My First Income Report {Sept.-Dec. 2016}

I have owned this blog since October 2015.  It’s kind of crazy that it’s already been over a year.  Wow… But the thing is, I didn’t really start blogging until September of 2016.  See, I had a baby in September of 2015, and I started thinking about ways to stay home with my baby – my third child.  We had always wanted to homeschool our kiddos, although we don’t currently, so I needed an option to earn an income from home.  After a lot of online research, blogging seemed to be a perfect fit for my family’s needs. Fast forward to today.  It has been four months since I started the process of monetizing this blog, and boy are there a million things to know AND do.  Anyone who does this full-time or even part-time, knows the time commitment.  However, I’ve read that if I’m passionate about making it work and willing to put the time in, I have hope that it will pay out in the long run. UPDATE: Read how I did in my fifth month of blogging here. Now, in this post, I’m not going to explain HOW I started this blog, but I hope to post that very soon.  So check back! Instead, I’m going to walk you through the first four months of this new venture for me!  You may be wondering why I would even feel the need to share this information with you.  Well, it’s quite simple.  It’s because other very generous bloggers have shared theirs with me (and the world).  I LOVE reading how others are doing and WHAT they are doing.  It’s great reading about people that are making $10K or more each month, but I think most bloggers make much less than that.  In an effort to keep things real, I’m going to show you my true numbers!

Let’s start by talking about my online presence and my social media following…

Here are my Momma Wren social media accounts and the followers I had as of Jan. 1, 2017:

• Facebook: 735
• Twitter: 23
• Instagram: 146
• Pinterest: 1,103

I didn’t actually check these numbers at the beginning of September last year (oops), but I’m learning that keeping track of these kinds of things is important.  These numbers tell me that I have a LONG way to go, but they also encourage me to up my game! *wink*  In case you are wondering, I’ll also briefly explain how much work I do on social media.  OH, and please please please go and follow me so my numbers can grow and I can come back next month with better stats!

• Facebook:  My Momma Wren FB page used to be a different name, so I already had 700+ followers.  I had neglected this page for quite some time, but now I try to post something at least once or twice a week.
• Twitter:  I’m so very terrible at Twitter, and never really got into it.  However, I’ve had my account for a few years now, so I downloaded the app and now I can send out a tweet in about 30 seconds. 🙂  Become my follower, Momma Wren @jenny_minard and show some love. 😉
• Instagram:  I’m an insta-junkie!  I love IG!  I’m a photographer, so naturally, I’m going to love any social media outlet that focuses on images.  With the app, it’s so easy to take a snapshot, do a quick edit, add a short caption and then post it.  My account was mostly personal up until this month, so now I link to this blog.  But I still post a lot of personal stuff.  Search for “momma_wren” and follow me today! <3
• Pinterest:  Don’t even get me started… I’m not sure what I did with all my free time before Pinterest – hehe!  Right now, I have thousands of pins and numerous boards.  Here is my profile page!  I get on every single day and pin, so I’m definitely not falling behind on this one, and I post to probably 5-10 boards every day!

Page Views

Like I said before, there are a million things to know and do when it comes to blogging, and four serious months in, I’ve already made tons of mistakes.  One was not setting up my blog to be able to view page views.  Page views are important because it tells you how many times certain posts or pages are being seen per day. Momma Wren is a WordPress blog, and the neat thing about it is that it comes with a program called Jetpack.  Actually, Jetpack is a plugin that you have to activate before being able to see the results.  It works to connect your blog to WordPress’s amazing infrastructure so that you can see detailed stats.  I had no idea that in order to see my blog’s analytics, I needed to install and run this plugin – no clue at all.  I’m kicking myself now!  With Jetpack powered up, I can see how many views I’m getting which will help me keep track of my traffic. Here is a screenshot I took just today: Obviously, the numbers aren’t very good, but I’m just gettin’ started, y’all!  It’s kind of exciting starting at ZERO and working my way up.  The good news is that the numbers are increasing every day.  Also, just so you understand, the dates before January 9th don’t mean I had zero page views.  January 9th was the day I activated Jetpack, so there’s not any information before that.  Bummer, I know…

Blog Posts I Published from September to December (2016)

I definitely wanted to have a ton more content than what is listed – like, by a long shot.  The plan was to post something every single day, but the realities of life got the best of me, and I became overwhelmed.  It was actually useful that I stepped back, though.  It helped me to dream big, think hard, and pray daily for guidance in this venture.  So although I didn’t write as much as I’d planned, my hope is to try and get a minimum of 1-2 posts published per week in 2017. September 2016 Posts Published: 4

• How to Have the BEST Family Fun Night
• Tea Party Birthday Ideas
• Pinterest Round-Up: Photo Wall Arrangements
• Eight Awesome Games for Families

October 2016 Posts Published: 1

• How My Son Learned to Read Early

November 2016 Posts Published: 1

• Christmas Gift Guide: LEGOs

December 2016 Posts Published: 0 :'(

So has Momma Wren made any money?

Great question!  The answer is yes and no. *chuckle*  Have I received a check or direct deposit for the income I’ve earned in my first three months?  No.  Have I earned any money at all?  YES! Have you ever heard the saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”?  I feel like this is the perfect way to describe the monetization of a blog.  I have yet to read about a blogger who only operates with one single stream of income.  Blogging involves setting up multiple accounts with various companies that each pay a certain amount. I’m working on branching out in this area because I haven’t diversified enough, but currently, I’m an Amazon associate and I also have an account with Share-A-Sale.  Signing up with both is super-easy.  For Amazon, scroll to the bottom of their homepage and click “Become an Affiliate.”  I love Amazon because it is SO easy and everyone uses it to buy stuff.  Share-A-Sale is a little different.  To sign-up with them, go HERE and then click on “Affiliate Sign-Up.”  I was approved for both even though my blog and following was very small!

A word about Share-A-Sale…

I’m still learning a lot about this program, but the thing I like about it is that you can be an affiliate of many different companies all under the watchful eye of Share-A-Sale.  I applied as an affiliate for many companies, some of which approved me and some of which turned me down!  Right now, I am an affiliate for about 15 different businesses, all within Share-A-Sale. Between September and December of 2016, I did not make any money with Share-A-Sale, but I did earn a small amount with Amazon, thanks to THIS post I did on LEGOs!  Who doesn’t want to save money before Christmas?  Anyway, below is the summary of income earned: This snapshot gives me useful information, but one thing I wish it told me was what links specifically people are clicking on when they come to make a purchase with Amazon.  You see, when I add an affiliate link to an Amazon product like THIS AMAZING RESOURCE to any blog post and someone actually clicks on it, it takes them directly to that product on Amazon’s website.  From there, as long as they make a purchase while the link is still active, I receive a small fee as income.  It’s that simple!

In summary…

I’ve owned the blog since October 2015, but I only started writing and monetizing since September 2016.  Through the Amazon Associates program, I have earned a commission of $5.34 based on five items ordered through my custom links.  I have big plans to grow and to be constantly learning! I hope you have found this post insightful and honest.  Blogging so far is a lot of fun but a ton of hard work.  The more time I’m willing to put into it, the more I will eventually profit from it (at least that’s what I keep hearing), and right now, I’m motivated to do so. Please let me know in the comments if you have found this post helpful, and, if you are a blogger, I encourage you to post your own income reports!