{"id":17583,"date":"2024-02-09T15:34:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T15:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webmonkey.com\/what-i-learned-after-one-year-of-blogging-my-mega-blog-recap\/"},"modified":"2024-05-24T19:39:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T19:39:03","slug":"blogging-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webmonkey.com\/blogging-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned After One Year Of Blogging – My Mega Blog Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"
I published my phone farming guide<\/a> on January 15th, 2018, so it has been almost one year since my blogging journey on WebMonkey began!<\/p>\n This year has been filled with a tonne of change.<\/p>\n I finished college and began working full-time, I started a blog<\/a>, and I've tried out a variety of side hustle ideas<\/a> that have taught me a lot of lessons about what it takes to make money online.<\/p>\n I've also met some incredibly kind and interesting people both on this blog and on an assortment of forums, and I am truly grateful for everyone's help, friendship, and readership.<\/p>\n I've been publishing blogging income and traffic reports<\/a> since WebMonkey started generating revenue as way to remain transparent and teach others what they should expect if they get into blogging, but it is now time for a year-end review.<\/p>\n Thank you all for a magnificent year; let's take a look back at what 2018 had in store.<\/p>\n This post will contain:<\/p>\n Let's get to it!<\/p>\n[elementor-template id=”3338″]\n I'm writing this post as of December 26th, 2018, so it hasn't been exactly one year of blogging. However, we're close enough and I'm too excited to not write this post!<\/p>\n This year, my blog has seen almost 150,000 page views, and I am sure it will hit that mark by January 15th.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Google Analytics data shows that my blog has actually seen more like 108,000 sessions from 77,300 unique users, and this is probably closer to the truth than WordPress estimations.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Either way, I am absolutely humbled and blown away by how this journey has unfolded so far.<\/p>\n The year has definitely had a mix of ups and downs, but this is all part of the journey. I saw rapid blogging growth between May and August this year as the Google Medic Update favored me, and I have also been in a slump the past 2 months as the update has rolled back slightly.<\/p>\n Despite the volatility I think this experiment has proved one thing:\u00a0blogging isn't dead, and this game is what you make of it.<\/strong><\/p>\n The majority of my blogging traffic comes from nothing but organic search, and my ‘social' traffic really comes from Reddit, marketing on Quora<\/a>, and\u00a0content syndication on Medium.<\/a><\/p>\n Additionally, I've been working harder as of late to gain more backlinks to my blog, and I've scored some decent ones on some very high quality websites like FitSmallBusiness and others, so this is moving in the right direction!<\/p>\n The point is, you don't need a massive social media following, paid tools, or bullshit blogging courses to actually drive traffic to a webpage.<\/p>\n All you need is some good content, a basic understanding of SEO, and honest, hard work!<\/p>\n If anyone out there is considering blogging as a hobby, I would approach the whole endeavor with a great deal of optimism. Niches might be saturated, but as long as you produce quality and make every effort to help others, you can succeed.<\/p>\n After 1 year of blogging, I have earned approximately\u00a0$1,761\u00a0<\/strong>from WebMonkey and content syndication via Medium.<\/p>\n I say ‘approximately' for a few reasons.<\/p>\n Firstly, I'm estimating the remaining few days of December revenue from Google AdSense, and secondly, I am paid out in a mixture of Canadian and U.S. dollars.<\/p>\n I have probably earned more than $1,800 when I consider the exchange rate since our dollar is about as strong as our Prime Minister, but let's call it $1,761.<\/p>\n Here is how the income developed:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As for the various income streams that have contributed to WebMonkey's revenue, they are roughly as follows:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Revenue definitely had a fair share of ups and downs that somewhat corresponded to monthly traffic, but I couldn't be happier as the overall picture that is moving upwards.<\/p>\n Moving forwards I am hoping to decrease the percentage of income I earn from Medium syndication by simply increasing my own blog traffic and AdSense\/affiliate revenue, but I am also very happy at the revenue mix for the year.<\/p>\n My blogging revenue is varied, 100% transparent, and I have only recommended products or services I use or have heard good things about. Plus, I haven't resorted to crappy courses or MLM bullshit, so that's a win in my book!<\/p>\n As a quick side note: I spent roughly $185 in my first year of blogging. All of my expenses came from web hosting fees, domain registration, and the purchase of a theme.<\/p>\n Recently, I have upgraded to SiteGround's Grow Big plan<\/a>, which is $5.95\/month for your first year and then $19.95\/month for following renewals.<\/p>\n SiteGround is my go-to web hosting service, and the Grow Big plan is sufficient for around 25,000 monthly readers. As WebMonkey grows I will definitely scale my web hosting package!<\/p>\n Since this is my second year of blogging, my web hosting costs are $255 for 2019<\/strong>. Just wanted to mention this number so it gives a more accurate picture of profits!<\/p>\n To learn more about SiteGround, check out my SiteGround web hosting review<\/a>.<\/p>\n I always knew blogging for income generation was viable, but I'll admit, it is harder than I first anticipated. I'm not bummed out about this because I enjoy the puzzle, but I think people should be aware at how much work it takes to make money with a blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n To give you an idea, here are my current WordPress stats:<\/p>\n That's a whole lot of words! But I wouldn't have it any other way.<\/p>\n I sometimes struggle to come up with post ideas when I work on my content roadmap plan for WebMonkey.<\/p>\n In the past few weeks, I've actually had a pretty important realization about the whole process that came about when I read an article my mom sent me about following your passion (thanks mom!)<\/p>\n The article is an interview with Billionaire Mark Cuban, and it tackles the reason why following your passion is a terrible idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
Blogging Traffic Breakdown<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Blogging Income Breakdown<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Blogging Expenses<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Lessons I Have Learned<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Blogging Requires Real Work<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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The Market Will Tell you What to do Next<\/strong><\/h3>\n