Hey guys!!! I am so STOKED to write this month’s traffic report. For those that are new around here, I started my blog August 8 of this year, so I am still completely new at this blogging thing. I have a full time job that keeps me extremely busy and an insanely cute 3 year old who keeps me on my toes. I work on my blog after he goes to bed and on the weekends. I say this not to brag but to help anyone who is considering starting a blog but think they dont have time. In the short time that I have been blogging I have met a bunch of amazing people and it has been a great experience.
Okay… I know you all are here for numbers and lessons learned but I have a little surprise for you all first…
I am happy to announce that High Five Dad Baby #2 is coming March 2018!!!
We are so excited…
For those curious about baby names, currently we call it Baby T-Rex… #2ndBabyProblems
Alright enough celebrating, lets get into the numbers.
Transparency
As I have become a part of the blogging community I have stumbled upon HUNDREDS of blogging reports, income reports, traffic reports, etc… If it has to do with blogging there is probably a report out there. I have to be honest with you that A LOT of them are useless. Now I dont mean this in a mean way. I look up to a lot of these bloggers. But for a new blogger or someone trying to improve they dont offer enough specifics to be useful. Too many times they focus on reporting the outcomes but never talk about the process they used to get that outcome. If they DO talk about the process it is usually to funnel you into their opt in or an affiliate link.
Rather than focusing on pure numbers or trying to get you to opt into my mailing list, I want to provide as much useful information as possible. I originally had only 2 reasons why I wanted to share these reports:
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.
but I want to add a 3. Not because I think I am some amazing blogger, but because I think someone can learn from my mistakes.
3. Provide Actionable Information for others- My hope is that after reading my reports that there is something you can take away, learn, and make your own.
September Monthly Goals
- Join 100 Pinterest Group Boards– Failed I think I am in 30ish…
- Get 250 Pinterest Followers– Failed (this was insanely ambitious) up to 65
- Hit 3000 pageviews- CRUSHED IT! 13,651!!!!
- Get 600 Twitter Followers – NAILED IT! 950
- Post 2 Articles a week- Sorta but there was a HURRICANE
- Comment on at least 1 bloggers post per day (30)- Failed
I will share more in detail about these goals in the lesson learned below.
Monthly Traffic Report
In August I super excited to get 2,816 views. For a new blog I thought that was pretty good but I had one post that I thought was a little click bate- Why I Hate My Son that got a huge portion of my page views. I set a goal of 3,000 page views because I didnt know what traffic I would get without a post like that…
PAGEVIEWS
13,651!!!
Holy SMOKES!!! Look at those spikes! The first spike started September 15 (late) and hit over 4,000 page views on September 17. Then there is a mini bump on September 22-23rd over 1000 page views per day.
So with some traffic reports this is where bloggers stop and then people reading it are left scratching their heads trying to figure out how the blogger got that much traffic. They then begin to wonder what they are doing wrong with their own blog or even worse they start searching the internet for quick traffic fixes. I truly want my traffic reports to be helpful soooooo….. Check out this graph:
This is the EXACT same time period with ONE single post removed. HUGE difference!!! Total Page Views 4,507.
You may be wondering which ONE post had over 9,000 page views this month???
The winner is…..
Unlimited Disney Fastpass Hack
Any post that gets that sort of traffic deserves to be analyzed. This single post was shared over 640 times according to wordpress with most of that occurring on Facebook. The second spike was when it was shared into a private Disney group.
Let’s break down why I think this post worked:
- Title- Unlimited Disney Fastpass Hack
Maybe not the most interesting title but what it does do is make you think “Hmmmm is there really a way to get unlimited Disney Fastpasses??? No there couldnt be. But what if…” and then the person clicks it. The title plays on a persons desire to know something, a “hack”, that not everyone knows. - “Solved” a Problem
Nobody going to Disney wants to stand in line. Currently Disney allows 3 Pre-planned fastpasses. However, once you finish the third you are allowed to make another reservation. This posts details exactly how to get the most of the system by learning a couple tricks you may not of known. The post provides value to the reader in the form of new information that will make their vacation more enjoyable. - Shareable
Unlike some “Fake” news ha! This method actually does work which leads to it being SUPER shareable! Like I mentioned earlier, this post was shared over 600 times. People in the Disney niche love to share extremely useful information with each other. The post was extremely detailed and gave exact strategies to get the most out of the system. - Hungry Audience
There is a HUGE audience for anything Disney. They are passionate and hungry for content. If you spend a couple minutes on Facebook you can find a TON of groups. I shared my post to one group and it spread like wildfire.
Everyone talks about writing quality content and providing value. I 100% agree with that. But what that means is not what I thought it meant. I originally thought just write well about anything loosely related to your niche and traffic will come.
However what I now believe it means is:
providing value = solving a problem/pain point for your audience or giving detailed step by step instructions to help your audience
*To gain the MOST traffic, the solution to the problem should have your unique spin on it making it new and slightly different.*
I wrote this post with the PURPOSE of providing useful information to a specific audience. I then went out and found where that audience “lived” online and shared it with them. These were KEY to why this post did so well.
