It’s a little over 6 months now since I opened this blog. A lot has happened since and comparing my blogging experience from a decade ago – a lot has changed in the blogging field as well. When I started in July 2021 I didn’t know I would go back to school and therefore thought I had much more time for the blog. And to be honest – I didn’t think blogging would take so much time!
Yes, I read a bunch of blogging advice and the only thing every blogger agreed on 100% as – it is time-consuming like you never had predicted. But did I believe them? Kidding right? Of course not! Blogging is just writing! (OK, I will hide behind the pillow fortress with a bowl of ice cream now until the bloggers reading this calms down )
Hey, I am here!
Part of my day job is marketing, I have managed everything involving website creation and traffic generation for years. Testing different SEO strategies, newsletter subscription methods, building sitemaps, etc for years. So one would think that I knew already, that getting traffic to a blog isn’t going to happen just with publishing. But I did hope that there would be more and faster. And yet I do know, this isn’t the case – never has and never will be. There are too many websites where readers can go. I know it takes time, but it doesn’t stop me from hoping.
I have been reading several blogs for a few years now and I became intrigued by the concept of making extra passive income with blogging. I learned there are many ways to make this happen:
- affiliate marketing (my current ones are Dreamhost, Canva, and Grammarly)
- showing ads (AdSense etc)
- e-books, e-courses, templates, etc
- selling ad slots on the blog or creating an exclusive membership area with the monthly fee
- donations (I use Ko-Fi because I love coffee, but there are others )
Reality check
I am sure there are more and more and more. Looking at some of the income reports and how-to posts it all seems super easy to make hundreds and even thousands of dollars just by running a blog. So for a while, I was a bit disappointed when 3-4 months in I was still struggling to get traffic. But since I kind of suddenly enrolled in school – I was a bit overwhelmed and lack of time for anything.
The last few months have been mostly just doing things with hardly having time to properly focus on anything. The way I hate doing things. But since we have strictly 24 hours in a day and humans need to fit there at least a few hours of sleep. It was the best I could do.
I arranged 2-week vacation from both of my jobs and school at the end of December and I was so overworked and sleep-deprived that I slept most of the first days. And after that, I felt weirdly off. I wanted to do something, I had ideas but zero energy. Like I just couldn’t force myself to do anything – just watched TV and social media. I wrote a few blog posts but couldn’t find any e-book ideas. And then it was time to go back to work. I was disappointed once again that my traffic was still lower than I had dreamed.
Building Twitter and Pinterest
From the beginning I knew I need to build Pinterest for the blog, web is full of tutorials and testimonials that Pinterest is a gold mine for blog traffic and earning some money on the side. But you need content to pin and share. I just started. So kind of a dead end.
So another way to spread the word and start getting the traffic I joined Twitter. I must admit – I never thought anything of it and the character’s limit sounded cruel. But people were praising it as a fast track to build an audience and attract traffic. So I did.
I have found a community – bloggers, who have been blogging for years, new bloggers like me, wonderful authors. I am still a bit overwhelmed that bloggers with over 10k followers and a major readers base have time and willingness to communicate with someone like me. Some of them I have read for years and some of them are reasons I started blogging and started to believe that it could be a side income. Or even full income?
Emotional rollercoaster
I think this is the most correct term for these first months. There have been days I was so happy – there were visits and comments and … felt like real. There have been days I was ready to shut it and give up.
But working in marketing for almost a decade I know websites take time. Until Google starts to trust a page and shows it on search. So I have tried to calm myself and stay positive and at these low points, I am so grateful for the Twitter community and their support.
How were your first blogging months?
