It’s time for the monthly income report.

Each month “The Wife” crunches the numbers on our earnings while I, “The Husband”, puts together a recap of what happened in our online business. A dangerous combo!

As a reminder, this is why we do the income reports:

1. Accountability. These will allow us to finally keep track of our total online revenue – something that I’ve been horrible at but seeing improvement. You can go here for all of our previous blog income reports.
2. Progress. Now that we have it documented, we’ll be be able to chart our progress as our income increases. (thankfully it has)
3. Truth. To show people that you really can make money online and in a non-scammy way.
4. Transparency: We want others to see how we do it so that others can do it, too.

Remember: We started blogging in July of 2008 so it’s taken us A LOT of time to figure this blogging thing out. And truthfully, we still have a lot to learn. Don’t get the impression that you can start a blog today and turn a profit tomorrow. I promise you, it ain’t going to happen.

What went down in February

A blur.  That’s the only way I can wrap up what’s going on with all our online activities.  2013 continues to be a banner year and the skies the limit.

One common theme that I’m noticing with doing these income reports is that although this section is always  titled “What went down in <fill in previous month>”, I can never remember what happened that far back.    Going forward just know that I’ll be writing about what’s going on currently to keep it fresh.

The Podcast Is Coming Along

Starting a podcast is definitely a lot harder that it seems.  We have all the equipment setup correctly and we even did our first interview – yeah!   But we still need to create a podcast graphic, an intro/outro for the podcast, get approved through iTunes, and on, and on, and on……

Right now our plan is to get some good interviews in the queue so that when we do launch it, you’ll have plenty of selection to choose from.

Our first interview was with Emily Eddington (now Dihle) who is a YouTube Sensation. You can check her YouTube Channel Beauty Broadcast that has almost 400,000 subscribers.  (I’m sure by the time you read this she’ll have passed that mark).

Emily was able to quit her job as a morning news anchor to focus on her YouTube channel full-time.   How sweet is that?

We also recorded the interview, and we’ll be sharing that really soon.  Stay tuned!

Blissdom

We both recently returned from Dallas where Mandy was able to attend Blissdom for the second time.   This time, however, she was selected to be a community leader.

As a community leader, she was in charge of welcoming first time attendees and making them feel at home. It also allowed her to film this video where she does the robot.

Yes, the robot. See for yourself:

*****insert Mandy

Huge thanks to the hubby for sharing that amazing video of me doing the robot. Much appreciated. And I am glad that my terrible dance skills have at least given you all a decent laugh.

I just wanted to pop in to say that Blissdom was a great experience again this year. As most of you know I credit Blissdom with giving me the desire and inspiration I needed to see my blog as more than just an online journal. Last year when I left the conference I finally realized that my voice matters. That this lil ole blog I have is more than just a place to share pictures of my kids.

This year there was tons more inspiration as we heard from Jon Acuff again. He.Is.Amazing. Be sure to check out his latest book called “Punch Fear In The Face”! If you click on the link below it will help my husband and I possibly win a dinner with him and Dave Ramsey. I am determined to win! Ha!

I was honored to be chosen as a community leader this year and it gave me the chance to be pushed out of my comfort zone. I talk to more people this year than I can even count. I tried to go out of my way to introduce myself to others. It truly stretched me.

My biggest take away from this years conference was definitely the relationships that I created at the conference. It was beyond what any amazing session could have given me. To be surrounded by hundreds of women who “get you”. Who all speak the same weird-o blog language that you geek out over. And just the ability to be able to learn from other women who are all in a similar place as me. Well worth the money I paid to get there.

Here’s a look at the numbers for February….

Income Breakdown

Good Financial Cents

• Adsense: $2,043.32
• Adspeed: $636.40
• Commission Junction: $949.55
• Flex Offers:$2,179.05
• Direct Advertising: $810.30
• Media Net:  $513.79
• Click Bank: $92.29
• Consumer Track: $294.00

• Total: $7,518.70

Dollars and Roses

• GoDaddy: $16.17
• ShareASale (Thesis Theme): $114.84
• Blogging Your Passion: $92.50
• Lunar Pages: $415.00

• Total: $638.51

Other Niche Sites

• Adsense: $77.17
• Flex Offers: $865.55
• Direct Advertising: $800.00
• Media Net:  $42.41
• Main Niche Site Revenue:$4,308.61

• Total: $6,093.74

• BlogHer Ads: $514.08
• BlogHer Sponsored Posts: $0
• Direct Advertising: $140.00
• Adsense: $373.41
• Lijit Media: $45.47
• Content Ads: $91.93
• BlueHost: $810.00

• Total $1,974.89

• Equifax: $200.00

• Total: $200.00

Total Revenue for February: $16,424.84

Revenue Last Month: $17,762.79

• Difference: –1,336.95
• January 2012: $3,551.65
• Total for 2012: $115,289.16
  
• Running Total 2013: 34,187.63

What Happened in February

Two months in a of row of being down.  On no!   Haha…..  Just kidding.  No stressing here.

For my main blog, I saw a decrease of 20,000 visits from last month.  Some due to Google being Google.  Other to the fact that February was a short month.

The biggest hit for the month was for my CPM ad network (Adspeed).  They ran out of inventory February 7th – boo! – so I was left with Google Adsense and Media.net to fill the void.

It’s another testament to why it’s important to have multiple ad networks in the event this ever happens to you.

Even though we had a down month, we’re still almost $13,000 more that where we were last year this month.   That makes the down month not feel so down.  😉

Good Ad Networks

Another disappointing event in February was that one of our main affiliates pulled from Flex Offers and decided to go direct.   My ad rep never bothered to inform me of this.   After a few weeks we emailed him to inquire why we hadn’t any conversions in a while.

4 days went by with no response.   Second email….

3 days goes by with no response.  Now I’m fed up.

I asked a few of my blogging buddies (which I should have done in the beginning) what the deal was and learned they had gone private.  I immediately asked for introduction to their internal rep (and got it) and I’m now back and running.

I’m in the process of finding another network that I can run my affiliates through because of that experience.    I still haven’t received an explanation as to why – it’s been over a month!

If you get into an affiliate network, get on good terms with your ad rep.  They can be your biggest ally or your biggest foe.

What’s Next?

Another podcast is underway and our next monthly site review will be coming up soon.  Did you get chosen?  Only time will tell.

One BIG change is that after being with the premium theme Thesis for almost 5 years now (basically since I started blogging) we’re moving all our sites over to Genesis.  It’s bittersweet because I loved Thesis for so long, but their recent upgrade to Thesis 2.0 was a major letdown.

When I first bought Thesis I was able to do a lot of the customizations myself.  Remember, I am not a coder so that really impressed me.

Almost 5 years later, I’ve become decent with HTML to hack my way through the basics.  When I first took a look at the new Thesis 2.0, I was lost.  I have no desire to become a designer and that’s what I feel the latest upgrade forces you to be.  #notcool

There are a few other reasons why we’re switching, too; but that’s the gist of it. If you haven’t checked out Genesis yet, you should.

 

See you all soon…..

 

Thanks again for all your support!