Did August go fast for you? I feel like it flew by and suddenly we are at the start of fall and all of the holidays feel like they are getting close. But anyway let’s talk about my blog ad income for August.
If you’re new here I have been sharing a blog income report each month this year. You can see past income reports here.
This income report is probably a little bit different than a lot of them you see out there. I’m only sharing the income I make off of having ads on my website. While I do make income in several other ways I wanted to focus on sharing how much money I make from Mediavine Ads my first full year with them.
Why I’m Writing a Blog Ad Income Report
I got accepted to the Mediavine Ad Network, Memorial Day weekend of 2020 and I decided I wanted to do an income report each month of my first full year in Mediavine (Hello 2021!).
This August income report is the 8th income report I’m sharing. When I started writing these income reports in January I wasn’t really sure how I would like them, but I love writing them and seeing the growth and change year over year.
I love that I can see my goals and results all written out each month. I also love the accountability that putting this post out there puts on me.
One of the big reasons I wanted to write this income report series is because I rarely see income reports for lifestyle blogs, most of the income reports I see are from bloggers who blog about blogging, and often a big portion of their income isn’t even from their blog.
I want this income report to show that you can make money with a lifestyle or mom blog you don’t have to have a specific niche, you don’t have to blog about blogging and you don’t have to be a freelance writer to make money.
Yes, I’m still really small and not making that much money compared to many of the big bloggers. But I’m also making a lot more money than other blog, so it just depends on where you’re at.
For years I dreamed about making as much money as I currently do now with my blog. While my blog still has a lot more growing to do I’m really happy with how much it’s grown in the last year and I can’t wait to see where it is a year from now.
I hope you enjoy reading this blog ad income report and it is motivating to you. (Reading other blog income reports has been very motivating to me over the years and helped me stick with this blogging thing when I feel burnt out!)
If this blog income report does nothing else I hope it helps you realize that not all bloggers are making a ton of money. And that it is possible to make money without selling a product/course or having tons of affiliate sales.
Remember there will always be someone more successful, but don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle or your middle to someone else’s end.
What I’m Including (or Not) In This Report
Before getting into my goals and income for August (all of the exciting stuff!) let me just clarify a few things.
#1 I will only be sharing my income from Mediavine. (Remember this is only 1 of the income streams I have for this blog) Some months it’s my highest income source but most of the time I make more on product sales.
#2 The income amount I share is the income before I take out expenses or pay taxes.
#3 Each blog will make a different amount of money with ads even if they have similar topics and traffic numbers.
#4 I was accepted into Mediavine before the traffic requirements changed to 50,000 sessions. So if you get accepted with the new requirement you can most likely expect to make more money in your first year as a Mediavine blogger.
— Previous Income Reports if you Missed Them —
Blog Ad Income Report August 2021
I like sharing my income reports a little bit differently than other reports I have seen. I like to share the goals I set for the month and then share if I hit those goals. Along with telling you what my goals are and if I met them I also like to give you more information about why I set the goal, hitting it, etc.
August Goals
Okay, let’s take a look at the goals I set for my blog in August. I had several goals including the number of sessions I wanted to hit, the amount of ad income I wanted to make, and tasks I wanted to complete.
Traffic Goal
My traffic goal for August was to hit 20,000 sessions on my website. This is a lower goal than I have had for other months this year because I know that I typically get less traffic in August.
When looking at my blog traffic I personally like to set my google analytics to compare the current sessions/pageviews with the same days last year. This helps me have a better perspective of how my blog is growing year over year.
Last year in August I had 13,921 sessions so hitting 20,000 sessions would be a big stretch, but I was really wanting to hit this goal and up my income after a lower July.
Goal Met? No
My goal was 20,000 sessions and I got 15,189 sessions which was even fewer sessions than I had in July. At first I was really discouraged but while I didn’t hit my goal for the month my traffic did improve from the number of sessions I had in August last year.
While I wish I was reporting much bigger numbers for my traffic last month, I am excited by the growth. The number of sessions in August 2021 is a 9.11% increase from last year. While not as impressive as the increases I have seen in other months it is still progress!
Content Goals
For August I had the content goal of publishing 6 blog posts. I would really like to be able to publish more content because that is what I have seen really increase my traffic over the years. But I’m not ready to commit to trying to write more posts yet.
Goal Met? YES!
In August I published 6 blog posts, 4 of them were new and 2 were posts I updated from several years ago. So yes I’m calling it a win even though not all the posts are new.
The older posts I updated for better SEO rankings, more ad placings and made sure the links worked and added more links to some of my newer posts.
August Income Goal
Reminder – for my August income, I’m only sharing the income I made with Mediavine ads. You can read about all the different ways I make money on this blog here.
It’s crazy looking back at the last year and seeing how much Mediavine ads have changed my life with the income from the blog. I know I’m still not making that much money, but I’m making so much more from this than I ever have before.
My August blog ad income goal was to make $500 from Mediavine Ads.
It’s not the highest goal I have set this year and that’s because I know that August is one of my worst months for traffic so I’m anticipating lower income, but really hoping that I can get at least $500.
Goal Met? No
Sadly I think August May be one of my lower ad income months this year, but it’s still an improvement from where I was at in January. My Goal was $500 from ads and I made $379.02 from ads with Mediavine. While this was a lot lower than I was hoping, it is an improvement from my August blog income last year when I made $259.57 from my first August in Mediavine.
There are a couple of likely reasons why my income from ads went down in August. First, fewer people tend to be online during the summer and right before kids start back to school. Second, I don’t have much back-to-school content, which is a main focus for parents at the end of summer.
Send 2 Email Newsletters
I have been doing better at consistently sending emails to my newsletter list but I still struggle so for August my goal was to send 2 email newsletters.
Goal Met? Yes
I sent 2 emails to my subscribers in August and I also spent some time cleaning out my email list. So my list went down by over 500 people. None of them had opened any emails I sent this year so I don’t feel like I’m really losing anything.
Goals for September
Ok guys I’m probably crazy but I have some scary big goals for September and I’m really going to work on hitting all of them!
– 20,000 Sessions (same goal as August)
– Publish 20 Blog Posts! (BIG goal)
– $500 Mediavine Ad income (same as August)
– 4 Email Newsletters sent (double last month!)
Well, that’s all I have to share about last month’s blog ad income report and my blogging goals. Keep an eye out to see what my income is this month in my next income report.
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