Blog Growth Stats for June 2017

Last updated on August 1st, 2019 at 07:57 pm

Wow, June is over and Summer is in full effect. I can’t believe how fast my blog growth stats reports come around. It seems like I write one and it’s time for next months.

A lot happened last month and I really didn’t work as much as I had wanted to on my blog. The great thing is that I was able to take a short break and not have to worry about content NOT being published. I have over 20 posts scheduled for publication.

Life Happened

As you know, I am working on this blog to move away from my freelancing gig. Whenever possible, I try to work as much as I can on this blog.

Now Onto My Blog Stats for June

I know that you’re interested in seeing what I am doing for this blog and how I am growing it, so let’s get into it.

I want to be as transparent as possible to show you what I’m doing to grow my blog. My hope is that you can use this post to help you grow your own blog.

So now that you know I am NOT a traffic expert, let’s get busy and see how my blog did last month.

Video Walk-Thru of My Google Analytics

I’ve created a video that will show you the inside of my Google Analytics. I am only showing you this because I truly want to share what I am doing to grow my blog.

Plus, I am using it as a journal to help me keep track of my blog growth. If you’d rather not watch the video, I discuss my analytics below.

A Quick Look at My Blog Analytics

The only way that I know how to show you my blog traffic stats is to show you a quick snapshot of my Analytics dashboard for the month.

As you can see, I am continuing to struggle with page views. I am not sure if it’s because it’s Summer.

I’ve heard that people’s traffic tends to go down during the Summer months?

I am not really sure what it is, all I know is that I am going to continue doing my daily blogging tasks and hopefully, in the fall my traffic will pick up.

I really thought that I would end up getting more subscribers this month, however, I only got 15 new subscribers again.

Growing My Email List

Growing my email list has definitely been a huge struggle for me. Right now my list size is 59, it was 60, but I had one unsubscribe.

I used to get upset or hurt when someone actually unsubscribed. However, now it doesn’t bother me. I figure it’s better to have someone unsubscribe than to sit on my email list and not even open them up.

Here’s a snapshot of the open rates on my newsletters I send out on Friday’s. It’s nothing amazing and I am still working on improving them.

As you can see, I have a 44.07% open rate. My click through rate is 5.08%. Not really sure if those are good stats or not?

Like I said, I’ve never really grown an email list before. I’ve tried to in the past, but never put much effort into it.

Actually, this is the biggest email list I’ve ever had. Also, I this is the most effort I’ve put into staying in touch with my email list.

I guess I avoided it in the past because it is a lot of hard work 🙂

[clickToTweet tweet=”Starting a blog is half the battle, focus on growth #WordPress #freetraining at susanvelez.com ” quote=”Starting a blog is half the battle, focus on growth #WordPress #freetraining at susanvelez.com ” theme=”style4″]

Blog Growth Stats for June 2017

Unfortunately, my page views went down from last month’s blog traffic report. As I mentioned above, it could be because the Summer months are in full swing.

More people are out enjoying the weather and spending time with their families. I have no doubt that my traffic will continue to increase as long as I keep doing the work.

So I am putting my head down and working hard. Eventually, all my hard work will pay off 🙂

Guest Posts Written In June

Last month I was able to get 2 guest posts published. I no longer link out to my guest posts as I don’t want to be penalized for reciprocal link building. Not sure if I can be, but I don’t want to risk it.

I probably could’ve written at least one more, but I didn’t take the time or put in the effort to reach out to other bloggers.

Other Stuff That Happened

Okay, so my blog is now almost 9 months old. I wrote the first blog post on October 6, 2016. However, I didn’t actually start promoting it and keeping track of metrics until March 2017.

So, I’ve only really been promoting it and tracking my stats since April. For the past 4 months, I’ve been focused on really promoting my blog through commenting, guest posting, Pinterest, and Facebook.

I was really surprised when Cori Ramos from Not Now Mom’s Busy asked me if I wanted to participate in the Extreme Blog Giveaway.

Thanks Cori for thinking about including me in the giveaway.

Of course, I said yes.

Then…

Ryan Biddulph over at Blogging from Paradise mentioned me in one of his blog posts. I couldn’t believe it and when I saw it.

I visit his blog on a regular basis because he shares really great information. In fact, he’s one of the reasons that I started guest posting. I picked up his Building an Online Empire Through Commenting off of Amazon.

Here’s the post where he mentioned me, in case you want to see it. When you scroll down to the comments, you can see I was kind of late to the party.

