Welcome back to the Blog Traffic Reports and welcome to the first one of 2024.
Starting this one was not as smooth as my previous ones have been. Expectations vs. reality, right? My naive expectations led me to believe I would have a bunch of monthly readers by now and I would already be making some extra cash on the side with the blog. But alas, the Ghost Town Phase is still hitting very hard.
Writing out and exposing all my unchanging metrics month to month started to drain me. As much as I love to post here and will continue to do so, seeing such slow growth was not sitting well with me, so I decided to see how things looked in a three-month time.
I compiled here the results for the last 3 months, January, February, and March. So let's see how 2024 started out for me.
Oh, here is the last report for your viewing pleasure: 7th Blog Traffic Report - December 2023
Wix Traffic Overview
Honestly, I was shocked to open the chart because I expected a much worse outcome than what I got here. I was even a bit proud of myself, but let's break it down:
Things I did differently in the last 3 months
I started a blog's Instagram account, which I'm also trying to grow. I'm posting on there every weekday
I shared a couple of posts on my personal LinkedIn, which got me some views too. I think this might be a recurring one, the more confident I get.
I shared the same couple of posts on my personal Instagram account
I started reposting some posts on Pinterest with recycled content from Instagram. Turns out, Pinterest loves short videos too.
Google Search Console
Compared to the last Blog Traffic Report, things more than doubled these last three months compared to my all-time last check.
When checking my all-time number this time, this is what I got:
Following the last report's trend, Pinterest has been performing poorly and disappointed me somewhat. Again, I am getting the views, but that, by itself, is just a vanity metric. I'm not getting nearly as many conversions (clicks, in this case) as I'd hoped for.
I'm no longer designing Pinterest-exclusive posts, I'm just reposting Instagram reels. Still, the results are better than the other months.
The last three months were good for Insta. February was the month I gained the most followers, but the external link taps (link to the blog on my bio) were pretty well distributed.
Things I did differently
I started posting more free-style content, as opposed to the ones I was posting exclusively tied to a single blog post. Of course, I still take my posts as a strong inspiration, but I figured that if I want to do this long term, I cannot rely 100% on the posts, because I will eventually post more on Insta than on here. I need more sources of inspiration.
An important note: I'm still experimenting with different styles and templates to find something that like, is relatively easy to maintain and brings back good results.
I'm focusing 100% on reels at the moment
I've been commenting on other posts A LOT. And I mean A LOT. This is a social platform and creators are rewarded for engaging with other creators. Let this be the most important takeaway from this post.
All-time results and final thoughts
If you didn't get it by now, let me word it out for you: Getting traction takes SO MUCH TIME. Much more than I anticipated when I first started.
This can be extremely disheartening, but I'm well aware that if this blog thing was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? This phase and all the feelings and thoughts that came with it are the cost of entry. We just need to endure it.
That being said, I hope you see that I still have growth. Much more than I ever got last year.
The lesson here is to be patient, consistent and to find joy in the process, not the outcome. Because the outcome might not look good for a decent chunk of time.
It will though, eventually.
Since starting the blog, in May 2023, I've had:
Site sessions: 93
Unique visitors: 57
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