My 1st Year of Blogging Update:

My 1st year of blogging on this blog has been a long journey. I’ll discuss what I learned about starting a blog and much more!

So this month marks a whole year since I started this lifestyle blog, As Told By Ariel. This blog post will include my pageviews, total email subscribers, blogging goals, and what I’ve learned over this past year.

This blog post will be a 1st year of blogging update similar to my 6 month blogging update.

My 1st Year of Blogging Pageviews:

 

 

The Breakdown:

Nov. 2021-Dec. 2022: A majority of my view came from Pinterest. In November, 74 views came from Pinterest while in December, 209 views came from Pinterest. Towards the end of December, Google ranked my “How To Be That Girl” post high.

Jan 2022: A majority of my views came from my How To Become That Girl post since it was the only one at the time related to the That Girl trend ranking for that keyword. Other higher-ranking posts got under 100 pageviews (see screenshot below).

February-March 2022: My pageviews remained under 2,500. I think around this time the How To Be That Girl post still was my number one post, but other posts were gaining more traction. It was only that some of my newer blog posts were not indexed in Google Search Console. Most blog posts remained under 100 pageviews. Pinterest also gave me 250-270 clicks. This SEO course helped me get pageviews early on my blog.

May 2022-June 2022: School was out and more people are online during the summer. May was when some of my blog posts began going over 100 pageviews a month. I also had more posts ranking higher on Google. I got over almost 370 outbound clicks from Pinterest in May but took a dip in June with a little under 250.

July 2022-August 2022: The few college-related content articles I wrote surprisingly ranked higher. My That Girl blog posts ranged from 800-1300 in July. I also was surprised by how well my college school supply list did. Google placed it in 1-3 spots. Also, I think more people were clicking on college-related content on my blog versus exiting. I continued to write college content until the end of August. I was so close to 7k in August, but I think that since people were heading back to school and with the summer being over that my views slowly dwindled.

 

Email List:

I also gained 225 email subscribers over the past year. I’m not quite focused on email right now since I’m not ready yet. I’m not waiting for a specific number, but until I have a focus on my content strategy and schedule. Though my emails do lead to some more pageviews when I sent them once a month.

 

New Blogger Tips aka What I’ve Learned Over the Past Year Blogging:

1. Write blog posts about things you like and products you like.

One of the first blogging mistakes I made with this lifestyle blog was writing about things I didn’t necessarily like. One of my first book reviews on here was about how I thought one book was alright…meh but it got a lot of page views. I also didn’t care for some topics that I wrote about which made the writing process difficult and took longer.

The reason why I’m saying write about what you like is because 1.) it motivates you and 2.) it convinces people to buy more things with your affiliate links. This book review could have gotten a lot more clicks for my affiliate link and converted it into a sale. Instead, it was a meh review about and didn’t do many other views. People aren’t going to buy something from a review if it doesn’t have a good or great rating. It’s kind of a waste of time and energy, especially since my goal is to make money from this blog.

2. Have a schedule/system down to make working easier.

It takes 1-2 hours for me to write a blog post (1k-2k words). And by writing, I mean just sitting down and writing the body of the blog post—not adding affiliate links or internal linking. It’s hard for me to do it sometimes because I get distracted so easily. Then, it can take an hour to place affiliate links, depending on how long the blog post is and how many affiliate links I need.

Now, I use my weekends to write an outline for the weekly blog. Throughout the week, I work on writing the blog post and if I can (or is a priority), I try to work on Pinterest. I also spend a lot of time looking at analytics and figuring out what’s going on with my blog’s traffic or revenue. By time Friday (and sometimes Saturday, if I was super busy during the week), I publish a blog post. Some weeks, I write a lot on my weekends so I get a week ahead on content and can spend more time either writing the next blog post or some various SEO tasks.

