My Surprising Second Month Blogging

I’ve been blogging for 2 months now, and I have to tell you, I love it! It’s fun to write about things that I’m passionate about. I love sharing my ideas with people out there.  And I am just blown away by how many people are actually reading my words.

My Surprising Second Month Blogging

This post may contain affiliate links.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed the beginning of my blogging adventure.

I’m beyond thankful for the overwhelming support I’ve received from so many members of the blogging community.

The truth is that the first 2 months of my blogging career have gone better than I ever thought possible. I’m stunned by my increase in views and income this month. I’m going to explain everything that worked for me during my surprising 2nd month blogging in this post.

You may also want to read my post about my first month here: How I Rocked my First Month Blogging.

My goals for my second month blogging

I’ve been working my tail off trying to lay a solid foundation for my blog. I began by focusing on four main goals.

Goal 1: Create as much high-quality content as I possibly could

I know that creating great content is the most important thing that I can do in growing my blog. The more content that I have, the more that can be read. At the same time, I’m not willing to add content just for the sake of having more content. I want everything I post to be the best possible content that I can create.

How I did with this goal:

I published 14 new posts to my blog this month. This gives me total of 33 posts. I think this is great!

I try to post 3 times each week. This is challenging but generally pretty doable for me. I aim for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday post but I’m flexible with this depending on what is happening each week.

I have a ton of ideas for posts and I think I’ll be able to keep up this posting rate into the foreseeable future.

I’m also working on creating an editorial calendar to organize my ideas and schedule out my posts.

How I’ll continue this goal next month:

I would absolutely love to get a week or two ahead with my posts. I want to have them written, edited and scheduled in WordPress with SEO and images a week ahead of time. Right now, I’m lucky if I have my posts completed a day or two ahead of time. I’m going to continue to work on trying to get ahead.

Goal 2: Learn as I possible about blogging

I am approaching blogging as a new career. And I’m trying to train myself just as I would be trained in any new job. Part of this is taking classes. I want to soak up as much information as I can from expert bloggers and then use that information in a way that works for me and my blog.

When I first began thinking about blogging, the first book I read was How to Blog for Profit without Selling your Soul by Ruth Soukup. I continue to reference this book as I go. There is so much useful information and this is a tremendously valuable reference.

Blogging classes

Last month, I completed Bob Lotich’s Pro-Blogging Secrets course. However, I’ve continued to reference this course as I’ve worked my way through my second month blogging. There is just so much good stuff included.

Pro-Blogging Secrets is a series of videos and resources that cover the spectrum of all blogging areas. It covers blogging basics, gaining traffic, monetization, and the business of blogging. I learned so much from this course.

PBS also comes with an awesome Facebook support group. This is a powerful resources. I love being able to ask questions and exchange ideas with other bloggers.

The next blogging class I took was Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook by Abby Lawson. This program covers everything from creating content and building relationships to growing your blog and monetizing.

Building a Framework also includes premium packages that include step-by-step video tutorials, which taught me so much about the technical aspects of blogging that I couldn’t figure out on my own.

Again, (in my opinion) the most valuable part of the program is that it includes a Facebook mastermind group that you’re able to join once you purchase the program. This has been so helpful to me! I’m able to ask questions and talk to other bloggers about things that my non-blogging friends just don’t understand.

I cannot recommend Building a Framework highly enough. Check it out here.

More learning this month

This month I’ve also started reading some more great ebooks about blogging.

My favorites that I read this month were Becca Ludlum’s Everything But the Posts, Kayla Aimee’s The Must-Have Guide To Blogging: How I Built and Grew a Profitable Blog (and You Can, Too!)  and 17 Strategies I Used to Go from 17K to 350K+ Pageviews in 9 Months by Lena Gott.

I also have a few more courses that I’m going to be taking soon that I am really excited about. First of all, I’m super excited to take Elite Blog Academy when it is released in 2017.

Until that’s available though, there are a few courses I’m excited about in the meantime.

This week, I’m going to start taking the Sticky Blogging SEO Course by Kelly Holmes. I’m excited about this because I know SEO is going to be important to the future of my blog.

I’m also going to take Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner. This course will help me learn more about making my blog profitable. I’ll tell you more below about how much I’m currently making with my blog.

Goal 3: Grow my pageviews and getting as many eyes as possible on my blog

I’m working so hard on creating this content, and I believe it could be genuinely helpful for a lot of people. But it can only help people if they can find it and read it. So, I want to spread the word about my blog and find readers who will continue to return and read my blog.

Last month, I was so excited to have over 10K pageviews in my first month blogging. This motivated me to increase this number during my second month. I knew this would be hard, but I was inspired to try.

How I did with this goal:

Well, I reached this goal and then some. I’m thrilled to share that I had…

18,512 pageviews!

