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The dark days of building blog traffic

January 27th 2009 00:43
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I know the frustration of waiting for blog stats to grow. Unless you're Hugh Jackman announcing a new personal blog featuring daily shots of your underwear collection, there is no escaping a slow build-up of blog traffic. That is because it is all about search engine visibility, and that takes time.


Think 18 months.

Spike, the author of the blog wordophilia.com, knows the frustration too. He has just written a post about it here. In the post he laments the lack of AdSense clicks despite seeing a big jump in hits on his blog in one 24-hour period. Spike wonders whether AdSense works, and queries if people are just getting turned off advertising.

AdSense does work - if it didn't, we wouldn't see competitors piling into the field. The problem in Spike's case was not AdSense but the fact that the jump he noticed in hits, from 30 to 90, still resulted in too small a number to be meaningful.

It's a matter of mathematics. With 90 hits, a page will occasionally get a click; most times it will not. From experience, with 900 hits a day, a page will still often get no clicks.

As I said, it's a matter of building; it's a matter of time.

One good guide to this is here, one of Orble's guide posts. It says that Zcars, by far Orble's best-read blog with just over 20,000 individual readers (readers, not hits) a day, makes about US$40 a day.


That is AdSense earnings, so it's reasonable to extrapolate backwards. For example, 100 individual readers a day will earn about 20 cents a day (Orble bloggers should not forget that this is split 50:50 with Orble). The good news is that, according to Orble, traffic of 20,000 readers a day is getting close to the critical mass where Zcars can start negotiating paid display ads, getting away from the vagaries of AdSense and into the realm of steady income.

May we all reach that day.

It would be appropriate to repeat here that traffic will grow automatically only up to a point - a point that is far short of a decent income. To build a serious readership, you need tightly-focused blog subject matter, and content that informs and educates, or which makes readers think. It also helps if you know how to write well.

Spike has all those ingredients at wordophilia.com. Now he just needs patience





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Comment by Spike 2

January 27th 2009 01:13


Wordophilia
Qwerk
Peanut Butter

Hi Chris,

You're right, of course. I wasn't really expecting to suddenly see $1,000 turn up in my AdSense account or anything and my thoughts were perhaps not very well expressed. It was more of a reflection on the tiny percentage of clicks rather than the income.

In our me-generation MTV age, the Internet is - for me - the epitomy of instant gratification. 99.9% of visitors won't even consider the idea of clicking an ad, since they just want to read the post and that's it. Since so much content is effectively free, we naturally balk at the thought of paying for anything.

That's one reason why I try to remind myself to click a link if it looks interesting, or if the page's content was useful, informative or amusing: it's a tiny effort, but a lot of those tiny efforts can make a diference in encouraging good content producers to stay the course.

Me, I'm stubborn. A million visitors a day who don't click won't stop me shouting my mouth off.

Stay well and thanks for the great blog posts,

Spike

Comment by Chris Champion

January 27th 2009 01:23


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Me, I'm stubborn ...

Me too. I think it's one of my major weapons in hanging around for the two years until Google actually knows who I am

Comment by Teresa Ralton

January 27th 2009 01:27


MRS SMITH
READ THIS
SISTERS IN CRIME
What exactly is a page impression? I have seen a lot of posts on Orble regarding income and I have only ever seen 1 person say they made any significant amount and that person, I think, was in the US. Also, I have been told by someone that Adsense is just not very profitable because of the method they use. With other ad-tracking thingies (I don't know what these set-ups are actually called) you can be paid just for the click on your page. Do you know of anyone who gets a steady, reasonable stream from blogging?

Comment by Chris Champion

January 27th 2009 01:48


LettersToNorm
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Newly Old
Hi Teresa,

According to Google, "A page impression is generated every time a user views a page displaying Google ads." That's an unclear way of saying "hits" on any page with AdSense ads on it.

Gazillions of words seem to get written on this whole AdSense and blog money-making thing and, as you say, not a lot of clear messages come out of them.

However, I think there's no doubt that some people make good, even considerable, incomes from blogging. Further, I think there's no secret about how to do it: find a subject/niche you know a lot about; write regular, informative content; write it well; market your blog.

However, it takes time and it takes talent - two aspects which aren't clear to many new bloggers.

