What is a successful blog?

[The Reverend]

I’m enjoying blogging at the moment - 1 blog post a week seems to be a good rhythm for me.

I read from another (quite successful) blogger that they are hoping to hit 100k users a month soon. So I headed over to my stats page to see how I was doing.

I get between 15k and 30k users a month which I was amazed at. They are all after 1 or 2 posts I do a month which draws people in but I think if I’m a 3rd of the way to get to where another blogger is aiming for, then I must be doing ok.

Around Christmas time I will have to decide whether I want to start doing anything more with my blog. It will have been running about 3 years but I should have a fair back-catalogue of articles. I think I should re-brand (change the WP theme!) and maybe cull a few of the earlier posts.

What do you consider a successful blog? When would you consider YOUR blog has been a success?

 

[Jon]

I’m enjoying blogging at the moment - 1 blog post a week seems to be a good rhythm for me.

I read from another (quite successful) blogger that they are hoping to hit 100k users a month soon. So I headed over to my stats page to see how I was doing.

I get between 15k and 30k users a month which I was amazed at. They are all after 1 or 2 posts I do a month which draws people in but I think if I’m a 3rd of the way to get to where another blogger is aiming for, then I must be doing ok.

Around Christmas time I will have to decide whether I want to start doing anything more with my blog. It will have been running about 3 years but I should have a fair back-catalogue of articles. I think I should re-brand (change the WP theme!) and maybe cull a few of the earlier posts.

What do you consider a successful blog? When would you consider YOUR blog has been a success?

For me I consider one of my sites a success if it has an audience and it brings in money
I’m WAY past the point of running a blog as a hobby and understand that amount of money you can command when your platform has a decent DA and an engaged community / readership.

For me 100k readers a month is fine but if they aren’t clicking on your links or engaging with your content then I wouldn’t call that a success.

 

[Jon]

Just thinking about this some more I also think success can come in terms of the quality of traffic you get.

I am a firm believe in organic traffic over that directed over social media

There is a reason I see bloggers with HUGE social media numbers tweeting about how little their make from their blog and I believe it's because of 'intent'

If we look at the last 7 days traffic for The Money Shed

I've seen other bloggers pie charts around this and it's 90% social media referral and naff all organic.

Now the reason I say Intent is so important is that I believe if someone types into Google 'How do I sign up for cashback' or 'Is TopCashBack worth it' and comes to your page they are already there with an intent and are FAR more likely to then click on your links. Social media referrals don't account for that. They are literally just a straight link to one of your pages with no engagement intent.

The sites that get more organic traffic will make more money in the long run through affiliate links and also more Sponsored Posts opportunities as it shows that your site is ranking well in Google.

That's what I believe anyway...

 

[katykicker]

I have more than 50% organic search, as you know, and I have to agree. You want people targeted to the posts they are finding, but I do think there is a great benefit to social conversions too. Especially for working on sponsored posts/paid social media campaigns.

 

[The Reverend]

Just thinking about this some more I also think success can come in terms of the quality of traffic you get.

I am a firm believe in organic traffic over that directed over social media

There is a reason I see bloggers with HUGE social media numbers tweeting about how little their make from their blog and I believe it's because of 'intent'

If we look at the last 7 days traffic for The Money Shed

I've seen other bloggers pie charts around this and it's 90% social media referral and naff all organic.

Now the reason I say Intent is so important is that I believe if someone types into Google 'How do I sign up for cashback' or 'Is TopCashBack worth it' and comes to your page they are already there with an intent and are FAR more likely to then click on your links. Social media referrals don't account for that. They are literally just a straight link to one of your pages with no engagement intent.

The sites that get more organic traffic will make more money in the long run through affiliate links and also more Sponsored Posts opportunities as it shows that your site is ranking well in Google.

That's what I believe anyway...

Mines not looking too bad then.

I just need to find a way to get more pages-per-visit but I think that will come from more posts and increasing my engagement across my blog, not just 1 or two particular pages in a month.

 

[Jon]

View attachment 317
Mines not looking too bad then.

I just need to find a way to get more pages-per-visit but I think that will come from more posts and increasing my engagement across my blog, not just 1 or two particular pages in a month.

jeez, that's REALLY good and shows your content is ranking well....

 

[The Reverend]

I have more than 50% organic search, as you know, and I have to agree. You want people targeted to the posts they are finding, but I do think there is a great benefit to social conversions too. Especially for working on sponsored posts/paid social media campaigns.

I enjoy reading your blog and go straight to it most days. Would it look better for you for me to google 'katy kicker' rather than just type 'katykicker.com' into the address bar?

 

[The Reverend]

jeez, that's REALLY good and shows your content is ranking well....

This is the thing.

On paper, I think I have some pretty good stats. This week, for example.

5k users/11k sessions/2k new users/18k page views

I think at some point I should try to do some sponsored posts but at the moment I'm ok with it just being how it is. I am building up my media kit though, just in case!

 

[Jon]

This is the thing.

On paper, I think I have some pretty good stats. This week, for example.

5k users/11k sessions/2k new users/18k page views

I think at some point I should try to do some sponsored posts but at the moment I'm ok with it just being how it is. I am building up my media kit though, just in case!

Well if you want to do sponsored posts there a page on totally blogging telling you how to get them

 

[The Reverend]

Well if you want to do sponsored posts there a page on totally blogging telling you how to get them

I'm sure it will be something I'll do in the future. I'm hearing a lot of people talk about ghost-posting....if Totally Blogging covered that then I'd definitely be interested!

