Isn’t that the thought of many of you bloggers out there? π C’mon, just admit it. You check your stats every now and then, hoping to see more visitors!
Are you one of those who always look at your website statistics in dismay as you see a measly single-digit visitor? Are you those that get cyber-orgasm as long as that digit comes close to 10? π³
In this article, I will….. blehhh, forget it because I can’t summarize it properly. Just read the article, It’s good for you! π
Unrealistic Expectations
Some people have too high an expectation for their blog. It’s as if they thought that by having a blog means they’re supposed to automatically get droves of visitors each day. π― Dream on, just be humble and stop having nonsensical expectations. Be realistic and know that a blog is like a tree, it takes time to grow.
First Step in Blogging – Is Your Content Special?
Quite often, people who complain about blog lacking traffic are those who run personal blogs. Remember what I’ve mentioned in Choosing Your Blog Type about personal blogs?
The easiest type of blog (referring to personal blogs) to run and the best choice of blog type those who want to get their feet wet in the blogosphere. 8) Being the easiest type of blog to run also mean that itΓ’β¬β’s the most common type of blog as well.
In that article, I also mentioned the following
What sets a personal blog apart from the ocean of personal blog is the personality of the author. So if you run a personal blog, remember to make it interesting, and make it YOU!
and
Again, what sets Niche blogs apart are the personality of the authors.
So what does that tell you so far? YOU GOT TO BE DIFFERENT!! MAKE IT INTERESTING!! You’ve got to learn to show some personality!! Now c’mon, tell me how many personal blogs have you seen over the past years? I’m sure your friends Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Dumbledore and Hagrid already have their personal blogs as well. And how many times do you see the similar content? The usual…..
- Food I ate yesterday
- My friend hurt me
- I chipped my nails
- Lassie was missing
- My trip to the local shopping mall
- Nice new song I heard
- Others…..
Again, these are some of the most common types of post I could think of. I’m sure they’re not new to you but have you ever taken note that some are more interesting than others? π See, that makes the difference.
I’ve also observed that female blog authors tend to get more publicity, especially if they look cute and post quite a lot of their pictures and stuff. It’s like there’s this thing about men that they’ll go about spreading the good news of coming across a hot-babe’s blog. π Seriously, that doesn’t mean you pretend to be a girl blogger – BE HONEST!
Be wise in creating your content and remember to read my article: What Makes Content A Good King?
Hint : People love watching dramas. People like to be glued. I’m sure you guys know Lost, 24, Heroes, Dallas, Grey’s Anatomy, Friends, whatever……….. What made these shows a hit? π What drew you to these shows? I’m not saying that you should dramatize everything by making up stories like Lonely Girl 15. Just be yourself and try to make things interesting. No, photos of the beaches do not make your post interesting.
Alright, Smarty Pants! What About You?
Who me?
Let’s see, I launched this site on 31st May 2007 and my personal blog on 31st August 2007. The site is less than 120 days old at the time of this post and here’s what I got from Google Analytics and SiteMeter last week
Google Analytics
Visitors
Page Views
SiteMeter
| Site Meter Report | June 4th | September 20th |
| Total Visits | 63 | 9,795 |
| Average Visits per Day | 19 | 127 |
| Average Visit Length | 4:03 | 5:07 |
| Visits This Week | 37 | 890 |
| Total Page Views | 248 | 36,053 |
| Average Page Views per Day | 64 | 493 |
| Average Page Views per Visit | 3.5 | 3.9 |
| Page Views This Week | 128 | 3,453 |
It’s not the best traffic in the world, it’s not a record breaker for a ~4 month performance either – nevertheless it’s a nice amount of page views and visitors for someone who’s not blogging full-time. At least I know I did something right, right? π
How Was It Done? Please Tell Me!
I’ll save those details for another day, so many things to write about in so little time (and space too).
In the mean time, focus on making your content interesting. Write about something interesting, or at least write it in an interesting way! π No point religiously practicing 101 effective ways to market your blog when your blog content is nothing to shout about.
If you’re going to pour water into a bucket, you’d better make sure the bottom of the bucket is sealed. π Having lousy content and drawing traffic is like pouring water in to a bottomless bucket. You still have nothing in the end.
Check back from time to time or subscribe to my RSS feeds so you don’t miss out my upcoming articles.
Blog traffic can be harvested through several means:
1. Commenting on other blogs
2. Keyword optimization
3. Blog aggregators
4. Social bookmarks (Digg and etc(
5. Technorati tags
6. LowYat.net π
I don’t have traffic to scream about compared to Kennysia or other blog celebrities, but I’m trying to get there and in the process, educate the many about website value. π
Aiyah fren, wait la. I’m reserving all those for future articles leh. π
Well, there goes some trailer on what’s coming up. in the future. I’m sure we’ll both be writing about them here and there.
The thing is, none of these above is helpful when content sucks. People come, people see, people don’t come back ever again. π
Hey Goldfries are you Malaysian? I sense a little Malay slang hehe π
Nice post.
ok I’m a dork, I just saw the Malaysian flag in the top right.. .nvm :p
LOL. π Are you a fellow Malaysian? I see you’re posting from the US though.
Nice niche for Starfeeder, with so many StarCraft 2 fans – I’m sure you’ll get traffic and rank really fast.
OK lo, you win it all. Although my stats is not full of single digit visits, your stats is still better than mine. Goldfries.com should be counted as a niche blog right as I know you have another personal blog… π
Hehe, I’m not putting my stats to show-off or compare. π I’m far from the traffic that of famous bloggers.