My advice to anyone wanting to understand the whole blogging picture is to go to www.problogger.net and spend some time reading.

Best wishes Teresa,
Chris

Comment by Spike 2

January 27th 2009 01:57


Wordophilia
Qwerk
Peanut Butter

go to www.problogger.net and spend some time reading

I have a copy of the book and although I'm only a noob (and haven't read it yet), I flipped through. It's very good. Down-to-earth, honest writing with a whole heap of very good advice. There's also a superb 'course' on SEO over on HubPages, written by Peter Hoggan. Well worth a read.

Comment by Teresa Ralton

January 27th 2009 02:03


MRS SMITH
READ THIS
SISTERS IN CRIME
Excellent! Thanks for the hints, Chris & Spike. I'll take a look a bit later when I can concentrate on reading.

Comment by Chris Champion

January 27th 2009 02:36


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
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Zoomies
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Newly Old
Spike, that SEO course looks great. I shall take it to bed with me tonight!

Teresa, I recommend the book too. ProBlogger (the blog and the spin-off book) is Darren Rowse, who is Australian. The blog is something of a bible for blog tips and hints and guides.

Comment by Whitney

January 27th 2009 21:38


Gaming for Life
The Female View
Pet Advice
Tech Stripe
Alternative Look
I think in a way what works for one person just may not work for another. It's just a matter of finding what works for you and sticking with it. Lots of trial and error I think...

Comment by Chris Champion

January 27th 2009 22:01


LettersToNorm
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Newly Old
Hi Whitney, sounds a bit like life

Comment by Cibbuano

January 27th 2009 22:16


Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Sadly, I've seen my traffic drop in the past few months... will have to work to build it back up.

The second factor with Adsense is how well the ads are targeted... ZCars is successful because the ads are all about cars and car info - exactly what readers are looking for.

At this moment, the ads on this page are all about get-rich-quick!


Comment by Chris Champion

January 27th 2009 22:31


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Hi Cib,

Do you know why your traffic has dropped? Your blogs are mature , which I guess means search engine visibility is now about increasing the number of links to your blogs from elsewhere? Is that the "hard work" you mean?

I read somewhere recently that a top-end blog is 20% writing and 80% marketing. It's a business, and to optimise its money-making potential, it has to be run like a business.

Your second point is an important one to consider when starting a blog. A blog about blogging, as you say, will attract some pretty unappealing ads. What else is there to sell to bloggers? Readers of car blogs (digital camera, technology, antique porcelain blogs) will see more appealing ads.


Comment by Spike 2

January 27th 2009 22:40


Wordophilia
Qwerk
Peanut Butter

I've noticed the same thing. As soon as the words "money" and "online" appear together, AdSense vomits thirty kilos of get-rich-quick links onto the site. Sigh. On the other hand, mention World of Warcrat once and you get fifty ads for that instead, which could be better...

Comment by Chris Champion

January 27th 2009 23:12


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
No way I want World of Warcraft ads on my blog. I didn't get a character to Level 55 on EverQuest just to promote the opposition!

Comment by Norm

January 28th 2009 01:16


Consumption Malfunction
Equal and Opposite
Arses and Elbows
Footy Power
I'll never forget when I got an ad for Big Sausage Pizza.

Comment by Chris Champion

January 28th 2009 01:19


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
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Zoomies
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Newly Old
Now THAT I would have clicked on

Comment by Cibbuano

January 28th 2009 05:00


Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
One reason is that some of my highly trafficked posts get much less traffic, though they weren't articles that I was particularly proud of, just lucky articles that got to the top of the search engine...

...hard work means writing more, and writing better, which is tough to do...

..getting links from outside sources is important, not only for traffic, but for increasing the influence of the site...

Comment by Mike Crowl

January 28th 2009 08:18


Webitz
Work Report
Ah, the old Adsense debate. It stands to reason that even if you have 1000 people visit your page in a day (which I certainly don't have) and the ads they see don't appeal to them, then you ain't gonna get no clicks!
I think if Adsense is your only source of revenue in relation to blogs or anything else you do on the Net, then you will have to resign yourself to not making much money. A highly focused blog may do; most of us don't focus that much and even ones who do, don't necessarily get the sort of readers who automatically click on ads.
I read the newspaper all the time; I seldom read the ads. I read lots of stuff on the Net; it takes a very quirky ad to make me want to click on it.
Problogger succeeds (after several years) because his blog is highly focused on a topic thousands of people are interested in. But let's face it: there aren't that many really interesting topics out there - at least in terms of how many people want to read about them. (Which makes me wonder why so many publishers of hardcopy print mags focus on such relatively small niche markets these days. Seems counterproductive to me.)
Anyway, I'm rambling. Off to do something else.

