Monthly Income Report – August and September 2013

You know what?  I thought people didn’t read these reports.  So, I thought if I skipped one for the month of August, no one would miss it!  Well, I was wrong.  Shortly after the 5th of September (I try to post these reports around the 5th of the month for the preceding month), I received an email from a reader and she said:

Subject line of the email:  Where’s Your August Income Report?

The body of her email said:  “Hey Carole!  You know I love your Monthly Income Report AND I see you still haven’t done August…what are you doing, playing?  Just kidding…”

So, after some thought, here’s what I wrote back:

“Well, I’m ‘delaying’ it for a while.  We didn’t ‘make’ any money the month of August!!!  Our Amazon affiliate purchases have dried up (no one clicked through from our site into Amazon and made a purchase) and we don’t have the traffic numbers {yet} to get money from Google AdSense (you have to accrue a minimum of $100 in advertising revenue before Google AdSense will release a payment and we haven’t even gotten that, although we have displayed ads since October of last year!).

We got a $50 gift certificate from a sponsor for writing a post and that was it!  So, tanking from $500+ down to $50 was disheartening and I didn’t want to do a ‘negative’ post.  We need to sign up for more ‘sponsored post’ opportunities to generate revenue and neither one of us have had time.”

So, after two months of virtually no revenue (except for the $50 gift certificate), I’ve decided to quit whining!  Life is full of ups and downs, highs and lows, feast and famine and readers interested in how a blog makes money need to know that it isn’t always roses and sunshine!  And, we are still not operating in the black.  Our expenses remain constant; sometime in the future I’ll discuss expenses, but for now, it is all about ways to generate revenue!

To recap:

• In the month of August, this blog made and was paid $50 in a gift certificate (instead of cash) for writing a sponsored post.
• In the month of September, this blog was paid nothing, but we made $1.96 from Amazon affiliate sales.  But, we won’t be paid for these sales until our account reaches a $10 minimum, so I won’t be “reporting” this income until it hits our bank account!

Also, with these monthly reports, I take the opportunity to learn more about Google Analytics and how to use all of Google’s amazing tools to track our progress.  So, for the months of August and September, here are the numbers:

Google Analytics Overview

I put both months into one picture above (thanks, PicMonkey!) for easy analysis.  Comparing September to August, we are down in all areas:

• Down 1,384 in Visits
• Down 965 in Unique Visitors
• Down 1,898 in Pageviews
• Down 1:18 minutes in Average Visit Duration

September is the first month that we have not seen a “gain” in readership.  So, what’s up with that?  Well, I’d like to blame it on the time our site was down (our site was down for almost an entire day because our site’s host had server issues!), but even on that day, we had over 100 visits!  So, after wracking my brain for a reason, I’ve decided it’s because I haven’t been as active on Pinterest of late.

Traffic Sources

Pinterest remains the number one source of traffic to our blog, as you can see from the two reports above (August on top; September on the bottom).  In August, 4,325 visits (Pinterest line #1 plus Mobile Pinterest line #7) of the 9,022 total visits arrived on our site via Pinterest.  That equates to 48% of our traffic.

In September, 3,279 visits of the 7,638 total visits arrived via Pinterest.  That equates to 43% of our traffic.  In both months, Pinterest traffic outperformed both direct visits to our site (in other words, the reader either searching directly for Toot Sweet 4 Two or typing in our URL directly in their browser) and Google organic.  By the way, Google organic numbers are the numbers where readers have typed key words into the search bar, such as “pink boots”, and have been directed to our site.  The same is true of Bing organic and Yahoo organic.

A big “shout out” to Tana Nelson at Your Marketing BFF for directing traffic to our site in both August and September.  She’s our blog’s designer and she’s a marketing specialist (or is that genius?).  She wrote a post on her site called Blogging Alliance Tips and used us in her post.  Her post has driven over 200 visits to our site since she wrote the article in July!  Thanks, Tana!

