Traffic and Income Report – Soukaina Collections Handmade & Crochet Pattern Business

Before we start, I just wanted to say a big thank you for everyone who takes the time to read my online traffic and income report.

This month was a really great month (Hint: the best so far!) here at Soukaina Collections, although I did almost nothing this month. It’s not that I’ve been lazy, but when you work online, sometimes things just don’t get done. Don’t ask me why it’s just the way it is. The truth is that it’s not always easy to give time to your digital life while you are so busy in the real world. Ok, let’s dive in because this month’s metrics are really great…

So another month without that much work, yet I earned more than the last three months combined! I really start to enjoy that 80/20 rule… It makes your life easier. I didn’t even make a new post since last month (that’s bad actually!) I need to get more consistent.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase through one of the links below, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Hold on! If it’s your very first time on the Soukaina Collection crochet pattern blog, I suggest you read the backstory first…

I started crocheting and selling my finished crochet handmade items in the real world two years ago, and in February 2019, my father advised me to start a WordPress blog and create my own crochet designs and sell the patterns on Etsy.

I then registered my domain with my father’s SiteGround web hosting (after a very long brainstorming session that lasted several days in order to find my beautiful domain name). Then, I learned how to create a WordPress blog, and how to drive traffic to the blog with SEO and social media.

The “Soukaina Collections” brand was born.

Today, one year after the first brainstorming session, more than four thousand monthly visitors read my crochet & handmade blog, visit my Etsy shop specialized in beautiful modern crochet patterns for babies, and I made more than 500 sales while I’m still studying in secondary. I’m really happy with my results. The truth is that a few months ago, I would never imagine that I could make money on the Internet or even write monthly traffic & income reports for my readers.

Actually, I really started working on the blog since July 2019. That means that I’m really working on my crochet business for almost nine months now.

Why I’m writing traffic & income reports?

Because I want to help make money in 2020.

These are actually 3 good reasons:

First, my dad suggested that it would be better for me to sell online than selling my finished handmade crochet items in the real world. He really knows what he is doing when it comes to online business (he started doing business online in 2007 if you see what I mean), and he’s also helping me in the business, showing me what works and what doesn’t.

Secondly, the purpose of these reports is to teach my friends, readers, what I do to market my crochet pattern business online. Whenever someone asks me what I do, I just sent him to the blog! If you want to start a blog and make some money or even make a living later from what you love doing, those income reports show you exactly how to go from zero to making some money…

Lastly, I believe that documenting my results and progress will motivate me even more because I actually have to put some real numbers for my readers. I have to get out of my comfort zone and deliver something! Plus I get some more traffic to the blog.

I plan to publish a new income report here every month for at least a few months. If you want, you can see how I made my first sale online and also my first affiliate commission (that was a wonderful feeling)!

What can you expect to see here?

My progress, results, and failures.

You’ll learn some insights, experiments, and strategies that may help you to create or grow your own crochet, knitting or craft DIY Handmade business. Before you read further, I think you’d want to know how I’m making some money with my blog, right?

So how do I make money at Soukaina Collections?

At the time of this writing, I make money selling patterns on Etsy, and promoting affiliate products (Amazon and other affiliates).

Save it to Pinterest!

Here are some tips:

There are two ways to drive people to your blog, you can pay for traffic (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or Etsy ads), or you can decide to get “free” traffic (which is not really free because your time has a cost) with SEO and Social media.

As for the how, you can focus on selling paid patterns or giving your patterns for free and make money from advertising (Adsense, Mediavine, adthrive, etc.) and affiliate marketing or do a mix of both. It’s up to you.

This is my complete business plan (more on how these different strategies are working for me below). Oh, and I want to stress out that there is no “one size fits all” way of marketing your online business. Like in a real brick and mortar business, everyone runs his business as he wants.

Note: In this report, you will only find the online traffic and income side of my crochet business. So what I sell offline isn’t included here, I treat that as a second stream of income.

