Well January has definitely been a very exciting first month for BuildThatList!
Starting with my first post on the 5th of January, I have had a very exciting ride and am extremely happy with the results I have achieved. So what I have decided to do is break down the statistics of BuildThatList’s first month and let you know about the things I think I did well – and the one’s I will be trying to improve on in February!
January’s Blog Posts
Blog posts are the lifeblood of your blog’s and especially as brand new blog – I not only had to try and post consistently, but my articles had to set a standard that would make people want to return.
Blog Posts
In January I made: 7 Blog Posts with a total of 5,907 words!
A special mention to my first and longest blog post, Email Myth 1: List Building Seems Hard (1449 words)
Blog Comments
I am a massive believer in creating a community around your blog – and feel that blog comments and the discussion that it brings is one of the best gauges of community.
In an effort to jump start the community around my blog I decided to provide as much incentive as I could to visitors that would stop for long enough to leave their thoughts.
I made BuildThatList:
- Do Follow
One of the first things that I decided to do was to spread the Google Juice. I know a lot of bloggers are looking for ways to increase their PageRank and I thought that if I could help them with that – then they would leave me a comment (and we would both win). - Added KeywordLuv Plugin
KeywordLuv is one of my favourite wordpress plugins, because when connected with do-follow, I cannot think of a better incentive for the blogger that is interested in keyword optimisation.For those of you who do not know what KeywordLuv is, it is a plugin that allows bloggers to put their names as ‘Tom@Keyword Here’ when leaving a comment and it shows in the actual comment as ‘Tom from Keyword Here’ linking just to ‘Keyword Here’. The SEO benefits are huge – and it allows me to give that bit more back to my commenters.
- Decided To Spread The CommentLuv
CommentLuv is a very simply plugin that just includes the commenters latest blog post at the bottom of their comment.I love this plugin because it gives us a taste of their blog without actually having to visit it.
Having set these incentives, I also decided that I would be very strict with the comments that I accept and reject. Spam is getting harder to pick – so I set the following rule for my comments:
If a comment adds value to the post – I accept. If not, even if legitimate, I delete.
That was a massive introduction to sharing how many comments that I received in January, but I just wanted to let you know about my thoughts on commenting first.
Total Quality Comments: 76 (an average of over 10 per post)
Total SPAM Comments: 21 (approximately 30%)
My star performer was RSS Subscribers VS Email List | Which Is Better? with 24 comments.
Guest Posts
I am not sure if guest posting is something I am going to make a habit of, but I was offered the opportunity to write a guest post in January and decided to accept.
Bloggers: Grow Your List In 3 Easy Steps – BlogForProfit.com (10 Comments)
Visitors & Subscribers
As you can see, I had quite a decent start in the content realm of my blog – let’s take a closer look at whether that content converted to visitors and subscribers.
I install Google Analytics from day 1, so here are my traffic stats:
Visits: 643
Unique Visits: 446
Average Pageviews: 2.06
Time On Site: 3.28 (Benefit of long blog posts!)
Almost 70% of my traffic comes from ‘Referring Sites’ so I thought it would be nice to share some love and thank my top 10 refeing sites:
- Teenius.com - 47 Visitors
- FeedBurner - 42 Visitors (Subscribe To My RSS Feed)
- Twitter - 27 (Follow @BuildThatListCo)
- BlogForProfit.com – 24 (Benefits Of Guest Posting)
- StumbleUpon – 24
- DailyBlogTips – 22
- JohnChow.com – 22
- RobsWebTips.com – 21
- ProBlogger.net – 19
- ShoeMoney.com – 16
A special thanks to Jackie from InternetMarketingForMummies.com for these kind words on her blog:
If you’re looking for some honest information about building your list this site will be helfpul. Just remember to be clear about your goals and how you’re working your business and don’t let yourself get sidetracked from that plan.
What I want you to notice is that 7 out of my top 10 refering sites are other blogs. This is a direct result of my commenting efforts – and blog commenting is something I think every blogger should be doing.
I am disappointed with my search engine traffic (only 7 views), but this is only because my blog is brand new – so expect search engine traffic to be a much larger percentage in the coming months.
Aweber List Subscribers
Obviously having a blog that focus’ on list building means I should be building a list for the blog – and of course I am.
Right from the start I included the signup form in my sidebar, but it wasn’t until I offered some free squeeze pages as a ‘bribe’ that I started to get some momentum behind my list.
