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Welcome to my 7th month blog traffic report!
I can’t believe it’s been more than half a year since I started Frugal Asian Finance.
Blogging is now such an important part of my life that I can’t imagine waking up one day without it.
After spending July and August trying to understand Pinterest and September making Pinterest images for my old posts, I feel like my schedule for October was more breathable.
I spent more time writing posts about whatever crossed my mind that had to do with finance. I managed to stay 4.5 months ahead of my blog schedule.
However, towards the end of October, I started feeling so burned out about churning out posts all the time that I had to take a break one day and just caught up on my favorite Youtube videos to let off steam.
During that time, my blog sis Lily at The Frugal Gene was always by my side to cheer me up and give me great tips on how to get over a blogger burnout.
If there’s anyone out there who genuinely wants to see me succeed with my blog, I have no doubt that’d be Lily.
In terms of blog expenses, I have spent a total of $222.96 since the launch of my blog on March 21, 2017.
— $106.20 for Account Plan (36 months)
— $11.88 for Domain Privacy Protection (12 months)
— $105 for an annual Tailwind subscription (12 months)
If you missed the previous reports, you can check them out below.
September 2017 Blog Traffic (6th Month) – 26,737 Views (+34.5%)
August 2017 Blog Traffic (5th Month) – 20,378 Views (+22.8%)
July 2017 Blog Traffic (4th Month) – 16,600 Views (+25.6%)
June 2017 Blog Traffic (3rd Month) – 13,242 Views (+20.2%)
May 2017 Blog Traffic (2nd Month) – 11,014 Views (+97.7%)
April 2017 Blog Traffic (1st Month) – 5,572 Views
Overview
Pageviews: 31,104 (+16.3%)
Pageviews/day: 1,003 (+12.6%)
Users: 9.165 (+40.5%)
Bounce rate: 65.45 (+6.6%)
Returning visitors: 18.3% (-16.4%)
New visitors: 81.7% (+3.8%)
Breakdown of channels (# of sessions)
Top 3 sources of traffic
Top 2 referrers
Top 10 posts
Apr 2017 Food Expense Report – $80.39
5 Things We Refuse To Do To Save Money
Sep 2017 Food Expense Report – $1,106.2
The Life Of A Poor PhD Student
Why I Don’t Follow Commercial Personal Finance Blogs
The Pros & Cons Of Living With In-laws
5 Similarities Between Weight Loss & Debt Payoff
“If It’s Yellow, Let It Mellow” – Is It Worth It?
The Glorious Life Of A Personal Finance Blogger
Housework – The Financial Decision In A Marriage
Top 10 countries (by # of users)
Blogging schedule
In October, I spent 25-30 hours a week blogging besides working an 8-5 job. I continued to publish three times a week (MWF) at 6:00 AM.
After setting up Pinterest and letting Tailwind do its scheduling magic, I had more time in October to write new content. I managed to stay 4.5 months ahead.
I currently have 48 posts and 8 drafts scheduled until March 16, 2018 (one week form my one year blog anniversary of March 21).
Related: The Glorious Life Of A Personal Finance Blogger
Guest post
If you are interested in guest posting on my blog, you can see more details below. I’m always open to new ideas and proposals.
Length: 1,000 – 3,000 words. My posts are usually roughly 1,500 words or longer.
Topics: Anything related to personal finance. I’m particularly interested in Marriage/Relationships & Finance and Real Estate Investment (i.e. landlording, house-hacking, AirBnB)
Style: The post usually starts out with a personal story and then offers lessons learned. You can read more about my blogging style here.
Others:
1. Willing to revise the post based on my suggestions.
Sometimes it can take 4-5 rounds of revision to change anything from the wording to the structure of the post.
My main goal is to explore different aspects of the guest post from my perspective as a reader. If I have questions or am interested in certain details, I think others might also feel the same way.
