Second month blogging: September 2017 blog report

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Last month I posted my first blog report. It ended up being a popular post, which surprised me. I guess bloggers really do like to read blogs about blogging 😉

My second month blogging: the context

I continued to work 4 days a week at my main job. I had a few busy days, and two weekends away that cut into the time I could work on blog content.

However, I had a vacation from the 18th – 22nd. Some of that time was spent away from the computer, but I also had a couple of days that I dedicated to the blog.

I’m now a couple of weeks ahead of main content (other than time dependent content like this report!), which feels good.

My second month blogging: the goals

This is what I aimed for last month:

• Page views: 1,000+
• Twitter followers: 100+
• Pinterest followers: 60+
• Instagram followers: 50+
• Email subscribers: 10+

I also wanted to publish at least one guest post, as well as ten blog posts.

My second month blogging: the stats

Here’s what you came for!

• Page views: 1,872 (+1098)
• Twitter followers: 115 (+39)
• Pinterest followers: 75 (+23)
• Instagram followers: 88 (+60)
• Email subscribers: 9 (+2)
• DA: 10 (+10)
• Blog expenses: £32.60 (Photoshop, Social Warfare Pro)
• Blog income: £0

How I doubled my traffic in my second month blogging

Here’s my traffic graph for the last two months (in sessions):

You can see September’s traffic went a lot better. My lowest days in September are the same as my highest days in August!

This is mainly because I took some time to figure out Pinterest and Tailwind.

Effectively I:

• Subscribed to Tailwind*
• Joined some tribes and some group boards (finding open tribes and boards is a bit of work, but I had a lot of success with this Facebook Group)
• Spent 1-2 hours each week scheduling pins

My Pinterest design skills also improved!

Because Pinterest doesn’t depend on followers, it’s one of the quickest ways to build traffic for a new blogger.

Blogging Tools and Resources

I host my blog with Geek Storage*. I’ve been with them since 2008, and use them to host several websites. I’ve always found the support incredibly helpful. This month they installed an SSL certificate for me (so now the site is secure).

I purchased the WordPress plugin Social Warfare*. I looked at multiple social media plugins, and in the end concluded that Social Warfare had the best features for what I wanted.

Social Warfare lets me set specific Pinterest-optimised images for the ‘Share on Pinterest’ button, which means I don’t need to dump super large images into the post. Custom tweets can be set for each post, plus you get ‘click to tweet’ buttons. Google Analytics tracking is set up automatically. The share buttons are pretty and customisable. There are no performance issues. It’s definitely worth the money.

I make my blog images with Photoshop. The monthly cost is high compared to other options out there. But I tried Canva. I tried Pixelmator. And, in the end, I came back to Photoshop. I’ve been using Photoshop for 16 years. I use it at work. I understand it, I know how to do what I want in it, and it is extremely powerful.

Next month I might spring for InDesign as well, so I can design pretty printables, ebooks, and so on. But… not this month 🙂

I signed up to Awin*. Awin is an affiliate network that gives me access to a ton of other programs.  From there I was able to sign up to affiliate programs for companies I already use (and like), thus hopefully leading to some affiliate income over time.

Finally, I have been doing a TON of reading. I signed up for a number of free email courses and worksheets. I almost signed up for a $2,000 course but luckily came to my senses in time >.>;

Blog content from my second month blogging

I wrote 1 guest post which is being published in October, and 8 blog posts. The most popular were:

• Depression Self-Care Checklist
• My First Month Blogging: August 2017 blog report
• Reflections on the Arrival of my Goddaughter

My DA score jumped from 0 to 10, which is frankly amazing. I am happy, as it means my guest posting is working.

Goals for next month

Here’s what I hope to achieve in my third month of blogging:

• Page views: 2,500+
• Twitter followers: 100+ (Twitter is not driving much traffic OR engagement)
• Pinterest followers: 100+
• Instagram followers: 120+ (Not much traffic from IG, but lots of engagement and I enjoy it)
• Email subscribers: 11+ (These are hard to get!)

I would also like to write 1 guest post, as well as 8 blog posts (averaging 2 a week seems to work for me).

Thanks for reading, and I’ll update again next month!