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- The Secret Stats Your Follower Numbers Hide
This guest post is by Courtney Mroch of Haunt Jaunts.
Statistics and their interpretation is often a popular topic on ProBlogger. One of my favorites about the subject was a guest post by Mark Seall called Who Cares How Many Subscribers You’ve Got?
I loved the way he pointed out that some, if not most, of us will never reach 20,000 subscribers, based purely on the nature of our niches. He created a color-coded diagram of measures we should analyze our success by instead. They included both things we bloggers can directly impact, as well as those we can’t. His point was to focus on what you can influence and not get hung up on, or weighed down by, the rest. Good advice.
On the other hand, Deb of Science@home wrote a guest post called Do You Spend Enough Time Looking at Your Stats? in which she defended the importance of paying attention to them. Namely, she suggested using stats to see who’s visiting from where, and what topics tend to pique their interest most. Then you can cater your posts more to their liking to retain your audience.
I’ve adopted a bit of advice from both Mark and Deb into my stats analysis and blog post development. However, what I’m most concerned with these days is how wisely I’m spending my precious social networking time.
Which social networks are really driving readers to my blog?
When I first started tracking my blog’s stats and paying attention to referral sources, Google, Facebook, and Twitter, respectively, were always the top three referral sources. They drove in a significantly larger amount of traffic than any of the other top ten referrers.
However, at some point I decided I wanted more followers. That’s when I discovered StumbleUpon. Shortly after, my stats revealed something startling, something Marcello Arrambide of Wandering Trader touched on in his ProBlogger guest post A Blog Traffic Strategy: Quality vs Quantity: follower numbers can be deceptive.
Large follower numbers don’t necessarily translate into big visits
In no time flat, StumbleUpon blew Google, which had been Haunt Jaunts’ top referral source, out of the water traffic-wise. Not only that, it brought in more traffic than Google, Facebook, and Twitter combined. Where Google, FB, and Twitter brought in 1,200-1,500 views a month together, StumbleUpon was bringing in 7,000-8,000 all by itself.
But what was even more shocking was I had maybe 20 followers on StumbleUpon at that time. Haunt Jaunts’s Twitter followers were nearing 3,000, and its Facebook page had several hundred. You’d have thought that, together, they’d be bringing in the most traffic. Not even close.
Noticing trends, tracking down followers
These days StumbleUpon is still Haunt Jaunts’ top referral source. However, it’s dropped considerably. I noticed it after SU made some changes. People got mad and stopped using it as much.
Instead, I saw more people flocking to Tumblr, as well as Pinterest. The former seemed to appeal to many ex-Stumblers because it let them do a lot of what they used to be able to do on StumbleUpon, yet have a little more individuality. The latter seemed to appeal to those who especially liked Stumbling photos.
Facebook traffic also dropped. Coincidently, that happened around the same time Google+ became available.
And then there was Twitter. It dropped off my Top 10 Referrers list entirely. In fact, it wasn’t even in the top 50 anymore. It’s since dropped off as a referral source altogether.
Adapt or die
After analyzing my stats, it was time to re-evaluate my social networking strategy. I thought of Dona Colins’s guest post Is Twitter a Waste of Time?, since I found myself having to contemplate that question, not just for Twitter, but for all my social networks.
Where was I going to spend my time? How much effort should I continue putting into the old sources? Which new platforms should I take a gamble on?
I decided to stick with Twitter. It doesn’t bring in any hits, but I do continue to make valuable connections that lead to other projects. Facebook continues to hold strong in the Top 5, so I’ve also kept it.
I decided to expand into new-to-me social networks, including Google+, TBEX (a travel writer community), Pinterest, and Tumblr.
I’ve found a group of fellow TBEXers who also use StumbleUpon. We’ve sort of banded together. I’ve seen a slight increase in SU’s referrals thanks to this. Not like the results I was once getting, but it’s still my number one referral source.
I don’t know how much traffic Google+ is responsible for yet, but it didn’t even take Tumblr two weeks to climb into my Top 10 referrers once I started using it regularly. I’m curious to see if it will continue to climb.
And then there’s Pinterest. So far it’s generated zilch traffic. I have, however, found it’s a delightful way to spend time that could be better utilized researching, writing, or social networking elsewhere. It’s a dangerous one for me to linger on very long.
What about you? Does your biggest referral traffic come from your social network with the most followers or not?
