I can’t believe it’s already time to share my November blog income report. This is the second to last income report I will be sharing about my first year of ad income as part of Mediavine.
I don’t know about you but November flew by I honestly feel like the month was only a couple of days long. But even though the month went really fast I was able to get quite a bit done.
November Income Report
I’m sure you probably already know I like to write my income report is 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, none of the other income I get from this blog is shared in this report.
While I do make income in several other ways I wanted to focus these reports on sharing how much money I make from Mediavine Ads my first full year with their ads on my website.
Why I’m Writing a Blog Ad Income Report
There are a lot of reasons people write income reports, especially if a blogger blogs about blogging (which I don’t do very often).
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.
Not only did I want to do this as a way to track my progress but also to encourage bloggers that are still trying to figure out how to monetize their blogs. (digital products and Mediavine ads are two of my favorite ways of monetizing in case you’re wondering.)
When I started writing these income reports in January I figured that by the end of the year I would hate writing these income reports. I was wrong, I love writing them and seeing the growth and change each month 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 for all of you to read 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.
Keep in mind that I’m still a really small blog and not making that much money compared to many of the big bloggers. But I’m also making a lot more money than other blogs, so it just depends on where you’re at in your blogging journey.
For years I dreamed about making $100 a month then that dream changed to $500 a month. Now my dreams have grown even bigger and I’m sure they will continue to grow as I meet new goals and learn even more.
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 November (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.
Blog Income Report November 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.
November Goals
Okay, let’s take a look at the goals I set for November. I set several goals including the number of sessions I wanted to hit (traffic goal), the amount of ad income I wanted to make, and tasks I wanted to complete (number of posts written, emails sent, etc).
I have a lot of posts I’m wanting to get published this month that I’m really excited about. But I also know that the holiday season can get really busy, so figuring out a balance and how big to set my goals is hard. But here we go.
Traffic Goal
My traffic goal for November was to hit 20,000 sessions on my website. This is the same amount of traffic goal I have had for several months. Yes I know it was kind of crazy to set this goal yet again when I haven’t reached it in the past few months, but I really want to hit it in November and/or December.
Goal Met? Yes, Finally!
My goal was 20,000 sessions and I got 22,178 sessions which is over my goal and made me so excited to see what traffic is going to be like in December!
The number of sessions in November 2021 is a 14.21% increase from last year (2020). While not as impressive as the increases I have seen in other months it’s still growth!
It seems my strategy of writing SEO-optimized articles is finally starting to help me improve my traffic.
You’ll probably notice the big difference in my traffic year over year the first couple of days of November. The big difference is that last year I had a pin go viral on Pinterest for a couple of days which drove a lot more traffic than normal.
Content Goals
For November I set the goal to publish 8 new blog posts during the month. With the Thanksgiving holiday and family activities, I felt like this was a realistic goal that I would be able to hit while still enjoying time with my family.
Goal Met? YES!
I was able to publish 11 posts in November. I started using a new SEO tool that helped some of the new posts I wrote rank on google quickly.
I was shocked to find that 2 of the posts I wrote in November were ranking on the first page of google within 2 weeks of being published. These posts brought a decent amount of traffic in November so I’m really excited to see how they do next year.
November Income Goal
My November blog ad income goal was to make $800 from Mediavine Ads. I worked on my posts throughout the year so I know my RPMs are a lot higher this year than they were last year so I really think this could happen.
Goal Met? YES!
I made over $800 dollars from Mediavine ads in November to be exact I made $1,009.74 from Mediavine Ads! Which was a record month for me!
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 my blog than I ever have before. It’s so exciting to see the money I have earned get deposited into my account each month.
Reminder – for my November income, I’m only sharing the income I made with Mediavine ads (which was actually my highest income source this month). You can read about all the different ways I make money on this blog here.
Email Newsletter Goal
For the past few months, I have been doing better at consistently sending emails to my newsletter list each week. So for November, my goal is to continue sending weekly emails so to put it in numbers I want to send 4 emails, one each week of the month.
Goal Met? Yes
I sent 4 emails to my subscribers in November and met my goal of sending an email each week.
Goals for December
I have a lot of blog posts as well as Instagram posts and reels I’m wanting to get published this month. But I also know that the holiday season can get really busy, so figuring out a balance and how big to set my goals is hard. But here we go.
25,000 Sessions
In November I was able to get over 20,000 sessions so I’m really hoping that I can at least get 25,000 sessions in December.
8 New Blog Posts
This month I’m setting a realistic content goal of publishing 8 new blog posts. I will also be continuing to update older posts but I really need to get some new posts shared. Hopefully, I can do more than 8 posts, but the goal is 8 posts.
I want to get new content out but I also want to be able to enjoy the magical Christmas season with my family.
$1,200 Income from Ads
In November I had a record month making just over $1,000 from Mediaivine ads. In December I’m hoping to be able to break that record and make at least $1,200 from ads.
4 Email Newsletters
The goal is to continue to send out an email each week to my newsletter subscribers. I’m hoping to get these scheduled for the month to make it easier.
For a long time, I have wanted to get to 10K followers on Instagram, but lately, I’ve decided not to worry about my follower numbers. Instead, I’m going to worry about things I can control. My goal for December is to share 10 reels along with 10 static posts to my Instagram page.
Thinking of Starting a Blog? Here are some posts that you might find helpful.
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