Ok, “thriving” and “popular” are extremely subjective, but compared to what the blog was before, I think that’s an accurate statement :)
As of yesterday, Blogging Bookshelf is a month old. I’ve been EXTREMELY pleased with the progress of the site so far and with all of the amazing people I’ve been able to meet. I didn’t quite know what to expect when I started this blog, but I think it’s safe to say the result has been way more positive than I thought it would be.
So how did I go from absolutely zero traffic and zero readers a month ago to my last blog post getting 87 comments and 32 retweets? Glad you asked! Keep reading :)
Disclaimer: While this post might not be as entertaining as some of my others, the value here is probably the highest of any I’ve done yet. So with that in mind…
Wanna see some stats first?
Ok! Here are some stats, keeping in mind that everything was at ZERO exactly a month ago.
- Highest number of visits in a day: 178
- RSS Subscribers: 50
- Newsletter subscribers: 64
- Twitter followers: 946 (I had exactly 34 when I started)
- # of words written: 31,000, or about a thousand words a day (includes blog posts, pages, and ebooks here, but doesn’t include any comments here or elsewhere or any guest posts). I expect the real number of words I’ve written to be at least… 75,000? More? Less? I dunno.
- Backlinks: ~1,650 (none of which were automated)
- Current Alexa rank: 323,334
Here’s a screenshot of the Alexa graph thing:
And here’s an overview of my traffic sources.
It’s interesting to note that WordPress.org was my #3 traffic source (actually #2, because direct traffic doesn’t have a source, now does it?). That’s from my Publish Confirmation plugin.
So these numbers aren’t anything too groundbreaking in the grand scheme of things, but I think they’re pretty freaking good for a month. And they make you realize that the ratio of visits to comments is surprisingly high.
So, how did I do it and what should you do if you’d like to boost your site’s traffic a bit?
1. Have a great comment policy
See that little blurb of text at the top of the right sidebar? The one with the 6 points? That’s my comment policy. I think it’s been pivotal to getting the amount of comments I’ve gotten. By putting that front and center (or, technically, top and right…), every new reader that comes to my blog knows that his or her comment will be valued. I even have that comment policy above my “all important” list-building newsletter opt-in form. THAT is how important my readers are to me.
I’ve heard a lot of bloggers question the necessity of replying to comments on your own blog. I think it’s essential. Here’s why I do it:
- First off, it obviously shows visitors that I value their comments.
- Second, it reminds them to leave a comment. Just like having a Twitter retweet button at the top or bottom of a post will remind and encourage people to leave a comment, the comment policy reminds people to leave a comment.
- It shows that if they have any questions, they can be assured I’ll read them and do my best to answer them. This provides extra value for the reader beyond what they got out of the post itself.
- People know I will read their comments, so I think this spurs them on to really write quality comments. I mean, have you read some of the comments on here? They’re freaking amazing, and the average comment here is far longer than on any other blog I’ve seen (that’s not to say I don’t love short comments. Whatever your style is, that’s fine with me!)
- I also like replying to every comment because it doubles the number of comments I have, and this is good for the self esteem. Seriously. Try it.
I also think the fact that I try to comment on the blog of everyone that comments on mine is a big reason for the high number of comments. Everyone is looking for more comments on their blogs and they now that if they need one, they can come here and get one pretty quick.
Now, I admit that I haven’t been quite as good at commenting back on people’s blogs in the past week or so as I was earlier, and I apologize for that. It’s just getting to the point that there are a lot of blogs to comment on! I still think I’ve gotten everyone, though. But don’t be angry if it takes me a day or two to get back to your blog, and please forgive me if you somehow fall through the cracks. If I haven’t commented after a couple days, @mention me on Twitter and I’ll come write two comments on your blog :)
Oh, and you don’t necessarily have to have your comment policy displayed like I do. I think it’s definitely helped me here, but it can also be implied.
2. Comment on tons of other blogs
Commenting on other blogs has been an absolutely essential part of this blog’s launch. I have commented on hundreds of blogs in the past month. Think about that! HUNDREDS! On average, I comment on about 20 blogs a day. There have been 2 days where I’ve commented on more than 50 blogs. Those were looooong days, but I definitely saw increases in my traffic and subscription numbers.
If you’re wondering, I can average about 10 or 12 comments an hour.
I read every post that I comment on and try to write a quality comment that adds value to the page. Sure, I could comment on way more blogs if I just skimmed through and left a short comment, but my goal with all of this commenting isn’t just to get traffic; it’s to get readers. By leaving a well-thought-out and [hopefully] useful comment, I hope to intrigue/impress the person enough to come back to my blog and leave an equally good comment.
3. Work hard. No really, work HARD
I work on this blog anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day, sometimes more, never less. I get 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night. I’ve given up a lot of things I enjoy to work on this blog and grow it. It’s amazing how much you can get done on a blog if you work on it for 12 hours a day!
For me, this blog is a startup company, and I am in startup mode. I eat, drink, and sleep this blog.
4. Have awesome content
Of course, if you work hard but have no quality content, your work is all in vain. I think this is where Blogging Bookshelf really stands out from the crowd.
My posts are not short. The last several have at least been in the 1500 words range. Do you still wonder why it’s called Blogging Bookshelf? :) Not only do I try to provide as much value as possible to my readers, but I think the long posts encourage long comments. The longer the comment someone writes, the more invested the person is in that comment, and the greater the chance that the person will come back to see if you’ve replied.
My posts are unique. They’re based on my own experiences, and as such, no one else can duplicate them.
In addition to being unique, my posts are 1) immediately applicable, and 2) infused with my personality. In the future I will go into more detail as to what the “quality content” that we’ve all heard so much abou really means and how you can tell if you have quality content on your blog.
5. Build quality relationships
I’m not a terribly outgoing person in “real life.” I’m not shy, but I’m quiet and introverted. Even so, I’ve managed to foster some awesome relationships and friendships in the last month. The people I’ve connected with through commenting, Twitter, and guest posts have definitely been essential in helping me expand my blog quickly.
You want people to share your stuff? 1) Share theirs, and 2) be an asset to them, their readers, and their blog.
Several people have emailed me and asked me specific questions about various blogging things. I’ve been able to help them out a bit and I feel like I’ve gotten some very loyal readers out of it. Win-win!
6. Use Twitter
My last post was all about Twitter, so I won’t go into too much detail here. And I’ve had requests to write more on how to effectively use Twitter, and I’ll do that in the future. Again, that’s a reason I won’t go into much detail here.
But let me just say that Twitter has blown me away. I didn’t get it before I started this blog, I really didn’t. I’d had an account for a year or so but hadn’t done anything with it. But once I really truly understood how it worked and how it could be a valuable tool, I became a true convert. It really is an extremely powerful tool for getting traffic. As I said in my post a couple days ago, it’s my #1 traffic source.
7. Write lots of guest posts
I’ve written 9 guest posts in the last month, 8 of which have been published so far. The ability to connect with entirely new (to me) yet firmly established audiences has truly been invaluable. I’ve gotten a lot of new readers, subscribers, and friends through my guest posting efforts.
Not only that, but I have made some great friendships with the people whose blogs I guest post on. Not only are these important and helpful now, but I expect they’ll become even more so in the future.
If you’re not guest posting, you’re hurting your blog. It’s that simple.
