It really doesn’t seem possible that it has already been two years. I was in a very different place and mindset two years ago when I started this blog, oh how much you can grow and learn in such a short period of time. Believe it or not, through sharing and self-reflection, this blog has helped me catapult in many areas of my life. Obviously, the biggest area and the focus of this blog is the growth that has happened financially (and continues to happen).
The growth in income and net worth has been absolutely mind-boggling. For those newer readers, this blog was created in September of 2014, and at the end of 2014 we had a net worth of $181,364 and as I peck away at the keyboard our net worth has more than doubled to $425,012 (as of July 2016). In that same time period, we have increased our income by almost 50% and are on pace to realize about $315,000 in income for 2016.
What is really nuts, is the fact that our income is primed to increase another 50% over the next 12-18 months. This has far exceeded our wildest dreams!
Speaking of growth, the blog has now been around for 24 months, shall we take a look at the numbers?
Writing Statistics
The real test for any blogger is that of consistency. As a blogger, you have to consistently produce content at regular intervals if you want to have any chance of growing your audience outside of a few close family members and friends. It’s both harder and easier than it looks. I honestly don’t think it matters whether you write 3 articles a week or 1 article a month, as long as you do this consistently. There are blogs that I read that produce only 1 article a month and have millions of page views a month. While others post 3 times a week with a fraction of that. The important thing to do is to find what works best for you!
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(BTW, my favorite recurring spam comment is a link to “free animal sex,” how did they know???) 🙂 😉 🙂
The statistic that surprises me the most is the number of words that have been published. Reaching a million words is going to be a huge milestone, and based on my current pace it will take another 4 years before we reach that milestone…I’m in!!!
Are you in?
Traffic Statistics
We’re getting close to a quarter million page views. Let’s put this into perspective, I started my first blog back in 2009, and that blog took 8 years to reach 100,000 pageviews. However, to be clear, that blog was never intended to make it to the masses. It was really a tool that a friend and I created to share trading ideas back in the day when the markets were going to zero :), which today look like they will continue going up FOREVER! All of that to say, that it takes work and concentrated effort to grow a blog following. You can’t really just build something and expect people to show up, at least not in a meaningful way.
Don’t pay too much attention to what appears to be a falloff in pageviews in August of 2016, as this was run on the 12th of the month, and therefore represents a partial month. One trend that I have noticed is that traffic tends to slow down going into the summer and starts to pick back up in September (at least that’s what I am hoping for).
In the screenshot above from Google Analytics, you can see the overall numbers, but it’s really hard to see what the trend is, because of this I like to export the data to Excel. Let’s take a look at several additional visualizations for pageviews:
In the chart above it is much easier to see the pageviews monthly trend. The trend is unmistakably up, with May-2016 showing the only YoY decrease, and that’s because in May-2015 we got shared on the Facebook page of a very large site (creating a one-time spike). Speaking of YoY, let’s look at this from yet another perspective:
Note: I have converted August-2016 into a full month by dividing by 12 and multiplying by 31 as a proxy for the month.
In the white circle above, you can see the YoY difference I pointed out for May. Overall, traffic is up 100% in year 2 vs. year 1 (woo hoo!).
Where has the traffic come from?
In the early days of the existence of this blog, we had 75% or more of the traffic coming from the Referral channel (i.e other blogs). This is partially explained by the fact the site was very new, but I was also much more active commenting on other blogs, which drove a significant amount of traffic back then. These days I still read a lot of PF blogs, but my commenting has been a fraction of what it was. To be honest, this means I am leaving thousands of pageviews on the table. More importantly, it means I am missing out on many opportunities to connect with other bloggers audiences. I do hope to get back into being an active participant on other PF blogs once work settles down a bit.
If we dive a level deeper, we can see the top 25 sources by channel:
Number 1 really surprises me the most, as I would have never guessed that this many people would be coming directly to the site. Does anything else surprise you?
Oh, and by the way, number 15 is spam traffic.
Email Statistics
I currently use MailChimp to manage my email list. The good news is that I set this up from the beginning, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2015 that I really started to focus on building my email list. The SumoMe plugin has really been the game changer, and specifically the welcome mat that drops down on a visitors first visit (see below). Prior to installing this, my email conversion rate was about 0.5%, and today it is closer to 2%.
