July was a month set aside for reviewing and executing business strategy so although productive, wasn’t financially profitable. We just broke even. Well actually, we did just a bit better than breaking even. But not the kind of numbers we pulled in June.
Anyway, here’s how the month went…
Website Traffic for July 2017
The snapshot of our Google Analytics ‘Audience Overview’ for the month:
The image breakdown is as follows:
- Sessions: 29,504
- Users: 24,011 (unique visitors)
- Page Views: 45,172
- Avg. Session Duration: 00:01:35
- Bounce Rate: 77.02%
Traffic Analysis
This month was spent hiring more writers, training a new team member and planning our new website. Our team is now 13 strong, with all writers working on a contract basis.
After a brilliant June performance, we dropped the ball in business development – but with good reason. In business, sometimes you have to forgo short-term profits for long-term gains. Building team capabilities and rebranding from a blog to a conscious media business is important when aiming to achieve critical mass. That was our focus in July.
Although performance was relatively stable with no big traffic spikes (or traffic drops), our numbers are nothing to scoff at. We attracted 24,000 unique visitors to the website, averaging about 774 individuals per day. A solid result considering we don’t pay for Google or Facebook ads.
What has also been consistent is that we continue to attract great coverage from other popular websites and podcasts. This month, we were featured in the conscious fashion podcast, Conscious Chatter. Appearing in popular sites doesn’t guarantee referral traffic – and this was again the case in July. No referral traffic from any one site has ever come close to that which is referred by Google.
Income
Here’s what we earned from each income stream in July ($AUD):
- Google Adsense: $32.36
- Amazon Associates: $160.04
- Skimlinks: $53.56
- Linkshare: $0.00
- Share-A-Sale: $127.25
- Other Affiliate Programs: $0.00
- Sponsored Post/Paid Guest Posts: $750.00
- Patreon Pledges/Reader Donations: $418.13
Total Income: $1,541.34
Please 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
Here are the business expenses and costs* we incurred for the month:
- Software: $99.28
- People: $1,099.04
Total Expenses: $1,198.32
*Note: Rough estimates as the operating costs are divided between our other businesses as well.
Income Analysis
So our net income in July was $343.02. Not great, but at least we weren’t in the red. For a young media brand we’re willing to forgo short-term profits for long-term gains. The focus was on building a team, not selling advertising packages.
For the remainder of the year, my focus is on ensuring we have the right team in place and the right monetisation strategy (to help cover costs and pay team wages). Plus, I want to create a conscious media business that will survive beyond me, its founder. I’m in this for the long haul, can you tell?
Email Subscriber Stats
Our total number of email subscribers for July:
- New Subscribers: 88
- Existing Subscribers: 5,047
- Total Subscribers: 5,135
Attracting email subscribers was really not a high priority either. We didn’t run any giveaways or attempt any promotional campaigns for the month. People who subscribed to Eco Warrior Princess in July did so out of their own accord. We call these people, the ones who aren’t lured by fancy carrots, true fans. They’re the kind of people who support you without expecting anything in return because they value you what you do.
Overall thoughts
Executing business strategy will continue to be our top priority in the latter part of the year. This means expanding our team by hiring more writers and not solely focussing on immediate profits. We’ve minimised our business expenses and got rid of office overheads so the bulk of the expenses will be wages and contract costs. I will also consolidate our editorial team so that I can take a step back and work on our distribution model as well as securing strong business partnerships and sponsors.
In terms of numbers and profit, it wasn’t a very noteworthy month. It might seem as though EWP performed poorly, but this could not be further from the truth. Financial performance gave way to building solid business foundations. By the end of the year, you will start to see the fruits of our July (and August) labour. Hopefully.
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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.
