Oh my goodness! January has been AMAZING!! You may be wondering what I mean by my first “serious” month blogging. Well… I started CoffeeHeartMind in early December but I got serious about blogging just this month… and by serious, I mean I googled and Pinterested my way to learn more about the blogging world.
I wanted to share with you how my first month of serious blogging went but I don’t plan to have this every month. Just saying’….
The blog
I kept working on the appearance of the actual blog- a tweak here and there – until I loved it. I wanted it to be pleasing to the eye. Sure, I could have paid a designer, but as a freshie blogger, I don’t have money for that. I was on the fence on whether or not to use banners on my blog but I eventually decided to use them. I still have to play around with my banners to get that perfect shot, but I am loving my banners for all the pages in the Share the Love menu.
I worked hard on my Start Here page and my About page; I wanted them to be able to capture my readers attention. I am not kidding when I say that it literally took me the whole of January to finally have it where I am loving it! It wasn’t a one day sit down project for me. I made sure that each the Start Here and the About page explains what the blog is about, who it’s for, and who I am.
What I’m getting better with as well is linking my posts together. So yay for that!!!
Social media
Social networking is so important in the blogging world! I know there are many people that say they get most of their traffic from Pinterest but I don’t – maybe I’m just not utilizing it to its full potential. Ha!
I had to start with Facebook considering before blogging, this was my biggest social media platform. So I thought it’d be a smart idea to create a Facebook page for CoffeeHeartMind. What I really like about Facebook is that there are so many blogging groups out there to join! Most of them have a daily theme to get yourself out there. Must admit that I just recently made the decision to be more active in those groups. They have been so helpful! Have a question? Just ask! Need an opinion? Just ask! Need some love for a post of yours? Wait until the designated day! =P
I’m actually going to write a post about my favourite Facebook blogging groups. So I’ll keep you posted!
I’ve never really understood Twitter. I guess it’s like texting. Hm. Still going to work on Twitter. #Goal
I. LOVE. INSTAGRAM! I feel like Instagram is the place to be. Your audience gets to see some personality. Meet you – the person behind the blog. Now I don’t only post personal things on my account, but I promote my blog! I actually created a new profile just for CoffeeHeartMind. I wrote a post on how you can improve your blog’s Instagram account.
StumbleUpon
Surprisingly, this is the where I get my second highest sessions from. Sure, they may just stumble and leave! But I think it’s such a great way for people to stumble – *nudge nudge* – onto your blog who otherwise wouldn’t have.
Social Media Help
There are so many things to do! Oh man. I seriously felt like I just played catch up this month. There are many out there that I keep hearing about that would help with the social networking aspect. In all honesty, I didn’t research anything, but I just noticed that a lot of bloggers use HootSuite so I signed on up! It’s FREE so it’s great! I don’t use it religiously. I’ve played around with but have only actually used it once. This month I plan to use it more. I’ve only connected Twitter to it.
Instagram is the I use believe it or not. I wrote a post about how you can improve your blog’s Instagram account. I connected my Instagram account to my Facebook Page, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. So once I post something on Instagram, it automatically posts it to those pages. It’s been extremely helpful if I do say so myself. And I do!!!!
Blogging friends!
I love that with blogging you get to meet people that you otherwise wouldn’t have met! I think that is so amazing! Now I have a couple of blogging friend who now I can message and chat blogging and life!
Here’s a few of those blogger friends – you should go check them out!
- Ali from themindtravelersblog.com
- Margaret Stuart from margfit.com
- Dr. Arlene Garcia from bsrealtalk.com
- Erin from butfirstnaptime.com
My Month End Social Stats
I knew I wanted to keep track of how well I was doing. I wanted to see how my blog grew in 31 days because I knew that I really wanted to work hard. When I was creating my editorial calendar I made sure to add a Social section to keep track of those numbers. You can find my editorial calendar in the Resource Library. Sign up here for access.
I am so happy with the numbers!
My social stat growth for January!
Analytics
My January overview via Google Analytics
What’s In It For February?
I am so motivated for February – you have no idea! Or maybe you do and that’s awesome!
My main goal is to fill my resource library with some goodies!
My other goals:
- to perfect my banners
- to post consistently at least 3 times a week
- to have my blog segments more well known and to have more guest posts
How did your first serious month blogging go? Let me know in the comments!!!!
Being new to this myself I enjoyed reading that I’m not the only one who had issues getting started, like with the tweaking and retweaking, Also your choice of social media FB & IG are the ones I focus on. I’m not yet to where I’m creating content on a regular schedule though, when I get that straight I’ll make driving traffic to it a major focus. I’ve been using Hootsuite to schedule my posts to Instagram for a couple of months and that’s made a big difference in my consistency in that area. I like the layout you designed as well. Very nice. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Amy!
Aw! Thank you, Krista! That makes me so happy! I’ll definitely check out your blog! <3
I love this! Great job! <3
This is an amazing post! You offer so many resources and plus I am so happy that you reached your goals. I’m a new blogger myself so you’ve just become my role model! Haha #bloggergoals!
Sincerely, Krista @ http://kristaaoki.com
This post is on the one! It’s been an adventure learning how to blog. I started my site with the goal to help others turn adversity into triumph and live their best life now. I’ve also connected with other bloggers such as yourself and like you, I have blogger goals….to increase views and followers. I had 200 visitors on launch day and had 3000 visitors last week. I’m looking forward to learning more and helping others with my story.
It totally is amazing! Yea I’m so happy I found StumbleUpon! I was so surprised the first time I check where my traffic was coming from! And I totally feel you about Pinterest. I hope it cooperates for both of us!!!
Oh really? That’s funny! I’d love to read yours! and thank you! You as well!
Thank you! <3
I also just finished my first serious month of blogging. It’s amazing what you can do when you actually put your mind to it.
I’m also getting a surprising amount of traffic from stumbleupon. So I’m glad I added my posts to it. Traffic is traffic. Now if I could just get my pinterest to cooperate.
I wish you the best for February!
It’s so funny that we wrote similar kinds of posts in January! Congratulations on your milestones. Wishing you continued success.
You are doing just great!