1 Month of Blogging
___________________________________________________________
If you are looking for a sign to get out of bed, take a shower, walk outside, or a simple reminder that you are important: Here it is! This is your sign!
___________________________________________________________
Blog Review: May 2020
As some of you know, Becoming the Best Self actually went live the end of August 2019! But, once classes began back, I did not prioritize this blog and stopped releasing content. (Literally by about the middle of September, I put this on hold. Ouch.)
Although I haven’t picked my podcast back up (yet), I began working hard on this site again the end of April 2020! I pushed out some posts the first week of May and have been going strong since! Therefore, May 2020 was my first *real* month of blogging!
Now, I know, I know. This blog isn’t about blogging, it’s about growth and mental health. BUT, on the first of every month, I am going to provide you with my personal ‘blog audit’ of the previous month! I look at this as growth for the blog. Growth for Becoming the Best Self!
We’ll look at our numbers for Becoming the Best Self, in terms of blog views, Instagram growth, and Pinterest clicks! I’ll even be giving some tips I personally used in trying to grow my reach! (What worked and what didn’t!)
I am also going to put myself out there by discussing what I accomplished the past month and listing my goals for the following month! That way, I have this platform to hold me accountable as well as to see our growth!
So, without further ado:
What I Learned in My First *REAL* Month of Blogging
We’re going to begin by looking back at what we accomplished in May and then on to (what I like to call) the numbers! Then, we’ll talk about what Becoming the Best Self’s goals are for June!
May 2020 Accomplishments:
I am really proud of Becoming the Best Self this month! I will say that I don’t have a ton to add here because I didn’t set a whole lot of goals when I picked my blog back up. Going forward, this month has given me some high expectations for June!
Also, I am so thankful for you reading this and sharing our posts!
As I seriously began Becoming the Best Self (again) the first week of May, I definitely didn’t think we would hit the numbers we did! I also wasn’t sure if I would stay consistent with it!
News flash: I stayed consistent in posting, at minimum, 2 blog posts a week!
Little achievements:
- Set up an official business email with G-Suite and ConvertKit!
- Added social sharing icons to my page! (This was a big win for me! For some reason, I found this harder than it probably should have been.)
- We did not one, but TWO series!
- I launched 2 freebies!
We also exceeded any expectations we could have had for our views! Which leads us to analytics!
Analytics:
Becoming the Best Self Site
Okay, so seemingly, ‘sessions’ make up each single visit to your site. ‘Pageviews’ shows the amount of times each individual page on your site was loaded.
It took a bit for me to understand this difference, but your pageviews are more of vanity number. They count each time someone opens any separate page on your site. (Meaning if you leave this post and go to my home page, it will count as 2 pageviews.)
Sessions, on the other hand, count how many times people actually loaded your site! So, if this is the first site on Becoming the Best Self you are visiting today, thank you! You are helping that number right now! If you got here from a different link on this blog, still- thank you, because you’re helping my pageviews!
As you can tell, we had our fair share of highs and lows throughout the month of May. But, since this is the first real month I have been actively pushing out content and really working on growing my reach, I am proud to say we hit 1.9 THOUSAND pageviews!
1,202 people started a session on Becoming the Best Self! With that, our pages were viewed 1,918 times!
Even though I wasn’t focused on these numbers as much as I focused on my blog site itself, there are some things I did to push my reach!
- Heavily focused on Pinterest! I’ll go into details on Pinterest in a moment, but I learned the most I could (so far) about creating pins!
- Instagram announcements! This will be elaborate on as well, but every time a post goes live, I announce it on my Instagram story.
- Facebook! Although I don’t have a Becoming the Best Self page yet, I do share my links to my personal page from time to time! (I should get better at this though.) The primary way Facebook has helped me is by joining blogging groups! I have joined a variety of groups from blogging itself, all the way down to groups pertaining to my specific niche.
- Learning SEO. Okay, this one is a ‘in it for the long haul’ one, but everyone tells me to focus on SEO! So, that’s what I’m doing! SEO is ‘search engine optimization’. Basically, it’s what google uses to see if your post is first-page-important! I don’t have many tips on this, since my blog is fairly new. But, hopefully when I do June’s review, I’ll have more info and links for you!
These may not seem like a lot to some, but I am floored by these numbers! I didn’t have any big goals for the month of May. But, seeing these numbers in just one month of blogging- BOY, do we have goals for June!
Listen, I have always had Pinterest. And, let me tell you- I wish I had used it in a proper way to grow my platform when I first downloaded it YEARS ago! But, no. I used it to pin everything- recipes, crafts, shoes, nails, makeup, quotes, etc. To add to that, when I first launched Becoming the Best Self, I still didn’t take Pinterest seriously!
Until May 2020! That’s when I learned the value Pinterest can add to your blog! Since you just click pins to go directly to what you want to view, there’s no middle man! You don’t have to announce it. You just post your pin, and boom! Start sharing!
