Psych! This post just my monthly Progress Report for February. (that's right...I'm bringing "psych" back). I guess its a good thing that my progress report is a few days late. I was able to realize that every other blog on earth is now doing a monthly "stat brag". Normally, I'd bag the whole post all together to avoid the risk of being branded as another knock-off blog. But I can't. Along with the
Weekly Buzz, the Monthly Progress reports are an important part of my blog. Its how I give back to my readers - how I let fellow newbies know what worked, what didn't, and the important lessons I learned along the way. In order to stand out among the other blogs, I guess I'll just have to make mine a little more light-hearted. Besides...who doesn't enjoy a good Britney joke? (Ok...maybe that's not so original after all)
How About Those Stats!
What can I say other than WOW! I rock! Yeah, yeah...I still have quite a ways to go to catch Shoemoney (or even his dog Baxter probably). But still, I went from 100 unique visitors in January to 1,927 in February! That is an increase of 1,827%. Amazing! (the growth, not the final number). 4073 page views and 2623 visits are not really numbers to do cartwheels over, but an increase of 251% and 329% respectively from the prior month is worth at least a somersault or two. And here is the amazing part. I had one decent post the first week of February, then went away for a whole week. The majority of these number are from traffic I received in the last two weeks of February!! Not bad, huh?
What I Did Well
So what can I attribute those fantastic two weeks to? It was a little bit of luck followed by a lot of hard work to capitalize on that luck. I was lucky enough to have a guest post published on JohnCow.com. Unfortunately, it went live the same day I was stranded in Chicago's Midway airport. "Oh know!", I thought. "I haven't updated my blog in a whole week. All that traffic will be for nothing!". So I quickly got to work writing some quality content. My next three posts then got some tremendous feedback.
These posts saw a lot of traffic and received a good number of comments. Google stats were high. I was pumped. I rode that wave into the long awaited launch of the Weekly Buzz - an exclusive feature of BuzzMyBlog that selects an up and coming blog to spotlight and gives the owner 500 EntreCard credits to promote it. I then started a heated discussion about the future of EntreCard, to which Graham Langdon himself - EntreCard's founder - personally replied with some enlightening words. It was an exciting two weeks indeed.
What I Did Not Do Well
Yes, it was an exciting month. I saw a lot more traffic to my blog and met a lot of new people. But there is always room for improvement. The one thing that I did not do very well was increase the number of subscribers to my feed. I had set a goal for myself last month to get 50 readers. I fell a bit short here and only got 34. To be fair, some users have reported a problem with my feed publishing duplicate posts. Let me know if this happens to you (yes...I am making excuses). I need to do a better job of promoting my feed.
You know what else I totally sucked at? Making money. That is the real goal after all, isn't it? I did not make any money from my blog in February. But I did not really try to either. My plan all along was to build my readership base, then try to monetize. Now that I've got a good base, I think I'll try some techniques for monetizing in March. Don't worry...I fully intend to maintain the integrity of my blog. BuzzMyBlog will never become one of those annoying sites with enough ads to drive you crazy. But keep your eyes out for some design improvements in March to make my blog more appealing to the eye (and to the advertiser). I am curious what you think about the layout of BuzzMyBlog. What do you think could be improved?
Important Lessons I Learned
I have heard a number of times that "Content Is Not King - Marketing Is". I think that is total bullshit. What can you possibly market if you don't have any decent content? I had a little bit of luck in February with the guest post, but I truly worked hard to capitalize on the opportunity I was given. If you are ever given a lucky break, don't take it for granted. Capitalize on it the best you can, even if that means you have to work harder. It will be worth it.
Goals for March
There is no question that I will be looking to continue this growth streak into March. I have some exciting posts planned that I hope will generate some good Buzz. I will be very happy if I can at least double my February numbers and reach 8000 page views, 5000 visits, and 4000 unique visitors. I will be very disappointed if I don't get at least 50 subscribers to my feed (so make sure you subscribe!). Finally, I hope the end of March will see a few dollars rolling in - though I think I'll leave the financial goals for April. :-)
As a final note, I want to thank all the new friends I made this past month for visiting my blog and participating in the discussions. It was nice to meet you all and I hope to continue to see you here at BuzzMyBlog.com.
I will be giving away another 500 EntreCard credits on Monday so if you haven't signed up for the Weekly Buzz, do it now! If you have, remember you can get more chances to win by referring other bloggers.
I am delirious. I need some sleep.
Good night,
Jeff
