It’s been a great first month here on RemarkablyClever.com. Here are 10 things I’ve learned so far.
1.) Stat addiction
When you work hard to create posts and you try to get the word out about your blog, the desire to watch the stats is reallly strong. I had hoped I would get over it by now but I haven’t. Watching the stats surge is a huge high but seeing slow days is a downer. I wish I wasn’t a slave to the stats but I’ve learned it’s inevitable at the beginning when it’s all new.
While we’re on the subject, here’s some stats from this first month. There are lots of ways to measure but I like pageviews the best.
I’ve also had 1358 absolute unique visitors, visitors spend an average of 3.5 minutes on the site (a high number for a website!) and come mostly by referral. People who arrive via search engine or referral from a link that I’ve placed spend the most time. People who come from Facebook spend the least amount of time.
2.) Blogging takes a looong time
I spend 3-8 hours on each post and I post 3 times a week. That doesn’t even count the efforts I put out to promote it or technical fixes or anything like that. I also work full-time and have a family so blogging is a huge chunk of my time. I think many people underestimate it when they start, including me.
3.) Opinion posts are easier than well-researched ones
When the research is basically my thoughts, it’s much easier to create a post. Most of my posts are factual and well-researched which is why they take so long. I’ve only done 1 or 2 of these and they haven’t been as popular as the longer, more detailed and factual posts.
4.) The longer I spend on a post, the more traffic it gets
The post that took me the longest to write was the one about real work-at-home jobs. It took me 8 hours to write and is one of the most popular. One of the next most popular posts is the post about running a half marathon which took me 6 hours to write.
5.) Comments make it worth it
Comments are VERY exciting to me. I get some here, some on Twitter, some on Facebook and some via email. They are the reason it is worth spending the time blogging. You want to know you’re actually connecting with people and that they appreciate it. I’ve also spent more time commenting on other people’s blogs because I want them to know their information was useful or inspiring in some way.
6.) People search for funny stuff
I look at the terms people are using to find my blog in search engines and the most used search term is often “couch to half marathon” but there are some hilarious ones too. I often wonder if they’ve found what they are looking for?
- “lost virginity cruise ship”
- “fun things to do with pipe cleaners”
- “fun things to do by yourself”
7.) Having a narrower niche would be much easier
Each post that I write is usually on a different topic than previous posts so promoting the post has a different promotional tactic each time. If I always wrote about the same thing, it would be much easier because the marketing efforts would be the same.
8.) I will likely have to focus on a smaller niche at some point
When I started this blog, the one thing that I thought summarized what I wanted to write about was things that were “clever.” I tend to research a lot of areas and come up with smart ways to do them and so I felt like that umbrella worked for me. And it does. But this broad topic makes it harder for search engines, to find an audience, etc. I’m going to keep doing this blog until a smaller niche becomes more apparent and then I will focus.
9.) My voice works best
For some reason, my first posts were devoid of my personality completely and they were strictly factual. I think I was nervous about starting a new site and how to combine a “professional” blog with my personality. However, I’ve noticed that the more I loosen up and just use my normal language, the more I get feedback and interaction from others. You have to show your personality for others to show theirs.
10.) It gets easier
At first when you have no content and no visitors, everything is a struggle. Once you start to gain some traction and people start finding out about your blog, it gets easier. It’s an exponential growth rather than a linear one. It takes a lot of long-term work to launch a blog but I’m already thrilled with what just this first month has been like and can start to breathe a little easier now that I’m not white-knuckling it quite so much. Month 2 looks to be even better. Can’t wait.
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Hey Shannon!
Great post.
I’ve also experienced the same symptoms.
I’m finally becoming more please with my blog design and layout which has grown over the last 6 months.
I love writing posts though, I’ll be driving and suddenly get ideas for two blog posts.
Its so easy to spend 2 horus or more on a post, but like you say, the best is knowing that you have an audience, and when people leave comments or your post makes a difference in someone’s life, that is worth all the effort:)
The best advice to someone starting a blog is to blog about a topic you enjoy. If you do not enjoy your niche or topic, you will run out of ideas and blogging will become a chore rather than enjoyment.
Good luck with your blog!
Diggy
Upgradereality.com
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Whoops, i added the wrong url in my post above.