Now, there are ways to go about this, of course. You do have to put in work on the back end. But, it is so worth it! I haven’t taken any courses, but I plan to in the near future! But, I will definitely send out the courses I take so make sure you have subscribed to Becoming the Best Self!
I am, once again, shocked at the numbers shown for May 2020 on our Pinterest account!
Even though some of these numbers are also vanity numbers, they really do feel good to see!
‘Impressions’ are the total amount of times my pins were seen. ‘Total audience’ refers to the total amount of people that saw my pins.
‘Engagements’ are the amount of times my pins were actually engaged with. Lastly, ‘engaged audience’ is the number of people that engaged with my pins!
(I am also going to discuss our ‘click rates’, which is the number of time my pins were clicked through to their link!)
Here’s a plot twist fro you: the numbers in this picture are actually a little lower than what we ended up with! Our final Pinterest numbers for our first month of blogging were as follows:
- Impressions: 21.21k
- Total Audience: 16.97k
- Engagements: 1.76k
- Engaged Audience: 702
- Link Clicks: 513
So, heck freaking yeah!
You can bet your sweet bippy that we are completely satisfied with those number in our first month!
I want to preface this section by letting you know that I am not actively trying to grow Becoming the Best Self’s Instagram page. Becoming the Best Self does have it’s own account. I do plan on working with it more in the future, but I am currently working on growing my personal page, @barbiewithablog! The only reason for this that I want the personal connection with Instagram.
I have found that Instagram does not pull as many views as Pinterest or Facebook. But, I do use it to announce blog posts, as well as draw ideas! Instagram analytics also data by the week, not month. For that reason, I am not going to go into the full analytics of my Instagram account. We will just look at a few numbers from May 25- May 31 for @barbiewithablog : 
- Followers: 6,699
- Impressions: 30,532
- Reach: 3,255
- Interactions: 1,968
- Engagement: 5.21%
- Website Clicks: 43
These numbers aren’t too terrible, but I’m not super excited about them. My following is stagnant at about roughly 6,700. I would like to see all the above increase, but with 5.21% engagement rate- I’m not particularly mad about these numbers.
If you look at the number of website clicks (43) and compare that to my followers (6,699), you can see what I mean about Instagram not being the best outlet to pull people to your blog. But, 43 clicks is more than nothing!
Here are a few ways I’ve implemented in my first month of blogging to try to grow my Instagram page:
- Engage with others! If you are seriously trying to grow, look at it as a daily job. You need to put time aside to get into your social media community and network! Follow people that resonate with your niche, then go through who they follow! Also, don’t be afraid to follow, follow, follow! Just make sure you are also liking and commenting on posts!
- Find your aesthetic. I still struggle with this. But, you want your feed to flow. I’m trying to perfect the everyday moody style, but it’s definitely a work in progress.
- Pay attention to your content. Don’t just post to post. Have good content! If you wouldn’t ‘like’ it, don’t post it. Successful Instagrammers say to post consistently, everyday. I don’t personally do this only because I don’t have enough content. (If I did, I absolutely would!)
- Write good captions. Every now and then, yes, you can throw in some lyrics or a quote. But, for the most part, write stuff people will want to read and respond to! (Like a SUPER mini blog!)
- Use your stories! Some days, I update my Instagram story throughout the whole day, while others I don’t post one at all. I have noticed that my engagement is higher when I am consistently adding to my story, if nothing else.
I know people who have grown their Instagram from 0 to 10k+ followers in a matter of months, but that’s not necessarily my all time goal. Yes, I want more following. That would widen my platform which means Becoming the Best Self and our mission would get out to more people! But, I’d rather focus on other outlets, rather than just Instagram.
Don’t get me wrong, I am actively working on my Instagram. I just am prioritizing other networks for Becoming the Best Self.
Speaking of, let’s move on towards our goals for June!
Goals for June:
June is going to be a dang good month for Becoming the Best Self! I feel it in my bones!
Taking our analytics into consideration with our overall blog goals, here is our breakdown of what we want to see happen in our second *REAL* month of blogging:
Analytical goals:
-
- 2.5k pageviews
- 2k sessions
- 30k Pinterest reach
- 50 email friends
- 7,000 Instagram followers
Other goals:
-
- 2 posts per week (maintenance)
- 2 guest posts
- Start YouTube channel
- Create Becoming the Best Self’s Facebook page
Now that I’ve put my goals out on the line, it’s time for us to start working towards them! I’ll see you in a couple of days to kick off June with our second post of the week!
Be sure to share this with your friends if they are looking for tips to grow their platform or if they want real insight on the first month of a blogging!
If you have any tips for me, drop them in the comments or send me an email! In true Becoming the Best Self form, we love all the help we can get!
As always, if you need a sign to take care of yourself: this is it.
Grow you platform.
Start that blog.
Set goals.
Because as we all know:
you are the most vital character in your story!
Peace out, girl scouts!
… and always aim to be the best self you can be.
Leave a Reply