 

[Jon]

I'm sure it will be something I'll do in the future. I'm hearing a lot of people talk about ghost-posting....if Totally Blogging covered that then I'd definitely be interested!

What the heck is ghost posting????

 

[The Reverend]

What the heck is ghost posting????

From what I can gather it is posting a blog post but not having it appear in your list of blog post but accessible from a direct link that you can tweet/fb out if you wish. I'm not entirely sure - maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick.

 

[marriedmeeples]

From what I can gather it is posting a blog post but not having it appear in your list of blog post but accessible from a direct link that you can tweet/fb out if you wish. I'm not entirely sure - maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick.

I think in WordPress there's a plug in for this - Stealth Publish?

 

[Banx63]

Just thinking about this some more I also think success can come in terms of the quality of traffic you get.

I am a firm believe in organic traffic over that directed over social media

There is a reason I see bloggers with HUGE social media numbers tweeting about how little their make from their blog and I believe it's because of 'intent'

If we look at the last 7 days traffic for The Money Shed

I've seen other bloggers pie charts around this and it's 90% social media referral and naff all organic.

Now the reason I say Intent is so important is that I believe if someone types into Google 'How do I sign up for cashback' or 'Is TopCashBack worth it' and comes to your page they are already there with an intent and are FAR more likely to then click on your links. Social media referrals don't account for that. They are literally just a straight link to one of your pages with no engagement intent.

The sites that get more organic traffic will make more money in the long run through affiliate links and also more Sponsored Posts opportunities as it shows that your site is ranking well in Google.

That's what I believe anyway...

I agree with this.

But....

I would also not rule out social media. Sure, Google is the number one go to for most queries. Especially problem solving. However sites like Pinterest etc are becoming more and more like a search engine now. People use it to buy stuff too. The longevity of posts make them a real player now in the traffic generation field. You can have posts pinned years ago that still bring in traffic....

Numbers go to peoples heads a bit I think.

We are all guilty of it to some degree. Because we are all fighting for the same space in amongst a lot of noise essentially.

Social media followers, stats etc etc all mean nothing as you say if you make nothing from it.

I'd rather have 10 people sign up and buy from me than 3000 people from stumbleupon and do nothing (but I get a nice spike in my chart haha)

That chart is great by the way. Nice organics spread there!!

 

[The Reverend]

I agree with this.

But....

I would also not rule out social media. Sure, Google is the number one go to for most queries. Especially problem solving. However sites like Pinterest etc are becoming more and more like a search engine now. People use it to buy stuff too. The longevity of posts make them a real player now in the traffic generation field. You can have posts pinned years ago that still bring in traffic....

Numbers go to peoples heads a bit I think.

We are all guilty of it to some degree. Because we are all fighting for the same space in amongst a lot of noise essentially.

Social media followers, stats etc etc all mean nothing as you say if you make nothing from it.

I'd rather have 10 people sign up and buy from me than 3000 people from stumbleupon and do nothing (but I get a nice spike in my chart haha)

That chart is great by the way. Nice organics spread there!!

I suppose it comes down to the title of this thread, "What is a successful blog?". For me I enjoy having readers. I have a personal blog just for that.

As an internet user, I despise click-bait. Its the advertising equivilent of telling people there is a great bar round the corner, they just have to follow you. When they get there you tell them its round the next corner. and so on.

I don't promote MLM schemes and pull people up when they post scams as if they are money making opportunities.

 

[The Reverend]

In other news today - I’ve just tried googling “The Reverend” (without the quotation marks) and I’m the first result.

May not sound like much but I certainly wasn’t always the case and there are plenty of other Reverends out there!



I suppose that could be seen to be part of a success.

 

[Banx63]

In other news today - I’ve just tried googling “The Reverend” (without the quotation marks) and I’m the first result.

May not sound like much but I certainly wasn’t always the case and there are plenty of other Reverends out there!



I suppose that could be seen to be part of a success.

Nice one! I would say that is very much a success!!

 

[Emmaaar18]

In other news today - I’ve just tried googling “The Reverend” (without the quotation marks) and I’m the first result.

May not sound like much but I certainly wasn’t always the case and there are plenty of other Reverends out there!



I suppose that could be seen to be part of a success.

It`s hard to determine success. My blog is first on Google when you put certain keywords in too, the satisfaction when you see it No.1 is a great feeling.

Got about 40,000 followers across all my social medias from my blog to Twitter, Instagram a few other accounts. I can`t really tell you how much I average because my stats on my blog are confusing, but I put a banner on my blog a few days ago and it reached about 2,000 clicks in 2 days, so I think that gives me a little idea. I also sometimes go by how many reblogs and likes I get and how many people come online which is mostly all day and it`s usaully more then 1

 

[The Reverend]

It`s hard to determine success. My blog is first on Google when you put certain keywords in too, the satisfaction when you see it No.1 is a great feeling.

Got about 40,000 followers across all my social medias from my blog to Twitter, Instagram a few other accounts. I can`t really tell you how much I average because my stats on my blog are confusing, but I put a banner on my blog a few days ago and it reached about 2,000 clicks in 2 days, so I think that gives me a little idea. I also sometimes go by how many reblogs and likes I get and how many people come online which is mostly all day and it`s usaully more then 1

Sounds like you are doing ace!

Keep up the great work

 

[The Reverend]

Nice one! I would say that is very much a success!!

It’s a bit of ‘blog validation’ which is nice to see. Reverend appears in loads of non-me stuff so it’s quite an achievement.