I’ve written more than 1,000 blog posts in my journey as a blogger (not counting the ones I wrote before starting this blog). This post will give you an idea of what has happened since I started writing for this blog.
The “reasons to be financially independent” is a blog post that sums up the fourth year of blogging. This blog post includes how to find your financial independence, and what it means for you.
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Last month marked the four-year anniversary of the Poor Swiss blog. Surprisingly, I completely forgot about this birthday this year. This is why this story appears in November rather than October.
The fourth year of blogging has had a lot of ups and downs. I’ve continued to write on a regular basis, updated a number of pieces, and translated a number of others. The substance, in my opinion, is in a decent spot. Unfortunately, my efforts did not result in increased traffic, since traffic is currently lower than a year ago.
This post is a look back at my fourth year of blogging, and I’ll share the data, as well as what went well and what didn’t.
In terms of numbers, the poor Swiss
Let’s begin our look back at my fourth year of blogging with some statistics about the site.
So, here are the monthly page views during this fourth year:
In my fourth year of blogging, I’ve had a lot of traffic.
Note: I don’t have September figures due to a plugin error that double-counted half of the month. I also upgraded to a new version of Google Analytics in October, which means no more statistics.
The year began off well, but after January, everything went to crap. Since January 20201, my monthly traffic has been steadily declining. In my third year, I averaged 90K page views per month, and in my fourth year, I averaged 88K page views per month. This is a disheartening outcome for me. So, overall, there was greater traffic than last year, but when comparing last October to this October, there was a 10% decrease in traffic.
The sources of this traffic are the same as previous year, with Google accounting for more than 75% of the total. I’m still not getting any traction from email or social media.
There are currently 370 English-language items on the site. I’ve already completed 126 French translations. In addition, the blog has around 7000 comments.
What went particularly well?
This year’s reader interactions have been excellent. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from readers who are using what they’ve learned on my site to better their financial situation.
Writing is doing nicely as well. I’m still having fun doing research for this essay, discovering new things, and recording them. I don’t always have time to write in-depth simulation articles, but I like them anyway.
Finally, the money from this blog was satisfactory. I didn’t do anything to help with this, but it seems to be operating on its own. I received almost twice as much as I did the previous year. It’s ironic that I made substantially more money this year despite poor traffic growth.
Overall, the finest part of this fourth year was assisting individuals via my blog.
What didn’t go as planned?
The biggest thing that went wrong this year was the traffic. I’m sad to have finished lower than I began. There were some strong months, but these were followed by a rapid decline. My assumptions were probably off to begin with. But it’s still a bummer.
Despite the fact that I know this should not be my first priority, it has taken a toll on my drive for this site, resulting in a decrease in new pieces.
This, I believe, stems from a number of factors. For starters, Switzerland now has a slew of new opponents. They’re also doing a better job on Google than I am at ranking. I’m not very good at marketing or SEO, and here is where I’m having trouble. Furthermore, many sites provide more material and translations than I do. However, after reviewing this material, I do not believe it is better, which is why I believe my weaknesses are in marketing and SEO.
Updating my articles had no effect on my traffic for the second year in a row. In this fourth year, I’ve updated over a hundred articles, but I’ve seen no difference in the number of entries that have been updated.
The website translation went smoothly, but the results are varied. I anticipated the blog’s French edition to expand more quickly.
So, in general, we can say that this fourth year’s key challenge is traffic.
What has changed in this year’s fourth year?
On this blog, just a few things have changed.
I separated the index and the blog page this year (at least, I think it was this year). Still, I believe it’s a fantastic concept, although numerous people have expressed their dissatisfaction with it. So, even though I don’t know how, I may have to fix it again.
During my fourth year, I translated a lot more articles. Approximately one-third of the articles have been translated. This accounts for around 10% of my total traffic. For the time being, I’m content with this attempt. I expected it to develop faster, but it’s still not awful.
In the first part of 2021, I conducted a couple more coaching calls. These coals were intriguing, but I’m not interested in learning more about them. Having meetings on my calendar makes it seem too much like work. In an ideal world, I’d be able to do anything I want with my site whenever I want. Otherwise, it seems to be a nuisance, and I will decline.
I changed my blogging schedule from two articles per week to one piece per week in the middle of the fourth year. I reached a point when watching traffic drop regardless of what I was doing was draining my enthusiasm, so I reduced the amount of articles I published to once a week. So far, I’m planning to stick to that program for the next year.
I’ve also made a few small changes to the website to keep it working smoothly.
Articles with the most views
We can observe which of the blog’s pieces were the most popular throughout its fourth year. Because I’m losing more than a month’s worth of metrics, this list may not be completely accurate, but it should still be a solid sample.
As a result, these are the three most popular articles:
It’s worth noting that none of these pieces are from this year’s class. They’ve all been updated to make them more current, although they were originally written in prior years. To acquire articles from this year, I have to scroll all the way down to the top 20. So either my articles take a long time to rank on Google, or my new articles aren’t as good as my old ones.
What’s in store for the next year of blogging?
For my fifth year of blogging, I had no great intentions. I no longer have a goal of increasing my audience since I don’t know how to accomplish it. So I’ll keep going in the same direction.
I intend to continue writing articles in French. I’ll strive to finish this by 2022. I’ve still got at least a hundred to go. I don’t intend to translate each and every article, as I do with monthly updates. Because this is a lot of effort for a little amount of traffic. However, this might change in the future.
I’m also considering German translation, but due to my poor German, this will be more difficult, and I won’t be able to respond to comments. So far, I’m not sure how this will turn out.
Next year, I’ll update fewer articles. This year, updating articles and keeping them fresh did not pay off. Like a result, I will only update articles that are really obsolete, rather than updating a large number of articles as I did this year.
Writing and selling an ebook directly on the blog, releasing a new free ebook, and revising my color scheme are three more suggestions that I am unlikely to pursue.
And that’s it: no aims, just go with the flow.
What are your thoughts on the subject?
This site is dedicated to you! I’d want to hear your thoughts about this blog!
What do you believe I should concentrate on for the next year?
What do you believe went well or poorly during the fourth year?
Is there anything more you’d want to see on this blog? Do you have any ideas for articles?
Conclusion
Thank you very much for your feedback! This is really inspiring and motivational!
Overall, this blog’s fourth year has not been the best. The blog’s popularity has begun to wane after three years of expansion.
I really like working on my site, but I will not be setting any objectives for the next year. Take a look at where it’s heading. I’ll spend less time on the blog.
Even so, I had several positive contacts with readers and collaborators. And, based on what I’ve heard, this site is still helping many people with their finances, so I’d want to concentrate on that.
What would you want to see happen in the blog’s fifth year?
What are your thoughts about my blog? Do you think it’s heading in the right direction?
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The author of thepoorswiss.com is The Poor Swiss. He recognized he was sliding into the lifestyle inflation trap in 2017. He made the decision to reduce his spending while increasing his income. This blog chronicles his journey and discoveries. In 2019, he plans to save more than half of his salary. He set a goal for himself to achieve financial independence. Here’s where you may send a message to Mr. The Poor Swiss.
This is my fourth year of blogging and I have learned a lot about investing in Switzerland. If you are interested in learning more about how to invest, then this blog post is for you. Reference: investing in switzerland.
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