OK so this is really late and those of you that read my Friday post will know that this is highly likely the last one of these that I will publish on this website as I plan to move all blogging related posts to a new site. If you are interested in my blog stats then please leave me a message letting me know you would like to be given the URL of the new site when it is up and running.
I didn’t do very well on my goals in January, probably because I had a new baby to look after. Already I can feel like I am getting back into the swing of things so hopefully I can get back on track.
January Goals
Each month I set myself goals to help make sure my life is heading in the direction I want it to be heading.
Reviewing January
Blogging
- Post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday -Pass
- Get to 500 Twitter followers -Pass
- Get to 1,300 Facebook followers -Pass
- Comment on other blogs at least twice per day – FAIL (I didn’t realise how time consuming a new baby was going to be and I completely dropped that ball on this one.)
- Be an active member on a blog I don’t currently visit regularly – FAIL – I started January off well, but again the whole looking after bub took priority and some sites including the new ones fell off the radar.
- Guest post on at least 1 site -Pass (Check it out here – A Personal Story:Chores and Money Lessons Growing Up)
Personal
- Continue to track every bit of mine and my wife’s spending – HUGE FAIL – No excuses just lazy
- Complete 15 levels in my mobile application – FAIL - I only managed 10.
Other
- Study for my MCSE upgrade certification at least 1 module a day. (This is a massive task, but hopefully I can get it done) – Half marks? (I did a bit, but not enough. I just have too much on at the moment and unfortunately this is the thing that fell off the back of the list.)
- Survive being a first time dad… Pass I’m still here
- Clean up my desk and the wardrobe FAIL – I did the desk, but the wardrobe is still terrible…
- Get a spoon display case for my nan. FAIL – She wants a specific one and I can’t find any
Blog Stuff
In case anyone is interested in the numbers pertaining to my blog.
Alexa ranking
October ranking – 4,385,750
November ranking – 671,544
December ranking – 117,872
Start of January ranking – 117,872
End of January ranking - 92,521
Thank you to everyone that has followed me on twitter in this past month, you are all amazing!
October followers – 30
November followers – 138
December followers – 440
Start of January followers – 440
End of January followers – 521
Growth – 81 followers
October Likes – 0
November Likes – 1165
December Likes – 1131
Start of January – 1112
End of January Likes – 1334
Growth – 222
Subscribers
Thank you to those of you who have signed up for my email notifications.
October – 5
November -423
December – 476
Start of January subscribers – 521
End of January subscribers – 602
Growth – 81 subscribers
Site Statistics
I have been a little dubious over my sites stats lately and so I used 3 different monitoring applications to try and get a better indication of how busy my site is or isn’t.
The one that I have been using since day dot on this blog is the WordPress plugin StatPress. I have also had one from my host called Awstats installed and recently I included Google Analytics. Note: I have heard that Google Analytics doesn’t work properly with Cloudflare.
StatPress
Awstats
Unique Visitors (StatPress)
September Unique visitors – 402
October Unique visitors – 3,051
November Unique visitors – 3,178
December Unique visitors – 4,871
January Unique visitors – 9,602
Growth – 4,731
Page Views (StatPress)
September Page Views – 2,416
October Page Views – 13,379
November Page Views – 14,929
December Page Views – 20,795
January Page Views – 37,267
Growth – 16,472
Searches (Awstats)
Interestingly Awstats shows every single search result that has hit my website so I have a fair degree of trust in it. StatPress only shows that last 500 and Google Analytics is missing many search terms that Awstats says I received.
September Searches – 17
October Searches – 32
November Searches – 167 (151 from Google)
December Searches – 966 (876 from Google)
January Searches – 2,919 (2819 from Google)
Growth – 1,953
Spending
I have no idea how much we spent as I stopped tracking and it looks like February is blown too as it’s already 11 days in…
Mortgage
As I took leave without pay in preparation for our son to be born I didn’t want to put any extra repayments into our loans as we had reduced income and unknown expenses. Therefore due to interest on the loan we slipped backwards Fortunately we are miles ahead on our mortgage and so this small setback shouldn’t hurt us too badly in the long run.
Variable Loan
October debt reduction - $872
November debt reduction – $1,361
December debt reduction – $389
Principal at Debt at the start of January -$31,157
Principal at Debt at the end of January -$31,112
Debt reduction – $45
Fixed Loan
October debt reduction – $7,419
November debt reduction - $8,308
December debt reduction - $2542
Principal at Start of January – $79,300
Principal at End of January – $79,704
Debt increase- $404
You can keep track of my mortgage payment progress here – My Debt Progress (The graphs are starting to really look good, hover over the lines to see the dollar figures)
Mobile Application
I am really keen to get this released in the next 2 months, so as soon as the book is released I will be committing all my energy to this project. It is so close to being finished I really just need to make it a little more user friendly and I can start working on the next one.
February Goals
Blogging
- Post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
- Guest post on at least 1 site
- Start a new website dedicated to all my money making ventures
Personal
- Track every bit of mine and my wife’s spending
- Complete the final 10 levels in my mobile application
Other
- Study for my MCSE upgrade certification
- Clean the wardrobe
- Start saving money for Nick.
2013 Goals Reminder
As this is the first goal post of 2013, I want to jot down some broad long term goals for the year.
- Publish the joint eBook
- Publish my mobile application on both the Apple Store and Google Play
- Start a savings account for our son
- Spend more time play games and enjoying life
- Donate more to charity (particularly cancer charities)
- Grow Monster Piggy Bank into an incredible resource for people looking for help with their finances
- Grow all of my other websites
- Get our total debt down to under $90,000
- Earn at least $5,000 in side income
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As always, please leave any comments that you might have below in the comments section. I would love to hear from you and appreciate everyone who takes the time to contribute to this site.