Courtney Mroch is a writer who wears many blogging hats, among her favorite is being the Director of Paranormal Tourism for Haunt Jaunts, a travel blog for restless spirits.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
The Secret Stats Your Follower Numbers Hide
Переслать - Attract 100,000 Pageviews in 1 Month Using Slideshare
This guest post is by Joel Runyon of Impossible HQ.
How do you stand out and differentiate yourself online when more and more people are starting blogs every day?
Sure, you need to write stuff that's gong to stand out, but a lot of blogging advice focuses just on writing. Sometimes to really stand out, you need to go beyond writing and create something different. You need to create content (not just writing) that helps you find new audiences to speak to by using new mediums to spread your message.
One of those new media is Slideshare, an online slide sharing community.
The spark
In 2011, my friend David Crandall released a project titled Inspiration Squared on Slideshare. He sent it to me before he posted it and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was going to be big. David is one heck of a designer and his work combined with the inspirational content behind the piece convinced me right there that it was going to blow up and that I needed to do something about it. I didn’t know anything about Slideshare at the time, but he told me he was going to release it there. Sure enough, as soon as he put it up, he got on to the front page of Slideshare and got about 20,000 views in just a few days.
Over the next few months, he released a few more projects, got them all front-paged on Slideshare and consistently grabbed around 20,000-30,000 views in just a few days after each launch.
David was killing it and I wanted in.
The plan
As soon as I saw David’s first presentation, a light bulb went off and I realized that this Slideshare thing could be big—really big. I sent him an email and told him I wanted to do one. I didn’t know what it would be yet, but I knew it would have two main characteristics: inspirational and beautiful.
Inspirational
I talk about doing impossible things, but I can’t control anyone’s actions other than myself. In other words, I can’t make people act, but I can create the impetus for them to do so. Inspirational pieces not only allow you to do that but also tend to be wildly popular. I knew that in order for this presentation to spread, it would have to be incredibly inspirational.
Beautiful
I wanted the piece to be beautiful as well—this is where David came in. I know exactly what I like, but I know absolutely nothing about making design work. I could have attempted to do this on my own in Microsoft paint, but I knew the only person who would actually pass that along would be my mom.
I knew I couldn’t do it myself, so I called David up and asked him if he would consider doing those presentations for other people. After his track record on his presentations, it was a no-brainer and I commissioned him to do a piece based on one of my most popular posts ever—25 Impossible Quotes—a year-and-a-half-old post that gets crazy amounts of Stumble Upon and social media traffic.
Manufacturing viral
I realized if I could make it both inspirational and beautiful, we could get some serious traction in the Slideshare community as well as the other social media channels, and it would have the potential to go viral. I’ll be the first one to say that it sounds really dumb to say you can manufacture something going viral and for the most part you can’t if you’re trying to create massive viral wins of 1,000,000+ views. But, if you just want to do 50,000-100,000 views, it’s much more doable and I knew with David’s track record, we could easily get 20,000-30,000 views and build it from there.
Since the piece was going to be a presentation and downloadable booklet, we decided to beef it up and double the amount of quotes in it, pulling some more impossible quotes from another article until we ended up with a total 50 impossible quotes. With those set, David went to work and did his thing.
(I mentioned before that you could probably do this yourself if you’ve got serious design chops. If not, and you’re serious about this, find someone like David who’s work you’ve seen before and like. It’s worth it to invest in this to make it truly epic.)
The marketing
There were a few different methods we planned on getting traffic from.
My site
I figured my decent sized readership would give the presentation the initial boost we needed to get traction in the Slideshare community and I was right. After a few thousand views from my site, we hit the front page of Slideshare.
Slideshare front page
Getting on Slideshare’s front page is usually good for 10,000-20,000 views depending on how long you’re up there and how compelling your presentation actually is. Ours went up and got us 25,000 views within the first couple days. That was enough to put at the top of the charts for most popular category, which gave the project even more longevity.
I was pumped, but I knew we could do more. I reached out to a few more people and we started to inch up towards the 30-40k mark. Still good, but I felt there was more potential.
The inflection point
Michael Hyatt is the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing, the seventh largest publishing house in the US, and runs a blog with close to 200,000 visitors. We simply wanted him to take a look at it and through a series of twitter messages we got it in front of him and he loved it. The next thing I know I got a message from Michael, “Cool, I’ll post it on my blog.”
A couple of days later—BOOM.
