I got a notification the other day that it’s time to renew the domain for my second blog. I also remembered there was another domain I purchased a year ago and which is about to expire in 2 months, but I’m not going to renew it. So that made me realize once again why it’s so important to give your new blog at least one year.
In this post, I’ll share why, I’ll tell you a bit more about those two sites, their growth and earnings or the lack of any results, and how I approach starting new blogs.
So many new bloggers give up on their site in a few weeks or a few months and never renew their domain, but they also miss out on so many opportunities that are only possible once your website gets some traction, which requires at least one year. So let me use those two blogs as an example.
I won’t really mention the names because that’s not the point. I do share that in detail inside the membership though. That’s Fearless Bloggers. Inside the monthly income reports I publish there, I share the exact vision I have for my blogs, the traffic I get, the growth of the Pinterest accounts, the revenue, and any other metric that matters.
Just to be clear, these two sites I’ll talk about now are not my main platform. That’s always been LetsReachSuccess.com. I started it in 2013 and there’s a lot going on there.
But now we’re talking about two new and small sites, which of course is something most new bloggers can resonate with. So let’s dive in.
Blog #1
The first one was initially created for the promo of my program for course creators called Bold Business School.
I created a special freebie for that. So I added opt-in forms on the site. I designed it well.
I shared my story on the about page. I published pages that shared more about the program such as frequently asked questions, one about the modules, the bonuses, a contact page, and so on. That’s because I had big plans for that program, but things went in a different direction.
It didn’t become such a big thing that I needed a special website for it. Then I had the idea of turning it into a blog on business topics and experimenting with AI content on it. And I started seeing results thanks to publishing articles consistently. Thanks to sticking to a few topics, optimizing the content well, and growing a separate Pinterest account for it that is actually doing pretty well.
This year I had the goal of monetizing that site and I’m already earning a bit from it every month from ads, but also I successfully landed 2 sponsorships for it. One was even for a big amount.
So I have a number in mind in terms of yearly revenue for 2024 that I’m aiming for. I’m also growing the traffic and trying to stick to a consistent publishing schedule.
As I’m already seeing results and because I already made some money from it, I’m definitely keeping the site.
I’m very excited to see where it can take me a year from now when the current content actually starts ranking well in the search results, because that takes time. In the meantime, my job is to grow its traffic, to cover more topics and optimize them well, to pin the articles, and add the blog to sponsored networks so I can land more sponsorships.
All this took one year and I think I wasn’t really publishing that consistently in the first months. I mostly focused on it this year from January on. And a reminder that you might not see such encouraging results with your new blog and yet it might still be worth keeping it and giving it one more year.
I just directly applied strategies that work well because I’ve been blogging for 10 years now. But if you’re just getting into it and test different things, then your journey will be slower.
Let me share some more things about the website.
I’m now in the WordPress dashboard for it. Of course, I’m using WordPress, the content management system. I always recommend that.
There are 83 articles now and it’s been almost a year since I’ve published content consistently. I would say 5 to 10 articles per month. Sometimes less than 10 or less than 5 even, other times around 15. It varies, but the total now is 83.
The traffic right now is around 4,000 page views a month. It used to be higher, now it’s a bit lower. I want to reach 5K page views per month by the end of the year.
All the content is optimized. So it’s just a matter of time and consistency till the current metrics increase.
The Pinterest account now has 120,000 monthly page views. At some point it was 200,000. Also, naturally the following grew. There are now 230 followers.
I’m actively pinning the content from that website. Many pins went viral, which actually showed me what topics are doing well there so I covered more of them. That’s how it goes.
But I’m having fun with this website. As I told you, I’m using it as a way to experiment with AI content. I’m totally not against it. It’s such a time saver. For some specific types of articles I’m covering, such as a list of business names for a specific industry, AI tools are perfect for that. In some ways, they’re better than people for that type of content.
I make edits. I don’t just publish anything.
But I’m having fun, I’m passionate about it and I haven’t even focused on that website enough.
I’m usually busy with other things and with tasks related to the main blog. But every month I have goals for this website. Also, every week I want to publish a specific number of posts there.
But I’m having fun, I’m passionate about it and I haven’t even focused on that website enough.
I’m usually busy with other things and with tasks related to the main blog. But every month I have goals for this website. Also, every week I want to publish a specific number of posts there.
I’m not actually getting it done as much as I would like to. So there is so much of its earning potential that I haven’t unleashed yet. I’m excited, which is one of the biggest signs that I should renew the domain.
Blog #2
Now let’s move on to the other website I want to discuss today. That’s a very niche site.
Honestly, I haven’t logged in the WordPress dashboard for over 7, 8 or maybe even 9 months. I don’t remember when the last time I logged in was. I just totally ditched it.
That itself is a sign that I don’t want to continue this project.
I came up with a nice name for the website. The idea behind it was and still is very cool, something I’m passionate about. It’s about a home office and how to make it high-tech, even if you’re not tech savvy, how to set it up for maximum comfort and productivity and how to make it look exactly like one of those dreamy Pinterest boards, but on a budget.
