Recently a someone asked me how I recommended they increase their traffic as, “My stats have only gone up, like 5% in the last year.” Heh. And you’re coming to me…WHY? I am constantly caught off guard when people assume I know about successful blogging. I dont make money of my site, I’m not on any sort of A-list of SUPER ENTERTAINING BLOGGERS. And I’m most certainly NOT an expert in traffic. Especially since my numbers have been consistently declining since I signed up for Sitemeter in 2006.
This was my first few months of stats reported from Sitemeter when I signed up in 2006. I had been blogging since January 2004, but I had only kept up with the stats that came on my server. Since they don’t keep “archive” stats, I decided to sign up at Sitemeter just so I could compare over time. But I’m going to be very honest with you – I don’t look at my stats anymore. I used to. Just like all bloggers I went through phases where I would obsessed over them and critiqued my entries based on how they affected my traffic. And then, one day, I just stopped caring. Maybe because I just was happy with where I was, maybe because I didn’t like what it did to my content. Either way – I swear to all that is holy – I stopped checking my stats.
Every few months I log in just to make sure everything is still working, but other than that? The only gauge I have on my traffic is the comments I get on entries. And while I’ve noticed that declining over the years, I just stopped fretting over it. I felt like I knew the cause anyway. Some of it was that my traffic was only high originally because bigger bloggers than I had linked to me a few times and people started reading me because of the association. However, I’m not as funny or as entertaining as those other bloggers so after awhile, those new readers stopped reading. I knew that, and I wasn’t going to stress over it. I’m well aware I’m not as entertaining as many who link to me, I read those same women daily because they crack me up. I only crack myself up once in awhile.
I also was aware of what many infertile bloggers are aware of, blogging about infertility tends to increase traffic. Women struggling with the same problems seek solace in our stories. Therefore, the Google searches that make my heart hurt (“Multiple Miscarriages,” “Can’t Stay Pregnant,” “Why Does My Uterus Hate Babies?”) – usually lead people to my site. I enjoyed that for awhile, a community of shared struggles. But I knew when I stopped writing about Trying To Conceive or Trying To Stay Pregnant, my traffic would drop. Since I knew the cause of the decline, I didn’t need to put numbers on the actual drop. I was afraid it might depress me. I was happier not knowing.
But – I wanted to prove how little I knew about increasing traffic so I pulled up the past 12 months to compare to the first year on Sitemeter.
First glance it doesn’t look like that huge of a drop. Then you have to pay attention to the TOP of each graph. Sitemeter is kind enough to adjust the range of the graph so that your highest traffic month sets the limit. This is the comparison ADJUSTED to match quantities.
I’ll be honest. I’m not exactly sure what those numbers on the side mean. Does that include repeat visitors? Spam bots? Unique hits? Who knows. Doesn’t matter anyway because I’m just focusing on the relationship between the two charts. The change. I went from 60K to 20K in 44 months. That’s a HUGE drop. I guess that’s about a 66% decline in traffic over a few years? Aren’t you supposed to go UP in traffic the longer you blog? Heh.
Anyway – my point? I’m happy with my blog. I have never felt more at peace with my online life. I have many good friends and many loyal readers and many times? Those two are one and the same. I get good comments that make me smile and I find new blogs constantly to add to my own Google Reader. After time sometimes I remove blogs that no longer intrigue me, so if people have done that with my RSS feeds? Grown apart from my writings? I’m okay with that. If we just added to the blogs we read and never removed any, we’d all have grown into our desk chairs by now.
Now, if my decline continues and I only have 12 readers over a month in March 2015? Then maybe I’ll rethink my strategy. But for now? I’m completely at peace with where I’m at. And I think – in honor of that? I want us to share some of our favorite “new” blogs we’ve discovered. I’m going to give you a few Newbies (To my Feed Reader, not necessarily to blogging itself) to check out. And then I want you to tell ME about someone new. Try to recommend someone who gets lets than 10 comments on their entries so we can spread the love to people who will notice our affection. These are three from my own Google Reader list that I don’t think I’ve ever linked to before (outside, maybe, my sidebar) – so they’re “new” to you guys. I also probably don’t comment on their sites enough (Because I don’t comment on ANY sites enough) so this makes me feel less stalkerish by linking to them here.
Feet Firmly Planted who has a great photo up right now from a gun shop that made me literally GUFFAW.
Yummy Sushi Pajamas who writes very truthfully about the struggles of motherhood.
Gigglepotamus whose husband I met at a blogger event last year but who also does some amazingly creative projects that make me swoon and want to be adopted by her.
So…who do YOU recommend?





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