He posted it and it took off: 60k, 75k, 80k views. Within a couple weeks we doubled the amount of views on the presentation and within a month of the launch, we cleared 100,000 views on the presentation (not to mention several thousand direct downloads both from Slideshare and Impossible HQ). Not too bad for a little outside-the-box thinking.
Make your own Slideshare presentation
Fortunately, Slideshare is a new enough platform that you can get some serious traction without being a superstar. After all, if I did it, so can you. Here are a few tips on making your own Slideshare presentation go viral.
Make it simple, stupid
The highlight of Slideshare pieces that go viral is simplicity. You don’t need to make it complicated. You should have one main thought per slide. Don’t over think this.
Choose the right type of presentation
The types of posts that will do really well on Stumble Upon will also do really well on Slideshare. If you have any posts on your blog that have done particularly well on Stumble Upon, you should probably be able to convert it into a popular Slideshare presentation. Other post types that do well:
- inspirational posts
- lists posts
- compilations of quotes (people really love quotes)
- simple explanations of complicated things.
Anything that is simple, easy to understand and apply do really well in the Slideshare format.
Note: Please do not do a PowerPoint presentation. It will not go over well and no one ever wants to read 5-7 bullets on a slide. Remember: keep it simple!
Find a Slideshare Insider
I compiled the quotes and knew it would have certain traction with the backing of my branding, but the secret sauce of working with David is that he’s already been established in the Slideshare community. He’s done a lot of the heavy lifting of making connections and getting known because he’s good at what he does. He’s built up a reputation so people pay attention when he creates something.
Don’t underestimate the value of working with someone great. Scan the top creators of Slideshare and find someone whose work you like and see if you can commission them for your project. Not only will their knowledge help you make a better looking presentation, but once it's made, you'll have more traction within the community.
Market the heck out of it
Share it with your audience. Share it with people you know. Talk to people who know people and share it with them. If you’ve done your work and made your Slideshare presentation awesome, share it with them and ask their opinion and you’ll make it easy for them to pass it along.
The hidden benefits of Slideshare
The best part of creating content Slideshare is that it’s a whole new audience. Guest posting and interviews can always bring in different amounts of traffic, but it’s often hard to avoid incestuous blogging—blogging to the same audiences that read the same blogs over and over and over.
Slideshare is a whole different medium than blog readers. Similar to podcast listeners, Pinterest users and YouTube users, they’re an entirely different market that may or may not read blogs. By using your content in a different way, you can reach these audiences where they’re at and draw them in.
The flip-side of this is that most of your blog readers have never heard of Slideshare either. So, when you create a killer presentation, it looks incredibly impressive—even if you’re simply repurposing your content into a new arena. It's a whole new medium with a lot of wide open opportunity, so don't wait.
Have you used Slideshare yet? Tell us how it went in the comments.
Joel Runyon is the creator of Impossible HQ and the Blog of Impossible Things where he pushes his limits by doing the impossible. You can follow him on twitter.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Attract 100,000 Pageviews in 1 Month Using Slideshare
Переслать - 24 Hours Left to Win a Trip to The Great Barrier Reef in Queensland Australia #QldBlog
Update: this competition is now closed to new entries. We’re now narrowing down to find our 10 winners who will be contacted and then announced here on ProBlogger on 23 April. Thanks to all who entered!Ten days ago I excitedly announced an amazing opportunity for ProBlogger readers to enter a competition to win one of ten trips to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
As I write this post, the deadline for entering this competition is less than 24 hours away, and those of you considering putting yourself in the running for this once-in-a-lifetime trip need to get your skates on!
Since launching the competition, we’ve had hundreds of entries from some wonderful bloggers. Hundreds is a lot, but considering we’re giving away ten trips, those who have entered currently have a one in 50 chance of ending up on the reef with me in June. They’re pretty decent odds!
Since announcing the competition I’ve posted the full five-day itinerary—there are some amazing experiences included in the prize:
- meet and get up close to some of Australia’s cute (and not-so-cute) native animals
- eat at some of the finest restaurants in the region
- participate in two blogging workshops with me (with just ten participants, I’ll be able to give your blog some personal attention)
- sail, snorkel, and explore the Great Barrier Reef
- experience one of the world’s oldest rain forests
- on the last day, you can choose your own adventure and explore an aspect of the region that relates to your own interests and niche.
Plus much more!
