May wasn’t exactly a banner month for traffic or development. I had a lot of things going on throughout the month that slowed progress, and some of it bled over into June. A lot of it has to do with AI and Google’s use of the Overview tab in search.
Nonetheless, I’m going to keep working on the blog and the YouTube channel. I’m more concerned with helping my readers and viewers than making the damn algorithm happy.
It’s frustrating, to say the least. However, things are still developing this year. So, who knows? I might see a form of success soon that is not expected.
I don’t want to jinx it.
What Kind of Traffic Did the Blog and Vlog Experience?
The blog had a total of 2,194 views, which is a loss of 110 from the previous period. That’s a four-month streak of losing views despite putting more effort into content.
The vlog also saw a loss in May, at 5,408 views – down by 276 from the previous period. Though, I bet some of that was because I had fewer writing sprints in May. There may still have been a loss, but it wouldn’t have been as significant.
I was able to do a bit of research on similar blogs and channels compared to my own. From the numbers I saw, it looks as though I’m not the only one in the writing niche that suffered some losses. Despite losing 276 views on YouTube, the channels I analyzed also saw roughly the same percentage lost.
This supports my previous thought of writing being a seasonal search. I’ve seen it happen several times in the past, and if trends continue, traffic should pick up a bit by August.
Did I Create Enough Content?
I was able to get 15 blog posts published and two rewrites for the month of May. Considering how this was the first time I was able to update content this year, I’d call that a bit of a win. Though, I still have a lot of posts that need “freshening up.”
The YouTube channel, on the other hand, only had five new videos uploaded and seven total live streams. To put that into perspective, the plan was to have 13 videos uploaded and a total of 17 live streams.
Perhaps if I would have been able to stick to the schedule for content, the vlog wouldn’t have lost traffic or impressions.
What Were the Impressions Like?
Speaking of impressions, the blog only had 289,000 during a search, which is 18,000 less than the previous period. Although this might be attributed to seasonal content, the blog grew by 32,000 the month before. So, something more is probably strangling the site.
I suspect a lot of the damage is from the use of AI in search. Why visit the cited website when Google just gives you the answer up front?
What really hurts is how much the YouTube channel lost in impressions. In May, the vlog only had 58,789 impressions throughout the month. That is a significant loss of 19,427.
Losses like that are more centered around algorithm changes that bury the content. I’m going to try a few things to see if I can figure out what videos are getting hit the hardest in terms of visibility.
The Income of the Blog and Vlog Is Still Shrinking
The blog pulled in $17.13 in the month of May, which is a growth of $2.71 from the same period. And because there were fewer visits, that meant the value of the ads was slightly higher. It’s still a massive difference from the $66.72 the blog made back in January, but again, I think that had a lot to do with seasonal ad buys and search performance.
The YouTube channel finished May by generating $52.57, a loss of $9.05 from the previous period.
The Story So Far
I’m virtually confident that the writing niche has seasonal highs and lows similar to health and fitness. It’s just a tad frustrating to see it happen in real-time. Still, I’m not the only one who has seen severe drops.
In fact, it looks as though a lot of writing channels are pulling out of the funk somewhat.
Last month, all of these creators saw between a 25% and 30% drop in views. Now, we’re collectively starting to claw some of that back. This might be a good sign that the pendulum is starting to swing in our favor.
So, I’m not overly stressed about losing views, impressions, or income for May. All I have to do is continue making content people want to consume, and I have some plans for more reviews and tutorials this next month. Perhaps my “vs Previous Month” will be in the green in a few weeks.
Which One Wins June?
In reality, neither the blog nor the vlog won. Both lost traffic and impressions on a grand scale. But the blog seemed to have weathered the storm better. Not only did the blog make a bit more money, but its losses weren’t nearly as great as the YouTube channel.
That’s probably because the vlog had half of the content published that was scheduled.
The YouTube channel is still making more than 3x the income from AdSense than the blog, despite the lackluster performance. However, the blog gained $2.71 from the previous period while the vlog lost $9.05. That’s a swing of $11.76 in the blog’s favor.
Ideas for Next Month
Ideas mean very little if there isn’t action to back them. That means I need to push myself to accomplish these goals and see if I can turn the blog and vlog around.
Sure, it looks as though all of the writing channels are gaining some visibility again in June. But I want to make sure that a lack of quality content isn’t what’s holding both platforms back.
Regularly Published Videos
I would love to have the channel on a regular schedule for published content. I’m not necessarily talking about the writing sprints, but more of the uploaded VoDs.
There should be 13 uploaded videos for June. Let’s see if I can break my record for 2025, which is currently six videos in March. Coincidentally, That was also the last time the channel had a growth of impressions.
More Reviews and Tutorials
Reviews and tutorials are always among the best types of content to create, whether it’s a blog or YouTube channel. I want to see if I can create at least two of each in June for both platforms.
There are a lot of writing apps I would love to explore, and I would also love to do more with World Anvil. Based on the attention World Anvil is currently getting for the free version, creating a few follow-ups might be a good idea soon.
Sharing More Often On Social Media
I’m going to start sharing everything I create on social media. Now, the algorithms often bury linked posts to where they get very little visibility. But sometimes, your followers will see them.
At any rate, I might be able to squeeze a view or two from sites like Threads or, God forbid, Twitter.
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