BTW:  she writes wonderful posts with awesome photography!  Check her out!  Here are links to a few of her recent ones:

• {Interview} Leah Wilson of Tutu-a-Gogo
• How to Create Your Branding Words
• Trade Show Inspiration:  Think Outside the Box

Also, we are starting to see some traffic from All Free Casserole Recipes.  They contacted us a couple of months ago and asked if they could add our casserole recipes to their site {yes!}.  You can read the story behind these numbers by visiting my post:  All Free Casserole Recipes.

Social Network Numbers

The report above is for the month of September only and is eye-opening to me!  Believe it or not, I’m not a big Facebook person.  I have a Facebook account and Toot Sweet 4 Two is one of the “pages” on that Facebook account.  But, since having a Facebook account for the last 4 years, I have not regularly engaged in social networking through this avenue.

I don’t really know why; I think I feel that I have nothing relevant to share on Facebook.  I don’t have children and until I started blogging, I didn’t really have hobbies.   I used to have a lot of hobbies:  scrapbooking, sewing, crocheting, gardening, painting.  I’ve never been able to re-engage in my old hobbies since the fire in 2007 , where I lost everything to do with every hobby that I had; I guess my form of PTSD.  Anyway, whatever the reason, I am not active on Facebook.

To Facebook readers reading this post, you may “differ” with me on the above statement because I post something on Facebook every day.  But, it isn’t me.  It’s an automatic thing that happens when a post goes live on the blog.  We have linked with a service called NetworkedBlogs that sends our post out over the social networking sites automatically.  In addition to that, my partner and niece, Tiffany, is active on Facebook, so some of the Facebook engagement on Toot Sweet 4 Two’s page is via Tiffany.

In four years time, I’ve only posted a handful of personal posts myself, the most recent at the end of August when my mother was hospitalized for a bad fall.  She fractured her left wrist (the hand she eats and writes with), gouged her head and right knee, requiring glue above her eye to seal the wound, staples in her head and nine stitches in her knee!  The doctor said she had the “trifecta” of ways to close wounds!  Anyway, that evening, I posted a comment something like:  “what does a grown woman want to eat when her elderly mother is in the hospital?  Mac & Cheese and Starbucks!” and posted a photo of my hospital cafeteria Mac & Cheese and my hospital cafeteria Starbucks drink.

I was so proud of myself!  First, that I had engaged on Facebook and secondly, because I’d done it from my phone!  It was the first time EVER that I’d done something like that from a mobile device!  I know – I’m such a dinosaur {grin}!  I’d share a photo of that post right here in the blog, but I can’t find it on my Facebook timeline!  So, obviously, I did something wrong!

Back to the Google Analytics Report above:  if you can “read between the lines” on the Facebook entry #2 in the photo above, you will conclude as I have concluded that I need to rethink my Facebook engagement!  Only 29 people visited our site directly from Facebook in September, but of those 29 people, they read 79 pages and more importantly, they stayed on our site for an average of 38 minutes and 38 seconds!!!  That’s an “average” people!  They stayed an “average” of 38 minutes!  I am blown away by this number.  Our Facebook friends like us!  They really, really, really like us!!!  So, thank you Facebook friends.

Note:  I have bought a “Facebook for Dummies” book and am in the process of reading it.  Hopefully, I’ll be more active in Facebook soon!

Back to Pinterest…

Google’s Analytics is really an awesome tool and it’s free.  It is unbelievable the kind of reports you can generate from this tool and I’m just scratching the surface and have yet to fully utilize and optimize this tool for our site.  The photo above was generated by searching for information about our top posts.  BTW – this is September only.  The purpose of searching for your top posts is to analyze what readers are reading and what interest them so that you can tailor your future posts to drive more traffic to your site.

As you can see from the photo above, the top 15 posts are all recipe posts, so recipes are driving the most traffic to our site, but we are not truly a recipe blog!!!  We post recipes twice a week and sometimes, depending on circumstances, only post recipes once a week.  But recipes continue to drive the most traffic to our site!

The above photo illustrates the current top 9 recipe posts to our site.  I organized it by 9 and not 10 because PicMonkey choices for 10 weren’t what I wanted to use!  The top recipe post from Pinterest is my Coffee Banana Protein Smoothie (the one in the middle of the above photo collage).  It has generated over 1,000 pins!!!  It could be at 1,999 pins, but I won’t know until it hits 2,000 pins!

