Aloha my lovelies!
I hope you all had a wonderful start to your 2022 year.
The month of January was an interesting month overall in terms of productivity and I’m really proud of myself for it.
I’ll keep this intro short (I don’t really have much to say this time around, ha) though so without further ado…
If this is your first time venturing into my neck of the woods, welcome to lemonade + adventure! I have been writing these monthly goals (and now blogging income reports) for the last five months to keep myself in check towards my number one goal with this site: full-time income. You can check them all out below.
2022: January
2021: August // September // October // November // December
Overview: I am well into my second year of blogging and I’m excited for where this blog takes me. While it hasn’t generated me full-time income (yet) I can tell that this is going to be the year that this does happen. I created these reports to keep me on track and accountable for my own actions.
Basically in essence this series is because of reasons:
- Accountability
- The analysis of patterns to see what is/isn’t working and how to improve
- My time is limited with other business ventures and I’m taking courses to improve my career situation outside of lemonade + adventure.
Table of Adventures
January Goals Recap:
- Write 3 posts. [✔]
I published 5 posts this month. I’m glad that I was able to go above and beyond what I thought I was capable of doing. However, I feel like I’m still behind where I should be with my blog so while I have some semblance of pride, I do feel as though I could have done better.
January Posts
11 Great Books to Read This Winter to Kickstart Your New Year
How to Set Monthly Goals When You Feel Like You’re Really Bad At Them
100 Life Goals Ideas That Are Pure Genius
80 Clever Monthly Goal Ideas You’re Sure to Love
How to Hold Yourself Accountable: Your Guide to Self-Discipline
The only thing I didn’t do this month? Create pins (but that wasn’t part of the deal anyway). I actually don’t like doing them. They take up too much time because I overthink their presentation – and yeah, that’s even with a subscription to Carly’s pre-made pin templates.
- SSSEO: Modules 4 + 5. [½]
I feel like I’ll have to restart this course because I keep stopping and starting it. I should have been done with it by now, haha. Ridiculous.
I did work through module four though, so yay me! But I did not work through module five.
Guess this is a new month’s adventure – again.
For me, I think Mike just isn’t entertaining in any way so it’s hard for me to concentrate on his course even if I know it’s useful (and important) for me to do so. Therefore, I will just have to make it entertaining.
When I was taking notes for module four I made the headers really pretty and it kept me focused and enthused for the influx of information. I might have to retake the notes from earlier … yikes. 😂
- Finish Sophia Lee’s Perfecting Blogging
& Perfecting Pinterest courses. [✔]
I made it through Sophia’s blogging course! It was actually really informative and I did learn quite a lot from her.
Do I think her course was better than most I have seen? I can’t tell yet.
However, after taking a look at Carly Campbell’s Pinteresting Strategies briefly I decided not to bother with Sophia’s Pinterest course. Why? Carly was her teacher. She won’t teach me anything that Carly hasn’t taught me.
Plus, Pinterest has been a righteous pain in the butt lately and I don’t have much time for its shenanigans to be honest. So, her Pinterest course is going to be for another day.
- Complete Suzi’s Printables by Number course. [½]
Suzi’s course is … interesting to say the least.
I honestly wish I had bought into Gold City Ventures course first but because I was priced out, I went with Suzi’s course instead. From what you get with her though, it’s OK, but it’s not my favorite.
I can’t stomach her though so it was tough getting through her videos (but this is solely me) this month. I did manage to make it through 60% of her content though so I’ll take that as a win.
- Reread Journey to the Center of Amazon (take notes, too). [✔]
Her e-book is as dry as sandpaper, but it does get the job done.
- Update Valentine’s Day posts with new pins. [✔]
I updated one Valentine’s Day-related post with a new pin. While I wanted to update two I decided that it was better I concentrate on the content I actually want my readers to care about and that post just isn’t it right now.
You can check that post out below.
3 Blissful Valentine’s Day Self Care Tips
Current Income
Mentally, I thought I was prepared to see the income I had seen shoot up drop, but god-only-knows I really wasn’t. For those of you who are unaware, Q1 is historically the worst time of the year for readership and for income for a lot of bloggers.
I wish I was passed over for this, but alas.
My second paycheck from Amazon was for $0.00. Yep, you read that right. Nada, nothing, zilch.
November was a dead month and therefore I made nothing commissions-wise and that’s how the cookie crumbles. For the month of January here is what is currently in the coffers:
Ad money: $7.79 (down from $61.21 in December).
Amazon Associates: $1.66 (down from $27.39 in December).
LTK: $0 (down from $13.56 in December).
Skimlinks: $0 (down from $12.15 in December).
Total January Income: $9.45
It is what it is. Know why? Cause with quality content for my readers comes quality earnings, too. The money will come.
February Goals
Foreseen Roadblocks
Shorter month, plus it’s Valentine’s Day. I also noticed that after a month where I feel on a high I drop in productivity the next month, so I need to be aware of that and try to combat the lack of motivation that hits me for some reason.
Posts
I want to publish 3 posts. If I write more, I’ll be ecstatic. I want to have a reserve of posts in my back pocket so I’m going to try my best to write more than ever this month. We’ll see though!
SEO + Social Media
I need to make a push to finish SSSEO. Therefore, instead of saying modules 4 + 5, I’m pushing to finish the whole thing this month. I need the slap to get this done and this is it. I’m wasting too much precious time dilly-dallying instead of putting my all into SEO.
And of course, social media is off to the wayside. Don’t care for it at this moment, but when I do get started, you can find my Instagram @lemonadeandadventure.
Affiliate Marketing
This is such a weird month because I don’t really have any plans for this. Maybe finish Suzi’s course? I don’t know; I’ll go with the flow.
Email Marketing (+ Subscribers)
Last month I said I had a feeling that it would click in the month of January, however, I didn’t focus on it for it to have a chance to click. I just know that I want to focus on gaining subscribers and I’ll try my best to do some lead generation. At least one.
Update Posts
Not on the agenda for now. I need to create content before wondering if I need to update any posts right now.
General Plan
The TL;DR version –
- Publish 3 posts.
- Finish SSSEO.
- Focus on a lead magnet.
While I did a lot last month, I want to keep it short and simple since this can be a pretty weird month and I don’t want to feel overwhelmed with such little time. Plus, I know myself, haha, I know I will end up terse and upset over not getting things done.
It’s Your Time to Shine, Babe
These posts are never meant to rank, so I don’t try to make them the greatest posts ever. However, I feel my best when I lay out all of my plans regardless.
My conclusion headers are always meant to encourage me and I hope in some way that they do the same for you going forward. All the best and have a smashing month!