About six months ago I hit publish on my very first post. I was terrified that anyone would read what I wrote down, and I was terrified that no one would read anything I said. Today I am celebrating my 6 month blogging anniversary. I can’t believe it’s already been six months, time flies when you’re having fun!
I’ve learned sooo much over the last six months – I know everyone says that but it’s true. Six months ago I started this journey with no knowledge about blogging and a passion for personal finance. I’ve set myself goals throughout these six months. I met a few and a postponed even more, but most importantly: I’m happy doing what I’m doing.
Happy that I am so blessed with this amazing blogging community and my awesome readers. You guys make me want to write and write every day. It’s extremely fun to interact and to help others with what I know. I love receiving emails or messages with questions about everything that I write about, so keep them coming!
To be honest, there were days where I wanted to quit and didn’t know where to start. But today I want to celebrate that I made it to the six months, by reflecting back on the last six months and sharing my experience with you!
Milestones And Statistics
In my six months of blogging, I’ve had 5.6K users of which 55% from the USA and 10% from the Netherlands. I’ve published 80 posts with my posting schedule – let’s see if I can hold that up!
My Top Posts
- How I Live On Half My Income – And You Can Too
- Money And Confidence As A Way To Living Your Best Life
- 6 Lessons From Rich Dad Poor Dad You Should Know
- 11 Truths About Money Everyone Should Know
- The Waiting Game – Feeling Impatient on the Road to Financial Independence
I’d love to share some more blogging statistics with you, so here we go:
6 Month Blogging Anniversary – How To Stay Motivated
Having A Fixed Posting Schedule
In the beginning, I started to write my posts as if I was writing my master thesis – lots of research, lots of work, and I didn’t really enjoy it. Things changed when I started to adopt a fixed posting schedule. In the beginning, there was a lot of stress and added pressure that I was leaving on myself. Why? Because I was writing posts only in the evening and spending 5-8 hours per post. If you consider that I’m writing 3 posts per week since January, you can count how fun my evenings were.
My fixed posting schedule forced me to be more efficient and effective – resulting in me getting up every morning at 6 am to write. Every day I write for 1.5-2 hours before I go to work, and I’m absolutely loving it. That way I can still spend lots of time on the blog – while also keeping up my social life (kind of) and working 40+ hours per week.
What I’m trying to do now is trying to schedule in advance any posts, it’s hard to stay ahead when you’re writing 3 posts per week but I’m getting there. It’s hard to put in more work as I don’t like working in the evenings when I come home from my day job – as I’m drained, want to work out, eat with my roommates and just sleep.
A fixed posting schedule motivated me to keep going – also when I wasn’t feeling it. I truly believe that how you do anything, is how you do everything. After all, I had committed to posting 3x per week so I can’t let anyone down!
No Expectations
I started out with literally no expectations. I didn’t even know how to set up a WordPress blog, so I’ve been winging it. The first few months I’ve been trying to set up my website correctly, doing a LOT of research on how things are working – and after a while, I finally found the theme that I’m loving.
When I went into blogging, I told myself that I would try this for about a year. I had always enjoyed writing, but writing so many academic papers and theses during my university career lead me to think that writing was not for me. When I finished university and was thinking about what I liked most, it was writing obviously!! With a far distance from any other form of creativity.
I started the blog. When I first saw people on my website, I was freaking out. People are reading my stuff!! How do they like it? Can I help them more? These are the questions that I’m constantly asking myself. My very first comment, I remember that I was ecstatic!!!! People actually want to comment. Wooohooo!
Because I have low expectations, I appreciate everyone that visits my blog. When people are leaving comments on my blog, I’m still extremely happy and feel so honored that people take time to read the posts that I put out.
Interaction With Friends
The interaction that I have had with other bloggers over the last six months were amazing. Truly enjoyed connecting with my friends and my blogging family throughout the time.
I’ve been honored to write a few guest posts over at:
- Steve @ ThinkSaveRetire
- B @ FireTheBoss
- Ms. FOGA @ FromOneGeekToAnother
- Route 2 FI Interview
I’ve also been honored to be featured on the following awesome sites:
Sometimes You Need To Push Through
Like all things in life, it’s never fun 100% of the time. There have been weeks where I’ve been unhappy with my frequent posting schedule. I felt like I couldn’t deliver the quality I wanted, go in-depth as much as I wanted, or couldn’t take a breath from my day job as much as I wanted.
That’s part of life and that’s okay, but generally I’m not the type of person to be at peace with those funky moments in life. I want life always to be happy and joyful. While that’s a great standard to strive towards, it’s not always the reality. Blogging has taught me that it’s okay if things suck. You can still continue when things suck. You will still get there.
