How is it July already? It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 6 months into the year. We’re over the hump for 2025!
When I started this calendar year, I made it my sole New Year’s resolution to start blogging. The goal has fluctuated between 2 and 3 times a week. (Due to a work project, only got about once per week in June.)
However, I’m super proud of the work that I’ve done. I’ve written reviews, thoughts, commentaries, and even had a few posts go viral. Indeed, my post on the (now delayed) opening of the Reagan National Centurion Lounge and Capital One Landing made huge shock waves that saw the site get a ton of traffic, references on some of the “big name” blogs, and a handful of new email subscribers.
Furthermore, I wrote what I believe is the most comprehensive review of the Park Hyatt Maldives on the internet. I had 6 posts dedicated to that property alone. I had an absolute blast reliving that property while I was writing it!
Some Stats
I have basic tracking on the website using JetPack. (It’s not revenue generating, so I haven’t paid for anything besides hosting. Everything is 100% anonymous.). As you can see below, when I really started tracking (aka, this year), I’ve had almost 7,000 visits to the website and over 3,500 unique visitors on just over 50 posts. That’s super cool! Most of that traffic came through other blogs, FlyerTalk, and Reddit. However, I’m starting to see an uptick in organic search traffic finding the blog. I may invest in some software to help me determine what search terms is leading to blog the most to see what works best. If you know of the best WordPress plugin to do that, please leave a comment below.
I also would like to thank the 30 email subscribers that I have for taking a chance on getting updated whenever I blog. I know that my writing isn’t the best out there, nor is most of what I write of particular interest to anyone outside of my niche audience. However, I’m super proud of what I’ve built. It’s really cool to see that there are 30 people who find my words valuable enough to be notified when I write. I also know there are some RSS feed people out there who diligently read when I write. Thank you to all of you as well!
Moving Forward
Given the success (to me) of the blog, I’m going to continue trying to write twice a week. I’ve got a couple of posts in the pipeline, so I want to get those done. I’ll finish my review of the Maldives trip, review a few Hyatts across the US, and off some commentary.
I’ll work on some backend stuff as well. My sister designed a new logo, which I’ll upload soon. I’m also going to be looking into WordPress plug-ins for various functions. Those plug-ins will really depend upon whether or not I decide to pivot to trying to monetize the blog in anyway. I really need to make the decision of if this will just be a labor of love or if I’ll try to turn this into a legitimate side hustle. If I do, it would just be so I can help fund more trips more than anything. I also have some other ways that I could monetize it which I’ll be testing how they go on a personal level. However, that would be end of year thing if done.
Conclusion
Thank you to everyone for reading. I have really enjoyed writing, I’ve met some new friends, and it’s been great to see how people have responded. It is my genuine hope that, above everything, people have learned a bit more about travel.
Here’s to many more trips!
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