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Blog Income Report – April 2015

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Now that April has zoomed by so quickly, it’s time again for my official Blog Income Report blog post again.

This month I started putting a lot more time, energy and resources into getting my health and fitness plan in motion, but that didn’t stop me from cranking out yet another 30 blog posts in 30 days.

Blog Content Report – April 2015

Here is a recap of all the blog posts I wrote this month:

 

As in the previous months, I once again participated in the 21 Day Blogging Challenge put on by Empower Network, which is available to all bloggers regardless whether they are a part of Empower Network or not.

The 21 Day Blogging Challenge is a great way to build the habit of daily blogging.  I highly recommend it to anyone just starting out or for existing bloggers who are ready to take things to the next level.

Blog Traffic Report – April 2015

In this fourth month of running this new blog, here are some of my stats for the month of April 2015:

  • Total Users: 1,760
  • Total Sessions: 2,230
  • Total Pageviews: 3,261
  • Avg Session Duration: 1 minute 04 seconds

Although these stats show a decline in my numbers as compared to March, I know one of the major reasons for this is because I have not been emailing out all of my Blog posts to my email list every day.

I’ve been experimenting with emailing my list less often versus emailing every day to find out what is the best emailing frequency that people like.

Now let’s take a look at where my traffic has been coming from.

Blog Traffic Sources Report – April 2015

As you can see from the charts above, my blog traffic distribution changed this month due to the less frequent emailing of my list.

  • Direct Traffic – 898 sessions – 40.3%
  • Social Traffic – 330 sessions – 14.8%
  • Referral Traffic – 525 sessions – 23.5%
  • Organic Search Traffic – 471 sessions – 21.1%

Now for the fun part. 🙂

Blog Income Report – April 2015

Okay, so let’s get to the actual blog income report part of this post.

Before I start talking numbers though, just a quick income disclaimer.  My results are not typical, not guaranteed in any way, and you should check out my income disclaimer if that sort of thing floats your boat.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, here are my stats:

Total Gross Income – $3,094.32

Total Expenses – $879.81

Net Income: $2,214.31

Alright, so let’s dive into what has been happening this month.

Affiliate Income

My affiliate income this month jumped up to $479, which is exciting as affiliate income is my favorite type of income due to the fact that it can have a passive component to it.

If you’d like to learn how to build up your affiliate income, check out my previous income reports where I’ve covered this topic in more detail, and also check out this video here.

Mentoring / Consulting Income

My mentoring and consulting income was the same as last month and continues to be my highest income stream right now from my Blog.

What most Bloggers don’t realize is that one of the BIGGEST benefits to starting a Blog is that it can help you get consulting / coaching / mentoring clients.

In my opinion EVERYONE should have a Blog regardless what type of business you’re in.

Check out my post on Who Should Blog and Why for a detailed list of people who would benefit most from a Blog.

Now, let’s briefly touch on my expenses for this month.

Expenses

As you can see from my report above, my expenses for this month have actually dropped while my income has gone up!

This is because a lot of the initial expenses I had for getting my Blog started are ONE TIME initial expenses.

As an entrepreneur you may have to invest in your business, especially in the beginning.

You don’t need to overspend on useless crap, but investing into your business strategically, such as buying training courses or getting mentored by the top people in the industry is a great way to get your business growing faster.

I meet so many young entrepreneurs who haven’t learned this lesson yet, and they’re so afraid to invest any money into their business.

They want everything for free and they have this entitlement mentality that just leads them to failure.

Don’t be afraid to invest in yourself and your business.

You will most likely never find a better investment that pays higher dividends long term than investing in yourself.

My Blogging Goals for April

Here were some of my main goals for April:

  • Participate in my 4th 21 Day Blogging Challenge – Check!
  • Continue on with daily blogging – Check!
  • Test different email frequency for my audience – Check!
  • Research and test out free traffic strategies – Check!
  • Record 10 “Driving With Paul” Episodes – Check!
  • Increase my Blogging business profits – Check!
  • Grow my Empower Network Team and Income – Check!
  • Launch my “Manifesting Body Diet and Fitness Plan” and Start Blogging About It – Check!

Summary

To summarize, my blogging income has continued to grow pretty steadily each month and with some of my initial one-time expenses out of the way, my net profit from my Blog is starting to go up which is exciting.

Some of you may also remember that back in January I wrote a post declaring my intention to build up my blog business income up to the point where I can get a Free Car from Blogging.

Obviously I’ve now blown past that goal, and I can afford a new car with my Blog, so I’ll be writing an update Blog post sharing my intentions with that very soon.

