ProBlogger: Evaluating Your Blog’s First Year: 12 Great Questions to Ask

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ProBlogger: Evaluating Your Blog’s First Year: 12 Great Questions to Ask

Evaluating Your Blog’s First Year: 12 Great Questions to Ask

Posted: 15 Dec 2021 10:00 PM PST

The post Evaluating Your Blog’s First Year: 12 Great Questions to Ask appeared first on ProBlogger.

Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash

I originally wrote this review process for bloggers who had started a blog through our Start a Blog Course however this is the same process that I go through EVERY YEAR for my own blogs and I’m sure it will help you too!

Firstly … congratulations on making it through your first year. A lot of bloggers don't get that far.

During this evaluation, we'll take a look at key metrics for your blog, but we'll also be thinking about what you've learned and accomplished over the past year.

Don't get discouraged if the numbers aren't – yet – quite where you want them to be. When I first started blogging, it was as a hobby … and it took me several years to start making significant money from it.

While some bloggers do succeed in making a lot of money in their first year, most take much longer. As you go through these questions, focus on what you have accomplished rather than on the goals you've not quite managed yet.

(Want to do this evaluation another time? Check out the option to download a free evaluation workbook at the end of the post.)

Key Metrics for Your Blog's First Year

#1: How many blog posts did you publish … and how consistently?

Whether you published two posts or two hundred posts … was it as many as you wanted?

Did you write lots of posts in the first two months, then not much for the rest of the year? Or did you manage to blog fairly regularly all year?

#2: How many subscribers do you have to your blog and/or newsletter?

Hopefully you've got email subscriptions set up: if not, check out Ramsey's post on Blog Tyrant: How to Start a Mailing List and Add Opt-in Forms to Your Blog.

If you can, look back at how your subscribers grew during the year. (You can find instructions for AWeber here and for MailChimp here). Did you see steady growth? Can you identify any peaks and what caused them?

#3: Did your traffic grow during the year?

Look at Google Analytics or WordPress.com's inbuilt statistics to find out whether you were getting more traffic by the end of the year than at the start (hopefully you were)!

Again, look out for any spikes in traffic: what was behind those?

#4: Which of your posts were most popular?

You can use Google Analytics to find out which posts received the most visits, or look on your blog to see which got the most comments or shares.

Find your top three posts and see if you can figure out what made those posts especially popular.

#5: How much money did you spend?

This might require trawling back through your PayPal history or receipts in your inbox. You may want to create a simple spreadsheet to track your blog's spending, breaking it into different categories, such as:

Web hosting and domain name
Email list provision
Premium theme and/or premium plugins (if any)
Design, editing or other services

#6: How much money did you make?

Ideally, you want this figure to be higher than #5 … but if it's not, that's very normal for blogs in their first year.

Look at your income from:

Advertising
Affiliate marketing
Product sales (e.g. if you launched an ebook)
Services provided (e.g. if you write for other blogs for pay)
Sponsorship from other companies

If you want to dig further into statistics, check out Nicole Avery's post How to Conduct Your Annual Blogging Review.

I know that it's easy to feel a little discouraged at this point. Perhaps when you started blogging, you dreamt of quitting your day job by now … and yet your blog hasn't made a single dollar.

It can also be encouraging to look at everything you have gained, even if it's not all about the numbers. Here are six more questions to ask yourself:

#7: Did you get any nice comments or emails from readers?

If someone wrote that your post came at the perfect time for them, or that it helped them with a problem, that's a real success.

You might want to track down all your nice comments and emails, bring them together into one document, and print them out as a source of encouragement.

#8: Did you learn anything new?

Your first year of blogging was probably a steep learning curve at times. I bet you picked up lots of new skills. Perhaps:

You learned how to register a domain name and set up hosting
You got to grips with sourcing, resizing and editing images
You went from initial bafflement to comfortable familiarity with WordPress (or your platform of choice)
You set up an email list for your blog
You read a lot about marketing your blog or growing your readership or some other aspect of blogging … and you put it into practice

… or lots more things besides!

#9: Did you challenge yourself?

Perhaps you wrote a post that you were worried about publishing … but it went down really well with readers.

Perhaps you wrote a guest post for a big blog in your niche … and they published it!

Or maybe you tried something and it didn't quite work out: what matters is that you gave it a go.

