Vad jag har lärt i mitt att understödja år av blogging

När jag gjorde denna i fjol det var ganska väl som mottogs. Så här I förmiddag, ett år mer sistnämnd som igen gör det. (Undanta specifikt finansiellt specificerar), som vanligt jag ska den nätt aktien mycket varje plats för statistik härom, och huvudsakligen, allt har jag lärt (viktina på något sätt) i i fjol.

Förmiddag som I går med samma, formaterar igen, för samma resonerar (den lata I-förmiddagen). Att tala av lat, har jag haft denna att posta i mitt formulerar att vänta som ska avslutas efter början av Augusti - det faktiska 2 året markerar.

1. Vad jag har gjort
1. Statistik
2. Vad jag har lärt
1. SEO
2. Finna en mentor
3. Din Niche är olik
4. Annonsering
5. Skriv mer nöjd, därefter några mer och därefter några mer

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Vad jag har gjort

Statistik
Här är en överblick av statistiken för enkel hjälp från i fjol. Även efter 2 år, kan jag inte gå en dag, utan att kontrollera Google Analytics.

1. Besök och Pageviews - 08/01/07 - 07/31/08

3.429.852 besök

sida 5.883.633 beskådar

Som den nedanföra grafen illustrerar, fanns det ett viktigt tappar i en mitt av Dec. 07. Jag var ganska sjuk, och platsen gick besegrar för 2.5 dagar. Sådan är liv.

klicka för att förstora

Vid Månad

Sammantaget behog förmiddag I med tillväxten som jämfördes till det första året (1.104.495 besök, sida 1.756.518 beskådar). En av saker som jag önskade till förhöjning, detta år var numrera av sidan beskådar per besök, som jag - litet. I fjol var det 1.59 som sidan beskådar per besök, detta år det växte till 1.72. Jag tillskrivar denna till 2 färdiga platsrevideringar och bruket av Släkt postar plugin (och Släkt postar för dina plugin matningar).

2. Trafikera källor - 08/01/07 - 07/31/08

Liknande till i fjol, återstår sökandet min källa #1 av trafikerar. Vid långt.


klicka för att förstora

En snarlik viktig ändring är det under det första året för enkel hjälp, det var på förstasidan av Digg.com 16 tider. I understödjaåret - inte en gång. Detta som jag tillskrivar till två saker - 1) stoppade jag ”handstil för digg”, och 2) är det ett lott som är mer hård att få på förstasidan nu. Ett av min enfaldiga mål i mitt första år var att få på den digg.com förstasidan två gånger i en dag. The second time I accomplished that goal, my previous hosting provider told me in no uncertain terms that Simple Help had to move. It was at that point I went from shared hosting to a dedicated server.

Last year, digg was my #2 source of traffic, this year, it’s #8. Which is kind of interesting in and of itself - a lot of people will claim that digg has no long-tail. Not entirely true.


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You’ll also note that images.google.com is my 6th highest source of traffic. If that’s not a glaring hint as to why you should use the alt and title tags, I’m not sure what is.

3. Traffic sources - 08/01/07 - 07/31/08

Once again, Google reigns supreme.


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4. Top Content - 08/01/07 - 07/31/08

My 5 most popular posts in the last year were:

1. How to convert .flac files to .mp3 using Windows
2. 10 Alternatives to iTunes for Managing your iPod
3. How to use your PC and Webcam as a motion-detecting and recording security camera
4. 15 Windows Explorer alternatives compared and reviewed
5. How to completely wipe all the data from your hard drive

Only one of those posts (How to completely wipe all of the data from your hard drive) did I actually write in the last year. The other four are from the first year. Also noteworthy is that my most popular post, accounts for almost 10% of my traffic. That’s one post out of six hundred.


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What I’ve Learned

SEO
If I had to guess, I’d say there are a billion sites on SEO (search engine optimization). There should be a new rule - if your site doesn’t get a couple of hundred thousand visits via search engines, per month, you can’t start or run an SEO site. My suggestion? Review some of the tips on one established SEO site (say Matt Cutts or the seomoz blog), implement those tips, and then stop. The time that some bloggers spend reviewing SEO “tips and tricks” never ceases to amaze me. Use that time to write an article instead. No matter how “SEO friendly” your site is, if you don’t have content, no one’s going to come. Besides, most SEO sites just take content they found on another SEO site, re-word it (the ones that aren’t totally lazy) and publish it. Do you really need to read the same 10 tips 50 times?

Find a Mentor
Without question, my absolute #1 suggestion is to find someone already established in your niche, and befriend them. I cannot possible emphasize this enough. The How-To Geek writes PC tutorials, just like I do (though he has a more heavy emphasis on Vista), and has shared countless tips with me. Without question, Simple Help would not be nearly as popular as it is today without him. The hard part is, of course, finding someone that’s willing to share information with you. I’ve been unbelievably fortunate.

Your Niche is Different
Similar to the SEO rant (above), do not waste your time reading “pro blogging” web sites. Here’s why - they generally offer suggestions that may not even apply to you. A blog that focuses on collecting coins has a completely different audience than a blog that focuses on photography. The differences can be in gender, age group, geographic location - the list is endless. What applies to one site does not necessarily apply to another. Again, find someone successful in your specific niche, and find out what has worked for them and what hasn’t. You’ll find that information way more valuable than what you would on a “pro blogging” web site.

RSS subscribers don’t matter

This one might be a tiny bit controversial. For my site - a computer tutorial blog - RSS subscribers don’t matter, at all. Remember - your niche is different. Everywhere you go you’ll read about how to increase your RSS subscriber count. Take a step back and ask yourself - “for my site, does the number of RSS subscribers matter?” Here’s an example. Darren Rowse, of ProBlogger.net, has 47,189 RSS subscribers (as I write this, Aug. 23rd, 2008). I have 3,227. He has 14 times (plus) more RSS subscribers than I do. However, in the last 30 days, problogger.net has had 767,118 page views (according to SiteMeter. Over the same period of time, Simple Help has had 796,178 page views. Slightly more page views, 14x fewer RSS subscribers. So before you spend too much time trying to increase your RSS readership, ask yourself, does it really matter for my blog?

Social networks are a waste of time

What the heck, another controversial one. I publish my posts via Twitter, I have a MyBlogLog page, FaceBook page (two actually), FriendFeed account, Last.FM… you name it, I have a page or account on that service. Not a single one of them drives any significant traffic to my site. StumbleUpon is an exception, and I’m not sure if it even counts as a social network. But again - consider your sites topic. If you write about FaceBook apps, you may get a tonne of traffic by creating a FaceBook group.

Advertising
Here’s my experience with advertising. When your site becomes popular, advertisers find you. They’ll even bid against each other. Until then, stick with AdSense, Kontera, Tribal Fusion - whatever.

Write more content, then some more, then some more
Just write more. Not everything will be popular, in fact most of it probably won’t. But the more content you have, the more it’ll show up in Google, and the more visitors you’ll get. Also, if you write something that you think is absolutely terrific, and the visitors don’t immediately flood your site - don’t stress. I’ve had things that I wrote months and months ago all of the sudden become hugely popular on StumbleUpon, or show up on a very popular blog - driving that traffic you hoped for.