My Blogging Journey: Reflections on Q1 + Goals for Q2 | 2022
In terms of blogging, 2022 has been all about trying to stay consistent and attempting to earn income from affiliate links! Blogging is definitely a numbers game, and that means writing as many helpful blog posts as possible. However, blogging is also a waiting game which means that time is on your side when trying to grow your blog.
DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning I'll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, but at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclaimer for more information. Thanks!
Quick Note:
In case you’re not familiar, businesses usually break down the year into quarters when creating goals and reviews. Quarters are made up of three months.
Quarter 1: January + February + March
Quarter 2: April + May + June
Quarter 3: July + August + September
Quarter 4: October + November + December
My Blogging Journey for Q1 of 2022
January 8, 2022
Joined By Sophia Lee’s “Perfecting Pinterest” course
Learn more about “Perfecting Pinterest”
January 21, 2022
Applied to Amazon Associates
February 9, 2022
First Amazon Affiliate Commission (4 cents, whooo!)
February 20, 2022
Got accepted into Google AdSense
*had previously created an account on February 21, 2021, but did not add code to the website until a few days before getting accepted.
February 26, 2022
Applied to Skimlinks
February 28, 2022
Got accepted into Skimlinks and added links to two relevant blog posts
March 2022
To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t find evidence that I did much in March, which makes a lot of sense considering I started my new full-time job during the second week of March. This job is also evening hours so it’s taken me a bit to figure out a new schedule. I did attend a webinar about building your email list but I haven’t implemented anything from that webinar yet.

Blogging Stats for Q1 of 2022
These are my blogging stats for the months of January, February, and March. I could’ve done a little better with blog posts and newsletters.
Blog Posts Written: 8 total blog posts
Newsletter Emails Sent: 2 newsletters sent
Classes / Webinars Taken: ~1 webinar
Top 3 Blog Posts for Q1 of 2022
These are the top three posts + my home page that have been receiving the most eyes, as of April 3, 2022:
- 15+ Must-Have Essential Items to Keep at Your Work Desk (450+ views)
- Top 5 Amazing Hiking Pants for Petite Women (330+ views)
- My Home Page (haha, ?) (100+ views)
- Picture Books for Women’s History Month (15+ views)
Affiliate Income Review for Q1 of 2022
This was the hard part of this quarter. While I did make a commission on February 9, that has been the only product purchased, even though I have linked to many products and my traffic has been high (for me)!
Affiliate Program | # of Clicks | Income Total |
---|---|---|
Amazon | 58 | $ 0.04 |
Skimlinks | 12 | $ 0.00 |
CJ | 0 | $ 0.00 |
Blogging Reflections for Q1 of 2022
Overall, my blogging journey for Q1 wasn’t too bad, considering it’s only the beginning of the year! I definitely could’ve started stronger but it was still a pretty solid start. Let’s dive into my blogging reflections for this quarter…
Blogging Reflections about My Blog Stats…
While the end of Quarter 1 is wrapping up, I definitely didn’t hit the number of blog posts I wanted to write. My goal is always to publish one blog post per week; Quarter 1 has thirteen weeks but I only wrote about eight blog posts.
However, I did spend a lot of Q1 fixing up previous posts that were suddenly ranking in Google Search and doing really well! Instead of writing new posts, I spent that time optimizing posts that were doing well by adding affiliate links where possible, linking newsletter sign-ups, adding links to related posts, and improving images and text where needed.
Also, March was a busy month for me since it was when I started a new job. Keeping that in mind, my eight published blog posts still average one a week for the months of January and February.
Blogging Reflections on those Affiliate Links…
For my affiliate links, I think I’m just lacking page views for some of these purchases. At the same time, I can definitely see that people are clicking on my links but are simply not purchasing.
Because of those clicks but lack of purchases, I am considering purchasing an affiliate course to see if there are strategies that I’m not using properly, and just to get a general sense of direction for using affiliate links.
Blogging Reflections on my Top Posts & Analytics…
I’ve slowly been getting more and more familiar with Google Analytics. I’ve been trying to learn about GA4 since it’s the newer version but I recently realized I could see more info under the Universal Analytics version of Google Analytics!
However, it has been recently announced that Universal Analytics will be sunset in 2023 and GA4 will be taking over, which means I will have to learn how to navigate GA4 now!
Analytics is super important to blogging, though, so I will definitely be looking up a few videos and courses about how to use GA4. In the meantime, I can definitely read a few reports for the important stuff, like my top performing posts!

Blogging Goals for Q2 of 2022
For Q2, I’ve got some blogging goals to help me stay consistent with blogging but also try to expand in other ways.
Goals to Improve Blog Stats
I’ve got three blogging goals to help me improve my blogging stats for this next quarter!
Blogging Goal 1
Write one blog post a week
Blogging Goal 2
Send a newsletter every other week
Blogging Goal 3
Create an editorial calendar (including Instagram reels)
Goals to Grow Affiliate Links
I want to keep growing my list of affiliate links and increase the chances that someone purchases something. Writing more blog posts (see goal above) will help with this but let’s see what else I can do.
Affiliate Goal 1
Write three blog posts about work clothes and wardrobes, using affiliate links from Skimlinks
Affiliate Goal 2
Create a shopping page with my favorite products
Phew, that was a long post but it’s super helpful to see all my moves and decisions written out. I can now look back and compare my current analytics with wherever my blog may be in the future as it continues to grow (hopefully)!
I’m getting more comfortable with the idea of adding affiliate links and creating blog posts that are specifically geared toward sharing affiliate links.
I’ve got so many blog post ideas for the next quarter and I can’t wait to get started!
This is a blogging post about
My Blogging Journey + Goals in 2022.