Another month of blogging has come and gone – only one away from celebrating the one year blogiversary since this blog was launched.
The eleventh month has been somewhat of a blur – or at least it feels that way sitting here now. Last month I had talked about the goal of getting a little side project launched and focusing on getting the RSS Subscriber count headed back in the right direction.
The side project – SpicyTechDeals.com – has been launched and now I am working on getting traffic to the new site. If you haven’t already, check it out and let me know what you think.
Regarding the RSS Subscriber count, I am happy to say that the numbers have been trending back towards positive growth and have been moving to new heights.
Looking At The Numbers
Tyler Ingram recently questioned whether or not Technorati is still useful – to which I responded that I still check the numbers but place little importance on the ranking.
At the end of the day, the two metrics that I value the most are the basic traffic numbers as well as RSS subscribers.
- RSS Subscribers :: After moving beyond my goal of 150 RSS subscribers and then dropping back last month, I wanted to see the numbers move back above the 150 mark. When this blogged reached the eleventh month, there were 170 RSS subscribers and as of today the total count has increased to 192 RSS subscribers. The goal of reaching 200 subscribers will be achieved by next month! Have you subscribed yet?
- Traffic :: The traffic numbers have been a slight disappointment, although the numbers have picked up with the announcement of my extremely unique blog contest. For the month, Google Analytics indicates there were 2,573 unique visits and 4,091 page-views. The most glaring reason for the decline was the lack of any substantial traffic from StumbleUpon as most other traffic sources have increased nicely – including organic results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
- Technorati :: As I mentioned earlier, Technorati rankings have really dropped off of my radar although I still use these monthly recaps to log the performance. My rankings have continued to gradually decline and right now this blog has an authority of 234 and a ranking of 23,025. Am I the only one that no longer checks Technorati?
- Alexa :: Following closely on the heels of Technorati in terms of relevance, Alexa is something that I like to log but it is really nothing more than an ego boost. The current ranking for this blog is 125,315. Even though this number has been decreasing, I can honestly say that I am not too concerned – although I do have the Search Status add-on for Firefox and admit that I compare my ranking to other sites as I surf the Interweb.
Add Some Chloride To The Sodium
Over the last month it has been nice to see the RSS subscriber count resume the gradual growth that I had been experiencing. I’d like to believe that the increase is in part a result of a few posts that were well received, including:
- Reflection :: Poetry from the Basement
- Can You Record A Cellphone Conversation?
- Contest Crazy :: Win A Free T-Shirt – It’s not too late to enter! 😉
In the home stretch for the official one year mark, I’m going to make an effort to deliver more quality content and push those RSS numbers over 200. Apparently I need to take a step back and work on writing some content that will be embraced by the social media sites to help drive the traffic numbers back up.
Due to the fact that the success of this blog is a result of everything that each of you have done to be an active member of the community, please let me know if there is anything that I can help you with or if you have any questions about something I have – or have not – covered here.
In the event that anyone is wondering – the references to salt, sodium, and chloride are because of the fact that eleven is the atomic number of sodium and this is a recap of my eleventh month. For the last few recaps I’ve been trying to pull in a few quirky references and this month it was time to be salty.
Photo credit: imago
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Happy Pre-One Year Blogiversary Derek! 😀
Hi i have begun to think that the only reason i blog is to see myself think. I wish you every success in driving traffic up and i will pop back in a while to see how you are doing
I’ve been thinking on starting a new blog myself and I also need to make a strategy like yours. I never paid much attention to RSS subscribers but you made me think twice about that…
Your traffic is not that bad,trust me! I’ve seen a lot worse! Just keep adding some more quality content and you’ll get things going 😉
Oh, and Happy Bloganiversary 😀
@Stephen :: Thanks!
@Snes :: Thanks for the wish of success, look forward to your return visit.
@Timmy :: No doubt there is traffic that is worse and there will always be traffic that is better. I’ll be working on that quality content – feel free to make any requests. Thanks for the feedback!
Well, if you’re speaking about requests…
Feel free to tell us more of your methods of driving traffic in 😀
I’d sure use some extra visitors
Good going Derek. Hope you only climb higher.
11 months already!! That means that I’m at that stage too, since we started at the same time. Well, congrats! you have definitely been more a more regular poster, and have won in pretty much every category, but I’m trying to get back into it now!!
Congrats on the launch of the new site too 🙂
Congrats on the launch of your new project.
I was wondering what traffic driving strategy you would apply for a site with more advertising than content.
How does such site rank high in SERPs with the taregted keywords?
I’ll be waiting for your first year party buddy. I look forward to many more years of being a part of this community.
Congrats on the near year anniversary and the success you’ve had. The blog gets a lot of traffic for under a year and you’ve got great content. Thanks for the entertainment.
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