June 2023 Blog Update
The Numbers
Let’s just jump right in and get to the numbers.
There wasn’t any growth in May.
We’re still getting around 50 visitors a month and only a couple hundred page views.
I won’t lie, this continues to disappoint me. I wonder at times if I would have started this whole blog thing if I had known things would be this challenging.
We’ve got 105 posts on the website which represents I don’t know how many hours of work. I’m guessing each post takes an average of 4 hours total to write, edit, then post to the site.
When you add that amount of time to just building and managing the site, plus trying to get the YouTube thing going while being a busy parent with a full-time job, it really makes you question the wisdom of it all.
But I remain committed to soldiering on through the summer of 2024.
There is still a lot that I have to learn and I am actually enjoying the challenge for the most part.
Super Focused Topics
Speaking of learning, I think I mentioned last month that I was going to start writing some very focused topical posts in an effort to improve our E.A.T. (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) with the algorithm.
I think I’ve written 10 posts about Roth IRAs alone in the last month and 7 or 8 about financial independence.
The idea is that by clustering a group of posts about very specific topics, the algorithm begins to identify the site as an authority on that subject. As a result, hopefully, these posts will rank better in search results leading to more traffic.
And it has worked…some.
First, we’re seeing more impressions and higher rankings in other search engines like Bing and Yahoo.
Our impression rate has increased 3x since mid-May, but it isn’t leading to many clicks, though they have increased a little.
Then there’s Google.
Vexing Indexing
Back in March, I was thrilled to finally have my entire site indexed by the Google weblords.
Then in April Google began un-indexing posts bit by bit and has continued to do so.
Currently, only about one-third of our posts are still indexed.
My best guess for this is that I was penalized for keyword stuffing. I have been using a plugin called RankMath to help me arrange my posts so they’re more friendly for the algorithm.
The more you can tie words from within your post to your primary keyword, the better you’ll rank (well, to an extent anyway).
I think my keywords were too brief for a lot of posts and the formula thought I was gaming the system.
Protocol for this seems to be time in the corner which is why my pages were un-indexed (I’m guessing).
Last month, I went through every post on the site and revised my keywords so they would be a more natural fit with the subject matter of the post.
This seems to have slowed the de-indexing, but I’m not sure if it has stopped completely.
I received the following message from Google a few days ago:
Google has validated your fix of Page indexing issues on site https://martinmoney.com/. The specific issue validated was: Discovered – currently not indexed.
77 pages on your site were validated as fixed.
I take this as a good sign, but here we are three days later and nothing has really changed. Not only that, but Google is notoriously vague about what they do or don’t like about your site.
It really is an exhausting process of trial and error and you are completely at the mercy of their computers because almost everyone uses Google as their search engine of choice.
We’ll see where things go from here. Hope for the best.
YouTube Progress
I have shifted much of my focus in the last month to YouTube.
The first thing I did was start a new channel for these blog updates. They’re more about starting a blog than personal finance and I’m concerned having two drastically different topics will confuse the YouTube bots and cost the channel.
So, the video for this post will take you to our channel, Next Dollar Finance, where you can learn more about our blogging journey. The Martin Money channel will be finance topics only.
After I created the new channel, I started recording videos for the hyper-focused Roth posts.
There is more overlap than I’d like to have in those videos (for example, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve covered the differences in Roth vs Traditional contributions), but I’m determined to teach YouTube’s computers than Martin Money is an expert on Roth IRAs.
After the videos are completed, I plan to release 3 to 5 on the first day we post, then 1 to 3 on day two, then 1 each day for the next seven days, and 3 per week for the following three weeks.
Hopefully, that will give us some momentum which I hear is important, and make the channel a SME on Roth IRAs.
Now, I’m sure you’ve quickly done the math and astutely noted that this will add up to 20 to 25 videos in one month.
That is a lot of content. Obviously, I can’t record, edit, and post that many videos in one month.
So, I’m currently recording and editing in order to build up a video stockade. Once I get to 30 videos I’ll start releasing them and hopefully get the channel rolling.
So far…I have four.
Long way to go.
The good news is I’m getting better at it, which I hope is at least somewhat obvious in the video quality you’ll see attached to this post.
Building videos is still quite a time investment, but I’m confident I can learn and get to a place where I can comfortably produce at least one per week.
Post Frequency
And ultimately, that is where I think I’ll settle for both the website and the YouTube channel. One written post per week combined with one video. The two will support each other and create some efficiency for me in only researching and preparing for one topic at a time.
I’d like to be able to devote more time to this whole process, but it’s just not reasonable to expect that I can keep up this pace. I think I’ll burn out on it eventually.
Turning down the pace on website posts should also free up more time for video making and that other project I’m still working on. I should be able to share more about it in my August update, maybe in September at the latest.
Conclusion
I want to thank you again for your interest and all the encouragement I’ve received along the way. It means more than you know.
