How I got 150,000 Pageviews in 3 Months on a Brand New Blog
My very first blog post on LivingForNaptime.com was launched on on December 1st, 2015, when I wrote “How to Start a Mom Blog” post. Since then, I’ve written over 50 posts and attracted over 150k page views in the last three months…on a brand new blog. I have to admit, even I’m a sorta kinda impressed with that…and believe me, I don’t get impressed easily. In this blog post, I’m going to breakdown what I did each month to build my blog and get traffic. At the end of this blog post, I’ll give you a breakdown of where my traffic is coming from!
Living for Naptime is different
I’ve started (and sold!) many blogs in my day and I’ve always started them with one thing in mind….Making Money. This time, however, I decided to do things differently and pay no attention to monetizing the content, and ONLY blog to serve the people I was trying to reach: Mom bloggers or moms who wanted to start a blog. My mantra as of late has been, “To make a million, you must help a million”. This is the exact mission for the blog and the reason I pour so much knowledge into it, because I truly want to help other blogging moms.
December 2015:
1. This was the month that I was determined to start Living for Naptime. I had originally purchased the domain with the intent of making it another Scary Mommy-type blog, but that quickly faded once I realized that instead I wanted to help moms become bloggers. So in December, I concentrated on writing pillar content. The kind of content that would get shared and be the foundation for my blog. The main theme for Living for Naptime is helping moms start and succeed in their journey of blogging, so I wrote a detailed post on How to Start a Mom blog as my very first post.
2. I also got on Instagram. Starting a new account on Instagram is hard and getting your first 1,000 was even harder. BUT thankfully blogging moms like Grumbling Grace, The Home Loving Wife, Little Bits of Joy & Simply Annie took a chance on me and become my first Insta-friends, biggest supporters and part of my blogging tribe. I detailed the exact steps I took to get to my first 1,000 Instagram followers in 30 days in this blog post.
3. I set up my Pinterest account and set up some boards, but didn’t do really much with Pinterest in December.
January 2016:
1. In January I made a beeline for the Facebook Blog Sharing groups in January. Once again, bloggers are my ‘target market’ and these Facebook sharing groups are filled with bloggers AND great for sharing each other’s blog posts & increase social media followers. Some of the groups I joined were Grow your Blog, Blogging Boost, Blog Love, Instagram Fabulous, Pinterest SuperStar Bloggers & Inspired Bloggers Network Promos. Within those groups I frequently participate in the Comments, Pinterest & Stumbleupon sharing threads. In my opinion, these have the most impact on traffic generation and social proof.
2. Armed with a few blogging friends I had met on Instagram and in the Facebook sharing groups, I started the BFF Link-up Party on Fridays in January. Essentially it’s a dedicated thread on my blog that allows other bloggers to link up their blog posts. This has been a GREAT way to meet to new bloggers and grow my email list. I email each blogger that has participated in the roundup every Friday morning to let them know that the link up is live and encourage them to link up.
3. I also had an early win in January…kinda 😉 I wrote a semi-controversial post about that one time I was sued for using an image I found on Google. I knew as soon as I hit publish that it was going to attract attention…but wasn’t sure how much! After it was published, I shared it in my Facebook Sharing Groups, on Stumbleupon and Pinterest..and from there it took a life of it’s own. Bloggers began sharing it in their own blogger groups as a warning to their fellow bloggers. I received at least a dozen emails of support and have gotten near 200 comments on the blog post. BUT because people have a LOT of opinions about this subject, I was prepared for some backlash and I got it in the form of comments. It got to the point when everytime I got a notification of a new comment it made me sick to my stomach with anxiety. I eventually turned off the comments. To date that single post accounts for almost half of the traffic I received in the last three months.
February 2016
1. In February, I started to get more serious about Pinterest and started using Boardbooster to automatically post content to the group boards I belong to and to loop content from within my own boards daily. As you can see above, Boardbooster has helped me grow my following by 117% in just over a month! I pin anywhere from 30-50 pins a day between my own boards & group boards.
2. This month, I also started the Naptime Nation Facebook Group which is a place for other mom bloggers to share each other’s blog posts & support each other by answering questions and asking for help. To date, we have over 200 members in this group! The group was just another opportunity to get my content shared and also share other bloggers content. I think that’s what you call…I scratch your back and you’ll scratch mine. But in the mom world, it’s more like You pour me a margarita and I’ll pour you one 😉
3. In February I was lucky enough to be invited onto the Marvelous Moms Club Podcast and was able to share my story of bloggerpreneurship with Kirsten Tyrrel’s wonderful community.
4. On the last day of February, I launched the Living for Naptime Podcast with my very first guest being Abbie Ginther from GrumblingGrace.com. The podcast is a weekly show where I interview blogging moms and business owner moms about their successes, struggles and how to manage work/life balance. The podcast opened me up to a whole new prospective audience…podcast listeners!
