February was a HUGE month for me…not because I had amazing traffic or that I made enough money to quit my day job.
No.
I changed the name of my blog! (To me that’s huge). I’ve been thinking of doing it for the past year. Mainly because A – I’m no longer a deal blogger. I LOVED talking about saving money and still will, I just want my site to reflect what I’m posting about. And B. I think some people were turned off that I had the name Organic in my title and I’m not a 100% organic mom. I strive to eat organic and feed my family healthy but let’s be honest, I STILL will go out to eat and live a little outside of the organic world. I also buy clothes from target that are not organic sooooooo, the organic name also didn’t fit. Finally – C. I’m not a Diva. At all. The name just sounded cool at the time. Crazy how much your taste can change in a few years. Two years ago I was all about my blog name. It was the “bees knees”…fastforward to now and I really didn’t love it anymore.
My blog has changed, I have changed. That’s what we do I guess as we grow right. Change.
Change is good as long as it’s positive, and for me, this is a positive change!
So nonetheless, it’s been quite the journey this month trying to transition my blog to the new name. I came to the conclusion that incorporating my name would help people relate to my blog and have a name for the writer at least. And Living lovely….well that comes from my mantra that everyday….I find beauty in my day. Most of the time that beauty is my family and my precious kids that I’m so very thankful for. I’m experienced loss in the last few years...loss that was earth shattering. I no longer take any day for granted. I enjoy everyday. I find the beauty in everything. It’s my new saying. I Live Lovely! I’m very happy with the new name and feel like it’s the positivity that we all need everyday! Live Lovely.
I’ve learned a few things…
Since changing my blog, I learned that I’ve lost all of my page ranking and blogging credibility. It’s a new domain, and even though I’ve cloned my site so I don’t lose any traffic, the search engines don’t think I’m all that special now. THIS has resulted in losing many sponsored opportunities. $250 total this month were lost because of my name change…and I’m sure countless more will be until I can get some page ranking authority!
I’m working hard on making sure the content I’m posting is 1) interesting 2) relevant 3) not ONLY for sponsored income, but because it’s a good fit with my readers.
I’ve also learned to say no to opportunities that might not be a good fit on my blog. I’d love the money but really…I need to post content that I would want to read. No more boring posting to make money posts here!
February Income
So now on to my income report for this month. My traffic took a dive for a few days and Feb. is a few days short, but I still ended up with a few sponsored posts and some ad income.
My Income:
Social Fabric – $500
Adsense – $104
Escalate Media – $30
(Looking for more ways to monetize your blog? View my affiliate spreadsheet here).
My expenses were:
- Host Gator: $10.95
- Creative Market (My favorite site! Where I get my fonts and images): $22
Total : $601.05
It was better then my January income, and from here on our I’m excited to grow, re-brand and begin adding more DIY and printable to my site!
Thank you for continuing to follow along! And stay tuned for more from Jessi Living Lovely! 🙂