8. Don’t be afraid to change directions
When this blog started, I was intending it to be a blog that reviewed books about blogging and internet business. I realized pretty quickly that that wasn’t all I wanted to do, so then I decided to review other people’s free ebooks, too, and even the occasional premium ebook. But then I realized that I didn’t want to do THAT, either. I decided that I just wanted to write blogging tips from me, and not summarize them from other people. And that’s what I’m doing now.
And yes, all of that happened in about a two week period!
I’m telling you this because I’m trying to say that it’s ok to change things up a bit. If you don’t like the course your blog is taking, stop it! It’s YOUR freaking blog, after all! Your readers probably won’t care. A big part of why they’re reading your blog is YOU. As long as YOU stay the same, you’ve definitely got some wiggle room as far as what you write about.
Some miscellaneous notes…
These are random thoughts that didn’t really fit anywhere else but I wanted to mention. They don’t really fit together in any other way, so I won’t make any effort to connect them :)
- I have made some affiliate sales this month through both e-Junkie and Amazon. But I’m not pushing to make money with the blog now.
- Someone did give me a review copy of their ebook, and you can expect a review of it in the next couple weeks.
- The site was indexed in Google within a couple days but it took almost a month to rank for my target keywords (see below for more on SEO).
So what’s in store for the next month?
I think the major challenge for me is going to be taking the traffic to the next level. Around a hundred visits a day is awesome, but it will be hard for me to get much more than that just from commenting on other people’s blogs.
Twitter is going to play a huge role in getting more traffic for me, and I hope to have another couple thousand followers a month from now. I think that between getting more followers and being more active on Twitter, I can get significantly more traffic. And while I do thank everyone who retweets my articles, I’m not very fast at it. I also am bad at promoting my older posts, and I want to get better at retweeting the content of those who retweet my content.
I’ll start focusing a bit more on SEO so that I can get more organic traffic that way. SEO has never been a particularly strong point of mine, though I have ranked several blogs on the first page for their key terms. Right now I’m ranked for my target keywords for this blog, but I’m deep, deep in the rankings.
I also want to get on the radar of some big-name bloggers. I’ve never done this kind of thing before, but I’ve got several ideas in mind. Hopefully they’ll work so I can come back and report here :)
As for content here, you can bet it’s going to be awesome! I hope to release another free ebook or two, create some killer tutorials and comprehensive video guides, and play around with infographics some more. I also plan to release a free Thesis theme skin for those who, like me, sport Thesis. I’m interested to see how much traffic I get from that.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to join the Blogging Bookshelf newsletter to get your free copy of my ebook 101 Ways You’re Killing Your Blog. It outlines the 101 biggest mistakes bloggers make. It’s useful, trust me.
As always, that retweet button is just right there :) Oh, and that reminds me. If you’ve ever got a particular post that you want me to retweet and I don’t get around to it, let me know!
- If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments!
- And if you want me to cover certain topics in the next month, let me know in a comment.
- If you have any suggestions on how I can grow the blog, I’m all ears!
{ 115 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m very interested to see what you’re going to do to get on that radar ;)
Congratulations Tristan on your blogging journey thus far, and those are amazing traffic results to be getting in your first month!
Thanks, Jay! It’s really not rocket science, it just takes a crap ton of work. The trick is going to be figuring out how to scale all of that traffic up. We’ll see how it goes, I guess! Thanks as always for your input.
Very nice post Tristan, I particularly have to implement a clear commenting policy on my blog as well, for now it’s implied but I want to give it a go on making it more explicit as I think it’ll benefit me and my readers.
I agree on your points, and I share your pain about promoting your old content, it’s something I have to learn to do efficiently as well. I am sure we’ll get there ;)
Yeah, no blogger and no blog is perfect, right? There are always ways to improve. I think that’s one thing that makes blogging so exciting. I mean, it wouldn’t be as fun if you could become perfect at it in a day, would it?
I really do think the clear comment policy has been a huge reason for getting so many comments here, and I think it’ll help out any blog.
Thanks for the comment, Gabriele!
Hello Tristan,
nice reading. Actually it seems like blogger are still less relying on the SEO and Google to get traffic. The most valuable traffic for the blogs like this is the traffic from the other blogs from the niche. That means through the comments and guest posts.
This way you will receive the traffic that is made of the people who are interested in the niche and who know how to “behave” on the blog (leave a comment or retweet).
This people will most likely convert into the returning readers and that is the point, right?
I am looking forward to see where you will take this great blog in the future.
Exactly Adam. I think it’s important to build a foundation within the community and let the SEO come later as icing on the cake, you know?
And yeah, luckily, the people in this niche that we’re blogging in are very comment-centric and share-centric. It makes sense, though, right? I mean if you’re blogging about blogging, it makes sense that the people in your niche know how to leave a comment :)
I’m looking forward to the future of this blog, too! We’ll see where it takes me!
Thanks as always for your great comment, Adam!
Hi Tristan, Great Post! Very informative.
I am excited for you over your success. You’ve worked hard, worked smart and done well. There is more I’d *like* to say/ask but somehow it’s not coming out right. I’ll come back after breakfast (and a few more cups of coffee) and see if I can’t be more lucid. Congratulations!
Hahaha. Awesome, Allan. I’m looking forward to your questions!
“I also like replying to every comment because it doubles the number of comments I have, and this is good for the self esteem. Seriously. Try it.”
I love this line Tristan! I think it totally spells out who you are, your honesty and your sense of humor.
I have to admit that when I first landed (by chance) on your blog, I was ready to leave. I was thinking “here we go! another blogging tips blog that’s not going to answer any of my questions” …. But, you know what made me stay? You comment policy.
Yes, I (like many others, I’m sure) am proof that your comment policy is very efficient!! Of course, it also didn’t hurt that I got a free ebook with my first comment :)
I became a big fan of this blog, however, not only because of this policy, but because of the valuable tips you share and the commitment you show your readers.
Congratulations on your well-deserved success!!
I’m glad you liked that line, Carolina :) It’s true! Seeing that I’ve got 50 comments on a post is just so much more satisfying than 25! This was especially important when I first went into double digits. When I replied to that comment and hit 10 comments on the post, I was really excited!
It’s good to hear confirmation that the comment policy is indeed working. That’s what I suspected, but it’s good to hear other people say as much. Based on your feedback, I think I might tweak it a bit to include something like, “I will answer any questions you have about blogging.”
Thanks as always for the awesome comments and feedback, Carolina!
“I will answer any questions you have about blogging.”
LOL! That’s really cute :)
Tristan, a terrific read. I’m a big talker too and am often torn about the length of my reads. On the one hand, I like being comprehensive (that is, I like adding lots of paths to a given topic), but on the other, I fear I may be losing you in all the heavy philosophical ranting I often do. My writing is wordy too, but again, me likey the verbose, philosophical carrying on in the things I read. Well anyhow, then I read this post. What struck me apart from the obvious help you’re supplying, is it’s physical use of the real estate. Each of your points use an H1 (or 2 or whatever) and short story telling ensues. That layout relaxed my speedy brain into a lull, because while I love long reads, I’m conversely somewhat impatient a reader too. And if the post sucks and is also long, yikes! So these bite-sized pieces you presented – again talking strictly of the aesthetic – helped me slowly read through this without being preoccupied or concerned with its length. So I think I’d add that the tactical distribution of the copy and talking points can be disarming to hurry-up readers such as myself. Surgical attention to line breaks and H1s help as much as being a concise and thoughtful writer, yes? Kudos. I’m glad we hooked up on Twitter. I suspect you might rock!
