Today is the 19th which means that it’s my website’s 3rd-month-iversary! I’m still struggling to manage to be a beginner blogger around my life and travelling, I still don’t really have any idea what I’m doing (in the grand scheme of things) and I’m still wishing that my social media followings would grow as fast as my waistline is. 😉

Beginner Blogger

Yup, it’s time for another of my anniversary articles. (Check out what I found in my first and second month if you’re interested!)

Like I always do I want to say thank you to my many readers who read my blog over the past month, I love you all!

1. Getting Decent Viewing Numbers Every Day Isn’t Always Motivating – It Can Be Demotivating!

Truthfully, the second this year started I was totally and utterly burnt out. I started slacking not only on blogging, but going to the gym, even keeping my house tidy and doing my chores. This became worse when I started running ads for the first time. So, I’m a festival addict and at the start of the month, I worked hard to get out many Tomorrowland festival guides out there, as it’s one of the most Googled festivals in the world and ticket sales began this month.

I started my first proper Facebook ad campaign targetting people in Europe who had an interest in the festival, which brought in a ton of viewers. This is when I began to slack. Viewers were coming in every day and I didn’t need to do a thing, they were clicking on my article and then clicking on the other articles that I’d linked to it. Ideally, I should have seen this as an opportunity to double my viewing numbers this month by making and promoting other articles alongside this one. Like, I said it weirdly demotivated me.

Lesson learnt. If you feel burnt out. Do not run ads and then slack off!

2. Results from SEO Can Show Faster Than You’d Expect

The general rule of thumb is to give 3-6 months to rank probably on search engines, especially if your website is brand new (Google needs to be to trust you). Some of mine were pretty instant and I’d say they ranked within 6 weeks for some longtail keywords which is excellent (to me anyway). JUST because your website is brand new, it doesn’t mean that people won’t be able to find you, so don’t lose hope. Get keyed up on SEO, try and write as many SEO-able articles that you can and get them out there.

Don’t fret too much about viewing numbers. I spent the whole time fretting and then found that one of my articles that I hadn’t even shared yet (I’d only linked it to a larger article), had already ranked without any effort. If there isn’t much competition and you’ve got good SEO then you’ll be laughing. Never ignore the power of SEO articles – it means that writing takes more time, but it really pays off in the end. Traffic with minimal effort afterwards? That’s the dream! Just be patient and you’ll see the results eventually.

3. Viewers Will Still Come to Your Website, Even If You Aren’t Doing Anything

* Of course, this point only stands if you’ve worked really hard the first few months!

I thought I’d give myself a week and a half off from blogging, sharing, ads and all sorts and leave my website and social media untouched, just to see what would happen. I was travelling, so I thought this was the perfect time to have a break and to see what happens. Of course, your viewing numbers are going to go right down, but it gives you the opportunity to see who is finding you, what they are reading and how. It made me realise that my search engine searches were on the up, along with Pinterest (which is finally doing at least SOMETHING, I’m a Pinterest virgin soz).

This is not to say you should regularly just stop working, or you’re actually hindering your success, but every once in a while it’s interesting to see what actually happens if you drop off the grid for a short while.

4. People Can Already See You as a Threat

How does this happen in 3 months as a beginner blogger!? I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet either BTW, this happens to many different people early on. People get shirty with you, people copy you and all sorts, which I seriously didn’t think happened until you were big or something. Like in life, some people are lovely and some people are not and it’s important to realise this early on. Nothing like a little bit of healthy competition. I guess with so many people starting out every day, SOMEONE out there isn’t going to like it. It generally came as a shock to me, but I guess it’s also a sign that we are doing something right somewhere. In the words of Dory: Just keep swimming!

5. Blogging Is a Journey and Not a Destination

This is really important to realise early on and as much as I have tried to build the website as quickly as possible, it’s not always feasible. Life gets in the way and you’re still learning. I keep thinking “crap, how have they got 10k followers!?” and then I realise they haven’t done that in 3 months, it’s been a process and we should hopefully all get there one day. The main thing is that the viewers are growing every month and it doesn’t matter how small that is, growth is growth. I’ve definitely noticed a difference month by month and my traffic is now changing and coming from search engines and Pinterest, which is exactly what I was aiming for. I guess all that’s left is to imagine where it will be in a year, as it’s still early days!

Join me in a month for my next edition in month #4!

What have you found on your journey as a beginner blogger? Drop it in the comments! And don’t forget to like me on Facebook to see more.