Comment by Dianna G

January 28th 2009 09:19


I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds
I've personally given up on building up a huge readership on my blog; I get between 10 and 20 on normal days, and that tells me someone's reading it. That's enough to make me happy.

Except that one day I got 54. Now if only that was every day...

Comment by Chris Champion

January 28th 2009 11:08


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Good ramble Mike. I think the core point is that AdSense makes sense. If someone wants to write an introspective blog about nothing in particular, AdSense will do little for them. If someone offers a well-written, informative blog on a consumer niche, the readers which that blog attracts are going to find ads that appeal.

Dianna, what do you know about sports cars or digital cameras?

Comment by Whitney

January 28th 2009 14:09


Gaming for Life
The Female View
Pet Advice
Tech Stripe
Alternative Look
You all have great points, especially about the cheesy spammy type ads that Google displays.

I just wish it were as easy as buying your own domain and blogging. I have found that with websites like orble and hubpages, I earn MUCH more than with my personal domain. I've even considered buying domains for my orble blogs so to get 100% as they do decent, but I just don't think it would be nearly as profitable as orble has older domains with established ranks and backlinks.

Dianna, I have never tried to get big readership. I figure by writting what the blogs are subjected at, if people find it then great. I have noticed that the more blogs I publish a month, the more Adsense I earn. I slacked off the bulk of this month and my Adsense did too.

Comment by Chris Champion

January 28th 2009 21:05


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Hi Whitney,

I started my first two Orble blogs about seven months ago. Being the obstinate character that I am, I insisted on starting from scratch rather than taking over another blog.

What has happened with those first two blogs is interesting. One, Vyoos, is a licorice-all-sorts. There is quite a lot of content (almost 100 posts) because I uploaded some old writing, but it covers diversified subject matter.

The second, Zoomies, has less than half the content, but a focused subject (dogs).

Seven months later, Vyoos gets more hits but Zoomies gets more individual readers and, especially, more link readers.

More proof that a subject-focused blog works better than a general one in attracting traffic.


Comment by Chris Champion

January 28th 2009 21:10


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
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Newly Old
PS I earned US$0.80 from AdSense yesterday, by some way the biggest one-day earnings I have had. It sounds like there was a traffic spike and I'd love to see the traffic numbers, but I can't because the Orble traffic email didn't go out yesterday. Again

Comment by Spike 2

January 28th 2009 21:18


Wordophilia
Qwerk
Peanut Butter

Part of that would have been my visiting and clicking - as I said, because the post is useful and interesting, I look for an ad of interest to view.

You don't need the email, by the way - log in and hit 'Stats' on the top of the post. Shouldn't that work?

Comment by Chris Champion

January 28th 2009 21:50


LettersToNorm
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Zoomies
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It was you who made me rich!

Good idea. I did check the stats but right now they go only up to the 26th. I don't know if they are normally in arrears - I'll check over the next few days.

Comment by Cibbuano

January 28th 2009 21:54


Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Chris - it might be your email account blocking the emails? The stats did go out yesterday...

Comment by Chris Champion

January 28th 2009 22:01


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
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Newly Old
Thanks Cib. Strange - it's the third time this month. But that means the emails have been received okay on 25 days. I must have an idiosyncratically selective email provider.

Comment by Paul

January 29th 2009 04:55


Surreal Short Stories
Great headline, post & discussion, Spike2. You're heaps better than Spike1! Nice to see some stats for a change. I pray nightly in my evil room for an alternative to AdSense, but I don't think one impends. At least Squidoo lets you play by proxy. Best regards, P.

Comment by Chris Champion

January 29th 2009 05:13


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Paul, on behalf of Spike, we thank you

Comment by Paul

January 29th 2009 05:17


Surreal Short Stories
Oops! Sorry, Chris; got my movers confused with my shakers. Hats off to YOU! P.

