MY 3RD MONTH BLOG REPORT GIVES YOU AN INSIDE LOOK INTO BEHIND THE SCENES STATS AND GOALS.
Happy December! Thanks for joining me for a quick recap of my progress as a new blogger. In this 3rd month blog report, I’ll be covering November happenings and what I hope to achieve in the coming month.
But first, does it seem that every holiday comes quicker than the last? I’m still dreaming about pumpkin pie (and Cool Whip) as I find myself purchasing Christmas gifts and decor.
Enough chatter. 😉 On to the blog report, my friends!
November recap
Traffic
Most popular posts by page view:
- 15 Practical Tips To Help Manage Everyday Life
- Nighttime Routine Habits For A Renewed You
- My Secrets To Saving Money On 5 Common Beauty Buys
People I reach:
Activity from Sprinkle in Joy:
Most clicked pins:
- 15 Practical Tips Help To Manage Everyday Life
- My Secrets To Saving Money On 5 Common Beauty Buys
- Nighttime Routine Habits For A Renewed You
November highlights
- I went for it. A yearly Tailwind membership! (Upgraded from the free trial on November 26th.)
- Received at least 3x more traffic on November 29th than my previous best: 112 users, 116 sessions, 132 pageviews. Woot!
- Completely happy with a new look including colors, logo, and three Pinterest pin templates—at last! Being one who strives for perfection the first time (not exactly achievable, I know), I became frustrated these last several months as I struggled through the process of defining my brand. However, I finally designed a look I’m truly happy with as I more closely evaluated my target audience and writing style.
November goals
Publish six articles » Miss. I published four. Not exactly my goal, but more one more than last month.
Posts published in November:
- 2nd Month Blog Report: Traffic + Goals
- 9 Truths To Owning A Cat: The Good, The Bad, The Weird
- 20 Ways To Start Enjoying Your Commute
- 10 Bible Verses To Inspire A Thankful Heart
Average 20 users a day (600 users total) » Miss. Despite a traffic spike towards the end of October, the first half of November saw less than 10 users each day. However, traffic started picking up towards the end of the month. November 29th gave me a record high user and pageview count thanks to a pin leading to my post, 15 Practical Tips To Help Manage Everyday Life. In the end, I averaged 12.7 users a day (381 total).
Create one opt-in freebie and post to blog » Miss. I might have been able to focus more on this, except a large part of my time went towards updating the look of my blog and pin templates.
Design Pinterest board covers » Success! I designed Pinterest board covers around my new branding. You can check them out on my Pinterest account here.
250 Pinterest followers » Success! I ended November with 291 Pinterest followers (+107 from the previous month).
Reach 100K monthly Pinterest viewers » Miss. By November 30th, I reached a little over 82K viewers. I mentioned in my 2nd month blog report that I would try to pin more consistently and a higher number of pins each day to reach this number. I did do better than October, but still not as well as I had in mind. I increased my group boards by two (now at 10) and my boards by four (now at 18). And since I reached the max number of pins I could pin using my free Tailwind trial pretty early in November, I didn’t utilize automated pinning as much as I had planned.
December goals
Publish five articles » Because I would really like to create an opt-in freebie (and Christmas is bound to keep me busier than usual), I’ll shoot to publish five blog articles this month. In last month’s blog report, I mentioned waking up earlier on the days I work from home. Ahem… that didn’t quite happen. I woke up earlier a few of those days, but wasn’t able to make it the norm. I’ll keep trying!
Average 20 users a day (600 users total) » Let’s try to reach this goal again! As mentioned, I purchased a Tailwind membership for the year. I tested the waters with a free trial, but once I pinned my maximum allowance I decided to take a leap. Currently, I’m still manually pinning my blog pins to my boards and group boards, but am using Tailwind for automated pinning of other blog content to my boards. I have very limited time during the work week to pin, so I’m hoping this is a great start to driving more traffic.
Create one opt-in freebie and post to blog » Going to give this goal another go!
Finalize system to track pinning » At this time, I’m using Google Sheets to track Pinterest pinning and help me know which of my pins I’ve pinned to what group board for the month. Unfortunately, this current tracking system is not scalable, so I’ve been taking notes from fellow blogger videos and tutorials to create a spreadsheet better suited for my needs.
Use Tailwind to pin my pins to group boards » Once I finalize a new pin tracking system, I hope to rely on Tailwind to pin my blog post pins to my boards and group boards.
Update affiliate links to nofollow links » I remember reading about nofollow links several months ago, but since I was still a bit fuzzy on affiliate marketing, I tucked away (far away) that little nugget of information. I believe you can use a plugin to do the dirty work for you, but I’ll be updating the HTML manually as I prefer not to add another plugin.
450 Pinterest followers » To reach this number, I’ll need to gain 159 followers in December.
Reach 200K monthly Pinterest viewers » Although this might be a steep goal, I’m going to give it a whirl. Hopefully my Tailwind membership will help push me to that number.
Did you reach your November goals? What are you blogging goals for December?
Woah, that’s a really cool idea about tracking what pins you pin to which group boards!! That definitely makes group boards seem less intimidating, for sure. Good luck with your blogging goals for the rest of the month!
Yes, definitely makes posting to group boards less intimidating! Especially since each group board has different requirements (like only posting the same pin once a month). Thanks very much for the well wishes!
I haven’t been tracking my Pinterest pins except for the analytics that I get off of Pinterest. Do you recommend tracking pins? What is the purpose of this?
Hi Heather! Honestly, my most clicked pins and most popular posts by page view are pretty similar (understandably), but I like to take note of my Pinterest pins that get the most clicks to learn what my audience engages with most and what drives them to my site. Also, since I started pinning with 3 different templates, it helps to see what design/template attracts the most clicks.