February Headline
February was a short, brutal month with record cold ruining a good portion of it. It also had Mardi Gras in the middle of it, so I set about crafting a recipe in celebration. I have found that cooking for the upcoming holidays is much more rewarding than coming up with stuff randomly. It provides a bit of guidance to the meals, and lends some flare to the season. Bonus points since my family really enjoys trying new delicious things for the holidays.
So, Mardi Gras yielded a stunning Gumbo recipe, and I got to learn about Okra. I had never cooked it before, and everyone loved it. Looking forward to March, St. Patrick’s Day is coming up and I look forward to cooking for it. Coming up with these recipes helps give us options to eat throughout the week, so we don’t get bored with food.
Blog Traffic
Traffic is down overall for last month. Partially due to the short month, my social media posts are also a bit down, as well as less recipes generated. 145 visitors for the month is pretty dismal, with 19 through organic google searches. This is one of those months where it’s time to put the head down and plow forward.
Expenses
I experimented with WPRocket for a site speed boost, but the results were mediocre. At a cost of $50 I didn’t think it worked as well as it should have, so I returned it for a refund. I am eyeing the Feast plugin which I have heard is a game-changer for the website theme I have chosen. I will probably implement it in the next couple of months, as it optimizes a whole lot of things and adds some features I’d like to start on the website.
Income
No income to report, which is not surprising with the drop in traffic. Below are the affiliates I have used to build the site, and some tools as well.
- Bluehost: As my hosting website, they are doing a great job. I totally recommend them if you are starting a website. Their customer service has really helped me solve some issues this month.
- Name Cheap: This is where I purchased this sweet domain name, and I have nothing but good things to say about this website registrar.
- Amazon affiliate: I have started using amazon affiliate links in all of my posts, and I will go back and add them to previous posts. It is quite easy to do, so I recommend it to anyone who is starting a blog.
- Advertising program: I need some SEO traction before I can get in with an advertising firm to get ads on the site. Small steps.
Use the below links to save money on the different sites by using my referral code. Using my links gives us a small referral fee and supports our efforts here, so thank you!
- AppSumo: Discussed above, Appsumo is a great resource for finding deals on the tech needed for building and managing great websites. Their lifetime deals on subscriptions can really cut down the recurring costs if you can find the right deal. Check it out and see if it can help you save. AppSumo Tech Discounts.
- Frase.io: Frase is a fascinating new tool that really simplifies optimizing SEO. It can help research a topic or take an article and compare it to others across the web, so you can see how to compete and gain rank. It has really helped with optimizing my articles this month, so check it out. Frase.io
Month’s Recipes
This month’s recipes were Mardi Gras focused, and they all came out super tasty. I wrote up a few meat preparation recipes too so round out the selection.
Supporting DFTF:
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- Cook a recipe, leave a rating. Let us know how it went. I am always looking for feedback to improve everything, and interaction is better than traffic!
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