As I’ve been saying 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 want 25,000 unique visitors a month at BFS by August 2011 and need to be making $25,000 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 February 2011 followed by the results:
- Alexa Ranking: 38,000 / 33,689 (DANG SKIPPY!!!)
- Visits*: 4000 / 6931 (Whoo-hoo!)
- Unique Visitors: 1750 / 4539 (I’m giggling right now…)
- Pageviews: 5000 / 13,229 (WOW!!!)
- RSS subscribers: 300 / 307 (Another win!)
- Twitter followers: 300 / 343 (Woot!)
- Traffic breakdown: 2100 from Referring Sites (2725!!!), 1550 from Direct Traffic (1515, lol), 350 from Search Engines (2112, HAHAHA), 0 Other (580)
- Blogging Income: $1000 / $1082.30 (WHOO-HOO!!!)
Monthly Income Breakdown
- Advertising: $858.90
- Writing: $223.40
Blogging Expenses
I don’t usually disclose this until my annual updates but it was an expensive month and I wanted to whine a little…I spent $166.36 on search engine optimization (SEO) and will continue to pay $27 a month for a little while. I honestly think I will make all of this money back in less than 4 months in Adsense alone. We’ll see…
*Remember that I installed the Google Analytics code incorrectly a year ago. I only had it installed on my home page. Oops.Anyway, this means that my “Visitors”, “Unique Visitors”, “Pageviews”, and “Traffic” breakdowns were all wrong (lower than they really were) until this month. Hence my much bigger monthly goals from here on out. 
My goals for March:
- Alexa Ranking: 32,500
- Visits: 7500
- Unique Visitors: 5000
- Pageviews: 15000
- RSS subscribers: 350
- Twitter followers: 350
- Traffic breakdown: 3250 from Referring Sites, 1500 from Direct Traffic, 2750 from Search Engines, 500 from Other
- Blogging Income: $1000
Any questions, comments, or advice?
At this rate, no matter what I search for on Google I’m going to end up in BITFS!
Great going Crystal!
Wow, that’s excellent! Amazing what happens when analytics code is installed properly.
Let us know how Scribe works out for you.
Wow I’m glad that you not only met your goals but exceeded them in every metric that I saw. Congradulations on that accomplishment.
Great work crystal! With all of this progress, you’ll be at home blogging away in no time (or, 9 months
@Moneycone, I can only dream.
@JT, LOL, yep, it’s amazing how many readers I didn’t even know about…
@Ravi, thank you!
@Jeff, thanks! My current guesstimate is 12-18 months and that’s just because it’s going to hurt to take the benefits and salary hit, even if my take home pay is only $26,000 a year. I’m working the actual numbers out this week and will post my results soon (next week or the one after). I really want to know how soon I can stop commuting to work…
Great great job Crystal, your Alexa is amazing.
I was a little confused though. You state it is January statistics and you state the goals for February. Do you mean Feb stats and goals for March? Also, you need to increase your goals for unique visitors for the month!
@Everyday Tips, nice catches!!! That’s what happens when you’re half asleep and remember that you forgot to get your updates ready, lol. Thanks!
Congrats! Just out of curiosity – what are you doing in terms of SEO?
@Jenna, you’ve just inspired a whole post. Please take a look at Crystal Clear Thoughts (www.crystalclearthoughts.com) tomorrow to see my whole SEO rundown! I was going to reply here but it turned into a 2 page thing…
Awesome! The BFS machine rolls on…
Looking forward to your SEO post.
I noticed below that your net worth update got few comments but this blog stats post is getting much more attention. You’re on to something here, people like to know about these details – especially if they’re fellow bloggers
@Jenna and Squirrelers, my SEO post is live (I have no patience and just finished it) at http://www.crystalclearthoughts.com/seo-a-closer-look-at-search-engine-optimization/
@Squirrelers, yeah, my net worth updates have a steady following by 1 or 2 regulars and a few new ones every month but these blog stats and income updates have a much bigger following, lol. I think it’s great since I’d be running these numbers for myself every month anyway!
You mean February 2011?
Looking great!
@retireby40, dagnabbit…thanks for catching that.
That’s the last time I write this post in the middle of the night…note to self, cut and paste does not come with an auto update feature…
Those are good numbers Crystal. I always post my income results on my blog and am interested in reading more bloggers that do the same.
Those are some very impressive numbers. I admire anyone who has the ambition to even regularly update a blog, let alone work toward the goal of blogging full time!
I should start posting the income from my blog, too…$27 and counting! Wooo!
Amazing numbers! You’re a blogging energizer bunny…
That’s a great jump, Crystal. Way to go!!! Surely that amount of traffic will allow you the full time blogging opportunity in a short time. Keep us posted!
@Andy, your numbers look great for the amount of time you say you invest! I’m sorry you’re going to lose some affiliate income soon though.
@Justin, for the first two months, I made a total of 23 cents with Adsense and that was it. I think I’ve only been able to grow quickly because of all of the time I put into it. Thanks for the kind comments!
@101 Centavos, LOL. I don’t feel like the energizer bunny – I just feel like I’d be giving up my dreams if I ever stop.
@Finanzas, I’m shooting for blogging full time in the next 9-18 months. Woot!
@Crystal – Awesome! Thanks for sharing your SEO insights.
These are my favorite posts from you! I love seeing how you are progressing. It gives me hope that I will get there one day. This month I made 16.46 so that’s a start! I hope my blog can one day get to $1000 a month too. That would be amazing! You are a rockstar!
Awesome numbers! Congratulations and thanks for sharing. Can I ask what the ‘writing’ portion of your income involves?
Thats fantastic!! You are doing so good
@Fig, just rememeber that while you are giving me rockstar status, I drool over what The Financial Blogger makes, lol. Thank you for the support!
@Julie, writing is my staff writing and my freelance writing (posts for others).
@youngandthrifty, thank you so much!
I am following you in rss google reader. topgun34er(at)hotmail(dot)com
Haha. Maybe. But you are a rockstar to me!
I need to go read up on The Financial Blogger!
@Fig, The Financial Blogger posts a monthly blogging income update too and his most recent was more than $6000 for February I think…I realy hope I can be there in 2-3 years!!!
I just found your blog today and it is definitely inspiring to read about your goal and your progress towards full time blogging! Best of luck with it and I look forward to reading your blog regularly.
@Dave M, hi! Thanks for the good wishes and I do hope to see you around BFS even more now!!! Welcome!
You did it again!!!
[...] post from Squirrelers with 10 Tips to Reduce your Health care Expenses. Crystal also shares her blogging income updates for you voyeurs out there- last month she made $1000 on her blog! (and I thought I was doing good [...]