Once a reader opts into the email list I have a series of 23 emails that get sent out over 23 weeks (all automated of course). Additionally, on the last day of the month, a blog digest also goes out automatically to the entire list (with all the posts published that month with a short blurb). Admittedly, I probably need to spend some more time improving the automated emails, but it was my first iteration. So, if you’ve signed up for the list and have seen all the emails, your feedback is welcome and much appreciated!
Below you can see that the email list continues to steadily grow month after month. We are currently 1,100 strong and growing.
Income Statistics
And the best for last. I know this is the only reason you clicked through to this post, especially you new bloggers. It amazes me that my blog can make money, given the fact that I don’t even sell anything. More amazing, is that I’m getting paid to share my thoughts in what I consider to be my public journal.
I have a bunch of stats I want to break down for you guys, but first let’s take a look at the overall results and trends:
By now you guys realize that I love visualizing data, it just makes it so much more consumable in my opinion. To date, through July of 2016, you can see that the site has earned almost $4,000 over its 2-year life. What may not be as apparent from this first chart is that 80% of that has been earned during the last 12 months, which will be much more clear in the next visualization:
You will recall from the traffic section above, that pageviews are up 100%. Well, revenue is up 300% in that same period, and this doesn’t even include any revenue for August yet! The first 5 months of this blogs life only yielded $2.73 on a cumulative basis. I still remember my wife making fun of me, when I was elated at the fact that my site had earned $1.17 during November of 2014 ( I would seriously come home excited to tell her the site earned $0.05 today).
Fast forward to July of 2016 and the site brought in $21.43/day vs. the $0.04/day back in November of 2014. That is a crazy 53,474% improvement!!! (would love to find an investment to get that kind of return in such a short period of time)
What metrics do I look at to evaluate revenue performance?
Besides the obvious of monthly revenue and/or total revenue, there is one main metric that I use to evaluate the health of my blog and its ability (i.e. effectiveness) to generate revenue. That metric is RPM, which represents the revenue the site earns for every 1,000 page views. You will notice in the table below, that I tend to look at this metric in total, and then split between ad revenue and affiliate revenue.
The sites ability to generate revenue has been much more consistent this year than it was last year. And the RPM metric has increased significantly. You can also see in the above table that the blog makes significantly more money from affiliate offers (like Personal Capital) than it does from ads. About 6 months ago, or a bit longer, I removed 70% of the ads I had placed throughout the blog in order to improve the site’s performance (load time) and to improve the readers’ experience (fewer distractions). There just wasn’t enough revenue to justify the extra ads.
There is always going to be a trade off on site load time and reader stickiness when it comes to ads. As a blogger, you need to find the happy medium with your own audience.
I think it’s amazing that the last few months have had RPM’s in excess of $50/1,000 page views. I really hope that is a lasting trend 🙂
The last metric that I like to look at is Average Revenue per Post.
Average Revenue per Post = $24.21
This has significantly increased since my update 6 months ago, where the average was $15.47. And 12 months ago this average was at $8.07. Onward and upward as they say!
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Takeaways after 24 months of blogging
This section is a pure copy past from the update I gave at the 18-month mark because they are still just as true today as there were then. Sometimes in life, we don’t always need new takeaways, instead, we need to be reminded of things we have already learned. Reinforcement is a powerful force!
- Always be testing and measure everything you test. Then optimize!
- Consistency pays off (literally).
- Be in it for the long term.
- Pay it forward by helping other bloggers when they reach out.
- Guest posts should be win/win. Put just as much effort if not more for a guest post as you would for your own site.
- Writing helps solidify your own beliefs.
- Sometimes it’s fun to present content in non-conventional ways, whether you believe it or not…it also pushes your readers to think and if you really strike a chord, expect lots of comments.
- You are not on this earth to prove anyone right or wrong.
- Always be open to other perspectives.
- There are rarely absolutes when it comes to answering personal finance questions.
- Keep it 100 (this is a new one I learned recently and had to look up on urban dictionary)
-Gen Y Finance Guy
34 Responses
Wow. Happy 2-years to ya buddy!
