There are a lot of secrets of the third month blogging that I wasn’t expecting. It has felt like a pretty stable month, but it certainly had its challenges!
A lot of bloggers won’t tell you about their first few months of blogging unless they were incredibly successful. But the thing is, most people won’t see incredible success in their first year of blogging. I do not fall under the category of someone who has seen instant success in her blog, so I want to share my experience to encourage the people out there who are experiencing the same thing.
This is what happened to me after blogging for three months, but if you want to know how my first two months went in detail, you can check them out on my page about my second month blogging and my page about my first month blogging.
Who I am and why I started a blog
My name is Genesis, and I have an intense passion for teaching and writing.
For four years, I had been a teacher in elementary schools around the world. As much as I loved teaching, something was definitely missing from my life. I realized that my passion for writing was getting ignored due to the demanding nature of my teaching career.
I decided that, unless I was willing to give up writing, I was going to have to find another way to use my teaching skills. And that’s where blogging comes in!
This blog has become a way for me to teach others about things I value while having the opportunity to write every single day. It is a place of true joy, and I am determined to make this into something real and sustainable. And here we are, three months in and still loving it!
Why am I sharing my progress?
Though I occasionally put stuff up about blogging, I don’t typically blog about blogging. So why go through the effort of sharing all of these secrets of the third month blogging with you? I have three main reasons why I choose to share my blogging experience with others each month:
I need to set an example to the people who read my blog
A huge part of what I talk about here at In Its Season is authenticity. I’m all about learning how to become a more genuine version of who you were made to be, and I make a note to practice all of the things that I write about (though I can promise you, I’m far from perfect)!
Image how silly it would look if I told my readers I won’t be sharing any of my progress on my blog because I don’t want people to be able to see the countless failures I’ve experienced along the way. Or what if I said Yah, maybe I’ll share my progress, but only once I have some level of success. I mean, that does not set a good precedent for what I’m trying to teach here.
I want to share my progress because I’m all about encouraging people to enjoy the progress in their own lives without expecting perfection. For that reason, I think it’s important to share my journey.
I want to encourage others to be comfortable with their failures.
You’ll see soon that I’ve failed at a lot of things. I work a lot slower than most people, and I’m not exactly educated in the field of blogging. But that’s part of the fun! And I believe that so firmly that I want to use my blog as an example to others that failures are important– and even valuable- as we progress through our personal journeys.
I want to show that progress still happens even when you don’t feel it.
When you are working towards something big, it can be really hard to feel like you’re ever going to reach that goal. But like Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
I want these posts about my blogging journey to be a reminder to other people (and even myself) that these big, seemingly impossible tasks require small, consistent steps every day. You may feel like you are getting nowhere, but if you look back, you will see that you have come a long way already.
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
Nelson Mandela
My Setbacks and Successes This Month
My third month of blogging has been an interesting one. It has had a lot of ups and downs, but was overall much more stable in the way I progressed. Let me share some of the highlights with you:
Setback: I started to have design problems with my free theme.
In the past, I had mentioned that I could see no problems with having a free theme, but this month I started to run into issues that I just couldn’t solve without a paid account. It was frustrating to have to admit that it was necessary, but I had decided that I simply didn’t have the coding knowledge to make it work with a free theme.
Success: I got a paid theme and revamped the website
The previous setback led to a pretty exciting success! I ended up getting Divi so that I could have more tech support readily available, but I got so much more from it than I expected! I had a lot more freedom to design my site how I wanted it, so I just went bananas adding more detail and design to my site! It was super fun, and it made me feel a lot more confident about my site.
Setback: I struggled at the beginning of the month with burnout
I didn’t yet know much about scheduling, so I was basically taking a full day to write a complete blog post with SEO and Canva pictures three times a week, with random classes in between.
I felt pressed for time and stressed about having to be “in the right mindset” for writing. It was tiring, and I ended up having breakdowns a few times in the first two weeks.
Success: I learned how to build a smarter routine
In my distress, I went looking for ways to help when I discovered a better way to structure my weeks. Now, my work is categorized, and I work on a different part of the blog every day. Monday is for visual design, Tuesday is for writing my blog posts, Wednesday is for editing and SEO, Thursday is for webinars and tech support, and Friday is for Social Media and any extra stuff. Structuring my week this way has made a huge difference, and I haven’t experienced burnout since then!
