What I Learned Blogging in 2018 | 3 Big Mistakes and 3 Big Wins

Happy New Year’s Eve! I love this time of year because it’s such a great time to look on the past year and really reflect how the year went. I learned a lot this year from blogging, and I’d love to share with you my wins and losses.

First, the bad news.

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The 3 Biggest Mistakes I Made This Year

I don’t worry too much about mistakes because to me they are just steping stones. You learn by making mistakes and you are able to go a slightly different direction. You keep doing that and honing in on exactly what you are trying to accomplish. Although, i don’t think that path is every complete.

The bad part about making mistakes is that they can sometimes be costly. I sure learned that lesson! Here are the

1. I didn’t end network marketing even though it wasn’t working out for me. This was my costliest mistake. I spent a lot of money on network marketing, and it didn’t net me much. I spent money on:

• Products ($100 + a month)
• Business cards
• A website
• Branded images

This was costly. I do have some upsides to this though:

• I actually really like the products. I just don’t buy them AS often.
• Going into network marketing made me get back into affiliate marketing, which is what I TRULY enjoy.

I think the 2nd point is the best point. Without going into network marketing, I wouldn’t have gotten back into affiliate marketing. Because I started writing about the products on my site. My other site. Which brings me to my next mistake. (By the way, if it ever makes sense in the future, I would get back to network marketing with the company I was with.)

2. I worked hard on my first site, and now I have to close it down. This one is tough. I started my other website, Pick Plants, as a directory for plant-based information. It grew from there and I started reviewing my network marketing products. I worked really hard on that site, but since I no longer do network marketing and I’m no longer plant-based (another story for another time), there’s really no purpose for that site.

It’s a bummer to spend so much time and energy on something and then to have to close up shop. But it’s OK. I learned a lot from it. And it actually led me into making this site. Now I can focus all my energy on making this the best website it can be.

3. I didn’t start to fully put in 100% on this site until October. Because I was working on my other site, this site took a backseat. I finally got some focus in October 2018. These are the stepping stones that I took, but if I would have been working on it as hard as I am now for the entire year, it would have grown so much more.

But, that’s what 2019 is for! 🙂

I’m sure I made many more mistakes, but these were the two big ones! Now, let’s get into some wins.

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The 3 Main Ways That I Won in 2018

I feel like I had a slow start to this year. Part of the reason is because I was still working the first half of the year. Secondly because of that site I mentioned above that I was working on that is going to be shut down. But I still feel like I won in some areas.

1. I was able to quit my “real” job and focus all my energy on affiliate marketing. This is a big win because ever since I stopped working in June, I have been able to fully put all of my attention on affilaite marketing. I get up between 5 and 5:30 every day, and I work my butt off writing content, making Pinterest pins, etc. (I like getting up early. It’s not a requirement. I also squeeze in exercise, and getting my kids off to school in the mornings.)

2. I got an email autoresponder. “The money is in the list.”, as they say. I finally chose an email autoresponder (I went with ConvertKit. More details about it later after I’m more experienced with it!) Now it’s time to really start rocking and rolling. I will be creating even more content for my email subscribers!

3. I dove head-first into Pinterest. Pinterest is an awesome source of traffic. I didn’t know that though until November 2018. But I created a new profile for this blog (follow me here!), I went through Pinterest Traffic Avalanche training and I also signed up with Tailwind.

I went from no followers, monthly engagements or monthly viewers (new account, remember!) to this today (all in just a little over a month):

I have 378 followers as of today, December 31, 2018. These aren’t the stats that matter though. What matters is getting click throughs to my site, and that’s starting to happen with Pinterest.

I am going to focus even MORE effort on getting traffic from Pinterest in 2019. I can’t wait. It’s going to be fun! (Oh yea, I also LOVE creating pins in Canva. It truly IS fun!)

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What’s Ahead in 2019

I have so many things swirling in my brain for 2019! Pinterest! Email marketing! Blogging! I am going to be adding some of the content from my old site onto this site. That content is more about health and food-related products.

It’s a little different than what I currently have, but I think health is SO important when you’re trying to build an online business. You can’t successfully run a business and be unhealthy. It’s not going to work. So we’re going to dive into that a bit more.

The main thing I want to do is connect with more readers, find out ways to help you all. My goal is to have every mom who wants to stay home with her kids to be able to do so with blogging and affiliate marketing. I know what it’s like to leave your kids at a daycare while you go into some soul-sucking job.

At the same time, it’s also good to have something to focus on that’s not just all about your kids. I love writing on this blog because it’s something that I enjoy and am passionate about. I don’t want to be JUST a mom and JUST a wife. Know what I mean? If you feel the same way, then you’re in the right place. 😉

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I’m really looking forward to 2019! It’s going to be a great year! What are YOUR goals? In what ways did you win and lose in 2018? Let me know in the comments below.

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Pin Me!

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