What In The World Happened To Happily RV?
I have to admit… this is a wee bit embarrassing.
The last post to this blog was back in August of 2018. About 8 months ago. In the middle of a pretty epic summer trip in the RV.
I posted from Monument Valley. Then… nothing.
It isn’t as if nothing happened after that. 🙂 Monument Valley was actually pretty close to the beginning of the trip. From there, we did southern Utah, trekked through California, returned to Arizona for a family shindig in Flagstaff… before crossing the country back to our home base in Florida.
It was an epic trip. But, it doesn’t make much sense to blog about it now. That was so last year. 😉
See, the problem has been… time.
RVing is a serious passion of mine. I started this blog purely out of that passion. However, it isn’t what pays the bills.
My “bread and butter” is made by my work at Blog Marketing Academy. That business is a lot of work… and I truly love what I do. Not only that, but it is the Blog Marketing Academy which literally enables me to go out and use the RV as much as we do.
With everything I have going on over at BMA – and, of course, our various travels – time to seriously pursue Happily RV has felt scarce. It just went down in the list of priorities.
But, Then I Looked At The Stats…
Out of curiosity, I decided to check out the stats for RVFT. What was going on? I hadn’t touched the site in 8 months. Was it still kicking?
Here’s what I found…
- In the last 30 days, the site has seen 891 unique visitors.
- In that same 30 day period, 1,343 page views.
- The Facebook page went past 900 “fans”
- The email list has 1,181 people on it.
Like… what?!
I mean, in some circles, those numbers aren’t that big a deal. And, yes, those numbers are smaller than what I see at the Blog Marketing Academy.
But, considering I haven’t touched it in 8 months!
Yeah. Pleasantly surprised.
It’s Not Just Stats. It Needs A Plan.
A lot of RVers start up blogs. In fact, a lot of RVers do pursue monetizing those blogs to help fund their lifestyle.
I could be one of those bloggers who just blog about my travels. But, I know that if I do that, I will probably repeatedly run up against the same exact problem of letting the site fall by the wayside.
Let’s face it…
Blogging is part of who I am. I’ve been doing it for 20 years now. But, I’m not all that likely to spend a lot of time doing it just for giggles.
I have taken two blogs (the only 2 I’ve ever started) and turned both of them into six-figure businesses. This is what I do.
I don’t tend to go wide. I go big or go home.
And if I don’t do the same with RVFT, it will never take off.
So, yay. The stats. But, I need a plan of action for RVFT. And that plan of action has to include growth that leads to more than just me blogging about some campground I visited.
Yes, I absolutely have ideas. 🙂
And it doesn’t include BMA and RVFT competing with each other. The way I see it, the two sites complement each other pretty nicely.
A Nudge From The RV Entrepreneur Summit
A few weeks ago, we took the rig up to Lake Guntersville State Park to attend the RV Entrepreneur Summit. This was our second time attending – and hopefully not our last. As long as they don’t position the event so far from Florida that it becomes problematic, we’ll definitely attend again next year. We just love the people.
Anyhoo…
If there’s one thing prevalent at the RV Entrepreneur Summit, it is RVers who have blogs. 🙂
This is the only conference I’m aware of that so overtly mixes my main 2 passions: online business and RVing.
I mean, almost everybody there is my kind of people! The only difference is that many of them have the goal of full-timing.. whereas my wife and I don’t really have that as a goal right now. We’re proud and happy “some timers”. 😉
I definitely got the nudge from the Summit, though.
There is an innate demand for what I do professionally within this community.
And perhaps I should listen to that.
So, the wheels are spinning.
I’m putting thought into how I can best serve the RV community.
There are plenty of folks writing online RV travel journals. And while that kind of thing can be fun, I don’t think it would be enough to maintain my motivation for Happily RV.
More soon…