2. No plagiarism.
3. Please send your FINAL version only. No first draft please.
Social media
Twitter: 1,662 followers (+11.8%)
Pinterest: 254 followers (+19.8)
Facebook: 46 likes (+31.4%) & 57 follows (+29.5%)
Subscribers: 85 (+19.7%)
1. Pinterest
My traffic started dipping in the second week of October since the Pinterest magic was wearing off. I tried various tactics to up my traffic such as adding my posts to StumbleUpon and commenting on more blogs. But nothing seemed to be able to make up for the amount of traffic that Pinterest previously brought to my site.
As I was furiously adding my posts to StumbleUpon but didn’t see any results, Joe at Retire By 40 steered me back on the right track and reminded me that I should focus on the platform that has already brought me results: Pinterest.
I took Lily and Joe‘s advice to heart and started creating more Pinterest images for my old posts. And after two days, one of my pins picked up steam and started bringing more traffic to my site.
If you are a male blogger, don’t be discouraged by this female-dominated platform. If you can ask your wife, girlfriend, or female friend to take a look at Pinterest and pick out the pins that they like. Chances that other females will like the same designs. You can then try to recreate or modify the more popular pins and come up with a design of your own.
I use Tailwind to schedule all of my pins. You can see the 6 steps you can take to set up your Pinterest here.
2. Twitter
Below are the four main strategies I implement on this platform.
— Retweeting their posts. If you only tweet your content, your followers will see it. If others tweet your content, their followers will also see it. That’s the power of scalability. There’s no better way to market our content by helping others promote theirs on Twitter.
— Leaving thoughtful comments on others’ tweets. You don’t have to leave comments that are sentences long, but saying something that contributes to the conversation will help you build a connection with other bloggers. It will also draw attention and thus traffic to site.
— Liking others’ content. You don’t want to go on a liking spree and like everything tweeted, but a couple of likes here and there show other bloggers that you care what they have to say.
— Retweeting old posts. I retweet 2-3 of my old posts every day. I want to make sure that the followers don’t miss what I published a long time ago. Some of my old posts got retweeted multiple times, which pleasantly surprised me.
3. Facebook
I have not been very active on Facebook since I can’t join groups and interact with other bloggers anonymously. I usually just post new content on my page and leave it as that.
4. Instagram
I just uploaded all of my Pinterest images on Instagram from my computer using Gramblr.
Challenges
I made some changes to my Mailchimp account on September 9. However, that caused an error in my subscription form, and no one could subscribe to my blog. A reader kindly let me know that he couldn’t sign up on October 21.
I fixed the problem and got 7 new subscribers the next day. I should have checked my Mailchimp list more carefully. I let a month and a half go by without having any new subscribers. It should have been a red flag, but I just brushed it aside. Big mistake!
Conclusion
That wraps up my 7th month of blogging. I had a serious blogger burnout this past month. But after a week of taking a break and slowing down on the writing, I’m happy to report that I’ve recovered. However, I will need to balance my work better to avoid another burnout that might undermine my overall productivity.
The holiday season is just around the corner. I’m excited to blog about the special season of the year. I wrote a post about Halloween and have another one for Thanksgiving that’s coming up. I hope you’re having a great time planning get-togethers with friends and family.
Until next time!
Related:
5 Things I Stopped Doing Thanks To My Personal Finance Blog
Why I Don’t Follow Commercial Personal Finance Blogs
The Glorious Life Of A Personal Finance Blogger
3 Frugal Bloggers Turned Millionaires Overnight
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Very honest report too (because it’s all exactly what you told me on Twitter messenger bawahaha.) The burn out took me by surprise, you were always so ready and prepared but then I got burn out myself and I was like….ohhh yeah that’s how FAF feels.
Joe gives great advice 🙂 SU can’t compare to Pinterest for your demographic. I think the bounce rate is even worst too. I think Google is great game with a lower bounce rate if you can get a slice.
I didn’t know you were burned out too! I guess we all face it at one point. I like Google traffic too. It just takes time to build up, but it’s consistent (unlike Pinterest >_<).
