Every month I give a quick report in my income reports on whether traffic to this blog has gone or up down.
Some months my traffic goes up. Some months it goes down.
My reports on the growth of traffic to this blog have been uninspiring (to say the least). It is painfully obvious that I need to do something about it.
My Blog Traffic Has Stagnated
Below is a screenshot of daily visitors to this blog from 19th July 2014 to 19th January 2015. As you can see, traffic goes up and down every week, however my average traffic over each month has not changed throughout that period.
In my income reports, I have spoke publishing more content in order to increase my readership and increase my daily traffic.
As you can see from the list below, I was successful in increasing the number of articles I publish on this blog on a monthly basis.
- July 2014: 12 Published Blog Posts
- August 2014: 21 Published Blog Posts
- September 2014: 22 Published Blog Posts
- October 2014: 31 Published Blog Posts
- November 2014: 39 Published Blog Posts
- December 2014: 34 Published Blog Posts
Sadly, my blog traffic has not increased at the same rate as my posting frequency. What this means is that I am spending more money, and spending more time updating this blog, and not getting any return on my investment.
It is a little depressing for me to admit all of this; however, facts are facts. My plans on growing this blog are not working out. I need to stop procrastinating and take action.
Grade B Content
I was able to increase my posting frequency since I hired many authors to write articles for me.
Some of those articles were very good, though many were average.
There was nothing inherently wrong with what many authors contributed. They were around 1,000 words long, grammar was good, and they contained several images and links.
When I first started blogging, those articles would have been considered high quality. But times have changed.
In a world where the volume of content being published online every day is getting higher and higher; those articles were not doing enough to stand out from the crowd. This meant they were soon lost in my blog archives.
I cannot criticise the authors about this as my articles were rarely better. I never spent time writing the long in-depth articles that I am known for writing on other blogs. Most of my articles were short reviews or random thoughts. I never took my time to focus on high quality articles that take days to write.
A Higher Quality of Content is Required
The problem with pursuing a higher posting frequency is that you feel pressure to maintain it. I have always advised others not to rush out articles for the sake of it, but there were times where I chose to publish a short 500 or 1,000 word article instead of just not publishing content that day.
In the short term, I do not believe that publishing shorter articles is a big problem. However, over time it may reduce the overall quality of content on your blog. And if your main goal is to convert visitors into subscribers, publishing anything but your best content is doing yourself a disservice.
So what does this mean for me moving forward?
It means the end of pursuing a high posting frequency and the start of pursuing a policy of publishing high quality content.
Rather than publish five short articles in a week that are 1,000 words long, I will instead spend all of my time working on a detailed tutorial or list post that is several thousand words long.
I will still publish income reports. I will still publish reviews from time to time. And I will still offer readers the opportunity of winning prizes through competitions.
The difference is that the majority of my time on this blog will now be spent writing premium articles instead of writing multiple articles of a shorter length.
This may mean there may be times when I only publish one article in a week or one article in two weeks; but the articles I do publish should be more useful to readers. It also means that my articles will be more likely to be shared and that visitors are more likely to subscribe to this blog.
I also want to stop myself from working on this blog when I am tired or simply not in the mood to write. I have always enjoyed blogging and I want to continue to enjoy writing on this blog.
If I am too tired to write, I will not write; as the end product is never good when writing feels forced and you are just going through the motions. I want to enjoy writing for this blog. Otherwise, what’s the point in updating it.
Thanks for reading.
Kevin
That’s great Asif. I am curious to hear how publishing longer articles has affected your traffic levels. :)
Hi Kevin.
I will be the happiest person if you reduce the frequency of your posts. There was a time when I used to read all the posts you published, then suddenly I saw there was a flood of articles on your blog.
I was still reading most of them, but it was tough to finish all of them in my feedly reader.
I got inspired for Creating long form content from you. I used to write short 500-word articles to get more quantity, but your posts motivated me to write fewer articles but more in depth ones.
I am now posting 7-10 articles every month and it working great for me.wishing you the best with new scheduling of posts.
Thanks for the kind words Trina.
I will hopefully start publishing longer articles within the next month. I am a bit backlogged with work due to some things that have occurred over the last few weeks. Plus I am not sure whether I should also ask authors to write such long articles. I will see what happens.
I have definitely felt less pressure over the last few weeks by not publishing as many articles. Hopefully, I will be able to produce higher quality articles as a result of this.
I would love to hear how your readers reacted to the changes you made on your blog :)
Kevin
Kevin, props for having the humility to recognize when a change is needed and taking steps for improvement. That being said, I enjoy your blog tremendously, and would only appreciate any effort toward better advice and information in the future.
When I first started my blog, I tried to post every day. I went back and looked recently and found a lot of, well, crap. So, I deleted the crap, tweaked my posting schedule to two days a week and decided to concentrate on *QUALITY OVER QUANTITY*. This is clearly your mindset as well.
The bottom line: there is every manner of eyeball garbage out there. If we (your readers) want B-grade writing that is forgettable and inane, we don’t have to look very far-it’s everywhere . I look forward to seeing one of my go-to writing blogs undergoing a revamp that can only behoove me. Thanks for your willingness to be humble, and for your efforts to convey quality information to your readers.
Hi Joe,
Thanks for commenting.
I am not too keen on focusing on one subject entirely. I like the fact that I cover a wide range of topics.
