I know I shouldn’t be – but I am surprised by the discovery that my blog is 1 year old! It feels like it was just yesterday I took my first steps and with a blink of an eye – it’s my first blogaversary. With a lot of firsts, learning new things, and getting to practice different marketing strategies freely with my own website.
How did it begin?
I had played with the thought of a new blog for years but never got around to it. I kept on stumbling upon blogs talking about earning passive income over the blog and how they have turned it into a full-time job. Working two jobs at once I was more than intrigued by the possibility of earning extra from home.
At the same time being afraid that it would be difficult or hard and what if I fail. At least the first part of the fears was unfounded as I wrote in my web hosting selection and half-year milestone. I have managed to gain an amazing bloggers community on Twitter which has been really supportive with tips and a virtual shoulder time after time. I believe that this community and support are largely the reason I am able to celebrate the first blogaversary.
I was nervous after the first posts – does anyone finds them? Reads them? Or maybe history repeats and my blog will be found by the wrong people I will be grilled publicly again. The reason why I closed my first one. This time I chose to blog in English for several reasons – it makes it easier to gain an audience all around the world and harder for the unwanted readers to find and recognize me.
Reaching for the dream
So the starting dream was to at least try to generate some kind of income from the blog so I searched for affiliates to sign up. One of the first I got accepted into was Amazon associate – it seemed easy and I believed this gonna do it. But reality kicked in pretty soon after because yes, there are possible to earn with this, but not with small traffic as I had at firsts. And they have a deadline for getting sales and permanent acceptance. Which I failed. I probably will apply again in the future, when my traffic is higher, and see how it goes then.
I also signed up as a Dreamhost affiliate right away and Grammarly. The first one is where I am hosting my blog and Grammarly is checking all my writings in English – blog, pleasure, and work related. Both I can truly recommend as essential tools for any website. Both of them have minimal payouts so though I have gained clicks and people have signed up for either free or paid accounts my payout is still pending. Hopeful though. The last affiliate I got accepted for I absolutely love as you can read from my previous post – Canva. I really do use it for everything.
So it kind of feels like I am on track and set for possibilities of passive extra money? Or am I? Hopefully, I know an answer for this on my next blogaversary because I am determent to keep blogging for at least one more year.
One more step forward
I have been reading up on different income reports and tips on how and what to do in hopes of getting some extra money and most have ads listed. So I tried to qualify for AdSense, but it isn’t as simple as I thought. I applied several times and got rejected time and time again. But finally got accepted in May.
I must say there is something tickling watching website analytics for traffic, but it was another level when the analytics has been added cash value. It actually looks like I might reach the first ever payout from a blog. It is exciting and scary and surreal all at the same time.
I know that compared to some tutorials and success stories it has been a slow ride since it’s been a year and I have not gotten a payout yet. Sometimes I read those: “Start a blog and get 1000$ right away” and get frustrated. Then again with my marketing background, I know that it is hard to skyrocket newborn blog traffic within a month so it could really create real income. But still. It hurts.
So what does the numbers say?
Though I haven’t fulfilled all my initial and ambitious goals with my blog I do feel I have gained something unmeasurable. But what are measurable milestones on my first blogaversary?
According to Google Analytics, there have been 175 visitors – which isn’t a very large number, but still big for me. And I am thankful for every single one. And 15% of them are returning visitors.
To my surprise, there is an equal amount of direct and referral traffic from Twitter and also several referrals from Instagram. Since Instagram has been a bit on the backseat I am surprised about it and really surprised about referrals from Facebook. Maybe I should create Facebook page for my blog? I have mainly focused on Twitter and Pinterest – and Pinterest isn’t even on the top 3 referrals. I guess I need to read up on that to see what am I doing wrong.
My 3 most read posts are:
“Heir to The Sun” by Karen Lykkebo
I have 33 published posts altogether – which is a bit lower than I initially planned. I planned one post a week – but life. I got knocked out by Covid for 3 weeks and the school & work combo was more than I thought and I know this can be viewed as an excuse, but actually, this is life. As much as I want to blog to be successful. But life is important and where I should get inspiration for new posts?
My blogs social media numbers are:
Twitter: 664 followers
Pinterest: 36 followers and 1,5k monthly views
Instagram: 49 followers
On the bright side
I have made it a year! I have discovered an amazing blogging community with extraordinary people. I have found so many people who are similar to me in so many ways I couldn’t have dreamt ever, always wondering if I am a weird and odd one – not fitting with anyone. I guess I was wrong. These people are just from another country – all over the world. Ain’t it an amazing time to live – with just a few clicks, right clicks, we can connect with anyone in the world.
I know there is a long road ahead and still just a total newbie in this field. But I will get there. There is a dream – working from my dream home, by doing work I like and love and choose to do, on my terms. It won’t happen in a day. In a month or even in a year. But it will. It took over 5 years to find our dream home and will take years to get everyone to see there the dream home we see. But one day I will write another blogaversary post in a little cabin office in our dream home garden.
So share with me how long have you been blogging? Do you remember your first year and what was the brightest memory from there?