Thanks Ryan for mentioning me, you definitely made my day.

Commenting On Blogs

Yes, I am still commenting on people’s blogs. As you can see, it definitely works in getting you noticed by other bloggers.

Sure, you may not get a ton of traffic. But that’s okay, I was able to get some opportunities for my blog that I wouldn’t have gotten had it not been for taking the time to comment on blogs.

I know what you’re thinking, it’s too time-consuming. I have other things that I could be doing.

Yes, it does take the time to visit other bloggers blogs and read the post. Then take the time to leave a valuable comment.

However, I am going to keep doing it. None of the opportunities that I experienced in June would’ve been possible without me taking the time to comment and share other people’s content.

My YouTube Channel

I haven’t really taken my YouTube channel seriously. I love creating videos for my blog. I’ve decided to start creating a new video every Wednesday, instead of every other Wednesday.

Yes, it’s going to be a lot of work, with me posting new content on my blog every Tuesday’s and Friday’s. However, I want my YouTube channel to grow.

Last week, I batch recorded a bunch of videos. I know how much it helps to have content pre-written in advance. Why not do the same for my videos.

Videos Uploaded in June

1. How to Add an Affiliate Disclaimer to Genesis
2. How to Style the Affiliate Disclaimer in Genesis
3. Styling the Social Warfare Click to Tweet Using CSS
4. How to Create A Back to Top in Genesis

The great thing is that I’ve already got all my videos recorded for July. I am not really sure if recording more videos for my channel will help it grow?

After listening to this podcast, I figured I would try it. I still have a lot to learn about using YouTube and improving my channel, but I’ll get there.

Using Facebook to Grow My Blog

As you know, Facebook is my biggest traffic referrer. When I saw that, I thought that I would try to learn how to use it more effectively to help me grow my blog. I picked up this course, to see if I could cut down on the learning time.

I don’t mind investing in courses especially if it cuts down on my learning time. My time is valuable and I know that it’s impossible to get everything for free.

Facebook Progress Update

In the past, all I was doing was using Facebook groups to help me grow my blog. I’ve invested in this course that teaches me how to grow my Facebook page.

When I started the course I think I had 11 followers. Now 2 weeks into the course, I have 21 followers.

I know that followers don’t mean anything, you want people who are engaged with what you have to say. The more engagement on Facebook means that the more people who follow you will see your posts.

I am still NOT getting a lot of engagement on my Facebook page. So I need to spend more time finding the right content to share.

I’m Struggling With

One of the things that I’m struggling with is finding content to post on my Facebook page. I’ve been paying attention to the content that is getting people to engage.

However, it takes me so long to find content to post to my Facebook page. To tell you the truth, that has caused me to NOT post every day.

I think that I skipped 3 days of posting in June.

One of the things that I’ve learned from the course is that consistent posting is the key. Just like blogging, you want to set a schedule and stick with it.

I’ve kind of screwed that up, as I didn’t post consistently. I’ll get back on track, once I figure out the content that my followers engage with.

Facebook isn’t really easy for me, I guess that was one of the reasons that I avoided it like the plague in the past.

Like everything else in blogging, I’ll learn it the more I continue to do it.

I know that I am still NOT rocking social media. If you know anything about me, social media is completely new to me. This is the first time I’ve used social media ever.

Before this blog, I didn’t even have any personal accounts. Well, I had a Facebook account, but I never used it.

In the past, I focused 100% on SEO. Thanks to this traffic eBook, it opened up my eyes to creating traffic from multiple places, this way I won’t have to worry about Google for traffic.

My Pinterest Update

In the past, I’ve bitched because I have been pinning all my blog posts and I wasn’t getting any traffic from Pinterest. I’ve only purchased one Pinterest course, Pinning Perfect.

I went back through my Analytics and saw that I started with Pinterest in November of 2016. At that time this blog was barely a month old.

When I went live with my blog, I only had 1 blog post. So I didn’t have a lot of my own content. I was sharing everyone else’s content.

Now I have 70 published blog posts (at the time of this writing). Now I have more of my own content to share.

My traffic is starting to improve from Pinterest and it’s nice. So if you’re like I was and you’re just starting, you have to give it time to grow.

If you don’t have a lot of your own content on your blog, you may want to consider creating more than one pin for your posts. (I never did that, I was too lazy)

If you don’t want to create more pins, maybe you could post more than 2 blog posts per week. Either way, you need more of your own content so you can start seeing some traffic.

