Following our series about how to make money blogging, we have reviewed how to start a website, choosing a name, domain and hosting, how to make money depending on the hours you are willing to put in (you can also check my July income $4,042 here for both sites). I share my big blogging mistake, and how I got my Alexa below 100K in 8 weeks, my failed attempts at making money online I failed at making money online, then succeeded, with freelancing and starting my own website.
Welcome to the second blog income and stats recap of MMYW! While I hadn’t disclosed income from Reach Financial Independence so far, I will also add it here since the whole blogging thing is considered one endeavor. For example, my VA has been working on both sites for the past couple of months.
Expenses
MMYW
Virtual assistant and staff writing: $277. The VA works 20 hours per week. I wouldn’t have hired her just to take care of RFI but that is a welcome help with the extra work on MMYW, which is why all her salary goes to MMYW, and the staff writing is only on MMYW as well.
Total $277
RFI
$0.
EXPENSES TOTAL $277 (last month $511 as I bought domain and hosting for both sites)
Income
RFI
$2,539. This is a mix of Adsense, affiliate sales, and direct advertising, plus a little income I got from my ad referral network’s commissions. Contact me if you are interested in joining the ad network! August was much slower than July, I hope people are now back from holidays and ready to spend money haha!
MMYW
$0. Two month old, people! Still haven’t checked on Adsense how much revenue is generated here so I just put everything on RFI. That PageRank update seems to be taking forever so I don’t know if/when advertisers will start looking for other metrics to judge the site’s quality.
After Costs Total
$2,262. It was my slowest month in a long time, and a pretty big drop from July. But I am sure September will be much better.
10% of blogging income will go to sponsor young girls’ education in my village, my education fund now has $404 from July and $253 from August. Total: $657.
I have visited the students and teachers at school and offered the two scholarships for boarding school and trade school next year, the school year ends on November 30th so that is when the best two students will be announced, then I’ll check with them what they want to study. If I have money left over I will help middle school students buy uniforms and school supplies.
Blog stats for RFI
It was another great month for RFI, thanks to a Get Rich Slowly guest post and a few posts gone viral on Reddit. I also broke 40K in Alexa and had a 2 points jump in MozRank that is really weird but let’s hope it lasts.
July 1st | July 31st | |
PageRank | 3 | 3 |
MozRank | 5.4 | 7.23 |
Domain Authority | 48 | 46 |
Alexa Rank | 47984 | 32670 |
Twitter Followers | 3319 | 3715 |
RSS subscribers | 675 (RIP G reader) | 711 |
FB fans | 1481 | 1492 |
Pageviews | 54485 | 57293 |
Unique | 26977 | 29167 |
SEO traffic % | 48.50% | 52.20% |
Blog stats for MMYW
Because MMYW started one year after RFI, I will compare the stats I can find. Back in July 2012, I was blogging in a cave, waiting for the world to come and find me. I had a Twitter account I rarely used, read a ton of PF sites but seldom said hi or left a comment, and didn’t network a bit. It lasted until mid September 2012. So for the first two months, I am pretty sure MMYW will crush RFI’s stats.
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Sorry about the lack of information on RFI, I installed Analytics in September when the blog was 2 months old. Even in September, a 100 unique day was considered a good day. I installed MMYW’s Analytics on July 1st and it hasn’t had a day under 100 visitors! Pretty good considering there are only 3 new posts a week. I was posting 6-7 times on RFI!
The FB page launched later in July and hasn’t benefited from a SHAMELESS PLUG, PLEASE LIKE MMYW ON FB!! hehe.
I am very happy about being under 100K on Alexa too, you guys rock, thank you!
How did your blog grow in the past month? Happy with the results?
This post was featured on the Eyes on the Dollar, Freedom Thirty Five Blog, thank you!
GetRichWithMe says
Great set of stats, but a shame about the income.
I bet you’re pleased with the amount of search engine traffic you’re getting.
Proof that you’re writing quality articles
GetRichWithMe recently posted…My Frugal Ride
Pauline says
I am happy with the SE traffic indeed, and with the income too, after all, 6 months ago that would have been considered an awesome month, and when I started blogging I was thinking I’d make maybe $100 a month so several thousands is pretty awesome!
moneystepper says
Great stats for such a new site (especially search engine traffic) and well done on getting the Alexa rank down so quickly.
moneystepper recently posted…The price to slice – should we pay supermarkets to slice our produce?
Pauline says
I have no idea what the SEO traffic should be on a new site and can’t compare with my first one as I didn’t even have analytics installed back then!
