Blog Update January – February 2014
This month I maintained the progress I made last month in terms of traffic, but the visitors were buoyed by the three posts I shared on my personal FB page. Apparently people in my life are very interested in effective frugal measures!
FinCon14 early bird tickets went on sale this month and I BOUGHT MINE! (The financial details will be in next month’s report because I did it after February 15.) I’m committed to paying for this conference out of blog earnings in 2014 but we definitely haven’t made enough money yet to cover it, so I need to either step up my affiliate sales efforts or find another route by which to earn the money. Any ladies want to split a room? Let me know! (Is it weird that I’m open to splitting the room by 3-4 and not just 2?? It’s kind of expensive yet I want the experience of staying at the conference hotel.)
Analytics Data from February 15, 2014
People who listen to us, as of February 15, 2014:
RSS subscribers: 152 (too many fluctuations to bother recording change)
Twitter followers: 766 (+28)
Facebook fans: 53 (+3)
Rankings:
Alexa: 82,568 (+4,617)
Google PR: 3 (no change)
MozRank: 5.06 (+0.01)
Some Google Analytics statistics:
I shared a few articles on my personal Facebook page this month, so that inflated my pageviews a bit. Overall they were quite similar to last month.
Popular Posts
This month, three of our top five most viewed posts are from this past month, which is pretty unusual! My post on reproduction got a lot of views and comments, as posts on that subject tend to do.
Most viewed posts:
1) Our Best (Pain-Free) Money-Saving Moves
2) Earned Income: The Bane of the Graduate Student’s Roth IRA
3) What Do You Consider a Good Salary?
4) Tax Lies Told to Graduate Students
5) What Would You Do If Money Were No Object?
Most Commented Posts:
Do You Support More Openness About Finances?
Our Best (Pain-Free) Money-Saving Moves
What Would You Do If Money Were No Object?
What Happened to the Term ‘Independently Wealthy?’
Internships and Other ‘Experiences’
Blog Balance Sheet
We’re well on our way to paying for my ticket to FinCon14 with progress this month!
Income
We had a nice month in terms of income from sales made in January on both the Barclaycard World Arrival MasterCard and Republic Wireless.
Adsense: $0
affiliate income: $435
Expenses
Kyle wanted to try out some alternate hosting services, so we switched to paying Dreamhost monthly. This is (allegedly) a temporary situation while he tries out the Google app engine.
hosting: $8.65
Search Terms from Real People
“film editing side hustle” – You are looking for Budget and the Beach!
“how much money i need to give for a black tie wedding?” – The same as you would give for any other type of wedding. When are people going to learn that you do not need to pay for your plate!?
“md phd-buy or rent home?” – If you can, buy. You’ll be locked into the area for quite a while.
“how do i determine what to charge a person who is renting a room from me” – Whatever the market will bear. Or, use my formula for splitting rent among roommates! (But you have to use market rent for your house, not your mortgage payment.)
How do you promote your blog posts and what gives you the best traffic? Have you bought your FinCon14 ticket yet?
Filed under: blogging, month in review · Tags: affiliate income, FinCon14
Blog Statistics Update December 2013 – January 2014
Blog Statistics Update January – February 2013
Blog Statistics Update February – March 2013
Blog Statistics Update December 2012 – January 20138 Responses to "Blog Update January – February 2014"
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Hi Emily,
Its great to read your statistics as it gives us all a good benchmark as to where we are.
moneystepper’s stats are currently fairly similar to EPF. Our unique page views are actually higher, but pageviews and average visit duration is less. I guess I need to spend more time on linking content to keep people on the site for longer.
Regarding the “real life searches”, that is always my favorite bit of your updates! A black tie wedding? Better give double!! 🙂
moneystepper recently posted..Work out your Moneystepper Personal Finance Score (MPF) today
I don’t really know what promotion strategies result in more or less pageviews and time. You probably have higher search engine traffic than we do, something I’d like more of!
Nah, same as ever. Our gift is based on what we are able to give, and we don’t have deeper pockets for fancier weddings.
Oh so interesting – I think I tell you this every time I read stats!
I just started tracking my MozRank, and I have a ways to go, but I am not doing as horrendously as I thought I was… looks like I was on the right track unknowingly.
Over $400 in affiliate income is awesome! I would love to have that to throw at my debt 🙂
Alicia recently posted..Yakezie Challenge – Three Months Later.
$400 is definitely a high month so I’m happy with it but it hasn’t been sustained.
I wish I could use the money (even last year’s) but we are keeping it segregated for the moment until all blog expenses (like the conference) and taxes are paid. In addition to our normal percentage-based budgeting bites out of that income (income tax, giving, Roth IRAs), we have to pay self-employment tax as well. 🙁
I don’t think we’ll be able to make FinCon (again) but have a great time! I’m sure someone will be happy to share the cost (and savings) of a room with you.
Done by Forty recently posted..BLS Consumer Statistics: What Do They Tell Us?
That’s too bad! Are you uninterested or do you have a conflict or is it the cost…?
I’ve seen other bloggers make similar pleas so there should be opportunities for sharing a room.
Well, our vacation days, as usual, are already all spoken for. We just got back from Hawaii, and we’re planning another trip for the summer, my annual Appalachian Trail hike, then visiting relatives for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The PTO just runs out too quickly. If something changes though, maybe we’ll find our way to N’awlins.
Done by Forty recently posted..BLS Consumer Statistics: What Do They Tell Us?
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