Partners in Fire published monthly updates for the first 50 months as an online resource. Though we no longer create these articles, we decided to keep them for posterity, and to help others who choose to start their own blog journey.
Here is our 25th update, edited for grammar, clarity, and to add additional context with the benefit of hindsight.
25th Month Update
Our 25th month of blogging was fantastic! We got over two thousand users for the first time in a long while.
A large portion of that was due to some weird fluke that we will talk about later in the SEO section, but even before that, we were on track to hit over 1200 users, which is where we were stuck for the past few months.
Small, steady growth plus weird end-of-the-year flukes for the win!
Readership
Our overall readership increased slightly during this period.
Not counting the fluke, we had a little under 1300 users, about 100 more than last month.
We average between 40 and 60 users daily and had only one day with fewer than 30 users.
We made up for those slow days this month with a few great days.
There were three regular days with over 80 users this month, a mark we haven’t met in a few months.
We also had two fantastic days with well over a hundred users at the end of the month, but that’s what I consider the massive fluke of the month.
Traffic Drivers
Organic Search
December was our biggest month yet for organic search. We had 1288 users from organic search.
Of course, 781 were due to that weird fluke I told you about. My post “My Decade in Review” blew up on Google for some reason.
Was I the first one to use that keyword?
Who knows, but over 700 people came to Partners in Fire for two days after I wrote that reading my life story. That’s kind of cool. I even got a new subscriber out of it.
I can’t tell you why it happened, but it was fun to see my stats skyrocket like that, even if it was just for a few days.
We have since deleted the “Decade in Review” article. It was a personal story outlining our growth from 2010 to 2020, and no longer serves the audience. It quickly dropped from the SERPs after the big brands started publishing the societal “decade in review” articles that people were really searching for.
The best thing about my organic search results is that I was on track to beat my November numbers before the fluke. From Dec 1 to Dec 29, 507 users visited Partners in Fire via organic search. That’s over 60 more users than in November and a continual increase from the previous months.
To improve my organic traffic, I switched from HTTP to HTTPS, which helps big search engines like Google and Bing trust my site. It also prevents that giant “Caution! This site can’t be trusted” banner from popping up if people do find my site via Chrome.
We didn’t use HTTPS at first because we didn’t want to pay the extra money. That was a massive mistake. To build a serious brand, you must invest in the basics.
I also continued to update old blog posts this month, and since I can see incremental growth month over month, I will keep it up.
Social Media
Social media was our second biggest traffic driver for the second month in a row. On the plus side, it didn’t decrease again.
Four hundred forty users found us via social media during our 25th month, forty more than last month but still less than previous months.
I have some good news finally on the Pinterest front—we didn’t experience a decline in users this period. We had 238 users from Pinterest this month, a handful more than last month, which is amazing considering that we’ve seen a decline the last few months in a row.
The tiny growth isn’t a reversal of my Pinterest problem, but I’ll take it for now. I even tried to take a Pinterest course to help me move in the right direction, but unfortunately, I don’t think it was helpful. I already knew most of the content that I went through so far, and the rest doesn’t seem like it will help.
We did much better on Twitter during our 25th month than during our 24th. One hundred eighty-six users visited us from the platform, an increase of over 70 users.
I shared an old blog post daily, and some articles related to our goals got some decent traction on the platform.
I’m still trying to improve my engagement on the platform. I’m one of those people who gets really into something for a day or two and then forgets about it for a week. I need to learn to be more consistent.
Consistency is critical to building a brand. We’ve learned to keep a planner and daily to-do list, which helps us remember all the tasks we need to accomplish.
Unfortunately, Twitter (now X) has morphed into a cesspool of hate and ideology in recent years. The platform no longer works to connect website owners or for networking. Although we still use it sparingly and automatically publish old posts there, it’s nowhere near the tool it once was.
I still haven’t focused much on Facebook, and that’s very apparent from my engagement via the platform. I only had 14 Facebook users, which is kind of impressive considering I only remembered to post one or two blog posts.
We never focused on Facebook. We rely on automation to post old articles but don’t engage on the platform.
You have to pick and choose your battles when building a website as a solo endeavor. No one person can do everything. We decided to ignore Facebook and focus our efforts elsewhere.