Fantastic comment, Scott! I’m excited to reply to it :)
I think that long posts on blogs get a bad rap. Everyone says not to make them long, to keep them 500 words or under. I’ve said this to, because I really think it depends on the writer. I love me a good 2000 word blog post to read, providing it’s 1) interesting, and 2) useful.
I think the “keep the blog posts short” approach is inherently flawed. When I hear that, I think whoever wrote that assumes your posts will be crappy. If that’s the case then yeah! Keep em short!!! But it’s funny because the same people who regurgitate “Keep your posts short” are also advocates of having mega posts that are total linkbait fodder. My question is, why not just make EVERY post linkbait fodder? Just about every one of my recent posts has been mentioned in one way or another by other bloggers. Is it because they’re short and to the point? No, it’s because they’re long and provide real value.
As you mentioned, I think a lot of it depends not only on the quality of your content, but how readable it is. Using the headings (they’re bolded h2 headings, btw) definitely helps. Bolding certain phrases also helps, because when someone’s reading, it gives them reason to keep reading. It’s like, “Oh, I’ll just keep reading a little bit more till I get to that bold part, and then I can stop.” But then when they get there, they see another bold heading or phrase coming up and they keep reading :)
And yes, I feel like making the posts personal and involving my own experiences not only provides a lot of value and evidence for what I’m talking about, but it makes it easier and more enjoyable to read.
And finally, “I suspect you might rock!” is one of the funniest, most awesome compliments I’ve yet gotten! I literally laughed out loud at that one. Thanks so much for leaving such a great comment, Scott! In fact, I’ll probably end up turning this reply into a post of it’s own in the future: “How to write long articles that still get read.” If I do, I’ll be sure to thank and mention you for inspiring me :)
me likey the verbose…
You kill me Dailey with your words man….which is why your posts are always worth a read man. ;-)
Tristan, you’ve been rockin’ it buddy!
Already showing a helluva lot of promise on the blog and it was such a good decision to change directions overall.
It’s great to see another blogger that goes after the longer-style post; personally, I want something to READ when I’m visiting blogs – not just to quickly skim and be on my way; that’s why you’ve really caught my attention (plus, commenting everyone is definitely helping haha).
Keep at it man!
Thanks, Murray! I agree, I think the decision to change directions was definitely a good one.
And I’m the same way, I like to read me some meaty blog posts! Thanks for stopping by, Murray; your input is always appreciated.
You’ve been retweeted, my Utah friend! There’s a ton I could comment on from this post. First, congrats on your blog success in such a short time! It took me 1 year to get where you are now so I’m pretty pissed. :-) Ha, no….I think it’s awesome and look forward to growing along with you, and maybe because of you? I only just started a few weeks ago really commenting on other blogs, finding commentluv and trying to build relationships on Twitter. I actually WAY underestimated how important that was. It has grown my traffic some and looking to keep that trend going. I’m annoyed by bloggers who don’t reciprocate the comment, especially when I have commented on their blog so many damn times. You are awesome at returning the love. I am nervous about all the time I am spending on twitter and commenting now though…..there’s just so much to do to keep growing!
Suh-weeeeet. Thanks for the RT, Susan :)
Yeah, it’s always SUPER annoying when I leave 10 comments on someone’s blog and they don’t leave a single one on mine. I mean… whether you’re selling anything or not, that’s just bad business! I am a freaking awesome customer! As long as you comment on my blog, I will comment on yours. It’s pretty simple. And if you don’t comment back, you will lose me as a reader forever. Sucks for them more than for me, right?
And you’re right, all the time spent doing this stuff really can add up and at the end of the day you look back and think to yourself, “Ok, so… I did WHAT today?”
Thanks for the great comment, as always!
Hi Tristan,
Your traffic stats has been awesome for just a month. I am really impressed by what you have achieved here. Got lots to learn from you. You are right to put your comment policy on top as people will notice it easily. It’s a great idea which encourages more comments. You are doing a great job. Keep rocking brother.
Thanks, Lye! I really appreciate this kind of feedback. And thanks for taking the time to comment. Hopefully we can all learn more together and keep our blogs moving!
Congratulations, Tristan. I have no doubt that you will achieve your goals. In addition to interesting and accessible content, you have great drive, which is key to success (in anything).
Thanks, Ronika. Yeah, hopefully this whole blogging thing will work out for all of us :) I appreciate the words of encouragement and the comment!
Hey Tristan – been wondering how you’ve managed to rock your blog in thirty days and NOW I know – thanks! For sure I’d be spending those eight to twelve hours a day working on my blog if I didn’t have three part time jobs to go to every day. :)
I’m totally an advocate of commenting on other people’s blogs – new bloggers I meet and those that comment on my blog. When I joined my very first 30-day blogging challenge, I discovered how critical this approach is and the great results you get from your efforts.
For me, the bottom line in sustaining a successful blog is building community. And that takes work – a lot of hard work. There’s definitely no “point-and-click” technique for growing your readership.
You’re doin’ it right!
Melanie
Yeah, I think that if anyone spends 8 to 12 hours a day on their blog, they’ll see significant improvement :)
You do get great results from commenting on other people’s blogs, huh? It’s something I haven’t focused on as much with my previous blogs, but the results are awesome for this one.
And you’re 100% right; there is no point-and-click path to success. It all comes down to hard work, just like it always has with everything else.
Thanks for the comment!
Hi Tristan, another awesome post! Again, congrats on those numbers.
I now have so much coffee in me I slosh when I walk, so I’m as lucid as I’m ever going to get.
1) Comment policy: Great idea. Placement? Does it have to be up at the top where people popping into drop a comment can see it right off? Is that something fellow commentaholics will be looking for right off, or can I put such a thing at the bottom of the post along with an impassioned please to PLEASE comment, Tweet, Facebook, send green stamps, Digg and Stumble? Additionally, as you know; I have a dysfunction when it comes to being brief. Especially when it comes to describing what I do to spammers. That can go on for pages! If I put in a page for comment policy on the menu bar at the top with my other pages will anyone see that, or is that just a bad idea all round?
2) Comment on millions of blogs. Working on that. That small problem of “life” (two jobs, acreage to care for, church, family, etc) makes it difficult for me to follow your model, but I do what I can. Big question here is: should I focus on finding blogs that share my niche (whatever THAT is) or just spread it around? It does seem like I’ve piqued a little interest by commenting on the blogging about blogging blogs, which is where I do most of my reading right now. That surprises me a bit. Why would people seeking advice on building their traffic be enticed to check out a tar covered, minimalist farmer, meeting up with Christian biker gangs on top of a mountain?
3) Work HARD: See #2. Then, given a limited amount of time available without inciting divorce and dog bites, what should I be focusing on first?
4) Awesome content / Changing directions. See #2. Then, is there a chance of actually making a living – even a minimal one — with a blog that doesn’t blog about blogging? Or should I just accept that this is a hobby and go back to raising crickets for a living?
5) Quality relationships. Totally, whole heartedly agree. Next question please.
6) Twitter: trying. Mostly failing, but making some small progress just today. Lots of things one needs to know that if one doesn’t know it just doesn’t work. Randomly mashing buttons is a lousy way to learn something complex. I finally found a Dummy’s Guide today; that may help.
