January 2018 Blogress Report

This post contains affiliate links.

Alrighty! It’s been about an hour since my 2nd Quarter Blogress Report, but I’m determined to publish this before the end of February lol. Then I will be staying on top of it, I swear! After all, internet promises can’t be broken.

I started this blog at the beginning of July 2017. Crazy exciting, and I can’t believe how fast things have been moving since I committed to blogging and building a digital business. I want to keep up with writing these blog progs (progress report, get it?) for you all to see how this journey has been going, and for me to document progress, set new goals, and hold myself accountable. No turning back now, it’s on the internet.

Reports like these are exactly what built up my confidence before ditching the 9-to-5 and pursuing a life I love. You might think it’s crazy, but if I can share a little optimism for struggling moms like me, then I’ll be happy! I want to share my own to inform hardworking newcomers of blogging possibilities and how fast (or slow) things can grow.

Personally

January was fabulous for me and mine. The “Monday of Months” gets a bad rap, but all of the encouraging best year ever talk is infectious. I’m totally on the #SelfCare2018 bandwagon, but my form of self-care has been entirely focused on personal development. That’s what makes me feel good these days, so that’s what I’m doing.

My husband was home until about the 20th before we shipped him back up to school. The baby and I were able to visit since I’m no longer confined to an unnecessarily demanding office schedule, and an interesting opportunity came out of it. My flexibility made me available to help out our relatives in New York and play Mary Poppins to our young cousins! I took them up on their offer because it would bring us closer to my husband. Yay family! It’s been a trial run, but spoiler alert – I’m going home. If you follow me on instagram, then you’ve been seeing a lot of the fun we’ve been having.

But I can’t wait to get back to our home in Florida with blue skies and sandy beaches. Just in time for me to wish my self-care plans involved more cardio. Are one-pieces still trendy? Please say yes!!

Professionally

I’m very pleased with the blog and its progress! I’ve been getting much more organized and finding ways to streamline my processes. Focusing on high ROI activities like manual pinning with Carly’s Pinterest Strategy and experimenting with pinterest images.

For tax purposes, I’m going to register my blogging business as an LLC. I specifically waited until 2018 because I want to use the year to get my sh*t together before tax time haha!

Achievements

I had a few huge achievements this month. In chronological order…

• I HAD MY FIRST VIRAL PIN!

Crazy exciting! Like, unbelievable? Totally lucky (or not) but I have been investing in my blogging education and I will let you in on what I think was the secret to my success.

The Headline. There is a lot of psychology behind a viral headline. Think about it. No pun intended. Seriously though, the perfect headline is an art form. I started taking notes from places like BuzzFeed and literally anyone that shows up on my facebook feed. That facebook algorithm is a beast to get through these days, so if I’m seeing it it must be on fire.

This post brought in almost 50,000 page views in January. See? INSANITY! You can check out that viral post here!

• I REACHED 1 MILLION MONTHLY PINTEREST VIEWS!

I never thought that would happen so fast, but it is entirely thanks to that wonderful ebook that I keep beating over your head!

So I went through 2/2 for legitimacy’s sake, but Pinterest rounds up, and I was at 975k on January 31st! So it said 1M lol

• I WAS PUBLISHED ON SCARY MOMMY!

Guest Posting is one traffic-driving tactic and builds credibility. I didn’t see much traffic from my contribution to the super famous mom blog, but I am so glad they accepted my article! Huge ego boost. I’m drafting up a post to describe my experience and how I got my writing accepted. Let me know if that is something you would be interested in. I need that motivation, so please 🙂

I’m aiming to publish more there and I’m setting my sights on some more widely known websites. Crazy exciting stuff.

• I WAS ACCEPTED AT MEDIAVINE

In case you didn’t know, one of the easiest ways to make money blogging is through ad networks. It might look spammy, but mama’s got a family to feed. I like to think I will be able to drop them one day, or at least limit them. But for now, it’s much desired passive income.

Mediavine has a requirement of 25,000 sessions, so I was watching my analytics closely and applied as soon as I hit it. They are now live and I’m earning more than 5 times as much as I was with Google Adsense. They are also very user friendly, and they will actually take the wheel if you can’t figure something out. I’m obsessed.

Mistakes

• Not having adequate opt-ins/ads for my viral post!!

I did NOT expect that post to get so much attention. I seriously woke up one morning to 1,500 views (better than ever), and it was only 7 AM! Since that day, I inserted some email opt-ins and a Pinterest widget to that post. It still brings me a couple hundred pageviews a day. Pinterest followers are like gold to me. I love you all 😉

Additionally, I missed out on more ad revenue than I could’ve imagined. Definitely puts “you snooze you lose” into blogging perspective.

Overall, I feel my achievements overshadowed any minor mistakes I may have made. I was so happy with my successes and didn’t let myself get too upset about anything else last month. *~Positivity -*

The Stats

Income: $912.69!

Through affiliates and my association with an SEO agency, but ya I MADE OVER $900 BLOGGING IN JANUARY. It can be done.

Page Views – 88,111 (!!!)

It has since been leveling off, because what goes up must come down applies to blogging too, apparently. But I’ve finally seen it happen, so I’m working to recreate it 🙂

Goals

Segment my email list

(lingering from last quarter aka an hour ago)

This is a hot item, and it’s been tricky for me. But it’s a long game, and I’m learning everything I can from my fave email guru Meera Kothand. She is such an amazing resource and is so generous with her expertise.

Most importantly, I’m going to redefine my incentives and work on targeting my list. Meaning, I’ll help working moms with specific info, side hustlers with different info, and homemakers with their own!

Traffic

• My traffic goal for this quarter was 5000 views. And I beat that by almost 150%! What! It isn’t even fair to give myself a goal for January, since I already know what it was. But It wouldn’t have been anywhere near what I actually achieved! – I DID THIS! See above omg.

February hasn’t been going great for numbers (busy nannying, and it’s a short month you know). As of yesterday, I have had over 37,000 page views. I’d like to hit 40k by Wednesday night. Cross your fingers!

Work on my brand identity

• Enough said. I don’t know who I want to be when I grow up! Forgive me. (Copied from last quarter, and still relevant)

Improve my social media presence

Even though I don’t want to spread myself to thin, I need to be present at least a little bit. I try to spend no more than 1 hour each week on low ROI platforms like twitter and facebook. But I’ll get there.

• Instagram goal was 750, and I beat it! By the end of January I had over 1000 followers! I’d like to have 2000 by the end of February.
• My facebook page is still about a month old, but hasn’t hit 100 likes yet. I’d like to set my goal at 200 likes by the end of December. – FAIL. I have 78 likes lol. Can’t complain. One day I’ll care.
• Pinterest is my home, and I now have 500 followers and counting! This started rising much faster when I added the Pinterest Profile Widget to my sidebar and popular posts
• Twitter is fun, but I don’t place much value in it. Hence why it is simply a drunk activity for me #shameless

Takeaways

I’m so pumped to see true progress in my digital presence. It’s real y’all. I love this and just living my best life in a way away from a cubicle omg yay!

Thanks for reading!

All the best –

Ashley