Anyway the stats are just to show that I’m walking the walk. It’ll be odd if I have little traffic and write like I know so much, right?
goldfries.com is a niche blog and will remain as it is.
Hehe we’ll Malay/Chinese living in US, US citizen
Nice to see other Malaysian bloggers, tho I actually consider myself a Sabahan. Would be great if the StarCraft scene in south east Asian picked up and rivaled that of Korea.
Well, DoTA is a religion here. It’s not difficult finding DoTA fanatics here. π
Okay, don’t turn it into DOTA.
Have phobia with it π
Loves to read more about this.
Well, traffic wise, advertising in LYN gets you more readers from variety places.
Got a reader from Aus, UK and US. Considering that my blog is quite new, so yea. So, yea, just like what Danny said above, how you harvest it too.
Actually, the ways I’m harvesting traffic are all stated across goldfries.com and my personal site at http://www.goldfries.com/inperson/
I’ll have a post on how to acquire traffic later. π but like I said, it’s pointless to acquire traffic when content is not good.
If you’re going to pour water into a bucket, you’d better make sure the bottom of the bucket is sealed. π Having lousy content and drawing traffic is like pouring water in to a bottomless bucket. You still have nothing in the end.
*hrmm. I’m gonna put that on the post!!*
So what are the major PC gaming blogs in Malaysia? anyone know?
this is the only one I can think of
http://eyesofagamer.blogspot.com/
It has to do with PC Gaming but I’m not sure you would call that a PC Gaming blog.
Hye Goldfries. Im also the same like you, I will often check my stats to see how many visitors I have. Huhuhuuh, I guess its all the same for every new blogger. Well my blog is not directly about PC Gaming, but its about anything that are related to gaming and some of my personal stuff thrown in. anyway, ur blog is really nice.
yar run your blog like a business.
If want to a mini market, u get a mini market traffic flow.
If u wanna be Carrefour, u will get masses.
If u wish to be Mid Valley … then you need to do MIND MAPPING!
or hire me! … (hire me for nothing..jk)
lonely girl is crap…dude. I mean seemly interesting, but not my interest or maybe some day in future.
I mean she looks nice and pretty and all.
but after watching a few of her videos on youtube. I was not interested.
check out this new DISCOVERY on youtube, today…
youtuber : hotforwords
She teaches english word (very language and lingustic – “professionally”)
yet sexily duno for what… (her attire and etc. once you seen. You know what I meant)
Have pleasant weekend People!!
and Nice to meet you guys.
Which I’d not introduce myself.
I m Jensen
Agree on that. Enrich the content first before asking people to visit your blog.
“You will never have second chance to build first impression.”
Hey guys what do you think of my first viral video π
http://www.starfeeder.com/blog/archives/lol_cats_starcraft_music_video/
The LOL CATS StarCraft music video
@Antabax, you’re the only blog I can remember (for Malaysia) that’s related to PC Gaming, hence I quoted it. π Yeah, I check my stats now and then to make sure all things are fine.
@Js, I’m not a fan of LG15 but there’s something about GIRL and NOT THE USUAL life stories that make people come back. hrmm……
@Γ¦β¬ΒΓ¦βΕ, precisely – IMPRESSION!
@starfeeder, I checked out the video. It doesn’t bring much meaning to StarCraft. furthermore people who don’t know SC wouldn’t know what it’s about, same goes to people who don’t know gamer speak. π
The picture I like was the one looking for burrowed Hydralisks which I’m pretty sure not everyone know what I was. π Btw I once pwnzed 3 other Terran player in a 3 vs 1 match. I was using Zerg and I wiped out their combined forces with zergling, hydralisks and whatever else burrowed and air-support guardians coming in from the side. π
arr… you deleted my (last night) long comment?
…how dissappointing.
anyway.
;0) cheers!
Just found it irrelevant to the topic at hand. π
I must be a mindreader. Landing on this page where you are looking for traffic. Found the link to your blog on the blogginbits blog. Saw the name and clicked. Destiny is it not?
Hehe, wasn’t begging for traffic. π But it was nice of you to visit!
average bloggers like me will start out struggling with numbers of visitors of course… but determination is important. Write good stuff, and do self-promotion like what Danny Foo said.. it will start to climb up.
im still working hard on my blog too, hehe
Well, I like your content. π
Personally I think readership doesn’t always reflect quality content. Some times the lack of reader / visitors is just because of the blog topic hold lesser interest, say if you blog focuses on a topics about Micro-organisms in Malaysia.
Actually your domain name is also a factor in traffic
imagine 2 websites with the same author/content/layout, everything, that blogs about food
1 being MalaysiaFood.com and another author’sname.com.. it’s clear which one will get more traffic. This was one of my regrets when starting my own blog/website
You point would be that it helps when it comes to search engine returning your results to would-be viewers. π
I hope that u can get more viewer after this.. I do find this site really interesting.. I really like the color black and orange.. i open it everyday to see if there is any update.. π
Oddly enough, I’m stuck to your blog reading about blogs ^^” I don’t usually hop often XD and yea, really lazy to update stuff about my commoners life, will only update when there’s really something big and nice to update π I’m surprised I got most of my 100hits per day from just 2 post on O2Jam song packs and O2Mania eng ver download π Everyday too though other posts are somewhat boring π and yup.. I check my blog’s stat everyday or every time I touch my laptop which is about every hour XD *swt swt*
Goldfries, u have such a nice blog design.
Good blog content too.
I’m gonna bookmark ur blog.Emoticon
Good stuff you have on your site! Found ur stuff on lowyat, and I’ve now gone through 75% of your articles. Just want to say what a terrific job you’ve done! Thanks