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As promised, it's time for an update on how my foray into the realm of writing is going. At the end of July I talked about my experiences in blogging to date and set some new goals for the rest of 2008. To recap, those goals are:
- Establish and maintain a clear focus and purpose
- Build a loyal base of subscribers
- Raise my profile and reputation
Let's look at my progress towards these goals.
Changes in blogging style
If you're a regular reader, you may have noticed my blogging style change significantly over the last month. My previous style was to post a couple of short posts most days, mostly about interesting things I'd found around the web with a bit of commentary thrown in. From feedback I received it seemed to be the commentary and insights that most readers were interested in. Since there were so many interesting things I wanted to share, I found I was simply posting things without much commentary because I didn't have time to gather my thoughts and express them properly.
To combat this, I've changed my blogging habits a bit. I now write longer and more thoughtful posts about a particular subject, but less often. I still want to share interesting things I've found, but instead of firing them all out individually, I pick around five of the best ones and publish them together with a little description of each under the banner of 'Things You Need To See'. I post these whenever I get enough top-class links together, which seems to be around once a week.
The result is the blog has become more measured and thoughtful, a digest of ideas rather than a stream of consciousness. I still enjoy the immediacy of sharing and thoughts and links on the spot, but I've found this is better suited to Twitter, which has become a sort of rapid-fire supplement to blogging for me.
By the numbers
Looking at the numbers, it would appear my daily visitor average has dropped from 8.32 to 6.17. I think that's a reflection of the fact I've been making less posts, although in the broader scheme of things my entire traffic is so close to zero that the difference probably isn't significant.
However, there are some telling clues to my traffic if you look closer at the numbers.
Traffic for July
Traffic for August
More people visited my site in July than they did in August, but the August visitors looked at more pages on the site and stayed slightly longer. Also, more of the August traffic was from repeat visitors. The biggest change from July to August was in the 'bounce rate' - the percentage of visitors who leave the site without checking out any other pages first. Bounces can often be people who arrive at the site through search engines or other links, find the site isn't what they're looking for and click the back button. The bounce rate shrank from 50% in July to just 6% in August. I'm guessing a combination of the new site design and more in-depth content is having the effect of drawing people further in.
Where is the traffic coming from?
This is pretty much the same breakup as the previous month, although I've noticed the search terms people use to find me are becoming more consistent. The top search is for my name, followed by the phrase 'technological blog'. This is encouraging.
As for feed subscribers, because of the imprecise nature of Feedburner, my stats vary wildly from 0 - 20 each day. For that reason I'm not putting much value on those stats right now, though I'm looking for ways to get more accurate results.
Advertising
As you may have noticed I've taken the ads off the site for the time being. Since making money from the site isn't one of my goals at the moment, having ads just seems to create distraction and clutter. There are other ways to monetise the site besides just Google Ads anyway. I'll revisit advertising in a few months time.
I've found Twitter has become a very natural part of my day. I've started making some great connections with other like-minded souls and both the open and immediate nature of the conversation has made for some interesting discussion.
Something I've found that happens frequently is that I will see one-half of an interesting conversation that someone I'm following is having and I'll end up following someone else to get the second half of the conversation. People have started following me for the same reason and I've already made some fantastic contacts this way.
My Book
As well as the site, I'm also continuing to write my book on technology, The Digital Migrant. I've now completed Chapters 1 - 3 which together represent Part 1, so I'm about a third of the way through. My aim is still to have it finished by the end of the year, though I have stopped posting snippets on the blog as it was getting disjointed, especially as I often go back and edit what I've written later. However I have made a PDF of Chapter 1 available to give people an idea of the tone and content they can expect from the book.
Other writing opportunities
I got a surprise yesterday when someone from NineMSN emailed me about the possibility of doing some paid travel writing. He said he had been reading my blog and was looking to commission someone to write a series of insider travel articles about the Gold Coast.
Nothing has been confirmed yet and I don't know if anything will come of it, but to get the email was certainly an unexpected and encouraging sign.
Summary
My blogging is becoming more thoughtful and focussed. My traffic is still low but my readership seems to be more engaged. I've begun building some good relationships with other bloggers. At least one person has noticed my writing and followed up with an opportunity.
I'm having a lot of fun writing, and it's becoming clear that it is a useful and rewarding pursuit regardless of whatever else I'm involved in. I'll post another update next month.
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