Hello 2018!
2017 has definitely been a year of change, both good and bad.
It has practically been my first year of college, so it has also been the first year I’ve lived away from home. I’ve moved from a town to a big city.
And to be honest, it has been crazy. My life has totally changed in such a short period of time, but I’m not saying it in a bad way (even though some things didn’t go as planned…). To the contrary, it has been the most profitable experience ever and I still feel that I’m learning everyday.
So basically, 2017 has been a year of change and growth, personally and academically. Here are some of my favorite things of 2017:
- I’ve gained experience in college and life
- I’ve started taking my fitness journey more seriously
- Blogging has been a priority
- I’ve watched TONS of movies
- I’ve started dating my best friend
- I know how to cook properly
- I’ve meet really nice people
- I’ve started my own Etsy shop (and I’ve made some money with it)
Note: This posts contains affiliate links. You can read about my disclosure here.
My first month blogging
It’s been a month since I switched from Blogger to a self-hosted blog. I made the big change because I wanted to finally monetize my site and earn money from it. It wasn’t practically impossible with a free blog, but as soon as I moved I started seeing results.
Blogging is now a totally different game for me. After lots of researching and investigating I have found how to blog the right way, so this is why it has felt like blogging for the first time.
Even though I had my first blog for almost 6 years, this has been like my first month blogging!
I want to be totally honest and transparent with you, so today I want to share here some of the things I’ve achieved and some of the things that turned out to be a complete disaster!
What worked
- Switching to WordPress: This is a must if you want to make money with your blog. Trust me when I say this is one of the best investment you’ll ever make. My views actually doubled when I switched from Blogger to WordPress, and I’m already starting to make some money. If you want to start a self-hosted blog I highly recommend Bluehost. For just a few bucks a month (3.95$ if you use my link) you can do it, it only takes a few minutes.
- Writing less posts. This may seem a bit controversial, but more doesn’t necessarily mean better. I say quality before quantity. Google likes longer posts with lots of keywords, it is programmed to give them priority and show them first. More information = more valuable. So I’ve realized that it’s better to write 2 long posts than 5 short ones.
- Investing in learning courses. After months of reading posts from other bloggers my brain was about to explode. So I decided to invest in a blogging course. The ebook I bought is called Pinteresting Strategies and it’s written by the successful Elise from House of Brazen. Best decision ever! It helped me so much with the next point.
- Working on Pinterest. Pinterest is like a gold mine for bloggers. Most of them get 90% of their traffic from there, that’s why I decided to focus on it. This course was a game changer for me. In a 2 weeks I went from 4 followers to 54. I know there’s still a lot of work to do, but this course is definitely helping A LOT.
What didn’t work
- Trying to learn everything. There’s so much to do and learn when you start blogging, and you definitely CAN’T do it all in just one month. Things take time, and learning how to blog properly is not something that happens overnight.
- Trying to focus on all social media. The same happens with social media. You don’t have the actual time to focus on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook & Pinterest when you start. At first, It’s better to just pick up two of them and start working from there (I finally deicded to focus on Facebook and Pinterest, since I’ve read they work best for bloggers).
- Affiliate marketing. There’s still a long road to drive with affiliate marketing. I work on it everyday since it’s something I don’t control yet. I recently purchased the course «How to make your first affiliate sale in 24 hours» (yes, you can make money with Pinterest too!), so I’ll be working with it the next months.
My goals for 2018
One of my main personal goals for 2018 (starting today) will be to focus on my blog and give the best of me. Here are some of the things I plan to achieve:
- Improve my photography and start creating graphics (something I’ve never done before)
- Improve my affiliate game
- Get more followers on my social media
- Increase my views (This month I had 1050 views)
- Coming up with better ideas for my posts
- Write more about my college experience and also write some fitness & health related posts
- Having fun, obviously!
Thank you so much for reading, and Happy New Year!
Hello ,
I saw your tweets and thought I will check your website. Have to say it looks very good!
I’m also interested in this topic and have recently started my journey as young entrepreneur.
I’m also looking for the ways on how to promote my website. I have tried AdSense and Facebok Ads, however it is getting very expensive. Was thinking about starting using analytics. Do you recommend it?
