2018 has just passed, and now it is the right time to take a look back on the previous year of blogging, and of course doubts - take a quick glimpse of 2019.
In today's article, I will reveal data behind the blog scenes - both traffic and income for the whole year of 2018. But before we dig into the numbers, here is the brief background - blog now is more than five years old, and for the last five years it has gone a very long way,
Make sure to check out my previous yearly blogging reviews:
- 2017 - 2017 Blog Income & Traffic Review - Goals For 2018 / $24,920.47
- 2016 - Blog Traffic and Income Report 2016 - 635,048 Users / $18,586.41
- 2015 - Blog Traffic and Income Report for 2015 - 347,035 users / $9,819.71
- 2014 - Blog Income Report 2014 / $3,334.20
About blog traffic in 2018
- In total blog have reached 1,212,588 (that's more than a million) users in 2018
- On average it is 101,049 monthly users or
- 3,322 daily visitors
Blog traffic report 2018 (monthly view). Data source: Google Analytics
Compared to 2017, last year blog had about 15% growth. Having 100,000 users a month is nothing special anymore. I'm focused now on 200K. Growing Blog Audience to 200,000/mo users in next 365 days
Top 10 most popular articles
In total, I have written 411 articles in 2018, on average that is 1.12 article per day, which is a slight increase if compared to 2017, but still lags behind my early blogging years when I averaged 428 - 479 articles in a year:
- 2017 - 386 articles,
- 2016 - 469 articles,
- 2015 - 479 articles
- 2014 - 428 articles.
Top 10 articles (according to Google Analytics) generated 22.46% from total page views on the blog. Surprisingly but in previous years this ratio was much higher (about 40% from all page views were generated with just top 10 articles).
I actually like it - as it means there is a larger competition between articles.
In total there were 43 articles written in 2018 which got more than 1,000 pageviews. Which is really good. Or let's say this way - about 10% from what I have written in 2018, was so popular that attracted more than 1,000 pageviews.
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About Blog Income 2018
Combined income streams from affiliate marketing and display ads in 2018 made $20,517.34, which is about -20% decrease if compared to 2017. Ouch.
- $20,517.34 is around $1,709 per month or
- $56.21 per day
Combined RPM from all revenue channels stands at $12.47 in 2018. Which unfortunately is again a 4 dollar decrease for every 1000 page views if compared to the previous year.
Back in 2016 blog got the highest RPM in its history - $20.50.If I managed to keep such RPM in 2018 that would mean that instead of $20,000 I would have made almost $32,000. Now the difference makes $12,000. Pretty cool, right? I don't feel comfortable RPM rate decreasing for the second year in a row. In 2019 I should figure how to get back at the $15 RPM levels at least.
Goals / Forecasts for 2019
As usual, I will end report with some thoughts about future plans and forecast. But before that, let's see what I was forecasting a year ago:
As things are starting to slow down, I'm looking for about 30% increase both for traffic and income in 2018. I'm looking to reach 1,3 million user milestone, which makes about 108K users monthly. My financial goal is to reach - $32,500 income. That's about pulling $2,7K each month. From today's perspective - hard but doable!
I missed both goals for 2018. Boom.
That makes me set goals for 2019 more carefully and even humble. - As things are slowing down for the second year in a row -, I'm looking on a humble 10% increase both for traffic and income in 2019. I'm looking to reach 1,4 million users in 2019. My financial goal is to reach - $22, 000 income. That's about pulling $1,833 each month. From today's perspective - hard but doable!