Use Your Site Stats To Write A Better Blog

Build A Better Blog Day 21

Today's tip is to use your blogs stats to help you decide whats popular with your readers, and write more about that. It's a proven fact people will use a search engine to find your blog more than any other way. Your blog stats can tell you exactly what words they are using to find you and what blog posts they are landing on.

Over a year ago I wrote a blog post on removing sharpie ink from a white board. Its a very common problem in offices everywhere. I had inherited a white board that had a considerable amount of permanent ink drawn all over the surface making it difficult to see any new writing. I grabbed my keyboard and typed in "remove sharpie ink from white board". Straight forward question and I knew Google would show me the site I needed. And sure enough it did. At the time, the number one site had an article that told me exactly what to do.

Once I had followed all the instructions and cleaned the board, I just had to share this with others. So I blogged about it here. And to this day, the words "sharpie" "remove" and "white board" drive more users to my site than any other. I am shocked because its the only time I've ever written about the subject and I consider it to be way off topic for my blog. So what can you do to take advantage of this phenomenon?

Right after I noticed the increased traffic to my blog I installed a Wordpress plug-in called Short Stats. This very simple blog statistics program showed me a lot about who was visiting my site, what they were looking for and looking at. A few months later I installed Google Analytics which gave me an even better view into what was happening with my site.

Some of the things I noticed was traffic for words like T-Mobile, MDA, Mobile, Windows, and posts with images. Many of my posts mention these key words and I try and link to some other blog post or web site to improve the link tree and help Google index my blog better. But most importantly I started writing more about the topics people visited my blog to read. They aren't the only things I write about, but I try and stay with the general theme.

Here are some key points:

1. Install some type of statistics or analysis software for your blog. If you host your own you can use your web hosts built in stats or try using a plug-in like Short Stats.


2. Check you stats often. I'm anal about it and check several times a day. I'll see a spike in traffic and want to know why and decide if I can capitalize on the spike.


3. Change what you are blogging about if you notice a trend. I'm not saying you should only blog about whats most popular but I would try and keep your posts along those same lines. You may find out you want to go straight up with a niche and move your other posts to a personal blog site. Many people do this.


4. Make sure you have a good search system on your blog. Whether you use the built in search or something like Google Search, it's extremely important to provide some type of search mechanism. I always make sure my search box is above the fold and on every page.


5. Try different topics. If you're not getting the traffic you want look at changing what you blog about. And make sure your blog is syndicated using RSS.

There are plenty of free stat services like StatCounter and Free Stats. These require you add some type of code to your pages. If you aren't well versed in PHP or HTML this may be a little more than you bargained for. The simplest stats program comes from your web hosting provider and can usually be accessed from an Administrator panel.

Tell me what stat software you use, what you have found interesting and what you have done with the information.

ProBlogger's day twenty one post: Make a Reader Famous

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Benefit Dinner for Injured Utah Father

Hey all, there is a dinner tonight to benefit a friend of Ash Buckles who was paralyzed from the chest down in an auto accident a few weeks ago. This man is a Father of two and has one due in a few weeks. This is an extreme hardship on the family and his friends are trying to do what ever they can. Visit Ash's blog for more details on the dinner.

To take it one step further, if you can't make the dinner, please consider donating to the Family. There is a PayPal button on Ash's website that will let you donate what ever you feel you can. I've seen this community come together to support those in need. We need to do it now. Thanks for your support.

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Track of the day: Stormy Eyes by Derek Miller

Derek Miller
"Stormy Eyes" (mp3)
from "The Dirty Looks"
(Arbor Records Ltd.)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album

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Stay The Course, And Don’t Give Up

Build A Better Blog Day 20

Todays tip is for those new bloggers and those who are feeling like their blog isn't going any where. My recommendation to you is stay the course. There are millions of eyes reading blogs these days but there are 10 times that many who aren't. Eventually, your reader base will grow.

Many people today are writing one or more blogs. Although writing more than one blog can tedious and time consuming, it has its advantages.

1. If you a feeling overwhelmed cut back on the number of blog posts you write.


2. Reduce the number of blogs you maintain. Use the process described in Seth Godin's book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick).


3. Ask your readers to help. Give one or more the opportunity to write for you, and then go on vacation.


4. Narrow your blogs focus which may make writing posts easier


5. Start commenting on more blogs. Read more blogs. If it's writers block this can help.

The over all point here is not to give up, especially if you've invested a large amount of time and effort into building your blog. But be careful not to let the quality of your writing slip. Don't get sloppy or write pointless posts. Try and keep your goals high.

ProBlogger's day twenty post: Run a Reader Survey

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Keep Your Blog Posts Unique

Build A Better Blog Day 19

Today's tip is this; write about what interests you and not what everyone else is writing about. One thing that disappoints me about some blogs are the regurgitated content they use from another site. I want to read original content. Find your niche then give us your spin. Make a list of the things you write about or interest you and store it with your blog posting schedule. Review it often to remind yourself what you want to write about.

Breaking a news headline or an getting an inside scoop might not be something that happens on your blog, and that's OK. Writing an opposing or agreeing opinion on a news story or other blog post is great. I read hundreds of RSS feeds and news sites which keep me informed about current events, market trends or breaking news. Some times I get a great blog idea and I write it up. This is a great way to keep your content fresh. Don't cheat or steal other content. Don't use parsing tools that scrape content from other sites and call it your own.

Having fresh content may require more time and research than a shoot from the hip post. What I mean by that is take some time to make sure what you are writing makes sense, is truthful and will be appealing. Make sure you pay attention to your language standards on spelling and grammar. I'm so glad I have a spell checker because I'm a terrible speller. Poor grammar and spelling will turn some readers off, and we don't want to give anyone a reason to not come back.

Taking some time to decide what your blog focus is will help in keeping your content unique and fresh. Write your posts, save them and re-read them. You might find areas you want to change or add. I read the web site by Grammar Girl often. She covers the English language pretty well and I've learned some things from her. I recommend reading her site. Don't forget to apply The 10% Solution.

ProBlogger's day nineteen post: Respond to Comments on Your Blog

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