Wow, a lot can happen in a month!!!

As I was saying at Crystal Clear Thoughts and How I Make Money Blogging, I wanted to blog full time by 2012. To reach that goal, I thought I needed a bunch of traffic on all of my blogs. Specifically, I was aiming for 25,000 unique visitors a month at BFS by August 2011 and needed to be making $30,000 a year total by 2012.

Well, there was a change of plans. I literally got too busy with my online work to keep my day job, so I quit as of July 15th, 2011! And I can say with certainty that it was a great decision.  Self-employment is rocking so far!

I figured the best way to keep my eye on the prize is to hit monthly targets, so I started posting here. Between that and the fact there seems to be major interest in the subject, I started an update around the 1st of every month of my blogging stats and income generated. I’ll also do a huge 1 year update at the beginning of every January.

Here were my goals for August 2011 followed by the results:

• Alexa Ranking: 34,000 / 31,975  (Woot!)
• Visits: 12,000 / 12,703  (Heck yeah!)
• Unique Visitors: 8500 / 9304 (Whoo-hoo!)
• Pageviews: 18,000 / 22,210  (WOOT, WOOT!)
• RSS subscribers: 600 / 642  (Too cool!)
• Twitter followers: 700 / 745  (Go Twitter!)
• Traffic breakdown: 4200 from Referring Sites (3982), 2200 from Direct Traffic(2099), 4700 from Search Engines(5603), 900 from Other (1019)
• Blogging Income: $4000 / $6797.70  (HAPPY DANCE!!!)

Monthly Income Breakdown

• Advertising on My Blogs (90% from BFS): $2000.89
• Writing (Staff Writing and Freelance Posts): $737.77
• Blogging Services (Running advertising on other sites and freelance tasks): $3725.03

I had $334.01 of Paypal fees as well, but WOOT, WOOT!!!  If you’d like to see all of my blogging expenses, check out How I Make Money Blogging.  I have been keeping them at 15% or less of my overall take.

Seeing that I hit my self-employment goal much earlier than expected, I am now making goals to get my traffic up and my income stabilized. I do not think my current numbers are sustainable and I need to find out what my normal numbers will be. In the meantime, I am paying myself $3575 a month (a third of that goes to taxes…), so I better darn well keep bringing in at least that.

My goals for September:

• Alexa Ranking: 31,000
• Visits: 13,500
• Unique Visitors: 10,000
• Pageviews: 25,000
• RSS subscribers: 750
• Twitter followers: 850
• Traffic breakdown: 4500 from Referring Sites, 2500 from Direct Traffic, 5500 from Search Engines, 1000 from Other
• Blogging Income: $5000

Any questions, comments, or advice? As I mentioned, I go into more detail with my income and expenses on the 1st of the month at http://howimakemoneyblogging.com/, but feel free to ask anything you’d like at either site!!!

As I’ve said at Crystal Clear and How I Make Money Blogging, I want to blog full time by 2012. To reach that goal, I need a bunch of traffic on all of my blogs. Specifically, I’m aiming for 25,000 unique visitors a month at BFS by August 2011 and need to be making $30,000 a year total by 2012. I figured the best way to keep my eye on the prize is to hit monthly targets.

Between that and the fact there seems to be major interest in the subject, I started an update around the 1st of every month of my blogging stats and income generated. I’ll also do a huge 1 year update at the beginning of every January.

Here were my goals for June 2011 followed by the results:

• Alexa Ranking: 32,500 / 36,197  (creeping up)
• Visits: 11,000 / 9090  (not quite there yet)
• Unique Visitors: 8000 / 6458  (nope)
• Pageviews: 18,000 / 16,607  (double nope)
• RSS subscribers: 550 / 518  (triple nope)
• Twitter followers: 600 / 590  (woot!)
• Traffic breakdown: 4000 (2732) from Referring Sites, 2000 (1709) from Direct Traffic, 4500 (3788) from Search Engines, 500 (861) from Other
• Blogging Income: $2000 / $5186.78  (HOLY BEJEEZUS BATMAN!!!)

