There are days where it feels like this blog has been around for ten years but it has actually only been ten months.
As we entered the holiday season, I had high hopes that the tenth month of this blog would bring bigger and better results in both the quantifiable metrics as well as the value that is delivered to all of you.
Unfortunately, I have had my first experience with hitting the blogging wall which was partly due to the fact that the holidays brought me two things that can kill this blog.
While the metrics may have taken a hit during the tenth month, I would like to believe that I have still tried to do my part with helping my fellow bloggers.
The Speedlinking series has continued to feature old and new members of the community and the other day I offered my time and assistance to a fellow blogger that was having a difficult time getting the Brian’s Threaded Comments plugin to work on their blog.
Measuring The Metrics
In recent months I have focused less on a few of these metrics, specifically Technorati and Alexa, but I still enjoy recording the numbers in order to monitor the growth of this blog.
- RSS Subscribers :: Last month I had surpassed my goal of 150 RSS subscribers and things were continuing to progress as the count continued to increase to 170 RSS subscribers. Unfortunately, the numbers dropped after the end of the year by a considerable amount and I ended the tenth month at 138 RSS subscribers. With a goal of reaching 200 subscribers, I need to remedy this situation and find a way to increase RSS subscribers!
- Traffic :: Last month I had a very nice surge in traffic as two of my posts received considerable attention from the StumbleUpon crowd. This past month did not bring the same results and the traffic numbers eased back towards previous levels, although there has been an increase in unique visits and page-views. For the month, Google Analytics indicates there were 2,918 unique visits and 5,627 page-views. While these numbers are a decrease from the previous month, I am encouraged as there are signs of progress compared to prior months.
- Technorati :: Technorati has essentially disappeared from my list of priorities and I have to admit that the last time that I checked my numbers were when I was writing my monthly recap last month. Given my lack of interest in this ranking, it is really no surprise to see that my numbers have dipped to an authority of 280 and a ranking of 18,293. While I will most likely continue to monitor these rankings, I don’t feel that they carry much weight anymore and am not too concerned about them.
- Alexa :: Even though many people treat the Alexa ranking as insignificant, it is nice to see it increase but unfortunately the ranking for this blog has decreased again to a current ranking of 111,941. It was nice being below the 100,000 mark so that is certainly a goal to get this blog back under that level. Aren’t all of you using the Alexa toolbar when you browse this blog? 😉
Sailing The Seas of Cheese
Last month I had mentioned a few new Interweb ventures that I have been exploring but I haven’t had the time to focus my effort on them as of yet. Once I am able to devote more time to get those started, I will discuss them in more detail here.
In this eleventh month, I’d like to give myself a kick in the pants and get the metrics discussed above heading back in the right direction. While I am not too concerned about the drop in Technorati or Alexa rankings, I am not happy with the decrease that I have seen in RSS subscribers.
From a numbers perspective, my goals will be to get back to 150+ RSS subscribers and see 3,500 unique visits along with 6,000 page-views for the month.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything that I can do to help your blog. In addition, don’t be shy about subscribing to my RSS feed if you haven’t already.
Photo credit: monosodium
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Derek since you have mentioned in your post that I can ask you for help. I have recently started a new blog. I am facing two difficulties :
1- I want to make my header image hyperlinked. I want to make it clickable and I am unable to do so.
2- I want to know what plugin or widget should I use to insert ad banners in my blog.
It would be great if you could help me with these two problems.
Assuming that you already have the image being displayed on your new site, all you need to do is add the link tag around the existing img tag.
As an example: <a href=”…” rel=”nofollow”><img src=”…”/></a>
Regarding the ad banners, what type of ad banners are you talking about? Do you want them to rotate? Are they all the same size? Is this AdSense or some other type of ad?
Feel free to drop me an email (use the contact form if you don’t already have my address) and we can discuss further. I’m also available on IM most of the time if that is easier.
If you’re interested in rotating your banners I’d suggest looking into gotlinks, I use it on my blog as well and would recommend trying it on for size.
Hope it helps,
Alan Johnson
I completely ignore the various rankings now and I just focus on my traffic and pageview levels.
When I started blogging, I never realized that there were so many things needed to make the most out of it. It used to be that blogs were just for fun and to share one’s thoughts. When did it get this serious? I feel like I’ve been left behind somewhere. 🙁
@Leo :: Other than these monthly recap posts, I’ve been ignoring them as well – although I do watch RSS subscribers in addition to traffic.
@Ivy :: When money became involved, although I still view it as fun and would still be doing this regardless of the money and rankings.
I think that you are on the right track with analyzing your performance and wanting to take corrective action. I am a bit concerned at a slight hint of despondency? I do not think that there is any need for it though. From what I see in your blog, your readers are fairly regular visiting you and may not be dependent on RSS feeds. May be a promotion to get increase like some other famous bloggers have done? Though I do not think that it is quite your style.
I appreciate the feedback and apologize if I am coming across as despondent, as I do not feel that way at all. It is funny that you mention the promotion as I will be mentioning a giveaway soon, although it will not be tied to any sort of action on the part of the readers (other than a comment maybe).
Thanks again, I appreciate it.
There will always be times when you see traffic decreasing or start losing momentum, it’s your reaction to such circumstances which will determine your overall success as a blogger. I would suggest keeping up the good work and not being discouraged, even if things are a little slower every now and then.
Best wishes,
Alan Johnson
I am thinking to start a blog. But after reading all of yours comment i am afraid now.
The thing I focus on is what my readers are looking for the most when they come to my blog. I look at what links they are clicking on and what posts they are reading the most and then base my future posts around that. There is a huge demand for free design elements out there as well as design tutorials and how to so I know that if I at least use those three things as a foundation for my blog then the traffic will come.
I haven’t been over to Feedburner to see how my feeds are doing in mmm I would say about a week. However my numbers for traffic are way ahead of what I had the previous four months when you look at the numbers seperatly.
Just out of curiosity are you using SocialMarker.com to submit your best articles around the internet? That is one tool that has become invaluable to me. Also have you got the free version of WEB CEO?That is another good tool to have in your arsenal.
I am also going to throw out another source for you to think about and that is taggzilla.com. You sign up and look for an active team to join and then you submit each others stuff to the various social networking and bookmarking sites. Basically it is a you scratch my back, I scratch yours way of marketing yourself. Also Yaro Starak is getting ready to start his Membership Mastermind class soon and I will be participating to see how I can turn my blogs into membership sites.
Ok that is all I got for now. Hope you and others can use some of this information.
Congrats on the Stumbleupon victory. I share your frustration with Technorati. Keep up the good work!
You are doing really great Derek!
You have achieved a lot in your 10 months of blogging. You just need to keep going at it. I’m sure your blog has a great future.