I am seeing growth in traffic and page views beyond my expectations.
Let’s begin with a caveat: One must keep in mind that I am comparing January numbers, one of the slowest sales months, to December and the holiday shopping season. Therefore, I believe any growth AT ALL is a significant increase.
One is tempted, possibly because of innate vanity to describe success based on feelings or “what I think” is happening. That is all a feel good, pat yourself on the back, reaction and may be OK in general conversation. However, what follows is my sharing of actual data, the metrics of which are derived from the Analytics service from Google and from AWStats, an internal statistics package on my leased server space.
Remember the rationale for this is a rebranding of my USPictures domain and to create more SEO “juice” (search engine results) for my own sites – rather than for the stockholders of FB, Twitter or any POD with a forum.
While I have several blog/websites related to (supporting) several of my art photography collections, I have chosen to focus the first part of the year on my personal blog at BillSwartwout.com and my “rebranded” site targeting United States landscape/seascape images at USPictures.com.
USPictures.com was “moved” from being pointed to my premium site at Fine Art America to its own server space in mid-December so I could offer more choices for my customers, including the Free Shipping at Pictorem, another quality POD (Print on Demand) company. See “Rebranding and an Art Challenge.”
Therefore the numbers for USPictures.com and BillSwartwout are based on a comparison of daily averages, not one month vs another month. This is to keep things on an even keel, so to speak.
The Results Are In:
I am not sharing actual numbers, just percentages. The following percentages increases are for BillSwartwout.com & USPictures.com, respectively
Number of Visits: 124% and 189%
Page Views per Visit: 187% and 174%
SEO/Organic Search Results: 175% and 325%
Averaging all of those results yield an average growth in one month of “Daily Posting” of nearly 200% (195.6% to be exact).
But Wow, those Organic Search Results, a 250% increase, are far better that what I was hoping to see at the one-month mark. That means the longer I can keep growing the sites’ SEO the less dependent I am on Social Media.
Hey, these increases are after only one month of Daily Article Posting, or Blogging, if you like. Imagine what may/will happen after another couple of months. Or the whole year. Not too crabby, eh? – Er, I mean, not too shabby.
Right?
Geno Prussakov, a long-time affiliate marketing colleague, about a dozen years ago, decided to try posting one new article every day for a solid year in order to help his business grow. He did and it did. AM Navigator at https://www.amnavigator.com is one of the best Outsourced Program Management Agencies in the world today. I am proud to call Geno a friend.
I would certainly appreciate any observations or comments you care to make (below). Your critique or insights may help me improve my outlook and or marketing strategy.
Well done Bill! And it has been lovely sharing the journey with you as we both supported each other on the same challenge. Also such good reinforcement to see your findings are the same as mine. Here is to a great 2022.
Thank you for the comment and the encouragement, Dorothy. Let’s continue to rock-n-roll for the rest of 2022.
Great news Bill! Thanks for sharing.
Here’ s to a successful 2022 continuing or even improving on this first month’s success rate.
Thanks for you comment, Kathy. Best of luck to you, too. 2022 will be a good year.
Bill, my friend, this is amazing! It takes A LOT of discipline and prioritization to make this happen, but the results (as you’re already seeing) make it totally worth it. I actually ended up doing daily blogging for 2 years, and then switched to every-weekday-blogging in the 3rd year. It’s no easy challenge/commitment, and I wish you perseverance and persistence!! Keep up the good work, my friend!
Interestingly enough, James Clear did a very similar thing (to what I started doing in 2010 and what you’re doing now) and went from some 100 to 400,000 subscribers, as a result. If you haven’t stumbled across his “1% Better Every Day” speech yet, I highly recommend it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNeXuCYiE0U
Thanks so much for your comments, Geno. I have a lot of respect for what you have accomplished over the years.
Correct, not an easy commitment but “slow and steady wins the race.” Right?
Thank you, Sir; and here’s to an amazing 2022 (for all of us)!!
Hi Bill – I’m here because I saw your post over on the FAA discussion about the Sprint For Art promotions. I look forward to reading your blog! I’ve just set up my own blog at https://debbeausoleil.com/ in the last month (the blog thru FAA is rather limiting for a photography blog).
I’m just at the beginning of what you’ve already achieved – bravo! It’s been so slow getting my photography website up off the ground since I have a full-time day job, but I’m up for it.
Thank you for sharing the link to your blog!
Great post Bill, Thanks for your info, it can help me in my marketing.
Thank you, Louis. If you have any questions please feel free to message me.
– Bill