#10: Did you make new connections in the blogging world?

When you started out blogging, you probably didn't know many (or even any!) other bloggers. During your first year, you likely got to know at least a few.

Perhaps:

You've made friends with some other new-ish bloggers on Twitter
You've been commenting on an established blogger's site and building up a relationship with them.
You joined a Facebook group for bloggers, like the ProBlogger Community.
You went to a local meetup … or a bigger gathering of bloggers, like the ProBlogger event.

#11: Did blogging open any doors for you?

Sometimes, blogging can lead to some amazing opportunities (Eli Seekins had a great post about this on SmartBlogger recently).

Perhaps your blogging meant that:

You landed a freelancing gig with a big blog or website.
You gained some new skills that you used on a job application.
You came across some interesting people who you'd never have otherwise met.
You got free products to review.

#12: Did you enjoy the year?

Perhaps most importantly … did you enjoy your first year of blogging?

Maybe it was the first time you've felt able to call yourself a "writer", because you wrote regular posts for your blog.

Maybe you loved learning new things and putting them into practice.

Maybe you felt like you were finally reaching for your dreams.

While it's a great feeling to make money from blogging or to see your readership grow, some bloggers simply want to enjoy the process of writing and publishing online … and that can be just as valuable.

What Will You Do During Your Blog's Second Year?

Now that you've taken a look over the past year of your blog … what are you going to do with the next year?

You might want to think about:

#1: How often will you post?

If your current schedule hasn't really worked for you, you might try posting less frequently and focusing on writing the best posts you can.

Get help: How to Be a More Consistent Blogger

#2: How will you monetize?

Whether you want to make a living or simply cover your costs, think about how you'll make money from your blog. Some new bloggers think it's all about advertising or affiliate income, but those aren't your only options.

Get help: The Full Blog Monetization Menu – 60+ Ways to Make Money With Your Blog

#3: What successes can you build on?

Look at what's been going well for you … and go further with it. For instance, pick a post that's already getting lots of search engine traffic and update it to link to some of your other best posts.

Get help: How to Update Old Posts On Your Blog (and When You Should Consider Doing it)

Right now, write down three specific actions that you want to take as you move into your blog's second year:

One during the next week
One during the next month
One during the next three months

Feel free to share them with us in the comments … and good luck for your next year of blogging.

This post was originally published on Jun 23, 2017 and updated Dec 16, 2021

The post Evaluating Your Blog’s First Year: 12 Great Questions to Ask appeared first on ProBlogger.

ProBlogger: Say Goodbye to Bad Habits: Five You Should Ditch in the New Year

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ProBlogger: Say Goodbye to Bad Habits: Five You Should Ditch in the New Year

Say Goodbye to Bad Habits: Five You Should Ditch in the New Year

Posted: 08 Dec 2021 05:09 PM PST

The post Say Goodbye to Bad Habits: Five You Should Ditch in the New Year appeared first on ProBlogger.

Photo by Bobby Johnson on Unsplash

I don’t know about you, but it’s around this time of year when I start thinking about all the things that didn’t quite work out over the last 12 months in my blogging efforts. Things I got wrong, things I didn’t try hard enough on, things I know I should do better. In short, it’s time to re-evaluate how I blog, so I can blog better.

And what I know for sure is: Next year, I want to blog smarter, not harder. I want to slow down and focus on the priorities and make sure they’re being done properly.

I’ve developed a few bad habits over the years, and from what I’ve heard, I’m not the only one. Let’s refine our workload and jettison these ways of thinking that don’t serve us well. Let’s swap them for a more intelligent strategy that will make our blogs stand out from the crowd and provide use to our readers.

Are you guilty of any of these?

1. Thinking an email list isn’t such a big deal

Well, I hate to break it to you, but it is. It truly is the only method of communicating with your readers that you are in control of. Your words, straight to your reader. No algorithms, no fast-pace feed, just your information they can access at their leisure.

I revamped my site earlier in the year, and didn’t bother putting my email subscribe boxes back in because they didn’t fit the new theme. I didn’t have time to redesign them, and I didn’t want to pay for something I knew I could do myself. My laziness has cost me hundreds of valuable email addresses, and the ability to share what I have with interested people.

