Blog Traffic Increased by over 102% in August! – Reverse the Crush – blogging – Documenting blog growth for August – social media growth
Welcome to the Blog Traffic and Social Media Report for August 2017.
I’m happy to report that blog traffic increased by over 102% when compared to July 2017.
It just goes to show that putting in the work pays off.
Before I get into the numbers, I just want to briefly explain why I share my blog traffic reports publicly each month.
Here are my reasons:
To learn more about blogging. Through consistently analyzing how blog traffic is generated, patterns begin to provide insight on how your individual efforts impact different acquisition channels.
To maintain a business-like approach to blogging. As I alluded to in the previous report, publishing my dividend income and blog numbers is similar to how public corporations publish their own reports.
I enjoy reading about how others blog traffic increased. I’ve always appreciated when other bloggers share their dividend income updates and blog traffic reports. Personally, it helps with motivation, and it’s extremely interesting to learn about strategies that work for other bloggers.
Marketing. Though I didn’t enjoy all aspects of studying business marketing, I did enjoy writing business plans. Perhaps I wasn’t appreciative enough of the opportunity to study business marketing at the time—I spent a lot of time partying and tryna be an entrepreneur instead. But now that nearly 10 years has passed since school, I can definitely see how learning to write business plans translated into blogging. For whatever reason, I enjoy the process of producing content, figuring out ways to market it, and then analyzing that experience in a report form.
Integrity and transparency. Not only is blogging a creative outlet for me, it’s also the one place where I get to do things exactly how I want. I get to eliminate all of the bureaucratic bullshit! Furthermore, I get to operate the blog in earnest by avoiding stock photography or by making up fake numbers to sell readers on affiliate links.
Everyone has different goals and paths in life, and I respect that. However, this is the one place where I don’t have to succumb to any amount of money offered or pressure. For example, I occasionally receive paid offers to publish sponsored content on this blog. For those who haven’t received a freelance offer via their blog before, typically, there is a negotiation process.
To put it bluntly, earning money is not the only reason I blog. I mean, I’m willing to accept lower rates if I can help someone else out or provide value to readers. But, what I don’t appreciate is straight up disrespect. If you lack integrity and transparency, I can tell you right now that your offer is getting declined.
With that said, below is the blog traffic and social media report for August 2017:
[bctt tweet=”Page Views & Social Media Report for August 2017 #blogging #socialmedia” username=”reversethecrush”]
Blog Traffic in August 2017
compared to July 2017 Blog and Social Media numbers**
All time page views on Reverse the Crush — 45,451
Page views in August — 2,457 (up 1,246 | 102.89% increase)
Unique page views in August — 1,907
Total users in August — 474 (Up 169 | 55% increase)
Total sessions in August — 909 (Uo 401 | 79% increase)
All time blog posts published on RTC — 196 (as of September 9, 2017)
Overall Acquisition Channel Overview
Breakdown of how blog traffic sessions were acquired during August 2017
Social Media — 403 sessions (Up 201)
Direct traffic — 269 sessions (Up 144)
Organic search — 142 sessions (Up 8)
Referral traffic — 95 sessions (Up 48)
Top Traffic Driving Social Media Channels
- Twitter — 350 sessions (86.85% of social traffic)
- Google Plus — 27 sessions (6.7% of social traffic)
- Pinterest — 22 sessions (5.46% of social traffic)
- Other — 4 sessions (0.99% of social traffic)
Social Media & E-Mail Subscriber Growth
Twitter — 1,918 followers (Up 41)
Pinterest — 395 followers (Up 11)
Google+ — 15 followers (Up 1)
Email subscribers — 39 (Up 2)
Total social media followers and subscribers — 2,367
I greatly appreciate all of the followers and subscribers! Thank you.
Why blog traffic Increased
More blog posts. I set the goal of publishing 5 blogs in August but ended up publishing 6. Frankly, there’s really no better way of generating page views than publishing new content. In my own experience, there’s not another social media strategy or tactic that can compete with new content.
Free Trial of Tailwind for Pinterest. Since there are a number of successful bloggers that suggest Tailwind to boost blog traffic, I finally cracked and decided to try their free trial. Though I didn’t see any dramatic increases, I did get a small increase in followers, and I was able to see a few page views flow in from Pinterest. However, those increases weren’t even the best part of getting to experience the free Tailwind trial—the best part was the understanding gained on how to utilize Pinterest.
Increased effort and consistency with social media. Admittedly, I intentionally put in more work on social media in August. By reflecting on the social media numbers, I realized that I have built up a valuable sized network of bloggers that share similar perspectives on life and financial independence. I’m appreciative that I’ve been able to reach 2,367 followers and subscribers, and I realize that a small, connected network has the potentially to grow into something bigger. There’s a lot of value in being able to build relationships through social media about similar topics. Furthermore, it provides me with a platform that could contribute to reaching FI sooner.
Increased effort to read and comment on other blogs. In addition to being more active on Twitter and Pinterest, I also put more work into reading and commenting on other blogs. In total, I managed to comment 48 times on other interesting articles during the month. As a disclaimer, I don’t just comment for selfish reasons. I comment on articles that I truly enjoyed from bloggers that share similar views, interests and values.
Motivation and sense of direction for the blog. Through experiencing a few tough times in life and through taking a year off work, I was able to refocus and visualize exactly what I want. Now that I’m back to work and consistent cash flow is coming in, I’m able to build my dividend portfolio, which brings me closer to FI. Furthermore, thanks to an accommodating schedule at work, I’ve had more time to side hustle on this blog. As a result of having a laser-like focus in terms of what I want to accomplish, it has translated into the blog. To be honest, I’m just blogging about exactly what I’m doing. However, it works because the clarity makes it easier for readers to know why to come back.
Conclusion
As stated in my goals and accountability report for September, my goal is to grow blog traffic again this month.
Also, don’t be surprised if an all-time high for page views in one month is surpassed.
In order to make sure that the goal is reached, I will use tactics learned through writing blog reports like this one.
Though it has been a quiet first week of September for the blog, I have a number of new posts planned that I look forward to sharing.
Questions for the readers: How was your blog traffic in August? What acquisition category generates the most traffic for your blog?
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Personal Goal-setting & Accountability – September 2017
