Last month I published the first website marketing report in a while.
This month I’m publishing the first year over year blog traffic numbers.
Before reviewing the numbers, it’s important to note that I am publishing blog traffic numbers from the perspective of a dividend investing blogger. The purpose is to analyze progress over time and to learn more about blogging.
Of course, I am trying to improve the numbers too. Publishing traffic reports allows for a closer look at what’s working. For example, consecutive traffic increases from Pinterest is an indicator that I’m doing something right.
[bctt tweet=”Setting the Scene for Blogging in June 2018 | Blog Traffic & Website Marketing Diary” username=”reversethecrush”]Setting the Scene for Blogging in June 2018.
This was the month that I began to embrace the moment again. I’m beginning to view blogging as an entertaining challenge.
It was a month that I embraced the correlation between blogging and my happiness. Whether I’m good enough to make it as a full-time blogger or not, it’s the process of trying that I appreciate. It may not seem like a big deal to everyone, but setting goals, publishing dividend income updates, and trying to improve at blogging keeps me going. The long term goal of becoming a full-time blogger and dividend investor provides me with a self-created purpose.
Moreover, I began focusing on commitment and clarity since these realizations occurred. I am showing commitment by setting a blog post schedule, and I’m showing clarity by trying to eliminate the pretentious bullshit from my writing.
While editing classic (old poorly written) posts recently, I realized there’s a lot of unnecessary adjectives and sentences. On the other hand, some of my previous posts have more energy and passion. I attempted to tone down the approach recently but fuck that! It’s not the way to go. A brand needs to have a powerful purpose and edge to truly stand for something.
An idea must be equally hated and liked for it to be a good idea.
That’s my current philosophy. If a message is toned down to appeal to everyone, it won’t be passionately supported. But if the content cheeses a specific group off, there will be an equally happy opposing community that fucking loves it.
In short, I don’t give a fuck about the group that disagrees with financial independence. In contrast I embrace the shit out of the financial independence community. I’ve met incredible FI bloggers online that I will support and be inspired by forever.
In addition, I am slowly but surely viewing RTC as more of a brand. It’s a simple change in approach, but it really makes you think about each decision you make. It forces you to change your approach and stop thinking about what you like. Instead you begin to focus on what is most appropriate for the brand.
Blog Posts Published in June 2018
Five blog posts were published and some of the original recurring posts were brought back with a sense of commitment.
I published one post about blogging with a click bait title, A big opportunity! The RTC Blog is for sale for $50,000, and that helped to bring in additional traffic. However, dividend income update #12 led the way for acquiring traffic. It’s certainly good to know that dividend income updates bring in the most traffic because that’s the main purpose for the blog anyways. Further, I know that I’m committed to dividend investing for the long term. My dividend income will be higher in 5 years and that will lead to more traffic.
Here are the 5 blog posts that were published in June 2018:
- Dividend Income Update #12 | $15.19 in passive income received. (published June 6, 2018)
- Blog Traffic Report for May 2018 (published June 12, 2018)
- Mid Year Update on the Personal Finance Goals for 2018 (published June 19, 2018)
- Mid Year Progress Report on the Blogging Objectives for 2018 (published June 25, 2018)
- A Big Opportunity! The RTC Blog is for sale for $50,000 (June 27, 2018)
Blog Traffic Analysis June 2018
All time page views on Reverse The Crush — 65,207
Simply put, this wasn’t a very impressive month for blog traffic. Page views were down slightly compared to May.
As shown above, there were 1,372 page views and 498 users in June 2018.
Connecting with that community to share thoughts on financial independence and blogging is one of the more compelling reasons to blog. That core group is the primary focus.
The good news is that year over year traffic increased. I can also confirm that blog traffic for July has already surpassed June and it’s only July 24th.
Year over Year Blog Traffic Growth compared to June 2017
The most important statistic and highest growth shown above is the increase in users. There were 498 users in June 2018 compared to 431 users in June 2017. I’ll take that 15.55% growth rate.