Can you recommend something what works best for you?
I also want to improve SEO of my website. Would appreciate, if you can have a quick look at my website and give me an advice what I should improve: http://janzac.com/
(Recently I have added a new page about FutureNet and the way how users can make money on this social networking portal.)
I have subscribed to your newsletter. 🙂
Hope to hear from you soon.
P.S.
Maybe I will add link to your website on my website and you will add link to my website on your website? It will improve SEO of our websites, right? What do you think?
Regards
Jan Zac
thanks for the comment <3
amazing!
http://www.pinkie-love-forever.blogspot.com
Good luck with blogging!
Wish you all the best in 2018!
Best Regards – http://izabiela.pl/
2017 sounds like a really great year for you! I hope 2018 is just as great!
Awe this was such a great post girl!! And don’t worry, once you get used to the big life changes everything else will fall in place. Hope 2018 is everything you wish for!
xo,
H
http://firsttimethings.com/
i enjoyed reading this! cheers to more successes in 2018!
https://sykirah.blogspot.my
Sounds like 2017 was a good year for you. Thanks for the tips on blogging. I also moved to WordPress last month from blogspot, so everything is fairly new to me. I’m still learning. Cheers to a good year of blogging.
https://www.missymayification.co.uk
I love your recap. You’re doing amazing for your first month blogging. My first month was so cringy.
https://sugarcoatedbears.blogspot.com/
Yes the new year is always a good time to reevaluate. Yeah and switching to Wordpres is the first stop. I have mixed feelings though about Bluehost. It grew very quickly due to it being recommended on WordPress and I think it took on to many people too soon. So sites on it can run very slow. Also the $3.95/month is an introductory offer for the first year. It is about $180/year after that.
That Pinterest course sounds good, I use to be on it more but almost never use it now. I will have to rethink this. Everyone was going on and on about Instagram. Though honestly it really does not push much traffic to blogs or any websites really from what I have seen. Not a fan of FB and don’t get much traffic from it. But Pinterest hhhm.
And yes can not do all social media, it is impossible. I have doing videos on You Tube as of late.
Allie of ALLIENYC
http://www.allienyc.com
You are such a smart young woman. In such a short period of time you’ve achieved a lot! Here’s a new follower!
Te felicito! Muy buenos tips.
Alina
P.S. No funciona bien el link de Bloglovin en tu blog. Intente seguirte por ahi pero termine siguiendote por blogger. Mucha suerte!!
Wonderful post!!
Happy New Year!!
Kisses!!
Cool post
http://iameleine.blogspot.com/
Looks like 2017 was a great many of firsts for you! Congrats to your first month! I have been blogging for 2 years and I there is still so much to learn. Everything is always evolving. Heres to 2018! Hope its a great year for ya!
-Brandi Kimberly
http://www.cutebrandik.com
Great post, dear! Happy 2018!!
http://www.jessicabroyles.com
Great post, I wish you a wonderful New Year
http://www.alessandrastyle.com
Excellent post. I’ve just started a new blog (for the second time…long story, though). I’ve been through what you went through this year. I tried starting and learning EVERYTHING I could find online. It really slowed my progress on that initial blog. And I caught myself doing it again with this one. So much has changed in the blogging world since I left that first blog behind.
Your post helped me to remember all of the mistakes I made and gave me a better chance of not making them again. Very well done! May you find nothing but success in 2018.
Great post. I use bluehost & wordpress & def love both. It sounds like you’re putting a lot of work in & it shows. I am definitely going to check out the Pinterest Ebook. Pinterest is something I haven’t put as much time or work into as I’d like. So checking it out in like 5 seconds! Cheers to a great New Year & reaching your goals!
Kara Aragon
http://www.thekaragon.com
What a month! Sounds like you are off to a great start!
Amy Ann
Straight A Style
I wish you all the best for this new year! Your blog is lovely. <3
Great post, I like it 🙂
new post
http://mensfashionobsession.com/
Some great advice here! I’ve just recently started my blog, and although I’m super excited about it, it’s also a tad overwhelming! There’s so much to do and it can be hard to pick what exactly to focus on. I’m just trying to take it day by day though and just enjoy the journey.
Shann Eileen | http://www.shanneileen.com