My personal blog is doing all right. I blog twice a week.
I’m the Editor/Publisher of the Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, my personal blog. It averages 400 hits a week. The funny thing about this is that I don’t do much blogging on my personal blog anymore. I might throw up two postings a week if I’m feeling energetic. Why am I getting all these hits? I think I know what’s going on.
Image via Wikipedia
First off, the blog has 1,000 postings. Each posting has several tags. Let’s say each posting has 10 tags. That’s 10,000 ways for readers to find my blog.
The core subject of the blog is blogging, flash fiction and how to write it; the blog also deals with everything from crock pot cooking to a link to a photo of Mariah Carey nude. In other words the blog has stickiness. Readers find the blog looking for one thing and end up staying or coming back because of another thing.
Image via Wikipedia
Stickiness is at the heart of making money online. I make money off of my personal blog because it sends a constant flow of readers to my Triond content.
The reason I don’t blog more on the Gazette is because of the amount of time I spend blogging on Triond. But I’m always trying to figure out new ways to keep the Gazette relevant so that even though I seldom blog on it the Gazette will continue to send readers to my Triond articles.
Lately, I was thinking of interviewing local business owners who could use some free publicity in one of the best flash fiction publications on the Internet. The interviews would bring me more readers and the owners more customers.
The idea just might work.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Interesting. Thanks, Guy. Do you get any revenue via the blog itself (not including links to Triond)?
October 30th, 2009 at 2:39 am
maybe girls find you cute. lol.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Great posting as always. Same question? as Ron Fields.
October 30th, 2009 at 3:06 am
21,000 hits in a year equates to how many dollars? Just a rhetorical question. I have a fairly good idea.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Inspiring and motivating.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Interesting. Where do you put the tags on your posts?
October 30th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Glad you worked it out it is all a mystery to me.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Congrats on all the hits and wish you much more success!
October 30th, 2009 at 7:55 am
I agree with Martie. I never know why some post hit it off and others don’t. I just enjoy the writing. Good blogging.
Christine
October 30th, 2009 at 9:09 am
You must be doing something right with your blog, well done! I think good tags make a big difference to the amount of traffic you get (assuming there is good content too!).
October 30th, 2009 at 9:56 am
I think this must be something like everyone’s dream. One needs to work for it. That’s clear enough.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:01 am
wow, that’s great. the idea might really work.
October 30th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Thanks for the pointers! Congrats.
October 30th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hey I would love to have that many hit just for doing little of nothing. Nice write!
October 30th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Happy for you. I wish I had it figured out. I receive about 75 to 100 hits a day and I think that is good. While I am here I could not get your blog about female breasts to come up. I get the title and a blank page. Continued best wishes for your success. Take care.
Pam
October 30th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Keep on going ..
October 30th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Popular guy, Guy…lol.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Ron, no. WordPress does not allow ads.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
marlene, I hope they do. There’s still plenty of gas in the tank.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
martin, WordPress doesn’t allow ads.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
ken, I really don’t know. But it’s all good.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
wonder, personal blogs can be big fun. I’m glad I have one.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Petalm, the tags appear at the bottom of the post.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
martie, well from what I gather from what you post on Triond you don’t have to worry about it.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Papa, I wish I could give more time to the Gazette but time does not allow it.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Chiristine, it is a crap shoot. There’s no doubt about that.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Frances, good content is what it’s all about.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
chitragopi, it takes time but once it’s done it’s done. You have a foundation. It’s all about taking the time to build that foundation.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Jane, well it takes time. Putting that time in Triond might be smarter to do.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
alc, being Editor/ Publisher of the Gazette is a blast.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
diamondpoet, I’m really baffled at the number of hits the Gazette gets.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
PM, let’s see if I can put the article in a message to you.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
cutedrishti8, it’s a matter of staying with it.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Lady Sunshine, every little bit helps. My personal blog helps.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Good for you! I’m guessing that having tags like ’sex’ or ‘nude’ would attract an awful lot of visitors!
October 30th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Katien, yes but then you have to deliver.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Awesome article once again.
William Ballard
October 30th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Guy, you are so right it takes time to build the foundation and when you toss in a little spice with great content the readers will come. I hope your new idea works!
October 30th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Very interesting! I just started a personal blog so I will definately try your methods.
October 30th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Another good one, Mr. Popular Professor. I seem to be garnering bits of info that you pass along and now have a much better idea about those tags-thanks and best wishes!
October 31st, 2009 at 2:14 am
i have read a few stories in your blog. they are good and i keep going back to your blog once or twice a week
October 31st, 2009 at 9:09 am
“Readers find the blog looking for one thing and end up staying or coming back because of another thing” I think makes a lot of sense. I read somewhere that a person tends buys more when walking into a store versus shopping online. Why? Because you may be going to the store for one or two specific items and find yourself looking around at other things that catch your eye which can cause you to buy additional items before leaving.
October 31st, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Another inspiring tips here. Thanks my friend.
October 31st, 2009 at 8:10 pm
CONGRATS!!!
November 4th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Now i am a senior student, my Hobbies is golf, design website, swim, drawing, photoshop, music, shopping, i just designed my business website http://www.merchantsolutionsllc.com over 3 month ago..And I just feel my websites not getting that many views at all..It seem like they are staying the same…How am i supposed to sell, if no one is really going thru my items…I feel my website is website worthy, and have tried to remain confident, i will promoting website by myself, i think my website will more and more popular, fighting Eva!
November 4th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Nice to hear how someone else’s blog is doing, and even better knowing that my blog (http://www.2kad.net) is getting more visitors than that so I must be doing something right. I would like to get my pageviews per visitor average up – only 1.9 at the moment and I think 3-4 would be more like it.
You make some good points in your article and I’ll be reassessing my blog to see if I can use some of them.
The hardest part I find is making some revenue from your visitors. Tried all sorts of things but so far Google Adsense is the only one producing payouts for me.
November 5th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Your points might make me rethink the way I’m doing the whole blogging business at the moment. Cheers!
November 8th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Tricky and sticky piece…! Nice!
November 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Hi Guy,
Interesting post. I am a wildlife writer (I write about other things, but mostly wildlife) and I’ve been doing a lot of interviews lately. The one thing that surprises me most, is that it is often the people you least expect who make the best interview subjects. You get a kind of freshness and enthusiasm from everyday people that is rarer in people that do a lot of interviews. Your local business owners will probably give you some very interesting comments.
Best Wishes,
Victoria
December 12th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Well done!