You still need to share other people’s content but don’t forget to share your own content.

Creating More Pins

During my mini getaway in Charleston, I didn’t have access to wi-fi a lot of the times. Thank goodness that I don’t need wi-fi to work on Desktop Server or Photoshop.

I figured why not create a few more pins for some of my popular posts. While I didn’t create a second pin for all my popular posts, I did create a second pin for 2 of my most popular posts.

Not sure if that will improve my Pinterest traffic, but I am sure that it won’t hurt it.

My Pinterest Plan

Since my goal is to learn Facebook and I am trying to grow my page. I am NOT focusing on my Pinterest traffic this month.

Instead, I am going to continue doing what I normally do with it. I am still using Tailwind and Board Booster for my scheduling.

Both tools allow me to schedule pins without having to spend so much time on it. My traffic still isn’t significant from Pinterest, but I can see growth and that’s all that matters to me.

As you can see, my Pinterest traffic is starting to improve. Not much, but it’s a positive growth, so that’s always positive.

I am focusing on learning Facebook and we’ve all heard that we can’t spread ourselves too thin, otherwise, we won’t accomplish anything.

If I continue to struggle with my Facebook growth, I may have to work on Pinterest, who knows…only time will tell.

SO HOW MUCH DID MY BLOG GROW

We all want our blog to grow. Nothing is more depressing to keep working hard on our blog only to see that we’re not seeing the results we want.

Your growth stats may be different than mine. The main goal of my blog is to grow my email list. There are certain things that I pay attention to every month to see if my blog is improving or not.

I have an excel spreadsheet on Google Drive that helps me keep track of my blog numbers. Unfortunately, I didn’t start paying attention to my stats until 2 months ago. But then I also waited until 2 months ago to really start promoting my blog.

Do yourself a favor and start promoting your blog right out the gate. Otherwise, it’s going to take you a lot longer to start seeing traffic.

So let’s dive into my blog growth numbers.

May Blog Growth Numbers

• Email Subscribers (new opt-ins for the month): 15
• Overall List Size: 45
• Twitter Followers: 795
• Facebook Followers: 11
• YouTube Subscribers: 32
• Pinterest Followers: 286
• Page Views: 3100

I included my May blog growth numbers, so you can see how my blog grew in June. Without knowing the numbers, you won’t be able to tell whether or not my blog actually grew.

June Blog Growth Numbers

• Email Subscribers (new opt-ins for the month): 15
• Overall List Size: 59 (1 unsubscribed)
• Twitter Followers: 864
• Facebook Followers: 22
• YouTube Subscribers: 37
• Pinterest Followers: 339
• Page Views: 2,962

As you can see, my blog is slowly growing. The numbers continue to grow, except for my page views.

When I started blogging, I knew that it was going to take a lot of hard work. I’m not scared of some hard work, plus I really do enjoy working on my blog.

It’s just nice to see my hard work paying off. After all, who really wants to work this hard and not see positive results.

My blog did make money this month. Unfortunately, I don’t share my income results on this blog. All I can say is that I owe this affiliate course props for showing me how to make the most of my top posts.

My Top 3 Blog Posts for June

One of the things that I love looking at is my top blog posts for the month. At the end of the ever month, I’ll go back and see if I can improve them and maybe toss in some affiliate links.

I’ll also spend some time trying to find more post ideas that I can use to write more content. After all, if the posts have already been proven to be popular once, why not write more content.

Now before I can set my goals for this month, let’s see if I reached my goals from last month.

My Goals from Last Month

• Continue blog commenting and networking with other bloggers. I’ve never really been a great networker and I am working on improving that. (Yes I did this)
• Write more content based off of my popular blog posts. If I take the time to piggyback off my successful posts, that should mean more traffic and hopefully, more subscribers. (Yes, I’ve started doing this)
• Keep learning more about how to use Facebook and improve my Facebook marketing. (I purchased this course)
• Spend time trying to improve my Pinterest marketing strategy (I did improve some of my images)
• Increase my subscribers from 45 – 60 (that’s double of what I have right now) (my email list was increased to 60)
• Focus more on my email subscribers and actually start building a relationship with them. (yes, I am working on this)

Tools for Success

Running a blog requires you to spend some money. You don’t have to spend a lot, but these tools have made my life a lot easier.

