Wooooooooo Hoooooo!!! August was an absolutely AMAZING month for High Five Dad. My site was launched on August 8 and I can not be more pleased with the progress. For those that don’t know me, I have a full time BUSY job. I work on this site after my little guy goes to bed from 8:15pm to 11pm and any chance on the weekends. I only say that to support anyone in my same shoes. You can do this too.
As a completely newbie blogger I am learning the ins and outs of how to turn this into a successful blog. I do not have any fantasies that this site is going to make me a millionarie but it would be pretty sweet if it did.
Anyone out there willing to write a check???
As I dug in this month and began researching a variety of bloggers and how they run their site, I ran into a plethora of monthly blog traffic reports and monthly income reports. As a new blogger I felt like I hit the JACKPOT! I know there are some differing opinions on how helpful they truly are but for me as a completely new blogger they were priceless and here is why:
Transparancy
How many other businesses do you know peal back the facade that they present to the world each month to share how many people walked through the door and where they saw the greatest profit from?
No where!
As a student of reverse engineering, I saw these and nearly fell out of the my chair! Not only did they share traffic, profits, but they normally blogged about their business and include freebies. These email courses, or documents gave me further insight into how they do what they do. Priceless
So Eric why are you going to share your report???
1. Accountability to myself- If I begin documenting my progress, I will not lose focus and continue on this journey.
2. Benchmark for others- Too many times new bloggers jump into the blogging arena and see massively successful bloggers and compare themselves to them. You cant. They have been doing this for years! Soooooo….. Compare yourself to ME. A brand new blogger with no experience running a blog. I 100% agree you should look up to those other guys, but when you are comparing your progress find someone on your same level to see their progress.
August Monthly Goals
Even with a brand new blog I knew the importance of setting up goals.
- Launch Website by August 1 – Failed (Grrrrr…. Close but I was too focused on design)
- Write 2 Articles a Week- Failed… 6 articles but I blame… ummm…
- 100 Twitter Followers- Succeed -Woot woot!
Okay so none of the goals were earth shattering. Honestly I did not know what to expect or how much traffic I should aim for, so I set my goals based around tasks rather than metrics for the most part. For September I will be shifting a bit to focus on more specific metrics.
Monthly Blog Income Report
Wait for it…..
$0.00
I honestly do not expect this number to change for MONTHS and that is okay. I did not even attempt to monetize.
Monthly Traffic Report
I did not have a traffic goal because I really didnt know what to expect. So for this month, its just the facts.
Pageviews
2,816!!!
Holy SMOKES!!! Check out that SPIKE! I hit OVER a thousand pageviews on ONE Post in ONE DAY!!! Give this man an AWARD already…
Ok. Full Transparency Time…
I have received a handful of Direct Messages and emails regarding this spike. I tweeted the image of the spike a couple days ago so people were curious.
Did you use ads?
Nope
Did you pay for traffic?
Nope
Are you a blogging genius???
HA! Not even close.
What did you do then?
For now, I am treating everything I do as an experiment until I find my blogging voice and really find my niche. So this exercise was no different. Currently my blog has a Dad money theme. I had read a bunch of Dad blogs and one in particular made me chuckle. Dadandburied.com . In his about me page he linked out to his favorite posts and one was entitle “Top 10 Reasons I Hate My Son”. When I read it, I laughed and thought I can write something similar and so I did.
Since I dont have an email list or any way to send to the masses I did what bloggers really shouldnt do… I shared the post from my Facebook page to a variety of Facebook groups. Now to be fair, I am active in most and there was no optin, no marketing tied to it, so I felt a bit ok. I dropped it in a couple direct niche groups and a couple outer ring niche groups…
So what happened… First check out the First Image I associated with it…
Yup that really is my little guy… and no I really dont HATE him… but the title itself acted as clickbait for sure! As a newbie blogger and in my naivety, I really did not intend for it to be clickbait. I honestly chuckled when I read Dadandburied and thought “This would work for me”.
In all honesty, my target niche, Dads or men, had very little issues with the title or picture whatsoever. It was the moms that were split 50/50. Some BLASTED me for writing such a terrible article. While others commented that they could relate. At one point I had 50 something people on the site and there was at least 30 comments on the Facebook post.
My gut reaction was to try to rationalize with them.
“No you dont understand, I do love my son. Didnt you read it?”
Then fear and doubt poured over me.
Wait maybe this is terrible. Maybe I should take it down.
In the end, I spent the next hour drafting new images and changing the link to the page to soften it a bit. I also deleted the post from the most vocal groups.
It was definitely an interesting lesson learned in the first weeks of this blog…
Email list
I am absolutely terrible at Opt In’s!
Here is my rationale. Most of the people dropping by my site are more experienced bloggers just skimming content and dropping a comment. They really dont want or need to be on this new guys email list.
All very true.
I would guess that I haven’t quite found my core audience yet. Someone who cant wait to read the next post.
Let’s just mark this up to a work in progress.
1st Month Blog Post Summary
During August I published 7 new blogs.
Hello World
Why I Dislike My Son…
529 Plan vs Roth IRA: Why We Picked Roth IRA
3 Ways to Get on the Same Financial Page as your Spouse
4 Rookie Travel Mistakes Plus Bonus Laugh
71 Restaurants Where Kids Eat Free
As mentioned above the most “Popular” was Why I Dislike my son…
September’s Goals
This next month is all focused on Pinterest. This is going to sound stereotypical and I apologize, but as a dude I never used Pinterest at all! However after listening to Pete’s Do You Even Blog Podcast with Grace from Chasingfoxes.com, Lily & Mrs. FAF, from thefrugalgene.com & frugalasianfinance.com, and of course Rosemarie Groner from Busybudgeter.com, it is clear that I need a Pinterest game.
