May 2011 Site Progress Report (subscribers only)

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Howdy folks. As promised, an exclusive update today just for my email subscribers.

These monthly site progress reports are a way to keep myself motivated and accountable. I’m hoping I can build my audience significantly over time and share what works for me.

If you’re not interested in website traffic or building an audience online, you can just ignore this email. No worries. I send them out on weekends so they don’t get in the way of my regular articles.

Here are the numbers for ndoherty.com for April 25 to May 24.

Raw numbers

• 12 published posts (-3 compared to last month)
• 195 comments (including mine, +71)
• 7,500 visits (-2,136)
• 16,287 pageviews (-3,726)
• 2:22 average time on site (+0:27)
• 2.17 pages/visit (+0.9)
• 635 total followers on Twitter (+72)
• 183 fans on Facebook (+20)
• 243 RSS subscribers
• 133 email subscribers

Regarding those last two numbers above: They were counted as one in previous reports since I had them running through the same service (Feedburner). I’ve since moved my email list over to Aweber (affiliate link), so I’ll be tracking them separately from now on. More on the switch to Aweber further down.

Most popular posts/pages

1. The Stockdale Paradox (1,921, +311compared to last month)
2. Circle of Influence, Circle of Concern (1,005 views, +94)
3. My biggest secret (430, -2,856)
4. Extreme minimalism: How to fit everything you own into carry on luggage (432 views, +20)
5. Marriage, Kids, Pornography, Masturbation (405 views)

Top traffic sources

1. google/organic (2,899 visits, -120 compared to last month)
2. direct (1,320 visits, -1,028)
3. facebook.com (789 visits, +324)
4. twitter.com (357 visits, -486)
5. stumbleupon.com (254 visits, -218)

Top search terms

1. stockdale paradox (519 visits, -7 compared to last month)
2. niall doherty (92 visits, -72)
3. how to prioritize your life (82 visits, +4)
4. course in courage (74 visits, +59)
5. the stockdale paradox (70 visits, -20)

Goal conversions

See Karol Gadja’s excellent post on Think Traffic for an explanation of this stuff.

• Goal 1: Long Visitor (4 mins) – 840 conversions, -124 compared to last month
• Goal 2: Rabid Fan (5 pages) – 406 conversions, -85
• Goal 3: Rabid Fan (10 pages) – 173 conversions, -64
• Goal 4: Rabid Fan (20 pages) – 42 conversions, -6

What to make of it all

Ah, the highs and lows of traffic building. February was high, March was low, April was high, and now I’m seeing a downswing again for May.

This past month I had no huge traffic days; every day was pretty consistent. Last month I got a huge spike when Leo from Zen Habits linked up my biggest secret post on Tumblr and Twitter. Amazing how just one guy linking to your site can deliver such a boost.

Out of all the numbers above, the comment count is most satisfying to me. Even without a huge amount of traffic this past month, I was still getting a good chunk of people commenting on the blog, which suggests increased reader engagement. I’ve noticed too on recent posts that I’m starting to hit double-digits in the comments consistently.

Experiments in traffic building

Each month, I want to share with you here a few things I’ve been toying with to try build my audience and increase reader engagement.

Switching to Aweber

If you’re reading this, you must be on my email list (thanks for signing up!). I switched the list over from Feedburner to Aweber a couple of weeks ago so I could start sending out exclusive content to you fine folks.

Pretty much every internet marketer worth their salt goes on and on about the importance of building an email list, so I decided I should start doing it right. Apparently, email subscribers are the most committed of any online audience, more likely to share your content and follow your recommendations. As such, it’s good to offer them up the exclusiveness and generally treat them real nice-like.

Since I made the announcement that I’ll no longer be posting my traffic and finance reports on the blog, instead sharing them only with my email subscribers, there’s been a 25% increase in the size of the list. To try and drive more sign-ups, I’ve also removed the Subscribe by RSS link that was at the top of the blog sidebar. The RSS feed is still available for anyone to use, but I’ve decided not to highlight it any longer, so the email subscription form should stand out that bit more.

What other exclusive content would you like to see?

So you guys know you’ll be getting my traffic and finance reports, but what other exclusive content would you like to receive by email? You can hit reply to this message and let me know.

One thing I have in mind is a complete tell-all about A Course In Courage. As you may know, that was my first attempt to build a paid product. Before the end of June, I plan to share what I learned from putting it together, how much time and money I invested in it, and what kind of return I’ve received on that investment.

HARO

Another thing I’ve been trying out recently is Help a Reporter Out (HARO). Some bloggers have been able to use that to get some excellent free publicity. For example, Tyler Tervooren of Advanced Riskology was featured on MSN Money last year, and the exposure brought a ton of new readers to his blog.

It works like this: You sign up to HARO, and you receive three emails each week-day with a list of help requests from reporters. You browse through the list and see if you’re a good fit for any of the stories those reporters are working on. If you are, you send them a message with your pitch.

In the three weeks since I signed up, I’ve made about a half-dozen pitches but have yet to receive a reply. Methinks I’d have a better chance with it if I was still living in the US, as many of the reporters on there are writing for an American audience. If you’re based in the US and are looking for some free publicity, you might want to give it a try.

In case you missed ‘em

Here are the posts I published in the last month:

• Always. Be. Experimenting.
• The most important word in the world
• Site Progress Report – April 2011
• Reviewing my plan of attack
• Survey estupendo legendario
• How I earn and spend my money – April 2011 finance report
• My grand experiment in lifestyle design: The middle
• Marriage, Kids, Pornography, Masturbation
• The feedback tipping point: Where do you draw the line?
• Lying to yourself for fun and profit
• Coming Soon: Exclusive Content For My Email Subscribers
• My life in Spain, hasta el momento

Feedback welcome

Thanks all for your kind attention. Let me know if you have any questions or comments about this report. Since I’m keeping this content exclusive to email subscribers, you can’t comment the usual way like on the blog, but you can hit reply to this message and reach me directly via email.

more donation options

Disrupting the Rabblement is proudly supported by donations from generous readers just like you, allowing me to finally retire full-time from the stripping industry (I was especially popular with the over 60's crowd).

For those of you legendary folks who wish to make a one-time donation, you can do so above. As a thank you, I may or may not send you an autographed photo from my pole dancing days.