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Welcome to the Fly to FI Blogress Report – December 2018! For those of you here for the first time, I post monthly reports detailing my blog stats, income statement, growth strategies, and more! I hope that you get some value out of this report and enjoy reading about my progress. Follow along each month as the Fly to FI community continues to grow!

This month is extra special because I also include annual data as well. Thank you to each and every one of you readers who support this blog!

This content may contain affiliate links. See the Privacy Policy for more information.

Blogress Report – December 2018

If you want to support this blog, please share with your friends, family, and colleagues. Additionally, check out our resources page to access amazing tools to help you on your financial journey!

Let’s dig in.

Blog Posts

This month I published 6 articles within 5 categories.

Side Hustles – 1 article

The Zero-Based Budget Side Hustle Game

Mindset – 1 article

Giving Back This Holiday Season – Support Our Homeless Veterans

Saving Money – 1 article

How to Achieve a 50% Savings Rate (Or Better!)

My Journey – 1 article

Blogress Report – November 2018

Guest Posts – 2 articles

How Minimalism Can Help Your Finances

Should You Eliminate Debt Before Reaching Retirement?

Podcast Episodes

A Power Couple’s Path to FI | Jimmy and Jenny from Living Life Loving Us

Hacking College, Real Estate, and FU Money | Craig Curelop from Bigger Pockets

Taking the Entrepreneurial Leap | Jamila Souffrant from Journey to Launch

A Military Member with a Massive Financial Turnaround | The Incredible Cash Dummy

Christmas Thoughts, 2018 Reflection, 2019 Goals

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December Blog Stats

Month-to-Month Analysis

Finally, I broke 10,000 page views this month! Although it’s just a vanity metric, I’m super pumped to have finally hit this number. My next big goal is 25,000 page views per month. Let’s see how long it takes!

Annual Blog Stats

This year has been an amazing journey since launching the blog back in late April 2018. I’ve had nearly 21,000 users, 55,000 page views, and the numbers continue to climb! I’m stoked to see what 2019 has in store.

Annual Income Statement

Moving forward, I will no longer count my podcast income and expenses in this report.

Income

Net Income: $1,935.70. Although this number is only pennies on a per-hour basis, I am pumped that I earned nearly $2,000 after 7 months of blogging. As my readership grows and I continue to deliver valuable content, I suspect that this number will keep going up!

Affiliates

FlexOffers: $420. FlexOffers is an affiliate program aggregator. If you own a website or blog, I highly recommend checking them out. I use their platform to promote products or services that I truly believe in. One example is Personal Capital.

Personal Capital is a FREE online tool to help track your spending and net worth. If you’re not already using this awesome software, click here to get started!

M1 Finance: $200. M1 Finance is the first investment platform that offers FREE robo-advising. If you’d rather not worry about your investments, let M1 take care of them for you. They are also commission-free and do not charge asset management fees. Check out my M1 Finance review and account setup guide.

Siteground: $150. This is the best website I have used for hosting a domain. I typically buy my domains through Namecheap and then host them on SiteGround. The process is simple and SiteGround provides great website speed and customer support. They offer hosting packages from as low as $3.95 per month. Get hosting with SiteGround today with this link.

Acclaim Network: $1,290. The Acclaim Network is another affiliate program aggregator that I use. One service that I promote through their platform is Credit Land.

Credit Land is a credit card review website. They analyze new credit card bonuses and special offers every month. This site is a great resource for anyone interested in travel rewards. You can apply for your next card now to support this blog!

*PLEASE READ CREDIT CARD BASICS BEFORE APPLYING FOR YOUR NEXT CREDIT CARD*

Personal Capital: $90. Personal Capital is a FREE online tool to help track your spending and net worth. It aggregates all of your assets and liabilities and can quickly give you a snapshot of your overall financial position. If you’re not already using this awesome software, click here to get started!

Share-A-Sale: $4.46. This is another affiliate program aggregator. There are thousands of different products and services on this platform to promote. Although I am very picky about promotion, I love to recommend my domain provider, Namecheap — fairly priced and amazing customer service. Find your favorite companies on Share-A-Sale to promote!

Advertisements

Google Adsense: $13.51. I actually decided to take Google Adsense off my site in mid-December because it was affecting my site speed slightly (even though it was only in my footer). I’m going to leave ads off for now, but I may bring them back once I generate enough traffic to earn $100+ per month (definitely not with Adsense though).

Other

Airbnb Credit: $80. In my How to Travel the World with Free Accommodation post, I detailed how to unlock the synergies between Airbnb and credit card rewards.

I included my Airbnb referral link and earn a bit of credit whenever someone signs up. If you use my referral link to sign up for Airbnb you receive $40 in free travel credit! Might as well take the free money, right? Click here to get started!

Guest Posts: $50. Earlier in the year, a fellow personal finance blogger reached out and asked me to write a short article for him. I did and he sent me $50!

Expenses

Total Expenses: $362.27. This year, I definitely sacrificed A LOT more time than money working on the blog. In 2019, I’m going to focus more on running the website like a business, meaning that I’ll spend money where it makes sense to recapture some of my time.

Advertisements

Facebook Ads: $150.30. I didn’t really start using Facebook Ads until the end of 2018, but I’m definitely going to leverage them moving forward. They are amazing for driving traffic to specific posts and pages or to grow my email list.