Keep an eye out for that. 🙂

Final Words

One of the reasons I decided to put together these monthly income reports is because I want to inspire others – LIKE PERHAPS YOU! – to consider starting a Blog today and using it to build your own brand, and to start making some extra income from it.

One of my personal goals is to teach / mentor and help 108 people to make a full-time six-figure income working from home as Bloggers and Internet marketers.

If you’d like to learn more about getting started with making money online, click here to learn more.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Crazy Tank Shenanigans Help Raise a Million for Charity

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I came across this video today and thought it was a brilliant example of how a celebrity like Arnold Schwarzenegger can use his brand to raise money for charity in a fun, exciting and unique way.

Basically Arnold held a contest last year where people who donated had a chance to win a trip to meet him and to do fun and crazy stunts with his TANK!

Yes, you read that right… a TANK!

Check out the video here:

As you can see in the video, Arnold is back at it again – except this time the lucky winner will not be crushing things with Arnold’s tank, but instead blowing things up with Arnold!

I think the whole concept and idea and the execution behind this project is an awesome example of the power of properly utilizing branding, online marketing, social media and good-ol-fashioned FUN to do something worthwhile for a good cause.

It all starts with developing a brand for yourself, and in my opinion one of the best ways to establish yourself as a brand and to build an audience is through blogging.

Once you establish your brand, there are so many positive things you can do with it – just like Arnold did – simply thinking outside the box a little bit.

 

I Don’t Know What To Blog About

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Sometimes people say to me “Hey Paul, I really don’t know what to Blog about anymore… I’ve run out of things to say.”

If you’ve started a Blog and at some point reached that point where you just don’t know what else to write about or what else to create YouTube videos about, let me tell you why this is a good thing!

Have you ever heard of the saying that in order to learn something new, you must first empty your cup?

Well, whenever you write a Blog post, you’re essentially sharing your opinion on a specific topic for the world to read.

When you do that, it has the effect of releasing that information from your cluttered mind – kind of like getting something off your chest.

Once you write your Blog post and publish it, that information no longer has to take up space in your mind.

You’ve put your ideas, opinions and concepts on “paper” and now your mind can move onto other things.

Being in this place of having an “empty mind” and not knowing what else to possibly write about should be celebrated, not seen as failure.

It means you’ve essentially finally said what you’ve wanted to say, and you’ve cleared your mind.

So what do we do next?

How to Create More Things to Blog About

Once you’ve reached this point where you’ve written about all the things you can think of writing about, your mind (cup) has been emptied a bit.

What you now have to do is start filling that cup back up!

Read a new book, re-kindle your love for a hobby you once had, research something new, start learning a new skill of some sort…

… there are just a few ways that you can start to fill your cup again.

Get around other people who are succeeding in areas that you’ve wanted to succeed, and learn something new!

As you start filling your cup again, it will give you new things to think about and new things to Blog about.

Take my recent decision to lose weight and get fit.

As soon as I made that decision, I started reading books, taking courses, researching and even consulting with personal trainers on the topic of health and fitness.

As I’m learning more about this topic, it’s giving me new Blog content to write about, and ideas for the types of videos I can shoot.

This is the beauty of Blogging – it forces you to go out there and to LIVE life and to LEARN new things to that you have something to Blog about on a regular basis!

A very successful person once told me that he has been journaling in his journal every single day for decades, and the most common objections people tell him when he recommends daily journaling is that people say that they don’t have anything to write about.

His answer to that objection was simply this… he said “Look, if you spend a 24 hour period of time on this planet, and during that time throughout the entire day you have NOTHING interesting happen to you, and you LEARN NOTHING new, and you have NO NEW THOUGHTS, and you EXPERIENCE NOTHING that would be worth writing about in your journal, then you seriously need to re-evaluate your life because you’re either living a very small life far beyond your capabilities OR you’re going through your days completely unaware of what’s happening in your life because you’re not paying attention.  In either case you may want to make some changes.  To live a day on this planet without having anything interesting to write about in your journal is a total waste.”

I first heard this about 20 years ago and I’ve been journaling on an almost daily basis ever since and I have to say that it has been very transformational.

Journaling on a regular basis led me to also love Blogging on a regular basis.

And both journaling and Blogging have really helped me in my life by making me aware – every single day – that I’ve got to do SOMETHING with my life each day… something worth Blogging about or Journaling about, otherwise I’m wasting my life!

So if you’re feeling totally stuck and you don’t know what to Blog about – firstly, I recommend celebrating the fact that you’ve probably emptied your cup and de-cluttered a lot of the noise that has been swimming around in your head.

Secondly, it’s time to now start making some changes in your life by learning something new, or taking on a new project, or re-connecting with some projects you started in the past.

It’s time to LEARN and DO new things and then to Blog about them!