Second Month Blog Growth Report

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I can’t believe it’s already the end of January! It feels like this month flew by so fast – and since it is my second month blogging, it means that it’s time for the second month blog growth report.

After posting my first month’s growth report back in December, I was surprised at how much positive feedback I received – both from viewers who found the technical side of blogging interesting, and other bloggers who appreciated my transparency. I’m still new at this, and this feedback is very encouraging! Definitely leave me a comment after you read this if you find this growth report helpful.

Before you read this January growth report, check out my report for my very first month blogging here.

Check out my other income reports here:

I’m going to follow a similar format to last month’s, with the inclusion of evaluating how I (well, BeautyBrainsBlush!) performed in relation to last month’s goals.

Let’s go!

General Information

I officially launched Beauty, Brains, and Blush on December 1, 2018.
This growth report will cover January 1st – January 31st, 2019
I updated the look of my blog this month
- New header and main menu layout
- Changed right sidebar a lot! Now includes instagram feed, facebook page link, some more widget stuff, and ads!
I wrote a total of 8 posts this month, with this growth report being #9
- this is a lot less than last month (18), though I launched with several posts that I actually wrote the month prior.
My first blog “freebie!” is up! I created a makeup Sanitization Guide to accompany my sanitization series I wrote about this month. VIP members (who receive my emails!) can find this guide in my free resource library.

Views and Sessions

I use Google Analytics to track all sorts of information on my blog (this info is from Audience –> Overview, looking at users by day & custom date range).

Here’s the users for January 1 – January 31:

Overall, you can easily see that I actually had less viewers than my first month… oops?

This could be in part because I wrote much less this month, and did not have the “launch hype” to build off of anymore.

Important note: I DID mess up my google analytics tracking code for 3 days!!! ahhhh!! I was so sad that I had zero viewers one day… and then the next day… and by the third day, I knew something was up – this blog isn’t THAT bad 😉

I fixed the code and the numbers came back. Whew! I don’t know how many viewers I missed those days, especially since that’s when I posted my first freebie. I guess I’ll never know!

My numbers did come back strong for the last couple days of the month! Since most of this traffic is from Pinterest, I assume Tailwind might have something to do with it.

Goals for this month:

500 unique users
1,000 page views
lower bounce rate(?)

Did I meet these goals?

Not really. As you can see, my “second month blog growth” is more like a blog decline. I definitely did not meet the users and page view goals, and my bounce rate is nearly the same as it was last month.

Goals for next month:

I think I’m going to keep the same goals I had for this month, since I did not reach them.

500 unique users
1,000 page views
lower bounce rate(?)

Acquisition

I also use Google Analytics to look at my acquisition, or how people find my blog.

These percentages look almost identical to last month’s, with the addition of a very few referrals – from new services I began using this month.

This month’s goals:

Increase my organic search acquisition by continuing to focus on SEO
Lower bounce rates
Continue to post lots on social media to keep that acquisition up!

Did I meet these goals?

While my percentages are nearly the same, the number of organic search acquisition is down.
Overall, bounce rates are also similar – way too high.
I did keep up the social media acquisition!

Next month’s goals:

Use long tailed keywords to help increase organic search (and search through Pinterest!)

Email List

I use Mailchimp to collect email addresses to add to my email list, and to send out email campaigns to the people who sign up!

This month I made a landing page in order to grow my email list, and created a freebie to incentivize people to join.

When I’m writing this portion of the post (1/28) I have 8 email subscribers.

That’s a whole entire person more than last month, haha!

Today I posted my first freebie incentive, so maybe there will be an increase update by the time I post this blog growth report.

Update 1/31: I did gain one more email subscriber. 9 Total, woohoo!

This month’s goals:

Read about how to get more email subscribers
Learn how to write better email campaigns that people want to read
Increase my list to a total of 50 subscribers

Did I meet these goals?

No. I did not look up courses about email campaigns.
No.
Not even close!

I honestly had a hard time with Mailchimp this month, and spent way too long trying to figure out lists, groups, and segments so that I could email freebies to subscribers.

In the end I gave up trying to figure it out, since I had already wasted a few days trying it, and I created a single free resource library.

Next month’s goals:

Read about how to get more email subscribers
Learn how to write better email campaigns that people want to read
Increase my list to a total of 50 subscribers

Social Media

I started the month with 44 followers and a monthly viewers reach of about 300k .

During this month, I have pinned a lot more, and gained a lot more followers: I now have 424 followers, an increase of 380!

My monthly viewers reach is now at 325k. You can see this trend in my monthly viewers below, showing how I peaked at 440k and have dropped since then:

From what I’ve talked about with other bloggers, this is normal in January after the holidays when less people are using Pinterest.

