July 2017 Blog Report & Life Update

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Welcome to my July 2017 blog report & life update! Last month I set a goal of reaching 5,000 pageviews on my blog, and things got a little crazy. Find out how I reached over 18,000 page views this month and made that traffic sustainable.

Today’s post is the second in what will now be a monthly feature on the blog. Last month, I published my first ever blog traffic report and got a great response from you guys. For me, blog reports and income statements are huge sources of inspiration, so to be able to do my part for others is great.

Not only that, but setting goals last month then allowed me to smash them. Publically announcing these each month is going to be a great way to keep me accountable and hopefully, share some advice and motivation fellow and aspiring bloggers!

This month is going to be a little different though. I’m going to combine these reports as a kind of ‘life update’. As most of you know, I’m blogging from the road – talking all things money as I make working and exploring the world at the same time possible.

So for anyone who’s wondered where the hell in the world I am and what’s going on, this is where you’ll find those updates.

Why do a Blog Report?

Reading the blog and income reports of other blogger’s is extremely motivating for me – and in fact was a big reason I decided to finally commit to blogging rather than just stick two posts online and forget all about it!

I love seeing how bloggers went from 0 followers and making pennies, to growing an engaged audience and even making a full-time living with their blog. I love blogging, so I can’t wait to look back in a year’s time and see how much I’ve progressed from these reports!

If my monthly reports can inspire even one person as much as others have inspired me, my work will be done.

If you’re thinking about starting a blog, check out my step-by-step tutorial here. I haven’t regretted starting this site up for one second!

Why a Life Update?

To catch anyone new here up: at the beginning of 2017, I took my copywriting career freelance, and now work as a copywriter and social media manager while travelling Asia with my boyfriend, Pete (who also managed to wrangle a freelance contract with his past employer!).

So, we’re bonafide digital nomads. Working, travelling, and in my case, blogging from the road. It’s not all glamour, but I’ve gotta admit, life is pretty great right now! I get a lot of questions about where I am in the world, what we’ve been doing, and I hope these life updates can provide an interesting insight into real life on the road.

July 2017: Blog Report

Goal: 5,000 Pageviews

July was a super successful month for my blog, and my traffic skyrocketed to 18,000 views this month!

Every day I am so pleased and so in awe that people (and not just my family) want to read this blog. I work really hard on this site, putting in my own free time to make something I’m really proud of, and it’s great to see that hard work starting to pay off.

Last month I noted that my traffic had a huge boost in the last week of June, and for July, this trend just continued onwards and upwards. In May, I was so pleased to get 1,000 views on my blog, and this month I got that amount in one day. I constantly feel like a kid at Christmas. 

Last Month’s Blog Goals:

• Grow blog traffic to at least 5,000 pageviews
• Increase Pinterest following to 160 followers
• Grow Twitter following to 1,500 followers
• 200 Facebook Followers >>> (so close! I’m 3 away!)
• Get another guest post on my blog
• Post 3 times/week

July Articles

In June I set out a goal to increase my posts per week from 2 to 3 if I could. As I’ve said before, I don’t want to push myself to write 3 posts a week if it means sacrificing on quality. If I have something ready to go, great, but I’d rather publish twice a week and know I’m publishing two great quality pieces of content.

In July, I posted a total of 12 posts and also updated my hire/work with me page, which I’m really happy with. I had another guest post on the site and got some really great feedback on a lot of the articles I published. I’m so thankful for the wonderful personal finance community who are always happy to leave a comment!

If you missed any of them, here are the articles I published in July:

10 Things No One Admits About the Digital Nomad Lifestyle

June 2017 Blog Traffic Report

Going Paperless: How to Go Digital in 5 Steps

The Digital Declutter Guide: Clear Your Digital Clutter

Fail-Safe Ways to Save Money When Travelling Abroad

Minimalist Travel: How To Travel Long-Term with Nothing But a Carry On

Why You Should Seriously Consider House Sharing to Save Money

Why You Always Need Travel Insurance

15 Amazing Budget Hacks That Could Save £9500 In Your Budget This Year

Guest Post: How I Paid Off 25k Of Student Loan Debt In 15 Months & How You Can Too!

Grammarly Review: Is it Worth It for Freelance Writers and Bloggers?

What Helped Skyrocket my traffic?

Honestly, I didn’t do anything crazy this month that gave me this increase. I’ve been working really hard for the past few months, and this month that effort really started paying off.

I don’t think blogging doesn’t have one secret trick – it’s a labyrinth of lessons and mistakes and ups and downs. Some months you’ll see a spike in traffic due to getting featured on a more established blog or publishing a post that hits a nerve at exactly the right time, but for the most part, it’s a daily grind of consistent small steps that lead to progress.

That being said, there are definitely things I’ve done in the past few months that have really helped push my blog in front of people. I only wish I had done some proper reading before I launched my blog and maybe I would have reached this learning curve earlier!

A few things I started doing that’s helped my blog:

• Posting consistently

In May, I created an editorial calendar and planned out posts for the next month. I’ve continued this each month and it has made me so much better and getting blog posts written, edited, formatted and scheduled in advance.

Having a plan has allowed me to take the time to write far better quality blog posts with time and research put into them, which has definitely helped my traffic! A consistent posting schedule will bring in the traffic, but quality posts are what will actually engage people – and that’s the main aim.

• Pinterest

If you haven’t heard by now that Pinterest is the holy grail of blog traffic, where have you been hiding?! I only have 160-ish followers on Pinterest, and yet receive over 300k monthly impressions and get the majority of my traffic from it.