I Currently have 19 Aweber Email List Subscribers and the list seems to be consistently growing.
I am consistently looking at ways to build my list and add value for my subscribers, and I currently am working on a fantastic extra squeeze page that I am sure you will all love!
RSS Subscribers
As I mentioned in my RSS vs Email List post, I mentioned that I feel that there are reasons for building your RSS subscriber count as well as your email list – but I can’t say I have focused that much.
That being said, I currently have 25 RSS Subscribers!
I am going to work on a couple of things that I think we quickly grow my rss feed subscribers – just simple things that will make it easier for people to subscribe.
Social Media
The @BuildThatListCo Twitter account currently has the following stats:
Followers: 65
Following: 55
Tweets: 102
This is something that I haven’t focused very much on over the last month, and am looking to grow my Twitter account naturally. I see too many bloggers have 10,000’s of Twitter followers and they are following just as many, and I wonder ‘how are they supposed to be holding conversion and building relationships?’
So I will not be using any Auto-Follower programs or websites and am aiming for 150 followers by the end of February.
Blog Engage
I am not a very big social media user, apart from Twitter. But I decided to try Blog Engage and while it seems like I am doing quite well – it is not proving any actual traffic.
Two of my articles have got over 15 votes, which meant they probably hit the front page – however as you have already seen – they didn’t even make my top 10 referring websites.
My decision is still out on whether I will continue to use blog engage, but it doesn’t take much to submit my articles and they seem to be ‘do-follow’ so I will keep testing for a while.
Well that is about it, I can’t think of anything else to share, except that it has been an exciting start to the year, and I am hoping that the growth I have seen continues throughout the year.
Thank you to everyone who commented, ReTweeted, voted, Stumbled or in any way participated in BuildThatList.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! All comments are Do-Follow, KeywordLuv and CommentLuv!
Glad to see you on blog engage, I think you will like it. I have been using it for about 6weeks and it is consistently in my top three or four referrers on a weekly basis.
Keith´s last blog ..One Man Can Do Everything
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Impressive stats for the first month. You’ve obviously been working hard with all the articles, commenting and promotion and it seems be paying off.
Also, I’m glad to hear I’m your main traffic referrer, was a bit of a (nice) shock to see I’m getting you more traffic than Twitter and some big name blogs. Thanks for the linkback, and here’s to your success Tom!
Simon | Teenius´s last blog ..Interview With Marko Saric of HowToMakeMyBlog
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Tom Very good work for just being out of the gate for a month. Keep up the great work. Greg Ellison
Greg Ellison´s last blog ..Blog Income Report for January 2010
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These are all very good stats for your first month. You’ve also done well to build a name for yourself, as I’ve seen your comments on many of the blogs I visit (and mine
) Excellent start for the year and I have no doubt February will be a great month for you!
Ruth – Web Career Girl´s last blog ..Forgotten Systems for Making Money Online: My Plan of Action for February
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Tom — I found you using a google search for squeeze pages while I was creating a post about that. I have decided to try and market designing these pages as a service more actively then I have in the past. Usually this part of my business came about when I was designing a web site for a client.
I noticed your comment on a blog I follow (www.webuildyourblog.com) and decided to check out your site more thoroughly. Thanks for sharing your stats. Your new blog seems to be doing well, congrats. It’s hard building a following, but I use many of the same techniques you do. I will be interested in what you have to say about RSS vs Email. (My next stop).
Never heard of blog engage, but I will check that out too.
I also agree about the 10,000 followers/followees. I have under 100 and have issues keeping up sometimes. I just wonder where people find the time.
Look forward to more of your posts.
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well done Tom,
i am encouraged by your progress…i must say ,your results iis quite impressive.it must be hard work cos i bump into you everywhere i go online..lol
Alll the best
mk akan´s last blog ..Business Idea from the Problem Of Guest Posting
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[...] buildthatlist [...]
we all r Dofollow.. thanks for joining us..
LoL
Free Vector Graphics´s last blog ..25 free vector hearts
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That is good. Your first month, and you are getting little traffic. Continue doing what you are doing and soon, everything would go on smoothly. And I can also see this from your alexa ranking.
Watch Entourage Online´s last blog ..Outline and Origin of Entourage
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Thanks everyone for your kind and encouraging words! Let’s hope February is even better!
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[...] Build That List January Blog Statistics – Month 1 [...]