7) Guest Posts. Major Fail there. I’ve thought about it many times but it always comes back to the issue of what do *I* know that anyone on any of *these* blogs would want to hear. Seeking out blogs that might want *my* work will take time away from #3.
And I think that about wraps it up for this evening; back to you Johnny – er, ah, Tristan.
Alright, Allan! Let’s tackle this thing:
1) I’m not sure about the comment policy placement. It’s something that I’ve never really seen done on other blogs and this is the first time I’ve done it on my blog, so I don’t know what the best way to do it is. I put mine up top because I wanted people to know from the get-go that they had reasons for commenting. Because in order to see it at the bottom of a post, they’d have to 1) come to your site, 2) look through your posts to see something that looks interesting, 3) not be put off by the first couple paragraphs, and 4) make it through all the way to the end of your post. The way I’ve got it set up here, they just have to come to my site and they’re hit with it right away.
To be honest, I don’t think many people would read a separate comment policy page. I know pages like that are out there, but I’ve never ever read one. Some people might be taken there from a rogue click when they were trying to go somewhere else, but I think the vast majority wouldn’t. Clicks are precious on a blog. You want to have to make people click as few times as possible, and I think if anyone felt like they had to read your comment policy on a separate page before commenting, that’s just another point in the system at which you could lose them.
Does that make sense?
2) I fully realize that 99% (if not more) of the people who read this post can’t spend hours every day commenting on other blogs. I’m not saying that’s the only way to get traffic or the best way, but it is easy and it’s a big part of what I’ve been doing. It just takes time. I’m at a very fortunate point in my life where I am able to do this full time.
As to your question about whether you should comment on blogs that share your niche or spread it around… Both. I think you should spend the majority of your time commenting on blogs within your niche (whatever THAT is! Hahah, I’m actually going to email you about this with some ideas I have when I’m done here), but also spend time commenting on blogs outside of your niche IF you’re blogging about something that would apply to a wide variety of people.
For example, if you’re blogging about C++ programming, commenting on a lot of blogs outside your niche won’t help. But with a niche like yours (that I perceive to be something along the lines of simplicity and minimalism for normal people), that’s something that people with many different interests can find useful and interesting.
3) You always need good content, so I’m going to not talk about using your limited time on that. With the rest of your time, I’d say it might be useful to split it up by days. So if you’ve got, say, 2 hours a day to blog, spend 2 hours one day writing a guest post. Then spend two hours the next day commenting on blogs. Then spend 2 hours the next day writing another guest post. Throw into the cycle whatever else you need to budget time for (reading/education, site maintenance, etc.). Or you could even spend just a couple hours FINDING other blogs to comment on and then comment on them another day. I’ve found (and I’m sure you’ve experienced the same thing) that when I clearly delineate the boundaries of what I’m doing (not mixing checking email with writing a post or not mixing finding blogs with commenting on blogs), I can get more done overall.
4) Did you really raise crickets for a living? Gross! I used to have a couple Chinese fire-bellied toads and I had to feed them crickets. I’m fine with bugs outside, but when they’re inside my house, the rules are different, and they’re gross and dead.
Anyway, is it possible to make money blogging in a niche other than internet marketing? Yes many people have done so. But I think it can take a lot longer, and the amount of money you can make definitely varies.
Gary Vaynerchuk (author of the book Crush It!) furiously maintains that you can blog about anything and support yourself if you work at it long and hard enough. He even gives an example about worms (close enough to crickets, right?). He says if you’re head over heels about bait worms, you can start a blog about that. Cater to fishing enthusiasts. And if you stick with it long enough, eventually you’ll get enough traffic to the point where people in the industry will take notice and come to you for joint ventures, sponsorships, etc.
Want more examples? http://www.izzyvideo.com/ (started out as the guy’s blog about how to shoot video, but then he turned it into a profitable membership site). Here’s another: http://thewoodwhisperer.com/ (woodworking tutorials, same story as above). Here’s another: http://www.learningindonesian.com/ (this dude and his wife blog about learning Indonesian and have a premium membership option.)
Want more examples? I could probably dig more up. There are plenty of blogs about minimalism or sports that make people a lot of money.
Having said that, some niches I’ve been involved with are just wrong (for one reason or another) for making money! The two that I’ve had experience with are poetry and rock climbing, neither of which are full of people with money to spare.
5) Excellent. Next!
6) I’m sorry! I’ll try to get some Twitter info up on the blog here ASAP.
7) Guest posting IS part of number 3. It should be a part of it and not an afterthought. In the email I’m going to send you, I’ll talk to you more about this, too.
Whew! Great comment, Allan! Thanks for some great questions!
Thank you Tristan for your thorough reply. You may be relieved to know that I’ll be out of commission next week, so you will get a break from my copious interrogations. Thanks again!
Hi Tristan!
I found your site via an article over on Steve Scott’s site. And I’m glad I did. This place of yours is packed full of great content… content full of common sense tips that are easy to put into practice right away. Thank you for that, Tristan.
Kind regards,
Steve
Thanks, Steve! Yeah, Steve Scott’s got a great site that I was very happy to guest post on. I’m glad you were able to make your way over here, find some useful info, and leave a comment. Thanks for the great comment and for stopping by.
Thanks for the information on thriving on a blog in 30 days. Now I need to go try to implement it.
Yep, that’s the hard part :) Thanks, Alice!
Holy CRAP Tristan, first of all I’d like to congratulate you on such incredible stats in just one short month! Hopefully your success will grow exponentially as time goes on! (It should)
I think you blow point number 3 right out of the water. You have some insane perseverance my friend! Also, your commenting strategies seem to work wonders. I’ve seen your comments everywhere on other blogs and you always respond to every comment! I think that definitely sets a professional blogger apart from someone who treats it as a hobby.
Maybe you’ll be able to hit 1000 visitors per day by next month? Anything is possible! Again, congrats :)
Thanks, Elise! I’m happy with how things are going :)
I’ve toyed with the thought of setting reaching 1,000 a day by next month. I’m kind of scared, though, because that’s a pretty massive goal! But sure, I’ll set it! (There it is. It’s now set in the stone of the interwebz.)
Thanks for the comment and compliments, Elise!
Tristan — long time reader, first time poster. Keep it up.
Thanks, Trevor!
Hey Tristan, hard work pays off and you’ve proven it again.
I’m also a believer in Twitter now. I mean I had my account for like 2 years or maybe more, but I thought it was stupid because other people I knew (who didn’t know JACK about Twitter) told me it was stupid.
I’m definitely going to be keeping up with your journey here. I’m in the process of making one of those changes you talked about and it’s kind of scary, but like you said, it MY blog so I have to be the one to take the risk and do the things I want to do.
Anyway all the best and keep doing what you’re doing!
John, I was in pretty much the exact same boat. I had just heard from people that didn’t understand it that it was dumb. And after signing up and taking a cursory glance around at the Twitter interface, I concluded that they were right. Dumb dumb dumb.
Congrats on taking your blog in a new direction! Go for it, man. Just keep reminding yourself that it will be better for you in the long run, even if there are some small hiccups in the interim (which there might not be).
Thanks for the great comment and words of encouragement!
