The most exciting thing about today’s blog traffic report is that I’m halfway to my initial goal of 20,000 monthly pageviews on Google Analytics! You can read more about what my statistics were when I started this goal and why I decided to do it, as well as my previous blog traffic reports.
Traffic Report
Current Stats (September 1)
Unique pageviews: 11,486 (+203.7% from the start, +77.6% from July)
Bounce rate: 12.81% (-15.4% from the start, -79% from July)
Sessions: 4,402 (+56.7% from the start, 38.8% from July)
Users: 3,680 (+91% from the start, +37.7% from July)
Bloglovin: 1,486 (+10.4% from the start, +1.3% from July)
Email Subscribers: 52 (started at 0, 15.6% from July)
Social Media
Facebook: 723 (+22% from the start, +4.3% from July)
Twitter: 1713 (+10.8% from the start, +0.2% from July)
Instagram: 615 (+53.5% from the start, +7.3% from July)
Google+: 114 (+35.7% from the start, +4.5% from July)
Pinterest: 1.5k – I can no longer see the exact number (+63.9% from the start, estimated around +7.6% from July)
Top Posts
The 8 Things a Millennial with Arthritis Wants You To Know
40 Blog Post Ideas for Lifestyle Bloggers
How Do Adults Celebrate Their Birthday?
Erin Condren End-of-Year Review
Traffic Analysis
What I Did:
- How I Promote My Posts
- SEO and WordPress
- Scheduled Twitter promos of past posts (1 a day) through the beginning of October
- Deleted posts I don’t like any more or don’t want up and associated with the blog
- Sponsored/ads on blogs: Helene in Between, Pink on the Cheek, Patricia B in France, Boone + Owl, and Such a Novel Idea (ad swap)
- Added Disqus with the hope of encouraging more comments and community
- Created a long list of blog posts to write so that I have a list of ideas ready if I need inspiration
- 2 of my 3 posts every week have good SEO according to Yoast
- I’ve been in the following ad cycle:
- Week 1: Facebook ad
- Week 2: Promoted Pin
- Week 3: Facebook ad
- Week 4: My giveaway
What Worked:
- Twitter promos of old posts – Since I have written over 500 posts and my viewership has dramatically increased over the past year, I have loads of old posts that my newer readers haven’t read. Setting up 2+ months of Twitter promos took a long time, but it was totally worth it.
- Ad sponsorships of Helene in Between, Patricia B in France, and Boone + Owl – Both Helene’s and Jen’s ads come with social media promotions, and that has also been key. I really strongly advise sponsoring these 3 ladies!
- SEO – I talked about how WordPress makes it much easier to judge the quality of your SEO, but it really should be talked about more. This makes it easier for a whole new wide group of readers to find you!
- Ad cycle – I really advise choosing very specific audiences to see your ad and mixing up the types of posts you promote. For example, if I have a Facebook ad for a post on switching to WordPress, then the next time, I promote a post on chronic illness. It’s all about getting your posts and your blog seen by many different eyes.
- Being on WordPress – I wrote a whole post about it, but I can’t advise switching enough!
I Haven’t Seen Results From:
- Deleting old posts
- Having a long list of post ideas
My Plans and Goals:
Since I started grad school this week, I’m going to try and not stress much about my statistics. Granted, that’s easier said than done, but I want to get settled with school and my new schedule (working 2 full days a week, class 2 afternoons a week, a ton of homework, etc.) before trying incredibly hard. That being said, I want to set tangible and realistic goals for myself, but I don’t want to set too many.
- Pageviews: 15,000
- Unique sessions: 6,000
- Instagram: 700 followers
So there you have it! I am thrilled that I have had such gains, and I hope that this will continue. Do you have any suggestions of what I can do? Have these reports helped you?
Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
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