Here we are, a two-month block of time to compare the blog against the YouTube channel. That’s because I completely forgot to dive into the data in March. But to be fair, my stress has been dialed to 11 for so long, it’s easy for things to get lost in the pile.
This is one of the reasons why I started dialing things down a bit for the other sites and putting more effort into WriterSanctuary. Until I can quell some of the chaos, a lot of things slip through the cracks otherwise.
Needless to say, the last couple of months have been anything but stellar for both platforms.
What Was the Traffic Like the Past Couple of Months?
The past couple of months have been quite poor for both the blog and the vlog. Though, I’m almost positive the reason for the blog’s paltry performance has more to do with not publishing as many posts as I had planned.
Throughout March and April, the blog lost 218 views compared to the previous periods. Based on how many visits I get to the website per post, the site would have easily been in the green if I maintained the publishing schedule.
The YouTube channel, on the other hand, lost 1,721 views despite having more content uploaded. Of course, very few videos perform well unless they’re reviews or tutorials, and I don’t think I published any of those recently.
I have a feeling that two factors have been at play throughout the last two months: a lack of content and a lack of interest.
Over the years, I’ve seen a pattern where the first two months of any given year are the best in terms of traffic. That’s because of the nature of my content: teaching people how to write from home. So, you get the folks who are looking to start the year in a new career.
It’s much like how the health and fitness blog usually does amazing from November through February because of the “New Year’s Resolution” folks.
How Much Content Did I Publish?
Not a lot, I’m afraid. The blog only saw 17 total posts throughout the two months when it should have been closer to 30. It’s been a very rough couple of months for the blogs in general.
The YouTube channel, however, had 11 new VoDs (videos on demand) and 14 live streams. Unfortunately, only a small fraction of subscribers watch those videos unless there is some meat to the topic. In other words, fewer people are interested in me as a creator and more focused on the tools I come across.
The odds of me becoming an influencer based on personality and lifestyle are slim to none.
In any case, I didn’t get nearly the number of posts or videos uploaded that I wanted in March or April. And my watch time on YouTube is dipping below the point of losing monetization. So, I need to start pumping out some good content very soon.
The Impressions Aren’t Doing Too Badly
Amazingly, the impressions in search for the blog are still climbing since January’s epic run. Throughout March and April, the content had 42,000 impressions more than the previous periods. It’s still lower than what the blog had in January, but at least it’s forward momentum.
The YouTube channel, though, has had 971 impressions less than the previous period. It’s not as bad as the huge dip from February, but it’s still moving in the wrong direction.
That’s what happens when you don’t focus on search intent or keywords. Doing personal one-off videos is only going to go so far for your current audience, and it does nothing to gain new viewers. Well, that is unless you have a great personality and are funny or entertaining in some way.
Ok, What About the Income from the Blog and Vlog?
Both the blog and YouTube channel are hemorrhaging AdSense revenue. The RPM for both has decreased (income per 1000 visitors) while generating less and less each month. The biggest dip was from the blog.
The blog went from an RPM of $20.29 to $6.90 within two months. I had a feeling the high income was a bit of a fluke, and I was right. Writing content just doesn’t generate the revenue of something like health and fitness or gaming.
The YouTube channel went from an RPM of $19.79 to $11.35. Not as massive as a drop from the blog, but extremely noticeable in the monthly income.
To put things into perspective, I made $163.01 in February from both the blog and vlog. In April, I made about $77.35. More than half of the income was cut.
I would like to point out, though, that the blog did generate a sale from its Reedsy affiliate link. So, that made $99 at the beginning of April. However, this case study focuses purely on AdSense income and traffic.
This goes to show that getting some good affiliates and marketing them well can easily overshadow AdSense whether you’re building a blog or YouTube channel.
The Story So Far…
Because I had so many things come up in March and April, not as much quality time was put into maintaining the blog and vlog. I didn’t decide to double down on WriterSanctuary until near the end of April and have spent a lot of time planning and scheduling the changes.
I am relatively confident that if I had a steady schedule of content for the blog, the site would have been in the green overall for two months. Although the impressions on Search Console are looking great, and the content improved by two positions in search overall, there just wasn’t enough interest to prompt people to click and visit.
As for the YouTube channel, I really need to focus more on things people search for, I suppose. This is especially true since the watch time of the channel is getting dangerously low to lose monetization.
Of course, losing AdSense for YouTube only happens if you drop below 4,000 hours of watch time inside of a 12-month period.
At the time of this post, I have a bit of a cushion at 4,350.3 hours in the last year. So, as long as I can get a few videos people want to see up on the channel, I should be OK.
When all is said and done, it looks like my lack of effort is what did the most damage this time around. In my defense, a lot of what I had to address couldn’t be avoided.
Still, there were a lot of moments when I could have put in a bit more effort to at least get another blog post or video uploaded. Then again, I could also be too hard on myself, which is a distinct possibility.
Perhaps a Tie This Time
I’m calling the last couple of months a tie for the blog and vlog. Although the blog had an increase in exposure on Google, it still generated less traffic and income. While the impressions dropped a bit for the vlog, it still made more money than the blog overall.
What’s funny is that if I had published at least three more articles on the blog, it probably would have been in the green for views. It only went 22 views in the red for April. Since I get about 7 – 15 views almost instantly when something is published, two or three posts more would have been enough.
As for the YouTube channel, more reviews and tutorials would probably make a massive difference. Talking about my life and motivational stuff just doesn’t hit as well with the audience. Some will go so far as to even unlike a video that is more geared towards motivation.
There’s so much hate in this world.
Anyway, there really isn’t a clear winner for March and April. They both fell apart for different reasons.