Comment by Waysouth

January 29th 2009 18:06


Romantic Writer
Given To Gaming
Waysouth
Spanish Honduras
Nice article. From what I've seen, patience isn't really what it takes. It takes keyword science.

Orble, the network, will provide your first 100-200 visitors. This is better than a stand alone site. But the search engines will drive massive traffic. They favor Orble a little bit (lots of links, domains). But you have to use good keywords.

I write for another site (not a blog, different user content). It is based on adsense as well. I make money on there, and on here. Well, I've made $25 on each of them in six months, for a total of $50.

Finally, we as adsense supported bloggers should be the very first to learn to visit the sponsors of the websites we like. It is advertising. If you know a publication is fledgling, support their advertising campaign. For a thousand years, journalism and writing have been supported by advertising.

Perfect example - i finally visited the scientology page. That ad comes up all the time on Orble. It came up once on a really good post about religion, so I visited the sponsor. Scientology got my page view, google made money, Orble made money, the author made money.

Everybody happy.

Comment by Chris Champion

January 29th 2009 21:41


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
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Newly Old
Hi Waysouth,

Key words are crucial, and Google says the same by offering key word tools. Anyone interested in learning about it, or optimising key words, visit here.

Comment by Mike Crowl

January 29th 2009 23:52


Webitz
Work Report
Isn't it amazing that when we say we earn money on blogs and such through Adsense, we're quite impressed by earning ridiculously pathetic amounts such as $25 over six months!
In any other 'job' we'd turn that kind of money down flat - even in any other kind of hobby!

Comment by Chris Champion

January 30th 2009 00:00


LettersToNorm
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Newly Old
It is Mike. AdSense is a fiscal dominion with its own rules and values. But there's always the thrill of the potential

Comment by Teresa Ralton

January 30th 2009 00:14


MRS SMITH
READ THIS
SISTERS IN CRIME
I stopped expecting to earn money after my first couple of weeks on Orble. I actually think it is virtually impossible to earn money blogging. Even people who say they earn must only get a pittance. Maybe one person in a million gets something remotely reasonable for their efforts. I haven't seen any evidence to convince me otherwise. I get the impression that the people who are earning won't say how much because it is so low. Actually, $25 in 6 months sounds high to me! I wish the earners would be less coy because I am really curious.

Comment by Mike Crowl

January 30th 2009 02:09


Webitz
Work Report
Okay, I've been on Adsense for at least a year - probably longer - and I've earned something like $35. Big bikkies, huh?

Comment by Chris Champion

January 31st 2009 02:18


LettersToNorm
moneywhither
Vyoos
Zoomies
Bloggercises
The Blog of Lists
Newly Old
Hi Teresa, the short answer is that there are big money-making blogs. When I tried writing about it in reply to your comment, it grew and grew and, finally, it turned into a post of its own. It's here. Let me know what you think!

Comment by Whitney

February 12th 2009 14:43


Gaming for Life
The Female View
Pet Advice
Tech Stripe
Alternative Look
I think it's funny how so many people are complaining about not making any money... Blogging isn't really a sole income job, unless you are a big blogger of a highly niched and whatnot blog. I actually went to school with a guy who writes for gizmodo, and he makes good money although he works 24/7 and is more paid by a company than by the goings of the blog.

I mean, I don't make $100 a month on orble, but my 4 blogs combined average at least $30- $40 a month, which I'm pretty happy with.

I just make sure that I don't depend on Orble alone to make my monthly payout. I have a few older blogs that I nearly never update anymore, as I have had much better results with Orble, but I still make a few bucks with them a month. I have my own site, which gets maybe $1 a month, and HubPages, which leads about $300- $500 a month after 2 years and near 500 articles of writing. In addition to a 40 hour work week.

I do agree that niche related topics fair much better than blogs with a random selection of blog posts.

It takes time to earn big bucks. Hard work and a lot of energy.

Comment by Tricia Benet

June 24th 2009 00:43


The Green Edition
The Night Owl
Yorkie Yappers
A great article. I have a lot to learn. Two days ago, I never thought I would ever read a blog, today I find myself on a brand new site with my own blog. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it.

Thank you so much for visiting my site and I hope to have something worth reading within a few days.
Trish

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