I know some bloggers wonder what the point of an email list is, and wonder if its only people with something to sell who would concern themselves with having one – but it’s invaluable for any blogger who want to reach their audience. Even if you think you will never need email subscribers, offer your readers a way to sign up anyway. You won’t regret that.

2. Forgetting to share your posts on social media

I try to share my posts at the same time each day, both because those times get the most engagement, and also to provide some consistency for readers who get my updates. But often real life got in the way of manually updating my channels, and sometimes it meant I didn’t get anything up all day. I resisted using scheduling tools for a long time, for many reasons, but in the last few months I’ve experimented with a few. I cannot believe how much better my blogging experience is now that I’ve settled on a schedule that works for me, and the ability to schedule my post updates across all social media (except Instagram and Pinterest, I still prefer to do those in the moment) has become so much easier.

I’ve been using CoSchedule for the last month or two on my personal blog and I don’t know how I ever lived without it. An editorial calendar plugin that keeps your content organised and also allows you to schedule social media posts from right within your WordPress dashboard before they’re even published. Your post goes live, and your scheduled social media updates follow after, at a time you’ve pre-chosen. Genius.

3. Wasting time

Oh boy – this has been a big one for me. I work from home with very small children, and I have limited amount of child-free time each week to get a lot of things done. I couldn’t afford to waste a second – but I was wasting lots of them. I found myself either procrastinating or getting caught up in less-important tasks, which left me little time to get the big stuff done. I felt behind the 8 ball for a lot of 2014 until I sat myself down with a big task list and a determination to be in charge of my schedule, instead of letting it be in charge of me.

Some of the biggest things that has turned my productivity around:

checking email at certain times only
doing specific tasks only on specific days
having an editorial calendar
timing myself to see exactly how long tasks would take so I’d stop underestimating the time it would take to do something
organising tasks in order of priority

4. Failing to have an editorial calendar

Who needs those? I mean, unless you run a themed blog that creates content in line with the holiday calendar, right? Wrong! Part of the problem was that I was wasting time because I didn’t know what to write about. I found that once I sat down with either a headline or a topic, I could write a post no problem. But if I was sitting down to a blank slate, I wrote less than half of the posts that I needed to.

It didn’t take long – just a few minutes of brainstorming, and a few more minutes shuffling that around to certain points on the calendar. I always know in advance what I’m expected to do, so I find that I waste less time and get more done. I challenge you to come up with 12 post ideas right now – and you will know at least one thing you will be writing per month next year. Or create a theme a month and write to that theme as the year goes by. Go on – you only need 10 minutes, a pen, and a piece of paper.

5. Ignoring networks

I get it – you’re shy. Or you think your blog isn’t “big” enough to play in the big leagues. Well, I’m not sure how you expect to get in the big leagues if you don’t chat with the people who are either already there, or trying to get there too. While you might think there is a hierarchy of people out there in blogland, the reality is there’s room for everyone. Get chatting with other bloggers, no matter who they are. Jump in on Twitter conversations, start discussions on your Facebook page, join a linkup or blog hop, lend a hand to a fellow blogger in a group or forum asking for advice. Share other bloggers’ posts, link to them on your site, invite other writers on your blog, and offer to guest post for other sites in your niche.

If you ask any “big” blogger what was a turning point for them, or how they managed to grow their traffic, more often than not, you’ll hear them say that another blogger bigger than them linked to their content. It’s a world of collaboration, and it will get you further than where you’re going on your own. Make a friend!

So I dare you to ditch these bad blogging habits before the year is out. Replace them with smarter ways of driving your blog forward and increasing the enjoyment you get from it.

Which ones are you striking off your list this year? What will you do instead?

Stacey was the Managing Editor of ProBlogger: a writer, blogger, and full-time word nerd balancing it all with being a stay-at-home mum. She writes about all this and more at Veggie Mama.

This post was first published on Dec 23, 2014 and updated Dec 9, 2021

The post Say Goodbye to Bad Habits: Five You Should Ditch in the New Year appeared first on ProBlogger.

ProBlogger: Five Steps to Have Your Blog Run Without You Over The Holidays

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ProBlogger: Five Steps to Have Your Blog Run Without You Over The Holidays

Five Steps to Have Your Blog Run Without You Over The Holidays

Posted: 01 Dec 2021 09:16 PM PST

The post Five Steps to Have Your Blog Run Without You Over The Holidays appeared first on ProBlogger.

