I used to chuckle a bit at clients who would pore over numbers on a daily basis knowing that a.) web analytics data isn’t so precise and b.) trends are really what matters and c.) most clients don’t move fast enough to make changes on a daily basis. Then, I started a blog. I’m becoming mildly obsessed with my numbers (think A Beautiful Mind for web analytics).
One of the metrics I watch closely is the number of RSS subscribers I get through Feedburner. If you’re lucky, blogging is a slow rise to the top as you prove that what you’ve got to write is worth reading, you get links and your other promotional tactics (ex: Digg) kick in. If you’re even luckier those people will subscribe to your blog and read it regularly.
One way to help keep the subscriber trend going up and to the right is to read and actively participate in related blogs. Your RSS reader should be chock full of your blogging peers. Mine is and that’s how I noticed that Bryan Eisenberg and the folks over at Future Now wrote a post about the top web analytics blogs on their blog. Bryan asked for reader contributions (as he always does) and so I threw in a few ideas and included my own blog for good measure. Sure enough, I nabbed some more subscribers shortly after I posted it (see graphic to the left). Bryan has plans to roll the whole list into a list that could be downloaded by quite a few people, so you never know where your posts can lead you.
How do you court subscribers to your blog? Leave a comment and someone just might follow it.
PS: Thanks for the link love: Search Marketing Gurus, One By One Media and Blinkz
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I started blogging in October 2002 on a subject totally different from web analytics (I was then a medical first responder volunteer for my community). Then I really concentrated on web strategies and analytics nearly 18 months ago and ever since, I’ve seen a steady growth:
- post to my blog only if I have something to say (I stay away from “me too” posts as much as possible) and try to post “quality” over “quantity”
- post pertinent comments to peer blogs
- answer to Yahoo forum questions
- offer “more”, such as the Web Analytics Coop Search that encompass 165 hand picked blogs and sites or the aggregated Web Analytics Feedburner that tracks over 70 related blogs
- generally be involved in the web analytics community: organizing Web Analytics Wednesday’s, speaking at conferences, etc.
S.Hamel
eBusiness strategist, web analytics practitioner & blogger
immeria.net
Hey Stephane,
I’m also of the “quality over quantity” school of blogging. I was inspired by the Avinash model of blog success, which is itself based on Guy Kawasaki’s recommendations for blogging (think book, not blog; eat like a bird, poop like an elephant). I have to say, though, I always feel tremendous guilt that I’m not blogging more :-)
-Alex
I am moving in a similiar direction. I think that getting involved in group writing projects is a great way to make relationships and find new readers. In these projects you tend to build up a relationship with the other contributors and the organiser which can last a long time.