MakingSenseOfCents.com and she's now earning over $50,000 from her blog, which she started just to document her journey to paying off student loan debt. Well, she's definitely paid off her debt now! Her course was really eye opening and it also granted me access into the exclusive FB group for course members. I'm rubbing shoulders with some of the most successful online marketers, so that's pretty cool. Anyway, great course - I highly recommend it! Click here to learn more.
Health & Fitness
No one includes health and fitness in their income reports - but I decided to add it in. It's an important component to staying sane for anyone that works online all day. Actually, nix that. It's an important component to staying sane for ANYONE. It's honestly one of the main reasons that I've been as successful as I have been. So yeah, I'm sticking this section in my income reports and keeping it here!
This month I made it to the gym 16 times but exercised a total of 17 times. Not bad but I could do better. I also started a personal challenge to do 50 pushups a day. I did that for about 2 weeks and WOW I saw results immediately. I started the challenge by doing 20 real pushups and 30 knee pushups. The last 7 days of the challengeI was able to do all 50 pushups regularly (though I WAS SLOW).
Next month, I'll be traveling but I'm REALLY planning on staying in shape and working out regularly since I'll be competing in the CrossFit open in March!
Final Thoughts
January was a GOOD month. That's pretty much the gist of it. More good things to come! If you want "in" on the journey, submit your email below (you get a free 30 page ebook about my success story, so that's kinda cool). See ya next month!
You just read my January 2017 Income Report. Want to travel back in time and read December's?
