A few months ago, I mentioned a primary goal for 2012 was to hit 1000 clicks per month. I came soooo close last month, in July, and I hit 990 clicks – but I was still shy of my goal.
But, I have noticed a great trend. When the blog celebrated it’s one year birthday in March 2012, something magical happened. I began having nothing less than 800+ click-through months. I wasn’t posting more than I had previously, if anything I posted somewhat less, and yet there was momentum building.
From March through July 2012, I have had over 800 clicks. For 2 of those 5 months, I’ve had more than 900 clicks / page views. Since I am tantalizingly close to my 1K goal, I’m optimistic about achieving that with you, dear readers, at least once before the end of this year.
I think there are a few good reasons why the traffic to the blog has increased, which I share below:
Reasons Why My Blog Traffic May Have Increased
- Overall readership is up based on subscribership. A consistent base of readers interact with the community of writers that has formed on this blog (for which I am always and ever grateful for the support, the dialogue that happens here and everyone’s contributions)
- Every blog post has numerous, searchable tags. Many people conduct searches for random stuff. People regularly read blog posts from my archive based on these search results, which I know based on the WordPress Stats page, which I monitor regularly.
- Reasonably consistent content. My posts are usually about writing; the creative process; short story writing; art & artists; and the ongoing torture, neuroses and afflictions writers and creative types suffer on their way to producing great art. That… and insomnia by way of diet cola pretty much covers what I talk about most of the time.
- Reasonably consistent posting schedule. I’ve had my ups and downs on the number of posts I put up each month, but it’s usually somewhere between 9-14 posts per month. Readers can count on having something hit their in-box regularly, but not so frequently that they can’t keep up with the reading.
BUT… I haven’t been lucky enough to get Freshly Pressed yet. Yes WordPress blogging community, I lament that I have not yet gotten that elusive and magical POP!! that happens when you are Freshly Pressed. That wonderful, yummy torrent of new readers and commentors, that oh so fantastic flood of endorphins associated with blog readership spiking into the many multitudes of hundreds.
So, IF I get Freshly Pressed someday, I am quite sure I would greatly exceed 1K clicks in a month. Heck, Freshly Pressed probably would make me exceed 1K clicks in just a few days! Oh well, I’ll continue to hope…
Filed under: Blog Hits, Blogging Tagged: | 1K page view month, blog post tags, blog readership, blog stats, Freshly Pressed, reasons why blog traffic increased, searchable tags, tagging
That’s a good point on only posting about 9-14 things a month. It also improves the quality of the post I’m guessing. You’ll be freshly pressed soon!
Hey Lem, as always thanks for your comment, especially about posting quality, I appreciate that!
What I’ve noticed is that when there is a gap between posts of at least 3 or 4 days I tend to get more comments on the “most recent” post.
Most of the comments come in the first day or two, but depending on how much the readers are enjoying the dialogue it can extend a few more days. So it’s better for me to wait in between posts at least that 3-4 days to allow the readers to say their piece about the post.
And of course when I leave that multi-day gap between the posts, the spacing means about 2 posts a week, sometimes more/sometimes less.
As a reader, do you have a preference on posting regularity from any one blog?
I can tell you I’m not enjoying the blogs who post as much as 3 times a day. I recently got one that said something along the lines of, “Hey guys. You should read this….cause it’s awesome
” That’s all. And that’s very close to verbatim! I like the way you post: a medium to longish, good quality post that I can look forward to. I’ll be emulating you haha.
I didn’t realize there are some bloggers who post 3 times a day, and yes, that seems excessive to me too – especially if the content is spam-like.
Usually I think about what I want to write about for a while before I create the post (unless I’m lucky enough to have an announcement like a new story being accepted…) so that the reader has something to read that is engaging (and entertaining hopefully.)
I don’t expect all posts to appeal to all readers, but I do my best to keep things lively.
Lem, your feedback opened a window for me onto what other bloggers might be doing out there. I don’t think I would like a blog that is more like a newsfeed with updates coming 3 times a day…that seems like too much to me.
Yeah I’m unsubscribing from that “cause it’s awesome
” blog I mentioned.
Well, you don’t have to unsubscribe – you can still monitor the blog’s output via weekly digest – that way if they are producing some content you like, you can scroll through an email with however many posts they’ve made in a week and only read the ones you are interested in… IF you have the patience to scroll through however many posts of “cause it’s awesome…”
You’ll get it one day. Just keep up the good work!
Aww, thank you Rachel! And thanks for following my blog!
I can’t wait to see your post once you hit the coveted 1K.
I’ll definitely help with that.
Haha, sounds good to me Mike!
Frequency increases hits, but great content builds a sustainable readership that may convert into genuine readers.
I have vowed to be no slave to scheduled posting because its a genuine readership that I prefer and for that reason also I’m not concerned about freshly pressed. Having said that I seemed to have settled into about 7 to 8 posts a month and just over 1500 hits a month. I think commenting on other blogs really helps build readership.
Hey Claire, thanks for sharing your stats. I’d definitely be very pleased with 1500 hits a month, especially if it is a group of consistent readers who are commenting too.
I guess when it comes to Freshly Pressed my thought was, yes, initially the stats meter would go nuts and many of the people coming to the blog would be “one hit wonders” but some percentage of them do convert into permanent readership. I’ve seen it on other blogs where before FP, they might be getting a dozen comments on posts, then after FP they get maybe 60 comments per blog post. It’s a huge difference, and I do think those readers become genuine readers.
You’re right, nothing like the front page to let people know you are out there. Images and not too many tags are supposed to increase your chances.
Yeah, you’re right about the images. I’m always so lazy… trying to find an image for every post, but I know I should.
As for tags, I don’t lnow how many is too many, but I tend to use about a half a dozen tags per post.
Also, I had another gander at your blog today and you know, I really admire how many comments (30-60) you get on each of your posts Claire! You obviously have a very engaged readership. Bravo!
Thank you Carol, I read a wordpress tutorial that said more than 9 tags and the piece is unlikely to get picked up, and they suggest tagging with common tags such as what’s popular in ‘Explore Topics’, so in general that means broad categories – like Art, Culture, Literature, Books etc rather than too many narrow specific tags, its a tough one relevance versus popularity.
Once I post I try and engage with those who have written on the same topic, it may only be two or three meaningful comments, but you know the one about the tortoise and the hare
One slow step at a time.
That makes a lot of sense to me… I use the “writing” tag a lot, but not so much “literature” or “art” … but you’ve got me thinking about it, so thank you. I think I’ll try to incorporate the broader tags and see if that engages new folks…
And yes, I agree with that number of tags. I’m consistently using less than that, but my tags are sometimes random, and sometimes funny…for those that look at them.
I’m sure you’ll reach your goal. I read your blog fairly regularly, and there’s always a high level of quality and community. Thanks. I may use the idea of the popular tags… I should really get my blog in shape.
Hey Brett, thanks so much for your comment, especially the one about community. That is really something that keeps me going and motivated on my blog – knowing that folks like you are dropping by, reading and responding. It means a lot.
Claire did share that great idea, and she’s clearly got the regular numbers (1500 clicks a month – girlfriend rocks her stats!) to back her up, so yes, I think the popular tags are worth giving a try too.
When you say “get your blog in shape” what do you mean? How would you like to improve your blog, other than the use of tags?
Thanks again for sharing.
You’re welcome. I’m not sure what I mean by “in shape.” I’ll have to clarify that goal, ha.
Haha, okay, fair enough.
I thought you might have meant organizing the content more (based on our tags convo), but I figured you had something in mind…