Setback: I ran into some issues with formatting that I have to go back and fix
As I was changing the design of my blog, I decided to look up ways to make the posts easier on the eyes. Some changes were easy to make, but a few were time consuming.
My biggest problem was that I learned that aligning my blog in the center of the page is a lot harder to read than I thought (sorry!) I’ve been gradually going back to old posts and changing their formatting, but it is taking a long time.
I was also listening to a podcast that helps with Pinterest and blogging, and they were talking about a new change in laws that require certain information to be supplied in your photos. I am also going back to fix that. Again, it’s time consuming, but I’m happy that it will make my site more accessible to others!
Success: I have been learning a lot in webinars
So this month was a big one in finding a ton of free ways to educate myself on blogging skills, and it has really helped me to feel more confident in the direction I’m taking. I’ve learned a lot from these webinars, and I’m especially excited that I finally learned how to give out freebies!
Success: I shared my progress with friends and family
I don’t know what it is about sharing this kind of stuff with friends that is so scary, but I was definitely nervous. In the past, I have been putting it off because I genuinely felt it wasn’t ready yet. But by the last week of September, I truly felt it was ready to share (even though it’s far from perfect).
To me, this was the biggest success, because my friends and family are now a huge source of help and motivation.
People I hadn’t heard from in months were calling to encourage me and to catch up. I even had a friend tell me that my website was exactly what she needed to see to help her through a tough time. It made me so happy to know that what I write is helping people, and it motivates me to continue giving this my best effort.
Setback and Success: I got rid of my Mailchimp account and moved to Convertkit
After weeks of struggling to figure out Mailchimp, I finally decided it was time to move on to a more user-friendly platform. I love everything about Convertkit, especially their weekly webinars to help creators develop their skills and stay motivated. After trying both, I can say with full confidence that, for people who want nice visual media and a team of people to support you, Convertkit is by far the better option. I would recommend it to anyone!
The results
Traffic Report
Overall, I was happy to see the difference in my overview. I was especially happy to see that the sessions and users increased by so much, though I was a little disappointed that the average session duration and bounce rate had gotten worse.
I am hoping that the changes I have made to the sight will help improve those problems this month.
The visitor count was a lot more consistent in the third month, and I’m hoping that it will steadily increase as my Pinterest account becomes more established. Overall, I’m feeling positive about the results!
Here were my stats from September 
Here were my stats from August
Top Referrals
Everything on my referrals stayed about the same. Pinterest is bringing in the most traffic, and a few other blogs are sending people my way.
Top 5 Posts
My top 5 posts this month have made it really clear to me what I should be writing about. People are loving anything about simplicity, routines, and helpful systems that make life easier. I absolutely love writing about these things (One of my favourite things to do in my free time is to watch routine videos), so this couldn’t have worked out better!
- How to Use Your Phone With Intention and Purpose
- How to Prepare for Next Month Like a Boss!
- Tody: the Free App That will Change the Way You Clean
- How to Organize Your Phone Like a Minimalist
- Morning Brainwash: How to Start Your Day Right
Income
Still no changes in this area. I did some research this month about what affiliates I could join, but more and more I saw people recommending that beginner bloggers wait to apply for any programs. I read that it was best to give your blog some time to get established first, and I can see the value in that. For that reason, I decided to wait a while longer until my blog felt more concrete.
Expenses
Just like last month, I only spent money on my new Divi theme, which was well worth it!
Full Disclosure: the money I spent on these items is not a guarantee that this is their current cost.
I spent $89 for a year of usage. If I like it, I plan to get the lifetime theme, but I’m not sure yet.
Expense Total: $89
Where the blog is headed
I plan to continue blogging with the trend that I have been seeing. It has been a pleasure to write about routines and organizational systems, and people seem to like reading about it. I learned a new term this month that defines my blog pretty well. It’s called a niche-lifestyle blog. That means that you write about all things lifestyle, but with a niche lens.
For me, this niche lens is authentic living. More and more, I’m seeing myself push for a message of simplifying your life and discovering who you really are, and I want to explore that further.
