With the end of the year we usually review our achievements.
What have we done over the year? Are we satisfied?
Somehow it’s easier to answer these questions if we’ve set up some goals. Right?
To be honest with you, I haven’t!
The only thing I promised to myself is that I’m gonna try to come up with the best content I can to my readers.
I hooked on Copyblogger
It’s been a while since I hooked on Copyblogger (and its products), so I started to follow their core idea – provide fresh and valuable content to your audience.
Well that sounds easier to say than done. You agree?
At first, I came to idea to outsource my content through Textbroker. Relying only on outsorced content didn’t much improve things. The traffic was still poor and I wasn’t able to make any leads.
That was disappointing, discouraging …
To shake my latergy a little bit I made two decisions.
- I’ll try to write my own content
- I’ll try to attract some visitors
Why did I decide to take these two steps?
Again Copyblogger made influence on me. Reading those great posts from A-list authors how giving valuable informations and writing from heart is the way to find the reader.
I thought to myself why not give it a try.
To attract targeted visitors, I knew my content has to be SEO optimized. Since I didn’t have a clue about that I decided to invest in Scribe SEO plugin.
For $17 a month, it has been taking care of my visibility to search engines, keyword research and social media connections.
However, this turned to be a very good decision I made. After the first month, blog started to receive more and more organic traffic which meant that Scribe SEO actually works.
I feel like this was the trigger moment for my blog.
Positive things that happened
When I look back on this year, I can really mention some positive things that happened so far.
- constant growth of traffic, now counts 1500 unique visitors a month
- blog went from PR0 to PR2
- Alexa ranking went from 8 to 1,5 million
- blog started to make ravenue
Oh boy, how happy I was when I saw my first comission. I sold one of the StudioPress themes.
This actually gave me the confidence it’s possible to make real money as an affiliate. I started to think of my blog more like business, where you need to invest some knowledge and money but eventually it can be rewarding.
Negative things that happened
I won’t be totally fair if I don’t mention also some negative things when I draw a line.
- still takes a lot of my free time
- investment is still bigger than income
- subscribers aren’t increasing as I want
I don’t consider myself a writer. It takes me awfully a lot of time to put on paper what’s on my mind.
Obviously I don’t have a writing routine – this is something I need to work out.
The thing with subscribers list is still mystery to me. Maybe if I write a report or ebook will speed up the list. Or to put opt-in somewhere else to see if it works. Hm…
In this moment expense is still bigger than income.Eventually this is business and I think of it as an investment.
It would be nice to see when this trends change. 😉
Plans for the next year
Why not make some wishes and plans that I think will work for me (and you). After all it’s the end of the year.
- increase guest posting
- offer new services like web design
- change the look of the blog
- write an ebook
I can’t praise myself that I do guest posts a lot. The last one, however, went very well and motivated me to write even more. You can read it here.
Guest posts are really great way to gain more traffic and wider reputation as well.
I didn’t tell you but my wife Martina started to attend two Cambridge certified courses for graphic and web design. We’ll probably offer these services on the new site, but I would like to offer WordPress web development on DomainsFlow.
Enough about me, your turn …
When you look back on this year can you say some positive and negative moments?
Can you do it better next year? Promise?
Let me know in the comments …
Almost forgot to say Happy holidays and a successful 2013!
Sincerely,
Dragan
