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in Writing & Blogging &middot July 2, 2019

Can Canva Pinterest Templates Actually Help Your Blog?

Happy July, friends! Before we get into the July blog traffic report (in which I share my experience using Canva Pinterest templates), I wanted to give you all a heads up that this will be the only blog post this week due to the 4th of July. Thank you for understanding my need to take a blog-vacation last week – definitely wasn’t a real vacation because I was at a work conference – and hopefully I’ll be able to do 2 posts next week. That being said, subscribe to my newsletter to get blog updates so you’re in the loop! Now let’s talk blog traffic.

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Kate the (Almost) Great!

All blog traffic reports | How blog traffic reports can bring you blog traffic

Boston lifestyle blogger Kate the (Almost) Great tried using Canva Pinterest templates to see if they would help her blog traffic. Here are the results and her thoughts about it.

June Blog Traffic Report

Statistics

Google Analytics Statistics

Pageviews: 13579 (+16.60% from May, +33.78% from last year)

Bounce Rate: 17.04% (+7.98% from May, +3.9% from last year)

Sessions: 6560 (+19.42% from May, +46.2% from last year)

Users: 5542 (+16.50% from May, +47% from last year)

Bloglovin: 1791 (-0.16% from May, -0.7% from last year)

Email Subscribers: 678 (+1.34% from May, +43.94% from last year)

How I keep my bounce rate so low

Webhostinghub.com Statistics

Pageviews: 74339 (-20.8% from May)

Sessions: 23737 (-16% from May)

Users: 1594 (-28% from May)

Social Media

Facebook: 1066 (+0.28% from May, +3.79% from last year)

Twitter: 3541 (+1.63% from May, +6.97% from last year)

Instagram: 2625 (+1% from May, -2% from last year)

Pinterest: 8427 (+1.67% from May, +36.96% from last year)

Tumblr: 3934 (+0.48% from May, +1.75% from last year)

How I manage social media for my blog | How to get followers on Pinterest

Top Posts

  1. Chronically Ill Tips: What To Do When a Doctor Isn’t Listening
  2. POTS and Heat Intolerance
  3. 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Received My Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis
  4. What Does Endometriosis Feel Like?
  5. Tips for Writing from Famous Writers
  6. Loving Someone with Chronic Pain
  7. 31 Historical Fiction Novels That Will Take You Back in Time
  8. My Biggest Fear Realized
  9. Fun Things To Do in Boston: A 3-Day Guide
  10. Beginners Guide: Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis

Top Sources of Traffic

  • Pinterest (70.05%) – While this is a huge number, it isn’t nearly the highest percentage of traffic. For example, in May, 74.10% of my blog traffic came from Pinterest. I work very hard on Pinterest, which obviously pays off. (Psst – this percentage jumped up dramatically when I started treating Pinterest like the search engine that it is. If you’re not doing that, you’re miss out!)
  • Facebook (7.38%) – I participate in a number of Facebook groups for bloggers, so between those and my Facebook page, Facebook is usually one of my top sources of blog traffic.
  • Search engines (5.54%) – I try to use SEO in most of my blog posts, which is why search engine results are generally in the top 4 sources of traffic. You can learn more about SEO here.
  • Twitter (2.08%) – I love Twitter! It’s my favorite social media network. But my one issue with Twitter is how there’s such a short lifespan for tweets. Something I posted an hour ago is wayyyyyy down in people’s timelines already, for example. But while I do promote my tweets on Twitter, it isn’t my primary use of it, so I stick with it.

This does not include direct traffic.

How to use Pinterest for blog traffic | How to use SEO to stand out

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Can Canva Pinterest Templates Actually Help Your Blog? June Blog Traffic Analysis

What I Did

  • How I promote my blog posts
  • Big thing: make Pinterest images with Canva templates
    • I did this for every June post (5 total). I have heard about how great Canva is for making Pinterest images for years, but since I have Photoshop, I generally don’t use it. My strategy was to make my usual 2 images per post in my normal way and then 1 extra with Canva. I uploaded all 3 to Tailwind to schedule post promotions, including adding all 3 to the appropriate Tailwind Tribes.
  • Worked to speed up the site
    • Deleted plugins that I don’t really use/need
    • Added the plugin W3 Total Cache plugin, which I read helps speed up your website.
    • Here are some other ways to speed up your site
  • Actually got properly signed up for The Blog Societies and set up
  • Stopped using Disqus for comments
  • Had a blog post featured in an InfluenceHer Collective weekly email

I Haven’t Seen Results From

  • Joining The Blog Societies – I’m not surprised by this. I didn’t join specifically to increase traffic but for the community.
  • Using Canva templates – So, before I really get into this, I want to clarify that I’m not convinced that Canva templates do not increase traffic from Pinterest. I’m going to give this another month before I make up my mind. Right now, my pins made in my typical, branded way bring much more traffic than Canva ones do. However, I do see how Canva can be extremely helpful, especially for a new blogger who doesn’t want to use Photoshop.