I like that you were honest about your Statistics, Im so sick of exxagerations and fabrications and hearing bogus statistics and padded numbers. I definitely think you are on the right track, and am definitely interested in hearing the future statistics when they are released.
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Congrats bro… by looking at the traffic details, it looks like that you have gained a lot in a short period! keep it up mate
Pubudu Kodikara´s last blog ..How To Turn Off Windows Indexing Service
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“If a comment adds value to the post – I accept. If not, even if legitimate, I delete.” – I like that mentality and follow the same thought process.
Interesting to see where your referrals came as well… haven’t even explored commenting or viewing those sites in particular… just recently have ventured outside of the personal finance blog arena…hence I’m here, haha. Nice to meet you by the way and thanks for the comment over at infopreneur.
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Thankyou for your comment Ryan! I must say that I I don’t really stray outside the internet marketing niche myself, but will start with your blog! I’m sure you will see me around quite often!
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Hi Tom,
Thanks for sharing the stats. I think it’s important to analyze them but it’s bonus for you when you start sharing them because others can share their insights too. I have some I’d like to share.
In terms of RSS subscribers, please get yourself on FriendFeed. I’m not sure why they do it this way but FF subscribers are added in with your RSS counts. Most of the Twitter addicts like myself are on there and if someone is already following you on Twitter, they’ll follow you back on FF.
Are you listed in any DoFollow directories? Try dofollow.info and Karen from Blazing Minds (uk) has one and iWoodpecker keeps a listing also.
I can’t say enough about Blog Engage. It’s a winner trust me. Here’s a strategy for you. When you go to the homepage, click on Upcoming Blogs. Vote, vote, vote on the upcoming blogs. Leave comments, and vote some more. When bloggers submit a post (new members and old members alike) they always want to know who is the first person to show support from the community. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention Retweet. When you retweet directly from the BE site, add the blogger’s own Twitter name in the tweet. Sometimes I even get rid of @blogengage but add it as a hashtag at the end.
Have you thought about joining MMOSocialNetwork?
We can talk more about this one later. Sorry for such a long comment but I wanted to add some value so you won’t delete me.
Ileane´s last blog ..Some Serious Blog Engagement
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January Blog Statistics – Month 1 | Build That List…
Well January has definitely been a very exciting first month for BuildThatList! Starting with my first post on the 5th of January, I have had a very exciting ride and am extremely happy with the results I have achieved….
@Ileane – The funny thing is that your comment got picked up my Askimet (not sure why!)
I have heard about friendfeed but never really looked into it.
I am listed on DoFollow.info, but will source out BlazingMinds and iWoodpecker to see if I can be added to their lists.
In regards to BlogEngage I have been doing ok with it, but must admit that I haven’t committed that much time to it. I do like you strategy for building relationships with the other members!
I am a member of MMOSocialNetwork, but I find that I do not have time for it. With so many social media websites I had to make the decision to focus on just a couple of them.
Thankyou for such a detailed comment and I hope to see you around more often!
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Excellent post as usual Tom.
From reading your last few blog posts i didn’t realise you were such a new blogger, and so am even more impressed than i was when i first came to your site.
I started my own blog a couple of weeks ago, and could only dream of the first month stats that you have achieved.
I think particularly the comments you are getting show just how good your articles are.
Keep up the good work, and hopefully my stats will be hot on your heels soon
Barry@ Real Way To Make Real Money´s last blog ..Make Money Online With Cash Crate
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Tom Reply:
February 25th, 2010 at 6:09 am
Thanks Barry! The results have been from a lot of hard work. I probably comment on 30-50 blogs a day or more – plus have got a couple of guest posts out. But looking at what my February stats will be has made it even more worth it.
Having a successful is all just about putting in a lot of work – blogging isn’t in itself hard work (it’s just a lot). Have you thought about creating an email list off your blog?
And I hope your blog will be yapping at my heels in the next month or two!
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Very good stats you have there Tom for the first month of your website. It is one thing to write content for your blog, it is another thing to get people to find your site, and then get them to stay.
However, you don’t have stats from Search Engines.
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Tom Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:39 am
Thanks Jack! It is growing nicely. The reason I didn’t have SE traffic in January is because I only launched the blog early January. I am starting to get some nice Search Engine traffic now, so you will see them when I post my February stats!
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Jack Cola Reply:
February 28th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Fair enough – Keep up the good work then.
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[...] I will jump straight into it, and reference back to my January Blog Statistics so you can see how my blog has grown in the last [...]