The First Million (Views) Is the Hardest

Standard / by / January 30, 2017 / 55 Comments
FIRECracker
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When we started this weird little blog, we didn’t think we’d get a lot of views. I mean, other than a few friends and family members, who else would want to read our insane ramblings?

So when we launched our blog on May 20, 2016, we thought no one would read it. We thought we’d write a few times a week, just for shits and giggles, and along the way meet some like-minded weirdos and have some interesting conversations.

Turns out there are A LOT more people that want to Retire Early out there than we thought! And as each of our conversations got more interesting, instead of running out of things to say (like I originally expected), I couldn’t stop the ideas from flowing. As a result, our community of Revolutionaries flourished.

And then one day, 8 months later, this happened:

Yup, you read that right. 8 months, 122 posts and 3667 comments later, BOOM.

1 Million views.

Which just blows my mind when I think about it, because ONE MILLION of ANYTHING seems like A LOT.

And I cannot express how much we didn’t plan this. We started this whole blogging thing by literally googling “How do I make a blog.” In fact, it took other bloggers like JL “The Godfather” Collins to tell us that he “reads a LOT of FI blogs and we don’t sound like anyone else” to clue us in that we were onto something. Normally it takes 2 years of blogging to get any real traffic, so…I guess we’re doing pretty well?

The more I think about it, the more I realize that the progress of this blog is a bit like the stock market. Some days the views are insane (woohoo! 10,000 views! They love us!) and other days they stink (2,800 views?! Oh God, we suck!) And if we were emotional about the whole thing, we’d be whipsawed back and forth every single day trying to guess what we were doing right/wrong. But in reality, what’s happening is that averaged out over time, the views are actually rising steadily and heading towards 1 million views. And as it turns out, apparently not only does the blog NOT suck but has grown UNUSUALLY fast. In fact, according to MMM’s blog stats, Mr. Money Mustache hit his first 1 Million views in 9 months. And somehow we did it in 8.

*shrug*

Other than the view count, something else that surprised us is how globally diversified our readership is.  Of the monthly 26,358 unique visitors that google estimates, our Revolutionaries come from as far as Russia, Australia, and the UK!

And here I thought only Canadians and Americans cared about early retirement. Yeah right.

Now I know no one wants to read rambling long meta-posts about blogging, so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, no one ever got to where they are alone. The only way to succeed is to surround yourself with better people.

And that’s what we did.

The Millennial Revolution only got this far because of…

YOU.

You are the reason why we write.

You are the reason why the Millennium Revolution lives on and continues to spread everyday.

You are the reason why this amazing Financial Independence community exists.

So THANK YOU. THANK YOU for taking the time to read, comment,  and contribute to this amazing, thriving community.

And since mere written words aren’t enough to express our gratitude, we made you this video.

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55 thoughts on “The First Million (Views) Is the Hardest”

  1. The first million was the hardest huh?

    That’s some very good fortune you’ve landed on there Mrs. FireCracker. You probably deserve it though…your blog is well-written, sassy, and entertaining!

    By comparison, I’ve been doing the blogging thing for over a year now, and haven’t even passed 300k pageviews.

    Probably I just need to start posting more pictures of me in a bikini….

    Reply

  2. Congratulations!! That’s awesome. To be honest when I read the title I thought you meant to talk about reaching $1 million in savings, but this is awesome! Keep on keeping on!

    Reply

  3. Congratulations on the milestone. I definitely like reading your posts, even the ones that I disagree with and get me into ongoing, ten post debates in the comments section. 🙂

    If you’re not saying anything worthy of debate, you’re not saying anything at all.

    So happy that you guys are getting good exposure. You’re a couple of great ambassadors for FIRE.

    Reply

    1. Thanks! Feel the same way about your articles 🙂 Debating is fun! Although, I have been burned by it once in real life, when a friend refused to talk to me after our intense debate on housing. I eventually managed to lure them back with free babysitting, so all good!

      Reply

  4. Wow, 1 million views in less than a year is really awesome! And this is with a non 18+ content! 🙂 From here onwards the question is not when you’ll reach 10 million, but when will you have your first reader from Iran 🙂 Keep up the good work for all the faithful readers!

    Reply

    1. Thanks! Though the non 18+ content is questionable since we keep getting readers searching for “bicycle porn”. O_O

      Thanks for reading and regularly contributing to the discussion, Roadrunner! Appreciate it!

      Reply

  5. Congratulations to you both! Obviously you’re message is resonating with an ever-growing community of curious FIREstarters and wise FIRExperts alike.
    I love your blog and eagerly await the Mon-Wed-Fri updates.
    Keep up the great work!

    Reply

  6. Awesome with reaching 1 million views so fast! It’s no secret how you did it – you write amazing stuff! When I first found your blog I immediately knew right away it was a winner.

    Also, maybe some perspective would help you feel better on those crappy page view days. If I had a day with 2800 page views, I’d be ecstatic! Haha.