I was going to wait until the end of the month to post up my traffic trends, because I have been noticing something quite strange. I’ve only made one post this month (well, two, if I want to include a short quote I posted today), and my traffic is still on target to match last month when I wrote much more frequently. The only thing I have done is comment on at least one blog a day, and that translates into at least two or three views each. My traffic is definitely not in the realm of yours, and I don’t have a backlog of posts for people to come across like they do at larger blogs.
I do find that a lot of my traffic is coming into my blog from some major sites I commented at (GigaOM, TechCrunch, ZDNet to name a few). My blog is too wordy for most people, so this does not translate into new subscribers for me, but it could work really well for other writers who are more focused.
Another way to generate traffic is to target the titles of major blogs and their authors. For example, Ramit Sethi posted a post titled: The blockbuster 4,355-word email that I sent out yesterday — what was it?
I wrote a post about that email, including the “4,355 word” phrase in my post. I keep getting hits from the search engines for it even though the original post was nearly two months ago.
Anyways, great list of tips, and look forward to your future posts!
That’s really interesting, James. I’ve stayed away from commenting on the super big blogs like you mentioned because I just didn’t there was much of a point to it. I’ll have to give it a try and see how the stats respond.
It’s been my experience that the more posts I do, the more traffic i get. It’s not a huge increase (if I do twice as many posts, I don’t get twice as much traffic), but it is an increase. I think your way of doing it sounds great and frankly, if it’s giving you the same amount of traffic, that’s awesome! Another thing to consider, though, is they you have fewer interactions with your readers through replying to comments on your blog.
And I think your 4,355-word post ideas is awesome! It’s like you’re siphoning traffic :) Very clever, and that’s something I’d like to look into.
Thanks for the comment, James!
Great job ! Tristan. Keep it up. I think you deserve to be a popular blog in a month. You really worked hard 7-8hours per day and provided the useful and valuable informations for everyone who came to your blog. That’s why they just want to come back to your blog everyday.Thanks Dude
Thanks, Ryan! I’m working hard but enjoying this immensely. I’m glad you’re finding some good, useful information here! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment :)
Hi Tristan .. great post! I could stop now – right?! But I won’t .. the thing that sort of came at me .. because of your 7 year history .. ok I’ve only been blogging nearly 2 years .. with the care of elderly as my priority .. so having been around the community & listening, reading and learning .. I can see you’ve set out a plan here – if we wanted to start another blog along a particular line – we could probably all get going quite quickly if we have the knowledge base, the plan and articles written ..if they’re not a natural part of our life. Then we could hit the start gate – running .. Very interesting .. thank you – Hilary
Thanks for the awesome comment, Hilary. It’s true that I think if anyone followed what I did, they’d see the same results. I think if I were to start another blog in another niche (assuming the passion was still there), I’d just replicate the process that I’ve done here.
It’s a lot of work, but aren’t all of the best things in life :)
Thanks again!
Hi Tristan .. I can see that .. and exactly as you’ve done .. we could all replicate: your blog intrigues people – because we’re all trying to be better bloggers … but there are millions of opportunities out for all sorts of things/niches – and yes obviously hard work is the order of the day – planning, and managing and learning the tricks of the trade to condense the work, but yet achieve much.
Thanks – great post .. as I said before!! Cheers Hilary
You’re awesome. Love the blog, and good writing. Keep up the good work (but try to get more than 6 hours sleep a night, or eventually you’ll burn out!) – Lory
Yeah, I do need to work on the whole sleep thing… But it’s hard! I really enjoy working on this blog and I end up staying up till 3 or 4 in the morning because of it. And then I’m excited to work on it in the morning so I get up around 9. I know, I know, I’ll try to do better…
Thanks for the compliment and the comment, Lory!
Hey Tristan,
Great work dude. Your stats are awesome and your guest post on FB was really great.
Twitter is one of my top traffic source from 4-5 months.
Thanks for sharing this great Post man. Keep Rocking.
Thanks, Devesh! I’m glad you liked my guest post on FB. I really enjoyed writing that one :) Thanks for stopping by to leave a comment, and thanks for taking the time to read this rather large post!
Shouldn’t “following others twitter accounts” be one of your tips? You recently became a follower of my tweets for no apparent reason. The only reason I can think of is you wanted me to become aware of you and click on your links. Well obviously it works. So I am surprised to not see it here as a tip for how to get traffic.
In my head, I lumped that in with my #6 point, “Use Twitter.” I haven’t gone into much detail here on the blog of exactly how to use Twitter, but yes, following other people and hoping they’ll click through is part of the strategy. Glad it worked :)
Thanks for commenting, sbro!
I’ve just ripped off your ‘comment rules’ idea for my main niche site. Learning Spanish is a niche that lends itself well to a feeling of community and I need to do everything I can to encourage comments.
I have also found that telling people explicitly what you want them to do next is the best way to go when trying to get some action going online. Just hanging in the shadows acting cool and waiting to be noticed does not work in this world.
Sweet! Glad you found the comment rules useful! And you make a great point about having to tell people what you want them to do! Sometimes people are only too willing to help you out, you just need to tell them what it is they should do. You’re right in that you’ve got to be proactive about it!
Thanks for commenting, Parleo. I really do appreciate it.
Hi Tristan,
Thanks for the follow on Twitter. Checked out your blog and I definitely think you have a good thing going here! I’m just starting to build our @AlwayHappyLife Twitter and will look forward to seeing your article about it. I think your information is very valuable. Keep at it!
-Becky
AlwaysHappyLife.com
You’re welcome for the follow and thank YOU for the comment! I’m glad you found the info here useful, and thanks for sharing your interest in the Twitter post. I’ll get on that sooner, then :)
Awesome stuff, Tristan!
You really are killing it. Those are frankly amazing numbers for one month. Just goes to show what busting your ass can get you.
One of the best things I like is that you really go and FIND people. You do not wait for the “magic traffic faeries” to bring them to you, you go out there and comment your ass off, you guest post everywhere then you make sure you have real quality stuff here for when people come and visit (replies and posts)
It is obviously working and it really encourages me to try to “step up” my own game a little bit. I also try to do the commenting on 20 a day. I don’t always make it though. I usually reply to all comments. (sometimes I miss them on OLD articles) but I am sometimes not prompt, and though I have one guest post that should be hitting soon, I have been lax about pumping them out…this will be my first one in like 4-5 months.
I knew all these things were good before but reading about your success with them really does provide inspiration to try…just a little harder.
Awesome job! It will be great in a few months to finally be friendly with an “A” list blogger. ;)
Thanks, Steve! I really respect what you’re doing on your blog, so I appreciate the awesome feedback.
I think going out and finding people is absolutely essential. People will NOT come to you or your blog these days. There are just too many blogs out there! And I must have screwed over those “magic traffic faeries” a long time ago, because it’s been a while since I’ve been visited by them :)
I don’t always make it with commenting on the 20 blogs, either, but I’d say I do it at least 5 days out of the week, and I make up for it by commenting a lot more than that one day a week.
Thanks for saying that although you know this stuff, you’re still finding it useful. That’s one thing I’m really trying to do here, is not only say what works, but prove that it’s working for me. I think that’s where I can provide value for people like you who know this stuff, but want the extra reassurance that it’s going to work before they invest their precious time in it.
I agree, it’ll be great when WE are A-list bloggers in a few months :) Thanks for the great comment!