Take blogging, for example. I launched BloggingTips.com in 2007 and ran it for 3 years. During that time I published around 2,500 pages of content and I personally wrote around 1,000 articles (if I recall correctly). It is a subject that I know very well, however it is also a subject that I am kind of bored of. While I may write about blogging related subjects from time to time, I am not sure I have the same passion I have for the subject as I once did. Therefore, it is a topic that perhaps other people should write for me.
WordPress is something that I still like covering, though I would like to continue to discuss a wide range of subjects, whether that be SEO, podcasting, video blogging, or whatever. I do realise that I may find a specific audience better by focusing on one internet marketing topic, rather than a host of internet marketing topics. However, I also think it is important for me to enjoy writing for this blog.
Moving forward, I will still be working with guest authors. However, I want guest authors to write more in-depth pieces that will delve into a subject with more detail. These will be shared more often as a result.
I’ll just go and check out Brian Dean’s article :)
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
As someone trying to start his own blog, its interesting to read that this approach isn’t working as I was toying with the idea of just getting posts out there, rather than taking the time to write one big beast of a post a week/month.
I think Eric has a point about being more focussed in who your target audience is. I know you replied with your answer, but maybe you could go even further and zoom in a bit more.
A lot of people recommend creating an ‘avatar’ of one fictional person who is your ideal reader. What do they do? What other blogs do they read? Hobbies? Writing down as much detail as possible, then ensuring every post you write is focused on being of interest to that ideal reader.
Sure, other people will enjoy your content, but by having a specific type of person you are writing for, you can hopefully build a really strong connection with that one type of reader.
Worth thinking about.
Another idea might be instead of paying for 5 smaller articles, pay for one longer article from someone with a large social media following who can not only write a great article, but share it and get it out there.
An example might be Brian Dean who wrote a guest post for Smart Passive Income. That got shared a few times. I don’t know how much this would cost but is worth investigating. http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/backlinking-strategy-2014-beyond/
Good luck!
My target audience are internet marketers who are looking to make money on the internet. This includes bloggers and other types of website owners.
The dating review was a follow up to a dating script post I published some time ago about how to make money on the internet with dating websites. You may have noticed that I have published other articles like that, such as my recent article “How to Make Money with an Online Arcade“.
My blog is not focused solely on WordPress, though it is a subject I am familiar with, therefore I write about it frequently. If I was to write about WordPress 100% of the time, it would maybe be better for me to launch a separate blog about WordPress and focus on marketing and SEO and monetisation on this blog. However, I would prefer to update one blog at the moment.
Kevin
Hi Kevin.
I often read your blog but I’m not reading everything, and I’m not reading the articles .. till the end.
I believe you are right, high quality content is a key component, but defining your audience is another one.
Look at your last post about PG Dating Pro and that other one about how to make money with Wordpress.
For who is the first one, for who is the second one.
This goes from ultra niche to “embrace the world”.
As a Wordpress “advanced” user (and a not a developer), I do not care about that Dating stuff… and I know already how to make money with Wordpress.
So, Kevin, to who are you talking ?
(I hesitated a bit before publishing this…)
Cheers
Thanks Dennis. I appreciate the kind words and suggestions.
The purpose of this blog remains the same. To promote myself, my brand, my products, and my services. And to a lesser extent, it is somewhere for me to voice my thoughts on miscellaneous topics.
I will certainly not be getting 900 leads per day with my existing traffic. Far from it. At the present time Rise Forums is only getting a couple of new people signing up every day. And I believe many of those people are registering for the forum as they found it via a search engine.
With regards to leads for my writing service, I still get many offers for writing every week. My hope is that this blog makes enough money so that I do not have to write for others. I would much rather spend time working on my own blog every day than working for others (though I must admit I am lucky to have good clients in that regard who are not difficult to work for).
I enjoy updating my blog, but I do not want to be content with just 1,000 visitors per day. It has nothing to do with ego, but I do want the blog to be getting three to five times more daily visitors per day. The blog is not at the level where I had planned for it to be and that is what concerns me.
I am not motivated by money, or by social media subscribers, however I am ambitious in the sense that I want my blog to be more successful. And from a financial point of view, this blog is not successful. It does not generate enough income for me to support myself (which is why I write for others).
Of course, I realise this blog post may have come across a little negative, but that is not the way I intended it. I realise that I have simply hit a stumbling block. I can choose to ignore this and continue to do the same thing and expect different results, or I can take action and start seeing whether higher quality articles will prove to be more successful.
I have some good ideas for content here. I need to think about whether I publish my premium content through guides (i.e. pages) or through blog posts. I think a directory structure does have benefits, so it is something I have to consider. :)
No problem Kevin, take all the time that you need.
The way that I look at it though is, so what. What does it matter that your traffic has stagnated?
Look at the reason you’re blogging on KevinMuldoon.com and what you hope to accomplish by it. Where does your blog fit into your overall business plan, and life plan?
A consistent 900 leads per day for your writing service or for Rise Forums is great.
If your traffic numbers serve as a selfish ego boost so you can brag to others then I can see the possible problem but that really would be short sighted. I know what I’ve just said is not the case, though.
You may want to get a second opinion from David Risley or Chris Garrett on how to handle your blog. If you want someone without any reputation, I’d be willing to scrutinize your business plan. You know how to get in contact with me, either way.
I’m amazed that you kept on going without missing a beat after your car accident. Stagnant traffic is one of the least of your worries and I wish you continued success no matter which direction you choose!