Share this post:
This post may contain affiliate links. Click here to read my full disclosure.
Looking for a legit, newbie’s guide to blog traffic growth? In this post, I’m sharing the exact steps I took to grow this new personal finance blog to 10,000 pageviews in my fourth month.
I’m probably one of the newest personal finance bloggers on the internet, but I have learned quite a bit so far in my (almost) four months blogging.
I launched this blog on January 3, 2018, and after this month, I’ll be able to say I got 10,000 pageviews! (I get goosebumps typing that out!) I’ll share with you what has worked and what hasn’t so you can be on your way to growing your new blog.
At the bottom of this post, I’ll also share some of my social proof, including screenshots of my Tailwind analytics for my first four months as a new blogger.
We all know that the more traffic your site gets, the more money you can make from home from affiliate marketing and sponsorships.
More than half of my income here at Perfection Hangover is from affiliate marketing. The tips in this post will help you gain traction, but if you’re looking for a good way to finally monetize your site, check out theMaking Sense of Affiliate Marketing course.
Before we get started, I want to share a major mistake I made when I first reached 10,000 pageviews on Perfection Hangover, and that is the fact that I didn’t sign up for Monumetric ad network soon enough.
In January of 2019, I celebrated my one year blogging anniversary. In my first year, I only earned $1,500 in total. It would have been easy to give up and quit.
The following month, I decided to apply to Monumetric, and during my first full month with Monumetric, I earned $453.48!
I’ve now switched to Mediavine and am on track to make more than $1500 per month just in ad revenue alone. I shared about my traffic increase and the first full month in my Mediavine review.
The fact is, I wish I had signed up for Monumetric when I first reached 10,000 pageviews (4 months into my blogging journey) instead of waiting an entire year.
I missed out on quite a bit of income and growth during that time, so please don’t make that mistake.
Your first traffic goal should be to reach 10k pageviews so that you can apply to Monumetric. Here’s how I did it and you can, too.
New Bloggers’ Guide to Traffic
If you’ve stumbled upon this post but don’t yet have a blog, make sure you read this post on How to Start a Blog.
Bluehost is who I recommend when starting a blog, and you can get started with my Bluehost coupon for just $2.95 per month (this price only available through my referral link).
1. Be Consistent
Have you ever read Eat that Frog orThe One Thing? Both books essentially talk about similar topics, stating that you must focus on getting the one thing done first thing in the morning, in order to make your life easier and more efficient.
“Eat that Frog” has gotten me through some tough, early morning workouts and oatmeal every day for the past two years!
As a Mom, I’m constantly pulled in multiple directions, and if I don’t get “the one thing” done every single day, the entire day will feel completely unproductive.
Writing every day (whether or not you’re publishing what you’re writing) is absolutely vital to your blog’s growth. I have a very conversational style of writing, but when I read the first few posts I wrote, I realize how far I’ve come as a writer.
When you consistently practice your craft, you will break through blocks and come up with content you never would have thought of had you not been putting it on paper (or keyboard).
2. Optimize Blog for SEO – Google
When I first started blogging, I knew I wanted to be intentional about using keywords that were being searched frequently on Google. By prioritizing SEO, I was able to get several posts to the front page of Google within a short period of time using this plugin from Squirrly.
In addition to Squirrly, I use the Keywords Everywhere browser extension for Chrome to search for keywords.
As a result of making SEO a priority, approximately 55% of my traffic has come from Google!
Click here to check out Squirrly.
Quick Tip:
If you’re really looking to increase your traffic from Google, you need to check out Stupid Simple SEO – a course that teaches you how to steal traffic from your competitors.
It’s legit, y’all. In September of 2019 my organic traffic was just over 7,000 sessions. December 2019 organic traffic was DOUBLE at over 14,000 sessions.
We are 19 full days into January and I already have 12,000+ sessions from Google (often receiving over 1,000 pageviews per day from Google!). At this rate, I should reach close to 20,000 pageviews just from Google alone this month!
This course is only open for enrollment four times per year. Click here to check it out!
3. Leverage Pinterest to Reach 10,000 Pageviews
The majority of my audience is women, 25-35 years old. They spend their time on Facebook and Pinterest, so the majority of my social media marketing strategy has included these two platforms.
Pinterest is a GOLD mine and my #1 source of social media traffic! It’s where the majority of my 10,000 pageviews came from.
Canva is a graphic design website that’s so easy to use. Start simple in the beginning and don’t go crazy with the fonts. Stick to two bold fonts to start.
Tailwind has provided me the best ROI on the blog. So far, I haven’t invested much in my blog yet because I want to see a return on investment, butTailwind has been a major life-saver for me and well worth it! I’m able to schedule my pins for an entire week within 30-45 minutes.