Sorry *blush*
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#2 really hits home. I’m still keeping my site under wraps while I add content, but I’ve found just *formatting* a post (bolding, italicizing, finding a picture or quote, etc) can take an hour. I write all my posts in GoogleDocs first so maybe it would help if I wrote directly into my WordPress instead.
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Nice blog. I can relate to most of your points about blogging. I work full time from home online doing websites and engineering design work as well. I started my workout blog a little over 2 months ago and I have found it to be far more time consuming than my static websites.
Although I do look at blogging as more of a way of interacting, and since I’m working from home full-time, I don’t mind the work involved as it pertains to a hobby (exercise) of mine.
Google sure does love long posts… my long posts all receive the greatest amount of traffic as well.
Keep up the great work, I’m subscribed
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I can totally relate to the first point, that is the only addiction in my life I am still struggling to overcome. I’m sure it is not as bad as others out there though
Good luck with the blog Shannon, I think you have a bright future!
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I can’t believe you’ve only been up for a month!?!?! I had no idea. You’re blog’s awesome, and looks like it’s been around much longer. I’m only a couple weeks, old so it’s really interesting to read these things that you’ve learned. It’s a fun adventure, though… Congrats on the one month mark! Keep up with the great articles.
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yip.
h…h…hi, i’m alex and i’m addicted to stats
completely relate. my site’s been up for around 2 months now.
also relate to what you’re saying about personality being key. biiiig thing for me and def responsible for the massive comment numbers i’ve been getting since i stopped the factual posts and moved to being real.
inspiring stuff
keep in touch
alex – unleash reality
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wow, you work really hard! I’m glad you have time to twitter, I love your tweets.
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Wonderful post chock full of useful information. I’m bookmarking this site for frequent visits back. Loving that I find the most interesting people, places and blogs via Twitter.
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GREAT POST! As someone who has only been blogging for a short period of time, I can also relate to every single one of these items. I too have hoped that I would get over my pointless stat addiction, but it has yet to happen! Maybe one day…
Thanks for your thoughts!
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Great post, it actually gives me some hope for the future. I immediately recognize the spike-shaped diagram … all too familiar. And the addiction to stats is annoying to say the least.
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I totally agree with you on the stat addiction. I can’t help myself. I have to look at them every day.
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Great post! How did you get so many pageviews in the first month?! I suppose I haven’t found my niche yet. I found you from Douglas & Main and will be checking out more of your blog soon!
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Hi DeMo,
I got page view from promoting in applicable area like forums related to my topic, on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. The spikes you see were due to being mention on Twitter by two of my favorite people – Justin Timberlake and Chris Guillebeau. Although one is much more famous than the other, they both resulted in equal amounts of traffic.
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My posts are ussually very short, maybe 3 or 4 paragraphs on a good day. This is because I update the site each day though. I also built the site myself and I’m hosting it on my home webserver, so when I’m not link checking, page fixing, code correcting, etc, I have to think of something to write about. My blog is nearly 100% personal opinion so unless I write some interesting opinions… it’s gonna be awhile till anything good comes of it.
Did I mention I have to manually archive every update on a Previous News area because I’m not using blog software? That gets old fast.
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Really excellent tips !
So true for the addition of stats,
Most of my visitors come from stumble upon
they spend the least amount of time too..
appears that people coming from social network spend the least amount of time unless as you said you have a funny post
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@Shannon,
Wow, this is fantastic! It looks like you are building a real community here. I agree with all of your lessons except (possibly) number 7 – yes, a narrower niche is better for a lot of people, but it’s also possible to build a sustainable blog with several topics organized under one broad theme… like what you’ve started here with Remarkably Clever. In some ways, which approach is “better” depends more on what you are comfortable with than anything else.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. You’re doing good things; don’t stop. Also, I’m glad to hear I can bring as much traffic as Justin.
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Congrats on your first month. It is hard work and like a child requires constant nurturing. But glad to hear that you’re enjoying it (and the stats ARE addictive!)
Kim
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I found you by using MrTweet. I read something about men tweeting more than women so I thought it would be good to look for some female tweets that are also bloggers. I quickly scaned some of your more recent posts but the title for this one caught me eye and you did not disappoint. Thanks for the info and for confirming that taking 8 hours to write a post is worth the time. Keep up the good work. I’ll see you in the tweetosphere. Cheers!
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