We wanted to share some updates about our blogging journey with you. As many of you know, we've been running this food blog part-time for several years, and it has been quite the ride.
Recently, we've encountered a few challenges, especially with Google's latest algorithm changes that have caused a noticeable decline in our blog's traffic. In addition to this, our thumbnail images have been lost in the search engine result pages.
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Navigating Google's Algorithm Changes
The recent updates to Google's algorithm have impacted our page views and RPMs. Despite our efforts to keep up with SEO best practices, these changes have hit hard. This situation has highlighted the importance of diversifying our traffic sources and not relying solely on one income source.
Exploring Pinterest Growth Solutions
In response to these challenges, we've decided to explore Pinterest as a new marketing strategy. Over the past two months, we’ve taken several courses and read extensively about Pinterest growth solutions. We want to be transparent and share our experiences with you because if this approach works for us, it could work for you, too.
May Pinterest Engagement +999%
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Learn how we did it! Pinterest Growth Solutions
New Milestone: Journey by Mediavine
We're also excited to announce that we've recently been onboarded with Journey by Mediavine. This platform will provide insightful analytics and help us optimize our content strategy. We will share our monthly blogging income as we integrate Pinterest into our marketing efforts.
May Income: $168
- Total New Visitors in May: 6.7K
- Total Viewing Sessions 8.82K
- Direct Traffic 3.9K
- Google 3.4K
- Pinterest 653
As you can see, there is room for growth on Pinterest! We know growth won't happen overnight, but we are excited to see what the next 6 months may bring.
Blogging Expenses to Date
Managing our blogging expenses efficiently is crucial, especially since we juggle full-time jobs. Here's a breakdown of our expenses to date:
Monthly Expenses:
- BigScoots (Website Hosting): $34.95 (07/20)
- KeySearch (Keyword Research): $17.00 (07/20)
Annual Expenses:
- GoDaddy Domain Name: $30 (06/20)
- Feast Design Website Theme $99 (07/20)
- WPRM Recipe Maker Premium: $49 (06/22)
- Yoast Premium : $99 (06/22)
- WP Rocket: $49 (06/22)
- Tailwind: $167.92 (06/24)
- ShortPixel Image Optimization: 47.99 (07/22)
One-Time Expenses:
- Productive Blogging Course: $99 (07/20)
- Cooking with Keywords Course: $285 (07/22)
- Pinterest Course: $300 (06/24)
- Rank IQ Trial Period: $150 (2024)
Balancing Teaching and Blogging
As a classroom teacher during the school year, my time for blogging is quite limited. Balancing these two roles is challenging but also rewarding.
My goal is to show you that even with limited time, it is possible to grow a successful blog and learn new marketing avenues like Pinterest. This is a long-term process, and we realize there will be many obstacles and changes along the way.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead, our goal is to pin 400-500 fresh pins per month, update old posts, and keep adding new recipes to our blog. While this may seem like a lot, Tailwind is our best resource to help manage it. By making our goals public, we are holding ourselves accountable to you, our readers.
We believe that by diversifying our traffic sources and leveraging Pinterest, we can mitigate these traffic declines and take control of our blog's growth. I hope you'll join us on our journey!
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