Blogging Progress Report #2 – 2024 Q2

It has been 6 months since I created this blog. Time for an update on what has changed. This time, I will provide updates in two sections. One section states what I am using and another states how much traffic my blog gets.

⚠️ Please Note: This post compares everything against my initial setup from 2024 Jan.

Blog Report

• Blogging Platform: WordPress. No change.
• Web Hosting: Doze Host.
  Host Koala started to feel a bit slow so I switched out. I used DozeHost cause I am familiar with it from my previous blog (forthright48.com).
• Domain: Doze Host. No change.
• Theme: Astra Free.
• Plugins
  • ❌ Removed
    • Emoji Toolbar: Removed. I configured an emoji picker instead.
  • Admin Panel, Editor, and Post Enhancements
    • WP Dark Mode: I use it to enable dark mode on the WordPress admin site.
    • Classic Editor: Block-based editor lags a lot. I find the classic to be much more smoother.
    • Enlighter – Customizable Syntax Highlighter: This is to show highlighted code blocks.
    • Reading Time WP: To show quick hints on how long it will take to read the post.
    • Simple Custom CSS and JS: To highlight inline codes more nicely.
  • SEO, Analytics, and Subscription
    • Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights: To monitor how much traffic my blog gets.
    • MailPoet: To provide email subscriptions as an option to my loyal readers. I currently have 5 subscribers 🎉. Have you subscribed yet?
    • Yoast SEO: Plugin to make my posts more SEO-friendly. Also helps generate the sitemap for my blog.
    • CookieYes | GDPR Cookie Consent: Needed to satisfy GDPR law in Europe.
  • Core Functionality and Security
    • Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection: To combat against spam messages. I got 2 spam messages so far and no real comments 😞.
    • wpDiscuz: In case someday real users want to leave comments on my blog, I am prepared.
    • WPS Hide Login: This makes hackers’ lives harder by moving the login page to a custom link.
    • WPS Limit Login: Limits the attempts to log in. Prevents brute force attack.
    • UpdraftPlus – Backup/Restore: I regularly back up my whole blog to my Google Drive using this plugin. Also helped out during the migration of the blog.
    • Broken Link Checker: Sends email whenever it finds broken links on my blog.

Analytics Report

I messed up my SEO game a bit. I thought Google would automatically find and index my blog posts but that didn’t happen. So for 6 months, I had 0 traffic to my blog (other than me). I recently submitted the sitemap to Google Search Console (GSC) and promoted my blog on social media. I managed to get 33 users to my site.

Google Analytics Dashboard for the Last 3 Months

Google Analytics Dashboard for the Last 3 Months

Conclusion

While the numbers look miserable, I don’t mind it. I have been having fun!

My current goal 🎯 is to promote my blog to 1000 new users. This will take time and effort, but the challenge is part of the fun!