Lessons Learned from Two Years of Blogging
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Partners in Fire is officially two years old! I'd love to say that blogging has been an easy journey, and that we've fabricated tons of money along the way, but those things aren't really truthful. Information technology's been an astonishing journey, that much is truthful, merely none of it has been like shooting fish in a barrel. And nosotros only made well-nigh forty-5 bucks in our two years of blogging, and then we definitely aren't in it for the money!
Lessons Learned from Ii Years of Blogging
We learned a ton nigh how hard blogging really is during our first-year blogging (and trust us, that lesson was definitely reiterated during year two!) and we learned more about ourselves and our commitment to the blog during our second year. But we as well learned a great deal about monetizing and networking during year two! Read on to see what we learned.
Commitment to Blogging
Partners in Fire published two blog posts per week every single week during our 2d-year blogging. If that doesn't bear witness serious commitment and dedication to blogging, I don't know what does. I even made certain to get alee of things so I could mail service from the mobile app if I was going to exist out of town. That'due south way ameliorate than last yr, when I let myself become caught up in life and took a six-calendar week hiatus. That hiatus taught me that if I'm going to arrive as a blogger, I have to have it seriously.
In it for the Long Booty
As you know from my sarcastic posts on how I fabricated so much money each year blogging, I am in it for the long haul. When I started Partners in Fire ii years agone, I expected information technology to accept two to 3 years minimum to gain traction and start making money. Now that I'thou at the two-twelvemonth mark, I know that wasn't an exaggeration. It was a realistic expectation as to how blogging works.
I'm so happy that I took the time to write a web log-growth-strategies post every month, because I was able to go dorsum to my 12thursday month update and see how information technology compared to the 24th. I had almost double the page views during my 24th calendar month – and it was a skillful comparison considering I didn't get whatever major features either month. All the views were due to SEO and social media marketing. It was crawly to be able to go back and meet my progress from the previous twelvemonth.
I too checked my analytics for the by few years. In 2018, we had about eight thousand visitors to Partners in Fire. In 2019, nosotros more than doubled that with well-nigh eighteen yard. That's 10 thousand more users in our second year over our first – which is pretty awesome.
Getting Those Page views
Nonetheless, I also learned how hard it is to build and maintain a ton of page views. I was rolling for a few months during my second-year blogging. I was inching closer and closer to ii thousand-page views per month, and seeing growth month after month. Partners in Fire was arriving!
Just and then, quondam around calendar month 20, my page views inexplicably started dropping. Every bit information technology turns out, a ton of my views were coming from Pinterest, and that was steadily decreasing. I still haven't figured out why. Month afterward month, I've seen a driblet in my page views from the platform.
What I learned from this Pinterest debacle is that you can't put all of your page view eggs into 1 handbasket. I don't own Pinterest, I don't know how their algorithm works, and I have no idea what makes a pin go viral. In that location are cute pins that are cleverly designed with clear calls to activeness which become nothing traction, and there are hideous pins that take no bespeak which become viral. Its really hard for me to figure out what will be popular and why. That means I have to effigy out other ways to drive people to my blog.
SEO
1 of the main lessons I learned during my 2nd year of blogging is that SEO is king. Aye, google constantly changes it's algorithm, and you never know what the new systems will exercise for yous. Notwithstanding, the basics remain the same. Write good long course content. Use long tail keywords that are easier to rank for. Build dorsum links and authority. These building blocks to SEO don't mostly change much with Google's algorithm changes.
I've been focusing on SEO for the past few months and I've definitely seen an improvement. I of the main things I'thou doing is going back to earlier posts and re-writing them for SEO. Google loves to see fresh and updated content. It too loves to see things that follow its SEO rules. Updating an old post kills both of those birds with ane rock.
It's also important to write new posts with SEO in listen. I use Uber Suggest to notice keywords, and I utilise my ten free searches every calendar month with Moz likewise. These tools help me notice awesome long tail central words that don't have as much competition. I'yard obviously not killing information technology in the SEO field yet, only slowly but surely, I'yard building it up.
Monetization is Hard
I've been trying to monetize Partners in Fire since day 1. And and so far, most of the things I've done accept been failures. To be fair, I did double my blogging income during my 2d year, only I still made less than a hundred bucks.
The thing is that information technology's incredibly hard to brand money off of a blog that doesn't take a lot of page views. I'yard sure you will encounter posts on Pinterests about how some bloggers exercise it, and that's great! I'g non saying it's impossible, it simply isn't the norm. Page views translate into dollars.
Affiliates and Ads
The more people that visit your weblog, the more people who might to click your affiliate link. That'south but basic math. If one% of your visitors buy something, you are going to brand a ton more with a hundred thousand visitors than you will with 100 visitors.
Another reason why it's difficult to monetize with depression page views is that a ton of companies don't want to piece of work with you. You lot have to have a certain corporeality of folio views for most ad networks, and lots of affiliate companies volition refuse your application for a lack of views as well. Fortunately, in that location are a few companies that volition give pocket-size bloggers a chance, merely it'due south harder for united states.
