My Big and Scary Goals Revealed {Blog Traffic and Income Report for April 2017}

My Big and Scary Goals Revealed {Blog Traffic and Income Report for April 2017} – Angie Cruise Blog

My Big and Scary Goals Revealed {Blog Traffic and Income Report for April 2017}

Setting goals and being intentional with your actions

I’ve seen it all my life, and I’m a huge believer in always having a goal of growth. If I am going to share my traffic and income report with you every month, I feel like I should be really transparent about my

I know I’ve talked a lot lately on the blog about my

big and scary goals, but

I haven’t come totally clean on what those are. If you want to see positive change in our life and you aren’t focusing on a big goal, I urge you to reconsider. Having something to focus on as the reason you get up and work can be a huge motivating factor!

My Big and Scary Goals

I’m a big believer in writing down your goals and knowing the steps you need to reach them. Still, I haven’t written this goal anywhere until today.  I’ve talked about it with my husband, and I’ve hinted at it on the blog, but I haven’t outright claimed it as my own.

I really want to bring my husband home from work early.

That sounds so huge, and so scary, but there it is.  My ultimate goal is for us to be a stay-at-home

Are we crazy? Maybe.  But, I feel like this can be done.  I’ve heard so many stories of this happening, and I know I’ve got the structure in place to make it happen!

I’ve got smaller goals leading up to it, though.

Like any big goal, this one seems really daunting when I say it like I just did.  I’m a big believer in having smaller goals in place to help me work towards big ones.  So, that’s exactly what I’ve done here!

My first goal was to start a blog.

My next goal was to start building a following.

Then, I wanted to learn about affiliate income and push my blog into the “professional” arena.

Now, I’m working on building my income and building my following by partnering with more brands and sharing more products I love.

Eventually, my plan is to release a digital product that I think you’ll all

I’m in brainstorming mode right now, so it’s still top secret, but I’m pretty excited!

This goal is also why I decided to join a network marketing business on the side.  I’m not only passionate about the products, but I’m also passionate about passive income and their compensation plans are generous enough that I think I can reach my goals if I work hard!

April 2017 Blog Traffic and Income Report

So, with this all in mind, I thought it was time to share my traffic and income report for April 2017.  This is the second installment of what I plan to make a monthly practice. You can find the first income report

.  Why share my income publicly?  Well, I have built this entire platform around showing other moms how they can build a business and work from home. My hope is that by sharing these reports from the first paycheck forward, I can share exactly how I’ve accomplished this!  Reading blog income reports is always a huge motivator for me, and I learn so much from them about what’s worked and what doesn’t.  My hope is to do the same for you.

Plus, if I actually accomplish these goals, it’ll be so amazing to look back at when it all started! Don’t you ever do that?

showing the income that is directly related to my blog and my efforts here.  I do have income coming in from other places that I don’t discuss here, because it’s not relevant to my efforts on the blog.

So, let’s get started!

Here are my April goals and action steps, so we can see how I did.  My goal each month is to see growth from the previous month.  If you’re only goal is to maintain, you’ll never grow.  I figure at least if I aim from growth and fall short, I’ll

Reach 7500 pageviews

Have 700 email subscribers

See growth and increased engagement on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest (

Earn another commission check from affiliate partners (

My action steps for April:

Alter and increase my pinning strategy (

Write and publish 2 posts a week (

Maintain my editorial and email calender (

I made some small changes)

Finish a course from the Genius Bloggers Toolkit

(So close! But No!)

Blog Traffic Update

If you remember from last month, I was dealing with a very sudden and drastic drop in traffic. I expected some lower traffic, since my blog topics are really popular early in the year, but I knew something had to be up for my numbers to drop so much.

I kept plugging away on Pinterest, put all of my energy into my editorial calendar, and worked to form real connections with my readers.  It took a few weeks for things to start changing, so I didn’t actually make my goal of 7500 pageviews, but towards the end of the month, I started to see a good increase.  I even surpassed my previous “best day ever,” on April 27, which I haven’t even come close to touching in 2 months! April ended with just over 6,800 pageviews, which means I didn’t reach that goal, but still saw an improvement over March. Overall, I’m okay with not reaching that goal, because I can see things are moving back in the right direction.  I mean, just look at this change! I did see one

dip right at the end, but Saturdays are generally low view days anyway.

Blogging Income for April 2017

This post contains affiliate links.  To learn more about what this means, you can read my full disclosure

For simplicities sake, I’ll be doing these income posts based on the money that was

each month, but not necessarily paid out in that month. Most companies offer 30 day guarantees to their customers, so there is usually a one-month delay in payment and I don’t have the money in my hands.  Since I want to show the results of my actions

I’ll be showing  you the money that was earned only between April 1st and 30th.

My Income Breakdown for April 2017

The only monitization practices I’ve used so far is affiliate marketing.  I’m not a fan of flashy ads on blogs, so this was the most logical first step for me.  This month, I earned affiliate commissions from two places.  In order to protect their privacy, I won’t be sharing my earnings from each company directly, but I will give you a total at the end of this section.

My most successful affiliate partnership to date is

.  This month was my first month helping them promote their bundles, and it’s been amazing.  I promoted The Genius Bloggers Toolkit Flash Sale, and then ended the month with The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle.  It caused for a great month, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to duplicate these earnings again in May, since I’m not promoting a bundle this month.

I am also still seeing a small commission roll in on Amazon, thanks to

My total income for April 2017

My Expenses for April 2017