Shout out to J from Millennial Boss for pushing me out of my frugal comfort zone and convincing me to spend money to grow my brand!

Operations

Hosting: $180.

My Siteground hosting plan costs $120 for the entire year. I have used them for all of my websites and never had any serious problems or issues. Their customer support team is great as well. If you’re thinking about starting a blog/website, I highly recommend choosing Siteground.

Although I will be excluding my podcast from this report moving forward, I currently use Blubrry for hosting the podcast and could not be more pleased with their service. I have had no technical difficulties whatsoever and their customer service team is fast and responsive. Additionally, Blubrry offers comprehensive statistics about the podcast and integrates into WordPress seamlessly with the PowerPress plugin.

Miscellaneous: $31.97. These costs include The FI Show cover art and a 75-foot ethernet cord for my new podcast recording studio that I made!

What’s New in December 2018?

In this section, I’ll discuss the specific strategies I used to grow the blog and the Fly to FI brand. Have any suggestions for next month? Drop a note in the comments below!

Guest Post Appearances

This month, I had two guest interviews go live:

Living a Better Life Interview – Cody | Fly to Fi

Momentum Series Interview: Fly To FI – Carving Your Own Path To Financial Independence

Podcast Appearances

What’s Up Next: How Your Generation Affects Your Path to FI

Money Coaching

For the past few months, I’ve been doing some money coaching on the side and I LOVE it. I’ve recently added a money coaching page to my site to expand my client base and help even more people accelerate their path to financial independence. If you’re interested or know anyone who needs help earning more, spending less, and investing the rest, have them fill out my money coaching application!

Speaking Events

In addition to the money coaching I mentioned above, I’ve also been speaking at various venues to share the financial independence message. I’ve really enjoyed sharing my knowledge and expertise with high school and college-aged listeners. To help expand this venture, I’ve added a speaking page where you can hire me to speak at your next event. I mainly speak to the topics of entrepreneurship, money mastery, and goal setting, but I can speak to just about anything personal finance related. If you’re looking for an engaging speaker at your 2019 event, fill out this form!

3-Day Financial Independence Email Course

I recently created a 3-day financial independence email course to attract email subscribers and to deliver valuable information on the best ways to spend less, earn more, and invest the difference. This mini-course is a great stepping stone for anyone looking to improve their financial position. Check it out!

[mailmunch-form id=”724264″]

Catch Me on the Web

Facebook Group: The FI Show

Facebook Pages: Fly to FI and The FI Show

Twitter: @flytofi

Instagram: @flytofi

Pinterest: Fly to FI

Mix: Fly to FI

Tumblr: Fly to FI

Reddit: Fly-To-FI

Google Plus: Fly to FI

Quora: Cody Berman

Maximizing Social Media

In this technological age, it’s not enough to just have social media accounts. In order to maximize the results from your social media, you will want to use the right tools. Here are a few of my favorites.

Tailwind

I’ve continued to use Tailwind to bolster my Pinterest activity. Tailwind is a Pinterest auto-scheduler that makes posting and sharing pins easy. I joined several “Tribes”, which is just a fancy term for Tailwind Groups. I definitely saw an uptick in traffic after I joined Tailwind.

If you’d like to get 15 days free like I did, use my referral link, please!

Crowdfire / Buffer

Crowdfire and Buffer are social media auto-schedulers. I use Crowdfire to schedule my own content forFacebook Page Posts, Twitter Posts, and Instagram Posts. On the other hand, I use Buffer to share other people’s content on Twitter and Facebook.

Viral Content Bee

This website is great for connecting and sharing posts with bloggers outside of your immediate circle. Basically, by sharing other people’s content, you earn ‘points’ that allow you to share your content. The more you share, the more you get shared!

Linktree

You can place your Linktree URL in your Instagram bio and link to multiple websites (Email List, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) on just one page! Check mine out here!

Rockstar Finance Forums

If you’re a blogger or content creator, you’ll definitely want to hang out in Rockstar Finance Forums. Here, I’m able to collaborate with a bunch of other amazing creators in the personal finance space. This kind of collaboration is key to growing your brand.

HARO

“Help a Reporter Out”. This is a cool (and free) program that I subscribe to that sends me three daily emails filled with topic requests from reporters across all different mediums (blogs, magazines, TV, etc.). Each email is filled with between 15-35 topic requests. Typically, I’ll find one or two topics that I’m knowledgeable about and send an email to the reporter with my thoughts. This is an AMAZING way to gain exposure in big publications.

Where Can I Improve?

I am constantly trying to improve the Fly to FI brand and deliver the best possible content to you readers.

If you have any suggestions to improve my content, site, brand, or anything at all please contact me at cody [at] flytofi [dot] com. I’m also open to new business ventures and opportunities. Don’t hesitate to hit me up!

Thanks for checking in to the Blogress Report – December 2018 (and End of Year Recap!). See you next month!

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Note: I am not a financial advisor or fiduciary. All the information presented in this article reflects my opinion. I am not liable for any financial losses incurred related to this content. My content is always written with the readers’ best interests in mind. I believe that my content is helpful and well-researched, but it is not professional financial advice. For more information, read our Privacy Policy.

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