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Today I’m sharing my Month 1 blog growth report. How I went from 0 to 765 pageviews.
How do you start growing a blog from scratch?
It can seem overwhelming. I know.
I have decided to document and share with you the process of growing my own blog. Here is my month 1 blog growth report for you.
This was back in September 2019, so my blog has grown quite a bit since then, but I wanted to start from there in today’s post.
We’ll get in the nitty gritty of what exactly I’m doing, what’s working and what’s not.
Pssst. If you don’t already know, I also created a FREE 7-DAY Challenge on how to start a blog.
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I don’t know about you, but I have read tons of content on the topic of blogging and how to grow a blog.
And while all stories are inspiring, the ones that share their analytics and exactly what strategies they used to grow – those helped me the most.
I want to give that back and share my own process in the hopes that it inspires you too.
What is this blog about?
If you’re new here, I am a work from home mom to a toddler and I’ve only recently decided to take my blog to the next level. I’ve had Cappuccino and Fashion for YEARS and it’s always been a nice hobby to have.
But I never grew it further than that.
I would post an outfit here and there. I had periods when I was consistent by posting once a week, and then I had months where I posted nothing at all.
That’s hardly a good recipe for blog growth.
I didn’t even have Google Analytics installed anymore. *gasp* I know!
I had my blog on the Blogger platform to begin with and this past year I decided to switch to WordPress and to start taking it more seriously. If you’re curious about why I did the switch, read more on it here:
BLOGGER VS WORDPRESS – My Biggest Blogging Mistake
So in September 2019 I re-installed those Analytics and decided to give it a proper go.
Month 1 Blog Growth Report: 0 to 765 pageviews
I’ve broken down this blog post into a few categories to keep it easy to follow:
- Google Analytics
- Pinterest Analytics
- Number of posts published
- Strategies I used
- Goals
1. Analytics / Pageviews
Here is what my traffic looked like while my blog was pretty stagnant. I was getting a steady 30-40 views per day from the old blog posts that I had posted, but it wasn’t anything impressive.
Overall for the month of September I had 765 pageviews.
Not too bad, considering the amount of effort (or lack thereof) that I was putting into my blog.
You might notice that surge up in pageviews on September 28th.
I went back to see what posts got the most views on that particular day, because I wanted to see what worked.
The most views for that day were from this post with my Toddler Capsule Wardrobe which went mini-viral on Pinterest.
This just goes to show how powerful a tool Pinterest can be, especially for new bloggers.
That post went on to provide many more pageviews in the following months too.
My bounce rate was also quite high at 71.47%. Which is not a good thing.
If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically the amount of time a user spends on your blog after they’ve clicked on it.
Say if they clicked on your blog and instantly closed the tab, that will be a bounce rate of 100% for that user. And that ain’t good.
The goal is to get that bounce rate lower. Obviously, the more time people spend on your website, the better.
In the beginning of any blogging journey, the bounce rate will be high. But we’re going to aim to get that as low as possible.
2. Pinterest
Ok, a bit of a disclaimer here. I’ve had my Pinterest account for years, so this growth is not an overnight or a first month growth.
I don’t want you to look at these stats and feel disappointed if you’ve just started your Pinterest account and are just pinning more now. You will get there in time.
And let me tell you, Pinterest is the best platform to reach a larger audience quickly.
The main analytics that we’re looking at here is the Total Audience, which was 59.96k for me during September.
This does NOT mean that nearly 60k people read my blog. By far.
The total audience is basically the amount of monthly viewers that your pins have had during that month. They saw your pin in their feed, but not all of them are going to click to have a close-up look and go to your blog.
Some will, which will translate into the Engagement section.
The amount of Pinterest followers you have is not the best indicator of reach either.
The main pins that performed well on my blog during this month (and that brought most of those views) are the toddler capsule wardrobe ones.
And some other mom tips I have pinned.
3. Number of posts
This month I started posting a little bit more consistently, so I had 4 posts in total. It’s not a lot, but we’re getting there.
What I have noticed is that most blog posts take a while to generate traffic.
So I post them, promote them on social media, pin them on Pinterest and apply SEO best practices (which help your posts rank in Google search).
However, I’ve noticed it usually takes a little while for the posts to gain traction.
For most posts that I publish this month, for example, I will see more results the following month than the current one. If that makes sense.
I am sticking to my schedule of posting at least once a week. Ideally, I want to start posting more in the next few months, because I know I need to get more content on my blog.
I am also taking a bit of a turn with my content.
I used to post mostly my outfits, along with some mom life posts. Which I still intend to carry on posting, don’t get me wrong.
But as part of my strategy for the following months, I want to incorporate more posts about blogging, how to start a blog, how to grow a blog from scratch, Instagram tips etc.
I have become much more interested in these topics, so I want to share my journey of growing this blog – hence this blog post that you’re currently reading 🙂
We’ll see how it goes.
4. Strategies I used
- Publish 4 posts this month. As I mentioned, I’m trying to be more consistent with my blog schedule. Ideally, I will up the post frequency even more in the following months.
- Share each post on my social media (Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest etc.)
- Create at least 1 pin graphic for each post. I’m trying to up my Pinterest game, so I know I need to start creating even more graphics, but I’m taking it step by step.
- Pin every post on Pinterest. I don’t feel like I’m very consistent with pinning. I usually go and pin manually whenever I have a new post and then maybe a few more pins from other people that I find useful. But I’m by no means consistent with it, so I really want to improve in this area, as I know Pinterest is a major blog traffic driver.
I don’t feel like I currently have it all down, but I’m working on building a better strategy for my blog.
I want to create a few series of posts and see how they work. I’ll keep you updated.
5. Goals for next month
- Post at least once a week
- Pay attention to the SEO checklist for every post
- Start working on the Instagram freebies series (Lightroom presets + highlight covers)
- Create at least 1-2 pin graphics for each post
- Join some Pinterest group boards
- Pin more actively on Pinterest
- Look into e-mail subscription lists (everyone says these are a must, so I will try and see if they’re worth it for me)
Do let me know if you found my month 1 blog growth report helpful. And if you’d like to see more.
How are you growing your blog?
What strategies do you plan on using this month?