Your income growth is mind-blowing, but what is even more impressive is your work ethic and persistence.
Thanks for sharing all the stats to see what’s possible.
Keep up the great content, and remember to invite me onto your yacht one day. 🙂
Thanks Michael! It’s really hard to believe that it has already been 2-years. It seems like it was only a couple months ago.
I would have to be worth a hell of a lot more than $10M to have a yacht. I will do you one better, I will invite you onto a friends yacht 🙂
Happy 2 years! Cheers to another year of excellent content, income, and growth!
Thanks Pia! Would be nice to see these trends continue into the next year.
GYFG,
Congrats brother! I really enjoy your blog and watching you kick ass in the real life game of monopoly!
MDP
Thanks MDP!
People used to make fun of me for all those hours I spent playing monopoly as a kid…but maybe there paying off???
Congratulations on your 2 year run! You’ve come a long way. It’s exciting to see the trends from where you started to where you’re going! Keep sharing and inspiring others, my friend.
Thanks Rick! Progress is always fun…but still have lots of work to do.
Amazing work, buddy! I would love to see how you’re performing at the 3-, 4-, and 5-year mark!
Revol – keep reading for the next 1-3 years and you better believe I will share with you all how it’s going 🙂
GYFG, thanks for sharing your journey with us! Two years is amazing, always enjoy reading your blog and supportive/informative commenters, and looking forward to more! Continued success to you and Mrs. GYFG!
Thanks JayCeezy!
I still remember you making a comment back probably a year ago now, about how you didn’t know how “us” PF bloggers could consistently put out content on a regular basis. I am still in awe in Sam over at Financial Samurai and his ability to put out 3 new posts a week…an animal he is.
Also, just remembered as I was typing, that chick on Sam’s blog that was giving me crap about barely making 6 figures. Appreciate you stepping in to defend me…the whole string with her just made me laugh 🙂
Hope your summer is treating you well!!!
Had forgotten that silly c***, too! Recalling her attempt to ‘correct’ your definition, but her definition would mean if you made $1,000,000/year that only then would you ‘make over six figures.’ She tried to act smart, and wound up looking…something else.
You are really doing it! On blog, and IRL, you are generating great stuff. Looking forward to more!
GYFG, what do you think is a realistic number of monthly pageviews for a blog like yours over a 3-5 year time period without drastically increasing your time commitment? What is your goal? Also a question, isn’t there an affiliate revenue churn issue? I would assume that new readers are more likely to click on the affiliate links, thus pushing you to be on a new reader treadmill. Long term readers may generate affiliate revenue when they first become readers of the blog, but long term readers will need to be continually presented with new or different offers to continue to generate revenue.
Hey Heath – Great questions!
Without increasing my time commitment I think a blog like mine could reach 20,000 to 40,000 pageviews a month. The goal is actually to get to 100,000 pageviews a month, but the plan is to also increase my time commitment to the blog once my work settles down a bit (likely Q1 of 2017).
Re: Affiliate Revenue Churn
I have not noticed any churn, but I would also point out that the primary reason for this site is not to get people to click on affiliate links, or even to make a ton of money for that matter. Of course I welcome the extra earnings, as that only sweetens the pot from blogging. Also, the site has no issue of getting new readers, the search engines do all the heavy lifting on that front. About 50% of my readers every month are new and first time visitors.
Even if I were to see a decline in affiliate revenue, I would not go out and try to find new affiliate partners, just to create a fresh stream of potential income. The way I decided to use affiliate links, has to be based on my experience with the company/product that I am promoting/sharing. If I don’t or have not used it, I will not promote it. If I don’t think it would be of benefit to my readers, I will not promote it.
That said, I am sure there will continue to be plenty of companies that I know, like, and trust that will pop up and offer an opportunity for affiliate income.
The best thing about having a personal blog is that my lively hood is completely independent from the income produced from the site. It doesn’t have to make money. I just think it is pretty neat that it does. My ad revenue alone provides a 3X coverage ratio with respect to the operating costs of the blog, and that only gets bigger as pageviews increase.
Hope that answers your questions.
Cheers
Congrats on reaching the two year mark, that is a huge milestone! I only started my blog about a month ago and I can see how it can become both addictive and insanely time consuming! So far, so good.