While this is a working holiday of sorts, as you’ll be creating some content based on what you see, there will be plenty of time for fun, adventuring, and a little relaxing.
All in all, this is a trip I can’t wait to go on and I’m particularly looking forward to sharing it with ten wonderful ProBlogger readers.
This competition isn’t a popularity contest or just for big bloggers, and it isn’t just for travel bloggers—we’re looking for entries from a range of blog niches and from bloggers from around the world.
Pitch us your ideas for how you’d cover the trip in the entry form, and you might just find yourself winging your way into Queensland (all expenses paid) in June.
Important links:
- Contest announcement post: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2012/04/03/queensland-competition/
- Trip itinerary: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2012/04/11/blogger-correspondant-great-barrier-reef-itinerary-qldblog
- Terms and conditions: http://www.problogger.net/queensland-competition-terms-conditions/
- Entry form: http://www.problogger.net/queensland-entries/
Please enter today, and if you know of any other blogger who might enjoy this trip, please do share it with them—they’ll be indebted to you forever if they win!
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
24 Hours Left to Win a Trip to The Great Barrier Reef in Queensland Australia #QldBlog
Переслать - A Better Starting Point for Choosing a Niche
Earlier this month, I wrote a post on gearing up your blog from a hobby into a business that generated some interesting discussion.
One thing that’s often a sticking point relates to the point I made about niche assessment. Today I’d like to step back a little further and consider niche selection from scratch. Or “before scratch,” if there’s such a thing!
The “good niche” myth
I often see bloggers wrestling with the question: what are some good niches to blog in?
Once you start thinking like this, all kinds of other, even tougher questions pop up.
- What are the best niches to monetize?
- What niches have the most readers?
- How can I find a niche that’s not too crowded?
- If I choose a crowded niche, how can I make my blog stand out?
Many bloggers who think along these lines are blogging because they want to get on board and be part of the blogosphere. They know that blogs can be monetized, and/or they can gain authority through blogging, so their starting point is to get involved in the blogging industry.
That’s fine, but I think that if this were my motivation, I’d have a lot of trouble sustaining my blogs. For one thing, I don’t think I’d be able to find the kind of niche Ronique Gibson described as one I could “expand on for life” in her post on choosing a niche. She asks, “Could you talk about your niche morning, noon, and night?” And that question demands that we, as bloggers, look at our own personal interests.
An approach to niche selection that doesn’t take your passion into account in some way may make your blog difficult to sustain. Who wants to write (or source content) on a topic they don’t care about, week in, week out? If you don’t have a deep, motivated understanding of your niche, you could have trouble selecting the best affiliate promotions, or relating to advertisers and other partners.
Also, if you choose a niche you don’t have any experience or knowledge of, you can end up creating more work for yourself than you might have if you’d followed your heart. I can’t imagine all the research I’d have to do to run dPS if I didn’t love photography.
My passion for that niche is what motivates me to communicate with other photographers, research, and learn. It’s fun for me. If it wasn’t, I’d have to do a lot more “work” to understand the niche, and make my blog sound natural, enthusiastic, and empathetic to the needs of my readers.
Hence the myth of the “good niche”—what’s a good niche for one blogger, is a terrible niche for another.
A better starting point for choosing a niche
If you’re starting your blogging journey by asking, “What are some good niches to blog in?”, you might be motivated by a desire to be part of the blogosphere, rather than a desire to connect with like-minded people.
And I think this is the key. Community is certainly the cornerstone of blogging today. If I were to give advice to a would-be blogger wanting to choose “the right” niche, I’d say this:
Choose a niche in which you feel passionate about connecting with others.
If you don’t feel you have much to share on the topic, you don’t have respect for other people in the niche—including your “competitors,” you don’t care about the niche’s trending topics in social media, or you can’t really think of any questions you’d like to find out about by talking with others who share this “interest,” then the niche might not be the best one for you to blog in.
Your involvement within your niche’s community will underpin your success. You’ll have to be involved if you’re to understand what your potential readers—and potential customers—need, and work out the best ways to deliver it to them. You’ll have to be involved if you’re going to be successful at reaching readers and establishing an authentic rapport. And if you’re involved, you’ll find it easier to get help and advice from others who have complementary skills or experience with that niche.
To put it another way, you can’t build a profile for your blog without being involved in the niche’s community. So if you’re considering a niche, but you don’t want to immerse yourself in its community, you might want to choose another niche.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
A Better Starting Point for Choosing a Niche
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