What a great update, you are doing so well.Thanks for all the detail info, it is really helpful for other new bloggers. Good to have people like Lily and Joe help you in your blogging journey. How did you get so many posts prepared ahead?
Thank you, Caroline! I just kept writing whenever I could. I will publish a more detailed post about how to stay ahead in a week or so 🙂
Well I think you’re doing an awesome job. The blog perfectly describes the same challenges my parents faced, and contains a lot of great advice.
加油加油！
Thank you so much, Will!
Very impressive results. Thank you for sharing your success. I have started to use Pinterest to promote my blog too. Your hard work and results are encouraging to me. Tom
Thank you, Tom! It took me a while to build my Pinterest, but it’s totally worth it. Best of luck with your Pinterest! 🙂
Having a full time job, being a parent and blogging at the same time can be challenging. Most of the time, you will have to sacrifice your “me time” to do other things. This stage will definitely hit most bloggers at some point. It hit me a while ago. The key to getting over the hump is to balance your time and to stay positive.
Great job with growing your traffic. I definitely need to rake a look at Pinterest.
Yes, I’m rooting for your Pinterest! You’re totally correct. I have sacrificed so much of “me time” and felt like I’m missing out on life sometimes. I’m glad you got over that burnout and still keep going strong! ^.^
Those are awesome results! I Cant wait to see where I Stand after 7 months!
Thank you, Gabe! Best of luck with your blog! 🙂
Nice progress still! I tend to burn out every now and then too – for about a week – which is a bigger deal for me given I’m normally only 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule on content. It seems like its own little rat race sometimes, but I do really enjoy the writing and other things WHEN I am in the mood. 🙂 Sometimes, I’m just not, and I have to realize that it’s okay to take a break if I need it.
I STILL need to dive into the Pinterest game. I feel like it’d actually probably go decently with one of my target segments, though I need to start tailoring more content around that (as far as like wedding stuff goes). I’ve chalked that one up to a 2018 initiative for me…
Keep up the great work 🙂
Thank you, Dave! I’m glad you’re looking at Pinterest. It can take a while to set up and have something go viral. But it can be a game changer. Good luck with your Pinterest! 🙂
Congrats on the awesome progress. I’ve had an unpleasant experience with Pinterest so far and need to work on correcting it 🙂
Nevertheless it’s such a benefit to having FREE social media at our disposal to learn and gain from other writers!
Thank you! Yes, I’m all for free social media that works too! ^.^
I can’t even fathom how far ahead you are. So jealous and congrats! Looking forward to reading your posts.
Thank you! You have such an amazing podcast. It’s definitely something many people wish they had 😉
You are so inspiring and hardworking! Keep it up. One of my favorite blogs to read as you are so down to earth.
Thank you for your kind words as always! ^.^
You’ve certainly recovered well from overwhelm! I’m still trying to figure things out. I am in total awe of how you have 48 posts scheduled ahead. You must write really fast! Another tip for Pinterest for guys: try to change profile pics to include your significant other in it.
Great tip! I’m sure you will figure things out at one point. It took me a while to figure out what it is that I want to focus on too! 🙂
Holy moly! You’ve got posts written and set to go all the way through March?? We have some serious writing to do to build a buffer like that. Any tips for producing such great content so quickly?
Thank you! I just try to write whenever I can. I will publish a more detailed post about that in a week or so. Stay tuned! 🙂
Nice stats!
You have more posts in October than I have in total since I started in May. And I’m retired! I don’t know how you do it, but keep up the great work!
Thank you, Mr. Freaky Frugal! I’m sure you have a lot going on although you’re retired. We’ll just keep chugging along! 🙂
Congratulations on growing your audience!
I agree that social media is important, I have seen an increase in traffic whenever anothr bloggers has retweeted me, plus it’s important to read othr people’s content and five them a shoutout if you think they’re doing a good job,
Thank you, Celine! Social media is the way to go if we want to scale up. 😉
Great job Ms. FAF!
Your numbers are amazing but not quite as incredible as how many blog posts you already have waiting to be published!
