ToddBrannan

New Blog Gaining Traction? 3 Ways You Can Tell

By: Todd Brannan
Ok, So now you have your blog setup and you are posting great content, and sometimes you feel like your going nowhere?  You don’t know if your going in the right direction.  So now you’ve got a few quick ways to find out.

Way #1: Alexa

Go to www.alexa.com and click on the toolbar tab and install the toolbar or statusbar.  This will tell you what your site is ranking globally.  The lower the number the better.  For instance when I first put my site up it ranked somewhere around 12,000,000 as I have written more post the number has dropped and is now at 858,253.  Also the more frequently I post the quicker the number drops.  If I don’t post and just leave my site dormant the number rises.  Also as my number moves so does my traffic.  The lower the Alexa number the higher my traffic.  So even though I don’t see progress like I want on my site, all I have to do is check my Alexa number and I can see positive changes in the right direction.  Every time I see the ranking lower I know I am on the right track. Everytime I visit my site I see the ranking number in my status bar on my Firefox browser and I log it down so I can track my progress in my spreadsheet.

Way #2: Cpanel

Check your traffic stats in your Cpanel.  Just log into your Cpanel and the in the left sidebar scroll down to website traffic. There will be listed 3 stats, yesterdays traffic, traffic this month & traffic last month. Its that easy.  This number I also log into my spreadsheet.

Way #3: Subscribers

Your Opt-in form should be on every page above the fold.  This number will be the slowest moving.  But these are actually the most valuable numbers and what you are ultimately looking for.  These are your most interested following and they are looking to you for guidance.  Send them great information, ask them what they need, what you can do for them to help them.

” New Blog Gaining Traction? 3 Ways You Can Tell” – Click to tweet

Nothing moves your blog in the right direction as much as being consistent.  What ever you do, make sure you are posting on a schedule.  It can be daily or weekly or bi-weekly or even monthly, but be consistent.  Believe me when I say I have paid the price of being inconsistent.  I have seen massive changes in the negative direction because I got distracted.  Also I have pointed my blog in the ascending direction just by being consistent.  It is also possible to speed up your progress by speeding up your activity on your blog.  Also I have been able to achieve a lower number on Alexa in less than three weeks, than in the previous 8 months. Just by being more active.

Of course this is only a basic starting point, later I will cover some more advanced techniques.

Let me know if you have any techniques that have worked for you.