This is more than I could have hoped for in the 2nd month of my blog.

This large majority of these pageviews come from my most popular post: 3 Tips to cut your Electric Bill in Half. My No Spend November series also received a high number of views.

These pageviews consisted of 13, 268 unique visitors.

How did I do this?

Well, I want to write a whole post about how what I’ve done to get so many pageviews so soon into my blogging career (subscribe to my email here so you don’t miss this post). However, I will tell you one word that sums up the basics:

Pinterest.

Ok, I’ll elaborate just a little bit.

I’ve been pinning a ton to some really great group boards that I’ve joined. I’ll use the most engaging pin images that I can create. I generally create these images using free stock photos and PicMonkey. PicMonkey is a great, super easy (and affordable) photo editing tool.

Related: 9 Best Websites to get Free Stock Photos for your Blog

I’m also scheduling my pins using BoardBooster. BoardBooster is a wonderful Pinterest scheduling tool that has definitely helped me increase my pageviews. I really love it. In fact, I feel like I gained an hour back from each day when I started using BoardBooster.

How I’m going to continue this goal next month

I’m going to continue to share my blog everywhere that I can in the hopes that my pageviews continue to increase. I’m also going to learn more about SEO and work harder on applying SEO to my blog posts so that I can hopefully gain some search engine traffic.

Goal 4: Make a few dollars

I want my blog to be my future career, and that’s only possible if the blog is profitable. I don’t expect to be truly profitable for quite a while, but I would like to dabble with monetization.

I’d estimate that I’ve worked about 150 hours on my blog this month. That’s almost 40 hours a week, just on my blog. (This is in addition to my regular job that I work at 30 hours a week.)

I’m working my butt off. I’ll fully breakdown my 2nd month’s income below but basically, my blogging time is making a few pennies an hour.

However, I’m totally fine with this! I know that I’ll have to put in a lot of time without making very much for the first year or so as I lay the foundation for my blog and business. I’m glad to do this because I really believe that it will be worth it in the long run.

How I did with this goal:

So much better than I expected! I made a spontaneous decision to join the Ultimate Bundles affiliate program in late October and that turned out to be such a smart choice.

If you’re a blogger, I highly recommend becoming an Ultimate Bundles affiliate. Not only do you get to be an affiliate and earn a generous commission on their awesome bundles but the affiliate portal also includes amazing affiliate training that is applicable to most affiliate programs.

As an Ultimate Bundle affiliate, I sold 6 of the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit Bundles. This was a phenomenal product at a great price that I was super excited to use myself so it was easy to get behind.

I’ve also become an affiliate for the courses I have taken and mention often, such as those mentioned above.

In addition, I’ve continued to use Amazon affiliate links. Who doesn’t love Amazon?

Here is a breakdown of my affiliate income:

• Amazon: $17.25
• Ultimate Bundles: $271.60
• Other courses: $20
• Total Affiliate Income: $308.85!

What am I going to do with this income? It will all be reinvested back into my blog. I’m currently using a free WordPress theme but I’m going to be switching to Genesis and to a paid theme I’ve had my eye on. I’ll be working on these changes over the next month or so.

I’m also reinvesting this income by purchasing using it to purchase the classes I’ve mentioned in goal 2. This is huge because it’s much easier to afford the price tag on those courses when I don’t have to pay for them out of pocket.

How I’m going to continue this goal next month

So far, I’ve only monetized my blog using affiliate links. Next month I’m going to work on ads. I’ve applied to the Monumetric Ad Network (formerly The Blogger Network). I’m super excited to see how this goes.

I’m also continuing seeking out affiliate relationships that I believe in. I will only promote products that I use and love.

As I head into my 3rd month

I’m going to focus on being more productive in the coming months. I always feel like I have so much to do and it’s been a challenge to actually find the time for it all.

I work at my day job from 8:30-3:00 each day. I’ve been working on my blog from 6:30-7:30 each morning before work and about 3 hours after work each evening. And I find as much time as I can during the weekends to work on the blog, as well.

I have no problem putting these hours into building up my blog. However, I don’t always feel that I’m being super effective with my time. I’m going to focus on time blocking and sticking to a schedule so that I can get the most out of my time.

I want to continue to keep my head down and get the work done while at the same time absorbing as much new information as possible.

The road blog ahead

I am so thankful to everyone who has supported me during the first 2 months of my blogging adventure.

I love blogging. I love everything about it. I wake up in the morning excited to work on my blog. I feel very optimistic about what the future holds for Happy Humble Home.

I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Want more? You may like:

Is it Time to Quit your Job?

How to Get Paid for Shopping Online

My Blogging Education

How to Create a Savings Schedule you can stick to {free printable}

You can read more about my story here: A Spender and A Saver Fall in Love