The surprising lessons I learned getting 100,000 visitors on my blog.
Back in 2022, over 130,000 people visited my website! I spent years working on my side project, the **College Lighthouse.**
Unfortunately for the website, I got bored working on articles for college. Especially after graduating in 2019. I lost the appetite for it. So I stopped posting.
Even without me, the site still averaged 10,840 new visitors every month. So did I get rich and famous? Did I become an influencer? We’ll it’s complicated.
For those who need proof, these were my analytics for the College Lighthouse: https://i.ibb.co/kc8d4tj/Visitor-analytics-for-College-Lighthouse.png
What did I actually get from the 100,000 visitors?
Besides vanity numbers going up, I was able to make some money out of it. I had a few amazon affiliate links up. After all the work was done, I was making passive income for the first time. Craazzzy but it wasn’t a lot.
I was making $30-$50 recommending items like macbook pros and hardware repair tools you can find on the amazon store.
Lesson here?
If you want to make money of your blog, you’re better off pushing your own product or service. I wish I had the energy and time to make something I could sell. Trying to balance a blog, a 9-5, and my hobbies outside of work became insurmountable to deal with at once.
If I were to do it again, I would keep a product in mind. With time, I hope to figure out what I can offer that helps others the most with the skills I have. We’ll see.
What did you gain from building a website? Was it all for nothing?
I gained a lot! I learned how to build a website focused on speed and the user experience. It’s hard to beat my numbers. This website was fast! Loading in less than one second.
I also learned how to write for the internet so that people could find. That’s good ole SEO for you.
Yes that is me and my most popular article on the first page of Google. Pretty proud for someone who knew nothing about the blog world before this.
In this process, I learned how to express myself and figured out what I liked to write about. Self-discovery, finding out what makes you tick and what you like, never goes to waste.
You can get a digital copy of my upcoming book "Hey!" when you sign up for my newsletter. Book dropping on Nov 2027.
I was able to grow my email list a bit
You would think that having all these visitors meant I was getting tons of email subscribers to my email list? Well, not exactly, I did gain like 10 subs, but for the volume I had
What actually moved the needle for my email list growth?
One word: Lead Magnet.
I guess two words. One of the foundations of marketing is to create a funnel. But to get people to give up time out of your day, you need to give them a reason. To share value in exchange.
So I created a College Schedule Planner that I used when I was in college. I made it look pretty on Adobe XD and made that my lead magnet.
If you’re reading this and dream of having a huge blog with thousands of readers, you will need a lead magnet. Something you can gift to your reader for volunteering to read your works on a newsletter cadence.
Honestly it, looked really good on my website. And that made the difference. I went from 19 subs to 69 confirmed subs in a few months. I didn’t have to really do anything after listing it out.
Did this project help me land a career in tech?
Hard to say curious reader. I did talk about it a bit in my interviews and I believe it did help me set myself apart from other candidates. Because in case you don’t know me, my public speaking and interview skills are off the roof. Mainly because I can code switch into a professional tone with confidence to back it up.
Pair that up with the technical projects I had in my portfolio, it made it really easy to eek through the 3 day long interview process for Technical Support Role. I even had one of the people who interviewed me try to poach me for their department.
So in a way, yes, this project helped me land a job. Even if it gave me more examples to flex my technical know-how and communication skills.
What happened to the college lighthouse?
I sunset it. It’s now only live on the digital archive. If you’re one of the original readers who missed it, don’t worry. I do plan to add the articles I felt could still help students on my new personal website now at chrislanderos.com.
There are so many websites that now only exist thanks to the Internet Archive. A lot of them had valuable advice that is gone. It only lives in my head for when I want to reference. But luckily, this site should be available for as long as I’m around.
What’s next?
If you made it this far, you’re likely wondering what this former tech employee is doing with his time. Or maybe not. Regardless, I’m wondering the same question.
In my heart, I want to create. Not just projects or tools to make other people’s lives easier, but I also want to create art. My goal is to somehow find the happy medium between the two.
See you soon reader!
Chris Landeros
You can get a digital copy of my upcoming book "Hey!" when you sign up for my newsletter. Book dropping on Nov 2027.