Hello everyone! Another year is other and now it’s time for me to do another blog stats and income report!
I’ve not been paying attention to my stats this year as much as normal. Not until October when I decided to shake up my content and start trying to drive my traffic to my blog. I actually went about 6 months with no idea how many page views I was getting a day! So needless to say I am a little embarrassed by some of these numbers! 2015 and 2016 were probably my peak years for traffic and now I don’t have as much time to work on my blog, it’s really showing in my stats. Not to worry though because I have a plan to get things back on track. Hopefully.
It’s a tough thing when life gets in the way for blogging – it’s okay to take a step back when you need to. I was very focused on fitness in 2018, as well as enjoying the first year living with my boyfriend and it really took a toll on the amount of time I had to spend on this blog!
I’m full of goals and ambition to make 2019 the best year for me and my blog!
I know some bloggers are funny about sharing what they earn and their pageviews – it’s one of those strange things like how you don’t tell people what your salary is for some strange reason. I just think the secrecy behind it leads to people having unrealistic views on what blogs can earn and the traffic they get.
It seems most reports like this are those that are making thousands a month. Sadly, that’s not the reality for most of us and I think it’s important to put a variety of blog income and stat reports out there! While I am happy about how much money I have made blogging this year, I do want to make more in 2019.
2018 Blog Stat and Income Report
TWITTER:
JANUARY 1ST 2016: 4438
JANUARY 1ST 2017: 10921
JANUARY 1ST 2018: 11131
JANUARY 1st 2019: 11163
My twitter growth is something I really want to work on this year. I actually started losing followers as I wasn’t doing anything other than letting tweets auto schedule in Buffer thanks to Hiplay.
While scheduling tools are awesome, it’s being involved in the community that really helps growth. When I used Twitter properly, by engaging with others, I saw massive growth in followers and pageviews. This will be one of my main focuses this year and I’ve set myself a goal of getting to 15k by the end of the year. In my goals for January, I’m giving myself a target of getting 300 followers this month.
Tips for Twitter:
Drive traffic from Twitter to your blog.
How to improve your Twitter engagement.
Why you’re losing Twitter followers.
How I tripled my traffic from Twitter in one week.
5 things you’re doing wrong on Twitter.
INSTAGRAM:
JANUARY 1ST 2016: 2055
JANUARY 1ST 2017: 6309
JANUARY 1ST 2018: 5663
JANUARY 1ST 2018: 5351
My Instagram has been a bit more consistent this year in regards to posting, but everything else has been a bit hit and miss.
I’ve been losing followers and gaining lots of people that follow and then unfollow. You can spot them a mile away and if found it tough mentally to justify spending time on a platform that just seems so fake. After doing my Instagram Experiment where I tried to get more engagement and followers, I concluded that Instagram is a waste of time and I would just use it for fun.
I don’t really have any Instagram goals this year. Just to use it how I want to. Follow me, please.
Instagram posts:
What I learnt from my Instagram Experiment.
How to tell if someone is cheating on Instagram.
How to improve your Instagram engagement.
PINTEREST:
JANUARY 1ST 2016: 1259
JANUARY 1ST 2017: 3741
JANUARY 1ST 2018: 3818
JANUARY 1ST 2019: 4181
With Pinterest moving away from a focus on followers, I’ve not been trying to gain any. I have been working on my Pinterest over the past 2 and a half months though and managed to get to 100k monthly unique viewers (now at 122.4k).
Happy with my progress with Pinterest and I’m excited to see where it will go this year!
View the rest in the Pinterest Traffic Growth series:
Trying to grow Pinterest
Week 1 results
Week 2 results
Week 3 results
Week 4 results
BLOGLOVIN:
JANUARY 1ST 2016: 2,441
JANUARY 1ST 2017: 3885
JANUARY 1ST 2018: 4133
JANUARY 1st 2019: 4203
I do nothing on Bloglovin’. It just sits there and does its thing. I feel like fewer people are using it and fewer people care about growing on Bloglovin. It seems like most people use Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest as a way to promote their posts instead. So woo for the small increase, but I’m not sure I’m that bothered about it!
How to get more bloglovin followers.
PAGEVIEWS:
2017:
2018:
Traffic has been horrific this year, it’s not surprising as I’ve not been promoting posts, commenting much on other blogs or being involved in the community. I want to get my traffic up again this year using Pinterest and Twitter.
It makes me both lol and both sad how you can see the traffic decline the start of 2017! Help. I’m not proud of the traffic I’ve got this year but it makes me really motivated to start working on it more!