Happy birthday! You are a great inspiration, thanks!
I love the transparency aspect of your blog Dominic! It gives me a lot of hope as I started my blog just 2.5 months ago. I’ve made some fantastic relationships along the way and learned so many new perspectives. Onwards and upwards, maybe we’ll see a 400,000 page view by the third year for your blog 😉
Finance Solver – glad you are getting a lot out of blogging. Hope to see you blogging along side me for years to come.
Cheers!
Hi Dom, thanks for sharing,
Congrats on the growth! How do you have the discipline to stay so committed when the income is so low? Perhaps you could share some of your tips with those of us intimidated to put in the time to build a blog. I guess you have to trick yourself into thinking that you are blogging because it is fun, regardless of the money? I see the amount of time you put into your blog posts, on top of a demanding job, and it just seems like a poor allocation of human capital, especially when your goal is wealth generation. Plus you have some of the strongest early growth numbers I’ve seen. I have no doubt that this will be a very successful blog at some time in the future and that all your hard work will pay off, but its hard to imaging starting my own blog and not seeing any income for the first two years.
Conrad – I really think it comes down to personal discipline. We are all busy and bound by the same 24 hours in a day. It is so easy to get sucked into the mindset of “I don’t have time for that.” The reality is that we have time for what we make time for.
To me, blogging is a lot like investing. With investing you don’t really see life changing results in any one year, but if you are in it for the long game, the results can become substantial. Also, I never got into blogging for the money. I wanted to create a platform for self expression, personal learning, growth, a place to share my journey, capture my thoughts, teach others through my own experience, inspire, and motivate others. Of course the money is nice, but it’s an added benefit.
Honestly, if you want to make money, there are many other avenues that will make you much more money in shorter periods of time.
The blog is also a place where I solidify my thinking, work through problems, and go through tons of scenarios. I do believe that I have gotten far more benefit than the $4,000 that the blog has earned to date.
I really do blog because I do think it is fun. It was a much bigger time commitment when I first got going, when I was spending 15-20 hours a week on the blog, these days I spend more like 2-3 hours a week, mostly writing content and responding to comments and emails.
Blogging isn’t for everyone.
Great to hear the consistency is paying off. Your results are a huge motivation for me. These last few months have been extremely busy for me, but I’ve still been able to keep chugging along to make consistent progress towards the far off goal of having a big following. Glad to know it only gets more exciting!
That’s awesome Brian!
Glad you have been able to keep up the consistency yourself!
Onward & Upward
Awesome job and congrats on achieving so much in 2 years, very impressive. We are relatively young to the serious-blogging world but it’s awesome seeing the progress we have done. I hope at the 2 year mark, we can say we have achieved as much as you 🙂
Good luck for the next year.
Tristan
Interesting that you say the email pop-up screen is for the first visit. I always get it on my phone when I visit. This is generally a big pet peeve of mine. If you content wasn’t so good I would have stopped visiting because of it.
Heather, glad you still come back and visit even with the annoyance of the pop-up screen. I was not aware of that on mobile, I went and changed a setting so that it would not show up more than once in a 90-day period on mobile. However, if you are subscribed to the email list it shouldn’t show up at all after your initial sign-up.
Cheers
One more question. How do make your ‘character’ artwork? Did someone draw it free hand? Or there a program that allows you to quickly make it? Thanks.
Heath – I actually use a free app called Bitmoji. You get to design you own avatar and then it creates all kinds of different scenes. It used to be called bitstrips, which I liked more than bitmoji.
Cheers
Love this post. Your passion for personal finance really shines through – so does your love of data! Thanks for sharing and the motivation to keep blogging. Congrats on 2 years doing what you love! How are you increasing your income so quickly – are you an entrepreneur/own your own business?
Hey Grant – Thank you for the kind words. Glad that the passion shines through 🙂
Who doesn’t love data and what you can do with it???
I assume when you ask how I am increasing my income so quickly, that you are not just talking about the blog income. I would consider myself an intrepreneur as I work for a company that has been very rewarding. Don’t listen to people that tell you that you can’t get rich working for someone else, it just isn’t true.
The secret to earning a lot of money is creating a lot of value. Money is just an exchange of value.
Cheers