2016 is over! At this time year, I was feeling pretty low. I felt like I’d done a lot of work, and was spinning my wheels. At the end of this quarter, I feel newly energized, excited about where I’ll be going in 2017, and have lots of new goals set (which I’ll share later this week!)
This covers October, September, and October of 2016. As I’ve said previously, I really enjoy reading similar reports and figured sharing my own would entertain someone and also keep me accountable to keep track of these things. You can read my previous income reports all here. I am looking at average daily visits, income/expenses, subscriber & follower counts, traffic in/out, & goals. If you’re a creative blogger yourself, be sure to check out my list of links for affiliate programs, networking opportunities, and places to submit your work!
{This post contains affiliate links, indicated by an asterisk*. Please refer to ‘legal stuff’ in the top menu for more info.}
Average Daily Visit Count
October: 2,013
November: 2,120
December: 2,387
Subscribers
[October 2016 vs December 2016]
Instagram [1362 /1454]
Facebook [ 1378 /1494]
Twitter [ 741/757]
G+ [ 423/ 424 ]
Pinterest [6123 / 6668]
Newsletter (1785 June /1465 September/ 1796 December]
I wanted to give a little context to my newsletter subscriber numbers – I have cleaned out my mailing list several times since starting it over a year ago, essentially sending out a message to folks that haven’t opened in a few months and asking if they’d like to stay subscribed. If I didn’t hear back, I manually removed them, usually 200-300 people every few months. You can see, I did a cull in between June & September, getting back up to the same number then in December. This keeps my “open rate” hovering in between 40 & 45% and in theory, saves me money since Mailchimp is free up until 2,000 subscribers. With that being said, I recently had a company reach out and ask if I’d be interested in a sponsored newsletter blast – but they only cared about the total number (and didn’t ask for my open rate or click rate).
Mailchimp itself has recently come out and said they didn’t recommend “cleaning your list” because people might go back eventually (I myself am currently wading through what started as over 1000 newsletter/bloglovin emails built up, and reading things from months ago!), and market research showed it wasn’t the best (I unfortunately can’t find that article, if anyone else remembers what I’m talking about, holler out and I’ll add the link in!). Obviously, they are biased towards encouraging people to keep subscribers, since it earns them more money, but I feel a little conflicted!
Money
Income
This graph makes me nervous! My Mediavine (aka ads) earnings continue to climb as my traffic does, and they’ll be even higher next year (I earned my highest amount ever in December, almost $550, but it won’t actually pay out for a few months). I really don’t like how one category is almost half of my pie – and that that category isn’t something I directly sell. If I suddenly got kicked out of Mediavine, all that income would be gone! This is a problem. I am intentionally drawing back from freelance work, which I’ll explain more in my 2016 overall wrap up. I like where my sponsored post & affiliate portions are at – my pattern slice of the pie is depressing, especially given that I ran a large, rare Black Friday sale.
Want to see what my top item sold through Amazon affiliate links was? Take a peek here*, it’s surprising!
Expenses
Nothing noteworthy here, lots and lots of supplies. My Try Something New Every Month project has been costly – I bought new supplies for lots of new things to try. I also stocked up on some solid and low volume fabric around Black Friday sales, because the local selection is not good.
Total in: $1681.93 Total out: = –$681.82 Quarter Overall: $1000.11
Year to date=$4261.86 Life to date= $10638.12 (note, none of this takes taxes into account)
Traffic In/ Out
These sections have been incredibly consistent for the entire year. Once something gains traction on Pinterest, it really sinks in. I have had several popular posts this year, so I’m curious to see if they climb up the list in 2017.
Out
1. imaginegnats. People love my beanie hat post; lots of clicks over to her free pattern!
2. Delia Creates, with links from my free beanie hat post and free headband post.
3. A new one, Google Drive! I usually link my free pattern pieces here – and it combined all of them into one spot, but over 600 people downloaded the felt wineglass ornament pattern, I hope someone emails me the version that they made so I can see it!
4. Pinterest, my favorite. People have checked out this free hat & my refashion board most often.
5. Another new one in the top 5, this free baby pants sewing pattern.
In (Referrers)
1. Pinterest — most popular pins were a free pattern tested post, tips for thrifting, and a new one, the easiest way to transfer an embroidery pattern!
2. Facebook
3. Search engines
4. All Free Sewing – this quarter my purse organizer tutorial sent a ton of traffic
5. Sew Can She – she featured a few of my posts, most popular were the organizer from #4 above, and then the free wineglass ornament, and tips for saving money!
Top 5 posts
1. Free Knit Beanie Sewing Patterns Tested
2. 4 Free Baby Pants Patterns Tested
3. The Easiest Way To Transfer An Embroidery Pattern
5. 4 Free Headband Tutorials – Tested
Reflection
I can’t believe it is the end of the year! I am feeling really good about where the site is at – and I’m really excited about 2017. I’m in a much more enthusiastic place than I was at this time last year, and excited to share my annual year in review and my 2017 goals.
Most of my reflections are ending up being on the entire year, so I’ll save that for my 2016 overall post, later this week!
Did anything surprise you? Let me know if there is anything I’ve left out, you know I’m an open book.