2nd Month Post Summary Top 10
Unlimited Disney Fastpass Hack 9,144 Page Views
A Side Hustle You Probably Never Heard Of 1,436 Page Views
Dont Fear the Zero Based Budget 360 Page Views
Mr. and Mrs. Adventure Rich (Debt Story Guest Series) 305 Page Views
August Blog Report 226 Page Views
15 Quotes to Teach Kids about Money 185 Page Views
How to Slash $700 from your Budget 151 Page Views
Do you need an Emergency Fund? YUP 106 Page Views
How a Ghost Cost me $1000 83 Page Views
Laurie’s Debt Story(Guest Post) 51 Page Views
October’s Goals
Similar to last month, I will continue to focus on Pinterest. Growing followers on Pinterest is not nearly as easy as it is with twitter but I am beginning to see momentum. Out of the non-viral post traffic, about 10% came from Pinterest which was up from 0% the month before.
Metrics
- Join 100 Pinterest Group Boards
- Get 250 Pinterest Followers
- Hit 6000 pageviews
- Get 1200 Twitter Followers
- Post 2 Articles a week
- Comment on at least 1 bloggers post per day (30)
Lessons Learned
I will say it again, this month has been INSANE!!! Both for my site and my life. We experienced Hurricane Irma which knocked out electricity for a couple of days completely killing any productivity. This highlighted the need to get more posts scheduled to post rather than waiting.
- Pinterest Traffic is REAL!
I will be honest before blogging I was NEVER on Pinterest. I still think I have no idea what exactly I am doing. But looking at my traffic report I received over 400 page views from Pinterest. If we exclude the one viral post, that would mean 10% of my traffic came from Pinterest. Not too bad for month 1. - Pinterest Group Boards
It is the QUALITY not the QUANTITY. Well I guess if you could have a lot of quality that would be AMAZING. Getting on low hanging fruit group boards isnt that hard. However, getting on better boards is a bit more difficult. This next month I will continue reaching out and refining my pitch. - People Want Value
Ok this may be a controversial statement but… People can get Entertainment ANYWHERE! We live in a Netflix and YouTube world where people can get entertainment at their fingertips. If you are writing posts SOLEY to entertain your audience you are going to struggle. I am not going to say its impossible, but its going to be tough. Instead, you should focus on providing a solution to a problem your audience is having. Think about the purpose of the post and what you are trying to provide for your audience.
Remember Blogging is NOT a Competition, it is a Community.
Until next month…
Great job! You’re killing it. One comment regarding the utility of blogging income reports. They are all helpful. New bloggers typically complain when a blogger just lists the product and the money made, but that is truly all you need. When you see just the product and the money – Are you searching through their websites to see what posts and pages link to that product? Are you then comparing that to their social shares to see which specific post and page brings the most traffic (and likely giving them the highest conversion)? Then are you studying exactly the language they use (the copy) and experimenting on your site, switching multiple times per week until conversions go up? I think many new bloggers want everything laid out for them in an income report and aren’t willing or don’t know how to do the research themselves.
J thanks SO much for dropping a comment!
Point taken on your comment. I think it was either on your Fire Drill podcast or Pete’s that you talk about this reverse engineering. I thought it was absolutely GENIUS! I do you think you are correct that you can walk back success from some of their reports to their posts and social media strategy…. but for a brand new blogger how many are going to that extent. I would caution to say that the majority of them are overwhelmed with keeping up the technical side of their blog, posting schedule, etc. Then they stumbled onto one of those reports and think I must just not be doing it right or start getting shiny object syndrome. I think it is important to nudge them into the right direction otherwise they will spin their tires and quit after a year.
Thank you again for dropping in!!!
Congrats on baby number 2!
Thanks Mrs. Kiwi!
Congrats! You are doing amazing! I got 400 views in my first month so you are killing it. You are right about Pinterest group boards. Getting on high quality boards can be very difficult. That’s my focus next as well.
I’ve been focusing on Pinterest this month and so far have seen a big spike in views (for me). You provide some very good tips in your report and I appreciate the transparency.
Congrats on baby #2!!
Hey I just want say this blog was very inspiring. I’m in my first week of ever blogging and it can seem a littile overwhelming at times. The points you brought out wjeee very relatable
Awesome Dakota! What is your website?
Your blog is AMAZING. As well as how you are going about this and sharing all of your top tips and journey.
Marie Ellis thank you!!! It has been a lot of hard work but honestly SOOOOO much fun. I have met and talked with so many great people. My hope in sharing these updates is just to encourage and point out lessons learned so that others can take my mistakes not make them 🙂
Well done, I think this are some very good results that even some who`ve been blogging for months still struggle to have.Glad you found how to solve every blogger mystery fast “traffic” this is every bloggers success or failure.
Like you, I had never used Pinterest before I started blogging, I always thought it was little girls playground, how wrong I was.
Thanks for sharing
I will be honest I still think Pinterest is this ALIEN source of traffic… haha but it works!
Thanks for sharing some honest and valuable tips for new bloggers! I can definitely say I’ve learned something new. I can only hope (and work hard) to do the same for my readers. Great job!
Fana thank you for the kind words! It has been a fun adventure and I cant wait to see what the future looks like.
Brilliant post, you seem very authentic in what you speak about. Thanks!
Thanks. Its been a fun journey so far. I try to write about things that I think may be helpful to other people.