Photo by Natalya Zaritskaya on Unsplash

This is a guest contribution from The Suitcase Entrepreneur, Natalie Sisson.

December is a special time of the year. It's a time for reflection, for planning and for new beginnings.

It's also an excellent time to do some serious (but fun) overhauls of your existing blog and business, in time for a fresh start in the New Year.

More importantly, it's the perfect time to ensure that when you go to take your much deserved time off, all that hard work you've poured into your blog and online business during the year doesn't just fall over in a heap.

I'm talking sexy systems and smart future planning here.

So let's get started shall we?

Time for Xmas Trimmings

According to Urban Dictionary the term Xmas Trimmings refers to:

anything used or serving to decorate or complete;
an accompaniment or garnish to a main dish;
pieces cut off in trimming, clipping, paring, or pruning.

So how does apply to our daily work?

What projects are you going to complete before the year end
What can you polish up, decorate and 'giftwrap' that already exists
What are you currently doing that you can add to with a bonus, or accompaniment that will only make it even more enticing to your audience
What can you stop doing, get rid of or clean up as you see out 2021?
How can you put the finishing touches on the work you've done and will do?

I'm going to take you through each of these so that you have five steps and actions to work on this month, and once you've done them, you'll feel like a rockstar and waltz into your holiday with zero to worry about….at least that's the plan!

Step 1. Look at what projects you want or need to complete

Remember in January when you looked at your grand plan for the year ahead and felt all of it was possible? Yeah that plan….did you take a look at it recently? If so how much of it did you achieve?

If you're like 99% of people, I'm guessing around 1/5th actually got accomplished, perhaps less.

Sad but true, we are not superhuman, which is why in our overzealous rose tinted glasses that we put on at New Year, we think this year will be different and we will achieve everything.

So, if you still have energy to burn, and a desire to more this month than you have in the entire year, I urge you to look at which of those projects you CAN actually tackle before year end?

Which of those projects have you simply been procrastinating on?
Which should have never made the list that you can scratch completely?
Which would be quick wins that would actually make a big difference to your year end financials or sense of achievement?

Those are the projects you want to focus on, drop the rest. And I'd advise to pick just 1-2 to be honest. Why? Because in around two weeks your time will not be your own anymore. It will get overtaken by parties, friends, family, holiday distractions and planning.

So be realistic. Your time is limited and precious.

Then take action:

Take the chosen few projects, put them in your planning/ productivity tool of choice.

(I highly recommend Asana and that you read The Ultimate Guide on How to Use Asana to Become a Productivity and Task Management Genius.)

Map out a finish date, and work backwards from there with all the little tasks and things you have to do in order to make this project a reality.

Get an accountability partner, or bet a friend that you can do it. Make the stakes high so that you will absolutely commit to making it happen …or tell your kids you didn't buy them any presents because you lost a bet – your call.

Take every other to do list item OFF your plate, and put it on someone else's – preferably a virtual assistant or team member, or hire in a contractor to finish up those pesky yet important tasks that have been on your to-do list since September.

Step 2. Polish up, decorate and 'giftwrap' what already exists

This step is my personal favourite. I've recently released my new brand identity and relaunched my website. This exercise in itself was a brilliant exercise in seeing all the opportunities I've been missing on my blog and in my business.

As I went through all 110 pages on my site to see if, in fact, they were necessary, I got to go back through years worth of projects, products, courses, or initiatives I had launched and see which of those could be resurrected from the past.

I mean why reinvent the wheel, if you already had a pretty awesome vehicle that was working for you? You just need to bring out the latest model that's slicker, faster and more efficient, right?

The same goes for all those blog posts you're sitting on. Go to Google Analytics and look at the top 10 blog posts that bring you the most traffic. Spend a rainy (or sunny) afternoon at your favourite location, going through them and seeing:

What you can update copy/ content wise
What call to action you need to include
Any other posts you can link to within your blog
What opportunities are there to make some money – from your own offerings or those of affiliates

Then do an awesome round up post on your site on the top 10 blog posts you to read before the year end (I might steal my own idea!).

Now look at which of those blog posts, or videos, podcasts, workshops, webinars or speaking events you can repurpose into something fresh and valuable, but in a different format.

