Month one of my resource curation blog is done. Here's the honest breakdown - numbers, surprises, and what I'd do differently.
The Numbers
| Metric | Month 1 |
|---|---|
| Articles published | 18 |
| Total page views | ~4,200 |
| Organic search traffic | 62% |
| Avg. time on page | 1 min 48 sec |
| Hosting cost | $0 (free tier) |
| Domain cost | $12/year |
What Worked
- Specific titles —"10 Best Free Icon Libraries (2026)" outperformed "Great Icon Resources" 5x
- Comparison posts —"X vs Y" articles had 2x the dwell time of list posts
- Consistent publishing —3 posts/week built a crawl habit for Google
- Internal linking - related articles at the bottom kept people reading
What Didn't Work
- Generic listicles —"Best Developer Tools" competed with 1,000 identical articles
- Daily publishing - quality dropped, burnout went up, traffic didn't improve
- Social media promotion - Twitter/X posts got likes but almost no click-throughs
- Affiliate links on day one - felt premature without audience trust
Surprising Insights
The most common visitor path: Google search - one article - leave. Bounce rate was 78%. That's normal for resource sites, but it told me readers wanted answers, not exploration.
The most common comment (via email): "This is helpful, but how do I actually set it up?" That question directly led to creating this journal.
Content Strategy Shift
| Before (Month 1) | After (Month 2+) |
|---|---|
| 5 list posts / week | 2 depth posts / week |
| Cover every new tool | Only write about what I've used |
| Optimize for volume | Optimize for intent |
The blog that taught me the most wasn't the one with the most traffic - it was the one where readers asked follow-up questions.