How I’m Growing My Blog + Blog Changes

Welcome!  Its time for another blog stats and helpful hints post. Just picking up a few helpful hints I hope will make a difference in our blogs growth in the future and keeping them in a Pinterest blogging board for future reference.

I hope everyone’s blog is busy and seeing more views this time of the year.  I know it does for me and it seems, sometimes, I can’t keep up with all the demand this time of the year.

Here is what I am doing now on my blog:

1. I contacted MaAnna at BlogAid to have her do an audit on my website.  Its been over a year and I wanted to see if my blog was still healthy. She was quick to send the results of my audit and we will have a live chat about the results and what I need to do to fix the problems. I was surprised at how many problems have occurred over the past year. I had also been using CloudFlare, but an unforeseen situation came up and I had to disconnect from them. MaAnny will help to reconnect to CloudFlare again. Before I contacted MaAnna, I went to GTmetrix to analyze my blog.  I was shocked to see the poor performance of my blog.  I know everything can’t run perfectly, mainly because of ads, but I wasn’t pleased with all. If you have never had an audit of your site, you really should contact MaAnna. (Not an affiliate)
2. We all wonder how our website is doing on Google and have to admit that Google is king to searching for our sites.  I recently took a course called Dominate from LearnToBlog.com to learn more about how to use the Webmaster Tools area.  Great resource and I learned a lot from that course. The next course I will be taking is for Google Analytics and SEO.  There is a ton of information on their website and they have a Facebook page with a lot of interaction you can join.
3. Sponsorship ops have been coming in more frequently and one of my favorites is still Linqia.  I receive offers often, the payout is fast, you can choose your opps and customer service is great.  Most of their posts offer Giveaways which really bring in readers. Linqia consistently sends offers, where the other sponsorship companies may send something every few months. Remember that sponsorship ops may take several months before you receive offers.  Sign up for as many as you can and see what happens.
4. Speaking of sponsors, a few months ago, I started doing sponsor ops for One2One Network.  What they do is connect brands and influences to review products. I have received several products and wrote reviews for them. Not only do I receive nice items to review, (Calphalon 10 piece cookware set and dutch oven were just a few items I received) but also gift cards from Amazon for doing social posts.  You also don’t have to be a blogger to join up with them.  There are several ways to earn with One2One, such as local event coverage, new music reviews, social sharing projects, e-commerce reviews, Twitter parties, surveys, and special events at social media conferences.  If you are looking for a place to start with sponsor ops, register at One2One Network and give them a try.
5. I walked away from Feedburner and have been using MailMunch ever since.  I couldn’t be happier with the results and wondered why I hadn’t done this a long time ago. I love the idea of only sending a newsletter once a week to my readers and not flooding their email box 3 or 4 times a week. I really love how the newsletter looks and how much information can be sent in one email. MailMunch was pretty easy to set up, but there were a few things I had questions on.  So, I went to Fiverr and used tammypage to make sure my settings were correct. Their initial price is $5.00, but she charged me $10.00 too so what I needed to be done.  It was so worth the price for me not to have to sit in front of the computer for hours to figure out how to set up MailMunch. I’m not sure how you search for certain people in Fiverr, but after you log in and click on the link to her page, it will take you there.
6. I also use the MailMunch plugin for WordPress to help with Newsletter signups on the blog. I use the bar at the top and one in the sidebar form where new readers can sign up for the newsletter.  I receive an email once a week letting me know how many new signups I’ve gotten. There are several types of forms you can make for your blog and they do offer Premium forms.  The top and sidebar forms I am using are the free version. *IMPORTANT: PLEASE BACKUP YOUR BLOG BEFORE USING ANY NEW PLUGIN*

I hope my tips of the blogging world will help you too!!  The most important thing I have learned is…Stick with it!!  It does take a couple of years to get established and known in the blogging community.  Go to other blogs and leave comments. Join blogging Facebook pages.  And most of all……..Have Fun!!!

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Main goal reach right now is to keep 15,000 views monthly!

I recently hit 20,000+ views!!!  

I did a post for Social Fabric and the sponsor company liked my post so much, they allowed Social Fabric to run Facebook ads featuring my post. The ads ran for a week. I had no idea the views, subscriptions, and likes I would receive from that.  The bonus of that post was my hubby received a nice drill.  You can see that post here.

Now on to my stats from August through October 2016:

Total income for 2014 = $780.12 

Total income from 2015 = $1275.85 

INCOME
Google Adsense –  $130.23
Media Net –  $11.32
Izea – $135
Tapinfluence -$0
BlogHer – $130
Linqia – $1468.80
Social Fabric – $190
Pollinate – $275
Influence Central – $650
Total for 2016 = $2990.35

Monthly user visits:  6859
Unique monthly visitors: 6107
Monthly page views: 19,036
Average page views per visit: 2.78

RANKINGS & SOCIAL MEDIA
Pinterest: 2564
Facebook: 1749
Twitter: 1982
Google+: 1857
Instagram: 1740

As you can see from the numbers above, I don’t make a lot of money blogging.  But, this is great “extra” income for my family!  It may help to pay for repairs on your house or a trip you have been planning for a long time.  As you can see, my income has doubled the past 3 years.  I am so happy with that and I’m so thankful for all you wonderful readers.  Thank you for stopping by and taking a moment to read My Life Abundant.

If you have any questions about any of the items discussed, please let me know and be sure to check out my past posts for Blog Stats & Helpful Hints.

How are your goals coming along so far?

Keep on bloggin!

Tammy

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