My thoughts about my third month blogging
This month was a lot easier than the second month, I think because I had a clearer vision of where I wanted to go with the blog. I also felt that I had more knowledge under my belt that helped me move forward with more confidence. I could actually see things steadily improving on Pinterest and on Google Analytics. It was just altogether much easier.
The biggest thing that affected this month was the workshops.
Not only were they incredibly educational and helpful, but they reminded me of the community I could tap into whenever I needed help.
It was a reminder that I’m not alone in this, and that the more I reach out to others, the more motivation I will receive. It got me excited to get the ball rolling on networking with other bloggers and creators.
More than ever, I am feeling excited to get my blog out there, and I am confident that my determination will pay off in the end.
My Personal Goals
I am pleased to say that my goals were much more realistic this time around! I was able to achieve almost all of my goals. The only goal I fell short on was to increase the length of time that people stayed on my site. I’m hoping that it will improve this next month, but we’ll have to wait and see. Here’s an overview of how my goals went this month:
Pinterest Goals: The number of link clicks bringing people to my site was 224, which is 107 more clicks than last month.
Traffic Goals: I saw an increase in visitors to my site, but a decrease in the length of time they spent there. This goal was only half achieved.
Income Goals: I did some research on income possibilities and have decided to wait another month to act on any of them.
Product Goals: I launched my very first landing page and downloadable content! I’m excited to make more!
Now I have to create some new goals for this coming month:
Pinterest Goals: Increase the number of link clicks to my site.
Traffic Goals: See an improvement in the bounce rate. Find ways to keep people looking at more pages on the site.
Product Goals: Create two more freebies (consider making one of the freebies a video course).
Mailing List Goals: Get five more people to join my mailing list.
I will not be making any income goals this month. I’m more interested in building the community first.
Blogging resources I would recommend
You can see that I’m not a blogging expert, yet. I’m still in the baby stages of learning how to do it. But there are a few resources that I have tested out and found to be extremely helpful! I want to share the ones that have helped me a lot in my blogging journey so that you don’t have to waste time trying to find the best resources alone.
(Please note that I am an affiliate for these three programs, so I do make a small commission on purchases you make through these links. However, I want to make it clear that I would never recommend something that I don’t use and appreciate myself. I truly love these three resources and believe that you would benefit from using them, as well!)
Resource #1: ConvertKit
I would recommend ConvertKit to anyone looking to build a mailing list. Not only is it easier to use, but the support offered to you as a creator is just so helpful! They offer weekly workshops to help you grow as a creator, concerts and inspirational stories to watch, free templates, community networking, and one-on-one support. Honestly, I have nothing but good things to say about them!
If you’re looking to grow a mailing list, you should sign up for ConvertKit.
Resource #2: Legal Pages Bundle
After quite a bit of research, it was clear to me that Amira’s Legal Bundle was the most cost-effective way to protect myself fully on my blog. Within one day, I had purchased the bundle, customized it, and placed it on my site.
Amira’s bundle makes me feel so much safer about my blog, and I want you to have the same thing!
If you are a freelancer or a blogger, then don’t hesitate to buy Amira’s Legal Bundle. It is the best use of your money and time to get her help!
Related Post: Where to get the Best Legal Bundle for your Blog
Resource #3: Divi WordPress theme
I opted for Divi because it promised a lot of customization without having to know all of the coding lingo.
Now, I want to be candid with you and explain that, for me, the learning curve was still really tough. Additionally, a lot of the customization I wanted ended up slowing down my site enough that I had to sacrifice beauty for functionality.
I might not recommend this theme to everyone, but I would recommend it to beginner bloggers like me.
I really appreciate the personal support I get from them and that is the main reason why I would recommend their product for you. Though my more experienced future self might move on to a new theme eventually, I couldn’t have asked for a better beginner theme!
If you want to try Divi out for yourself, you can check out their products here!
Conclusion
I hope that these secrets of the third month blogging can encourage you on your own path.
If you’re a fellow blogger, I hope it helped to show you what it’s like to be a beginner blogger. Remember, whatever it is you’re aiming for, the process is just as valuable. Let yourself take your eyes off the main goal long enough to enjoy where you are now.
Every little move you make towards that goal is worth celebrating!
What about you?
Are there any goals that you are reaching for this month? What are you learning that you can celebrate today? Tell me about it in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
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