Another important figure to mention is the improvement of organic search traffic. Though it is not shown above, organic search traffic increased by 13 page views or 4.98% over June 2017.
In my opinion, those are the two most important categories because social media requires time and effort. If the community is larger and more people are able to find the blog through organic search, page views will naturally increase. I just need to find more like-mind people that are into dividend investing, blogging, and financial independence as much as I am.
Breakdown of how Page Views were Acquired
As you can see from the Google Analytics screen shot above, social media led the way for traffic acquisition as it generated 660 page views. Direct traffic followed with 387 and then organic search traffic generated 274 page views.
Overall, this was a lacklustre month considering what the blog is capable of. Social media has been able to create double the page views in a month before, and referral traffic was particularly low.
However, there has been an uptick in traffic for July so far. It’s already surpassed the numbers I’m reporting here. I’m looking forward to breaking down the numbers of that report to analyze what changed. I am speculating that returning to recurring posts and more frequent posts required time to adjust. Therefore it’s important to select a pace and stick with that pace.
Top Traffic Driving Social Media Channels
The RTC Twitter account led the way by attracting 79 users in June 2018. This accounted for 60.31% of all social media traffic. Although that sounds high, it’s a lot lower than it used to be. Twitter was responsible for generating as high as 90% of my blog traffic at times. But now, Pinterest has been picking up steam as a viable contributor.
Pinterest followed with 36 users while Blogger somehow acquired 14.
This group of users accounted for 275 sessions and 660 page views overall.
Website Marketing Strategies
Create improved blog post titles. Straight up—creative blog titles are a weakness of mine. I view the blog as a personal journal which leads me to create resourceful titles. With that flaw being acknowledged, I think the title of this post is boring again lol. There are a lot of more catchy names I could’ve chosen but I chose to be tactical. Anyways, I’m going to work on it.
Re-editing and republishing old content. There are approximately 160 posts sitting in draft mode that could be edited and promoted. It’s an opportunity to get inspired by previous work, edit poor grammar, and improve Pinterest images.
Twitter. Twitter is my preferred social network out of all of them, and it also generates the most blog traffic. As such, Twitter remains a top priority for marketing. I’m following like-minded accounts, sharing similar content by other bloggers, and sharing my own links with hash tags and relevant thoughts.
Pinterest. This platform is beginning to show potential as several posts have now received over 1k impressions. Pinterest helps you realize which images attract the most interest. The Reverse The Crush blog Pinterest account is now up to 9.7k views on average per month. My strategy is to continue pinning in sets of 3, and I’m also planning on testing a consistent image to promote RTC colours and brand recognition. The image choice will be based on the performance of recent pins.
Comments. Writing comments on relatable blogs is an easy way to improve blog traffic. I set the goal of 100 comments during the month for July and still have a lot of work to do. Commenting is networking for bloggers and a great way to learn about a topic you’re interested in. It also creates relationships with potential mentors, and it helps to get your name out there. If I reach 100 comments this month, I’ll increase the goal. If not I’ll just reassess the target and work up from there.
Concluding Thoughts
In addition to the website marketing strategies mentioned above, the plan is to focus on consistency. I’ve learned that it’s important for readers to have realistic expectations of what they can expect. It’s just one small step towards building trust. It’s also the primary reason for creating a blog post schedule in July. I’m holding myself accountable.
Moreover, there are smaller improvements I’m working on that could go unmentioned, but that’s not my style. As an over thinker, it’s only right to cover all aspects that I deem important. I’m trying to improve at writing because better writing will help the platform. From a self development standpoint, though, I’m trying to write honest and more to the point.
In conclusion, page views increased by more than 13% compared to June 2017, and the most important statistics, organic search and users, increased. The RTC marketing team was not overly ecstatic about the results. But a win is a win and there is more motivation to work harder.
Blogging by the Numbers | Social Media & Email Subscriber Growth – July 2018
