How I made $1,766 crafting online in November 2020. This post includes details of my full blog income report and traffic information along with what I’m working on to grow in 2021!
**This post may contain affiliate links. In the event of a sale, I get rewarded a small commission, at no extra cost for you. These funds help me keep my blog up and running to provide you with great content and free patterns so thank you!**
Why share my income and traffic reports?
This is my very first income and traffic report so I thought I would explain a little why I decided to put it all out there. This past week I put down my knitting needles and focussed entirely on what my goals are for 2021. I did keyword research for blog posts, worked on what my main focus will be, and planned out free pattern content. Here are a few reasons why I’m sharing these reports.
- Track my Growth. One of the things that made it onto my main goals for 2021 is to focus on my blog. As a knitwear designer and blogger, there are a lot of things I could focus on such as pattern writing, Instagram content, YouTube content… etc. Sometimes this list of items can cause my blog to take the back seat. This year I’m putting it first and hope to track my efforts with these income and traffic reports.
- Inspire others to Blog. Blogging is so much fun! I love sharing ideas with others and blogging is a way for me to do this. By sharing my blogging journey I hope to inspire others to start up their own blog.
- I love reading other bloggers’ income and traffic reports. When I was first trying to decide on how I could make money knitting and crafting I read a lot of other bloggers’ income reports. They helped me see that there is a way to make real money knitting and crocheting and what avenues I should try. I hope these reports show you that you too can make money doing something you love.
Whimsy North Traffic and Income Report:
November 2020 Blog Traffic:
November has been my strongest month yet for blog traffic! I attribute this to the fact that November is typically the busiest month for knitters and crocheters due to people looking for knitting patterns for handmade gifts and the weather cooling off.
I also published 3 posts in November which is one of my highest posting months! Is the Addi Knitting Machine Good for Kids?, How to make Knit Snow Trees, and my Colorful Twist Headband pattern.
My traffic jumped so much on the day after Thanksgiving that AdSense flagged my account for suspicious traffic. I don’t do anything to get traffic to my site other than post on Pinterest, social media and send out email newsletters so I have no idea why that happened. Either Black Friday was just a hot day for knitting or somehow I got spammed. After that, I installed a better spam filter to try and fix it.
Pageviews: 20,678
Sessions: 13,755
Pinterest is hands down my main source of traffic. I attribute my Pinterest growth over the past year to Tailwind. When I first started blogging in April of 2019 I barely had anyone reading my blog. In November of 2019, I decided to try Tailwind for 6 months to see what it could do for my traffic. I went from around 1,000 monthly blog sessions in November of 2019 to now 13,755 monthly sessions in 2020 and I attribute the majority of that to Tailwind!
Tailwind also helped grow my Pinterest account from 24,000 monthly viewers to now almost 720,000 monthly viewers in just one year!
My SEO and organic search has also been growing. This summer I took a blogging course and revamped the way I was doing my SEO for my blog and it has really paid off. Here is my Organic Search from May 2020 before I took the course and now November after implementing new SEO tactics.
The keyword research I did this week is to try and help grow my Organic Search even more in 2021.
November 2020 Blog Income:
Now it’s time for the income!
- AdSense: $72.49
- Affiliate Marketing: $23.58
- Pattern Sales: $1,102.86
- Sample Sale: $567.20
Total $1,766.13
AdSense: This was the highest AdSense month I’ve had yet obviously due to my blog traffic increase. What was frustrating was getting my blog flagged for spam traffic right after I hit my highest milestone in ad income. When that happened AdSense froze my ads so now I’m not earning anything at this moment through ads. My goal for 2021 is to reach 50,000 monthly sessions so I can switch ad networks as I’m not loving AdSense.
Affiliate Marketing: My biggest chunk of affiliate sales comes from ShareASale Affiliate Network. This was an average month for the year with some months being closer to around $100 in affiliate sales and some being lower. It’s taken me a while to grow my affiliate sales and is something I plan to focus on in 2021.
Pattern Sales: Selling knitting patterns is my main business focus and it shows. This revenue comes from both my Etsy and Ravelry stores. This month sales were pretty equal between each platform.
Sample Sale: This year I decided to do a one time sample sale in November that included items I test knitted for other designers, as well as, my own samples of designs. It was a great way to sell my actual knit items that were taking up space in my house. I plan to do an annual sample sale every year in November now!
Now I have to mention that I do also have expenses such as my Tailwind subscription, yarn purchases, Quickbooks for taxes, and fees for selling patterns on Etsy and Ravelry. This means I don’t take home all of this money. Many months I either break even or sometimes if I go overboard on yarn purchases I end up spending more than I bring in. This month I actually made money!
Next Months Goals:
- Post twice a week
- Send one newsletter per week
- Release 2 new free patterns
Have questions about blogging or making money knitting? Leave me a comment with your question and I’ll write up a post for it!