I use BoardBooster to schedule all my own pins and it saves me so much time. To do well on Pinterest, you need to pin a lot. Simple as that. BoardBooster means spending maybe an hour a week getting all your pinning done compared to several hours every day. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial with my link here – after 30 days, I didn’t think twice about paying the $5/month for the service.

• Facebook

This month I took a step back from Twitter and focused more on Facebook. This is probably why I didn’t hit my Twitter goal this month, but I’m going to make an effort to step up again in August!

The upside of this was that I’m really in a groove with Facebook. My page is growing (slowly, but still!), I create a group, and I’ve joined tonnes of other groups to start actually talking to people in the community. Facebook creates a space where people can have discussions like no other, and I’m finally getting to grips with how to get involved!

If you’re interested, you can like my Facebook page here, and join my Facebook group Money & Minimalism Matters – we’re a small but dedicated little tribe right now, but I’d love to see that baby grow!

• Freebies

This month I launched my first ever free product – The Digital Declutter e-book. In the e-book, I talk through the 7 stages to declutter your laptop. It’s the process I followed when decluttering my PC, and I work so much more efficiently now. If you haven’t grabbed your free copy yet – head on over here!

Social

Social traffic is my number one referrer. I’m slowly making progress with SEO, but that’s a long game and not something I can expect to rely on for traffic just 7 months into blogging!

This month I started an Instagram page for The Wallet Moth. I’m pretty active on my personal one but the idea of putting my ‘blogging’ self in the eyes of all my friends and family made me feel uneasy, so I’ve created a separate account where I can talk goals, money, and anything else without any worries!

Follower Changes:

Facebook: 197 page likes (from 154)

Twitter: 1,228 followers (from 1,062)

Pinterest: 167 followers (from 112)

Instagram: 165 followers (from 0!)

(Click the links above to get connected with me!)

July Goals:

I’m honestly a bit flabbergasted at how dramatically my blog has grown in just a month, so I’m a little lost at where to set July’s goals! I’m going to aim for:

• 22k pageviews
• 250 Facebook likes
• 1500 Twitter followers
• 210 Pinterest follows
• 250 Instagram followers
• Grow my Subscriber list
• Guest post on another blog
• Feature a guest post on my blog

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Life Update

Last month when I published my June report we were in Osaka, Japan.

Since then, we have visited:

• Jakarta, Indonesia,
• Yogyakarta, Indonesia,
• Ubud, Bali
• Currently in: Canggu, Bali

Highlights have included:

• Heavenly sushi and ramen in Osaka.
  I could eat ramen every day of the week, no joke. I can’t wait to have access to a supermarket and a kitchen and try my hand at making my own ramen!
• Dotonbori, Osaka at night.
  We stumbled across this area of Osaka in the evening after working in a cafe nearby and I was instantly smitten! The river running through it was beautifully lit up and there was so much going on – live music, restaurants and bars, and so many shops! We got a cheesecake from the famous Pablo bakery, and it was delicious.
• Borobudur Sunrise in Yogyakarta.
  Yogyakarta wasn’t as bustling with tourists as we expected, but we all turned up for the Borobudur sunrise! The morning was very foggy so it wasn’t the most stunning sunrise I’ve seen, but there’s something so magical about being awake before the sun’s appeared.
• Healthy Food Galore in Ubud.
  As someone who loves health and fitness, one of my biggest hates of travelling is that I don’t get to make my own food as often as I’d like to – leaving me feeling pretty unhealthy a lot of the time! Ubud fixed that – every cafe spouts organic, healthy produce with natural ingredients. 

Other events:

– The Accident

Pete was in a scooter accident. It sucks, because it was our second time ever on a scooter here in Asia, and neither of us was even driving! Our homestay hosts offered to take us to an annual festival in Yogyakarta on the back of their bikes, and the bike Pete was on was in an accident with another bike.

Thankfully, he is OK, but healing slow. We didn’t see any of Ubud because he couldn’t walk, so I made trips out to get us food every day and that’s it! He can pretty much walk now, so we’re seeing more of Canggu but unfortunately, it’s not going to be the month of non-stop surfing that we envisioned.

– I took on more clients!

Being a pretty frugal couple and travelling super-cheap Asia, I’ve been bad at cruising along quite happily on a lower income because we really don’t need much money. However, I’m conscious that one day, we’re going to want to travel to other places and I want to have my freelance business set up and thriving before that happens. So, this month I took on some extra clients and things are going great! I love the work and it comes easily to me, and it gives me a little more wiggle room in my budget. (Cheeky plug: if you’d like to work together, check out my hire me page!)

Upcoming Events:

• Surf Lesson. Unfortunately, surfing is out of the question for Pete right now, but he still wants me to have a go. So, I’m going to seek out a surf instructor and see how much I’ve remembered since I last surfed 6 years ago!
• Gili T. We’re here in Canggu for a month in total, which is a nice and much-needed break from how hectically we’ve been travelling. At the end of the month though, we’ll be sailing to Gili T which I’ve heard is a backpacker’s paradise. Very excited! Fingers crossed we’ll be able to do some more scuba diving.

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Thanks for reading! I can’t wait to see where the month of August takes me – hopefully onwards and upwards!

If this post has inspired you to start your own blog, let me say this: views, income and anything else aside, blogging has been the best decision I made this year. I have never felt so motivated and driven to build something that is mine – this site started from nothing and it is totally up to me what happens to it. That’s a great feeling. Check out my guide to easily starting your own blog with BlueHost.