Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I’m still loving this blog and I’m so excited for more and more people to gather here for some parenting ideas and encouragement. I’d really love to get some discussion going, so please feel free to leave a comment on any post to share your story too.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking of ways to improve. I’ve read so many inspiring experiences of success and what blogs have done for other mom’s families. Some are even using their blog to really make a difference in the world. I can only hope to be able to do the same thing.
Overall, December was still relatively flat compared to November, but definitely some positive glimmers of hope.
Making Money
Not a money maker yet, although I am up for clicks on my affiliate links from 0 in November to 12 in December. No orders from those clicks yet though. I’m excited to see even a little activity there.
If you have any questions about a product I recommend, please please reach out in the comments or on my contact page. I don’t post links lightly. If it’s on here it’s because it’s something I love and would even recommend to someone I was meeting for a cup of coffee.
I’m going to table Google Ads for now. I felt like the ads would be too disruptive with the way my site is laid out. Maybe I’ll look into some other services that might fit better with what I’m looking to do. But for now, I’ll focus on other monetization options.
Current Income = $0
Social Media
Each day I get a little more excited about my blog, which is so cool because I’m already really excited about it. I find myself eager to log into Pinterest to view the analytics. My numbers are still pretty small, but it’s exciting to watch them grow ever so slightly each day/week/month. I love finding out what is interesting to my readers so I can give you more of that. I posted my gift guide for new moms and it seems like people liked that. My birth stories are really popular too: this one and this one.
I’ve been researching Pinterest and trying to learn how to better utilize the platform. One big thing I realized I wasn’t doing is creating a call to action on my Pinterest posts. So that will be a focus for January. I’ve also been trying to formulate a plan for Facebook and Instagram, so expect to see Sippy Cup Barista in those communities real soon.
Site Traffic
December unfortunately didn’t yield any major improvement over November. I realized that I usually do better when I can make a game out of something by creating a goal or proving someone wrong. So I’m going to set a January site traffic goal. We got 20 sessions and 45 page views in December, which is up by 2 sessions from November. By the end of January my goal for sessions is 100 and page views is 200. It’s a big increase, I think it can be done with some creative thinking and a lot of hard work.
I know I’m new at this and have a lot to learn. I’m open to any suggestions, so please feel free to add a comment below if you have any suggestions or ideas.
December Posts
- November 2021 Review: Two Months Blogging
- How to Create a Thanksgiving Themed Sensory Bin
- How to Clean Your House in 30 Minutes or Less
- The Most Delicious Apple Crisp Dessert for the Holidays
- Gift Guide for New Moms
- Cheery White Chocolate Mocktail for the Holidays
Coming Up
Our family has been going through a lot of growing the past few weeks, which you’ll hear about coming up in January. We moved Annie to a toddler bed and she’s potty trained! I can’t even believe it! So I’ll share some tips and insights on what we did to get through it. And we have a big trip coming up to Florida so I’ll let you in on that trip with two kids. Stay tuned!
2021 In Review
Overall, in 2021 I developed 21 posts in the 3 months Sippy Cup Barista was live. 29 unique users have visited my site (thank you to all of you!), special thanks to all of those who came back more than once, especially my family. (My analytics show where you’re viewing from – hi Aurora, hi Denver!)
2022 Goals
I feel like 2021 was a good warm up and now for 2022 I can kick it into gear. So, here are my top 6 goals for the blog.
- Earn a minimum of 5 affiliate sales by April 1.
- Reach 1000 unique visitors in at least 1 month of the year.
- Write 8 new or updated posts per month.
- Start building an email list.
- Establish a presence on instagram.
- Network with other bloggers.
Personally, I have 3 big things I want to work on this year to help us gain some alternative financial options.
- Get this blog moving in the direction of providing at least some income.
- Start marketing my event planning business again.
- Pull together the outline for my book ideas.
The other night in my sweatpants style New Years Eve celebration with my husband we opened up a bottle of wine (rare treat for us) and cheers to this being the year we figure it all out. I really hope that’s the case.
Cheers!
