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One Of The Most Underrated WordPress Stats

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WordPress Statistics

After achieving a big goal for this blog (getting 100,000 annual visitors), I decided to raise the bar higher with a new goal: get 100,000 visitors every month. I want to have a traffic rate that would allow me to get over 1 million annual visitors. It sounds like a lot of work, but what sounds even more challenging is that I plan on accomplishing this goal by the end of 2014. In order to get the extra 900,000 annual visitors (and at that rate, 100,000 monthly visitors wouldn’t be far behind), I have been doing more digging than usual to find out how I can grow my blog’s traffic. Although 100,000 annual visitors is a big milestone, I want to turn it into 100,000 monthly visitors.

One of the areas that I did more digging in was my blog’s stats. I use WordPress for my blog which means I get various statistics about visitors, views, clicks, and subscriptions. I used this statistics to guide me through the process of going from 30 visitors every month to over 100,000 visitors every year. However, throughout all of my searching and analyzing, there was a powerful WordPress statistic that I kept on missing…that is…until now.

The powerful WordPress statistic that too many people overlook is the number of views your individual blog posts get. This blog post is my 928th blog post, and if all of my blog posts generated 3 visitors every day, then this problem would be over. I would already be getting over 1 million visitors every year. However, that is not the case.

By identifying how many views your individual blog posts are getting, you will be able to identify your most popular blog posts. Those are the topics that you need to continue writing blog posts about. If one of your blog posts is getting 50 daily views, and you write a Part 2 for that blog post, chances are the Part 2 for that blog post is going to get close to 50 daily views. That’s 50 daily views that you would have never had.

When most people look at blog traffic, they look at the final number. The final number may be 10 daily visitors, or that final number may be 100 daily visitors. Regardless of the final number, that’s what most people focus on. Few people look at the statistics of the individual blog posts that contribute to the final number. By looking at what makes the final number happen, you will be able to identify what you need to write about in the future to make that final number larger.

What are your thoughts on this WordPress statistic? Do you plan to use this statistic? Is there another underrated WordPress statistic that most people are missing out on? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

 

Don’t Change At The Cost Of Losing What Makes You Unique

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uniqueStand Out

When my blog surpassed the 100,000 annual visitors milestone, I wanted to make drastic changes so I could turn 100,000 annual visitors into 100,000 monthly visitors. There is no limit to how much a blog can grow, and even the people who are getting 100,000 daily visitors are still looking for ways to get more traffic. The more of traffic we have, the better.

However, one of the drastic changes I was going to make was only publishing 1 blog post every day. This part of the strategy was that I would be able to write a 1,000 word blog post, and by having longer blog posts, I would rank higher on Google’s search engine. Therefore, I would be able to get more traffic from SEO than ever before.

The problem was that writing these blog posts took a lot of time, and I also felt uncomfortable thinking about the blog post I would have to eventually send out telling everyone that I would not be able to publish two blog posts every day. Being able to publish two blog posts every day is something that few people are able to do. It is one of the characteristics that makes this blog unique, and when I realized that, I wasn’t going to take it away by only publishing 1 blog post every day.

My blog posts are simple and to the point. That’s how I like writing them and that is how I will continue to write them. There will be some longer blog posts slipped in every once in a while, but for the most part, everything is going to remain the same. Once you become remarkable in a certain area by performing a certain activity that few people do (or no one at all), it is important to continue performing that certain activity. That’s the decision I made when I decided that I would continue publishing two blog posts every day.

What are your thoughts on becoming remarkable and remaining remarkable without changing what allowed you to become remarkable in the first place? Do you have any stories of your own? Please share your thoughts below.

 

The Two Major Components Of Your Blog’s Success

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Blogging

There are many components that make a blog successful. Some of these components are getting more blog subscribers, content marketing, and so on. However, all of these small components are subcategories of the two most important components of any blog’s success. If there was a way to measure how successful your blog is, this would be as close as you can get.

The first major component of your blog’s success if how many visitors your blog is getting. A blog that is getting 10 visitors a day is not getting as much visibility as a blog that is getting 10,000 visitors every day. You need more people to know about you in order to have a big presence on the web. This first major component is the more obvious of the two. Content marketing, building a presence on social networks, and improving SEO among other things all contribute to this major component.

The second major component of your blog’s success is what happens when your visitors go on your blog. Traffic exchange sites will make your numbers look bigger than they really are. Although I am not proud of it, I admit to have used traffic exchange sites for one of my blogs (not this one). I was able to get hundreds of extra visitors every day, but those hundreds of extra visitors did not subscribe to that particular blog or buy any of the products being sold on that blog. In addition, using a traffic exchange site hurt that blog’s SEO because Google looks down on that kind of stuff. If you measure a blog’s success based on how much money it brings in, this major component comes into further play. If you get 10 visitors every day, and two of those 10 daily visitors buy your $50 training course, that’s $3,000 every month (this is being very optimistic). If a blog gets 10,000 visitors every day, then that’s 300,000 visitors every month. However, if only five of those 300,000 people buy the same training course, the person who is getting fewer visitors is more successful than the person with 300,000 monthly visitors.

Getting the results you want to see when someone goes on your blog is just as important as growing your traffic numbers. By focusing on these two major components in your blogging strategy, you will be able to get more visitors who will do what you want them to do (subscribe to your blog, buy your product, share your blog posts on their social networks, and so on).