March 2016
1. In March, I finally switched over from MailChimp to Convert Kit in order to be able to offer content upgrades like this list of 55 Blogs that accept guest posts. This month alone, I have doubled my email list by offering a handful of content upgrades! My plan for the future is to continue to create bonus offers in order to build my mailing list.
2. They say that you can’t be all things to everyone and that’s true in social media. Because I choose to spend my time on Instagram, Facebook & Pinterest….my Twitter account was pretty lame. So I outsourced my Twitter management to a virtual assistant for $65 a month. She works on attracting new followers in the niche I have designated for her. So far, I’ve gotten over 500 new targeted followers on Twitter!
3. This month I started posting guest posts on my blog every Wednesday…this has been a win/win situation. The guest blogger writes some great content for my blog and promotes it to her audience which brings in new traffic for me…but also the guest blogger gets new traffic as their work is also exposed to my audience. I had never attempted allowing guests posts on my blogs before, I could just kick myself for not doing it sooner.
5. Another thing I did to get traffic to my blog in March was takeover a friend’s Facebook page. I have a friend who has a Facebook page over close to 300k followers. Twice this month she allowed me to take over her page and post my content. This resulted in over 300 new likes on my Facebook page and a reach of just 250k for the month of March.
Here are some screenshots from Google Analytics for the first 3 months of this year. I had a total of 153,538 pageviews, 124,929 sessions. Facebook was my biggest driver of traffic, largely in part to that one viral blog post I wrote. My goal for the next quarter is to increase the Pinterest & Organic Search traffic.
I hope this blog post was helpful for you. If you know anyone else who would benefit from this, please feel free to share it with them!
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Girl, you are such a rock star and you’re so deserving of all of this! I’m so glad that you found me on Instagram because you’ve become my go-to guru for all things blogging. Rock on, Momma! And please don’t sell this blog! I need you in my life! Lol.
Haha Thank you Lindsay! And NO…I have no plans to sell this one anytime soon 🙂
You are what we all want to be when we grow up!! I’m SO glad I came across you and your blog, and I’m honored to be part of your tribe. xoxo
Are you saying that because I’m older than you?? 😉 Haha! <3
This is fabulous!!!! I love your step-by-step for each month and your goals!! Thank you for sharing this!
No problem Gloryanna! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
You’re a goddess. LOVE you!!!
I might love you more! 😉
Chrystie, you are truly the best!! All of your posts have helped me so much! Your blog is my number one go-to resource and I would be so lost without it. I hope you are enjoying your success because you sure deserve it!
Ahhhh Kristie! You just made my day 🙂
Wow! That’s amazing! I love how you break everything down. As a new blogger, it can seem very overwhelming at times. This post has some great ideas on how to make it less stressful. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Lindsey! Happy to share what’s working 🙂
Ummm, you are amazing and such an inspiration to all mama bloggers. Thank you for sharing your insight with us!
Of course..that’s why I’m here 🙂
I’d say about half those views are probably from me. This is by far the most helpful blog I’ve found. Thank you!
Bahaha! Thanks Carolyn 🙂
This is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing how you managed it 🙂
No problem…I’m here to share 🙂
three months? That’s just friggin’ impressive. I need to bookmark this and re-read it with a paper and pen (and maybe sans wine, nevermind, there will always be wine).
I LOVE your Facebook group, pageviews or not, you’ve created a truly supportive community and I know it’s been invaluable to so many so thanks for that 😉
Simply Shaunacey
Well done on this great achievement!
Reading through this post, I found myself clicking every single link you included. Now, I’ve got a lot more to read and I am sure whatever links you put in those posts will be clicked too. Great work, Chrystie! Super helpful stuff.
This is so awesome, and that your blog grew so quickly - thank you for the advice. And the focus hey, that is a big thing - focussing on the people and really having a heart to help them - not seeing your blog as a money machine. I am very interested in your stumble upon post as well and will be reading it. How do I join your link up party on Fridays, is it for anyone?
Bookmarked and pinned. I am a new blogger, and this post is very helpful
Great post Chrystie! You have provided practical tips which many bloggers would not provide. Thank you for sharing, I plan to join the facebook groups which you have shared. Liked, pinned and shared this post. Wishing you all the best 🙂
Helpful content. I need to increase traffic to my website.
This is amazing! You make blogging look less overwhelming. Thank you for sharing.
Great article and loads of ideas to take away. Love the idea of the link-up parties, but don’t understand where you get people to post their link?
Thanks in advance. 🙂 xx
This article has some great advice! I look forward to utilizing it on my recently launched blog ourhappylittlehome.com. 😊
Congrats on your new blog 🙂
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