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Blog Updates – May 2019

In the interest of full transparency, here is this month’s update on the blog’s traffic, social media reach, and lessons learned. For a full archive of updates, please click here.



Greetings from Colombo Sri Lanka, and welcome to another blog update for Nico In Real Life!

This past month was the first time I attempted to blog and travel since launching this site and, boy, what a colossal failure it was! I struggled mightily carving out time to experience the locations I was in and also pump out content according to my content calendar.

As I am mere weeks away from my next 2-month trip to the U.S., I will need to make some major adjustments about being disciplined enough to work as well as play. This may even involve pumping as much stuff out while I’m in my home base of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and scheduling it to release sporadically while I am away to lighten the load.


Site Traffic

Blog Posts Published

2

April 2019 Goal

12

For starters, I only published a paltry 2 posts this month which is far short of my goal of 12. To make matters worse, one of those blog posts was the update for the month before which means I only really published 1 post of any real substance.

I’m extremely disappointed with the reality of it all.

Time absolutely flies when you are traveling so it is imperative to make time to blog along the way otherwise things will definitely fall by the wayside as it has been the case with me. Sigh. ?

April 2019
Page Views

291

Page
Views

-443 ⬇️

MoM increase/decrease

April 2019 Unique Visitors

187

Unique
Visitors

-292 ⬇️

MoM increase/decrease

Unsurprisingly, no new content meant the traffic numbers overall dropped significantly from the month before. It sucks to see the numbers as it is a step backward, but this is a solid reminder that consistency is key when it comes to a blog’s growth.


Social Media Reach

Instagram

815

followers

Instagram

5 ⬇️

MoM increase/decrease

Twitter

951

followers

Twitter

6 ⬇️

MoM increase/decrease

Facebook

60

likes

Facebook

5 ⬆️

MoM increase/decrease

YouTube

182

subscribers

YouTube

4 ?

MoM increase/decrease

Nothing much to speak about here because I didn’t spend much time promoting the blog on my various social media accounts.

I did post on Instagram 7 times but got very little in terms of traction from them, unsurprisingly. It was more of a way to keep my current followers engaged in what I was doing in the Philippines and Australia. Instagram remains an enigma in my eyes but at this point, I need to focus on making content and then marketing it on Facebook since it again was my biggest source of referral.


Lessons Learned & Goals For May 2019

It has been a bad month overall and I need to get over it really fast and focus on the month ahead. On the plus side, I made good on my goal from last month’s update about launching an insiders club for this blog which I dubbed “The Postcard Club“.

I am building my email list through this and I am happy to report that I got 6 sign ups! All six were friends of mine but at least they validated the technology I implemented with Typeform and Mailchimp to get this done. ?Furthermore, all posts on this blog will also have a call to action box at the end of each post asking readers to sign up in exchange for a handwritten postcard.

For this month, the following is what I am shooting to achieve. It is exactly the same as last month’s goals but since I fell spectacularly short of it, let me get a second crack at it before making, even more, loftier goals.

May 2019
Posts

12

May 2019
Page Views

2,000

May 2019
Unique Visitors

1,000


Thank you for the support and following along! Subscribe to the Postcard Club below if you are so inclined. ??

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
drinking-chai-tea-taj-president-hotel-mumbai-india

Nico Atienza

Chief Storyteller

An expat remote worker based in Colombo, Sri Lanka with a penchant for window seats on planes, travel, and technology that makes everyone’s lives easier.