 

6 Reasons To Schedule More Blog Posts

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There are many bloggers who underestimate the power of scheduling blog posts. While some bloggers rarely schedule blog posts, other bloggers are publishing as they write. There are only a few bloggers out of the millions of bloggers out there who schedule their blog posts. Scheduling blog posts has many benefits, and here are six of them:

  1. You have control over when your blog posts get published. We want as much control as we can get. Scheduling blog posts gives us the control we need to have. If you write a blog post at 5 am when many people are still sleeping, you can schedule the blog post to get published 4 hours later and then go back to bed.
  2. You can publish blog posts consistently and frequently. Publishing blog posts consistently and frequently is a crucial element of a successful blog. By scheduling blog posts, you will be able to be consistent while remaining frequent.
  3. You are less likely to burn out. When you are about to burn out, you do not have to write a blog post. Instead of writing that blog post and burning out, you will be able to take a break for the day. Taking a day off will not change the fact that you have several blog posts scheduled ahead of time. The more blog posts you have scheduled, the more space you have to take breaks to avoid burning out.
  4. Your writing will become better. That is not a lie. The main reason why certain blog posts are poorly constructed is because of the consistent time limit. If you are only writing 1 blog post every day and publishing 1 blog post every day, there are going to be some days where you may start writing at midnight. In order to keep the consistency, some bloggers have to write blog posts at midnight, and those blog posts are filled with typos and bad sentences. Having multiple blog posts scheduled will allow you to take breaks on these nights. In addition, more scheduled blog posts means you won’t have to worry about the time as much. You will be able to write longer, better blog posts and have time to proofread them. If you have numerous scheduled blog posts, then the urgency is gone. You now have time to write better blog posts.
  5. More days off. This one works like a double-edged sword. If you take some days off, then you will still have numerous scheduled blog posts. However, if you take too many days off, then you will run out of scheduled blog posts. When taking days off, be sure to take no more than 2 days off every week from writing blog post. Please note that the more days off you take, the more blog posts you have to make up when you are no longer taking days off.
  6. You can focus more of your time on bigger projects. If you are working on bigger projects such as writing a book or completing a training course, you can take a day off from writing blog posts so you have more time to work on the bigger projects. This allows you to invest more of your time into the bigger projects so you get them done in a faster amount of time.

Those are the six reasons why you should schedule more blog posts. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have another reason for scheduling numerous blog posts? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

 

One Thing You Have To Be Prepared For As A Blogger

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Blog
There are many things that bloggers have to be prepared for. First off, the workload increases. Bloggers now have to write 1 blog post every day. That can add up to a lot of extra writing. Another thing bloggers are prepared for is not getting a lot of traffic in the beginning. There are many examples of blogs that went from 0 visitors to hundreds of thousands of visitors every month. This picture that every blogger needs to see is a great example of how far a blog can go. However, there was one thing that most bloggers were not prepared for. From my own experience and from reading many blog posts, even the most experienced bloggers were not prepared for this one.

Most bloggers, including myself, were not prepared for criticism. No matter how good your content is or how much time you put into writing your blog posts, there will be someone who criticizes your blog. No one avoids criticism. The best bloggers also have the meanest critics.

When you start your blog and update it frequently, be aware that there will be criticism. Someone will criticize one of your blog posts, or a troll will continuously visit your blog and leave bad comments. Your hopes and dreams as a blogger cannot get shattered when you get criticized.

Whether your blog gets criticized today, tomorrow, this week, or months later, you need to be ready for it. Criticism will come, and the only way to respond to it properly is by standing firm behind your content and continue doing what you do.

 

5 Methods To Create A Compelling Free Prize

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Free prizes are only effective if they are compelling. The free prize needs to be something that your visitors would want that could have been a paid product. However, many people make the mistake of offering a free prize that is not compelling. A compelling free prize encourages people to subscribe to your blog. A compelling free prize encourages people to buy your paid products later down the road. If you want your free prize to be compelling, follow these 5 methods.

  1. Have an eye-catching design. People do judge a free prize by the cover. You need to come up with an eye-catching design for your free prize so your visitors will have a reason to subscribe. Some people will get your free prize just because it looks cool.
  2. Make it essential for your target audience. The free prize you give away must match your target audience’s interests. If your target audience is people who want to grow their social media presence, a free guide to gaining more followers on any social network would be a compelling free prize.
  3. Get people to mention your free prize. If your free prize gets mentioned on other people’s websites, more people will subscribe to get the free prize. Positive reviews are a big factor towards how many sales your book makes. Getting positive reviews for your free prize will make people want to get their hands on your free prize.
  4. Make it different from the other free prizes out there. The free prizes in cereal boxes used to be a big deal. Now that more companies have a free prize in their cereal boxes, the free prize in the cereal box has gotten old. There are millions of free prizes out there, but if you want your free prize to be compelling, your free prize needs to stand out from the other free prizes.
  5. Make getting the free prize easy. If someone has to fill in their address, phone number, and date of birth to get the free prize, your free prize will not be compelling. Instead of appreciating the free prize for what it is, visitors will only think of how complicated it was to finally gain access to the free prize. Instead of making it hard for your visitors to get the free prize, only ask for their email address (asking for the person’s first name is optional). By making it easier for your visitors to get the free prize, those visitors will be more likely to enter in their information.

Those are the five methods to make your free prize compelling. What are your thoughts about the list? Do you have any suggestions for the list? Please share your thoughts and advice below.