I hit my 5 month blogversary on April 29, 2021. I’ve been blogging for five whole months! This article is about my journey of blogging for five months.
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Month five was a very ‘blah’ month of blogging for me but in a good way. This is the first month where I feel like I’m settling nicely into this blogging world and I’m really enjoying it.
This article is part of a series that I’m writing to update readers on the journey of my first year of blogging. Here are the prior month’s updates:
- Ups and downs in the first month of blogging
- Newbie blogger mistakes I made after two months blogging
- How to stay motivated after blogging for three months
- How to avoid writing burnout early on in blogging
So, let’s get into my update on blogging for five months.
Smooth sailing
The past month was very uneventful, as it should be. Gone are the days that I’m freaking out about the technical aspects of my website or pushing a button that shuts down my hosting. Thankfully (hopefully), I’m over the hump of making large newbie blogger mistakes.
In large part, I think this month went very smoothly due to my decision to schedule posts in advance last month. Although it meant that I only published 7 articles in April, I was glad to be free of the insanity of writing and publishing articles as fast as possible.
The awesome part about scheduling posts means that I’m not fretting over timelines and holding myself to impossible standards. I give myself time to write an article, edit, and publish. Ultimately, this leads to better content and better results. My past few articles have all ranked within days of publishing (not necessarily on the first page of Google).
Traffic
Everyone says that blogging is a marathon not a sprint and that’s completely true.
After blogging for five months, I have been wondering when I’m going to get more traffic. I know some websites will experience exponential growth overnight. Instead, I have seen slow and steady growth with my site, which I’m happy about. I went from zero daily views to getting 5-10 views per day consistently. Now, I’m averaging 10-20 page views per day.
So, I know it’s happening, it’s just a little tough to be patient about it.
Apparently, publishing 55-70 articles on a site is a sweet spot for increasing traffic. (Source) At the end of April, I’ve published 58 articles, so I’m in that range. We’ll have to see what Month 6 brings.
Changing mindset
I’ve had to alter my mindset as far as investing monetarily into my blog. In the beginning, there was this personal fear that I would fail, so I wanted to invest as little as possible into it.
In the beginning, my basic startup costs were the domain and hosting. I also paid for a professional website e-mail address. Then I didn’t spend anything for months.
Namecheap is my current website host. They have excellent rates for shared hosting if you’re just getting started on your blog.
This month, I bought a stock photo for one of my articles and paid for a professional logo. These were small costs that I was comfortable with and they will make a big difference in my website’s appearance.
This is the way I look at it. There are times when I can blow $50 on a trip to Target with no return on investment. So why not skip a trip to Target and invest that into my website? Eh? It works for my brain.
Getting more organized
In the process of making purchases for my blog this month, I wanted to track all expenses for the blog and any future income. So, I finally created an Excel spreadsheet to track income, expenses, profit, and net profit. I also included posts, total posts, page views, sessions, and users.
Google Analytics made it really easy to fill out the stats. When I finished inputting data for the past five months, I felt so accomplished. It also gave me a very clear picture of my progress, which is something I wasn’t able to see before.
Without a blogging spreadsheet, I was pretty much blind to what was really going on with my blog. It’s never too late to start one.
Gaining more blog knowledge
There is a massive amount to be learned when you are brand new to blogging. Although it is possible to do it by yourself, it’s a little easier if you have the support of a blogging community or blogging friends.
Some people find that investing in a blogging course is worth it. Since I was staunchly against investing monetarily in the beginning, I have learned through free resources like Reddit, podcasts, other blogs, and Google search.
After blogging for five months, I know enough to keep my blog running but there is so much more to be learned. My goal is to keep learning.
I recently started to listen to Authority Hacker podcasts while I run or take my daughter for a walk. The hosts are incredibly helpful and they bring up concepts all the time that I wouldn’t even know to search for.
I guess the point is, the more I build my base of blogging knowledge, the easier it is to keep reaching for and understanding the more difficult concepts of blogging.
Final thoughts on blogging for five months
I’m enjoying this time in the first year of blogging because everything is still so new, therefore every month is a huge milestone. It’s kind of like when I took monthly photos for my daughter in her first year. Every month was big!
I’d like to end this article by honing in on some wins in the past month. Focusing on small wins provides me with motivation to keep blogging.
- A reader posted one of my articles on Reddit!
- I now have two articles on the first page of Google. They comprise most of my traffic.
- Writing continues to get easier month after month
- I’m finally understanding the meaning of “user intent” and applying that to my writing.
That’s all! Hope you enjoyed my update on blogging for five months!
Thanks for the tip about the podcast! I’m always trying to find new ways to grow my blog too 🙂
Of course! Happy blogging!