Review after 1 year of solid blogging. Is it worth starting a blog now?

Hi all, I haven’t posted much in this subreddit but today I thought I’d provide a review on how my first year of blogging went.

After I hit the 10-month mark, I started searching for reports from other bloggers to see how I’m performing.

There were loads of monthly earning reports, but few on 10-month mark or 1-year mark. Most were not realistic with ‘how I made XXXXX amount within 3 months of blogging’.

Ok, I know some bloggers have made it big with blogging within a short period of time but it’s not the norm.

So I’d like to share my experience here and what you can expect to achieve within a year of blogging.

Still, I did it full time so your results may vary. You can definitely do a lot better than I did, but don’t despair if you don’t or didn’t. Blogging is a long-term game and so far, I’m loving it.

Is it worth starting a blog now? For me personally, yes. I love writing, sharing and helping others.

Can you still make money blogging? I really think so although I didn’t make much last year.

I’ll share the details and stats below and then provide some tips based on what I experienced.

Niche: Personal development Launched: 1 Jan 2019 Total post in 2019: 152 posts Dec 2019 pageview: 11,058 Subscribers: 400++ (could be more but I deleted those who have not been opening my mails to reduce MailChimp subscription cost) Amount earned in 2019: $112.59 (of the three monetization methods, Adsense yielded the most for me last year)

In this one year, I made tonnes of mistakes. I’m sure I still am, but I’ve learned a lot and continue to improve every day.

I would say my blog really took off after the 6-month mark. I made some serious changes to my blog in July after pumping a lot of content. And it’s kinda paying off now.

Here, I’d like to share what I’ve learned. Some are universally true in my opinion, but some don’t apply to everyone. Feel free to use your own discretion in what to accept or implement.

1. Blogging is seriously a long-term game. Most of us can’t live off of it within a year of starting. There are exceptions of course, but not the rule. Be patient, though, traffic WILL pick up with time and you will see money trickling in if you put the work in.

2. Focus on SEO right from your first post if you want to monetize your blog at some point. I did this, but not in the right way. I learned from other bloggers eventually and took an SEO course. I’m better now, but I still need to improve.

3. A good post that will be shared by many cannot be slapped together within an hour or less. There’s research, pin creation if you’re on Pinterest and loads of back-end optimization to be done, which takes time.

4. Know how you’re going to get your traffic. Facebook and Twitter doesn’t do it for me. Only Google and Pinterest (SEO)

5. This one, I regret the most. Have a very, very good freebie or e-mail optin for subscribers right from the beginning. Like, within one month of starting your blog. I had the worst optin in the world and less than 50 ppl signed up in the first 6 months. Quizzes do well, printables do well and so do short free courses. I have all 3 and now I’m enjoying a good subscriber rate.

6. You will be afraid to monetize your blog. But don’t be. I wasted time and still am. I can’t bring myself to promote my product like other bloggers for some reason. This year I hope I can pick up some courage to do this.

7. The more you work to improve your blog, the more tear-inducing technical problems you’ll encounter. It’s a good sign, it’s progress. But don’t be scared. Ask people questions in forums, talk to the helpdesk people and ALWAYS have a plan B. Don’t give up.

8. Some paid courses don’t deliver and the creators are not above making false promises when you contact them directly. Beware, but don’t avoid courses altogether. We all need to learn and grow somehow.

9. You will struggle to find time to implement all your blogging strategies. I did, even though I focused on blogging full-time. There’s just so much to do and in the beginning you don’t know what works yet so you have to try a lot of different things. I still haven’t implemented a few things I outlined last June!

10. Be prepared to try a lot of things. No two bloggers have the same strategy or outcome. What works for others may not work for you. You have to discover what works for you. Don’t give up thinking nothing works.

11. Focus on content the first few months. I divided my year to quarters. First quarter, I focused on content. Second quarter, monetization. Third quarter, aesthetics such as layout, changing theme, improving optin, increasing site speed etc. (I encountered the most technical challenges at this phase to the point I broke down. But I did not give up). Fourth quarter, product creation.

12. Know your niche. I wasn’t clear on mine for the first 6 months. But I luckily hadn’t veered off too far. Now I’m clear. It’s easier to create suitable optins and products to sell when you know who you’re serving.

13. Don’t spend $$$ until you have to. Use the free options and get better at what you do. Having said that, you’ll have to spend some if you really want to monetize. I didn’t spend on anything other than hosting and Tailwind in the beginning. Everything else, I used the free version first. Now, I spend on quite a few things.

14. I won’t be renewing my Tailwind subscription this year. I can pin manually and still get traffic. And save money.

15. Have a schedule for publishing articles, emailing subscribers, writing content, researching, social mediaing and reaching out to other bloggers. Nothing gets done without this and you won’t take blogging seriously without it. Seriously.

16. You better love your niche and you better love writing. Because after a few months, you will begin to get tired especially when you don’t see traffic meeting your expectation. And then you’ll run out of topics to write about. And then you’ll wonder what’s the point. This is when most bloggers quit. But you shouldn’t. You will push on if you love writing and your niche. You’ll have lots to say and you’ll look at a topic from several angles to write about.

I’m sure there’s more but it’s getting late here and this post is already too long.

In summary, I love blogging and see myself doing it for the foreseeable future. I still have a lot to implement and I still have a lot to say to my audience. So for now, I’m having fun.

Feel free to share your experiences, especially your first year of blogging. I think it’ll be very helpful to others starting a blog or thinking about starting one.

If you have any questions, just ask. I’ll do my best to answer and clarify.

Happy New Year!

Submitted January 04, 2020 at 04:44PM by SurvivingSingle https://www.reddit.com/r/Blogging/comments/ek6tx6/review_after_1_year_of_solid_blogging_is_it_worth/?utm_source=ifttt