New Blog Case Study – My 6 Month Stats, Earnings and Details
Let’s See How My NEW Blog Is Doing •
In early August of last year – just a little over 6 months ago – I started a brand new blog. I wanted to start at complete ZERO and build up an entirely new site from the ground up.
I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment, but really, this has been FUN for me AND a great learning experience.
Now that the blog is 6 months old, I figured I’d share some stats to show how that blog is doing, how much it’s earning, and more details of everything I did to get to this point.
And of course, I’ll throw some tips and tricks in that might help you with YOUR blog.
Starting at Zero
It’s been a LONG time since I truly started a BRAND NEW blog on a totally new topic/niche – it’s been an AMAZING learning experience.
First off, starting with NOTHING sure is intimidating!
No posts, no followers, no list – ack!
But I liked the challenge – plus, it’s GOOD for me to remember how that all feels when you’re first starting out.
Another reason I decided to do this was because I wanted to test this new hosting company.
Turns out, they’re AWESOME.
I haven’t had a single issue at ALL during these past months. That’s very refreshing!
The hosting company I use for all my OTHER blogs, this blog included, is most likely “too much” for the average new blogger.
It’s really THE company bloggers are SO relieved to find AFTER they’ve dealt with the migraine-inducing nightmares from SO many other hosting companies. BUT, I’ve found that true “newbies” are a tad bit overwhelmed with ALL they offer (and they’re not the cheapest, which is fine by me).
Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my hosting company – never a problem and their support when I DO questions is SO fast – and so genuinely helpful.
Imagine this – you open a support ticket with your website hosting company to ask a random “how do I” type of question.
Get this – in 10 minutes (or LESS), they have not only replied, but have really answered your question in a “non-techy” way.
That’s how MY guys are!
But like I said, I wanted to test out a more “beginner-friendly” hosting company so I know, first hand, exactly how it works to be able to help those I teach how to blog for money.
6 Month Stats
I am VERY thrilled with how this new blog is growing.
The blog has a grand total of only 37 posts on it as I type this.
Here’s how many new posts I made each month:
August – 3 New Posts
September – 7 New Posts
October – ZERO New Posts (I was busy working on my Advanced Pinterest Training)
November – 2 New Posts
December – 9 New Posts
January – 5 New Posts
February – 3 New Posts
March (thru today) – 8 New Posts
Honestly, averaging only 5 posts a month is pretty pathetic by my norm, but I had so much else going on – which meant this new blog was more of a ‘side project’ than a main goal.
But even as a ‘side project’, I am really, REALLY thrilled with the traffic growth.
In my humble little opinion, that is WONDERFUL traffic growth for a brand new blog!
Where Does The Traffic Come From?
The main source of traffic has been Pinterest.
I started a brand NEW Pinterest account for this blog and then followed my own personal Pinterest strategy.
Pinterest is a wonderful source of traffic for a new blog (or heck, for ANY blog). Pinterest traffic kicks in quickly, and when you pin properly, that traffic just snowballs and builds – and you can’t stop it.
In August, the first month for that blog, I only received 962 visits from Pinterest.
The next month, September, that traffic TRIPLED.
The next month, October, Pinterest traffic DOUBLED September’s traffic.
And it’s been increasing and growing ever since.
That new Pinterest account now has about 1300 followers (not that followers really MEAN anything on Pinterest anymore).
And this is how the Pinterest Analytics stats look for that new account:
5 million reach? Yep, I’ll take that =)
As you probably noticed in the traffic graph, there was HUGE GROWTH in January… like, ginourmous…lol!
Traffic went from 6,600 page views in December to over 53,000 page views in January (and February was even BETTER)!
What happened in January?
January was a “perfect storm” for that new blog.
1 – The blog Topic became “in season”, so to speak.
2 – I added a LOT of new content in December and January.
3 – My blog post SEO strategy started kicking in and Google started really loving my new blog.
But that’s how blogging is, ya know? It’s more of a crockpot than it is a microwave…lol!
When you work it properly and let it ‘simmer’ together, beautiful things happen (unless you give up BEFORE the magic happens).
Blog Earnings
Alright, let’s talk about the monies – we all LOVE the monies, don’t we? haha!
Anything new I start, or strategies I try, I have to see a quick route to my magic number of $16.44 a day.
Why? Because that equals $500 a month.
Having MULTIPLE… and MANY… $500+ a month income streams makes for a VERY nice living as a blogger/internet marketer.
Plus, if you can get a new income stream or income strategy to $500 a month, well, you can then easily figure out how to make it convert even better!
So goal #1 was to get that new blog earning me at least $16.44 a day.
By mid-November, early December, I easily hit that goal.
And considering that up until November 5th, I only had TEN posts on that blog, well that’s pretty darn good.
To start out, that new blog was monetized only with Google AdSense ads and Amazon affiliate links – and I monetized from Day 1.
Once I had about 20 posts that were getting traffic from Pinterest and from my blog post keyword strategy, things really started to come together earnings-wise.
Amazon earnings have been slower to get going because I’m still trying to figure out my blog readers and what they want.
In the beginning, it’s pretty much a guessing game, but once the traffic started growing, I was able to look thru my unique way of tracking blog posts, and SEE what those readers wanted and were interested in – and it’s been improving daily.
I’m also trying some other affiliate programs to see if one “takes”, but I haven’t had much luck so far.
Now that my traffic has hit a nice level, I’ve been able to start talking with other ad networks that might pay better than AdSense (but I’m not committed to any of them yet – I sure hate the thought of giving up the freedom of putting ads where ever *I* want them.)
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What’s Next?
Today I started my plans for that new blog for the NEXT 6 months.
I’m a really BIG fan of “passive income” – and that is absolutely the direction I am taking this new blog in the next few months.
Today, I set up an email list using my favorite free email list service.
I created a little eBook in Google Docs, turned it into a pdf and set it up to give away via a little opt in form on the blog.
I then set up my way of getting blog traffic without any extra work – the blog auto-publishes posts for me and automatically emails subscribers to go to the new posts.
(no, it’s not an “auto-blog” or anything like that, it’s just a way I do these little ‘niche sites’ to them more ‘hands off’ for me)
I’ll continue to add new posts now and then, but there isn’t any pressure for new blog posts anymore since I’m doing things differently than I do here at PotPieGirl.com.
As of today, it’s all set up to tun “auto-magically” FOR me – and I love that!
But I’ll keep working it, because I KNOW there’s more money to be made once I really get those posts optimized for more sales.
I’ll also keep working on the way I SEO my blog posts, because there’s always more Google traffic to get from each of those posts.
With my handy-dandy 1644 tracking system, it just takes a quick peek each day and a few tweaks – and things will continue to get better and better.
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