You can turn audio into written content, video into audio, video into a mini course, emails into a blog posts, webinars into a eBook….the list is endless!

And all of this existing 'stuff' you're sitting on and have now polished up and gift wrapped, now makes for an awesome…..

Step 3. Add an enticing bonus or accompaniment for your tribe

Yep, bonus or accompaniment for your community and customers. If you ran a blog challenge and people loved it, now you get to follow up with a 10 Page eBook that covers off on the main points of that challenge that they can buy as a gift for themselves or for a friend for Xmas – handy!

Or you can release a pre holiday guide of awesome which is a series of your best bonuses (that you've just uncovered in your spring clean up) that has given you a whole new lease of life, and extra revenue, for the holidays and into 2022.

You should consider writing a blog post or recording a video or audio round up of your favourite:

Books you've read in 2021
Podcasts you listen to each week
Best TEDx talks you've seen
Coolest tools you've brought and love
Best systems or software that's changed your business
Gift ideas for Xmas related to your business
3, 5, 10 or top 100 things you've learned this year

That's a bonus that will just keep on giving!

Step 4. Stop. Evaluate. Action.

Given that the above three steps are all about taking action and gaining massive momentum heading into the holidays, you also need to consider what you are going to stop doing to fit this in.

What are you going to keep, get rid of or clean up too?

This is the perfect time of the year to go through your online and offline folders and sort out what the heck you're hanging on to those files, videos, photos, images, unread books, half formed ideas or junk for?

Seriously all that stuff clogs up your space, and your mindspace too. I'm a minimalist at heart and pretty organized, but even I have amassed more 'stuff' then I need to.

As I drop using Dropbox, and transfer everything over to Google Drive this month, I'm happy to report I feel a lot lighter, freer and even more organized as I delete and trim the amount of things I have been storing, that has no business being in my business – if you get what I mean.

What are you going to systemize?

This is also a great time to look at all those files, documents and start creating sexy SOPs – that's standard operating procedures. Which is a fancy way of saying putting together a document that states exactly how a task or process should be done, step by step.

The point of this, even if it sounds tedious is, that next time you go to format, edit and publish your blog post just the way you like to do it in 17 steps….you can delegate it completely to someone right away, over the holidays or in the New year, who following your SOP, should be able to do it just the way you like it.

Then imagine what it will feel like when you've created SOPs for the top 10 tasks that you do every single day in your business, and how much freedom you'll have when you hand those over, safe in the knowledge that you have systems that work FOR you while you're on holiday (and all the time).

Step 5. Put the finishing touches on your 2022 year

By now you should be reaching for the champagne or that massage voucher you've treated yourself to, as you will be in seriously great shape, or getting close to having a holiday ready business and blog.

And not just for this period, but forever more. Sure you're going to have to work at it, and keep sorting, streamlining and trimming. But it will be worth it, and it will also get easier the more readily you do it.

Which leads me to putting the finishing touches on your 2022 plans. What better way to do this than to plan out your entire Editorial, Content and Marketing Calendar for the whole of, or at least the first three months of 2022?

You can use my FREE Editorial Calendar template here.

That may sound daunting, but since you've already done steps 1-4 you're already ahead of the game, because through all your sorting, sifting, analysing and cleaning up, you should know now what your audience and customers really want.

So now you get to flesh it out into a full calendar so that you feel super organized and in control for the year ahead. Then you put that into Asana or Trello or a giant wall calendar, and you delegate.

Yes you sort out who the heck is going to work on making that happen while you're off on holiday.

Turn to those SOPs you've created, to the hard work you've just done to finish all those projects, to overturn all the great resources and content you're sitting on, and put someone to work who can give you all your Christmases at once, with a big fat red bow on it!

I share how to do this in my free video training Reclaim 10 Hours a Week and Double Your Revenue.

Natalie Sisson is an Amazon No #1 bestselling author of the Suitcase Entrepreneur, podcaster, speaker and adventurer who believes everybody has the right to choose freedom in business and adventure in life and helps them do that 2020 over at the SuitcaseEntrepreneur.com.

This post was first published on Dec 6, 2016 and updated Dec 2, 2021.

The post Five Steps to Have Your Blog Run Without You Over The Holidays appeared first on ProBlogger.

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