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Time again for a quick update on how my writing efforts are progressing. 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.
By the Numbers
I'm pleased to report another significant improvement in traffic to my site during October. I'm now averaging over 11 visits a day, up from 8 last month. Once again, in terms of internet traffic generally these figures are statistically zero, but so long as my traffic keeps growing I'm happy, no matter by how much or how little.
Once again, the proportion of first-time visitors to the site has increased, as has the amount of time spent on the site. Most of these metrics seem to fluctuate a fair bit from month to month, but I'm starting to see some trends develop. By the time I get to 12 months of blogging I'll be able to set some traffic and statistics goals.
Visits originating from other websites accounted for over 50% of the visits in October. Of those visits, most are still coming from Facebook and Twitter, but also from some other blogs where I have left comments.
Site Redesign
As part of continually honing my website's 'brand', I have made some further tweaks to the site's look and feel. I've changed the background and colour scheme, and moved from serif to sans-serif typography, which it seems is easier to read on the web.
In addition, because I'm starting to use the website more to sell my freelance services, I've also changed the tagline from 'random musings for thinking people' to 'writer / tutor / geek for hire' and rewritten the About page in an effort to better explain what I do.
Twitter continues to be an indispensable utility which I find myself using more and more. I have added some badges to the sidebar which show the number of Twitter followers I have as well as my 'Twitter Grade', which measures my influence in the Twitter community.
Summary
Writing has entrenched itself as part of my day and I'm still having fun doing it. Traffic continues to grow steadily while my exposure rises gradually. I'll be back next month with another update.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I like these little updates. I think they make me feel how people who used to receive the PJ newsletter used to feel. You should memory-lane a PDF of those for 8 years time and archive this one for 10. Then again, you're not much of a "look how far we've come" person, are you?
I've always done this sort of thing, even since I was little. I'm not really sure why. Perhaps it comes of having to explain myself a lot. I tend not to keep them once they have outlived their usefulness though.
PS @Luke - your use of 'memory-lane' as a verb inspired me to write this :)