Yesterday was the day. Yesterday was the day I broke my long standing one day traffic record on my blog. And I can honestly say, I have no idea why. I continue to dig into the numbers, but I only have a few ideas of what may have caused the spike. At the very least, it’s an interesting look into the steps I take when I typically post to my blog, and I thought it would be a useful post to share.
Back in May of 2009 before I took my blogging seriously, I was laid off of Microsoft. As a method of therapy that night, I wrote a long blog post about what I had experienced, published and went to bed thinking nothing of it. However the next morning, I woke up to find that my post was picked up by Mary Jo Foley, a prominent Microsoft blogger on ZDNet, and my traffic spiked big time. About 1,800 page views for a blog that rarely got 20. That was the moment I decided to take my blog seriously. And ever since, I’ve never been able to crack that many visits in one day. Until yesterday.
Yesterday I cracked 2,023 page views. I did nothing out of the ordinary, nor did I do anything differently. But for whatever reason, I have a new daily traffic record. I’m not entirely sure why, but here is what I do know so far:
- Late Monday I wrote about Twitter and used the word “Tweet” in my blog title. It seems whenever I blog about Twitter, I get a spike in traffic.
- Twitter accounted for about 85% of my traffic yesterday. It usually hovers around 60% or so for most posts.
- I got more tweets/retweets of my latest blog post then ever before. Currently 219.
That’s it. No other anomalies at all. So the only reason I can come up with is that I wrote a blog post that apparently resonated with folks more so then most that I do. Which is actually hard to believe because I don’t have as many comments on it as I usually do. Very confusing indeed.
But I will not leave you empty handed from this unsolved mystery. Here is one undeniable fact; when used responsibly and effectively, Triberr is undoubtedly one of the most fantastic tools you can find to grow your reach. If you have not checked it out, or taken the time to get acclimated with it, you are truly missing out on a tremendous opportunity to grow your blog’s traffic by leaps and bounds. Oh, and did I mention it’s pretty much free?
Run, don’t walk and get going with it. And if you need any help figuring it out, don’t hesitate to ask. In the meantime, I’m going to get back to this mystery and see if I can replicate the success!
Congratulations on the record! It is funny, there are times I feel like I just wrote a masterpiece and it bombs traffic wise. Other times I write a quick paragraph off the top of my head and it becomes one of my most visited posts ever! You just never know! I also totally agree that Triberr is one of the best things to ever happen to blogging. It has increased my traffic, but more importantly it has introduced me to some fantastic bloggers like you!!! Keep up the great work my man!
Thanks Harrison. It is true, sometimes you just can’t predict what is going to work and what doesn’t. My hope is that I can replicate it and see if I can clue in on a few things that contribute to it though. And of course share my findings here.
Hey Harrison, if you like how Triberr is working , you might want to check out our social network for writers and readers, http://www.newsgrape.com . Its a way for writers to reach their perfect audience, due to semantic connection of articles.
And Jason – great article!
Blogging for our mission travel site. It is good that I stumbled from a Twitter connection about you.
Great that you have a goodie for bloggers- believe it or not I had not heard of Triberr and am sure many others haven’t either. Now to the important task of going through terms and conditions, then set up.
Hey Jason, Congratulations on your record-setting day yesterday. I hope those new visitors your blog yesterday realized what a gem they found and return many times.
I agree, sometimes I have traffic that’s a mystery. There is no one article that is getting a lot of hits, but they all add up to a good day.
I also agree with you about Triberr. It’s a fantastic way to tell the world about your blog and to meet other bloggers. I am pleased that you and I were able to meet through Triberr.
Best wishes for many successful posts in the future, Jason!
Thanks Carolyn! Admittedly, my bounce rate is pretty high, but most of that is do to my search traffic finding me for some pretty interesting terms (steak?!).
Congratulations! I actually just joined triberr last week altho I’m finding it a bit hard to navigate my way around – maybe it’s the language barrier!
Sometimes we just don’t know why stuff gets more views – but as you say it’s down to putting out great content in the first place.
All the best
Cathy
You did discuss a popular and growing concern about Twitter. Using Twitter as a sword before you know the final outcome can be quite dangerous. Cromartie being a perfect example when tweeting his “affection” for Tebow before the trade.
Twitter can also be quite dangerous on your future when today you are content with making a racially charged tweet out of ignorance or true conviction. What happens if your opinion changes in the future? That nasty tweet years ago still exists.
Case in point the clown that tweeted this about The Hunger Games:
“Why does Rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie.”
That person read the book and somehow glossed over multiple times the fact that Rue was of dark skin.
“Think Before You Tweet” is very timely and a hot issue.
Congrats and thnx for the shout out, brother 🙂
Sometimes it’s just good old fashioned momentum – you keep fighting the good fight, and one day your timing is on point, it’s a slow news day, someone who has an active following takes not of something amazing you wrote — some element of luck marries with all your hard work and pushes you up a notch. Here’s hoping this is your new watermark.
Hey Jason, congratulations for the record breaking. Job well done. Keep sharing your thoughts with us.
Hi Jason! Excellent job and congratulations. Looking forward on the blog post on tips on your findings on how we are able to replicate this.
Smart post!
I run a hyperlocal news and events website in my home town and find catching stories early really helps with traffic. For instance my three record days involved a post about a red bull flying event, a zombie reality game and most recently a meteor seen over the city.
The meteorite story gave me 401 extra visits (600 pageviews) that day improving on an average of 20 hits (80 pageviews) I normally receive. I caught wind of it from a friends facebook status and tried google to find out what he meant. There was no mention of it on Google so I bashed out an article going off the info I had from my friends status comments and a popular article was born. You can read more over at my blog so I wont bore you, but some articles stem from the strangest of places, and these are normally the most popular. It’s like a night out on the town, the best ones aren’t planned.
Thank you for sharing. So you think that just because you used the word “tweet” in the title you got the spike? Congrats anyway, that’s a nice number!
I had the same issue some days ago again and still can’t figure it out. My stats don’t match up either. This needs to get more organized that it is.