Small Blog Wins Add Up (2018 Quarter 2 Progress Report)

In blogging, as in life, it is the little things that matter. This past quarter (April through June 2018) has been very successful for the Minivan Adventures blog. In fact, it was our best quarter yet for total number of pageviews, and I am attributing that to a #blogwin on Twitter and improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

 

 

Small Wins Make a Big Difference

What an exciting month it has been! Minivan Adventures had its best traffic month ever, and I attribute this to a couple of small wins.

Small Win #1 – Twitter Chat Success

I participated in the Pure Michigan Twitter Chat in May, and as a result, Pure Michigan retweeted some of my blog posts! The topic was bucket list travel in Michigan. Minivan Adventures had a lot of relevant content to share for this particular topic.

These retweets put my content in front of a lot of people who wouldn’t normally see it. People were reading and commenting and sharing (and finding value in) my content. I picked up lots of website views and several new Twitter followers. This felt like a breakthrough for me!

To demonstrate the difference this made in my numbers, take a look at these statistics.

• I received 329 referrals to my blog from Twitter in May. I had never received more than 90 referrals from Twitter in one month before this. You do the math! That’s a huge jump for me!
• I gained 105 Twitter followers (from 1199 in April to 1304 in May). Many (but not all) of these new followers came directly from the Pure Michigan Twitter chat.

I received some referrals and new followers from participating in their June and July Twitter chats as well. June’s topic was dog-friendly travel in the Great Lakes State and July’s topic was Upper Peninsula travel.

RELATED: Have you read the Minivan Adventures Guide to Family-Friendly Vacation Stops in the Upper Peninsula yet?

By the way, if you interested in participating in the next Pure Michigan Twitter chat, mark your calendars for August 7 at noon EST. Then, make sure to follow Pure Michigan’s Twitter account. (Please be sure to follow Minivan Adventures on Twitter as well.) The next #PureMichiganChat topic is Michigan Lighthouses.

Small Win #2 – Search Engine Optimization

People are actually finding my blog posts through search engines (like Google and Bing). They say that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long-term game, and I have been working on SEO for a while now. It appears that the hard work is finally starting to pay off.

Go ahead and check it out for yourself.

• If you perform a search for the words “New Harmony Indiana” within Google, my post titled “Five Reasons to Fall in Love with New Harmony, Indiana” currently shows up on the first page of search results.
• Search for the words “fun places for kids to eat” and my post titled “The Funnest Places to Eat with Kids” appears on the first page.
• Search for “Charlevoix Mushroom Houses Map” and you will find my post titled “Self-Guided Tour of the Charlevoix Mushroom Houses” appear on the first page of results again.

Other blog posts that are receiving a lot of traffic from Google searches right now include Petoskey Stones and how to prepare for a family road trip.

I attribute this success to minor improvements that I have been making over the last several months. I have been making sure my headlines clearly indicate what the blog post is about, adding subheadlines, breaking up large paragraphs, and making sure that keywords are scattered throughout the text in a natural way. Also, I choose topics that are of genuine interest to me (so I assume it is of interest to others as well) that don’t have a lot of relevant information already online.

 

Blog Growth and Statistics

Social Media Followers

Minivan Adventures gained 582 social media followers in Quarter 2.

• 270 new Twitter followers
• 96 new Facebook followers

By the way, are you following our minivan on social media yet? If not, please consider giving me a follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Pageviews

Minivan Adventures had its best months ever in May and June – over 2,000 pageviews for each of those months! Only six months ago, I would have considered 1,000 page views in a month to be exceptional.

• 6,566 total pageviews for this quarter

SEO Improvement

As mentioned above, more and more people are finding my blog posts through search engines like Google, Bing, and others.

• In Quarter two, 31% of Minivan Adventures’ traffic came from online search engines (compared to only 12% in Quarter one).

Referral Growth

While referrals from Pinterest has remained steady, Twitter referrals and organic traffic (from search engines) have greatly increased in the second quarter.

• Pinterest referrals remain around 1,200 per month
• Organic (search engine) traffic has greatly increased. 1,132 this quarter versus 368 last quarter
• Twitter referrals increased as well. 349 this quarter versus 98 last quarter

New Posts

Seven new posts were published in the second quarter.

• The Morton Arboretum Troll Hunt: A Fun Family Adventure
• Family Vacation in Upper Peninsula Michigan
• Returning to “Up North” Michigan
• Starved Rock: Hiking Fun for the Entire Family
• Growing the Blog (April 2018 Progress Report)
• Can’t Miss U.S. Roadside Attractions (Listed by State)
• 8 Easy Ways to Save Money on Family Vacations

Most Popular Posts

Here are the five most visited blog posts for the second quarter.

1. Can’t Miss U.S. Roadside Attractions (Listed by State)
2. Petoskey Stones: Where to Find Them and How to Polish Them
3. Ten Unique Family Adventures in Michigan
4. The Funnest Places to Eat with Kids
5. 8 Easy Ways to Save Money on Family Vacations

 

Future Goals

As always, my mind is already spinning with what I want to do and write next. Here are my most immediate goals for the upcoming quarter.

Published is better than perfect!

I want to publish a lot more content. Unfortunately, I usually allow my perfectionism to get in the way. So I am adopting a new motto of “published is better than perfect” for the upcoming quarter (starting with this post). Hopefully, that will allow me to push out content faster.

Update some of my most popular posts.

• State-by-State Guide to Roadside Attractions
• Mushroom House Tour Information
• Petoskey Stones: Where to Find Them and How to Polish Them

Experiment with a new Facebook social media strategy

Create new posts.

• Share my social media strategies
• Write posts about our family’s latest adventures throughout Northern Michigan
• Write about some of my favorite book/movie pairings

 

Help Minivan Adventures Grow

Would you like to help the Minivan Adventures blog grow? Here are a few simple ways that you can do that:

Subscribe to receive our newsletters by email. (Click here to subscribe or use the subscription form located on the sidebar of the Minivan Adventures website.)

Follow our minivan on social media – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Visit the Minivan Adventures website. Read a post that interests you. If you like what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends or leaving a comment.

Pin some of my most popular posts to your Pinterest boards. Help me get my content in front of more Pinterest users. Please consider saving any/all of these five pins to your own Pinterest boards:

1. Guide to U.S. Roadside Attractions
2. Easy Ways to Save Money on Family Vacations
3. Family Friendly Stops in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
4. Starved Rock Family Hiking Guide
5. Chasing Waterfalls with kids in North Carolina

 

Thank You!

Thank you for reading the Minivan Adventures blog and for your continued support. I appreciate each and every one of you.

Watch for our next quarterly progress report to be published in October! You can read our last progress report here.