Bi-Monthly Report - January & February 2015
Hello everyone! It's been a while since I have written an update. There are a couple reasons for this.
1. I have decided that instead of doing a monthly update, I will be doing a bi-monthly update. This is not only for my blog posts here at WA, but also on my actual site. I have found that each update usually takes me a week to get done. That's 1/4 of my time each month...too much time! So, now it's just one week every 2 months.
2. I've been spending a lot of time with my mom and the care facility she is in has crappy internet...so it's impossible for me to get any work done from there.
Anyways, I still managed to get a lot done in the last two months! I continued to create more content and continued to maintain and slightly grow my traffic. I'm getting much better and more efficient at writing posts, especially reviews.
I also started my first "niche" site, other than my primary Bootcamp site. That is going slowly, but it's getting there.
I hope you have all had a good two months! Now, lets look at how my site has actually been doing in January and February this year. (Because I have switched formats from monthly to bi-monthly, I won't be able to compare this update's numbers to the last one. I'll start the comparison again in two months)
Traffic Report
My traffic has remained pretty steady. It has increased much, but it definitely hasn't decreased either. I think if I would be able to produce new content more regularly, it would really help, but that's been my biggest challenge lately.
Total Visitors: 6,760
Unique Visitors: 5,763
Pageviews: 20,122
Pages/Session: 2.98
% New Visitors: 84.96%
Average Session Duration: 2:07
Traffic Sources
Organic: 5,793
Direct: 696
Referral: 122
Social: 39
PPC Adwords: 0
PPC BingAds: 110
Traffic Over Time
Here is my organic traffic over time. I include this in every update just to show everyone, especially beginners, that it takes time for Google to recognize your site and drive traffic your way. The traffic I'm getting in a day now, is more than my first few months combined! Stick with it, and get past those first few months! I promise it will be worth it.
Time Spent
For the last few months I've been diligent about tracking the amount of time I am spending on every aspect of my business. I've found this to be very helpful in keeping me on task. It's also nice to be able to tell where you're spending your time! I've spent just under 80 hours in the last two months working on my online business. That's about 1 work week a month!
In case you're interested, I'm using a free website called Toggl to track my time.
Income Report
For the first two months of 2015, I earned a total of $402.81! This has officially been my most successful month/s as of yet. Total, since the beginning, I've brought in over $700, so, you can see the money continues to increase each and every month!
Hourly Rate Of Pay For The Month
Another aspect I've started to measure is my hourly rate of pay! I figured that would be the ultimate judge of my success! Getting affiliate sales can always seem so abstract and unconnected, so this is a good way to summarize the results I'm getting from my effort! Right now, for January and February, on an hourly basis, I made $5.19/hour!
It's not anywhere near my actual job yet, but it's getting there! Once it does, and then surpasses my salary, we are in business!
Social Media Report
Facebook Page: 45 Likes
Twitter: 301 Followers
Google Plus Business Page: 56 Followers 13,010 Views
Pinterest: 107 Followers
Email List: 38 Subscribers
Goals for Mar/Apr 2015
- Post 8 new pages or posts on Kirby's Marketing
- Work for 60+ hours
- Spend 15+ hours working on Niche Site 1
- Get 10 new sales
- Have over $300 profit for the period
- Over 7,625 (125) organic visitors to the site
- Social Media Goals:
- Facebook: 55 Likes
- Twitter: 325 Followers
- Google Plus Business Page: 60 Followers
- Pinterest: 120 Followers
- Email List: 50 Subscribers
Personal Notes
I really have just the same two things going on as before. My mom is still fighting the cancer that is in her brain. She has some good days and some bad days. She will be in an assisted care facility from here on out. We were hoping she'd be well enough to move in with Hezel and me once we get our own place, but I just don't think that is a realistic goal any more. We need to keep her as safe as possible!
Hezel's visa should be approved any minute now. Literally, it should be today or tomorrow! We finally were able to get all of the documentation in! If she gets her visa this week, she'll be here Monday or Tuesday next week!!!
The next picture of us will be together in person! P.S. I'm definitely marrying up!
The End
I never know how to end these things...so I'll just go with the time-tested "The End" again this month!
Peace,
Dustin "Kirby" Garness
www.KirbysMarketing.com
Recent Comments
43
Awesome job man this is great. Thanks for the graphs too those are nice to look at. I hope they keep going up for ya!
Well hopefully I will in the upcoming months, so far no success except I've just discovered I'm ranked on Bing..
I only have 33 organic search sessions in my Google Analytics aquisition, I'm amazed at how many you have! The Organic Search is the bottom of my traffic sources :(
My website only has 21 posts, so hopefully as I write more content it will get more traffic ;)
Yeah man. It just takes time. As long as you continue to add quality content, your organic presence will increase. Just look at the organic traffic chart over time in my post above...there was literally nothing for the first 6 months.
Wow, 6 months?! omg that's a long time.. Ok, you've encouraged me that there will eventually be some sort of boost in traffic.. I was thinking that if I don't get traffic in 2 or 3 months, then I'm never going to be successful or get any sort of traffic to my site because it's a fail, lol! But obviously not :D
It depends on a lot of factors. My site is in the "make money" niche... So, that's one of the most competitive ones out there, so it takes longer. If you're in a less competitive niche, it probably won't take as long.
Dustin, I'm happy for your success, and my prayers are with you and your family. You are one strong man. :)))
Makes me think I have to work a little harder as I'm having trouble getting traffic, been here over a year. All the best to you and I hope your mothers health improves. Congrats on your upcoming marriage.
Yeah man. From what I've gathered here at WA, it usually takes upwards of 40 posts before you'll start building authority. If a site only has 10 posts, even though it's 5 years old, it still probably isn't going to get much traffic!
Just keep plugging along!
Dustin
So sorry about your mom. However congrats on your progress. You are doing better than you think. Keep up the good work. I think you are an amazing young man for being able to deal with a sick and the challenges of the internet and yet going forward.....May God Bless You and your mom.
Hi Dustin.If I had earned that much in the first two months I would be overjoyed.Can I ask you when you write a new blog,or post have you it set up so you are connected to all your social sites.Also what is your success,you are doing amazingly,well done.Sorry to hear about your Mum,this cannot be easy for you,I hope she continues to improve.Thoughts and prayers are sent to you from Northern Ireland.
I put in a lot of time in the beginning! It took 7 months before I got my first sale.
Honestly, I have not been too active in my social media platforms. I don't have anything that automatically shares my new posts. I do use Hootsuite, when I get around to it, to share my posts. But I'm not too consistent.
My success? I would say it's simply that I haven't given up! I just kept plugging along, despite no results for half a year. I trusted the training and what all the successful members here say "It takes time".
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Great job man! I always look forward for your update because you always being real and honest with your report. Great inspiration for me :-)
Great man! I'm glad :)