Today I have 100 days since I started this blog. It’s my second blog, but the first one in English. It was an enjoyable experience so far, and I think it is just the beginning.
Here’s some statistical stuff about my first 100 days as an English blogger:
1. In the first three months I changed 3 blog themes. I finally come up with a modified theme that will last no longer than several weeks. I already started to work out my own self-made wordpress theme. Take it as an advice or as a piece of experience: if you are serious about blogging, try to make your own theme.
2. Traffic was around 4500 unique users per month, with an average of 1.9 pageviews/user. I think it’s ok for the beginning, but there’s a lot more room for improvment here. The main referring source was “direct referral” which means the blog has actually been visited by following links on other blogs. I have 144 feed subcribers, monitored by FeedBurner. I suspect that the “Google sandbox effect” is still in place, as I don’t get too much traffic – around 12-14% – from search engines. The next 100 days will tell me more on that.
3. My total revenue for this blog is now 38.17 USD and I introduced Google AdSense on January 7th. This makes a CTR of 0.57% and a page eCPM of 1.97 USD. I think it’s pretty good, or at least I’m somehow satisfied, but it’s not what I intend. I intend more, if that’s what you’re wondering right now. The main reason for this number is traffic, I had a total of only 19.351 ad impressions in this period. Well, it could be better, but it’s all related to the traffic. So, I decided to re-monetize the blog after I will reach a mark of 1000 feed subscribers and more than 10.000 unique viistors by month, whichever comes first. It’s far more important to have visitors first, and then I’ll see if monetizing this blog is really an option. Until then, the ad placements are frozen, and no other actions are taken to gain new advertisments in this blog.
4. There are roughly 100 posts and more than 200 comments on the blog so far. An average of a post per day. This is one of the major advantages of having this blog: it made me more disciplined and I becomed more focused. Creating a habit of writing about stuff that you like is really rewarding. You should try it.
5. I had one contest which took place for more than a month, and I already have two more planned. The prizes are usually licenses for productivity applications, like mind mapping tools. Having a running contest in your blog is a pretty incentive endeavour, especially for you, the blogger. It really makes you more interested in your readers opinions, and in the real ways by which you could create a community.
6. I learned tremendously during these 100 days. From social networking to English language skills, from website usabillity tests to viral promoting, from real-life GTD to blogging techniques, it was a terrific time. And it’s only the beginning.
That’s a mark for my 100 days of blogging. I wonder how it will look when I’ll read it from my first 200 days blogging mark. Or 500 days. Or 1000 days :-)…
Thanks for the tips 🙂 I’ll wait for the 200 days mark then. And congrats for your traffic, and good luck with your blog!
Hey, congratulations! For a 100 days old blog, and for the traffic you had, I think the number of feed subscribers is excellent. This proves that you already have loyal readers, and it shows a great potential. My blog, which is now some 200 days old, has twice or three times your traffic, but only 1/3 of your feed subscribers (it is true that I did not care too much to get focused). Google search traffic will start to show after about 4-5 months (at least, that was my case). Then you’ll also notice an increase in AdSense revenues – nothing compares to organic traffic when it comes to that.
So, happy anniversary and thanks for sharing your stories with us.