Monthly Blogging Income Report: February 2020

2019 is gone!.

Welcome, 2020. I remember when I wrote this income report back in 2019. Feels like yesterday.

Here’s another monthly blogging income report of BforBloggers, where I’ll share a bit about what happened in 2019 and how the blog did in January 2020.

This is a detailed report which shows how BforBloggers has grown over last year, and what progress I made in February 2020. It includes blog traffic and revenue stats and a few more updates.

• You can read the latest blog income report here.

Now, let’s talk about BforBloggers’ numbers.

Traffic

The analytics report lacks the data before February

That’s because I moved BforBloggers from HTTP to HTTPS, and I had to create a new analytics profile.

So, a total of 85,077 people visited BforBloggers resulting in generating 97,415 sessions and 138,188 page views. The bounce rate was 74.74%, and the average session duration increased to 01:19.

Income

I crossed $10,000 mark in December 2019, but it included the annual bonuses, so the real cross came this February 2020, when I crossed it with sales in a single month.

Here’s a break down of my income:

1. Convertkit: $168 (recurring)
2. Hosting: $827 (Siteground: 450, WPX: 140, Cloudways: 62, Hostgator: 175)
3. ProwritingAid: $120
4. Crowdfire: $40
5. Interact: $126.01 (recurring)
6. GetResponse $74.12 (recurring)
7. Podcast affiliates: $1429.27
8. CleanTalk: $81.53
9. Affiliate earnings: $7900 (Approx.) including vetted partnerships

Total income: $10,600.

I’ll focus on optimizing for conversions more this year. For instance, by increasing my sales for Siteground by simply 5, I can make $100-$125 per referral.

I haven’t been paid by a few affiliate programs such as Astra, GeneratePress and Advanced Ads, and a few others. I requested them to increase my payout threshold to at least $200 to save on PayPal fees per transaction. I’ve also increased the same in Impact Radius as it has a $20 fixed fee for every payout processed.

Expenses

• BforBloggers Team: $2100 (in 2019)
• Developers: $800 (up until 3rd quarter of 2020)
• ConvertKit: $990
• WPX: $249
• Canva Pro:$119
• Gsuite: $12/month
• Grammarly premium: $139.95
• Subscribers: $29/month

Total expenses: $4530.95  (approx $800 in January and February 2020)

I recruited a few talents, including Nik and Mohit, who write blog posts when I’m busy with other stuff. Check this page if you would like to write for BforBloggers too.

I started using a bunch of tools and services as I progressed through months, here a few of the important ones:

1. WPX Hosting
2. Missinglettr
3. Unbounce
4. OptinMonster
5. Convertkit
6. Canva pro + Stencil
7. Link Whisper
8. Jetpack backup
9. Yoast premium
10. Genesis Framework + Custom theme
11. WP Rocket
12. Gsuite
13. Gravity Forms

Do note, I don’t have to pay for tools like Link Whisper, OptinMonster, Missinglettr, SocialSnap, and Unbounce. You can, too, ask a brand to let you use the tool for review purposes, and once you deliver sufficient sales for them, they’ll sponsor you completely. You don’t have to pay for tools you don’t need.

Always try to find ways to save money where you can.

I started using GetResponse in mid-July 2019 and then migrated to Aweber in September. I sincerely regret that decision. Aweber is nothing like GetResponse, and I immediately understood that. But due to the fact that I paid for three months in advance, I kept using Aweber till December.

That gave me a little bit of time to get my hands on other email marketing services like ConvertKit. Upon using ConvertKit for a short period of 5 days, I perceived this software as simply flawless. It has everything that I kept looking for in other email marketing services.

It took me close to 15 minutes to set up my sequences in place along with all the tags and segments for the main landing page optin form.

As I’ve already paid for 2020’s first quarter, I’ll migrate the complete list to ConvertKit once my Aweber plan expires.

I’ve paid for ConvertKit in advance, just like I’ll do for WPX and Canva Pro in March. These are the tools I feel are perfect for me at this time.

My hosting costs have increased by $150 this year since BforBloggers, it’s staging clone site along with 2 other sites exceeded the initial plan’s 10 GB space threshold. They’ve let me continue using the same plan until my next billing cycle, which is in March.

In terms of Smart Podcast Player (Now Fusebox) affiliate, my rank increased to top 3:

If you remember, I shared my affiliate rank was 5 in the last report. Note that I’ve been their affiliate since 2018, even before they officially published about it. Since it is a recurring service, each referral adds up in the total for next month.

I also crossed $50k in annuals sales:

Which also got me interviewed on their blog.

I’m currently trying Subscribers Push Notification, and it seems pretty modern and more feature-rich compared to PushEngage.

I’ve set up a welcome campaign, and it has an average click-through rate is 81.3%. So far, 1,516 people have subscribed to BforBloggers push notifications in the last 3 months.

I also upgraded my workspace to a more ergonomic setup adding:

• A dell ultrasharp 4k 27″
• A MacBook Pro 13″ (with Mac Keys and Trackpad)
• A GreenSoul Pro chair

It is pretty clean and organized. Nothing to distract and break my flow.

*Check the new setup on the about page.

I keep an action figure in front of my eyes as it gives me the inspiration to work in the right direction with dedication and discipline. I’ll leave it to you guys to guess who it is.

That’s all for today. I hope 2019 went fantastic for you as well, and I would love to hear from you.

You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram for updates.

Let me know how your blog is performing and what you wish to emphasize more to grow this year.

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