Now that we are beginning a new year, it's time to look back
on how we got here. I have been blogging for about 3 1/2 years. My goal since
the beginning has been to help people find ways to change their lives. I am
happy to say that my reach is continuing to grow.
I am really interested in starting a dialogue with my
readers about the direction you want this to go. I need some help developing my
blog to make sure that I am delivering what people are looking for. I placed
several questions at the end. Please comment below or contact me directly.
Blogging sites provide reports on the top articles and demographics
on page visits. Here are some of the things I learned from the latest usage
reports:
Top Articles
I have posted nearly 200 articles since I started writing.
The top articles, ranked by pageviews, are:
Here are two articles from 2013 that didn't get many readers
the first time around. I think they are worth a few minutes of your time.
Platforms
Readers use many different platforms, browsers, and
operating systems to reach my blog. Most of that hasn't changed very much since
the beginning. However, there has been a large change as the use of mobile
devices, like smart phones and tablets, has increased in 2013.
Year Desktop Mobile
2010 95% 5%
2011 96% 4%
2012 92% 7%
2013 85% 15%
The change has been really dramatic in 2013. A quarterly
breakdown of the data shows that mobile usage has more than doubled from 9% of
page views in the first quarter to 19% in the fourth quarter.
Year Desktop Mobile
2013 (Q1) 91% 9%
2013 (Q2) 86% 14%
2013 (Q3) 82% 18%
2013 (Q4) 81% 19%
Pageviews
I started blogging regularly in July 2010. I have seen steady
growth since then. My
blog has served 73,736 pageviews (through the end of 2013).
Year Pageviews
2010 618
2011 8310
2012 26,487
2013 38,321
Visitors
I have had visitors come from 135 nations. I am so happy to
be able to share this with so many people all around the world. The most common
nations of the visitors are:
US 56.1%
UK 10.5%
Canada 5.8%
Australia 3.2%
Singapore 2.2%
All others 22.2%
About 85% of the visitors found my site through a Google
search. I am continually learning about how Google search works. For about 3
years, I posted a new article about every week. Late in 2013, I ran out of time and
energy for a while and started reusing articles. Google noticed. The number of
people finding my blog through a Google search fell by almost half from
September to December. Don't mess with Google.
About 5% of the visitors came through another search site,
from an email update, a news feed, or a permanent link on someone's web page.
The remaining 10% find my site through some kind of social media link.
Of that 10% that find my articles through social media, the
top sources are:
Facebook 62%
LinkedIn 20%
Twitter 17%
Google+ 2%
These numbers reflect the amount of time and effort I place
into each. I spend more time on Facebook than the others so I get more visitors
from there.
Help Me, Please
I am considering adding other social media sites, like
Youtube, Tumblr, or Pinterest. I would love to hear from anyone that has experience
with these. Please leave a comment or contact me directly. What kind of
viewership do you get? Are they effective at reaching people? My time is limited. Where are the best places to find readers?
Do you have any ideas on whether I should make changes to my
blog based on the increase in mobile readship? How can I make the content or
presentation different?
I have seen other blogs that place a Paypal link and ask for
donations. What do you think about this practice? Would you be offended if I
asked for donations to support my training expenses? Is this effective? Do you
have any ideas on this topic?
If you are interested in submitting an article for for publication on this
blog, please let me know. We can discuss content and my editorial policy.
Contact me at eborresongen@hotmail.com.
Looking forward to another great year in 2014. A big thank you to all the people that read my blog and especially to those that comment on the blog or provide other feedback.
© 2014 Eric Borreson
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