Wow Tristan, this has been an incredible experience for me reading your thoughts and then the thoughts of everyone else on here. Here’s what I’ve learned:
1. Posting a commenting policy is genius. I can’t believe I’ve never done it….What a ding-dong I am!!! ;-)
2. You’re real as they come. Honest. Hiding nothing in your strategy. People dig that.
3. You’re eating, drinking, and #$@$R% this blog….and it shows. What you’ve done in a month is sick. Really, really sick man. But it all stems from the fact that you really understand how social web works and obviously have human relation skills……so again, I’m really feeling that.
4. You’ve got enthusiasm. Lot’s of it. Kinda like kid at little league baseball game enthusiasm…..again, diggin that man.
5. You’re one of the few authors that seems to utilize the word ‘freaking’ as well as I do….hmmm…..yep, that takes the cake.
Looking forward to more…
Have a tremendous weekend.
Thanks, Marcus! And don’t beat yourself up about the comment policy thing. I’ve never seen it on anyone else’s blog before, and I’ve never done it on any of my blogs until I had been blogging here for a week. I was trying to focus on getting comments and was trying to figure out how I could encourage people to comment. And then there was that ah ha! moment :)
You want to know what else is great about getting people to comment here? If they make it through the gauntlet of Popup Domination, seeing the newsletter opt-in form on the sidebar, getting past the reminder in the little tan box after each post, there’s that little “Get your free copy of 101 Ways You’re Killing Your Blog while you’e at it” box they can check that’s between the comment box and the submit button :)
And yes, while I DO understand how this whole social web thing works, I’m trying to show people that it’s not hard and that there are no secrets, it’s just hard work! There is no magic bullet. Sure, there are ways to optimize your blog and stuff, but success in this, like success in pretty much everything else.
Thanks for picking up on my enthusiasm! This really is what I’m passionate about. I’m not just faking it so that I can have an “income auto-pilot blog” and make a quick buck with.
Thanks for the great comment, and you have a freaking awesome weekend, too :)
It’s really awesome post. You have mentioned all the key points to success. Content plays the many role in the blog and how we promoting it to others is next thing. Building relationships and commenting and social media tools will help for that. :)
Thanks for sharing this article with us Tristan. :)
Goutham.
I’m glad you liked the post, Goutham! Thanks for the comment and thanks for reading :)
I forgot one other question here Tristan, and maybe you can help.
Upon looking at your commenting policy you mention ‘dofollow’. Currently, my blog is set up on ‘no-follow’, but that’s likely because such was the default. So I decided to research the two and it appears there is some debate over whether or not dofollow will hurt or help a site in the long run due to the SEO ramifications.
So my question is do you, or someone else on here, have an opinion on these supposed pros and cons of dofollow?
Yes, all blogs are set up as NoFollow by default.
This is something I’m curious about, too. I’m still in trial mode and haven’t truly been converted yet. This is the first blog of mine that I’ve ever made DoFollow. Are there benefits? Yeah, I’m guessing there are one or two people that comment because they saw the blog was DoFollow. Will I still have a large number of comments if I take that part out of the comment policy and make the blog NoFollow? I think so. I think that if that’s the only reason why people leave a comment, they’re probably not my idea audience, anyway.
Drawbacks? I’ve never had a blog fare so badly in the rankings for my target keywords. Granted, “blogging tips” is a fairly competitive phrase, the blog is only a month old, and I don’t expect to be in the top 10 anytime soon, but I’m at something like 400 right now!! In fact, I’ve actually been slipping backward for my keyphrase!
In fact, let me go check my notes for a sec… Ok, I was at #397 on Wednesday, 438 on Thursday, 466 on Friday, and 420 today (can you tell this is something I’m keeping an eye on?). I’m going to keep things the way they are for another week or two just so I can have some good data to work from (and to compare with my NoFollow numbers so I can write a good post about that), but then I’m probably going to change to NoFollow. I’m going to talk to some SEO experts (because I’m definitely not one) and get their opinions, too.
I can’t help but wonder if DoFollow is part of the reason. If you’re wondering about whether you should make your blog DoFollow, I’d say not to quite yet. I’m not entirely convinced myself. And check out this great article that pretty much sums up what I’m thinking: http://hotblogtips.com/update-on-do-follow-vs-no-follow-debate There are some great links in that post that give more info on either side of the argument.
In other words, I don’t know. SEO is not my specialty. I’m still experimenting for myself because I’ve heard very conflicting information. The link above has a link to something by Matt Cutts who works at Google. He said that DoFollow can hurt you in the rankings. Is that something I want to risk for the occasional extra comment? Probably not, but we’ll see.
Tristan,
First of all, congratulations on your achievements.
Commenting on other people’s blog and replying to the comments in your own blog posts really makes a huge difference. You have proved that blogging success can be achieved in a short period of time with great contents and effective strategies. Simply remarkable man! What an inspiration!
Nothing but respect brother..
Thanks, Adam. I really appreciate that kind of feedback and encouragement.
The great thing about what I’m doing here is that anyone can do this! I’m not doing anything secret or special! Just lots of hard work.
Thanks again for the comment!
Tristen,
You have been very busy! I am so glad it is paying off.
I love this post. Like your other posts it is honest and gives reality on what is going on.
The comment policy is really great! The placement of the policy could be tested out. It could be place in an author box at the top or bottom of posts. There are a couple of plugins for the author boxes.
When it comes to the length of your posts. It almost seems like a silly argument. Your posts should be as long as it takes to get the information to you readers.
Well done!
Sheila, I agree that the comment policy location could be tested out more, but see my [lengthy] comments to Allan above (the one where my reply starts out as “Alright, Allan! Let’s tackle this thing”) as to why I put it where I did. I will continue to play around with its placement elsewhere in addition to where it is now, but I’m always going to keep it there.
And yeah, I’ve thought about adding an author box (like the one your sister just recommended, if I remember correctly). I’ll play around with that, too, and see how it goes.
And yeah, I like what you said about post length! It really doesn’t matter as long as you’ve go something to say :)
Thanks for commenting!
Tristan,
I did read your great response to Allan.
I probably got this comment in the wrong place. My suggestion for testing was just an over all suggestion to the group. I think you have a good thing going. I figure if it works why mess with it. There are other new ideas to pursue.
Thanks again for providing a spark (actually make that a fire) of inspiration in my blogging journey.
You sure work a lot and I wish you all the best that that hard work deserves.
As a ‘mom-blogger’ my committment to my kids (naturally) overtakes any committment to blogging. Of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Blogging I guess in my world is secondary to all the rest that goes on in life……however, I would like to do both, so will keep working at it.
My last post was written with my young son chanting in the background “Are you finished yet, are you finished yet…” Quite funny I guess…
Anyhow, still getting lots of out of your blogging tips, Tristan. Keep up the amazing work…
Mon
Yeah, I realize some of the information in this post (work on your blog 10 hours a day!) isn’t applicable to some people, but it’s what I’m doing and what’s been working for me so I had to say it!
It’s a good thing you said you put your kids first. I would have deleted your comment, sent you a scathing email, and boycotted your blog were that not the case! Of course there are more important things in life than blogging; I’m just at a unique point in my life where everything fell together to give me the perfect opportunity to build a great blog.
In the future, I’ll provide a schedule of what I would do if I only had an hour or two or three a day to work on the blog.