I burnt out in Sep, if you can’t tell, but also want a different direction with my blog. Additionally, I’m very busy with work…
Congrats! 🙂
Thank you, Darren! Yes, I noticed you haven’t posted in a while. It’s totally fine to take a break from blogging and rethink our plan. Hope to see your new posts soon! 🙂
It’s so crazy! I’ve been following your blog for a while and remember the crazy amount of views you had on your third month! Just wondering how much of this you contribute to having a niche…also, I will totally try blogging with more passion in mind:)
Thank you, Javi! I think being in a niche is important since it helps define the audience and the focus on your content. I’ve contributed a large number of the pageviews to me posting 3 times a week, expressing my honest opinions on my blog, and promoting my content on social media. 🙂
Amazing numbers after just 7 months! You are truly inspirational Ms FAF! I’m a follower!
Thank you, Terence! 🙂
It amazes me that you have so many posts just ready to go! I’m having a hard time keeping to my weekly posting schedule. Anyways, amazing results – these posts always give me a mental boost to keep pushing on. Thanks for the post!
Thanks for sharing the detailed report, Mrs. FAF! And congrats on all your success. You’re doing an amazing job and it’s also incredible how ahead of schedule you are! I noticed in one of your comments that you plan to publish a post on how to stay ahead of schedule. Admittedly, I find this very challenging as I enjoy the feeling of writing and publishing a post. I’m looking forward to learning from your post, and I’m off work this week so I plan to get ahead of schedule myself. Take care!
Wow! What a great post and so inspiring! I have just put my blog online last week and had 15 visitors so far 🙂 I get excited by even one person at this early stage…I mean, one real person that wants to read what I write about! What you achieved in 7 months is really amazing! Can’t wait to read more of your posts!!!
Wow! You’ve managed to done A LOT over the 7 months. Congrats on your achievements and making it this far!
I could never imagine myself being even 10% of where you are right now, but this post will inspire me to push myself and keep going… I’m just a beginner and I’m already feeling a burnout from learning the basics lol!! There’s sooooo much for me to learn right now and I don’t even come close to feeling ready. sigh, I guess no one will ever feel ready, right?
Anyways, you have a new follower now! ?
I really enjoy your blog and I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts!
Thank you so much! Wishing you best of luck with your blog! ^.^
This is some insane progress. I remember seeing your stats going up, up, up and thought “there’s no way that’ll continue” but you keep generating good content paired with the right strategy and hard work!
30,000 pageviews/month? #Goals
You’re killin’ it every month. Keep up the good work!
I see your Pinterest bounce rate is too high just like mine. Let me know if you find a solution.
99to1percent recently posted…
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I loved your post, it is so helpful to see what you’ve been doing that has helped your blog views grow. It’s also very motivating! I hope to get there soon. Much love!
Wow, you’re killing it! I have a brand new blog and I’d be delighted to have half the numbers you do when I get to the point you’re at.
I’m also based in the DC metro area, maybe I’ll meet you at a meetup one day!
I’m hopefully going to hit 7,000 page views this month. I’m looking at pinterest now because it seems to be an amazing platform for bloggers to get traffic.
Thanks for sharing your statistics. I’m off to look at your pinterest post 🙂
Just wanted to post to let you know I found you from the comments section of TheFrugalGirl!
Aww thank you, Jess! 🙂
Glad to find this post. I’m finally trying to figure out this whole Pinterest/Tailwind thing and feeling a bit discouraged on my slow start. I’ve always been curious how many views did my guest post bring when u mentioned it went “viral on Facebook” when it first launched. (You can DM me if you don’t want to post this) Just curious. hehe.
Great to see you’re still regularly posting.
Hi and congrats on your achievement! I really think you did a great job with your blog and I’m really sorry you don’t publish monthly reports anymore. Is there a reason for that? It took me 10 months to go from 0 to 600 pageviews per month and I would really like you to publish more traffic reports and share your traffic generation techniques with other personal finance bloggers like me.