Looking Back on 6 Months of Blogging
My first post was on October 21st 2008 and after 6 months my blog is still not getting much traffic. On average I get about 50 hits a day, mostly to the wp-click-track page and not the actual blog, and as of the time I posted this I only have 6 Feedburner subscriptions (and I’m pretty sure I work with all 6 people).
Blogging for 6 Months
Doing a quick inventory of my blog leads to the below stats:
- 80 posts published
- 20 drafts (I work on a few posts at a time)
- A crap load (that’s the technical term; crap load) of code released.
It was my initial goal to use my blog as a repository of all the cool stuff I do on a day to day basis and on that front the blog has been a success. I have a nice database of cool php and IT related posts; everything from working with social networking sites to manipulating zip files with php to how to not suck at email marketing.
It’s pretty apparent, that at this moment in my blogs life, NO ONE CARES.
Check this out:
Boobs.
Nothing. No outcry. The world is still here.
Nice.
Apparently this isn’t out of the ordinary though. According to Jeff Atwood it’s important to be patient:
The blog is no different. I often give aspiring bloggers this key piece of advice: if you’re starting a blog, don’t expect anyone to read it for six months. If you do, I can guarantee you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you can stick to a posting schedule and produce one or two quality posts every week for an entire calendar year… then, and only then, can you expect to see a trickle of readership. I started this blog in 2004, and it took a solid three years of writing 3 to 5 times per week before it achieved anything resembling popularity within the software development community.
So it looks like I shouldn’t really care about people reading my blog until October 2010 and it may take as long as 2012 until my blog reall starts to matter. Bummer…
That doesn’t mean I should just sit back and wait; that’s never a good idea. To help the process along, I started looking at submitting my blog to a few of the blog aggregators. Supposedly, WordPress already does this for a bunch of blog aggregators but the only incoming links I have are to wp-click-track. I wasn’t so sure a ping was all that’s required.
I registered my blog with syndic8, Technorati, Yahoo, LinkedIn, WeBlogAlot, Blogged to name a few. Some of the sites required that I prove ownership of my blog by either including a graphic, adding a new meta tag or creating a temporary file on your blog.
Really, a HUGE pain in the ass that didn’t do a thing for me. Let me be clear: There’s been ZERO impact from having my blog on those sites. Maybe, maybe, I get a couple hits a day from all the sites combined, but that’s it.
Lesson: if you’re just a random guy starting a blog don’t worry about submitting to those sites.
I also released quite a bit of code. This has been where the majority of my traffic comes from. So far, I’ve released only 2 “official” projects (both WordPress plugins). Considering it’s only been half a year and they’ve both been downloaded, collectively, over 1,000 times I’d say it’s been a bit of a success.
What’s the next 6 months going to be like? Can’t wait to find out.
Email
Twitter
I can tell you that if you keep up for another year, you WILL have traffic. This is way better than the average blog I click through to.
Be patient. Keep a rhythm going. The work is its own reward.
If you build it, they will come.
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000702.html
Thanks for the encouragement and compliment man. I appreciate it
I can’t believe you said “Boobs.” I’ve never been more offended in my life. Oh, the humanity!
Damn, you said it to; now everyone’s going to think we’re not right in the head
I think 80 posts is really good for 6months, you’re making about 3 posts a week with is much better than I’m doing. Keep that up and you’ll atleast keep people’s interest once you catch it. I actually found you via http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/computers/software/programming/ so maybe submitting your blog to a few more directories could help. I also find that http://www.dailyblogtips.com/ offers a lot of great advice for how to make a successful blog.
Keep it up!
Sorry to double post, but I just noticed something as I went to find your RSS feed. It wasn’t as easy to find as it could have been. If you place a link to your feed somewhere prominant like in your header somewhere or just below it people will be more likely to see it and think “hey, I may subscribe to this” even if they weren’t planning to seek out your feed. I think placing a link to it in the footer helps too, I find that’s where I look after reading a post on a blog.
Apparently I’m also blind. Forgive me, and please ignore my previous comment.
This is what I get for reading blogs at 5am ^_^
Hi eldris,
No worries; I appreciate the advice. Take a look at the footer
Heyhey
I did think of something else today that may benefit you. There’s a wordpress add-on that allows people to subscribe by email to comments that get added after the one they’re posting. I find I always do that when I comment on blogs, which makes seeing if the author replied much easier than trawling through my google reader feeds trying to remember where I commented
Conversations seem to be a good way to keep people interested in a blog (I can’t speak from personal experience as a blogger, but I can as a reader, and also it makes logical sense)
Anyhoo, this advice is out of the blue so I’m gonna back off now before you think I’m a stalker. It’s just reading this post, you come across as very passionate about what you’re writing, and I think you deserve to have more people stick about and read your articles.
Eldris,
I actually thought WordPress did this already; woops…
Once again, you’ve given me good advice. I’ve installed the plugin so there’s a checkbox to subscribe on the comment form now.
Please let me know if there’s anything else you can think of.