I’m happy that I could provide you with a little bit of a spark/fire of inspiration! If you ever need a lighter, feel free to send me an email :) Thanks as always for the comment!
Wow! Way to go.
My blog Marketing blog is fairly new also… but my stats don’t look like yours at this point. I’m impressed with your comment box on the top. I also comment on a lot of blogs… some over and over again and have found some folks don’t have good manners and comment back. Looks like you have a responsive crowd.
I have another blog that is so seo friendly that I get from 200 to 400 views a day and I’ve neglected it for several months while getting my new blog up and running. I love free traffic that I don’t have to work for. There are a couple of seo tips that I use that have proven to be successful.
By the way… I put on “tweet old post” plug in last week and I’m amazed how many of my old posts are getting the retweeted.
My sis, Sheila (Wallburg) and I just mention yesterday that we Utah folks need to get together.
Yeah, it’s rough when you comment on a blog over and over again if they don’t comment back. I usually just stop after a while. I figure my time and efforts are better spent elsewhere.
I’m jealous of your blog that gets 200 to 400 views a day just from search engine traffic! Boy, I would looooove that right now! But I figure it will come in time and as I work on it more. You can’t have it all, right? Not at first, anyway.
Thanks for the tip on the “tweet old post” plugin! I’m definitely going to go check that out.
And yeah, I’d love to meet some fellow Utah bloggers!
Tristan -
This was a helpful post, mainly because seeing your numbers is energizing. Plus, the useful advice.
I have one other suggestion for creating traffic. My friend and I do book reviews and those books we are pleased with we offer the author/publisher an opportunity for an interview. It’s more content and exposure for that author and the author is clearly networked into places we would like to be so we earn some of that exposure as well. Given your collection of reviews I thought I would throw that suggestion your way.
Best of luck to you
That’s a really great idea, Travis! I’ll have to try that. Thanks a ton for stopping by, taking the time to read this long post, and for leaving such a great comment!
I think it’s your comment policy that does it most of all. It’s amazing how many comments I see on blogs that go completely DoFollow….sometimes hundreds per post.
I was just going through the comments here on this post and find it great that you actually reply to EVERY one. Kudos to you, sir.
Jason, I’ll probably be going to NoFollow sometime in the next couple weeks, so it’ll be interesting to see how many comments I get then.
And yeah, I actually really like replying to all of the comments! It’s a lot of fun for me, and hopefully it provides some good value.
Thanks for commenting!
Awesome post and congrats on the success so far. It’s the building of those relationships that I believe make the biggest difference overall but you’ve done some amazing work in such a short space of time so more power to you!
Thanks, Amit! I agree that building those relationships is a powerful, powerful way of building your blog. Thanks for the comment!
Excellent news Tristan, that’s a fantastic result! Hope keeps on growing.
I think it’s really useful to track your progress like this, it really does make for interesting and motivating reading.
Great, I’m glad it helps! I’ll for sure do another similar post in a month or so. I realize that not everyone can apply the tips I’ve suggested, but I still think there’s a lot of useful information here.
Thanks for commenting, Matthew!
These are very effective methods for some I have tried myself. The important thing to remember is to keep on pursuing, learn along the way and never give up. :-)
Exactly, Walter. Perseverance is absolutely essential. Blogging is a long-term thing, for sure. Thanks for the comment!
Hey Tristan,
As far as commenting on other blogs, do you see traffic coming to you based on those comments? If it’s track-able, do you see people coming in from other sites that you commented on? How many of those sites are about blogging vs. not about blogging.
I want to comment on your blog cause it’s rad, but I have a good feeling I won’t get any traffic on my blog from your readers because it’s about something totally different than blogging (climbing). I think you may get a visit from the author of the blog you are commenting on (you…and I know you’re a climber so that’s me being sly ;) ) but the readers of the blog…probably not. What do you think??
Thanks man!
Yeah, I do get traffic from the other blogs, but not a ton. Maybe 2 or 3 clicks per comment. I’d say about 85% or 90% of the blogs I comment on are about some aspect of internet marketing. The rest are about a variety of things. I think that in my situation and for my niche, it doesn’t really matter TOO much what blogs I comment on because since I blog about blogging tips, any blogger (regardless of subject matter) can use them.
I mainly just want the owner of the blog to come back and leave a comment on mine; I’m leaving comments more for that reason than for traffic, though it does indeed bring traffic in.
For you, I’d probably focus on commenting on other climbing blogs. Your blog really is something that appeals mainly to climbers. I’d also be active on the rockclimbing.com forums and leave a link to your blog in your signature. That will do a lot to get you readers and subscribers.
It’s going to be a bit of an uphill battle, though, because a lot of climbing bloggers won’t comment back on your blog. A lot of people who aren’t actively blogging don’t realize the value of commenting on the commenter’s blog.
Hope that helped! Thanks for the comment, Gif!
What is the value of commenting on the commenter’s blog? Can you elaborate? Thanks!
What I mean is that the blogger doesn’t see the value in commenting on the blog of the person that leaves a comment on HIS blog. Does that make sense? In other words, someone comments on your blog and you comment back on his blog.
The value in this is that it’s a great way to build up relationships, and building relationships is valuable because you can bounce ideas off of each other, retweet each other’s content, etc. It gets both parties more invested in the other person’s blog.
Inspiring story, Tristan!
Just as Gif said above, I know you’re a climber so that’s why I connected with you on Twitter.
Well, I guess I’m gonna email you for guest posting if you’re okay with that. :-)
Thanks for the comment, Constantin! I’m glad we climbing folk can stick together :)
I’m actually not accepting guest posts on the blog at this time, but i’ll let you know when I do. Thanks for the comment!
Rock on Tristan!
You are definitely doing the right things and being happily rewarded for doing so.
Keep it up! I especially love your transparency here and sharing your numbers.
It’s inspiring and encouraging. Thank you! :)
Great, glad you like it, Marlee! I’ve gotten some great feedback from doing this, so I’ll be sure to do it again in another month. Thanks for the comment and encouragement!
Hey there,
Very good info here. I don’t think I posted a comment on more than 5 blogs in my life. lol Never thought to put the “You Should Comment” at the top of the page to let ppl know to comment and the value of a comment.
I actually came to your page via youtube, fyi searching for book reviews.
You have a lot of good info here and definitely got my wheels turning.
I think I may need to change a little format on my site. Thanks for the tip. BTW, are you going to continue reviewing books as well, or are you staying with the direction of giving tips on blogs?
Bryan, I’m glad I could be one of the 5 :)
Great to know you came here via YouTube… That’s awesome! I don’t have a ton of videos on YouTube, but it’s good to know that the few on there are effective for funneling people back here.
I’m mostly going to give blogging tips, but there will still be book reviews from time to time. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Excellent job, Tristan. Blog is growin’ up so fast! I’m happy to see all your hard work is paying off.
Thanks, Amy! Couldn’t have done it without you.
Thanks for the well constructed article Tristan. Im going copy your comment policy if you dont mind :)
Go for it!
Wow, Tristan, you make me look like a slacker and I put 6-7 hours in over 3 blogs and twitter and facebook plus digg, stumble, reddit etc. Still, it’s great to see your stats and know it all adds up in the end. My aim this week is to set up my optin box and start thinking guest blogging, plus I do need to comment on more blogs: I average about 4 comments a day at present. :)
Glad you liked the post, Adwello! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
And yeah, regarding the whole commenting-on-other-blogs thing… It really does help get traffic. And guest posting has worked wonders for me.