3. Write blog posts that you can actually rank for or go viral for.

At the beginning of blogging, you need to rank on Google for something. I didn’t try to go after college content until I had a few blog posts on the first page of Google. I also did not follow the techniques I learned in Perfecting Blogging by Sophia Lee to plan out my content. I was honestly winging when to schedule content on my content calendar which is kind of backfiring on me now since I realize that my blog is kind of seasonal. Instead of following a technique of planning out my content, I ended up writing blog posts that were out of season and did not track until after its peak season or too late.

Related: Perfecting Blogging Course Review: The Best Blogging Course For Beginners

4. Get on a good ad agency from the beginning.

So, if you can’t tell by now (aka you don’t have an Adblocker on), I have ads on my website. I am with SheMedia and it’s been great for the past few months. The only issue I had was I applied almost a year ago and only got on in May. SheMedia was going through a new process, and it was just bad timing on both ends. Setting it up also took a month, so I didn’t get started until July. I would have made more income this year if I was in earlier. But I still recommend them as my to-go agency for beginner bloggers who have a few thousand pageviews a month.

It’s simple. Build up your blog before signing up for an agency because you’ll be making literally pennies a day on Google AdSense. It’s honestly a waste of time. It’s not worth it in my opinion especially as a new blogger you’re not going to reach the payout amount anytime soon. With an ad agency, you’ll make enough money monthly to cover most blogging expenses.

5. Prepare for spikes and slumps in traffic.

My blog has increased from a few hundred page views to hitting almost 7k (see pageview section above). I expected a dip in traffic because of the back-to-school/college season ending and Pinterest made some changes, and it has affected my traffic SIGNIFICANTLY. This happens at least twice a year when I have to do some videos or idea pins (or whatever new feature Pinterest added) to make Pinterest happy.

Honestly right now, I do not see Pinterest as a return on investment for my blog and instead of my personal branding. If I solely relied on Pinterest, then I wouldn’t have anything. Instead of spending most of my time creating pins, I’m going to focus on ranking for more keywords and planning my content out.

Related:11 Common Beginner Blogging Mistakes You Should Avoid To Become a Successful Blogger 

6. Learn what metrics matter and what doesn’t.

One of my biggest flops this year is constantly looking at irrelevant metrics. In the professional social media world, we call them vanity metrics because they’re only good to look at, but they don’t do much for your business.

For example, impressions. Impressions are just at how many people has seen your Pinterest pin. What matters is outbound clicks. If you want to build your personal brand, then of course worry about impressions, but if you want to make money from your blog, you need to figure out how to get more outbound clicks.

7. Update your content for optimization every month.

Google is constantly updating its algorithm. Some of my first blog posts that have been indexed since last year are just reaching the first and second page of Google when SEO tools said they were easy to rank for. It honestly takes time, but updating content is the faster way to rank higher. Meanwhile, I’m somehow outranking some of the biggest websites for some keywords.

I have an entire excel sheet with every single blog post listed on it and its status in Google Search and if it’s on the first page of Google, how it’s ranking, its keywords, etc. Google SEO has given me more of a return on investment than social media, so I’m focused on optimizing my content to be the best for it.

Related: The Best SEO Course for Bloggers That’s Under $200

8. Blog post headlines matter more than you think.

As much as ranking is important to grow your blog, headlines are just as important. I think this is underrated and not talked about enough in the blogging world. Once you get on the first page of Google, it’s (kind of) an intense competition for clicks. The first few websites will get clicks. But sometimes people scroll and click on the headline that stands out and matches their search intent.

I honestly think like a user who is searching for the term and think of what I would want to click on. Search intent plays a major role in my blog writing and also Google’s ranking. I always think about what are the most interesting words or words that will grab someone’s attention when looking up my keyword and how I can use that to create a headline.

9. If you are in a writing mood, WRITE. Don’t doubt or hesitate.

You have no idea how many times I’d open my word document and it’s about a topic I was not that interested in that day. If I opened that document a few days before, I would have maybe finished the entire thing. One thing I started doing is writing when I really wanted to because it works for me. Just write. Honestly, you’ll have time to edit. Just get the idea down and write.

