We’re in the second half of the year already and it seems as though in the blink of an eye I went from setting my 2017 goals to flicking through my diary wondering how I could have filled all those pages up already.
Anyway, that’s not why you’re here. You’re here for the June report.
This month was our biggest month yet bringing in just shy of $3k revenue and breaking all records.
Interested in how we did it? Let the analysis begin…
Website Traffic for June 2017
Our Google Analytics ‘Audience Overview’ for June looks like this:
The image breakdown is as follows:
- Sessions: 29,935
- Users: 24,378 (unique visitors)
- Page Views: 46,014
- Avg. Session Duration: 00:01:35
- Bounce Rate: 77.76%
Traffic Analysis
As I count monthly totals and some months have less days in it than others, it was no surprise that there was a slight drop in traffic numbers because June has less days in it than May.
In addition, to help social enterprise Who Gives A Crap reach their magic million dollar donation goal for June, I agreed to change our Instagram link so that it pointed to the Who Gives A Crap’s website rather than Eco Warrior Princess. I have never done this because Instagram is a great referrer of traffic to the site but I figured for the sake of a good cause, Eco Warrior Princess should give up Instagram prime real estate just this once. We still haven’t been informed if they’ve achieved the goal, but fingers crossed they did.
Income
Here’s what we earned from each income stream in the month ($AUD):
- Google Adsense: $37.96
- Amazon Associates: $154.93
- Skimlinks: $43.93
- Linkshare: $0.00
- Share-A-Sale: $90.06
- Other Affiliate Programs: $0.00
- Sponsored Post/Paid Guest Posts: $2166.81
- Patreon Pledges/Reader Donations: $468.90
Total Income: $2,962.59
Note: There may be exchange rate discrepancies when I convert USD to AUD as I calculate what has been earned in the month rather than what has been paid in the month. Also, exchange rates used by each platform may vary.
Expenses
The expenses and costs* we incurred for the month of June were as follows:
- Software: $102.17
- People: $751.55
- Office: $355.17
- Advertising: $54.00
Total Expenses: $1,262.89
*Note: Rough estimates as the operating costs are divided between our other businesses as well.
Income Analysis
This was our best month yet, recording a net income of $1,699.70. Compared with May’s net income of $461.40 this is an outstanding result.
So how did we almost quadruple our performance in a time frame of just one month?
This remarkable turnaround can only be attributed to our focussed business development activities that saw us attract a higher number sponsored posts and Instagram ads. The business development team (which consists of just one person: Ben) will continue to help us close advertising deals and drive home the message that there is long-term value in investing in advertising with a committed sustainable lifestyle platform as Eco Warrior Princess.
We also continue to receive Patreon support from loyal readers which has been a real blessing. Although doesn’t come close to covering operating costs, the amount received has incrementally increased as some members – seeing the informational value that our website has provided – have increased their support.
Considering one of our goals this year was to achieve $4k revenue each month and we’re nearly at $3k half-way through the year is an amazing effort and one that deserves major celebration. When I look back at our first blog transparency report published only a year ago, and see that we earned a measly $100 – and that wasn’t even factoring in expenses which we only just started to record this year! – a date with a bottle of red is absolutely warranted.
Email Subscriber Stats
Our total number of email subscribers for June:
- New Subscribers: 204
- Existing Subscribers: 4,843
- Total Subscribers: 5,047
We gained just over 200 subscribers this month due to our popular Po-Zu Piñatex™ pineapple leather shoes giveaway. I have concerns about the quality of subscribers that giveaways attract and will keep this in mind as the dynamics continue to change within digital marketing. The only thing I can do to ensure that subscribers are of high quality is to manage our email database and ensure that those who aren’t engaged are quickly removed from the database. In my opinion, you cannot influence people who do not open their emails. As we’re sitting at open rate of 24.1% and a click rate of 5.1% alarm bells aren’t ringing… yet.
Overall thoughts
I’m thrilled with our performance so far this year and happy that we’ve been able to execute on our business strategy. As we’re now in the latter part of the year, we will continue to expand our team by hiring more writers so that our sustainability message reaches far corners of the world.
In terms of our profitability, I am confident that it will go from strength to financial strength, particularly with our increased focus on business development. We also moved out of our leased office in June and moved headquarters back to our farm. With Australia’s National Broadband Network rolled out to our region, we now have reliable internet service and do not need to rent an office. This will help us keep overheads low and use the funds towards hiring more talented team members as well as invest in better software.
If I put as much work into Eco Warrior Princess in the second half of the year as I did in the first half, we won’t just meet our revenue targets, we’ll exceed them. Wish me luck!
Make sure to subscribe if you’re keen to follow our sustainable business journey!
If you value our work perhaps you can spare US$1 a month to support us in our mission to be the change and spread the sustainability message far and wide? We also have some rad rewards for our pledgees. Head to our Patreon page for more details. Or if you’re keen to work with us, make sure to download our media kit from this page.
Click here for a running tally of our gross income.
Are you a green blogger or sustainable business entrepreneur? How are you going with achieving your business goals? I love chatting all things related to ecopreneurship and if you do too, feel free to leave a comment below!