Ideas for May
The last two months were pretty poor in terms of productivity. I just couldn’t get enough time to do much, especially in April. However, I made a lot of changes recently, especially to my daily schedule. With any luck, this next month should be the start of continued growth.
But alas, I’ve said that before.
So, what are some of the plans I have for the blog and vlog for the month of May?
Dialed Back the Other Blogs
Perhaps the biggest change for May is how I’ve dialed back the other blogs and decided to go all-in with WriterSanctuary. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks planning and brainstorming what that looks like.
And I came up with a long list of awesomeness that I can’t wait to develop over the next few months.
I was just spread too thin to get WriterSanctuary where I wanted it to be five years ago. The time I don’t spend developing the other sites and brands is spent doing more for the writing blog and channel. Perhaps one of the biggest impacts is how I am able to dive into new apps again for reviews and tutorials.
For instance, I’ve been wanting to do some stuff with FocusWriter for months now.
I’m not getting rid of the other brands. But they’ve been relegated to “hobbies” instead of active development. The hope is that WriterSanctuary can generate enough income so that I can hire help when it comes time to build up those sites.
Back On Schedule for the Blog
The first two days of May, I started working on getting the blog back on schedule. In fact, this post gets the blog back to having a new post a week in advance.
This means we’re back to getting three posts per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ve moved the publishing time to 9:00 am (MTN) as the YouTube videos will be scheduled at 9:30. The idea is that people who follow both the blog and YouTube channel don’t get content at the same time.
It gives you plenty of time to read the new post and then watch the new video.
Besides, according to statistics, it appears morning videos perform the best. It’s to the point where I am debating doing the live interviews during the day instead of at night with After Hours (7:00 pm).
At Least One Update Per Week
I still have a lot of obsolete content that needs updating. Luckily, I have plenty of time throughout the week now that I can update at least one post. Some of them don’t need much to bring them current, so I could probably get two or three done in that time frame.
There will probably be a few that will be completely rewritten and possibly deleted with a redirect in its place. Of course, that depends on just how jacked up the post is before I updated it.
Nonetheless, it’ll be nice to actually work on the updates as I have a bit of time set aside now. Although I miss working on the other sites, at least WriterSanctuary is getting some much-needed love and attention.
12 Videos Uploaded
I wasn’t able to get a video up on the 2nd of May, but the plan is to get the videos back onto a three-per-week schedule. The idea is to schedule them a week ahead, which gives me plenty of time to make each one.
Plus, channel members will get them a week before everyone else, which is one of the perks of becoming a member in the first place.
This one might be the most difficult goal to achieve. It takes a bit longer to make a video, and that also depends on the day and what extras are in store. So, the ultimate goal is to just get the videos a week ahead of schedule, even if it takes a couple of weeks.
5 Writing Sprints Per Week???
I was debating on running five writing sprints each week, Monday through Friday. I’ll work on my books for the first three and then use Thursday and Friday as time for things like updating old posts, working on new merch for the store, or perhaps exploring some marketing methods for the books.
They are a great use of time with an accentuation on being productive.
Or, I could simply spend five days a week writing books, which wouldn’t be a bad use of time anyway. It’ll help me reach my goal of having three first drafts written before June.
The problem I am running into is time. On some days, I have doctor’s appointments or other tasks that take priority.
One Review Per Week
Reviews are some of the most effective forms of content, whether it’s a blog post or YouTube video. If I can get a few more on the channel and the blog, I could easily be hitting some massive numbers.
For instance, half of the top 10 articles on this site for the past 90 days are reviews. These also make up six of the top 10 videos on the YouTube channel.
The thing is that it takes a lot of time to put together a good review. I only share what I use, and if I don’t have time to fully explore a piece of software or an app, I can’t get enough information together.
That’s another impact of doubling down on WriterSanctuary. I now have the time to explore some of the apps I’ve been waiting to try for the past several months.
More Merch Designs
I’ve found a bit of time each week to start developing more merch for the WriterSanctuary Fourthwall storefront. I recently added an image from my next book onto a tumbler glass and have ideas for some other products.
Some of the larger products are going to require a bit more work as they’ll need much larger printable images.
Anyway, I’ve dedicated an hour at the minimum for ideation and design for the store. I’d like to dump more time into the merch, but it’s not as high of a priority since it doesn’t make a lot of sales.
I know, without time invested, how can I expect to sell something? The thing is that I don’t want to sacrifice more time from the things that actually make money. So, growing the store might take a bit of time.
Perhaps after I get a few of the other things stabilized, such as consistent content, I’ll be able to assign more time to merch development.
Community Tab Case Study (13 weeks)
Lastly, I want to use the community tab more often. I’ll dedicate an hour to schedule posts much like I do for Threads, Facebook, and Twitter. However, I’m also going to tie it into a case study for Tube Arcanum.
The plan is to post something at least once per day. And because I’m not sure what is the best time to post on the community tab, I’ll run a 13-week experiment at different time slots.
That means the community tab will look a bit weird for the next three months. Although it’ll look like I’m just posting willy-nilly, it’s for a purpose.
Can May Be the Watershed Moment for WriterSanctuary?
There are a lot of things in the works for WriterSanctuary. I’m hoping that some of these plans move the needle back toward the positive instead of a consistent slow decline. As I said earlier, though, I’m relatively sure a lot of the damage was because of a lack of focused content.
Sure, the site usually has a lull after January. But five blog posts throughout the entire month of April didn’t help matters in the slightest.
Even if it takes all month to get the YouTube channel on track, it’ll be worth the effort to start June with everything on schedule.
- What’s Next On the WriterSanctuary Roadmap? - May 12, 2025
- Writing a Decent Book in 30 Days: Is It Possible? - May 9, 2025
- 9 Plot Generators to Get the Creative Juices Flowing - May 7, 2025