Click here to schedule 100 pins with Tailwind for FREE.
Quick Tip #2:
My first year blogging I invested in a single course that cost over $700, so I didn’t have the money (and was scared) to invest in any other courses. I wasn’t making any money yet, so Tailwind and Convertkit were the only two services I could afford.
Now that I’m earning over $3,000 per month blogging, I’ve taken a small amount of my earnings to invest in growing my traffic.
I don’t pay for ads, but instead, I paid about $40 to purchase a course that taught me how to use manual pinning to increase my traffic from Pinterest. And it worked…bigtime!
Carly Campbell has been blogging for a while, and I love how real and relatable she is. She has no desire to be one of those millionaire bloggers (like *ahem Michelle Schroeder-Gardner).
She’s a mom who’s trying to provide more for her family, so she made her Pinteresting Strategies course super affordable, and her Facebook group is worth the price of the course. Being able to learn from some of the top bloggers is invaluable.
I purchased Pinteresting Strategies in September of 2019. Pinterest can take a while to grow traffic (especially if you’re in a competitive niche like blogging and personal finance).
In my last full month before starting manual pinning, I received just over 4,000 pageviews from Pinterest. Hardly anything to get excited about.
I’ll admit that I don’t devote as much time as I should to Pinterest because I’ve been focusing heavily on SEO, but I have grown every single month, and just 19 days into January, we have received nearly 10,000 pageviews from Pinterest alone! (see screenshots below)
Facebook can be a great source of traffic as well. I’ve found that most of my Facebook audience that goes to my blog are more engaged, staying longer, and exploring, thereby reducing my bounce rate.
You can set up a Facebook page in the business name and remain completely anonymous (if you’re having that freak out moment and aren’t quite ready to share your blog with your family and friends).
4. Guest Post and HARO
Guest posts are supposed to be a great way to generate traffic. Truth is, I would rather create content for my site and its readers that I can promote through my own social media channels than to rely on someone else to do it for me. I tried a couple of guest posts, and it didn’t really generate much traffic.
Guest posts are more valuable for backlinks than for traffic, which will boost your SEO score (EAT) with Google, so guest posting is important.
Help a Reporter Out is a site where journalists can request submissions from experts on certain subjects. In turn, the writers (you) should receive a backlink (sometimes they don’t link to you and those moments suck). It’s free to join, and it’s so valuable!
Affiliate Marketing as a Stream of Blog Income
In 4 months, I’ve made about $275 in total from my blog. If you’re promoting a product or service, make sure it’s something you believe in 100%. Also, make sure that it makes sense.
I purchasedMaking Sense of Affiliate Marketing course from Michelle Schroeder-Gardner. Michelle makes over $150k per month from affiliate marketing, and you don’t even have to have a ton of traffic to start making money.
Update: I’m updating this as of January 2020, and I now earn over $3,000 per month (and my traffic isn’t astronomical, y’all). Affiliate marketing income accounted for 27% of my revenue last year.
Social Proof: My New Blog Google Analytics
April 2018 Blog Traffic
I’ll start with this month’s numbers and go in reverse order since I’m still shocked! You can see from the upper right corner that the month isn’t even over! We’ve still got a day and a half before this number is finalized, but I’m beyond pleased with traffic growth. On the first of April, I thought to myself, “It’d be awesome to reach 9,000 – 10,000 pageviews this month”! Never in my wildest dreams did I think it could actually happen!
March 2018 Blog Traffic
February 2018 Blog Traffic
January 2018 Blog Traffic-First Month Blogging
Blogging Mistakes to Avoid
When I first started blogging, I joined Facebook social sharing groups to try to increase my traffic. Please don’t do this. These groups are often cluttered with bloggers of every niche imaginable, and they’re sharing your best pins to their “Awesome Bloggers” board. It’s super generic, and Pinterest will NOT reward you for it!
Instead of seeking quick hits, focus on creating quality content optimized for Google and learn a great Pinterest Strategy.
The strategies I learned helped me finally break through my plateau and get accepted into Mediavine!
Final Thoughts on How to Get your First 10,000 Blog Pageviews
Once you nail down your blogging niche, your purpose, and start writing amazing content and promoting consistently, you’ll start seeing growth.
To recap, here’s what you need to do: (All links open in new window so you won’t lose your spot)
- Sign up for Tailwindto explode your Pinterest traffic.
- Write high-quality content that gets readers talking and sharing.
- Get your posts to rank on page one of Google using Squirrly SEO
That’s it! In just 4 months, I’ve grown a blog from 0 to 10,000 pageviews by following these exact steps. If you’ve just started blogging or have been blogging a while and are “stuck”, give these tips a try and let me know how it works for you!