Thomas | Your Daily Finance says
Doing great there Pauline! I here August was a slow month for a lot of people as well. I know I made zero income for YDF so we are tied at this point. I need to do my update post for the month as well. MMYW is coming a long smoothly. Keep pushing.
Thomas | Your Daily Finance recently posted…Do What Works For You Just Leave Me Alone
Pauline says
Thank you for the encouragement Thomas. MMYW could be a great place to get affiliate from brokerage firms as it has an investing series but I haven’t even applied yet! need to move with this one. Affiliate is what we have to push.
Thomas | Your Daily Finance says
Get on that one – don’t leave money on the table!
Pauline says
I know! So far procrastination is still winning 🙂
Pauline recently posted…How I made $1,000s thanks to my mum
Taynia | The Fiscal Flamingo says
Whoo hoo! Very nice on such a new site.
Question for you Pauline! Maybe you can answer it as part of your blog posting series. How much traffic did you have before you started seeing ad income roll in?
Taynia | The Fiscal Flamingo recently posted…Chiconomics 201: How To Be A Budgetnista When You’re Income Changes Every Month (Or How To Budget On A Variable Income)
Pauline says
I’d say about 5,000 unique, but you can get some advertising deals with even lower traffic if you choose
1. adsense with high paying keywords on a niche site
2. to boost your stats (building links mainly) and increase your PageRank and Domain Authority so you attract advertisers based on your metrics.
I just wrote a post about it http://eyesonthedollar.com/blogging-2/advertisers-for-your-blog/
Taynia says
Awesome! Muchos gracias.
Taynia recently posted…6 Ways To Make A Little Moolah (Without Sacrificing A Ton Of Time)
DC @ Young Adult Money says
I love all the stats, Pauline! I am actually spending this evening “reconciling” my PayPal account. I have very good records from late June to now, but before that I wasn’t logging everything in a spreadsheet like I currently do. I am excited to see exactly how much I’ve made on my site.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…The Weekly Quick Hits Roundup
Pauline says
I did that last month, it was tedious, taking hours. I don’t care so much about how much I made to the penny but want to make sure I don’t forget when it’s time to renew a deal.
Anne @ Unique Gifter says
Looks good! I had a record traffic month in August, too. Now all I need to do is get like four times that amount 😉
Nice work on growing MMYW so quickly!
Anne @ Unique Gifter recently posted…Halloween Costumes as Gifts
Pauline says
lol. As long as you keep growing it’s all good!
Matt Becker says
Just curious, I’ve seen a number of people guest post at GRS. Is that something you pursued or did they reach out to you?
Matt Becker recently posted…Is the Mortgage Interest Deduction For Real?
Pauline says
You can submit a guest post on the like on their sidebar, I wrote to them.
John S @ Frugal Rules says
Looks like another good month, especially traffic & SE wise! I had my best month so far when you add in affiliate income, which was pretty exciting to see happen. My traffic had a nice spike as well with my post at GRS and a couple of big mentions.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted…Frugal Friday: How Much of Your Time Does The Man Get?
Pauline says
Hope you won’t forget your friends when you get famous 🙂
Grayson @ Debt Roundup says
Great work Pauline. You are rolling your way to rockstar blogging status. Keep it up!
Grayson @ Debt Roundup recently posted…Sub-Prime Borrower Mortgage Options
Pauline says
haha still a long way to go but I am happy where I am.
Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle says
No growth for me over the summer but lots of ideas, many of them from you, for fall growth and getting some sort of advertisement on my site.
I would imagine that the $657 dollars in the girls’ education fund is a huge amount of money in Guatemala. The teachers and students must be very excited. You can change lives.
Jane Savers @ Solving The Money Puzzle recently posted…A Financial Non-update for September 2013
Pauline says
Yes, that is quite a bit of money. I am targeting $300 a month which would comfortably put two students on a scholarship, one to boarding school for high school and one to trade school for a short training plus bus fare, and maybe some little extra to buy uniforms and supplies for the new school year.
Michelle says
Both of your sites are doing great. I’m hoping for a really awesome September!
Michelle recently posted…What’s Stopping You From Living Your Dream?
Pauline says
same here!
Mark Ross says
Those are great stats Pauline. And I’m predicting MMYW will continue to rise. 🙂
Mark Ross recently posted…11 Ways On How To Get Out Of Debt
Pauline says
Thank you Mark, I hope so!
Eva says
I’m so happy for you Pauline. Especially considering how you support and encourage other bloggers – and give us practical help on how to improve! I’m also very impressed with your commitment to offering scholarships for the girls in your village. I would like to do something like that as well.
Eva recently posted…Real Estate Careers – Shopping With Sarah
Pauline says
Thank you Eva!