Monthly Income Breakdown

• Advertising: $2195.03
• Writing (Staff Writing and Freelance Posts): $635
• Blogging Services (Running advertising on other sites and freelance tasks): $2356.75

I pumped up my commenting in June on other sites, but the “myth” about lower traffic in summer months is dang true.  Oh well, I have you all, which makes me darn happy!!!  I’ll continue commenting on at least 5 other blogs every week day from here on out.

As I said in My Blogging Target Number, I will blog full time as soon as I can CONSISTENTLY bring in $2500 a month or more. My husband and I agreed that “consistently” meant at least 4 months in a row at no less than $2000 a month and an average of $2500.  I brought in about $3750 in March 2011, $2150 April 2011, $2050 (cut it close) in May 2011, and now $5185 in June 2011!!!  That is an average of $3283 a month!

Seeing that I hit my goal about 6 months before I thought I would, we have reviewed the situation.  My husband is fine with me quitting now, but I want at least $10,000 in my blogging income account to ensure that I could cover slow months.  I am at $6500 right now.  I also want to see if my freelance income is as sustainable as I think it is. 

So, as long as I make $3000 or more in July and again in August…I WILL BE QUITTING MY DAY JOB IN SEPTEMBER 2011!!!  If I can hit my $3000 targets, I will be self-employed by the time I go to the Financial Blogger Conference in Chicago!!!  WHOO-FREAKING-HOO!!!  You really should see the little dance I am doing right now – this here is fist pumping, butt-shaking, unadulterated happiness people!!!  I look like a crazy lady and I don’t care!!!

My goals for June:

• Alexa Ranking: 35,000
• Visits: 11,000
• Unique Visitors: 8000
• Pageviews: 18,000
• RSS subscribers: 550
• Twitter followers: 650
• Traffic breakdown: 4000 from Referring Sites, 2000 from Direct Traffic, 4500 from Search Engines, 500 from Other
• Blogging Income: $3000

Any questions, comments, or advice?  I will be going into more detail on a regular basis at http://howimakemoneyblogging.com/, but feel free to ask anything you’d like at either site!!!

As I’ve said at Crystal Clear, I want to blog full time by 2012. To reach that goal, I need a bunch of traffic on all of my blogs.  Specifically, I’m aiming for 25,000 unique visitors a month at BFS by August 2011 and need to be making $30,000 a year total by 2012.  I figured the best way to keep my eye on the prize is to hit monthly targets.

Between that and the fact there seems to be major interest in the subject, I started an update around the 1st of every month of my blogging stats and income generated. I’ll also do a huge 1 year update at the beginning of every January.

Here were my goals for April 2011 followed by the results:

• Alexa Ranking: 32,500 / 32,152  (Yay!)
• Visits: 9000 / 10,664  (WOOT!!!)
• Unique Visitors: 6000 / 7510  (FANTASTIC!!!)
• Pageviews: 17,500 / 18,621  (HECK YES!!!)
• RSS subscribers: 500 / 463  (I’m super happy!)
• Twitter followers: 500 / 492  (So close!)
• Traffic breakdown: 3750 from Referring Sites (3,112 I’m still happy!), 1750 from Direct Traffic (1,468 THANK YOU!), 3000 from Search Engines (5,014 WOOT!!!), 500 from Other (1070 COOL!)
• Blogging Income: $1500 / $2156.66  (SO HAPPY!!!)

Monthly Income Breakdown

• Advertising: $2006.66
• Writing (Staff Writing and Freelance Posts): $150

As I said in My Blogging Target Number, I will blog full time as soon as I can CONSISTENTLY bring in $2500 a month or more.  My husband and I agreed that “consistently” means at least 4 months in a row.  Last month I brought in about $3750 and this month I brought in about $2150.  So I still have a ways to go, but I am super happy with the progress!

My goals for May:

• Alexa Ranking: 31,500
• Visits: 10,000
• Unique Visitors: 7000
• Pageviews: 18,000
• RSS subscribers: 525
• Twitter followers: 525
• Traffic breakdown: 3750 from Referring Sites, 1750 from Direct Traffic, 4000 from Search Engines, 500 from Other
• Blogging Income: $1750

Any questions, comments, or advice?