Update #40 – May 2026 Traffic and Income Report

Third month in a row writing a traffic and income report update!

I got away from writing these for 6+ months because I was feeling pretty down about the website.

Now that I’m writing these again every month, I realize that stopping is just masking the problem.

Facing it head-on makes me reflect on my situation and formulate a game plan. I’m not sitting here all depressed when I write these. It’s actually the opposite. It’s motivational.

Spoiler: In May, I grew my traffic to 3,234 total visitors and earned $167.82 from my blog and Etsy shop. Most of my traffic came from Pinterest. My earnings came mainly from Journey ads and Etsy.

In this update, just like before, I’m going to share with you the following:

Let’s go!

May 2026 Traffic

April 2026 had 14,500 Total Impressions from Google. April also had 73 clicks.

Current month info:

May 2026 had 14,300 Total Impressions from Google. May also had 64 clicks.

So May is a little lower than April, but I would consider it flat.

Here’s a snippet of the last 6 months:

I received an email from Google stating that it was testing my site for visibility.

I think that’s a great sign, as I had been hearing nothing at all from Google for a few months.

I stopped the Pinterest ad in May, but that was pretty close to the end of the month that I stopped it.

I paid $135 in the month of May and $150 in April so I think slightly lower visitors is expected. But I will say that I expect the number of visitors in June to go down quite a bit now that I’m no longer running ads.

Click Sources in May:

• Pinterest – 2,887 (almost as many as April)
• All search engines – 192 (down about 30 from the previous month)
• The rest is random sources

Social Media Updates

I love Pinterest so much. 😭

Yay for gaining one Pinterest follower and now having 113! (Taylor Swift believes 13 is super lucky so I’m going to be proud of that 113.)

I’m still not pinning as much as I’d like, but I’ll get back on it soon. Summer is always super busy at our house so I’m not going to try to overthink this too much.

I’ll refocus on it in August and will try to pin something at least once a week between now and then.

I’ve been concentrating a lot on Etsy and just posting one article a week.

Challenges

I’m kinda losing my Etsy-making mojo.

I’m like stuck at designing. I come up with ideas but then I sit there and get lost in the beginning stages.

It’s kind of like a writer’s block.

I’m losing some motivation to create. So I’ve been putting the laptop down for a while and just focusing on my family. I do a little bit, but as soon as I get discouraged, I shut down and just stop.

There’s a lot going on in life right now and I don’t have the drive I had a month or two ago.

I know it’ll come back and I’ll get in the swing of things again.

Successes

I’m still very proud of my Etsy shop!

I had sold 17 items when I wrote my April 2026 traffic and income report. I’m proud to say that I’m up to 33 total sales on Etsy!

My Birthday Party Planner (which I created after writing this party planning post) is still my biggest seller but now I’ve sold three of my Disney Planners!

I’m currently working on a college planner for first-time college parents. Like a “buying list” and things like that.

I’ve been working on that off and on for a week.

The other success I had this month was posting every Sunday. I used to struggle with that so much and now it’s become a habit.

Income So Far in 2026

Here we go….

Journey Ad profit: $84.24 (slightly lower than last month)

Amazon Affiliate Links: $13.23 ….I have had $100+ months. The slower traffic is really impacting this.

Etsy – $63.10 (Holy crap! I didn’t know it was that much!)

All other miscellaneous affiliates: $7.25

Total in May: $167.82

YIPEE!!!

On to expenses.

I don’t have many monthly expenses. I purchased Divi Lifetime Membership as my theme in 2023 and I’m so thankful I did.

And I canceled Sellfy and am now exclusively using Etsy to sell digital products.

Etsy expenses were a little high because I’m running a marketing campaign. $41.79 total.

$29.50 for WordPress.

For subscriber/email list, I use Kit, which is free!

RankIQ – I sadly dropped this because I’m not making any profit right now.

I like RankIQ so much, I wrote an entire review on it here, but it will have to wait.

Pinterest ad – $135.00 (yeah I know – I stopped it for June)

Total expenses = $206.29 – Ugh. I was hoping I would have made a profit.

I lost about $38, which I’m fine with. Actually, I’m happy because it’s about $60 less than what I lost last month.

We’ll see what stopping these Pinterest ads does for me next month. I’m excited to see. It may be a complete fail.

Goals

I really need to finish this college planner in the month of June. I need the space in my brain for other things.

Main goal is to keep posting every Sunday.

I’ve been so good at this – I think it’s been months since I missed a Sunday.

I’d like to post two new items on the Etsy shop before June is over.

My goal is to get to 30 items before the end of the year. I’m at 14 right now.

If I can create at least 2 a month for the rest of the year, I should have 30.

I think if I take some of the items I already have and make them a different theme, I could easily knock out 5. We’ll think more on this once I finish up the college planner.

Final Thoughts

Owning a website is fun!

It gives me a hobby during my down time. I’m not upset that I haven’t had much time to spend on the website as my family time is really important and I’m thankful to have everyone home this summer.

I think stopping writing these reports when I was down didn’t help. Every single time I write these, I never feel discouraged, even if I have drop in traffic and income.

It’s actually refreshing and helps me move past the hard times.

If you’re curious, here are some of my other traffic and income reports:

March 2025 Traffic and Income Report

May 2025 Traffic and Income Report

July 2025 Traffic and Income Report

March 2026 Traffic and Income Report

April 2026 Traffic and Income Report

Or check out all of my reports here!