How I Hit Over 10,000 Pageviews In My Second Month Blogging

Less than two weeks ago, I sat down to write how to grow blog traffic and How I Hit 5k Pageviews In My First 6 Weeks Blogging, and in two weeks I went from 5k pageviews in 6 weeks to over 10k pageviews in 4 weeks.

This was INCREDIBLY exciting because pageviews = monetization. You may get to a point in blogging where pageviews don’t correlate to income as directly, but until then, pageviews help.

Unless you’re blogging PURELY for hobby with absolutely no interest in monetization, then you need to have a plan on how to drive traffic to your site. This can be an overwhelming topic for new bloggers, but all you can do is learn as much as you can and just get started.

RELATED: How To Make Money Blogging For Beginners

RELATED: How To Start A Blog

 

 

I started my blog at the end of April, and here are my stats according to Google Analytics only two months later. And this is in less than 30 days.

 

First, I am absolutely a little starstruck by the numbers. However, I know that it is no accident. I had three failed blogs before this one, and each time I learned more about what NOT to do as a new blogger. It is so easy to grow blog traffic if you know what to do, and here you’ll find exactly that: how to grow blog traffic.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.

How To Start A Blog The RIGHT Way To Grow Traffic And Monetize

As I mentioned above, there is (unfortunately) a right way and a wrong way to blog when keeping monetization in mind. Read this first to ensure you have the basics set up to promote blog traffic and monetization, then come back here.

There are a few non-negotiables when starting a blog, and the very first thing you need to learn when it comes to growing traffic blogging is: you have to be willing to invest in your blog.

By invest I mean a few different things:

• Taking courses on different topics applicable to you
• Spending time on your blog every week consistently
• Purchasing the needed materials to set you up for success i.e. the correct legal documentation to ensure your site is legal and proper hosting services.
• Knowing it takes a little bit of money to set your blog up the correct way in the long run

Where Does Blog Traffic Come From?

If you’re super new to blogging, you’re probably thinking “how do people even find my site if I don’t promote it all over my own personal social media accounts?” And to be fair, I had the same thought.

Some successful bloggers argue promoting your content through your personal social media accounts gets your site out there right from the beginning, but I chose not to promote on any personal social media accounts, and that strategy has worked well for me so far.

So, if the traffic doesn’t come from your mom and aunty on your Facebook, where does/can it come from? There are two main ways:

• Google
• Blog social media accounts

How To Grow Blog Traffic From Google

There are really awesome courses out there (like this one) that will go into MUCH greater depth than I can or will in this post, but I can certainly give you the basic run down.

In short, there is a specific format or criteria to be aware of while writing your blog posts that help them make more sense to Google. Making sense to Google = Google showing more people your site.

This is what SEO means (which you will hear literally EVERY blogger talk about when discussing traffic).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the number one most important factor when focusing on growing traffic. This is what makes your posts findable on Google and other search engines. This is super important because if google knows what your article is about and places it on the front page during a search, that will drive HUGE traffic to your site!

SEO is a long game. Experts say it can take about 6 months before you get pages ranking on Google, but that doesn’t mean you should put off learning it until month 5.

Make learning SEO a priority. I’ve heard of horror stories of bloggers working on their site for two years with no traffic growth because they thought it was a bunch of garbage. Let me be the one to tell you, it’s not!

Driving huge traffic from social media is awesome, but it’s also unpredictable. That’s why it’s important to source your traffic from more than one place.

How To Grow Blog Traffic From Social Media

Growing blog traffic from social media will be easier when you’re just starting your blog (and honestly, it’s way more fun to market for social media than it is to market for Google).

There are two main traffic-driving social media platforms for bloggers:

1. Pinterest
2. Facebook

That doesn’t mean these are the only social media platforms that you can be successful on, but these are the easiest (in my opinion, at least). I would recommend starting with one of these to develop steady traffic and then moving onto a second platform, and so on.

My absolute #1 source of traffic is from Pinterest  (that’s probably how you found this post, right?).

I have not yet dabbled in the world of Facebook blogging, but I have heard it can be a great source of traffic.

Now, just like blogging, there IS a right way and a wrong way to using Pinterest to grow blog traffic. I could write an entire ebook on it, and lots of people have. I recommend this one, and neeeeed you to know that investing in a Pinterest course is arguably one of the best things you could do for yourself as a new blogger.

 

Here are my Pinterest stats:

 

After taking a Pinterest course at the end of May, you can see my stats literally spike. I now have over 350k total impressions on Pinterest, and that is the DIRECT result of taking a Pinterest course.

My Routine As A New Blogger That Grew My Traffic

Now, a lot of people talk about growing their blog traffic in very vague ways. When reading similar posts as a brand new blogger, I remember thinking “get on with it! Tell me exactly what you did!!!” and no one ever really did.

This routine is what worked for me, and this is what I was looking for when searching for more information as a new blogger, so take it with a grain of salt and adjust as needed!!

**For reference, I also work a full-time job that is about a 45 min commute each way.

In the morning on weekdays:

I would wake up 30 minutes-1 hr early to check my analytics from the day before and see what pins were bringing the most traffic to my site (I checked all of this on Google analytics). I would make notes of what pins were doing the best and tried to figure out what type of pins my Pinterest audience liked best.

I would create 2 fresh pins (meaning posting new pins that Pinterest has never seen before) to two different blog posts of mine and post them.

I would spend any time left over doing research/learning something I was stuck on at the time (in the beginning this was things like best plugins to use, what are widgets, customizing my theme, how to monetize, etc).

I feel more creative in the evening, so I saved any learning for the morning to be done in short spurts.

In the evening on weekdays:

I would typically work on one blog post all throughout the week in short intervals after work. I pretty much worked on a single post or brainstorming post ideas for a couple of hours.

I would pin 3-5 more fresh pins (it was less with the fewer posts I had) to existing blog posts near the time I noticed my Pinterest traffic was typically higher. For me, this was between 8:00 pm-10:00 pm.

Weekends:

I would spend (and generally still do) anywhere from 8-12 hours on my blog either doing research, planning, or writing. In this time I typically wrote 2 blog posts over the weekend, totaling to 3 new blog posts every week.

I know this won’t work for everyone, but it’s important to show that a lot of time and effort goes into blogging and there is not a “grow big quick” option without some hustle.

I also never saw a viral pin or viral post, and still don’t see a ton of traffic from Google. This means a lot of my strategy was based on posting new content often and promoting that content often.

Many, MANY bloggers have been successful devoting only a couple of hours to their blog each week, so it’s not impossible. However, there is definitely an element of “the more you work, the better it does.”

General Guidelines I Tried To Follow:

• Never go more than 24 hrs without pinning (you can use the Pinterest scheduler to help on days you know you won’t be able to).
• Always publish at least one blog post a week.
• Pick something to learn about each week to help me improve.
• Celebrate all accomplishments, even small ones!
• Don’t get overwhelmed by the information overload.*

*There were many times where I felt overwhelmed by all the information and would never feel confident in any routine or process related to blogging.

Something that helped me during these times was creating one master “To Do” list of things I wanted to learn about, terms I had never heard of, and suggestions I heard to try out for myself. This helped a TON.

I also made a serious habit out of googling everything. When it doubt, google it. Someone somewhere will have an answer for you.