Behind The Screen: September 2015 Report

It’s that time of the month again; where I talk all things blogging and statistics! I know a lot of people who read blogs are bloggers so it’s always great to get an insight into how other bloggers operate. For those of you reading who are not bloggers get a behind the screen insight into what bloggers get up to and how you play a part in helping us to continue to do what we love!

Statistics; September 2015 

Google Analytics

September 1st – September 30th
Google Analytics (GA) statistics seem to be the benchmark for blog statistics so I’m moving away from trusting what Blogger says and using these statistics going forward. It’ s great to be able to see a month to month growth and know that I’m reaching a wider audience every time.

August vs September

Users 2,630 vs 2,029 (-601) 
Page Views 5,211 vs 3,866 (-1345) 

Well, we all knew this had to come at some point after months of reporting increases. Having seen a few other bloggers talking about this on Facebook it seems that they put it down to September being the month that everyone returns to work / school / college / university which means they have less time to be reading blogs.

With me popping off to Bestival too, I don’t think I had the most consistent of months with posting and quality content. I posted 14 times in September compared to 21 in August so no doubt this would make a difference as well as having spent August heavily promoting #ThePhoto101 workshop which drove traffic to my blog! The engagement level hasn’t seemed to have changed though and that matters more to me than numbers!

FB page likes – 659 vs 679 (+20) 
IG followers – 1053 vs 1121  (+68) 
Pinterest followers – 526 vs 531 (+5) 
Twitter followers – 2477 vs 2531 (+54) 
BlogLovin’ followers – 233 vs 238 (+5) 

Amazon Associates
– 1st September – 30th September
– £0

This month I didn’t do anything different with Amazon; I got about just under 100 clicks throughs but no purchases. I find the best way of sharing amazon links is vis twitter when I am shopping myself and just sharing what I am buying / loving!

Affiliate Window
– £1.68

This month I joined Predator Nutrition, GoNutrition and DECIEM programmes. I’m already signed up to MyProtein, Planet Organic, Simply Supplements and LessBounce.

I’ve been working on sharing the links as authentically as I can and my click throughs have shown that. Purchases are down to whether people want to shop or not and that’s not really something I can personally affect.

Affiliate Window (AW) have a facility where you add an opportunity for brands and then they reach out to you if they are interested. This worked well for me last month; at the last minute before I went to Bestival, I shared an opportunity for collaborations and that is how I came to work with DECIEM. I ended up testing out a few of their products and secured a discount for anyone wanting to try their stuff for themselves!

It costs about £5 to join AW but you can make that back really quickly (if you try!).

Other Advertising
– 1st September – 30th September
– £4.10
– unpaid

Kayla Itsines Affiliate Program
– $A0

I eventually got a response from the affiliate manager after reaching out to them asking to work together and collaborate so I could generate some content. I got a response along the lines of “if you generate more sales, we’ll do more with you”; kind of counter-productive in my eyes but what can I do!

I’m considering leaving this programme as it’s not actively contributing to my blog goals and is a lot of work for no return.

Collaborative & Sponsored Posts
– £0

I didn’t accept any sponsored or collaborative posts this month for various reasons such as no time and inappropriate content.

I also made a recent decision to increase and standardise my fee for such posts. This will 100% mean a reduced income to start with but I’m happy with that.

Other work and consulting
– $30

I randomly made $30 by referring someone to TapInfluence; I’m not sure how I did this, but hey ho! It equated to about £19 when converted on PayPal.

Costs / Outgoings
– iCloud storage upgrade – £0.79

While You’re Here
Please take two minutes to {vote for me} in the MyProtein Fitness Blogger Awards!

What Worked Well Last Month
I updated my Media Kit in the last month to share my latest stats and information. I also made it easier to edit and improved the colours to be more aligned with my branding.

I wrote one of those “real” posts about my skin and the feedback was awesome. I had the post in drafts for weeks and weeks so now I’m happy and relieved I hit publish. The rest of the series is coming in due course.

What I Did New Last Month
I got a new lens for my Olympus PEN – the 45mm f1.8. The pictures this lens takes is just out of this world; being able to adjust my camera settings makes the world of difference too! Check out my IG to see the shots I’ve been taking with the new lens. Here are a couple of shots I took when trying out the 45mm:

I saved a lot of money on my lens (i.e don’t use the 25% discount code Olympus have at the moment) and I was eligible to get some cashback on my purchase so I used the money I saved to buy the tripod I’ve been saying I’m going to buy for the past few months. I went for the Velbon EF-51.

I also spent some time focusing on Instagram. I sat in on an awesome webinar where I picked up a few tips. One I just implemented was to create the @keepitsimpElle handle incase people accidentally think that is my IG handle and use it. That way, I won’t miss a thing. Literally. I also made sure my actual profile uses my name as my handle – @ellelinton – but then has my blog name in the profile so it is searchable.

What I Will Try Next Month 
– I’m cutting down my posts from 4/week to 3/week. The aim is to have more quality content which adds value to those who read it! It’ll also give me more time to promote my blog due to a little less time writing! I’ll continue to focus on great imagery too!

– add quick links for following on social media platforms at the end of posts… like this…

Follow on Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || BlogLovin’

– I’m looking to bring back my Sport’n Style posts but with great photography and styling this time 🙂 I’m going to use the next month to think about how I want these posts to look and for style inspiration

– I’m THIS close (or probably have done by the time you read this) to buying myself a ticket to Mumsnet Blogfest. The last couple of years I’ve looked in from the outside wishing I was there; this year I may just bite the bullet for the awesome line up!

Posts On Blogging You Have To Read: 
– 6 Quick Tips For Sharing Affiliate Links

Goals For The Next Month

GOAL – share one workout on the blog with images and ‘pin-able’ title image

GOAL – have a go at creating some video content for social media or the blog

So… anything I’ve missed that you’d be interested to know?! 

Do you have blog goals that you are working towards?! Have you blogged about blogging?! Share your posts with me too! 

Elle