Welcome to the first post of my blogging series, where I will be sharing my journey from the first month of blogging. In this series, I will talk about the strategies I used, share some stats, income report, lessons I learned, and my goals for the next month.
For those of you here for the first time, a quick intro: I started this blog to share my story of being self-employed—sharing the good, the not-so-good, my expertise and everything I have learned. My aim is to inspire free spirits like myself to go after the life they want.
This blog series is meant to inspire those thinking about starting their own blog. Through my experiences, I hope you can pick up some strategies for your own blog. Keep in mind, there is no one-size-fits-all method, and every blogger’s progress and strategy will be different. If you have been following me, you know I am all about trying things out because I believe that “every failure is just a step towards success.” This principle guides everything I do.
To get a better understanding of my blog, check out my previous posts::
- Beginner’s Guide: How to start your own blog?
- 4 Easy and Proven Steps to Set Up Free Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress
- 4 Quick & Easy Steps to Verify Google Search Console for your WordPress Website
A bit of background: I started getting ready for my blog in mid-October and launched it on November 1st with four blog posts. Setting a launch date and working towards it was important—whether or not the blog felt completely ready. Remember, progress over perfection. Read on as I share the story of my first month in the blogging world, hoping you will find some insights that make sense for your own journey.
Blogging Goals for November
In November, my goal was simple: increase page views on my site and add more blog content.
Why? To achieve my short-term blogging goal of earning some cash from ad agencies and affiliate marketing, like a small bonus every month.
To make this happen, I committed to consistently creating valuable content that my readers enjoy. Over time, I aim to meet the criteria for ad agencies and start earning through Google Adsense.
In my current affiliate marketing strategy, I only promote products I have personally tried. As I progress on this journey, I believe I will continue to bring more value to my readers, anticipating more affiliates and brands I love to share.
This month, my focus was on producing regular, valuable content and attracting organic traffic to my site.
To track my performance, I started collecting data from the day I launched. One crucial step was setting up GA4 for my blog even before the launch, ensuring I have a complete data set to evaluate what’s working and what’s not.
Commitment Schedule
Here’s what I committed to in November:
- 3 Pinterest Pins every weekday
- 2 Blog posts every week
I successfully achieved both.
Do keep in mind that everything is organic and started from scratch. I didn’t have any prior affiliate links or an existing Pinterest account.
Now, you might think, “Is this too little?” Well, yes, if you’re thinking like a full-time blogger. But, with my Etsy shop and the long-term plan for the blog focusing on digital products, I have allocated my time accordingly.
Results + Insights
Firstly, let’s talk about the blog’s income report: I didn’t make any profit this month. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to, considering I am just starting out. With organic traffic and Google ranking, growth takes time. It’s an exponential process. Knowing that it will happen, my task is simple: ignore the small voices and keep working.
Now, diving into Google Analytics 4, here’s what I am looking for this month:
(1) Top Blog posts with High Pageviews:
The top 3 posts for November are interesting—2 under Business and 1 under Arts and Crafts. Upon closer look in Pinterest, art-related pins perform significantly better compared to those in analytics and business.
(2) Top Blog posts with High Engagement
Here, what we can tell is that these 9 posts have very low views and high engagement rate. This does not tell us much as page views are not significant yet. However, what is interesting is for posts 1 and 8, the same user views them more than once. This suggests that they contain valuable content, making readers revisit.
(3) Top 3 Best-Performing Blog Posts
Considering views, views per user, and engagement rate, the top 3 performing posts are::
- For Etsy Shop Owners: The Art of Analyzing Etsy Stats
- Perspective Drawing Mastery: From Novice to Pro
- How to break through 8K+ Monthly views on Pinterest?
(4) Traffic Breakdown
I also want to know where my readers are coming from and so I can allocate my marketing efforts accordingly. From this, I cannot tell much as the majority of the traffic comes from direct. And since pinterest will take some time, this will not be a good time to evaluate the effectiveness of Pinterest.
Shifting to Google AdSense, my application this month did not succeed. My hunch is that I lack enough content on my site.
Regarding affiliates, I haven’t aggressively promoted links yet, just placing them here and there.
Lastly, Google Search Console. My average position on Google is 8.1—a good start, considering it’s only been a month.
Learnings
Here are the learnings for this month:
- Arts and Crafts blog posts thrive on Pinterest.
- Blogging, Etsy, and Pinterest posts demonstrate strong rankings.
Opportunities/Rooms for Improvements:
- Generate more related pins for top-performing pins on Pinterest.
- Develop additional Arts and Crafts blog content.
- Continue with blogging and Etsy related posts.
- Explore marketing strategy posts.
- Rooms to step up on organic traffic—depending solely on Pinterest is not enough.
- To achieve short-term income goals, start to actively promote affiliates.
Goals for December
In December, my aim is to continue increasing page views and creating valuable content. Here are my goals:
- Post at least 3 Pinterest Pins every weekday.
- Share at least 1 Tweet every day.
- Publish 2 blog posts every week.
Stay tuned for next month’s update! 😉
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