Thanks Glen
Nice work Glen.
Congratulations on the birth of your baby – puts everything else in context no doubt.
What are the other sites you run?
James @ Free in Ten Years recently posted..How we spent nothing on food in January
Yes, it is still a little surreal actually.
The other sites are
– A site dedicated to my iphone and android applications
– A legacy horse racing site which I keep active for a few people
– A niche website
– This one (I spend 99% of my time on this one)
Having a child kind of makes everything else take a back seat (as it should!). Despite that, your stats are looking very well. Keep up the good work.
My Money Design recently posted..How to Invest a Million Dollars and Why You’ll Need to Know How Someday
Thanks MMD. Everything else just seems to be that little bit less important now.
You’re doing great Glenn! I’m excited about the e-book!!
Catherine recently posted..Investing In My Health
Me too! It is looking really good. Shouldn’t be long now.
I would like to continue to track your stats, Glen, so please sign me up once your new site is launched. Your progress is so encouraging! I had to cackle a bit at the “surviving Daddyhood, I’m still here” comment. Currently I am functioning off of THREE AND A HALF HOURS of sleep due to my wee one’s shenanigans.
Jennifer Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy recently posted..Good morning, Monday. Some bits and bobs.
I will send you all the details once I set it up.
My goals for the first couple of months after my daughter was born:
-Shower at least every other day
-Not have a nervous breakdown
-Not fall asleep while doing a patient exam
I think you are doing much better than I did!
Kim@Eyesonthedollar recently posted..7 Steps to Take Before You Put Your Home on the Market
lol, i’m sure you were doing fine and to be fair my wife looks after Nick a lot more than I do.
You are doing great! You use a lot of different stat programs to keep track of your blog stats. It is so interesting to see the variation amongst them all. I know many bloggers do not even install Google Analytics anymore because they do not think it is anywhere near accurate, not that any of them are 100% though.
I think when a new baby comes into your lives you gotta cut yourself some slack in other areas or you will drive yourself nuts. It is a huge adjustment to make and priorities quickly change. Have a great week with Mom and baby!!
Tackling Our Debt recently posted..Great Ways to Express Your Gratitude By Complimenting People
It is interesting to see the different stats from each program. Of course the one that really matters is what my host sees as that is the one they will charge me for
from what I understand Google pageviews is the accurate one, is it from real people while the other ones take into accounts the robots crawling your site.
Pauline recently posted..Little house in Guatemala, week 14-15
I think you are right, but I also know that people who block java script also don’t register.
The fact that you have kept up with as much as you have factoring in a new baby is already an achievement! I find it hard just with a few jobs and regular life and its just me, let alone if I had a wife and child. YIKES! You are a workhorse!
Edgar @ Degrees and Debt recently posted..Side Jobs: Snag A Job Review
Ha, hardly. I just like to stay busy.
Nice work Glen! I can personally attest to how a little one can make things just a BIT busier.
I’ve heard the same thing as Pauline in terms of GA, that the page views from that are the accurate one to follow. That said, they all have their drawbacks I think.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted..Reader Question: How Do I Prepare My Son Financially For Law School?
It is amazing how good I am at doing things with one hand these days.
Although I find typing tiresome as I type quite quickly and doing it one handed really slows me down.
Considering the new baby I’d say you did a great job. Do you have any links posted for your other sites? Or are they of a more personal nature? I was curious because I think that it’s interesting to read stats of other blogs in the PF sector.
Justin@TheFrugalPath recently posted..14 Valentine’s Day Expenses
No links yet. I don’t really want my sites interlinking to each other.
Hey Glen, looks like you did pretty well to me! By the way, you did comment on my newbie site, so be a little lighter on yourself. I would call that goal “passed”! Get some sleep!
Tony@WeOnlyDoThisOnce recently posted..The Art of Doing Nothing
Your site isn’t really that new anymore, but I guess we can count it
Glen, Congratulations on being a new dad, and maybe you should put sleep on your goals next month. I’d like to follow your stats when you move your blog, so please give me the URL of the new site.
Susan Wilson recently posted..5 Ways to Use Technology to Save You Money
Thanks for taking an interest in my site Susan. I will add you to the list.
Sounds like you’re doing great! Looking forward to this eBook…
CF recently posted..Grocery budget motivation #2
Me too, it is coming along really well. We have some talented writers that’s for sure.
Like wow! Do you get more hours in the day down under??
Good luck with your new son, mine still wakes me up in the middle of the night, (he’s 2 now), but at least it’s not nearly as often as it was, just keep drinking the coffe and feeding your patience
All the best mate
M
Matt recently posted..10 Tips for Buying a New Mobile Phone
Ha, sadly no
I’m sure he will get better with his sleeping. We have already noticed it improving.
Great effort on the stats dude.. count me in for creeping on them in the future! I might have asked you this before, but how did you get so many subscribers so quickly!?!
Savvy Scot recently posted..Top Money Saving Tips for Appliances
Lots of the subscribers were from my giveaway last year. Each month more seem to crop up though, so i’m not really sure.
There’s nothing better than a new baby to mess up those blog goals.
I think you did a remarkable job considering!
Money Bulldog recently posted..Things You Should Never Do On Impulse #1 ~ Get A Pet!
Thanks, I think I did OK too, but it will be nice to do better over the coming weeks.
I think you had a great month!! Hope you’re enjoying every minute possible with the little one
The Happy Homeowner recently posted..I Quit the 9-5…Forever
I’m not sure enjoying every minute is accurate, but I really do enjoy having him around.