Partners in Fire published monthly growth updates for the first 50 months of its existence as an online publisher. We decided to keep these older articles for posterity and to provide assistance for others starting on their blogging journeys.
Here is our 24th-month update, edited for grammar, clarity, and to add additional context with the benefit of hindsight.
24th Month Blogging
We’ve been stuck between one thousand and twelve hundred users per month for quite a few months now, and our 24th month was no different.
On the plus side, we are achieving consistency and increasing the number of users from organic search.
Here’s how we did.
Readership
Our readership decreased slightly during this period, as we saw a little under 1200 users.
We’re still averaging about 40 users per day, but we had a pretty lousy slump over the long Thanksgiving weekend—we had less than thirty users per day for three of the four days! T
hat’s terrible, but we’re trying to be positive. It was a holiday weekend, and people’s priorities were traveling, being with family, and shopping—not reading blogs.
We are still lacking in really good days. This month, we didn’t have any days with over 60 users—our best day was 59.
It’s both good and bad—none of our posts went “viral” this month, but our traffic this period is more consistent than any of our previous months—other than the huge drop off during the holiday weekend.
Traffic Drivers
Organic Search
November was the first month ever that most of our users came from organic search.
That’s huge!
A little over 440 users found us via organic search in November, an increase of about 75 users over the last month. It’s growing slowly but surely!
We stuck to our goal of updating two posts per month for SEO, and that hard work is finally paying off.
The top-performing organic search post was about ignoring money problems. That’s not even one of the ones we updated (though it will be on the list for this month!).
However, we have seen a slight improvement in traffic for the two posts that we updated this month. Getting those Google algorithms right is still a mystery, but we’re working on it.
Updating old posts is crucial to SEO success. Over the years, information changes, links get broken, and your writing skills improve. The articles you wrote five years ago will look horrible compared to the content you produce today. To maintain and enhance your website’s quality, you must constantly update the older posts to ensure they meet your current standards.
Social Media
Social media was our second-biggest traffic driver this month, and that’s not only because we are doing so well with organic search.
Our social media traffic fell quite a bit this month, which fits the pattern for the previous months. We only had 400 users from social media this month, a drop of 82 from last month.
Pinterest continues to be the platform in which we are experiencing the most significant decline. Last month, we only had 221 users from Pinterest, which is where all but a handful of that decrease came from.
Our traffic from Pinterest is dropping faster than our traffic from all the other sources is growing, and this continues to be a huge problem for us.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to pinpoint the reason for this continued decrease. I think my pins are well-designed and pretty, and many have clear calls to action. I used the same pinning strategy all year, which brought great success in the spring and summer. Also, like I said last month, I continue to gain followers, and my “reach” is listed as over 130K.
Figuring out what went wrong on Pinterest and finding a way to fix it will be one of my top priorities for the next few months.
We never discovered what went wrong on Pinterest and gave up on the platform for many years. Our current theory is an algorithm update changed how old pins rescheduled with Tailwind performed on the platform.
To be successful on any platform, you must keep up to date with the algorithm and policy changes, shifting your strategy to match.
Our reach on Twitter decreased slightly during this period, with 110 users visiting from the platform.
I succeeded at posting an old blog post every day, but I failed at my goal of interacting with others more.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to do better with that in December!
We don’t use Twitter (X) as much anymore, as with the changes under the new leadership, it’s not the same platform as it was.
Although I don’t focus much on Facebook, we did improve our traffic from the platform during this period. I did a bit better at sharing my posts on my personal page, and that did a lot to increase the readership.
The post “Squatting your way to Home Ownership” was the most successful on Facebook. I guess many of my real-life friends are looking for alternative methods of owning a home.
Even with this tiny bit of growth from the platform, my strategy will stay the same. I will try to remember to share my blog posts on my personal page.
Maybe someday, when I crack the Pinterest code, I’ll put more effort into Facebook.
We never focused on Facebook. It still drives a little traffic, mostly from our auto-sharing plugin in Revive Old Posts and a little from readers who share our posts on their pages.
Direct Hits
Unfortunately, this month, we saw a slight decrease in users via direct hits. We only had 255 users visiting us directly during our 24th month, a significant reduction from over 300 in previous months.