The second one is my Creamy Mashed Potatoes recipe with 819 pins, followed by Tiffany’s Peach Pineapple Dump Cake at 799.  BTW – Tiffany’s Peach Pineapple Dump Cake continues to drive traffic, organically, to our site through search engines.  People put “Peach Pineapple Dump Cake” in their search bar and land on our site!  Touché, Tiffany!

Interested it getting these recipes off of our site?  Here are links in order from highest number of pins:

1. Coffee Banana Protein Smoothie – over 1,000 pins!
2. Creamy Mashed Potatoes – 819 pins
3. Peach Pineapple Dump Cake – 799 pins
4. Crunchy Tuna Salad – 714 pins
5. Mexican Caesar Salad Dressing – 634 pins
6. Lite Cheesy Jalapeno Popper Dip – 623 pins
7. Charlie’s Layered Mexican Casserole – 555 pins
8. Fresh Strawberry Pie – 450 pins
9. Grilled Balsamic Chicken Breast Tenders – 383 pins

This photo above and the photo below are self-explanatory.  Here are links to the recipes featured above:

1. Grilled London Broil – 274 pins
2. Avocado Nut Sandwich – 197 pins
3. 7 Great End of Summer Recipes for Your Labor Day Celebration – 192 pins
4. Easy Appetizer Party for a Crowd – 177 pins
5. Grilled Balsamic Chicken Salad – 132 pins
6. Easy Homemade Salsa – 118 pins
7. Caprese Salad Rollups – 117 pins
8. Mexican Corn Salad – 104 pins
9. Creamy Petite Pea Salad with Bacon and Cashews in Tomato Cups – 104 pins

And, here are links to the Honorable Mentions above:

1. Loaded Avocado Ranch Salad – 97 pins
2. Kale Chips with Roasted Garlic and Sea Salt – 92 pins
3. Banana Cream Cutie Pies – 87 pins
4. Spinach Tortillas – 85 pins
5. Broccoli, Ham and Cheese Quesadilla – 84 pins
6. Patti’s Button Cupcakes – 82 pins
7. Pancetta, Potato and Broccoli Frittata – 80 pins
8. Strawberry Protein Smoothie – 80 pins
9. Easy Cream of Mushroom Pork Chops – 77 pins

Other Pinterest Pins:

Since this blog isn’t strictly a food blog, I’m sharing other posts that have generated Pinterest interest via pinning:

Pinning doesn’t mean the pinner has read the post, just that they liked the photo and pinned it to one of their boards.  But, they could have linked back and read these posts {grin}!  Here are links to these:

1. Signs of Spring – 51 pins
2. Princess Palooza – 44 pins
3. 6 Balloons – 31 pins
4. How Do Fairies Get Their Wings? – 19 pins
5. Creative Fairy Gardens – 30 pins
6. Sweet Baby James – 12 pins

And, here are crafts posts that have generated Pinterest interest:

1. Toot Sweet 4 Two Turns One:  Blog-o-versary Party Recap – 131 pins
2. How to Make Paper Napkins Special – 98 pins
3. Easy and Creative Tabletop Signs for Your Next Party – 76
4. Easy Party Favors Featuring You! – 59 pins
5. Tea Light Tutorial:  Adding Edible Sprinkles for a Bit of Sparkle – 35 pins
6. Ideas for Reusing Old Picture Frames – 24 pins
7. Cute and Easy Party Name Tags – 24 pins

And, even our motivational quotes see Pinterest activity:

1. Earth Laughs – 34 pins
2. Life So Sweet – 34 pins
3. Braver, Stronger, Smarter – 26 pins
4. Good Friends – 23 pins
5. Life Waiting – 15 pins
6. Be Kind – 10 pins
7. Be Yourself – 10 pins
8. Celebrate Life – 9 pins
9. A New Pair of Shoes – 8 pins

The pins below are of special significance to me:

I’m “into” emergency planning and preparedness.  As I write this post, we are having a Santa Ana wind condition.  This always makes me nervous.  Our valley is hot (91 degrees), very dry and full of brush.  Santa Ana winds bring the perfect conditions for a fire.  So, part of the focus of this blog is to give readers tools they can use for their own emergency planning and preparedness.  My lists of 42 household items are meant to be an inventory so that if ever needed (because of an insurance claim from a loss – loss by fire, flood, tornado, etc.), these lists will help victims create their own lists for submission to their insurance company.  It took me 9 months to do my own personal property list for my insurance company.   Hopefully, these lists will make a very stressful situation a little less stressful for others.

