My Second Month Blogging Report

Hey babes!!! I’m back with my second month blogging report & I’m kinda excited this time, ngl!

If you missed my previous one here’s my first month blogging report!

SO!!!! Before we dive into the numbers: I HAVE NEWS ⏤ I finally decided to take the leap & enroll in Foodtography School by Sarah Crawford!

Their Black Friday sale was POPPIN + a mini mental breakdown followed by a mini epiphany & a super positive dm interaction/exchange with Emma from Emma Duckworth Bakes finally pushed me enough to jump. And as NF says: if they ever push me I’m gonna SWING.

I just finished watching the intro + bonuses so I haven’t even started yet but I’m already in love with the course & the Lightroom bonus was a game changer!

Now let me shut the f*ck up & move onto the actual report lol.

Let’s start with a review:

🗒 NOVEMBER BLOGGING GOALS REVIEW

1000 pageviews/month (I'M SHAKING.) ✓SUCCESS: I reached 1073 pageviews.
Get to 20k Pinterest monthly viewers while keeping my current CTR. X FAIL *BUT* I’m sitting at 16K (up by 40%) & my CTR is 0.95%!!! The average CTR for the food industry seems to be around 0.2% and last month mine was 0.45% so a 123% increase! My monhtly viewers didn’t go up because I slacked A LOT this month & that happened because I wasn’t happy with my strategy.
4 more links published. ✓SUCCESS: I got 7 new links published and that was a great boost!!
Focus on building some relationships. ✓SORTA (lol): I mean I can’t say I have friends but I had really nice dm interactions with a few bloggers & they were SO sweet & helpful!
Get accepted into 3-4 more group boards. X FAIL! My fault, I didn’t even try lol.
Publish at least 2 new recipes every week (the Holiday season is in full swing!!). X FAIL I MISSED 1!!!!!! I’m SO frustrated because I only missed 1 post last week & that’s because I didn’t follow my editorial calendar.

Overall, I’m happy with my results but I really have to focus on my email list & come up with a better Pinterest strategy (sorry Carly). Instagram is on the backburner as well. No bueno.

Yea… there’s SO much to do!

📊 GOOGLE ANALYTICS

The numbers are in!!! 🥁

Okay SO ⏤ Sessions per User, Avg Session Duration & Bounce Rate are RED like Santa, they’re down (or up when it comes to bounce rate) BUT LOOK…

Pageviews are up 90%, Users are up 158% & Sessions are up 135%. Just gimme the Moscato & let me celebrate that.

Why this month I’m not so “eh” about my pageviews: I spent a ton of time researching case studies & realized that the majority of people that start a blog (aka randos) don’t get CRAZY results like those 1 in a million case studies where people get 10K overnight.

I mean, i KNEW that but I was still bummed out because I thought my numbers weren’t really that good. Doing more research (thank u reddit) helped me understand that my numbers are actually good.

I found case studies with numbers that were super similar to mine & people got a ton of compliments & great predictions so… thank you internet strangers that don’t even know I exist because all I do is lurk like a psycho, you just gave me a great mood boost.

Next.

📊 GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Here are some extra numbers from GSC ⏤ these prompted a mini epiphany/slight change of strategy so hear me out:

I’m loving my CTR but my impressions are LOW.

This made me understand that I’m targeting keywords that don’t have enough traffic to boost my impressions. The thing is: if I target keywords with better traffic I have less chance of getting my recipe in Google’s Top 10 (this happened btw, so I know it’s possible & it’s crazy af because I’m SO new to the game).

But if I target keywords with better traffic & somehow get enough backlinks to get a solid boost, I could technically skyrocket to Google’s Top 10 & *IF* I keep the same CTR but double/triple/whatever my impressions… I’LL (sorta) FLY lol.

The problem with that is: skyrocketing like that isn’t an exact science, you need quality backlinks, & my blog is super new so all my recipes are still dancing around quite a bit. In other words, there’s no guarantee.

On the other hand, if I keep targeting low traffic keywords I’ll get way less impressions BUT I know I’ll be featured in Google’s Top 10 just easy. Less risky but less rewarding.

I think this month I might change my strategy a bit & go a bit more risque (ay) & target keywords with higher traffic. You guys, it’s all trial & error.

📊 TRAFFIC

Anyone wants some pie charts??? Look at that pumpkin pie slice getting wider… love that.

I wanted to share these two pie charts because I wanted to show you how my organic traffic doubled & went from 9.7% to 18.9% in just 30 days. I’m SO grateful.

And it’s going really fast too!!! Just a few days ago on November 24 I posted my Healthy Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal recipe & on November 29 I started getting organic clicks ⏤ WHAT?!

🤍 YOUR NOVEMBER FAVORITES

I love seeing which posts get attention (aka what sticks) so, here are your November favorites! Keep in mind that some results are slightly “altered” by the boost I got from huge referrals:

Chinese Eggplants With Spicy Garlic Sauce
Chocolate Pretzel Tart
Russian Chocolate Salami Dessert (Shokoladnaya Kolbasa)
Autumn Corn Chowder With Roasted Pumpkin
Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls With Dipping Sauce (these are #1 on my Pinterest, people love them!!!)
Best Apple Slab Pie With Icing
Homemade Pumpkin Pie For Two (hello small gatherings <3)
Savory Pumpkin Twists With Puff Pastry
Spicy Honey Garlic Glazed Carrots
Spicy Lebanese Potatoes (Batata Harra Recipe)

💰INCOME

Still nothing to see here. No I didn’t start monetizing. No ads, no affiliate links, yes I know I missed out on Black Friday deals & omg Christmas is literally around the corner.

I don’t wanna wait too long but I also feel like it’s still early for me to pump out affiliate links & display ads. Especially ads.

Sorry to disappoint. I still don’t have a 12 car garage & not even 6 cars, imagine that.

👆🏻DECEMBER BLOGGING GOALS

Accountability is great btw, I kinda love it, so here are my December goals:

1600 pageviews (I know, it might be too safe or oddly specific but I’m trying to do something, bear w me)
10 new posts.
10 links published.
20k monthly viewers on Pinterest.
Join 3-4 group boards.
Post every day on IG (stories/feed posts).
Target high(er) traffic keywords.
Complete Unit 01 & Unit 02 of Foodtography School & up my photography + editing game.
Update my opt-in.
Work on my email list (sequences).
Try not to lose my sh*t.

I think that’s it.

That’s a LOT of stuff.

LET'S GET TO WORK!!!!! 💘

Ps: If you're a fellow blogger, let me what are your blogging goals for next month OR let me know if I'm playing too safe with my blogging goals!

x Bianka