If you’re blogging now and still finding it hard at times, know that we all do. We all go through those times. And that’s okay. Just know you’re not the only one!
I Truly Enjoy It
I started this blog to keep me motivated & keep me going on my quest to financial independence. Honestly, I can say that it has exceeded all expectations – well that’s not hard when you have none, but that’s not the point.
I enjoy writing, I enjoy getting up at 6 am, and I enjoy publishing things on my blog.
This past six months have been all about figuring out if I liked blogging, connecting with fellow bloggers, and keeping track of my financial independence progress. So far, so good. I can’t wait for another six months!
Thank you all for your kind words and motivation of the last six months – you have made this journey an incredibly fun learning experience.
Do you have a blog? What do you like most about blogging?
Marjolein is a financial consultant who has built over €4,000 monthly passive income and saves over 70% of her income. Read Radicals’ inspiring story, from stuck in the 9-to-5 to loving life. Feel free to send Radical a message at the bottom of this page
Congratulations on making it to your first 6 months 🙂
80 posts in 6 months is quite impressive!
It seems to me that you are doing a great job! Keep at it!
I am a newbie and I felt everything you said! I will be needing this in a few months 😛
Ohh yes congrats Radical Fire on reaching a 6months of blogging milestone. You have archived so much in so little time. Can’t wait to see you growing for the next 6 months and beyond! 🙂
Thanks for the support, it’s greatly appreciated!
I’m happy to keep doing what I’m doing – even though I’m thinking that I won’t (want to) make the 3x posting per week when I’m enjoying my mini-retirement in Central America this fall.
You’re already made a good start, so I’m sure you’ll do a great job!!
Yayyy thanks Tony for your kind words and your support, it’s much appreciated. I’m also excited to see what the next 6 months hold!
PS – you’re doing great with your 45K project, keep it up!
Wow! Congrats on reaching six months and all of your blogging successes! I’m so impressed by your dedication to writing consistently at 6 am—in the same six-month time frame, I’ve produced 23 posts, haha. That’s really inspiring and I can’t wait to see what’s next for your blog!
Congratulations on hitting the 6th month mark! I enjoy reading your content. Keep up the good work.
-Jerry
Hi Joyce, thank you – that means a lot! As my name already shows, I’m quite radical in the things I do and I love to go all in. I have to admit that getting up at 6 am every morning is getting very hard, especially in summer when I’m generally staying up late. Good thing I enjoy writing lol.
I also enjoy reading your articles a lot, so keep up the good work!
Thanks Jerry, appreciate that!
Congrats on your blogiversary M! I am so impressed with your posting frequency. Seriously, I don’t know how you do it. I’m at once/week and it’s plenty for me!
You’ve got some great content here and I look forward to seeing more from you. 🙂
Thanks Chrissy, appreciate your support! As the name suggests I’m quite radical, so going all in with things keeps me motivated and pushes me past my comfort zone. Let’s see how long I keep it up! Once I start to travel in September my attitude will probably change
Props for sticking to it and reaching 6 months! I am a relatively new blogger focusing on financial independence topics, and I blog once a week. 3 times a week is remarkable especially when just starting out! How do you get ideas for your topics every week? Would love to learn more from you.
Thank you Jamie, that means a lot! Posting three times per week is partly because I love to dive into things head first, partly because I want to learn and teach as much as I can around finances. For my blog I wanted to focus on covering the basics of personal finance so that people would have the tool to pursue early retirement if they wanted to. I also have conversations with people around money throughout the week and I hear some financial news that triggers me to write. If you’re not on Twitter yet – I recommend getting on there as the personal finance community there is totally awesome!
I love your blog and your posts are really great, so keep them coming! Any other questions that you have, feel free to reach out!
Congrats! I haven’t reached the 6 months yet, but I am sure to not reach three posts a week! Two have already been challenging enough for time and inspiration sake! Way to go Radical!
Thanks Dr. FP, two posts per week is already great! Blogging takes a lot of time and effort, for sure!
Congrats on the early success, looking back on your six month update here 🙂
I just noticed we just passed 6 months and was looking to see what other FIRE folks did for an update. You wrote nearly twice the articles WE did! Impressive.
Glad to see you’re still trucking 🙂
Thanks, Chris! Your blog looks amazing and your story is inspiring!
I’m soon coming to this milestone for my stock investment blog, and chanced about this post on the 6th-month milestone.
I felt every struggle you described in your post, so I’m glad to know it’s not just me going through this.
Just curious – how did you guest post on so many other blogs this early?
Thank you! I’ve connected with bloggers and the posts came from those connections naturally. If you want to connect with fellow bloggers, Twitter is a great place to start!