Show me the money -August!

For those of you who like to be a little nosy like me, here are my blog stats for the month of August. πŸ˜‰

Pageviews and bounce rate August 2014 Lulu&Celeste


My numbers haven’t changed much from July’s numbers. The number of sessions and users has increased slightly, about 2%. The number of Pageviews increased by 57%. 

The greatest change was in the bounce rate. The bounce rate decreased by 97%! I had read on another blog that simply adding page breaks in your posts encourages readers to check out more of your content. Which appears to the case here. Although I really don’t understand how it works.

Top Referrers August 2014 Lulu&Celeste


The top referrer for August is Facebook, accounting for a combined 37% of all sessions. This would be for links shared on my page mainly. I’ve also been a lot more active recently in my Google+ groups so that’s starting to show up in the list.


And interestingly, three of the top ten referrers are stops on the Perfect Pattern Parcel inspiration tour I took part in. (You can see what I made for the tour here). 

Popular posts August 2014 Lulu&Celeste
The most popular post for last month was for the Uptown/Downtown dress I made and coming in close second (and considering it’s only been up for a week I’m impressed) is the post for the Perfect Pattern Parcel tour!

And now for the fun part (it’s my favourite part of the other blogger’s posts!) The earnings!

August 2014 Earnings:
Adsense:       $ 0.27
Affiliates:     $10.67
ShareASale: $ 5.00    

Total:    $15.94! 

Yay! My Adsense earnings have doubled, exciting. I have now earned enough to buy a pattern (or two on sale) or a metre of fabric! (Or I’ll save it and next month maybe I can buy a pattern AND a metre of fabric?) πŸ˜‰

Update: I ended up getting paid! I’m still on the fence about doing promotional posts though. Earlier in the month I had received an email from one my Shareasale affiliates about doing a little promotional post on a sale they were having and then by the end I’d get a $5 bonus. I figured I would try it out and see what would happen. Well, I decided to wait it out when I got a second email from them to do another similar post (that would pay out at the end of September) because I wanted to see if I’d be paid first for the first post and well, I haven’t been paid the $5 so I think I’ll hold off on doing promotional posts for them indefinitely.

Bloggy Goals for September:
  1. Showcase past pattern tests
  2. Write 1-2 tutorials for kid friendly crafts, or activities
  3. Do 1 recipe post
  4. Submit posts to more linky parties
  5. Add/update About Me pics

And exciting news! I’m going to be a contributor with FleeceFun! My first post comes up later in the month, wish me luck!

Till next time!

Side note: does anyone know what to do so that when I upload pictures they don’t darken? These graphics were white before. Argh!


Ula writes for Lulu&Celeste

Link up parties you might find me at:

Show me the money! July ;-)

Ok, so I’m not expecting to make tons of money off my blog in the near future. It would be nice to make a little through affiliates and what not to help cover the fabric costs involved in pattern testing but like I said I’m not planning on becoming a millionaire or anything. LOL

I actually enjoy reading the monthly reports some other bloggers put out (Sew McCool,  On The Cutting Floor are two I’ve read). Not sure why? Maybe I’m just a little nosy, ha!

And if you look at their numbers you’ll see that I’m like peanuts next to them (tiny tiny peanuts!)

Regardless, I like checking out their numbers so thought I’d share mine too.


I decided only in late May that I’d get a little more serious with blogging, but juggling the mommy duties, pattern testing and trying to sew things for a craft fair in December (yes, it’s early but better get prepared!) is making my progress go kinda slowly.

 (As a side note: so bizarre, these graphics had a white background not grey before I uploaded them!)

overview july

In July I had 1220 pageviews up from 613 which is increase of a little over 50%! That’s pretty cool. πŸ™‚ I attribute that to a few things: posting more often, taking part in a couple pattern giveaways, and I shared a tutorial for an easy kid’s craft. (Which is in the #2 spot for most page views seen below.)

Also, my bounce rate decreased a lot, which is possibly due to using the jump breaks in my posts after reading about it… Where? I can’t remember, ah!! But it’s easy just add a little jump break in your posts, so when people land on your main page they see snippets of each recent post, and it supposedly helps get people to click around your site. My bounce rate went from 76% in June to 48% in July.

pageviews for July
Most viewed posts/pages

When I remember I add my posts to different linky parties. I’ve found that the one that consistently brings me traffic is the linky party held at the Sew Many Ways blog. (It’s in the #1 and #8 spots for a total of 17.8% of referrers.) My other biggest referrer for July was Totally Tutorials after I submitted my tutorial for the Pressed Flower Craft for kids. That was fun, I totally didn’t expect to get the submission added so soon after emailing. (Total 11.5% of referrers).


And now for the fun part (it’s my favourite part of the other blogger’s posts!) The earnings!
July 2014 Earnings:
Adsense:      0.12
Affiliates:      4.01

Total:    $4.13! haha πŸ™‚

Although there were some other affiliate sales but they were attributed to August, since they occured on the 31st. (At least that’s when I got the emails). 

So it’s not a lot, but it’s still kind of exciting. Helps cover a bit of the fabric I’ve used for pattern testing. Not bad.

Updated to add:
Goals for August:
  1. Take part in a few blog tours (there are a couple this week!)
  2. Write up some reviews for pattern tests done in the past that were never showcased.
  3. Write 2-3 tutorials for kid friendly crafts
  4. Do 1 recipe post

Till next time!