Ok, enough said…

Here’s what you are waiting for:

1) Money:

Etsy Shop: $295.65 (Last Month: $108.20)
Ravelry: $12
Amazon (affiliates): $1.75 (Last month: $0.36)

Total Income: $308.75

Expenses:

Etsy Seller Fees: $38.18 (Last month: $14.51)
SiteGround Hosting/Internet: $6.71

Total Profit: $263.86 (Last Month: $94.05)

2) Traffic:

Important Growth Metrics (Unique Visitors):

7,720 Visits (Unique Users)
15,455 Pageviews

(Last Month: 4,004 Visits & 7,915 Pageviews)

Traffic for each main source:

Google: 745
All Free Crochet: 888 (Last Month: 427)
Ravelry: 168 (Last Month: 166)
Facebook: 393 (Last Month: 896)
Pinterest: 4796 (Last Month: 1148)
Direct: 711
Instagram: 15 (Last Month: 10)
Twitter: 4 (Last Month: 4)

My Comments:

1) Money:

Great traffic, great results, great month.

My two crochet baby dresses are doing an incredible job, bringing in 80% of traffic and 80% of sales. Definitively going to design more of these.

I’m happy to see that I’ve made a couple of sales on Ravelry this month.

Etsy Shop: I (still) have 26 crochet patterns in my shop. I didn’t crochet anything for Soukaina Collections online business in February, though I did crochet a few items for my offline business.

I thought that December & January where the best months for crochet pattern designers and anything crochet in general, but now I can affirm that the best month is February. I think that after that numbers will start to go down, it’s just how the crochet biz is, so I’ll have to be creative to maintain my traffic and income.

Ravelry: I’ve made $12 on Ravelry this month, that’s awesome! And you know what? I also made $6 in January but I didn’t know it because since Ravelry wasn’t making me any money at all (I got some good traffic from there), I didn’t bother looking at my stats. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that I made a couple of dollars this month and last month as well.

Amazon: No much to talk about here. I’m keeping Amazon, but it becomes clear that it’s not a big moneymaker for my online crochet business blog. A few dollars here and they are not bad though.

2) Traffic:

I got a lot of new visitors to my blog this month. I went from 4,004 visitors in January to 7,720 visitors this month!

And I did not crochet or even work this month. All I did was writing four Facebook updates on my brand new page, and I also posted a few posts in Facebook groups. That means that the traffic I got this month is the “effet boule de neige” (snowball effect). I got 10,528 sessions last month, this is great because that means that sooner than later I will be able to sign up with Mediavine and add a new stream of income to the blog. I’m getting closer.

Google: Google sends a lot of traffic to my blog. I don’t rely on SEO, but getting traffic from Google is important because many of my fellow crocheters use Google to find free and paid patterns, So I have to be there. This month I should create a (simple) baby blanket, so traffic should increase. I’ve searched with Ubbersuggest and I’ve found out that blankets and baby blankets get a lot of traffic, even more than the keyword crochet baby dress.

All Free Crochet: I didn’t create anything this month, but surprise, traffic increased as well! I got 888 visitors in February. I’m super happy about that.

Facebook: My brand new Facebook page is doing well. I got many likes and people read, try and comment on my patterns. Thank you everyone for that. But this month traffic went down, I got 896 views on January for 393 this month. But the truth is I don’t have a sound strategy for Facebook yet.

Ravelry: Traffic is steady, but now I get some sales, that’s great!

Pinterest: Now! I start to understand why people love Pinterest. I start to love it more as well. Look at these numbers: 414 visitors in December, 1148 in January, and… 4796 visitors in February! My Pinterest long term strategy (that I have not perfected yet) is working. I pin at least 5-10 times daily. And I didn’t create any new Pinterest image that month. All I did was pinning (or resharing) other people’s pins daily. I didn’t post in Tailwind tribes this month because my free credit is about to expire. I’m still not sure whether I should add Tailwind to my tools yet.

3) Goals:

I’ve reached all my goals for this month except that I didn’t add any new listing on Etsy (not so good), and I didn’t make any new posts.

But traffic and sales still increased. How awesome is that?

This month, my goal is to create my first baby blanket. This will be the beginning of a series of blankets. Like that you’ll be able to find everything you need in my Etsy shop, from complete baby outfits to accessories and blankets!

Thank you so much for reading my report and for following and supporting my blog. If you have any questions about growing your online business or starting your blog for your crochet handmade or pattern, just leave a comment below and I’ll be more than happy to help.

Happy crocheting (or Happy blogging, knitting, or whatever you do online)!