Related: 10 Productivity Tips For Bloggers That’ll Make Blogging Easier

10. Do not ignore 0 or low search volume keywords.

DO NOT IGNORE ZERO OR LOW SEARCH VOLUME KEYWORDS!!! Some of my most popular blog posts were and still are showing 0 searches per month on keyword research tools. They are greatly undervalued and disregarded. It’s all about knowing or predicting if people are actually searching for the topic.

A tip I have for figuring out whether it’s worth it is to think about if there is an audience for it. For example, in my How To Become That Girl Easily in 2022 post, I knew that this is a popular trend on TikTok and Pinterest. Keywords Everywhere and Keysearch both said 0 people were searching for it. But there were tons of videos on YouTube about it, so I took a risk and wrote about it. Pinterest eventually ranked my post and Google did too.

Again these tools are only estimates and not Google. As I mentioned in my Best SEO Course for Bloggers course post is that 5.4 million searches per day. Google itself isn’t as quick to predict or rank new trends such as the That Girl trend and other niche topics. So, these third-party tools can’t. Use them to guide you but figure out how to use 0 and low search volume words to your advantage.

11. This is a marathon and never ever a sprint.

I need to write this on a wall or on a sticky note on my laptop whenever I’m blogging. Blogging is never a sprint (that’s TikTok). But instead, I need to realize that blogging is a slow game that can pay well. It takes a lot of patience, dedication, and self-discipline.

It’s just hard not to compare myself to bloggers who made so much money or have more pageviews during their first year. Again, it’s a marathon and I’ve made great progress so far.

Blogging Goals for the next year:

1. Focus on SEO

As you can see with my views, Pinterest slowly dwindled the outbound clicks. From the Pinterest courses I’ve taken, it seemed like now would be the time my pins would be ranking higher now, but instead it’s the opposite. So I’m focusing on SEO and niching down and focusing on seasonal content. I’ll do a deep SEO edit and figure out my main categories. I’ll have to go back and look through Sarah Chetrit’s Not Your Average SEO course to refresh myself on some SEO techniques.

Related: The Best SEO Course for Bloggers That’s Under $200

2. Niche down

Since college content did well this year, I’ll focus on giving more college advice and incorporating more college-related content on the blog from around February until July. I won’t stop writing about what I like, but I’m going to actually follow By Sophia Lee’s blogging strategies and focus on what’s my return on investment.

3. Schedule my blog post correctly

So this past year, I have been winging my blogging content schedule. I was like, “Oh, I’ll feel like writing about this then.” NO. I should have written most of my college content before it was peaking.

4. Reach 10k views and maybe make it to 30k a month

Pageviews are my main focus right now. I’m so close to reach 10k, but I think that it’ll be easier in the next coming months when I rearrange my SEO strategy and interlinking strategy.

5. Hire a Pinterest pin designer/virtual assistant.

I think next year, I’ll hire someone to help out once a month with Pinterest pins. I’ll eventually redo my Pinterest strategy, but for right now, I’ll pause my strategy since it’s taken a major dip. It’s just that most Pinterest courses claim that after 3 plus months of pinning that you’ll see a significant traffic jump, but it’s been slowly going down for me. As of the last week of August, I only got 190 outbound clicks to the blog compared to getting twice that when I started at the beginning of the year. I’ll play around with the new algorithms changes and see where to take my strategy next.

 

That’s a wrap on my first year blogging post update. I will have a separate blog post discussing my income report (yes, I finally made some money!) at the end of September.

If you are interested in starting a blog, then check out my blogging content:

• How To Start a Blog in 2022
• What I Wish I Knew Before Starting A Blog in 2021
• Lyrical Host Review (with a Promo Code Inside) | As Told By Ariel Blogging