    Reply

  9. Your video made me laugh and I knew you’d do something wacky. Not disappointed! ??? Keeping on doing what you do…

    Reply

  10. Congratulations and thank you for your refreshing approach to FIRE. I’m following along from Qatar on my FIRE journey.

    Reply

    1. Woohoo! We have readers in Qatar! So cool 🙂

      Thanks for following and cheering you on for your FIRE journey!

      Reply

  11. Congrats!! That is awesome and inspiring. We started ours as an outlet to get stuff off our chests and a secondary benefit is watching the numbers grow. It’s actually a lot of fun.

    Thanks for the inspiration and keep up the great work. And congrats on the huge milestone!!

    Reply

    1. Thanks, MrWow! I agree, blogging is a ton of fun. There’s no way we would’ve met so many like-minded people without this community. Thanks for reading!

      Reply

    1. Thanks, Mrs. Picky Pincher! I owe it all to you guys. Without readers, it would just be me unleashing my craziness into the interwebs. With you guys it’s a community. Thanks for being part of my (somewhat nutty and insane) village 🙂

      Reply

  14. Congrats 🙂 I think I found you in September! I absolutely love your sassines and thanks for starting Millenial Revolution ( by the way I loved your very first introductory video on what Millennials are not). Keep up great work and can’t wait until next post on your educational series.

    Reply

  15. I read a lot and always try to read between the lines. I never had to with you. You deserve the one million and keep being who YOU are.

    Reply

    1. Thanks! It’s only been 8 months but feels a lot longer. Guess time really does fly when you’re having a blast 🙂 Happy blogging!

      Reply

  18. The main reason I’m here is because you remind me of the character Lily Chang in Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry. 🙂

    Reply

  19. Congratulations. Your voice was exactly as I had imagined it in my head when I read your very witty and sometimes “did she really say that” LMFAO blog. Please note that NZ is further away from Australia lol.. Pew Pew and keep up the great work.

    Reply

  20. Great job guys! I love reading your blog entries especially your travel stories. You’re an inspiration to all of us. You should come here in the Philippines and explore our islands, too! You guys would love it here.

    Reply

    1. Thanks! And yeah, I’ve heard lots of good things about the Philippines. Lots of good food, friendly people. Will have to check it out sometime.

      Reply

  22. Wow, congrats! I’ve been blogging on and off for a few years and have yet to hit those numbers. But I’ve recently taken it up again and am really enjoying it. It’s a nice outlet to rant about the things I love haha. Anyway, thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

    1. You’re welcome and glad you’ve taken up blogging again! I had no idea I’d enjoy blogging so much when I first started, but I ended up learning so much from interacting with other people that I’m really glad I did.

      Reply

  24. I’ve been with you guys pretty much since the beginning (thanks to Greater Fool), and I’ve always loved your writing. As many others have said, it’s your personality and the voice that comes through so strongly that makes your blog so enjoyable to read. Keep it up and we’ll all keep coming back for more!

    Reply

  25. Looks like Mr. Wow already beat me to it, but here’s my congrats too! You guys rock! I delight in reading your posts and I must admit that you inspired me to embrace my own quirky writing style. The Mr. always asks me if I meant to write what I did. I used to second guess it, but now I own it (even if I might be the only one who gets it). Love the material and your individuality. I. Can’t. Stop. Reading. Them!

    Reply

    1. Thanks, MrsWow! And don’t second guess, just write 🙂 I used to always let my inner editor disrupt the writing flow, but that just ended up creating stilted writing. Just let the insanity flow!

      Reply

  26. You guys have only been doing this since May 2016?!? You haven’t even had a one year anniversary!

    I’m shocked! Actually I’m not really! You guys are great and so is your blog! I was hooked IMMEDIATELY!

    Cheers to 1 million more!

    Reply

    1. Rooting for you to hit that first million views! According to MMM, it’s get much easier to hit the 2nd million after that. But only time will tell 🙂

      Reply

  28. Congrats in hitting such a huge milestone so quickly. I just discovered this blog through your Financial Samurai guest post, and I could see why you hit this milestone so quickly. Finance could be a VERY dry topic, but by gearing your writing to us Millennials, you turn it into a conversational topic that is easy to read.

    I’ve tried to do the same thing since I started back in 2014. A more conversational/humorous/rant-and-rambling tone is my bread and butter. I write the way I talk. Hopefully I get to 1,000,000 views. I’m at 50,000 total. *sigh*

    Nice to see someone else using the Jetpack Site Stats feature. I thought everyone else was using Google Analytics, which I find too graphy.

    Congrats again. In gonna be reading the hell outta this blog.

    Sincerely,
    ARB–Angry Retail Banker

    Reply

    1. Ha ha. I love your alias, ARB 🙂

      Yeah, I don’t know why everyone loves Google Analytics. Jetpack is more granular and easier on the eyes.

      Reply

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