Shannon @ The Heavy Purse says
I love how you are using a portion of your earnings to support young girls in your community. My stats continue to trend upward, slower than I’d like but at least we’re heading in the right direction. I truly appreciate all this info you share as I’m such a novice in this area and need to spend more time on it.
Shannon @ The Heavy Purse recently posted…Blog Round-Up: Week of September 2, 2013
Pauline says
I am still learning too but happy to save other people some time when I have a haha moment.
Nick @ AYoungPro.com says
Great post (as usual) Pauline! It is awesome to see how fast this site is growing. August was the first month I have had a down tick in views since I started blogging. Hopefully I haven’t hit my high point already. 🙂
Nick @ AYoungPro.com recently posted…The Road to Retirement Infographic
Pauline says
It was probably people being on holiday and away from their laptops for once. I put a lot of effort to keep promoting the site but am pretty sure I would have dropped otherwise.
Kim@Eyesonthedollar says
I’m glad you didn’t have to blog in a cave this time, although that might be fun if it was hot outside. Have a great weekend!
Kim@Eyesonthedollar recently posted…Even Granny Has a Credit Card
Pauline says
Thanks Kim, you too!
Budget and the Beach says
It’s so weird how my mozrank increased but my domain authority decreased. What’s up with that? Ah the numbers..they still confuse me….it’s cool you post that so I can see how other people compare. It’s still a big learning curve.
Budget and the Beach recently posted…What’s Your Definition of Rich?
Pauline says
I don’t know what is going on with DA, apparently they changed the algorithm to both since MozRank is included in the calculation of DA. So if DA decreased they probably put less MozRank weight on the algorithm.
Tara @ Streets Ahead Living says
Great job Pauline! I love these stats you post as it really gives me an idea of what a successful blogger makes. I am so behind on Facebook so if you have any advice on how to successfully use a Facebook page, I’m all ears!
Tara @ Streets Ahead Living recently posted…When you realize you’ve had enough
Pauline says
Thanks Tara, I think I am slightly below average, really successful bloggers make 5 figures a month easily. And sorry I really suck at FB, participating in a few giveaways helped me improve my following but I only post my stuff thanks to my VA and am rarely there. You can learn from Mr CBB of canadian budget binder he has a great engaged readership on FB, but it is really time consuming.
Karla Twomey says
I appreciate your transparancy 🙂 You are an inspiration to keep going! Thanks
Karla Twomey recently posted…How to Pay off Credit Card Debt Fast!
eemusings says
My mozrank leaped too, two full points! Random.
eemusings recently posted…Why trains beat planes, according to me
Daisy @ Prairie Eco Thrifter says
Congrats on your success, Pauline! My sites have been growing quite well, with my new one making a lot of progress. I’m so happy! I’m sure sites will find a new way to judge site health.
Daisy @ Prairie Eco Thrifter recently posted…Getting People to Help Compost
Pauline says
I hope so, and hope they do it soon!
lyle @ the Joy of Simple says
Awesome Pauline and congrats 🙂
You are doing a great job with both blogs and your success is well earned!! The girls in your village are fortunate to have your help as well 🙂
Take care and keep on rockin’ your success!
All the best.
Lyle
lyle @ the Joy of Simple recently posted…10 Ways to Make Your 9 to 5 Work Day A Little Better Until You Find Your Way
Pauline says
thank you very much Lyle!
Jack says
Congrats on your ongoing success with both your websites!
I appreciate your sharing your accomplishments, and serving as an example of what’s possible.
Process question – is there a reason you compare Aug 1 to Aug 31 instead of just using month to month – Jul 2013 to Aug 2013?
Jack recently posted…The Minimalist Guide to Cashback Rebates (or Coupons Are For Suckers)
Pauline says
Oh no, it’s just me being messy haha it is supposed to be a month to month comparison, i guess the last time I did it on the first and this time on the last day of the month.
MMD @ My Money Design says
Nice work with this site! I think you just have to give it time before your ranks build up and people are willing to work with you on this new project. At the rate you’re going with networking and link building, it won’t be long before the stats on this website excel over my mine. Keep it up!
MMD @ My Money Design recently posted…How to Make Money with a Website and Why Most Personal Finance Sites Don’t
Pauline says
thanks! I hope there is a PR update soon though.
Eva @ Girl Counting Pennies says
Your stats are great and well done on extra income! Even for a “slow” month it’s very good!
Eva @ Girl Counting Pennies recently posted…Declutter and Move on a Budget
zakia says
I am totally confuesd how to get best rankig in seo activity. Can u post article about seo strategy.
zakia recently posted…REINFORCING RESEARCH
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