The end of March marks my fourth full month of blogging and I’m getting into a nice little groove I must say!
Income Report
As usual, and as to be expected this early on in a business, I did not make any money. But here’s what I spent.
| Rank IQ $9.01 | RankIQ usually costs $49.00 per month for the Standard Plan. However, if you click on the Upgrade button in the top right corner, it will give you the option for the Lite Plan for $29.00 per month. I immediately switched to the Lite Plan once I subscribed in February. I’m not sure how that left me paying $9.01 in March, but I’ll take it. |
| Keywords Everywhere $10 | My primary SEO strategy is Project 24’s search analysis method, but I recently added in Keywords Everywhere. It’s a free Google Chrome Extension that allows you to see useful information for various terms that you Google, like SEO difficulty and related long-tail keywords. Although the extension is free, you purchase credits to be able to get this information for each keyword. One credit is worth one keyword. $10 gets you 100,000 worth. It’s been a nice little supplement to my content strategy. |
Blogging Short Term Plans and Goals
I feel a little burnt out from teaching full-time and publishing one blog post a week. It hasn’t allowed me to focus on other aspects of my business. I’d really like to get started on email marketing, Pinterest marketing, and product creation.
Now that I have 14 blog posts published, I’m going to slow down until summer and move to publishing at least two blog posts per month.
This is not ideal, but I’ve got to do what’s sustainable for me. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Frequency is important, but I think consistency is even more so.
For me, it’s also important to build up all of these aspects of my business simultaneously instead of just focusing on blogging.
I’m adding in product creation in addition to blogging for the next two months. Then once summer starts, I will add in Pinterest and email marketing. I think it’s important for my blog and TPT store to be decent before I spend time marketing them.
March 2023 Thrive Beyond Teaching Blog Progress
I think it’s so important to take a moment to look at all you’ve done. Otherwise, I don’t think we realize how much we’ve accomplished. It’s easier to just focus on what we haven’t gotten done and what we still need to do.
Here are my blogging wins for March!
- March is the second month I’ve been able to publish four blog posts! It’s also the first month those were all scheduled ahead of time!
- Up until now, I’d been using my personal email address for all blogging business. Don’t judge me, but the end of it rhymes with cotmail. I knew I desperately needed to update that, so I did! Now my TBT email address is thrivebeyondteaching@gmail.com.
- I knew I needed a privacy policy on my website ASAP. I heard about Bobby Klinck through the RankIQ Facebook Mastermind Group and ended up going with his free template. Through the same group, I also heard of a valuable resource called Termageddon. They provide website policies that update automatically as the laws change. I am almost certain I will spring for this one day!
- I went to a meet-up for women who work full-time and are pursuing a business on the side! It was great for me because I need to socialize more. It was also refreshing to meet other women who get what I’m doing and are also pursuing their dreams.
- I’ve gotten into the habit of working on my business slowly and surely most days. I’ve seen firsthand how much this allows me to accomplish. However, I would still like those sessions to be longer. Right now, I’m averaging 3-7 hours a week. I’d like to push that up to at least 10 hours. But I am proud of getting into the habit. I think that’s the most important thing. Adding on more time will be the next natural step.
- My mind was blown when I learned I could request that Google index my blog posts and website pages instead of just sitting and waiting for them to do so. After doing this, my number of indexed pages quickly rose from 4 to 16! I’m now trying to get into the habit of requesting indexing as soon as I publish a blog post.
- Last but not least, I earned a Google Search Impact award! My site got 5 clicks through Google Search! I’m already well on my way to 10! Hello, organic traffic! This could be the start of something great.
Setbacks
I got strep throat last week. It took me out for at least two days. I didn’t work on any school or business matters, but I’m proud of myself for taking time off, going to the doctor immediately, and giving my body time to heal. It’s probably why I was able to recover and get back in the saddle so quickly.
I started a mailing list! But there’s a reason this is listed under setbacks and not progress. Remember that new email address I mentioned earlier? Well, it’s still not a business email address. ConvertKit highly recommends using an official business email address to increase the chances of your newsletters ending up in people’s inboxes instead of spam folders. It’s also just the proper way to do things. So I’ve still got to tackle this before I can start a mailing list. I want to do it right or not at all.
SEO Strategy Update
In my February blog income report and update, I talked about joining RankIQ. RankIQ is an SEO tool that I thought I would add to my repertoire. I also became an affiliate because why not.
However, RankIQ did not quite work out for me. I think it has a lot of great features that help a lot of bloggers, but I think my niche is just too niche for this small startup tool right now.
I may revisit it and I’m still deciding if I will continue to be an affiliate, but I wanted to be transparent about where I stand with it now.
For now, I will keep using Project 24’s search analysis method as well as Keywords Everywhere.
Online Business Resources
Here are some valuable resources I tapped into in March. I hope you’ll find some of them helpful too!
I almost bought the resources mentioned in this video, but then I ended up going with Bobby Klinck’s free privacy policy. Regardless, it’s good to know the basics you need to keep your online business legal and protected.
I plan on starting PInterest marketing soon. Simple Pin Media is my go to resource as of now.
You know I’m a huge advocate for diversifying your streams of income, so I have to put this one in here!
Closing Thoughts
After the fourth month in business, I’m finally starting to feel like I have a workflow. I’m finally starting to feel like I (slightly) have an idea of what I’m doing.
I’m going to stay consistent, keep growing and learning, and keep celebrating the little wins along the way. The early bird who keeps showing up no matter what, day-after-day, gets the worm.
Little by little. One step at a time. It’s the only way to go. ❣️
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