My first year Blogging.

27^th May is my birthdate and it happens to be the date (2020) I launched this blog as a birthday gift to myself. Today marks my first year blogging. Happy blogiversary Into Safaris.

I love writing and this blog was the perfect birthday gift that I have ever gifted myself.

Probably you`re asking of all niches why did I choose the already flooded Travel?

Well, I love travelling, studied tourism Management, I mean I have known tourism all my life so, it was a walk in the park to choose this niche.

I have learned a lot in my first year of blogging but if you want to start a blog for quick money. Abort mission this moment.

It is a process just like any other business and if you have zero passion, it is unlikely to reach the third Month.

Many blogs you will find online, convincing you how it is easy and how they made thousands of dollars in their first year blogging and how if you buy their course you will make equally or even more.

Pause, hold on! They know you want quick money; they will fudge numbers to be able to sell these blogging courses.

Well, why would you buy a course yet everything is almost free on YouTube? Let us be honest and make clean money but not at the expense of anyone.

Some of the courses might have worked but am yet to come across one.

With that said, let me take you through my first year blogging, month after month with the help of google analytics.

Just to note, I started this blog in the epitome of the Pandemic and almost no one was interested in travelling. Ooh, what a time to start!

27^th May – 27^th June 2020

This is the launch date/month, I had like 4 Articles not counting the About us page and Categories. I Launched and continued to write like there was no tomorrow.

By the time it was the end of the first month of blogging. I had a record of 23 Blog posts and managed to get the highest traffic that month.

I think I had the zeal to do this thing, as you can see in the google analytics screenshot. Huh! I was proud of myself and this first month remains one of the best months in my first year blogging.

So, how did I get such high numbers in the first month? Social media sharing and this post went viral. To date, it still ranks the first page on Google!

27^th June – July 2020.

I burned out and slowed my speed, I was writing a blog post per day and this was crazy! I went for a one-week vacation and this disoriented my blogging schedule.

That Month I only managed 11 Blog posts, I guess this was the laziest month in my first year blogging. Traffic also dwindled and I was not happy with the results.

27^th July – August 2020.

This month I put the right foot forward and had page views double as you can see in the google analytics screenshot with 13 articles on that month.

This is the period if there was no pandemic, tourism is at its peak. Time for the wildebeest migration in Masai Mara but the world was still standstill.

I even don’t know how I managed to score such a number in form of page views.

27^th August – September 2020.

This month I was busy with other projects and only managed to write 5 blog posts the whole month, probably the least number of articles to ever write in a month in my first year blogging.

However, this is the month I applied for Google AdSense so I could start monetizing my blog. I applied and my application got rejected.

They did not give much explanation for why they rejected my application.

I was frustrated and almost lost the morale to continue. (Let me laugh at myself).

The month ended in a slow mode and all I wanted is to take a break.

Wrong Move, I started searching for “My one year Blogging Journey” and I could see other bloggers were doing “well” on their 4^th Month.

Actually, some had joined Mediavine which requires 50,000 Sessions yet am here struggling with Google AdSense.

Let’s see what September had for me, I honestly looked forward.

September 27^th – October.

I was still devasted, I don’t know why Google AdSense was getting into my mind but before the first week of the month, my application got accepted and started placing Ads.

I chose the Automatic option and my website was cluttered with ads (Blunder) never do that. My website speed slowed down.

I used to score an A in Gt Matrix but now a D! I said to myself, well it better be worth it, I looked forward to what I was going to earn that first month.

That aside, I had the morale, did my marketing and managed to write 7 to 8 Articles. Despite the slow website.

27^th October – November.

It’s the end month, time to log in to my Google AdSense account and see what I earned. I was shocked beyond words!

How, can one earn £0.53 in a month! That was sick. My website was cluttered with ads and this is what I get? I asked myself and decided to remove the ads.

I came to realize later, it is not advisable to have ads, so long as you’re under 10,000 Pageviews a month. You will get cents and it is not worth the struggles.

Traffic that month was good and I kissed anything below 6,000 Pageviews a month goodbye in my first year blogging.

27^th November – December 2020.

I started looking into affiliate marketing closely as Google AdSense was not making any sense yet. I got into several affiliates for example Booking. Com.

I had already enrolled in Amazon and Jumia affiliates. Even though the commission is not that good. It is way better than Google AdSense.

The traffic was impressive than the previous month and things were starting to look good. My blog growth was on the right path.

The only thing I seemed to lag is monetization but I had just started getting to learn about my niche and how I could maximize monetization.

27^th December – January.

I was shocked, traffic just shot high and this was the month I bid goodbye to anything below 10,000-page views a month in my first year blogging.

Traffic doubled and I started earning a little from Affiliate Marketing.

I also restored google AdSense but just two ads per page.

(Edit Right now I run Ezoic Ads. They pay 200-300% better than Google AdSense.)

However, this is the moment someone suggested I should apply for Ezoic, they pay better. Ezoic requirement is 10,000 Sessions and I had that already.

However, I was reluctant to apply, I choose to continue with the affiliate.

27^th January – February 2021.

Traffic was good and everyone was in a celebratory mood, Covid numbers were starting to go down and things seemed to be picking up again.

We were all hoping to have a better 2021.

My affiliate was shaping up, and I looked forward to a monetizing month. I got several bookings in Booking .com. Jumia & Amazon.

Not much but I was thrilled to start making something out of my blog through the affiliate.

27^th February – March.

Remember the few bookings that had been made in Bookings. Com? Pheew! All of the bookings were cancelled after the announcement of a partial lockdown in Kenya.

What now? My niche seemed like; I will have to wait longer! Before I could make a “Kill”. Well, I encouraged myself and reminded myself am not here for the “kill”.I was doing this because I love what I do.

This is where passion kicks in……

Of course, traffic declined but not as much So, I continued publishing blog posts and by now I had a standard publishing formula. 3 articles per week so per Month 12 blog posts.

27^th March – April.

This month was almost a replica of the previous, traffic was the same, sales from Affiliate were a copy. I published the 12 articles and we were still under lockdown.

No much movement meaning fewer sales.

27th April – May.

The lockdown in the 5 counties was lifted and traffic shot, to score the highest in my first year blogging. I was convinced and applied for Ezoic.

Am waiting for their response, I look forward to seeing how they will perform on my website. It has been a journey, a process and a step at a time.

Each month is different, just like any other day in a market place continue grinding on.

Things I have learned in my first year Blogging.

I have managed 117 Articles in my first year of Blogging, this is the average number of articles you should try and have in your first year.

My traffic in one year is at 17,000 Page views per month, this is average, I suppose were it not for pandemic perhaps it would have been higher though.

A few have more than 100,000 plus page views in a month in their first year of blogging.

So where did I miss to be among the few? They utilized/utilize Pinterest. This is a hidden gem. You can shoot from 0 views to more than 200,000 Pageviews.

This is if you play your cards well, I just discovered tailwind just a few days before this article. Tailwind helps you schedule your pins.

Am on a free trial no credit card is needed. Get it now, try it and we will both be rewarded with a $15 Credit. It’s a win-win.

Until next year, same time, same date for my progress update this time with earning report. Ta-da!

Also Read,

15 Travel Bloggers in Kenya that will inspire you to Wanderlust.