Tailwind: This tool helps me automate my Pinterest efforts. My favorite part of Tailwind are the Tribes. They are kind of like Groups, but anyone can join without having to wait days for a response. I’ve recently started using Board Booster to help me with the looping feature.

So I don’t really know how much of a positive or negative effect it’ll have on my account?

SiteGround: I am on the GrowBig plan and I love it. If you’re looking for a reliable hosting account for beginners, I highly recommend this hosting account. You can easily start for just $5.95 per month. Although, I recommend paying for 2 years in advance. This will give you enough time to grow your blog and start making money before another hosting bill rolls around.

Related: How to Start A Blog On SiteGround

GetResponse: I use this email service to build my subscribers. It makes it easy to send out my 7 day WordPress course as soon as someone signs up.

ShareSale: This is the affiliate program that I work with for most of the products that I promote on my blog. I make it a point to only promote the products that I use and love.

Social Warfare: This social sharing plugin has made it easy for me to get people to share the images and content I want to be shared. I started off with Monarch, which is another good one. However, my favorite is the Social Warfare plugin.

Thrive Leads: An amazing plugin that allows you to add opt-in boxes quickly and easily. It integrates with pretty much all the popular auto-responders.

Thrive Content Builder: I used this plugin to create the opt-in lead magnet page for my 7 Day WordPress course.

Genesis Framework: I am using the Daily Dish Pro child theme for my blog and I use the Genesis Framework as my choice for this blog. The Framework does have a bit of a learning curve, but I love it. If you want something quick and easy, you can go with Divi or Beaver Builder.

I’ve used both of those page builders for clients in my freelancing business. If you’re uncomfortable with learning how to code, you may want to check out these page builders.

My Favorite Affiliate Program

If you’ve been following my blog, then you know that I am in the process of moving away from my WordPress freelancing business and more towards affiliate marketing.

I really haven’t taken the time to sign up with hundreds of affiliate programs, but here are some of my favorites.

ShareASale

ShareSale: I love this program, it has literally tons of different products that you can promote.

Here are some of my favorite ShareASale merchants:

1. StudioPress
2. BackupBuddy
3. Tailwind
4. PicMonkey
5. Grammarly
6. WP Engine

Amazon Associates Program

Amazon is an extremely popular affiliate program. The commissions are smaller, but the great thing is that when someone visits a product through your affiliate links.

You’ll get credit for whatever they buy, as long as they buy in 24 hours. For now, I’ll keep using Amazon.

This Month’s Goals

I personally think that it’s important to set new short-term goals for my blog. It gives me something to strive for. Plus, it’ll help me stay focused on what I need to work towards.

• Continue blog commenting as a way to network with bloggers.
• Double my email subscribers from last month..so my goal is 30 subscribers.
• Keep working on my Facebook Page to see if I can get more engagement.
• Guest post on 2 more blogs for the month of July.

Since I am focusing on Facebook this month, I think I’ll leave Pinterest alone. I can’t be everywhere at once, otherwise, I won’t get anything accomplished at all.

As I mentioned, I will still make pins for every blog post that I write. Social Warfare makes it easy to do this.

Related: Steal My Pinterest Image Creation System For Social Warfare

Why My Page Views Went Down

I am not really sure why my page views went down from April. I guess maybe because it’s summertime and many people are outside enjoying life. Maybe it’s because I am not commenting on as many blogs as I used to?

The great thing is that even though my pageviews went down, I still managed to grow my subscribers. We all want to get more page views, but the important thing to look at, is are your blog numbers growing?

If so, then I wouldn’t stress page views very much. Just keep doing what you’re doing and eventually, your page views will grow.

That’s more important than focusing on subscribers. I know that if I can keep providing valuable content for my readers, eventually, they’ll become a fan.

Final Take Away

I hope you enjoyed this my blog growth stats for June 2017. As you can see, I am still learning how to grow a blog. Growing a blog has never been easy for me. Instead, the techie side of blogging seems to come easier for me.

However, with a lot of hard work and consistent effort, your blog will start to grow.

Hand Picked Articles for You:

• 6 Month Blog Update
• Big Blogging Mistakes
• Pinterest Image Creation System for Social Warfare

It seems like it’s taking forever for my blog to grow. But what can I expect when I didn’t actually start promoting it until March 2017. The one thing you should take away from all of this, start promoting your blog as soon as possible.

Don’t make the same mistake I made and wait for people to find your blog.

So tell me, what promotional method are you focusing on to grow your blog?