I have just ran into this post on Digg through one of the bloggers I like to follow, Ileane. I am so happy I did.
Now, this is just the first post I read here, but I must say it rocks. I am definitely going to snoop around and see more of the posts. If they are as half as good as this one, I found one more learning source :)
You obviously made a tremendous effort and I am glad you are having success. Not hard to understand why.
I really like your writing and I opened all the links from this post in new tabs to check out. That is how interested I am.
Maybe I am not completely on the subject but I can’t really add value to this article, except say how great it is and that I loved reading it.
Thanks, Brankica!!
You added some great value here, so I very much appreciate it!
I’m glad you liked my writing style. I try to just write the way I speak, and it seems to be working out for me so far.
Thanks for all of the sharing of my posts that you’ve done!
I haven’t thought about using a comment policy (at least not one that I should add to the sidebar as you’re doing). Looks like it works, because you’ve got a lot of comments :)
To me it’s all about building relationships. I use my blog for this, I comment on other blogs, I write guest posts, and I use Twitter and Facebook. It’s all about people. Are you using other social media sites other than Twitter?
Hi Jens,
Nope, right now I’m focusing pretty much solely on Twitter. I’ll have a Facebook page for Blogging Bookshelf sometime in the near future. I don’t know if this is the best way to go about doing things, but for me personally, I feel like I can do the best job by focusing on one social media site at a time and just really get after it.
Thanks for the comment!
Hi Tristan,
You’re doing great and there are easy ways to keep increasing that growth such as collaborating with other established bloggers (especially those with influential Social Media accounts), guest blogging on their blogs, and going out commenting visiting in other CommentLuv blogs in your niche.
Yep, that’s what I’m doing! Thanks for the support and words of encouragement, Gail! And thanks for taking the time to comment.
Wow you sure spend a lot of time working on your blog. I think that’s a pretty stunning commitment! I work full time and have a family (wife and two kids) if I can manage an hour a day I’m lucky with my blog! But it is established and I don’t need to spend too much time on anything besides writing and social networking / promotion anymore… still I do wish I had more time! Good luck with the future of this thing for sure. This is my first time visiting, and I like what I’m seeing thus far – your writing style is concise and engaging. I see also that you’re keen on writing guest posts – well come on over! :-)
Yeah, I’m definitely not at that hour a day level with this blog! She requires a bit too much from me still :)
And I’ve been to your blog a few times and would love to guest post on it! Hopefully in the next week or so I can have something for you.
I really appreciate the words of encouragement and that you took the time to comment. Thanks, Daniel!
Excellent work Tristan, and great job putting it together for your readers in a way that will help them implement it.
I see you have commentluv and keywordluv enabled are you considering going DoFollow as well? If so be sure to drop in and let me know as I’m working on a new DF/CL/KL directory.
Like you, I operate in startup mode as well… life happens AROUND the blog not the other way around. 16hr days are not uncommon. Thats passion and dedication. That’s what it takes to succeed. Yes we have to watch burnout but we can soak burnout out of our souls on some beach somewhere AFTER we have traction.
Good stuff!
Kimberly
Yeah! High five for startup mode!
You nailed it with, “Yes we have to watch burnout but we can soak burnout out of our souls on some beach somewhere AFTER we have traction.” Amen to that, sister.
And regarding DoFollow… I’m off to your blog to give you my two cents :)
Found you through Ask-Kim and I’m so glad I did. I have been reading several other blogs and books on how to get more traffic. Most involve paying Facebook to advertise others require other methods that I’ve tried and have only ended up with Spammers. Still, others I have tried and all I hear are crickets chirping when I visit my page. :-) Your article is so clear cut, to the point and SIMPLE. No beating around the bush. LOL Definitely an “Ahhhh Haaa!” moment for me. Thank you! And thanks to Ask-Kim for sharing the link!
I used your suggestion of a comment policy and added one. It’s not as complete as yours, because I’m still learning about widgets and the like.
Im working on an SEO for Bloggers type of deal. Maybe we can do a series of podcasts on SEO, QandA type of deal, you can implement the stuff and report improvements…or something like that lol…let me know
btw…when I first visited your blog one of the first things I noticed was the “you should comment” section. In fact, its THE reason your blog stood out in my mind and ever since then I intended on adding it to my blog as well. Well…I finally did add it thnx to this post, so thnx for that :-)
What is say is solid. Not groundbreaking, but sometimes the basics work the best. I commend you for having so much patience and attention to detail. Not many would be willing to put so many hours of work in a blog. I know i could never do it.
I hope we’ll also meet each other here next year, on a new article about your success.
Hi Tristan, I know this original post was really old, but I hope you still see this comment. I haven’t seen a better place to ask this question, so here goes. What do you do when you don’t have time to leave a lot of comments on other people’s blogs? Even when they leave comments on yours? I try to visit and comment on my readers’ blogs when I can, but often don’t have time to get to very many. I don’t want to be rude, but at some point I have to assume people are visiting and reading my blog and leaving comments because they enjoy it, not just because they’re hoping for a return comment. I seem to have a lot of readers that don’t comment, if I can trust Google Analystics. Those are people I want to reach just as much as the ones who do comment, because part of the goal of my blog is to educate as well as entertain people. So I’d rather put my time into writing new blog posts instead of commenting on other blogs just to be nice/increase comments on my blog. Any thoughts? Have you written a post on this subject that I haven’t found?
You definitely get my attention when you explicitly say, “Tristan, I hope you see this comment!” :D
If you take a look at my comment policy now, you’ll see that it doesn’t say that I’ll comment back on your blog if you comment on mine. It just got to be too much, and I didn’t have time for anything else. But I still get a lot of comments.
Oh, and remember that you want to comment not only because “commenting on other blogs just to be nice/increase comments on my blog”, but to
1) get backlinks
2) built traffic
3) and most importantly, build relationships with other bloggers.
But I guess your question is how to get more comments on your blog without having to comment on so many blogs? There are a few things you could do (and no, I haven’t written a post on this). On my rock climbing blog, I have a big image at the top of the sidebar that says something to the effect of, “If you don’t comment, I won’t update the blog!” And it works, but only because I’ve got good content and people like my stuff. No one will care if you make that ultimatum and don’t provide quality content.
Ask yourself what other incentives you can give your readers. So you’ve got a blog about dogs. Maybe you could have a commenting contest each month and give away a couple chew toys or something to a couple randomly chosen commenters
What would get YOU to comment on a blog that you read but don’t comment on?.
And if you DO still comment on blogs, of course you don’t have to comment on every single post of every one of your readers. Once a week or two might be enough to keep that contact going.
Hope that helped, Laurie!
Thanks that did help! I love comments of course, but I don’t really expect people to post on my blog if I’m not posting on theirs. I just felt bad about not commenting or visiting everyone’s blog on a regular basis who visits and leaves a comment on my blog. I’m definitely a “hobby blogger”, and I’m more concerned about following the correct etiquette than driving traffic to my blog. Since I’m not trying to make any money with my blog, I only want people to visit and read it if they enjoy it. I try to at least visit everyone’s blog once that leaves a comment or follow my blog, but that’s about the best I can manage. It sounds ilke that isn’t being too rude, hopefully. :-) Again thanks for the reply.
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