Metrics:
- Join 100 Pinterest Group Boards– If you want to sent me an invite, SWEEEEeeeeeet… Here is my info
- Get 250 Pinterest Followers– Just follow me… I know you want to
- Hit 3000 pageviews (without clickbait)
- Get 600 Twitter Followers –Go ahead and follow me 🙂
- Post 2 Articles a week
- Comment on at least 1 bloggers post per day (30)
Lessons Learned
I am not sure if I will include this section each month, but felt I needed to for the first month. The first thing I learned is that bloggers are some of the most community focused individuals I have ever “met”.
Check out this example:
I dont know Pete. I dont even remember how I stumbled across his podcast or his website but that is a classy move right there! @Teacherfire1’s website is a dot wordpress site rather than a dot come. You can find it here if you are curious. By the way if you havent checked out Pete’s site Do You Even Blog or his Podcast you need to! Imagine getting a FREE consultation with some of the top bloggers out there right now. That’s his podcast and it has been invaluable to a new blogger.
**Updated** Pete just launched the absolute best how to start a blog guide ever!!! You absolutely need to check this thing out!
That is not the only example. I am in a ton of Facebook groups and bloggers are always sharing tips, tricks, are just naturally helpful in EVERYTHING!
Blogging is not a competition, it is a community.
The second lesson I learned is things take WAY longer than you think! I am serious. Writing, Editing, Creating Images for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest… you name it. I only get a few good hours each day to tackle my blog and I need to super focused to hit next months goals.
Until Next Month…
Nice work Eric!
I think that’s an incredible 1st month, and a nice n’ steady amount of content you’re putting out as well!
Thanks for the shoutout of course, I’m sincerely happy you get something out of it!
I also didn’t mind the headline. Thought it was fairly obvious from the get-go you didn’t actually hate your little guy.
Keep up the good work 🙂
Thanks Pete! Like I said, most guys didnt seem to have an issue but some of the moms were vicious… Lesson learned, never cross momma bear… Ha
Eric, dontcha know the most vocal FB people only read the title and make their comments off that! Haha.
Oh wow, you are kicking ass right outta the gate. You got me beat by miles! As a father to two, a two-year old and 5 months, I know all about the lack of dedicated time to work on your passions. Family comes first.
Keep up the great work man. You are a rockstar! 😀
Yes, I am sure that is all they did. But it did cause me to step back and think if I should post it. It was an interesting lesson for month one.
Thanks for the encouragement. I really had no clue what to expect in month one or if anyone would actually visit. I have been so stoked with the progress so far.
Unstoppable results! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Rhonda! I am so stoked at the results. I know this is just the beginning and consistency is the name of the game.
Great first month Eric. Thanks for sharing. I just wrapped up my first month so i can totally relate.
Awesome! I truly believe that bloggers can help each other succeed. Thanks for the encouragement.
Great progress and update, Eric. We’re already Twitter friends, so I can’t follow you 😉 I just wrote my first month up too…interesting to see the differences and similarities.
I’m also looking to grow my Pinterest-base. For some reason, Pinterest seems kind of unnatural and alien to me. Hoping to break through that.
Good luck!
I definitely agree about the Pinterest Alien! I still have no idea if I am doing it “right”. Considering handing it over to my wife and say Pin away.
WOW, I’m so impressed by your first month stats! That’s awesome. Don’t feel bad about the clickbait article headline. It works for a reason and if people don’t read it, they should not complain about the headline (that’s my 2 cents ;-P). I love Pete’s podcast as well. I’ve gotten so much insight, especially about the power of Pinterest and am actively trying to figure it out.
I’d highly suggest joining some Pinterest groups on FB. Group boards open to contributors get posted regularly and usually all you have to do is follow the person to be added. Let me know if you would like some group board names and I can help you find the ones that have worked best for me.
Oh, and I totally feel you on the full time job thing and writing at night after the kids go to bed. I’ve been doing the same thing and I feel like I never have enough time to get anything done. There is so much to do and learn!
Hi Eric,
First, let me say I loved your “Why I Hate/Dislike My Son” blog post. It was truly adorable. I even liked the original title. Clickbait or not it was awesome. Secondly, I haven’t run across too many Dad bloggers but I absolutely love your blog. My blog is fairly new so the journey of new bloggers interests me. I also love your monthly goals. I’m definitely going to bookmark your blog and continue to follow your progress. Keep up the good work!
Shawn thanks for the encouragement! It has been an interesting journey so far but I love it.
Congrats on a successful month and thanks for shout-out! I too was a bit shocked when I saw the title of your popular post, but yes, it was captivating and effective! Looking forward to your September blog report!
Thanks Ms. FAF! This month has been a monster! My goal was to hit 3,000 page views and I just crossed 11,000!!! I know the goal is consistency so I am reviewing the things that worked and focusing on how to make it better.
Thanks for the shout out! Facebook sounds dangerously easy to tick off, didn’t they read the post?! Blogging isn’t competition, I think the blogs that are successful are usually the most social. It’s a lot more work to be social and maintain those relationships than sitting at your computer and writing.
With that said…you kicked my a$$ compare to my first month 🙂
Your son is very very very cute by the way!!!
No problem Lily! Listening to your story on Pete’s podcast made me realize I needed to step up my Pinterest game because well I didnt have one… haha.
Yes, i wonder how many people actually read it or just saw the title and freaked out. Regardless it was one of those moments that I freaked out. I think it was a good lesson for me. Putting myself out there in a blog, not everyone will like my content and I have to be okay with that.
My little guy gets his looks from his momma… haha.
I started my blog in August too! I have several Pinterest groups if you want to join them. Pinterest.com/micheletripple. Just let me know which ones you want to join! Following you on twitter already!
Awesome Michele! Thank you. I will shoot you an email 🙂