Help your traffic with the following posts:
Do a complete audit on your Blog’s SEO for 2019.
How to drive traffic to your blog with these SEO tips.
SEO tips for bloggers in 2019.
TRAFFIC SOURCES:
2017:
2018:
All traffic sources are down last year. Again, not being active on social and I haven’t been putting as much effort into SEO and writing the type of content that does well on my blog. Another thing I’ll change in 2019. I’m doing a complete SEO Blog audit and going to make sure to improve my rankings, as well as grow on Pinterest and Twitter.
INCOME:
2016:
January: £160
February: £323.45
March: £236.86
April: £412.45
May: £270
June:£220
July: £61.77
August: £190
September: £135
October: £396.34
November: £341.34
December: £700
TOTAL: 3224.21
2017:
January: 552.46
February: 0
March: 710.30
April: 125.38
May: 242.88
June: 475.35
July: 360.36
August: 302.20
September: 0
October: 785
November: 735
December: 1030
TOTAL: 5318.93
2018:
January:
Income: £291.09
Expenses: £223.99
Total: £67.10
February:
Income: £494.43
Expenses: £17.99
Total: £476.44
March:
Income: £337.10
Expenses: £21.75
Total: £315.35
April:
Income: £647.66
Expenses: £132.04
Total: £515.62
May:
Income: £1195
Expenses: £197.19
Total: £997.81
June:
Income: £1134.16
Expenses: £194.90
Total: £939.26
July:
Income: £757.25
Expenses: £103.73
Total: £653.52
August:
Income: £351
Expenses: £16.52
Total: £334.48
September:
Income: £505
Expenses: £16.52
Total: £488.88
October:
Income: £410
Expenses: £16.52
Total: £393.48
November:
Income: £838
Expenses: £28.51
Total: £809.49
December:
Income: £1142
Expenses: £181.74
Total: £960.26
TOTAL:
Income: £8102.69
Expenses: £1151.40
Total: £6951.29
I earnt almost £3000 more in 2018! Brilliant. But my expenses also increased a bit. These are mostly things like getting an SSL certificate, doing a few design courses, getting, paying for a security subscription after getting hacked and general hosting and other subscriptions.
Obviously, I have a goal of increasing my income this year, I’d love to hit the 10k mark!
There you have it, my blog stats and income report for 2018! Hoping to see some great improvements in 2018.
What was your 2018 like?
Happy New Year Corinne, all the best for 2019!! Your data are so great, congrats! I agree with you about IG, I also use it just for fun. I wish my blog stats will improve this year too. Kisses! xo
Happy New Year!
I found this post so interesting! I’m focusing on Twitter and Pinterest this year too, using Instagram just for fun and for me to document my life.
xoxo
Jess
Instagram can be fun when you’re not focusing on the numbers. Good luck with it!
Happy New Year Corinne!
I really like your honesty post about your goals for the year and past stats. At the end of last year I started a blog on home interiors. I completely understand you when you say you didn’t have that much time in 2018. Blogging is a huge commitment. Also, I agree with you about Instagram. I don’t have many followers yet but since I started over 200 people have played the follow / unfollow game with me! I think Pinterest and Twitter are more “real”.
All the best in 2019!
Glad you enjoyed the post! It is a huge commitment but I do the best I can. Good luck with your blog!
I found this so so interesting! My blog stats totally plummeted in 2018 as well and I just cant figure out why. Any chance you relied on Stumble Upon? I realised thats gone so maybe thats why my views are so low. Honestly not sure how to get it back up again. Thank you for this post – its always so useful to understand trends and inspire me!
Totally! I used to have posts going viral on stumble all the time. I’m so sad it’s gone! They have Mix now instead but I can’t seem to figure it out (or I can’t be bothered to sit and learn about another platform!)
You need to teach me how to make money with the blog, because I am SO clueless. Like beyond clueless lol. Plus I love these posts, I am SO nosy lol
Erin || MakeErinOver
Ha, I mostly post reply to Tweets and Facebook groups requesting bloggers, but mostly I work with the same people a lot and have done for years.
I find this SOoooooo fascinating given that I do nothing related to this- I used to religiously check my pageviews but now I don’t even look at that page! You made a lot of money compared to what I expected blogs can make so that’s pretty cool that you’ve made it work for you so well! Thanks for being so honest about it as I do feel everyone is a bit cloak and dagger about it!!
P.S. meant to ask- is your boyf a teacher?
I love reading these to kinda get an idea of a more realistic approach. I literally just launched on New Year 2019. I am still figuring things out but I’m absolutely loving it. Thank you for this post!