Here are links to the posts featured above (but, I’ve created 11 total so far, so there are more lists):

• 42 Baking Essentials – 42 pins
• 42 Must Have Kitchen Utensils – 37 pins
• 42 Kitchen Basics for Your New Home – 15 pins
• 42 Grilling Accessories and Supplies for Outdoor Cooking – 11 pins
• 42 Cooking Essentials for a Well-stocked Kitchen – 10 pins
• 42 Freezer Essentials – 6 pins

Special Acknowledgement

I’m particularly proud of this post that has been pinned 109 times:

Because… this is the first time we have featured a post written by a reader!  Now, the reader happens to be my sister, Dawn, an elemental school principal, but that counts too!  It was purely her idea and totally unsolicited by me!  She likes our “lists of 42” and thought this would be a great addition.  I couldn’t agree more!  Thanks, Dawn!  Here’s a link to her post:  42 Ways to Help Your Child at School.

Before we move on to another part of Google Analytics, I want to end this section about Pinterest interest with a pin that is near and dear to me:

This is my gorgeous cat, Coco.  And here is a better picture of the pin above (feel free to Pin!).

I took this beautiful picture of Coco (he was perched on top of a dining room chair) with my iPhone and used it for a post called And the Winner is…

Anyway, the 3 Pinterest pins are probably all me pinning him to different Pinterest boards!  I want to make him famous on the internet {grin} because he is so beautiful.  But, he doesn’t do anything special or funny.  He’s kinda lazy.  But he’s sooooo gorgeous!  So, stayed tuned for more posts about Coco in the future because I want to make him famous!  Here are links to stories that include Coco:

• 3 Cheap and Easy Ideas for Better Food Photography
• 42 Cooking Essentials for a Well-stocked Kitchen
• A Boy Named Coco
• And the Winner is…
• Attack of the Amazon Elves
• Bird Bath
• Easy Shamrocks and Leprechaun Centerpiece
• Emergency Planning Checklist
• Herding Cats
• Making a Grocery List Clipboard with My Personal Assistant
• Orange Crush
• Sweet Baby James
• The Backup Plan
• The Blind Leading the Blind
• The Squish Factor

I know, I know…he’s in a lot of posts already!  But, he’s my baby!  Anyway, moving on…

Trackbacks

The collage above is about Trackbacks…

Trackbacks are acknowledgements that other websites have linked to your website.  I really haven’t spent too much time on following up on our trackbacks through Google Analytics, but I did on the three above.  The first one is a site called Fereckles.  They appear to be primarily a beauty blog.  Try as I may to locate where we are mentioned on their site, I could not find the actual post!!!  So, I gave up!  But, a shout out to Fereckles:  thanks for linking to us!

The one on the bottom left called bmvnews appears to be some kind of a content aggregator.  They don’t have an “about” page, so I really don’t know much about them except that they included our Happy Labor Day 2013 post on their site.  A shout out to bmvnews:  thanks for linking to us!  Unfortunately, for some reason I’m not able to provide a link to their site.

The one on the bottom right is called Height Dining.  They, too, don’t have an “about” page, but appear to be a recipe aggregator.  They linked to my Fresh Strawberry Pie post.  A shout out to Height Dining:  thanks for linking to us!

Thanks for sticking with me in reading this exceedingly long post!  I didn’t make it shorter because Pat Flynn over at Smart Passive Income writes very long, detailed posts and people read them!  He’s wildly successful and has multiple websites generating lots of income!  So, I know that people do, sometimes, read long posts!  Even in our toot sweet lives…

Tootles,

Related Posts:

(they are all listed above embedded in this post!  Check them out!!)