I’m targeting only women so there is a lot of pink when you see the design and the branding. I designed the logo a year ago. I designed the homepage. I thought about the exact categories I want to cover. I did a lot of keyword research, which is very important for a niche site.
I published exactly two articles on the same day in November last year. Now we are August the next year. I even created a Pinterest account for it and only pinned those two articles once.
Nothing else happened there. Luckily, I’m not paying for hosting because I’m using WPX hosting for Let’s Reach Success and the plan I have allows me to host a few more websites without paying extra. The domain is a separate fee, of course, but that’s less than $20 per year, which I only paid once for this website. So it’s totally worth it to just go for it and test the site for one year.
Why I haven’t worked on that site at all
You can be excited about a niche and topic and yet you might realize you don’t have much to say about it.
You don’t like creating content about it. It’s not something you’re passionate about all the time. And that’s exactly the case for this blog that I’m not going to renew.
The name is cool. I like the branding. It’s bold and feminine.
The idea behind it can work. It can be monetized, but I don’t have the desire to actually work on it. I didn’t make it a priority in that one year.
Now that I have to decide whether I should let go of it or not, I don’t really feel like keeping it. Also, my initial idea was to monetize it with affiliate links from Amazon. But since then, my Amazon Associates account is not active and I don’t want to deal with many affiliate links and the potential of small earnings.
It’s just not my favorite way to monetize a website and it’s good to know that. A better investment of my time is doubling down on what has worked for my other sites and what I enjoy more. That’s monetizing with ads, sponsorships, and digital products.
Is it possible to give this site one more year, put in focused work every week, and turn it into a new passive income stream in my business? Yes, most probably. But I don’t have the desire for it. It will take me away from my other important projects and I’m just not passionate enough about it.
That’s how I know when it’s time to call it quits.
The next question here would be this: s
Should you start another blog?
Well, there are pros and cons. It always takes you away from working on your main blog.
For me, a nice way to look at this is to see it as a side project and even a free time activity. So if you have free time, go for it. But don’t invest less time and effort in your main platform only so you can start another one.
Ultimately, the blog you stick to and which you publish consistently on is most likely to become your full-time business.
Two or three years ago, I started another niche website and I never even told anyone in my life about it. I created a lot of content on it in a very short time.
I was very passionate about the idea, but it was related to one specific chapter of my life, which I’m not even thinking about anymore.
I definitely could have helped people in the same situation in life, but all that was just going to take a lot of time to promote the content, to be on socials because that actually fits the idea of that blog. Now, I don’t really use social media other than Pinterest.
Sometimes you can be very passionate about a topic just because you’re going through something or you have a new hobby. Or you have a new problem that you’re finding a solution for and you just want to get in touch with others who are going through the same and make their journey easier, which is one of the most beautiful reasons to start a new business or a new website. But are you going to stick to it?
A year later after starting that website, I didn’t renew the domain name and I honestly haven’t thought about it ever since and I feel peaceful about it.
Starting the website wasn’t a mistake. In that moment, I really wanted it and it was actually my creative outlet. It really helped me go through what I was going through. But after that, I just didn’t want to learn more about that.
I didn’t want to keep talking about it. I was just done with it. It was a completed chapter in my life.
So that’s another point to consider if you’re wondering whether you should start a new blog and just act on a new business idea because we usually have many of those. We’re never going to run out of new business ideas. But they have to be tested a bit.
Maybe one day in the near future, I’m going to start a website on another topic. But I’m not going to turn it into my main business activity before it’s actually profitable.
Even now with that website that I’m going keep and which is not my main one, I get distracted sometimes. I’m wondering whether the goals I’m setting for it every month and for the whole year aren’t taking me away from my main goals in business which are related to my main website and my digital products.
Then I just reassess everything. I decide to put less effort in that smaller website but to still keep working on it because a year or two or three from now it can be earning a lot passively and I would be so happy that I kept working on it.
In conclusion
So that’s what I wanted to share with you today. I hope it helped. Let me know if you have any questions.
If you need help on your blogging journey, definitely join us inside Fearless Bloggers.
If you’re totally new to this, there is a bonus course that you get immediate access to once you become a member which is called Your First 50 Days of Blogging. It basically walks you through all the steps you can take quickly and easily in the first 50 days of having a blog so that you actually set the foundation, prepare the blog for monetization, optimize it, get your first articles out there, start a Pinterest account, set up the right plugins, connect with different tools that will help you measure your website such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
All this will create consistency. It will help you turn blogging into a habit once you stick to it for 50 days. It will help you see some wins and overcome the initial barrier which is often related to the tech aspect of it like dealing with different platforms and tools and not knowing how to optimize a blog post or how to publish a new article. Once you get over that, the journey is definitely going to be smoother from then on.
And you can always ask us any question you have inside the membership. I’m always there for you to guide you along your journey no matter what stage you are at. So I’d love to see you there.
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