What I Can Learn This Month

  • Many more people wanted to comment on my blog than people who actually were commenting – I haven’t been getting many comments on my blog for a while, and I thought that was just because people didn’t want to comment. Turns out, it’s because they didn’t want to sign up for Disqus. I ditched them and started getting comments on my posts again. Once upon a time, Disqus was THE commenting forum. But blogging has changed a lot in the last few years, and apparently people don’t want to deal with it any more. Lesson learned!

June Goals

  • 5 blog posts – Success! I published 5 posts exactly.
  • Keep page views essentially where they are – Success!

July Goals

  • 6 blog posts
  • Keep page views essentially where they are

What has been your experience with Canva Pinterest templates?

Like this post? Check out:

What Should I Blog About?, 8 Ways To Blog Better, My Proven Method for Blogging with Limited Time, Tips for New Bloggers

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.

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Related

Previous Post: « What Every POTS Syndrome Patient Needs for the Summer
Next Post: 2019 Recent Reads: April-June »

Reader Interactions

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  1. Ways To Promote Blog Posts: 2022 Edition says:
    January 25, 2022 at 7:04 am

    […] Can Canva Pinterest Templates Actually Help Your Blog? […]

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  2. The Process for Writing a Blog Post | Kate the (Almost) Great says:
    January 28, 2024 at 8:44 am

    […] Step 7: Images – The last thing I do for a post is make the images! Sometimes, I use stock images mostly from Unspalsh and Pixabay, but over the last year, I have been using images I took myself. Then, I put white space and text over it. I started doing this so that my text would stand out, but I continued doing it and ended up branding my images this way. Hopefully, people who are familiar with Kate the (Almost) Great see my images on sites like Pinterest and know that they’re by me just by looking at how they’re styled. Scroll back up and look at the images from this post to see what I’m talking about! I’ve also started recently trying Canva Pinterest templates to see how those images – made from templates created by the pros – compare to my traditional images. I’ve only been doing it for a little while, and I’ll give it a few months before deciding if I’ll stick with it or not, but it was the “big thing” I tried in June. […]

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  3. Self-Care Tips That Chronic Illness Patients Need | Health & Lifestyle says:
    May 31, 2026 at 7:55 am

    […] The other 30 minutes, I use to do morning blog stuff. I manually pin 5-7 pins on Pinterest, make new pins on Canva for existing posts, and promote a new blog post if I have one. Then, I get ready for work or […]

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Dos and don'ts for when someone in your life is di Dos and don'ts for when someone in your life is diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis! What are some that you would add?⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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ID: "So someone you know was diagnosed with Autoimmune Arthritis". Under the Do column (indicated with a green checkmark) is:⁣
"As how they feel about it⁣
Offer specific ways to help⁣
Treat them normally⁣
Ask follow-up questions⁣
Wear a mask around them when sick."⁣
Under the don't don't column (indicated with an x in a red circle) is:⁣
"Say “At least it’s not xyz!”⁣
Say that and not follow through⁣
Assume nothing about their lives has changed⁣
Conflate autoimmune arthritis with osteoarthritis⁣
Pass your cold to an immunosuppressed person".⁣
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#AutoimmuneDisease #RheumatoidArthritis #PsoriaticArthritis #AnkylosingSpondylitis #JuvenileArthritis
Weekj 26 of 2026 Weekly Scenes of a summer week Weekj 26 of 2026 Weekly 

Scenes of a summer week in Maine! So glad I work from home, which means I can work from my real home (Maine, if that wasn’t clear)

1️⃣ Lots of Harley time
2️⃣ Working from home means saving my PTO for fun things!
3️⃣ Lots of duck families (📸 my dad)
4️⃣ What a lot of my days look like - Harley and my current project (needlepoint). And, yes, I’m still in a cast.
5️⃣ Learned how to play Mahjong, which my parents love
6️⃣ Lake views on the 4th

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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣⁣⁣⁣

⬛⁣⁣⁣

IDs:
1️⃣ Harley the golden retriever on a deck as seen through some plants
2️⃣ Kate takes a selfie
3️⃣ A duck with little ducklings following on a lake
4️⃣ Harley coming up to Kate. Her legs are out on an ottoman, 1 foot in a walking cast, and an in-progress needlepoint project
5️⃣ Looking down at a Mahjong table with the game set up
6️⃣ A kayak on the shore of a lake 

