I had a sense that my blog traffic had increased lately but I just ran some numbers on my stats and Wow! I was amazed it had more than doubled from May to June after increasing 21% from April to May. In addition actions on the blog increased 128%, the bounce rate decreased 21% and the time on site per visitor increased 22%. So what was the reason for the big increase?
Before I get to the reasons for the increased traffic, let me disclose that all the stats are coming from Clicky which is a paid tracking program. Yes, I have Google Analytics but it’s my opinion that those stats are way overstated due to automated visits and with Clicky it is so much easier to read the reports and get the really important stats quickly. With that out of the way, on to the good stuff…
The Reasons
I Stopped Dragging My Feet…
and starting writing more blog posts. I consider myself a decent writer but it isn’t something I get up in the morning and can’t wait to get to. :)
I had been hanging out at a couple of forums for several months to be helpful and that has given me some great ideas for blog posts. You may have noticed a couple where I repeated the question from the forum and then basically gave the same, but more in depth, answer. One of my more popular posts, WordPress Themes–How to Choose was written that way.
Collaboration…
is what I’m calling Reason #2. I had written a post last year about the plugin Sexy Bookmarks sending data from your blog without your knowledge or permission and I wanted to write an update about it because they had made some changes. When it comes to WordPress and plugin security, I always turn to Regina Smola at WP Security Lock.
I had uncovered a new wrinkle in that plugin and walked through it with her. She was amazed at what I had found and gave me some great advice on dealing with the issue. So when I wrote the Sexy Bookmarks update post, I of course, included her advice. She then wrote a post on her blog referencing mine and I got a nice boost in traffic from that collaboration.
I know you want more traffic to your blog because everyone does. So take away these three things and see if it doesn’t help you as well. Even if you don’t like writing, give it the ole college try for the next 3 months and at least post once a week. Look at the posts that have gotten the most views so far and write more posts about that.
Then look for a blogging friend, colleague, or forum friend in a related niche and collaborate on a post or two linking back to each other.
Before I get to the reasons for the increased traffic, let me disclose that all the stats are coming from Clicky which is a paid tracking program. Yes, I have Google Analytics but it’s my opinion that those stats are way overstated due to automated visits and with Clicky it is so much easier to read the reports and get the really important stats quickly. With that out of the way, on to the good stuff…
The Reasons
I Stopped Dragging My Feet…
and starting writing more blog posts. I consider myself a decent writer but it isn’t something I get up in the morning and can’t wait to get to. :)
I had been hanging out at a couple of forums for several months to be helpful and that has given me some great ideas for blog posts. You may have noticed a couple where I repeated the question from the forum and then basically gave the same, but more in depth, answer. One of my more popular posts, WordPress Themes–How to Choose was written that way.
Collaboration…
is what I’m calling Reason #2. I had written a post last year about the plugin Sexy Bookmarks sending data from your blog without your knowledge or permission and I wanted to write an update about it because they had made some changes. When it comes to WordPress and plugin security, I always turn to Regina Smola at WP Security Lock.
I had uncovered a new wrinkle in that plugin and walked through it with her. She was amazed at what I had found and gave me some great advice on dealing with the issue. So when I wrote the Sexy Bookmarks update post, I of course, included her advice. She then wrote a post on her blog referencing mine and I got a nice boost in traffic from that collaboration.
I know you want more traffic to your blog because everyone does. So take away these three things and see if it doesn’t help you as well. Even if you don’t like writing, give it the ole college try for the next 3 months and at least post once a week. Look at the posts that have gotten the most views so far and write more posts about that.
Then look for a blogging friend, colleague, or forum friend in a related niche and collaborate on a post or two linking back to each other.