Mastering the Blogging Game: Unveiling Key Lessons from Six Months of Success

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Here we are – six months into running JuneDiaries! I can’t believe it’s been six months of blogging and sharing my life and different ideas and deals with you all. It went by quick, didn’t it?! Honestly, I’ve had so much fun running this blog. Sometimes it has felt a little like “is anybody reading this?!”, but then I’ll get a comment or email that makes my day and reaffirms that SOMEONE out there is! 🙂

I get asked a lot about my blog, and I wanted to do a little roundup of some of the biggest things I’ve learned over the last six months, but I still need to get better at, and which of my blogs have gotten the most traffic!

What I’ve Learned

My Brand: When I first started, I would blog about a LOT of different things – I really wasn’t sure what direction I was going to go in. Since then, I’ve been able to define my brand as what I like to call a “working mommy” blog. The topics I’m most passionate about sharing have to do with motherhood, work/sales, and women empowerment. So, that’s the direction I’ve taken my blog in the mini revamp I did a few weeks back!

Using Social Media to Push Traffic: I’m not even really talking about Instagram (though I do get plenty of traffic from there!), but I’ve gotten a LOT better at utilizing Pinterest to push traffic to my blog. I’m really proud that I’m looking to double my blog traffic in February, which is a short month!

Using Tailwind to Schedule Posts: My God, this tool is a LIFESIZER. I’ve been using Tailwind to schedule my Pinterest and Instagram posts and it has saved me a TON of time. The Pinterest algorithm prioritizes accounts that continually add new fresh pins throughout the day, and no one has time for that. With Tailwind, you can take a half an hour and create/schedule pins to go whenever you want throughout the week! It even designs the pins for you with either your own photos or stock pictures. It’s been HUGE in driving up my Pinterest analytics. Use my link and when you upgrade, you’ll get a $15 credit!

Pitching Brands: In February I focused a lot on pitching my blog and socials for partnerships and sponsors, and was SO happy to get my first few collaborations! You’ll be seeing them launched throughout March. I honestly wasn’t sure how it would go being such a small area of the internet, but I found some amazing partnerships that I can’t wait to continue to explore.

Things to Work On

Continuing to Monetize: One of my big goals for Q2 is to continue to work on building my traffic and being able to monetize June Diaries a bit more. This blog will NEVER become an ad-ridden junkheap, but I do want to be able to partner with good brands, offer great deals, and be able to generate more great content for you all.

Grow my Email List: This is another big one! My email list is small and I’m hoping to grow it throughout the next few months. It’s a big area of focus for me. And if you’re not already – make sure you subscribe at the bottom of the page!

Top Viewed Blogs

How to be a Goal Getter: Blogging Edition (Part 1): Clearly you guys are super interested in blogging, this blog really took off and continues to get a lot of views. I’m looking forward to launching Part 2 in early March!

34 Questions and Answers for my 34th Birthday: I wasn’t surprised when this got a LOT of views after sharing it on Facebook and Instagram, but I WAS surprised that it continued to get shared and generate traffic well after it’s publish date! I guess I underestimated how nosy everyone is! 😀

One Week Work-From-Home Mom Schedule: This was a fun blog to track and write for the first week back in January!

How to Set your Q4 Off Right: This blog got a lot of shares on LinkedIn so I’m not surprised that it made the list. I wish I could say I had a huge Q4 with all these tips, but I found out was pregnant RIGHT in the beginning of October, and was pretty much DOA for most of Q4. Luckily I was able to bounce right back this quarter, though!

Cake Smash Photos and Recap: Aww…one of my favorites, mostly because of all the adorable photos of sweet Ana’s cake smash.

What’s Next

The next six months I’m going to put a huge focus on growing my traffic and followers, and continuing to put out around 10 quality blog posts every month. Writing the blog posts is what really keeps me going – I absolutely love doing it!

I’m looking for some great ideas for content YOU want to read about these next few months – what are you hoping to read? Drop a comment or send me an email – it’s the best part of my day to hear from you! You can always reach me at hello@junediaries.com

xx Becky