#MaineTheWay #MaineSummer #Needlepoint #MaineLife
Living with chronic pain is really hard. You’re wi Living with chronic pain is really hard. You’re winning every day you’re still here.⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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ID: The background image is a lake at sunset. Text reads what's above the first square and also "katethealmostgreat".⁣
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#ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RheumatoidArthritis #Fibromyalgia #Endometriosis
I've been spending a fair amount of time at my foo I've been spending a fair amount of time at my foot surgeon's office this year, and boy has it been messing with my head. ⁣
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I spent a lot of time from 2001-2010 dealing with my left foot. Long story short, it took until this foot surgeon saw me in 2010 after fixing this foot for me to be diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. But I spent those 9 years going from doctor to doctor, having surgery after surgery, trying to figure out what was causing my pain and to fix it. ⁣
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Was it the tarsal coalition? Did I have another chronic health issue? Etc. ⁣
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I spent from age 10 to 19 unsure what exactly was wrong with me and in huge amounts of pain. We thought we figured it out, and then something else happened. ⁣
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We know exactly what is wrong with this foot this time around: in 2024, I got 3 stress fractures, and no one put me in a boot. They almost fully healed before breaking in 2025, and then the same thing happened in 2026. ⁣
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This is a different part of the foot than I used to deal with, but any problems with my feet and especially my left foot messes with me. While this doctor eventually fixed the problems and even got me diagnosed with RA, every time I go back to his office, I have to fight not to become 17 again. ⁣
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PTSD is a bitch.⁣
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(PS - if you want to know why I'm going back to this guy when it messes with me, it's because I don't trust anyone else to fix my foot.)⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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ID: Kate takes a selfie in a doctor's office. ⁣
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#PTSDAwareness #ChronicallyIll #TarsalCoalition #RheumatoidArthritis #Osteoporosis
Week 25 of #2026Weekly Happy to be in Maine for Week 25 of #2026Weekly 

Happy to be in Maine for a few weeks! I didn’t get up to a lot, so another week of very few pictures

1️⃣ IVIG 
2️⃣ Lots of beautiful birds have been coming to my mom’s bird feeder!

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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣⁣⁣⁣

⬛⁣⁣⁣

IDs: 
1️⃣ Looking at Kate’s lap. Tubes are coming out from under her shirt and there’s a Kindle
2️⃣ Birds arriving at a bird feeder as seen through a window

#ChronicallyIll #InvisibleIllness #ChronicPain #IVIG
What do you have to do every day for your chronic What do you have to do every day for your chronic illnesses? ⁣
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For context, I have rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, POTS, heart disease, osteoporosis, and more. ⁣
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⬛⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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ID: ⁣
Things I Do Every Day for My Chronic Illnesses⁣
Take pills at least 4 times a day⁣
Don’t eat gluten, dairy, corn, soy, or eggs⁣
Sleep 7+ hours a night⁣
Consume 80-100 grams of protein, 120 mg of calcium, 5-10 grams of sodium⁣
Wear a mask whenever I leave the house⁣
Do pilates 4+ days a week⁣
Work from home⁣
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#ChronicallyIll #InvisibleIllness #RheumatoidArthritis #Fibromyalgia
Filmed this back in April (hence the sweater) but Filmed this back in April (hence the sweater) but it applies to whenever I have appointments! 

Video: Kate talks to the camera while holding a purse. She holds up individual items mentioned in the video before putting them in the bag. There are captions. 

#ChronicallyIll #RheumatoidArthritis #Osteoporosis #ChronicPain
There are a lot of medical advancements that I'm g There are a lot of medical advancements that I'm grateful for, but one of them is the ability to do IVIG at home. ⁣
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I'm on IVIG - or, in my case, subcutaneous immunoglobulin replacement therapy - because I have to kill the better part of my immune system. There are, in fact, some parts of my immune system that don't attack me, which is why we add them back in. This helps reduce my chance of serious infection and also made my rheumatologist feel comfortable enough to increase my Rituxan dose. ⁣
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This is a weekly treatment that I do, but it's so much better that I can do it at home than going into the hospital. It takes around 2.5 hours from taking my pre-meds to tossing my needles into a Sharps container. While it's another thing that I have to do, because I do it at home, I don't have to risk exposure to infections at the hospital or deal with Boston traffic, which would add another hour to the process. ⁣
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I can finish my treatment and then go about my day, which I'm very grateful for.⁣
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⬛⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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ID: A Kindle on Kate's legs. There are tubes for an infusion coming out of her shirt.⁣
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#IVIG #ChronicallyIll #RheumatoidArthritis #Autoimmune #AutoimmuneDisease
Weeks 23 and 24 of 2026 Weekly! The last two wee Weeks 23 and 24 of 2026 Weekly! 

The last two weeks were prepping for my infusion, having/recovering from my infusion, and getting caught up after. This meant things were very busy but also I don’t have a lot to show for them. 

1️⃣ New glasses! I really like having multiple pairs so I can switch them as I want.
2️⃣ One of my current projects. I got this standing hoop for my birthday and I’m working on an alphabet (uppercase and lower, although I’m still working on the lower) with extra floss.
3️⃣ Infusion time! I got my higher dose so hopefully my symptoms improve a lot in the upcoming weeks🤞🏻

⬛⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣⁣

⬛⁣

IDs: 
1️⃣ Kate takes a selfie. Her new glasses are thin silver circles
2️⃣ An in-progress cross-stitched alphabet in a special hoop stand that Kate is sitting on.
3️⃣ Kate takes a selfie in an infusion chair.

#ChronicallyIll #RheumatoidArthritis #AutoimmuneDisease #CrossStitcher
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