The end of the year is a great time to reflect, examine, and set new priorities for what’s next, which makes it the perfect time to do a review of your blog business.  If the word review makes you shiver and think of your end-of-year teacher eval meeting, where you have to prove to your administrator that you’re an effective teacher, don’t sweat it. This is your business, and you don’t have to prove anything to anyone. If it helps, this is not just a review, but also a clean-up, a chance for you to clear out some digital cobwebs, and spruce up a corner or 2 of your website. And remember, teachers kind of have 2 year-ends, so feel free to do this in December, or June… or both! I start this process with the review part because that informs the cleanup portion. It takes me a few hours if I do it all in one sitting, but it’s also possible to do a little bit at a time. And there’s no rule that says this has to be done by a certain date. Finally, before we jump in, this is a big overview-type of process that I recommend for beginners. If you’re more than a couple years into your blog, check out a more nitty-gitty review process (then come back for the cleanup because he doesn’t talk about that). Gather Your Information Data, Data, Data Yes, we’re all data’d out, but this is your data. And it’s not being used for anything except to help you make informed decisions about your blog. Data is information.  Information is power. Some things you’re going to want data for are your key performance indicators (KPIs) and can be gleaned from your Google Analytics account. Number of page views, sessions, and/or unique visitors per month.  Traffic sources. Top posts and pages Total email subscribers by month. It’s All About the Benjamins (or Washingtons… whatever) If you want your blog to make money, you need to track where your money is coming from. I can’t stress this enough. Now is the time to dig in to how much you made and how you made it. If you’ve been tracking your income and expenses, this will be easy. If not… well, it’s important. In this step we’re only focusing on income. You’d be amazed how many entrepreneurs don’t know how much money they’re bringing in!  I check in on my blog money once a month to update my spreadsheet and move my money to the proper accounts, but even I was surprised at my income when I looked. I normally just put all the numbers in the right boxes, then close it up. This time I actually looked at the monthly and yearly totals and… wow! I hadn’t even realized I’d already surpassed my revenue goal for the year by October. Sometimes numbers are fun! The two things you need to know are: Your sources of income. How much each source earned. Where Are You Spending Time and Money? Not as much fun as the income, you also need to know where you’re spending money. If you don’t already, I strongly suggest setting up a business bank account and credit card. This not only helps you track your expenses more easily, but it also protects your personal accounts from legal action (provided you’ve set up an LLC). You’ll definitely need to know: What you’re paying for in your business How much you’re paying You should also do a time audit for your own information. This involves tracking what you do for your blog and can help provide valuable insight into strengths, weakness, and improvements you can make. The goal is to find out what you’re doing in an average week, and how long you’re spending on it. With the other data you’ve collected, you’ll be able to see if you’re spending your most precious resource, your time, wisely. Break It Down Now that you’ve got all your data collected, you can start to scrutinize it. (You have no idea how hard I worked not to use the word “analyze” there, so as not to traumatize you.) The good news is that you don’t need to make spreadsheets, charts, and tables to get what you need. You