Drum roll please. It’s time to announce the real New Blog.
Meet Chrissa of Physcial Kitchness. Chrissa is the fierce, dedicated, smart, funny, upbeat blogger that I have been tracking for a whole year now. 18 months ago I set out to find someone who hadn’t started a blog yet, but always wanted to. I sent out an email to all of my subscribers, I asked my personal friends, and I posted in various blogging related Facebook groups my intentions. I was amazed at how many applicants there were!
The first round, the “application” asked people of their plans for the blog, what they wanted to blog about, why they wanted to blog, what type of camera they used, and how much time they planned on contributing to their blog. After that, I narrowed it down to 10 applicants who submitted an actual post. After reading the posts I was pretty sure I wanted Chrissa to be the new blogger. Her energy, commentary, and talent excited me for her blogging potential. To make sure, I interviewed my top three candidates via Skype.
From there, we started working on a launch strategy, building her site (including checking off all the steps in my how to start a blog series), and chatting about all things blogging. In the beginning, I would coach Chrissa and giver her home work assignments. After a while (or erm, when sleep exhuastion + two kids caught up to me) I stepped back and monitored/helped from a distance or as needed.
It has been so much fun to watch her growth as a blogger and her blogging journey during the first year. If you’d like to catch up on her journey, you can do so here:
Launch strategy and report
1st month update
2nd month update
3rd month update
4-6 months update
6-12 months update
Also, today Chrissa is sharing her personal thoughts on the first year of blogging over on her blog. Make sure to check out her post as well!
Goals for the New Blog
These are the original goals we set for physialkitchness.com when it went live.
- Have a social media following and newsletter list before going “live”
- Steadily grow traffic and following without plateauing.
- Earn at least $2,000/month by the end of one year (working only part time on the blog)
First Year Blogging Statistics
Here’s a recap on Chrissa’s first year. As you’ll see we were able to accomplish the first two goals and I think Physical Kitchness will reach the last goal this year.
Social Media Growth
Pinterest 13,286 – umm, hello! Pinterest. At month 6 Chrissa only had 1336 followers. That’s a 10 x increase!
Instagram 1340
Facebook 844
Twitter 606
Bloglovin 95
Newsletter Growth
Income during the first year of blogging
| Month | Income | Expense |
| 1 | $ – | $ 209.35 |
| 2 | $ – | $ 7.00 |
| 3 | $ – | $ 15.00 |
| 4 | $ – | $ – |
| 5 | $ 8.88 | $ 115.00 |
| 6 | $ 50.56 | $ – |
| 7 | $ 59.91 | $ – |
| 8 | $ – | $ 117.00 |
| 9 | $ – | $ – |
| 10 | $ 1,484.00 | $ 100.00 |
| 11 | $ 421.00 | $ 85.00 |
| 12 | $ 670.11 | $ – |
| Totals | $ 2,694.46 | $ 648.35 |
In the beginning my goal for the New Blog – err Chrissa’s blog (so weird to be able to talk about her now!) was to have her making $2,000 a month by the end of the year. As you can see, we didn’t hit that goal. After expenses, she did make almost exactly $2,000 though.
What do you think? Is it possible for the average blogger to make money blogging? I’m conducting a little survey to find out. Will you take a minute to respond to it? Do bloggers make money – a survey
Chrissa’s traffic is amazing. Almost very day it seems I have someone email, tweet, or comment about how envious or impressed they are of her growth and traffic for the first year. I have full confidence that she will start seeing a monetary reward for all of the hard work she’s put into blogging. If she doesn’t, that’s okay too. Success is not defined by numbers.
During this past year, Chrissa has started a blog, learned new things, improved her photography, made lots of recipes, perfected work outs – all while being a wife and mom. She was also pregnant for nine months of the first year (she just gave birth to this cutie). Add all of those things up and I would say Chrissa is a very successful blogger/Mom.
Traffic Recap
That being said, let’s talk about a few more numbers. This is a screenshot of the entire year overview
Here’s an overview of the first year, viewed by days
Viewed by weeks
Viewed by months, note that the last month is only showing 10 days which is why it is lower.
I also had to go in and make my own graph (because I’m a nerd) to reflect that we’ve been tracking Chrissa’s blog from the 10th – 10th.
Top 10 traffic referrals of the year
Top 10 posts for the year
- 8 Moves to Banish Back Fat Posted November 25th, 2015. (This is the post that gave Chrissa her big break. Pinterest for the WIN!)
- No Squats Butt Lifting Workout Posted November 11th, 2015
- One Simple Move for Insanely Toned Legs Posted July 28th, 2016 (Pinterest featured a pin to this article in their email last week)
- Hardcore HIIT with Weights Workout Posted Decebmer 2nd, 2016
- Paleo Carrot Cake Energy Balls Posted February 29th, 2016
- Home Page
- Whole30 Scalloped Sweet Potatoes Posted November 9th, 2016
- Paleo Strawberry Mug Cake Posted Posted April 11th, 2016
- Five Whole30 Crockpot Meals in 5 Ingredients Posted January 11th, 2016
- Salads on the Go Posted May 31st, 2016
Top 5 Pins for the Year
Since Pinterest is Chrissa’s biggest referral, I thought you might want to take a look at her top pins. These are pins that she has saved herself. If you want to see what your top Pins are, use Tailwind – a Pinterest scheduling and analytics tool. You can can try a month free for scheduling and always have access to their analytics.
- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/247557310745668674 17,089 repins
- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/74872412533311329 12,750 repins
- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/96334879507884876 6,934 repins
- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/96334879507980237 5,149 repins
- https://www.pinterest.com/pin/96334879508633327 3,790 repins
Picture/Graphic change over the year
One of Chrissa’s big achievements, which really helps with Pinterest, has been her pictures and graphics. Here’s what they looked like the month she launched versus now.
Also, can we talk about how amazing Chrissa is for working out while pregnant? #girlboss
If you want to improve your photography (I’m still working on that department myself) you can check out this round up post I did about helpful articles on the web about blog photography.
Thanks
First, a special shout out to Chrissa for letting me track her for the year and talk about her blogging journey in full detail. Thank you for letting others learn with you as I shared the things you did on your blog.
Another big THANK YOU to all of you. For following along with the New Blog experiment, for constantly asking how she was doing, and for being just as excited about her growth as we are. Make sure to follow Chrissa’s blog to see where she goes next!
If you have a minute, I’d love for you to take a survey about YOUR first year blogging (and last month). Thank you in advance for sharing your statistics with us.
Wow – those are some pretty amazing results. I really need to focus more on Pinterest for my blog!
Wow very impressive, because of your report i was very inspired and impress with the great work you did with your blog, looking forward having the result like yours
Wow that’s super impressive. My blog turns a year old this month as well. Any advice for growing Pinterest followers? It’s such a great traffic driver, so that’s super impressive she was able to grow her following by so much in such a short time!
As for followers, make sure you are pinning consistently and to the boards relating to your niche. I spent the morning checking out your blog and Pinterest account. I love the graphics you’ve been creating for your pins. I noticed you don’t have them on your actual post though, which makes it hard for people to save your pins.
I recommend adding long pins into your posts, but if you don’t want to do that you could add a link/button that says “Pin It!” and then link to your pin.
You want to make it easy for people to pin the right stuff.
Good luck pinning!
Wow! This is so cool! I didn’t know this was how she got started so it’s awesome to hear! <3
Thanks, it has been a fun year journey!
I don’t even know what to say. I literally can’t breathe right now I am such a mix of equal parts pride and devastation. Those numbers don’t even seem real to me. Way to go Chrissa! I am so happy for you. xo
Oh Heather, your comment made me laugh. Hopefully you started breathing again 😉 You got this! Here’s to these being real numbers for you this year.
This is so fascinating!! What an interesting idea!!
Wow this is an amazing story….thanks for sharing
VAlerie
That’s a fabulous start! I would love to hear her secrets on Pinterest!
Great post! This goes to show that hard work really pays off – literally! Lol. Such a great inspiration for us small bloggers and for those who are just starting out. Thank you!
I love this! That’s so interesting to track for an entire year. I track my own stats of course, but love seeing how others are doing as well.
What a wonderful example of how hard work (a LOT of hard work!) and determination can pay off! I’ve been blogging for 12 years, and still love watching other bloggers grow, and especially as they grow into their authentic selves online. It’s so encouraging and inspiring! Thank you for sharing!
Spoken like a true blogger! Your comments really means a lot, especially coming from a veteran blogger like yourself. Looks like you’re close to my neck of the woods. Love Portland!
This is so helpful to see.. I have been blogging for more than 2 years and it only takes one awesome post to make your year! ha!
Very true. Those spikes in traffic are definitely highlights for us bloggers. Loving what you gals are doing at the Strong Girl Collective, by the way!
Very inspiring, starting a blog can be so daunting but seeing the progress you and Chrissa have made is encouraging to new bloggers (including myself)! Thanks for sharing and I hope to have as successful a year as Chrissa! (I’m also starting this blog super pregnant so I know how exhausting it can be!) way to go!
Xo- katie http://www.styledforparadise.com
Yay for blogging and pregnant! When Chrissa launched her blog, I was pregnant and due any day. So, we’re pretty familiar with blogging and being pregnant. You’ve got this Mama! Good luck this year.
Congratulations to you both! This is amazing! Happy to see another successful mom blogger!
Thank you!
This was super helpful Kristie! Even though the $2k a month goal wasn’t met in the first year, the progress and growth is super encouraging. I’ve started and given up on my blog a few times over the last two years, becoming easily discouraged when growth was stagnant but seeing Chrissa’s blog as an example is great encouragement to stick with it!
Blogging can be so discouraging when we don’t meet our goals or things become stagnant. I’m glad that this series has encouraged you to keep going! Best of luck to you.