Another month has come and gone and so it’s time for the SideGains October 2019 Activity and Stats Report
It’s been a mixed month for me. My blogging output has remained steady but I hit a wall towards the end of October and suffered from blogger burnout I think.
It’s a curious thing but I never thought that burnout was something real… turns out it is. Perhaps it’s a mindset thing but I really struggled from around 20th October until practically the end of the month. Perhaps I’m not totally through it yet.
The main issue is working hard to hit my content plan whilst seeing very small growth… actually I had backward growth in terms of visits in October as you’ll see.
It’s normal to feel this way around the 3 – 4 month mark. SideGains went live at the end of June 2019, so I’m slap bang in the period where many blogs fail… this is the point where many people quit blogging.
It hard going to remain committed to your blog when you don’t seem to be getting the number of visitors you want.
However, the received wisdom is, if you’re going through hell, keep going!
Hell might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it is hard to motivate yourself so I’m feeling the pain that many bloggers feel.
It’s not all negative though as some of the stats below show.
So, without further fluff, here’s what SideGains has been up to in October 2019.
SideGains Search Console Stats October 2019
Some mixed changes month on month here.
| Month | Clicks | Impressions | Avg. CTR | Avg. Position |
| September 2019 | 73 | 14,200 | 0.5% | 66.6 |
| October 2019 | 43 | 13,300 | 0.3% | 58 |
- Clicks have decreased by 41.1%.
- Impressions have decreased by 6.34%.
- Average CTR has decreased by 40%.
- Average Position has increased by 8.6 places.
Of course these numbers are still very small, which is perhaps why I hit a blogging wall last month. However, it’s encouraging to see that my average position in Google searches has jumped up nearly 9 places… at least there’s one positive stat!
Blog Posts & Pages
| Date | Post Title | Word Count |
| 2019-10-01 | Failure is Not Fatal: My Résumé of Failed Ventures | 2,264 |
| 2019-10-02 | September 2019 Activity Report & Stats | 582 |
| 2019-10-04 | A Review of SiteGround (by Someone Who Uses It!) | 1,721 |
| 2019-10-09 | Bing Search Operators Cheat Sheet: The Ultimate Guide | 1,078 |
| 2019-10-09 | Blogs Fail Every Day… 31 Reasons Why Yours Might Too | 7,689 |
| 2019-10-16 | The Difference Between Needs and Wants | 1,170 |
| 2019-10-17 | The First 3 Months of Blogging… What Should You Expect? | 1,360 |
| 2019-10-21 | How Often Should You Blog? Is There a Posting Sweet Spot? | 1,764 |
| 2019-10-22 | What Does Bounce Rate Mean & What Does it Reveal? | 1,245 |
| 2019-10-23 | Online Marketing & SEO Glossary of Terms for Beginners | 1,523 |
| 2019-10-24 | Is Blogger Burnout Something Real? | 2,652 |
| 2019-10-28 | WordPress Plugins – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly | 919 |
| 2019-10-29 | How Many WordPress Plugins is Too Many? | 1,057 |
| 2019-10-31 | How to Add Affiliate Disclosure to WordPress | 738 |
| Total Word Count | 25,762 |
I now have 63 posts, practically all of which are in excess of 1,000 words, so I’m happy with the content I’m now presenting to visitors.
Having said this, one or two posts require editing:
- Some items are already out of date… things change fast online!
- One or two posts require a rethink because I wrote them when I felt burned out and I’m not entirely happy with them.
I made 14 posts in October (4 less than September 2019) totalling 25,762 words (1,258 words less).
I’m hoping to start seeing some significant upturn soon as I am actively trying to increase my profile with blog commenting and social media activity.
Social Media
As with September 2019, I focussed my efforts on Twitter and Pinterest in October, and moderately posted in Facebook. I’ve pretty much left Instagram untouched because… well, you can’t do it all!
Here’s how my social accounts look at the end of October 2019 compared to the previous month.
Twitter – @gains_side
| Month | Tweets | Impressions | Total Followers |
| September 2019 | 142 | 24,600 | 97 |
| October 2019 | 170 | 21,863 | 160 |
Pinterest – @SideGains
| Month | Total Pins | Impressions | Followers |
| September 2019 | 64 | 12,520 | 70 |
| October 2019 | 110 | 15,680 | 68 |
Instagram – @SideGains
| Month | Posts | Followers |
| September 2019 | 8 | 10 |
| October 2019 | 1 | 4 |
Facebook – @SideGains
| Month | Posts | Page Views | Total Page Likes |
| September 2019 | 0 | 60 | 41 |
| October 2019 | 11 | 54 | 67 |
Onwards and (hopefully!) upwards. I’ll continue with my plan and I’m interested to see what happens in November 2019.
A word for anyone in my shoes… don’t quit! You have to keep going.
Bye for now and thanks for reading!
Paul
I’d love to hear about your blogging journey. Tell me your story in the comments section below and we can grow by sharing our experiences!
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