This is my month 3 blog review. I share what I worked on, what I learnt and how you can get started the right way!
Why am I doing this?
I created the profit blogging challenge because I wanted to treat this blog as a business, chronicle my experience for others and have accountability. Even as a non-techie, with no experience in graphic design, computer science or website building, I decided to embark on this journey.
In my blog review reports, I will share my goals, results and learning experiences with you. We have all seen and heard of successful bloggers making thousands of dollars a month. Or how established bloggers went from X to Y results in a short period of time. What I want is to give you a real look into exactly what I did each month and the results that follow.
Because I am such a non-techie and total newbie, I had to do A LOT of learning. I downloaded a bunch of free guides, worksheets and checklists. But, all the authors for teaching how to start a blog, had a tech background, were Millennials that grew up with computers or were already experienced with blogs. I had a hard time understanding. I had to google basic terms that I was reading about and figure out what to work on first without being overwhelmed.
That is why I started sharing “How to” content from a newbie perspective for others to learn the basics of starting a blog as I did. You can read more about getting started with your own blog with step-by-step instructions on how to pick a unique and winning blog name and getting set up with your own hosting. I am here to make things easier for you and welcome any requests or questions.
Show me the money!
I know that most of you want to know how much and how quickly you can make money from blogging. And I totally get that since starting a blog takes a lot of time and learning. However, I really believe that all those posts of people making money from day 1 gives a false expectation for those of us that don’t know what the $%*?# we are doing. So, because I’m so new to all of this, my main focus has been and will continue to be learning something new each month, applying it to my blog and reporting the results for you to follow my progress.
Now, there is a psychological reason for doing it this way. Although my end goal is to create an income from this blog, I do NOT want to get discouraged because I’m not making any money. We all know for a FACT that it can be done. We’ve seen others who have done it and assure us that if they can do it, anyone can. But, I also know that it’s human nature to compare our progress against others. And that is completely demotivating when you don’t measure up.
So, even though this is a profit blogging challenge for me, money doesn’t really matter at this point. Because of this, I will purposely not be reporting any income for the first year. I want to give myself time to learn and grow. I know for a fact that the income will happen at some point as long as I continue to apply myself. Because making money isn’t my focus, any income I do earn during this time will be donated to the SPCA.
March Madness
This past month has been a shock to everyone in society as the Western world went into “stay at home mode” in order to flatten the coronavirus curve. For me personally, I am one of the lucky ones to still have my job. The week of March 16th, our whole department switched roles in order to support another department. Then I got a called into the office on the Saturday to collect all my computer equipment.
Someone in our building at work had just been diagnosed as a confirmed case. Everyone had to go into the office on the Sat or Sun and set everything up at home. There were some serious challenges logging in and getting all the added software we needed to work properly. It basically took a full 2 days to get up and running.
I admit, I’m not a patient person. LOL. And technology has always been my arch enemy. Of course, being at home, I didn’t have anyone that could physically help me. Because it all happened so fast, everyone was calling tech support so my call wouldn’t even go through. Eventually, I got it all set up properly and now it was time to actually do some work.
My action plan for March
- Post 4x this month
- Join Pinterest group boards
- Continue to pin 5+ times daily using Tailwind
- Split up my goal setting & productivity planner opt-in
- Look at previous posts to add related content links & opt-ins
My month 3 blog review
This new role was a lot more draining than I expected. So, unfortunately, I didn’t have the energy or mental capacity to work on this blog as much as I had before. Despite this, I did accomplish to complete some of my goals. Luckily, I already had some posts mostly written and really just needed to refine it, add images, create pins, etc. In the end, I was able to create 3 posts.
March Posts:
How to easily save $1000 in taxes every year
Month 2 blog review and month 3 action plan
How to save money on everyday things
Pinterest Group Boards
I did take time to look into joining Pinterest group boards as they have been highly recommended. First, I joined some groups in Facebook dedicated to helping each other on Pinterest. Then, as people posted their Pinterest group boards that were relevant for me, I started applying.
Because they were posting it in Facebook, I found it super simple to get accepted into these group boards. I’m telling you this because I have heard about so many that they applied to tons of group boards and never got accepted. Whether these boards will be helpful, I can’t answer as of yet. But, I am now a contributor to these boards moving forward.
If you are interested in joining any of my Pinterest group boards and Tailwind Tribes, you can apply on my Pin To Win page.
Tailwind
This month, Tailwind has been a life saver. I was able to continue to schedule pins on a regular basis. Even if they weren’t my own, I was still active and posting 5+ times a day. I would even do some manual pinning on the days I was able to concentrate.
Goal Setting & Productivity Planner
This month I wanted to separate the goal setting sheets from the productivity planner. The reason I didn’t get it done is that although this sounds simple, it’s actually a lot of work. I not only needed to edit the original file, in order to create 2 new pdf’s. I also have to go into my email marketing software, update the link and edit the opt-in on my website. Therefore, this goal will be rolling into April.
Rolling into April
Adding related content links and opt-ins to my existing posts will be pushed into April.
April Action Plan
- Post 4x this month
- Evaluate and pin using my Pinterest group boards with Tailwind
- Split up my goal setting & productivity planner opt-in
- Look at previous posts to add related content links & opt-ins
- Start tracker for stats now that I am 3 months in
In conclusion
I am not disappointed that I didn’t meet a few of my goals for last month. In fact, I am quite proud that I was able to accomplish as much as I did. It was a very hard month adjusting to the new role and reality of working from home during a pandemic.
I am not making excuses or justifying what’s happened but being realistic. Everyone has stuff come up in life and it’s okay to pull back a little if need be. The important thing is that you are moving forward. It’s a totally different thing, if this becomes a recurring theme.
Related content you may also be interest in:
The Importance Of Goal Setting In Life & Business
Month 1 Review/Action Plan
Month 2 Review/Action Plan
Month 4 Review/Action Plan