Direct Hits
We had a sight decrease in users via direct hit this month yet again. About 230 users came directly to Partners in Fire, which is about 20 less than last month. It’s not a drastic decrease, but I don’t like to see any declines in any traffic sources.
Last month, I blamed the decrease on the holidays, so I wanted to see if it followed a similar pattern. Although it did seem like we had fewer users during the week of Christmas via direct hit, it wasn’t enough less for me to think it fit the pattern.
Maybe it was more of the content I published each month than the holidays (nobody likes to read a “what I’m thankful for post”).
We were wrong about nobody wanting to read a “what I’m thankful for” article because we didn’t understand the power of connection. Strangers and random people who find us via organic search wouldn’t want to read an article like that, but if you can build a community around your brand, those folks in your community will care.
During the last seven years, we focused on growth via organic traffic and ignored relationship building, but we think it will be essential to build that community moving forward.
Content
We published a ton of great content this month, but most was personal and related to blogging.
We published a recap of our 2019 goals, a decade-in-review article, a post about my new goals for 2020, and a post about how I Doubled My Blogging Income.
Although I love writing this type of content, I know it won’t be the best for SEO (except for my decade in review, which I didn’t expect to make such substantial traffic waves). I will still write those types of posts anyway, though, because I like getting a bit personal.
I really only wrote two blog posts this month related to the finance side of the blog: the 10 Must-Have Personal Finance Books and How to Save Money on Basic Living Expenses.
Usually, I write more about finance than blogging, but since this month was both the end of the calendar year and the end of my second year of blogging, I had a lot of “end-of-year” content to publish. I imagine this will happen every year, but It’s fun for me.
We removed the personal articles about goals and recaps. They were dated and no longer served the audience.
We no longer write much content about blogging, as we consider ourselves a publisher rather than a blog. Our content isn’t overly personal (though we will likely lean into that a little more for community building). It’s informational and valuable. We have quality standards that are more similar to those of journalists than bloggers.
Whether we call ourselves journalists, bloggers, publishers, and Partners in Fire, a blog, a website, or an online publication, our ultimate goal is to serve the audience.
Monetization
I’ve still been failing at monetizing Partners in Fire. I wrote that excellent post about personal finance books specifically to generate Amazon sales, and I got a whole lot of nothing.
I even published it just in time for Cyber Monday!
I’ve had a little bit of better luck with my ad network. I made about five bucks on my ad network this month, which is much better than most months on Amazon. I’m happy I found a network that would accept me without tens of thousands of page views.
Monetizing a website is harder than it seems. Traffic is essential – whether you rely on sponsorships, display ads, or affiliates. If people don’t see your website, you won’t make money.
How We Are Going to Improve Our Readership
I am very happy to see an improvement in organic search over the past few months. I’m going to continue updating old blog posts to continue this trend.
I’m still concerned about losing users via Pinterest and the fact that I haven’t been able to find a solution yet. If this continues, I will probably stop using Tailwind and focus more on Facebook or Instagram.
I’m putting a ton of time into Pinterest (and money via Tailwind) and not seeing results, so maybe it’s time to shift that effort to a different platform. My Tailwind subscription ends in February, so I have another month to decide.
I’m thrilled with how our 25th month of blogging went and excited to see how month 26 goes!
We stopped using Tailwind and gave up on Pinterest for a long time. However, we didn’t focus on other platforms. Instead, we concentrated on pumping out content.
In 2024, we returned to Pinterest in the hopes we could finally make the platform work. While we haven’t regained all the lost traffic, we’re slowly rebuilding our reach, getting close to 250 users per month.
Blogging is a long and windy road. You’ll have ups and downs, enjoying spectacular growth on one platform for a period, only to have an algorithm rip it away.
Despite that, it’s been worth it. Blogging helps you gain new skills, meet interesting people, and share your thoughts with the world. We don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Can I make a suggestion? You need to reply to comments. I made one on the saving money on basic living expenses post and you still haven’t replied. By replying you help create positive relationships with your readers who are then more likely to return.
Sam
Hi Sam, I’m sorry I didn’t see your comment and didn’t reply. I’m honestly not the best at getting to the comments, I check every few weeks and if someone is “automatically approved”, I don’t always see their comment. I do try to respond to all legitimate comments eventually (but again, it does take me awhile, and I apologize for that). Thank you for the suggestion, and I will definitely try to be better about responding in the future.