Some companies volition fifty-fifty kick y'all out of the programme if you don't make a auction. I've been rejected from nine out of ten affiliate programs that I applied to on CJ, and CJ volition kick me out if I don't make a sale during the first xc days. How am I supposed to make a sale if none of their partners will accept me into their programs? Information technology's a difficult take hold of 22 for newer bloggers, but one that I'g trying to navigate.
Amazon will as well kick you lot out later three months without a auction, but since it'south all one company, you automatically have access to their entire inventory of products. That makes Amazon
Sponsorships
I haven't even tried to get a sponsored postal service. If my folio views are so depression that I'm struggling to get companies to work with me through affiliation, why would companies want to pay me for a sponsored mail? Perchance I could await into super niche companies who are looking for nano influencers, but I'd rather work on getting my folio views up and become companies to want to work with me.
That means my goal for year three is to get enough page views to be seen as a serious partner for companies. I desire to engage in sponsorship opportunities, but I also want to make sure I'm providing a tremendous value to the companies that I work with (and to all of my wonderful readers – I won't take partnership opportunities unless I truly believe in the production and the company! Keeping it existent is the well-nigh of import thing to me!).
What Gets the Page views
In trying to notice ways to get more page views, I had to take a close look at what I was writing that resonated almost with people. Which of my posts are getting the nearly page views and why?
My height performing post of the year was my No Spend Twelvemonth Claiming mail service. That went viral on Pinterest, and I tried to follow it up with monthly updates (which unfortunately didn't practice and so well). Afterwards the first calendar month or so, the page views on that dried up.
The two posts that consistently drive the most traffic are Developed Conversations Yous Must Accept Before Moving in Together and How to Exist a Twitch Affiliate in 30 Days. The funny thing is that both of these posts were written during my outset year, but through Pinterest they go on to drive consequent traffic (though clearly they are getting dated because the Pinterest traffic is drying up. Maybe I should try creating new pins for those two manufactures).
The ii posts that consistently drive traffic via SEO are my posts on the Fundamentals of Fire and Barista Fire. I wrote these during my beginning year, and they still driving consistent traffic. I did update them both recently for SEO, which I call up has helped bulldoze continuous traffic via organic search.
Information technology's awesome that two of the posts that are specific to the Burn movement are getting traction via SEO. I've tried to parlay that into further success by writing extensively about Coast Burn, Passion Fire, and other aspects of the FIRE lifestyle, but unfortunately, I oasis't found as much success with that. Information technology'south something I volition keep to do during my third year though. We wouldn't be Partners in Burn if we didn't talk nearly Fire, now would we?
What Sells
Unfortunately, I don't take anything to sell on the posts that go the almost page views. I've tried writing some affiliate posts for google (the x best personal finance books is a good example) but those keywords are pretty saturated, so information technology's difficult to rank for them. A large focus moving forward is going to be writing proficient SEO for posts that are selling something. It'south a difficult job – I don't want to be overly selly and I don't desire to sell products that I don't believe in, but I also want to commencement generating enough income via blogging to at least embrace my expenses. That will exist incredibly difficult if I don't have anything to sell and if I tin't drive traffic when I do have something to sell.
Networking is a Must
Some other huge lesson that I learned during my second year is how amazing networking is. I've been a pretty steady part of the personal finance Twitter community since I started (and man, those people are the all-time!) simply meeting some of them at Fincon actually sealed the deal for me. I'm and then glad I went. It helped me put names to some of my Twitter friend's faces, and I met a ton of other actually crawly people as well.
Speaking of Twitter, it really is the best for networking. Everyone on the platform is ever willing to help – whether information technology be give you a click to accomplish a goal or give advice when life isn't cooperating. My Twitter friends accept been more supportive than my real-life friends in some cases, and I'grand super thankful to be a function of such an crawly community. A lot of my folio views have come from there too. I know for a fact that Partners in Burn down wouldn't be where information technology is if information technology weren't for all the wonderful friends I've made on Twitter.
What's Next?
Partners in Burn down has been effectually long enough to be considered an established blog. Moving forward, nosotros desire to parlay that longevity into more than search engine trust. Our main goal for our third year is to increase our reach via organic search. That ways building dorsum links, updating one-time posts, and even moving to HTTPS (thank y'all Mastermind Inside!).
A secondary goal is to identify and fix whatever went wrong on Pinterest. We'll kickoff by creating new pins for our highest performing posts on the platform. Nosotros're also open up to investing in a Pinterest grade to see if that helps.
A final goal is to build up our other social media platforms. Twitter has been great, and I'chiliad sure we'll become by the 5K marking this year, but I'grand going to exist bold and arrive a goal to become to 10K. I even so oasis't establish my basis on either Facebook or Instagram, but possibly the third yr is a skillful time to actually dive into 1 of those platforms and try to increment my attain at that place.
I think if we do these things, nosotros'll see a huge increase in our page views, and from there we will make enough money during our third year to at to the lowest degree intermission even on the blog. Follow along with our blog growth strategies to run into how we do!
Source: https://partnersinfire.com/blog-strategies/lessons-learned-from-two-years-of-blogging/
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