How I Reached 1 Million Blog Views – Lessons, Strategies & Insights.

Today I reached the milestone of 1 million blog views. How long did it take and how did I get there?

How I Reached 1 Million Blog Views: The master plan

I began my blogging journey on the balcony of the Pestana Casino Park Hotel in Funchal, Madeira (see the pic). It was 2015, our Honeymoon, and, for a week at least, I had no worries, had time to think, and time to plan for the future that lay ahead. At the time, we were struggling financially and I was beginning to think outside of the box. A side-hustle with something I loved and enjoyed could be the answer. I let that thought germinate for a while as we took in the beautiful coastal vista from up high and supped champagne.

So what did I enjoy and what was I good at? Well, I had a career in IT but also wanted to incorporate my artistic and musical interests. How could I combine the two and make a passive income? The answer was to start a blog. But where do I start?

How I Reached 1 Million Blog Views: Short-term goals

In the beginning, I didn’t want to even entertain the idea of investment, including paying for hosting, domain registration and suchlike. I wanted to get going as quickly as possible, so I started writing for HubPages and specifically guitar reviews, successfully bringing my musical interests into the equation early. But the problem with HubPages was a lack of control. I wanted to be the master of my own destiny, so in 2016 I took the plunge and setup the adamharkus.com domain and made my plans for real.

Start at 0, then add 150 views each month. Record predicted vs actual

Or in other words Month 1 (0), Month 2 (150), Month 3 (300). Check out my journey to 1 million views actual vs predicted below. As of today my predicted views for this month are 16600!

I have one aim, to keep the red line above the blue one.

How I Reached 1 Million Blog Views: The ups and downs

The ups:

• Discovering an unexpected love for writing, encouraged me to keep going, but also to publish two books: Goa: A Lesson In Life and Prague: The Musical City
• Collaborating with some fantastic writers who have provided articles, support, and friendship, making the journey not just about me.
• Being approached by Line6, GuitarTricks, and other fantastic companies to promote their products. Free things are always good!
• Expanding the blog with my YouTube Channel @GuitarGeordie.
• Overall, succeeding in bringing my interests and passions together whilst making a passive income.

The downs:

• 2024, The year of Google’s March update. The year I thought it was all over.
• The learning curve of website performance, SEO, and how to make the blog a success.

My Top 5 Blogging Tips

• Content is King. My most successful articles were the result of good content and/or a good idea, not site performance.
• Write about something you love, otherwise, you will find it difficult to stay motivated.
• If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. If you have a formula of site theme, ad placement, etc. that works, then stick to it, don’t change things up just for the sake of it.
• Learn for others. You can’t know everything straight away, so cheat, and take tips from those who are more successful than you.
• It’s a marathon, not a sprint. My first 1 million views have taken me just under 10 years. hopefully, the next 1 million will be a fraction of that.

Was it all worth it?

I didn’t anticipate the time and effort that would go into achieving my goal of 1 million views. However, looking back, I have amassed 10 years of experience over 700 articles which is a solid platform to build upon. But more than that, it’s been 10 years of discovery, exploring my passions, finding new ones, collaborating with companies I know and love, and establishing relationships with like-minded people. It’s been an emotional roller-coaster to be working on something worthwhile that I hatched from nothing on my own terms, in my own time.

For 10 years Blogging has been a part of me. It’s been a joy having my work recognised and praised, but mainly it’s been a chance to do something I love, every day.

So yes, it’s been worth it, more than I’d ever hoped back on that balcony in Madeira in 2015.

Thanks for sticking by me.