Its been about 10 days since I first started my blog, so I wanted to share with you my first progress report. For those of you following me on this journey toward a successful and profitable blog, I will describe some things that worked well, other things that didn't work at all, and some general lessons learned. For those of you not following along, or already have more experience blogging, please leave some comments to enlighten some of us newbies with your valuable knowledge!
This is the first of many regular progress reports. As this blog grows, I hope these reports will become more and more impressive. Be sure to check back often to see how I am doing and follow along. I hope your blog can benefit from some of these lessons learned!
General Progress
In the first 10 days I've had 284 page views in 62 visits from 25 unique visitors. All in all, its not too impressive (ok, it sucks). To date, I have earned $0.00 - which isn't too surprising because I haven't put up many advertisements yet. I am actually researching ad services now. Leave me a comment and let me know what you use (especially if its anything other than Google Ads).
What I Did Well
The most important thing to remember when writing a blog is that your content must be real. Yes, there are people out there that make a lot of money without the greatest content. That's just tough to do when first starting out or without resorting to unethical way of generating traffic. If you have a new blog, the best thing you can do is just take the time and make sure you have good, relevant, and interesting posts. Anyway, that is what I tried to focus on initially (hopefully some of you find my content decent!). After a new post, I always make use of a ping service like Ping-o-matic. This service will ping all the top blog indexes and search services, notifying them that you have new content. I also started checking out some fellow bloggers that discuss similar topics. I tried leaving comments on their sites and even gave a review to Carl "the Kidblogger" Ocab. So far, pretty much all of my traffic has come from using the ping services and comments from other blogs.
What I Didn't Do Well
I definitely got off to a slow start. That is my fault - I started this blog while on vacation! I noticed definite spikes in my traffic on days that I had a new post. I need to make an effort to post more regularly. I also tried signing up for blog syndications services like BlogRush and BlogFlux. I should have waited longer - I got denied because I had too little content. I am also probably not doing enough to "get involved" in my blog community. I am going to make an effort to contribute and become known to other blogs that have similar content. That is the best way to get your name out there and give people a way to find your blog.
Important Lessons
I think the biggest lesson I learned is how important it is to become an active member of your blogging community. Its not easy, but you have to get your name out there if you want people to find your blog. The best way to do that when first starting out is to comment a lot on other people's blogs and to give them a little respect in some of your posts. Hopefully they will return the favor and link back to you. A direct link from a high profile blogger is priceless!
My goal for the next progress report will be to drastically increase my traffic, attract some regular readers, and start earning some cash! (even if its only a few cents). Please leave me some comments and let me know how I'm doing so far. What was your first few weeks like? Any advice or suggestions are welcomed!
Jeff