Along with Pinterest, I started a free trial with Tailwind this month. Tailwind is a social media scheduling app that allows me to add my pins to multiple boards and schedule the optimal times for them to be posted. It also allows me to join “tribes” which are kind of like group boards, except other users get to see my pins and choose if they want to schedule them to their accounts.

So far I haven’t seen that much difference with Tailwind, mainly because I’ve only used it for about a week. Though, I believe my increased traffic from Pinterest is probably because of Tailwind. Maybe I’ll pay for an account next month, maybe not! We’ll see what happens.

This month’s goals:

Have a total of 100 followers
Keep pinning original content
Be more active on group boards

Did I meet these goals?

Yes and beyond!
Yes! I am also trying to make multiple “pinnable” images for each blog post I write.
Yes! I also joined a couple other boards.

Next month’s goals:

Have a total of 800 followers (doubling isn’t too ambitious, right?)
Take advantage of Tailwind and evaluate if I should pay for the full service
Use long keyword planning with Pinterest

Instagram

I kind of had a revelation with Instagram: “why didn’t I convert my makeup account into the blog account, instead of starting from scratch?!”

That’s what I’ll be doing shortly, once I clear up some business under my personal account username.

That account has almost 1.3k followers, which will help me reach a greater number of people.

I also changed the aesthetic of the account, and it is much more pleasing to the eye now (above).

This month’s goals:

none

Next month’s goals:

Continue posting daily, or at least 4/7 days a week (every other day!)

Facebook

I started the month with 44 likes on our Facebook page, and now have 52.

This month’s goals:

Have a total of 100 likes
Post other makeup related things that AREN’T all written by me
Share these posts more on my personal Facebook

Did I meet these goals?

No, but I also haven’t been actively trying to gain followers
Yes!
A few times, yes!

Next month’s goals:

Continue sharing posts, IG posts, and other makeup posts on the page daily.
Try to interact with people to encourage commenting.

Twitter

I started with 4 followers, and I think I have 7 now.

Nothing much has changed here, except I follow makeup accounts and brands and will RT or reply every few days.

No new goals, I am not trying to grow on Twitter, just keep an active account for the future!

Income

I do need to include this section now, because I’ve started more ways to monetize my blog!

Amazon Associates

I have not written much involving affiliate links this month, mainly just my most recent post about mascara!

That is apparent here, where I’ve only had a few clicks this month.

Next month’s goals:

Write a post highlighting a particular product or set of products

Google AdSense

From the blogging groups I am a part of, I have heard many stories about how it takes a LONG time to get approved for Google AdSense, or having Google ads on your blog.

People say how long it takes, how most people aren’t approved, how they had to change things and reapply many times… you get it.

I decided to apply this month so that I could have a few months to fix things, reapply, and then have it set up when I’m ready.

I applied on a Friday, and to my surprise I was APPROVED and had ads by Monday!!

Now, I don’t get nearly enough traffic to make anything, but I’ve been experimenting with the layout and am happy that I got the approval so early in my blogging career.

Influencer Stuff

There are many companies that deal with influencers, or people who have a following online and post about brands or products, and companies wishing to advertise on social media. I signed up for a few and created accounts, but haven’t heard anything yet (which is to be expected!).

Goals for the future:

Become affiliates with makeup brands and stores. I applied to Ulta’s this month, and was not approved because of a mismatch in information – I believe I put the URL as http in one place and https in another, so that stinks. Sephora and BH Cosmetics also have programs, and I’m super interested because I love them!
Activate my SSL certificate through my hosting service. I’ve been trying, but it says it is currently unavailable.
Reduce the time my site takes to load, especially on mobile! I ran a google speed test and it is not pretty:
My desktop site is at a speed of 78, which can still be improved, but mobile REALLY needs to be fixed.
UPDATE 1/31: I worked a little already to increase the speed, but it is still bad – 32.
Keep up with Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule
Do more looks or tutorial posts
Get better at keyword research
Make sure I optimize Pinterest and get better at Tailwind!

I think this is pretty much everything I have to talk about for the month of January!

As you can see, it was an eventful month of blogging – all while feeling very uneventful, too.

I hope this second month blog growth report helps out a fellow blogger somewhere. I know it helps me to see realistic numbers, unlike the big bloggers that make over $30k a month!

Feel free to leave me a comment or any questions you have – I would LOVE to know what your blog stats were for your second blogging month!

Don’t forget to Pin this post and help other bloggers see a realistic overview of two months into blogging.

Check out my other income reports here:

’til next time,

Recent Post

Recent Post

Second Month Blog Growth Report

Check out my other income reports here:

General Information

Views and Sessions

Acquisition

Email List

Social Media