I’d like to blame some of this on the Thanksgiving holiday – our readers were just too busy with the holidays to check their inboxes for content. That may be wishful thinking on my part, but we will see if it improves for the next three weeks and then declines again for Christmas. That will be a pretty clear indicator that the holidays play a role.
Content
Partners in Fire continues publishing epic content every month.
During our 24th month, we continued our series on Peer-to-Peer Lending with a post dedicated to borrowing with peer-to-peer lending. We also expanded upon last month’s post, “How much does life cost?” with a great breakdown of how much going out costs.
Seeing how much money we waste on going out each month was eye-opening.
With winter coming, we decided to write about saving money this time of year. It’s my first full winter as an adult (I’m used to living in warmer climates!), and I had to learn how to save money on heating on the fly. I also wanted to know what people do for fun during the winter without spending all their money, so I sleuthed out some awesome cheap winter date ideas.
Our most popular article this month was Squatting Your Way to Home Ownership. We researched whether adverse possession is a legitimate method of gaining a home, and it garnered a decent amount of attention. The post opened up discussion with my real-life friends and was a ton of fun to write!
The post that got the least attention this month was my Thanksgiving post. Although it is fun and sometimes cathartic to write down the things we are thankful for, I’ve learned that it’s not a topic that will gain attention.
No one cares what some random blogger is thankful for, and the traffic from that post highlighted that reality. Next year, I’ll have to think of something Thanksgiving-themed to write about that people will want to read and search for on Google. I have plenty of time for that, though.
With the changes in Peer-to-Peer lending platforms over the years, the extra post on borrowing via P2P no longer served a purpose, so we removed it. We also removed the Thanksgiving post, as we were right that nobody cares about what some random blogger is thankful for. It didn’t serve a general audience, so we removed it.
However, with the changes in organic search, community building may be the best way forward with blogging. If we pull off the shift correctly, the community we build should care about the personal posts.
The other posts still serve a general audience, so most have been updated over the years to keep up with changes.
Monetization
I’ve still been failing at monetizing Partners in Fire. I got one sale on Amazon this month and made 22 cents. A sale is a sale, and that will eventually add up!
I haven’t had any success with any of my other affiliates.
Although my affiliate networks have been completely unsuccessful so far, I have had a little success with my ad network. I made three dollars in ad revenue this month, which isn’t terrible, considering I’ve only been with the network for a few months.
I’m going to add an ad to my posts with the highest traffic, and I hope to increase my revenue in the coming months.
We never found success through affiliate marketing. Our site is more informational, and we didn’t feel comfortable hawking random products. We still make a tiny amount each year through products we believe in, but it’s rarely worth mentioning.
Our top income source has been display ads for a long time, but with the loss in organic traffic, that’s also been decreasing.
Making money blogging is more challenging than people selling you courses want you to believe.
How We Are Going to Improve Our Readership
I am thrilled to see an improvement in users via organic search over the past few months, and I will keep updating old blog posts to continue this trend.
My biggest concern for readership is the loss of users via Pinterest. This has been a month-long problem, and I haven’t been able to find a solution yet. I’m still looking into taking a Pinterest course, but I don’t want to waste time and money on something that won’t be valuable (and by that, I mean that it won’t increase page views from the platform). Any suggestions on a course would be greatly appreciated!
We took a Pinterest course—it didn’t help. We took a second Pinterest course, which gave us deeper insight into how the platform works, but we still didn’t increase our traffic.
The Blogging Journey
It’s been two years since I started blogging at Partners in Fire, and it’s been such an incredible journey so far.
I look forward to seeing what the next two years will bring!
Despite the losses and setbacks, I’m so happy I started a website. Over the years, I’ve learned so much and made lasting friendships. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Congratulations on making it two years! Pinterest is really no fun at all 😂
Thank you! And I know, it’s so confusing! Maybe someday I’ll figure it out
Congrats as well on making it two years. I just cracked two years as well and am only starting to learn all the data I need to watch. Figuring out what drivesSEO traffic is just maddening.
I know – and it’s constantly changing! We’ll figure it out though!
Congratulations on 2 years blogging. Not sure I can offer any advice since I don’t use any social besides Twitter. My in-depth articles do attract the most readership.
Thank you! I’m aiming for over 1K word on all my posts from now on.