subscribers

blog stats update

It’s been a while since i’ve looked at the stats for this blog so here’s an update…

For the past week or so, RSS subscriber numbers have been at an all time high. I’m now at over 120 RSS subscribers. That’s a great feeling because when i see a blog that has over 100 RSS subscribers, i’m much more likely to subscribe myself or read the content and stick around on the site. Here’s a graph of my subscriber count from February 2007 to October 2008.

If we look at the monthly traffic breakdown, we can see an obvious spike in traffic in July 2008. If we ignore that, we can see a slow but steady rising trend in visits per month and that’s what i keep my eye on… not spikes.

This month, i’ve passed the 300,000 word mark on this blog. I now have over 1150 blog posts under my belt with over 2000 comments - so on average, i get about 2 comments per post.

In terms of revenue, this blog has never been a steady earner or something i could bank on making ‘x’ amount per month. Recently however, i’ve had numerous requests for paid reviews and believe it or not i’ve had to reject one or two as i deemed them to be ‘off topic’.

It’s never nice refusing cash but it has to be done if i’m to keep bringing this blog forward. I can’t and won’t have unrelated reviews on this blog. If, however, the review is about an unrelated topic (say fashion or something) and the owner is looking for a review on the website itself (design/ layout / navigation / first impressions etc..) then yeah, i’ll consider doing a review as i’d consider that on topic as it allows me to review something i know a bit about

But so far this month, i’ve completed 2 paid reviews and there’s possibly 2 more on the way. Whilst it’s all dandy having a few paid reviews every month, i’m well aware that too many can kill a blog so i’m never going to do back to back paid reviews or have a paid posts:normal posts ratio greater than 1:5 per month.

So in terms of revenue, this blog is slowly starting to pay for itself but the irony is i’ve never been so inactive on it. This college video project is eating up all my time & will continue to do so until mid-November when we have to present it.

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up, up and away!

Fort the first time since this blog launched, i’ve FINALLY hit the 100+ subscriber mark.

That means 100 people per day are reading this blog either via automatic emails sent out to them or in an RSS reader. I get a further 200 unqiue visitors to the blog per day, roughly.

I’m always looking ahead though and i’ll never be happy with what i’ve got. At the minute, i’m putting together plans for a mega competition which will really help push this blog but also help charity.

I’m finalizing details on that skydive i was talking about and if i’m going ahead with it (i see no reason why not), i’ll definitely be using my position as a blogger to do something creative to raise the cash…

You won’t see me going round with buckets or collecting door to door - even though it is for charity. I’ll be doing something creative and using this blog as a launchpad for it all. I think it’s the only way and it’s better than simply asking people to donate cash for nothing in return - i feel that’s a lazy way out.

At the minute, i’m thinking of contacting everyone and anyone who has sponsored competitions in the past, filling them in on what’s happening and trying to get some sort of freebie off them (be it a free ad slot, free subscription or review etc… anything).

I’ll try and combine everything, then launch a huge webmaster contest with people making a minimum donation of $1 to enter. If they can’t afford $1 (i know some can’t), blogging about the competition will also get them an entry (same difference to me as if people blog about it, it means the competition spreads and hopefully other people will help donate).

Make a donation AND blog about the competition and you get 3 entries - so 3 chances to win something rather than just 1.

The skydive jump costs roughly $1k. It would mean i need 1000 people donating $1. If some people donate $2/$3 each it helps even further.

I know some people will be quick to hop on the ‘you get a free skydive and free blog promotion out of all of this goodwill’ bandwagon. Well, for starters, i’ll be paying for a custom t-shirt (with sponsors logos on it), putting up $100 in cash prizes, plus i’ll have to drive about 6 hours round trip possibly on multiple occassions if the weather is bad - so that’s easily gonna leave me over $200 out of pocket.

I also have the expense of my time - it won’t be easy organizing something like this and requires good communication and careful planning - i could be spending the time flipping sites or building them or blogging

Plus there’s the obvious fear factor involved - not many people would do this even if you paid them. So it’s definitely not a freebie or an easy ride for me - it’s the complete opposite

Do you guys think this would work? Would i be able to get prizes to giveaway? Would i get people sponsoring me online? Or is it all just a waste of time and energy?!

If anyone has any more suggestion or comments, feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly

99 subscribers and i just need one

As luck would have it, feedburner went tits up JUST as i launched my new ebook, which meant my subscriber count actually went down rather than up

But it appears to be fixed now and we can begin to see the effect my new ebook has had on RSS subscribers… before i launched the ebook, it was hovering around the 70 mark, now we’re at almost 100.

100 subscribers is a fantastic achievement for any blogger… triple figures. Although i don’t blog just to see my subscriber count rise, i’m determined to push it upwards from now on as i believe i haven’t put enough energy in to promoting my blog’s RSS feed up until now.

You may have noticed i’ve also added two button up beside the logo. These were custom designed by myself and deliberately placed in a high profile location to encourage you to click on them

I know most of you guys are regulars around here and some are already subscribed, but to the new readers and people just stumbling across the blog - those two buttons might just persuade people to sign up and become loyal readers.

Anyway, if you’re not already subscribed, be sure to do so and you’ll help me hit triple figures for the first time EVER You’ll also get a free, exclusive copy of my ‘Webmaster Secrets Exposed‘ ebook.