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Conquering The 7-Month Itch
You’ve likely heard of the 7-year itch with regard to marriage. The other day this blog surpassed the 7-month itch and is still as fun as the very first day some seven months ago.
It hasn’t always been easy - particularly with the new blog that I am authoring on Dad Balance - but it has never stopped being fun for me. This blog has grown substantially since those early days and there are so many of you that deserve thanks for making that possible.
Recap of Goals
As I entered the seventh month with this blog, I had expressed a desire to continue producing quality content that entertained and/or interested the readers. In addition I set a goal of being more vocal with my comments on other sites in an effort to return the favor and help build your community.
Based on feedback from all of you and the fact that I was included in a few top commentator link love posts for September, I believe that I have met both of these goals.
From a statistical standpoint, I had set the following goals for myself:
- 100 RSS Subscribers
- Technorati Ranking of 15,000
- 4000 unique visits
Crunching The Numbers
Whether you believe there is much significance to the statistical rankings or not, I find it to be a decent barometer of how things are progressing and it is always nice to see the numbers improving.
With the various statistical measurements, I believe that some do hold quite a bit of importance - such as RSS subscribers - while some are just fun to compare, such as Alexa ranking.
- RSS Subscribers :: It has been a goal of mine for some time to reach 100 RSS subscribers and I am right at the edge of this goal. On the day this blog turned 7 months old, there were 97 RSS subscribers with a high for the month of 103 RSS subscribers - today it stands at 101. The daily fluctuations have the count moving above and below the century mark by a few here and there but this is great progress. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to subscribe now!
- Technorati :: The goal of reaching a Technorati Ranking of 15,000 has been achieved as I have improved from a ranking of 17,409 to a new ranking of 14,855. My authority has improved from 253 to a new authority of 284. It is very exciting to reach this goal and now I have the challenge before me of moving towards the milestone of 10,000. Thank you to everyone that has made it possible to achieve this goal!
- Traffic :: While the RSS subscribers and Technorati ranking increased, I actually saw a dip in traffic this month and will need to pay special attention to this moving forward. For the month, I had 2,652 unique visits and 4,657 page-views which is quite a bit off the pace of my goal to have 4,000 unique visits. Looking deeper into the numbers, I see that direct traffic and search engine traffic have increased substantially but the referring sites have dipped noticeably. The largest decrease from the referring sites came from StumbleUpon so I will need to work on that this month.
- Alexa :: In what may be one of the least significant rankings, my Alexa rank has continued to improve from 88,488 in August to 79,657. While I say that this ranking is one of the least significant, it is important to note that services such as Text Link Ads and ReviewMe do use the Alexa ranking to determine the value of your links/reviews. Therefore it is nice to see this ranking continue to improve.
Moving Forward
These first seven months have been very exciting while also requiring a good deal of work. With a new blog in the mix that requires a good deal of attention to get off the ground, I’ve had many late nights in an effort to keep everything moving forward. But I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t love it!
From the department of broken records, I want to continue moving this site forward and the way to do that is to deliver quality content that entertains or educates all of you. I’ll also be active in your community so be sure to look for my ugly mug on your MyBlogLog widget.
In order to set a few measurable goals, I will refine the goals from the previous month to add a few new challenges:
- 125 RSS Subscribers
- Technorati Ranking of 12,500
- 4000 unique visits
Thanks again to everyone that has become a part of this community! I truly look forward to every comment and email from all of you and sincerely hope that you enjoy your time here as much as I enjoy having you here.
Good work on the steady improvements, Derek!
BTW, how did your wife like the photo of Darla
Thanks Leo! Lol, she had a few questions about why I was receiving a signed picture of a smokin’ hot woman that was wearing next to nothing but once I explained it was all for a good cause it was cool.
Impressive my friend. Slow and steady wins the race! Or so I’ve heard. If not slow, keep steady.
Thanks Damien, I am certainly taking the slow and steady approach and it seems to be working fairly well so far.
It is. I look to your site to see what the reliable stuff looks like.
congrats…your basics are right so the improvement will continue steady..
Gratz dude, I’m sure it felt like a long road at times.
Uh oh, I hadn’t heard about the 7 year itch in regards to marriage, we are about to enter into year six. Maybe I should start being nicer, lol. Damien is just about to his 1 year anniversary with his blog and just as addicted as day one. It’s true love
How are you making money with adsense, etc without any displayed ads? It’s driving me insane…LOL!
@Simon :: Thanks buddy!
@Samliam :: Thanks. Oddly enough the trip has been so fast I haven’t had much time where it has felt like a long road. These past seven months have been a blur.
@Sarah :: Lol, I don’t think you have anything to worry about with Damien. I love the passion/addiction he has for his blog and it really comes through.
@Bobby :: Lol, I’ve got quite the secret huh! Let me explain - my blogging for money posts include earnings from my personal finance blog as well and that is where most of the AdSense is coming from. Up until last week I had AdSense here as well but it wasn’t earning more than a few dollars so I pulled the plug for now.
Wow! That makes a lot of sense! What is the URL for that blog? I really want to check it out. I want to learn something new with a fresh approach. Plus I really want to have some good questions for you. Thanks Derek!
Never mind, I see the Url!!!!!
I see you found your way over there!
Looking forward to the interview questions!
Best of luck to your marriage! Congratulations.
Great work Derek! You have surpassed your goals. Keep up the good work.
Good work.
Why Alexa is used as a measurement baffles me. My software development blog had 4 times the uniques you had in a month but your Alexa is 10 times what mine is. I guess it’s all about who has the toolbar installed that visits your site. As for what worked for me to build traffic, it was mainly working niche social media rather than Digg or Stumble.
On the Technorati authority, I’m offering free site reviews on OpTempo so just drop me an email if you would like to add one to your authority number.
@Pyramus :: Thanks!
@knupNET :: Thanks for encouragement and support.
@FrankC :: Thanks. You’re absolutely right that Alexa is flawed because there is not a direct relationship to the volume of traffic and your Alexa ranking. There are many sites that dwarf the traffic numbers that I have yet my Alexa ranking continues to rise. I’d love a free site review so I will drop you a note.