Hello friends!
Has another month ended already?! Whew- where does the time go! July was a great month for me personally, and a wonderful month for Home on Arbor Pointe! First, let me begin by saying month two felt far less stressful than month one! That is not to say that month two was easy for blogging, but I think I am figuring things out and also learning to roll with the punches when it comes to the technical stuff. Blogging is exciting, but it is not as easy as taking a few pictures, writing a few paragraphs, and hitting publish. I am learning about SEO, how to use alt tags in pictures, and how to build a promotion strategy that keeps people coming back to my blog. Lots of work- but crazy fun! Excited to share my second blog income and traffic report!
If you wish to see the income and traffic report for my first month, click here.
Let’s talk about the income and traffic report!
Okay, so I will let the cat out of the bag now- I earned $0 this month. No surprise, but I just want to put that out there! I also received notification from Amazon that I hit the 90 day mark as one of their affiliates, so I have 90 days remaining to get a sale. Yikes- not sure what that means, but I am not worried! It will happen. I just know it.
For those not familiar with my blog history, I launched in May 2015. I used the free version of WordPress.com, with no real intention of building my blog to a business. In two years, I wrote 10-11 posts- all fun, all kind of scattered. In January 2017, I learned the potential that exists with blogging. I began researching some bloggers’ incomes and was absolutely blown away by the money being made! Holy cow! It got me thinking: wouldn’t it be cool to turn a hobby for which I have so much passion into a profitable business? Well, we will see how it goes…
…and here are the traffic numbers!
On June 5, I launched my blog. I had 798 pageviews for the month of June. Super stoked about that! I began a free trial of Tailwind on June 24 and in the last 6 days of June, I had 396 of the 798 pageviews. Pretty crazy, right?! I was so pumped going into July. I worked A LOT of hours in June and it felt so good to see traffic pick up. And that was just the beginning. A crazy thing happened- I woke up the morning of July 3 to find I had already had 150 pageviews for the day! AMAZING!!! I published my prepared post on how to make a pallet flag, and the views continued to soar! I reached 353 pageviews. My blog, that was only 28 DAYS OLD, hit 353 pageviews in one day. Mind blown!
Click here to see how to drive more traffic to your blog focusing on four things!
The week continued on that high note, giving me my highest number of pageviews on a single day with 448 on July 6. My blog got 2,122 pageviews the week of July 3! The irony? We were on vacation the entire time in Michigan that week! However, I will admit, I was working on promoting my blog every day we were there. No lie, the excitement of the amazing leap in pageviews was an awesome motivator. I owe a lot of this sudden bump in traffic to a Tailwind looping strategy I learned from a fellow blogger. I will have more details about that strategy in next week’s post!
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So What to Do with All of this Traffic?
For almost every day of the week of Fourth of July, I hit 200-400 pageviews. It slowly trickled down to an average of 150-200 pageviews daily, but I will take it! I installed Google Analytics, but I must have done something wrong, because it would not link to my blog. I had to rely on the stats from the Jetpack plug-in on my blog. Below are the screenshots:
Here are the number of pageviews by the week for July:
- July 3- 2,122
- Ju 10- 1,338
- July 17- 1,133
- Ju 24- 330
Along with starting Tailwind on June 24, I started a 30 day trial with BoardBooster on July 5. The combination of the two helped my pageviews skyrocket. I really, really enjoy blogging, and I put a LOT of hours into it in June and throughout the month of July.
Truth is, though- and I always want to be 100% truthful with you- it is not all roses and champagne! There is still so much I am learning, and so much I want to do, and so much I need to figure out. Like Google Analytics, for one example! I think a big lesson I learned in July is to prioritize the must dos for my blog, while still carving out time for the may dos. The may dos is where my creativity turns to reality. Love this part! And the second lesson I learned in July is that I love Tailwind, and like I promised, that post is coming soon…
Let’s Examine July
Okay, let’s see how I did with the goals I set in June for July:
- One blog post each Monday, having each post ready to publish 2-3 weeks prior: yes and no. I published a blog post every Monday- and even one extra one on a Thursday- except July 31. I went back to work July 26 and I was super swamped, and because I am not preparing my posts well in advance like I was in June, my blog suffered.
- Plan content calendar through October: yes. I move plans around a lot, but I think being too rigid might lead to blog burnout. I am okay with my level of flexibility.
- 2500 pageviews- CHECK! I had 5,065 pageviews in the month of July (3,738 visitors).
- Become part of 16 group boards on Pinterest. Nope. I belong to 12. I have applied for twice that number, easily, and joined every one that invited me.
- Be more active on Facebook group boards, engaging 5/7 days. NOT EVEN CLOSE! I was too focused on Pinterest.
- Start Mailchimp. Nope, have not touched this! I have 5 blog subscribers, and investing the time in Mailchimp right now just does not seem like it should be a priority.
July Wrap-Up
The month ended and I still have BoardBooster. The Tailwind trial ended around July 28, and I know Tailwind is the reason for my traffic blew up like crazy. I am really glad I tried both Pinterest scheduling tools, but using just BoardBooster is definitely not cutting it. I need a subscription to Tailwind-like now!
Here are the posts I published in July:
Pallet Flag- Fun Decorative Craft Just in Time for July 4!!
Fabulous farmhouse finds from Amazon
How to Organize a Pantry- and Keep it Organized with Teenagers in the Home
How to Decorate a Picture Frame
Goals for August
So now, my August goals look like this:
- Purchase Tailwind! I think I may not purchase BoardBooster when it expires in a few days. I am not seeing the results from BoardBooster.
- 10,000 pageviews in August. Whew- just typing that makes me anxious! This will force me to refocus on my goals of building my blog. I cannot let the ups and downs of pageview numbers to derail my goal.
- Refocus my affiliate links in previous posts. Am I using the best links possible? How about my ad placement?
- Four blog posts. I am back to work at my day job (middle school assistant principal- LOVE, love, love), so I am going to cut myself some slack here. Keep with one post a week!
Well, there you have it! The highs and lows of blog pageviews! Let’s have a great August, friend!
Kelly