April 2021 Mediavine Blog Income Report

I think I blinked and April was over, I guess that’s what happens when you’re busy doing things. Since we are already a week into May it’s time for my April blog income report.

At first, I was worried about sharing these monthly income reports with you, since I’m not making as much money with my blog as other bloggers. But I have really enjoyed seeing my goals, income, and traffic broken down the past couple of months. I hope you have been enjoying these income reports and they are motivating to you (they are motivating to me!)

I also hope these reports help you realize that not all bloggers are making a ton of money. 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. We all have to start somewhere and getting started and sticking with it is the hardest part.

Even though I would love to be making more money with my blog when I compare it to what I was making last year it’s crazy to see how much my blog income has improved.

I started this blog 6 years ago (my first post was published in January 2015, though I celebrate my blogging anniversary in May since that’s when I went to my official domain instead of my blogspot blog).

For years I didn’t make any money from the blog. Then I finally got so that the blog was paying for its own hosting and other expenses. And now it is actually starting to feel like all the hard work is paying off and I’m making some money. I can’t wait to see where this blog is in another 6 years.

Why I’m Writing this Income Report

After getting accepted into Mediavine last summer, I decided I wanted to do an income report each month of my first full year in Mediavine.

I want to write this monthly income report as a way for me to track my progress as well as encourage others who are trying to make money blogging.

If you’re looking for an income report that will tell you how they made $10,000 by month 6 of blogging, you’re going to be disappointed. In my income reports, you will find how I have slowly over time built my page views and income. While I’m not at 5 or 6 figure months yet, I’m hopeful that I will be able to make that kind of money someday.

The numbers in my income report may not be as exciting as making $10,000 a month, but they prove that making money on a blog is possible.

This income report also shows that by consistently showing up and working you can make money from a blog even if you aren’t blogging in a specific niche. (I would say my website niche is family lifestyle – which means I can write about pretty much anything I want)

If you missed it you can see my income report for March here.

A Few Things to Know

Before getting into my goals and income for April 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 it’s the second.

#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.

#4 I was accepted into Mediavine before the traffic requirements changed to 50,000 sessions.

April Goals

First off let’s talk about the goals I had for April. 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 goal was to hit 20,000 sessions on my website in April. This is an increase of 5,000 sessions from my goal for March. I know for some 20,000 sessions is nothing and for others that seems like a ton. It all depends on perspective.

I decided to increase the number of sessions I wanted to hit because the second quarter of the year is often one of my highest traffic times.

When planning goals it’s good to know the seasonality of your blog so you aren’t comparing high traffic months with low traffic months. Because trust me it’s hard to go from really high traffic to low traffic.

Side Note: I personally like to set my google analytics to compare the current sessions/pageviews with the same date last year. This helps me have a better perspective of how my blog is growing year over year.

Last year (2020) in April I had 13,601 sessions so hitting 20,000 sessions seemed like a good goal since month over month this year I have seen about a 50- 100% increase in traffic.

Goal Met? YES!

My goal was 20,000 sessions and I got 20,441 sessions, which was an improvement from the number of sessions I had in March and last year in April. It was also the highest traffic month so far this year!

While I wish I was reporting much bigger numbers for my traffic, I am excited by the growth. The number of sessions in April 2021 is a 50.29% increase from last April.

Content Goals

As I have mentioned before, there are many different types of content for a blog, including blog posts, Pinterest graphics, and videos.

In April I set goals to publish 8 new blog posts and have 2 blog posts scheduled for a future date, I didn’t have a goal for creating videos or new pins. (maybe next month!)

Goal Met? YES and No

For two months in a row, I have passed my goal for new blog posts! In April I published 9 new blog posts. It took a lot of work but I’m so excited I was able to get that many posts published.

I did not get 2 blog posts scheduled for a future date. So I met 1 of my content goals for the month but missed out on the other one.

I’m hoping to have some even bigger months later this year and scheduling posts ahead of time will make that a lot easier. Last year, I did a couple of 30-day blog post challenges, which helped my blog traffic grow. So I’m hoping I can do a couple of these again this year (most likely later this summer or fall)

April Income Goal

For my April income report, 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.

Since this was my first April with Mediavine I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as income so I didn’t have a very educated goal. I set the goal of making $400 from Mediavine ads since I made over $300 last month.

Goal Met? YES

Goal $400 from ads and I made $436.11 from ads with Mediavine. Which is a be a big improvement from April 2020 when I made $22.31 from AdSense for the whole month.

2 New Products

The last goal I set for April was to create and list 2 new products in my shop. I have several product ideas but getting them ready and listed takes me longer than it should.

Goal Met? NO

I only got one product listed in April, while I wish I would have gotten more products created and put up in my shop I am happy that I got the Editable Map of the USA {Travel Journal Page} created.

Review

April was a good month fo rme I hit about half of the goals I set for the month. While I wish I could have gotten more done, I’m happy with what I was able to accomplish.

Goals for May

For May I have a few goals many of them are pretty similar to those I set for April but we are going to be traveling for part of May so some of my goals will be smaller.

25,000 Sessions
4 Blog posts published
$500 Mediavine Ad income
2 Email Newsletters

That’s pretty much it, I have other goals for other areas of my business (like Instagram) but we won’t get into those today, maybe I’ll add them later this year.

April 2021 Mediavine Blog Income Report