Blog Lessons From a Novice

John Kinde, featured in my book What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting, was kind enough to send in the following fascinating post - thanks John!

I've had a web site for seven years.  But just a year ago I had no idea what my traffic statistics or search engine rankings were.  In fact, I had never looked at them.  A computer and Internet wizard I am not.  I'm just now getting familiar with some of the technical aspects of these amazing cyber wonders.  In the last eleven months I've learned a few things. 

In February 2006 I started blogging.  Wanting to measure the results of my effort, it made sense to learn how to download my web log statistics.  To my amazement my traffic doubled, then quadrupled in three months.  From 200 visitors daily to 900.  The results of the blog were amazing.  Here are some lessons that a novice has learned in the past year:

1.  Steady posting to the blog maintains momentum.  My web site traffic has steadily grown to 1000 daily visitors for several months. In one year I figure that my blog is responsible for bringing 300,000 extra visits to my site.

2.  In the past year, I have had only two good spikes in traffic which resulted when my site received a plug in a "high authority" blog (one with lots of links and traffic).  The first spike was before my blog was online.  After the spike, the traffic fell back to the low level before the spike.  The second spike (which was after the blog was active) resulted in the higher traffic level being maintained after the spike.  Clear evidence to me of the value of the blog.

3.  I've learned that offline and online have little connection.  Three of my articles were published by a national magazine with about 200,000 circulation.  While it's nice to see your writing in print, it had virtually no impact on my web site traffic.  At first that surprised me.  Now I expect NOT to see a spike when in the print media.  On the other hand, because of the experience noted in paragraph two above, not only does online impact online; blogs impact blogs.  What that means is that to ride the blog wave, it is best to have your own blog.  Without my blog, a really nice traffic spike did not maintain itself.  With a blog I maintained the momentum.

4.  A popular feature of my blog has been the monthly humor contest. It normally attracts over 200 entries a month, and one contest drew over 800 entries.  The interesting thing to note is the winners of the contest often share their success with readers of their own web site, blog or newsletter (usually with a link back to my site).  The top three winners of the December 2006 contest all posted links back to my site.  It's not unusual for an Honorable Mention entry to also post and link back.

5.  A good blog technique, as your content grows, is to write new posts with links to previous posts.  It gives life to your past writings and keeps them from dying on the shelf.  One of my most popular posts was a Best Of Contests post, listing a few top lines from previous year contests with a links back to the full contest results.

6.  I've discovered that some of my highest traffic days are driven by my own Ezine.  I use the ezine to promote the blog and visa versa.  In each issue of my Humor Power Tips Ezine I link to my most recent blog posts.  In the January issue I linked to six posts.  In the Mid-January issue I linked to four posts.  There is always a noticeable jump in traffic 24 hours after a newsletter goes out.

7.  I've never considered myself a writer.  My experience with the blog and ezine is that I've learned to enjoy writing.  And just when I think I've run out of things to write about, another idea pops into my head. The focus of my blog is humor and presentation skills and I'm able to find learning points in most of my activities.  When I see a show in Las Vegas, it gives me a lessons-learned post for the blog.  The World Salsa Championships, a blog article.  The National Drag Racing championships, another article.  The daily routine provides subject matter for regular posting.

8.  The next step in my blog/web site growth is to be pro-active in promoting it.  The results already seem to be kicking in.  My traffic this past seven days has averaged over 1200 daily visitors, a twenty-percent increase.  The key is steady growth and the magic of compounding takes care of everything else.  Persistence pays off.  My mentor and friend Steve Pavlina is a role model for persistence.  His blog traffic success motivates me to keep on posting!

John Kinde's Humor Power
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