How I Grew My Blog Over 300% in One Year

January 3, 2016

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As we begin 2016, I have several ambitions swirling around in my brain. I want to make this space great. I want to solve problems for my readers. I want to be inventive, and funny, and helpful! In order to do that, it’s important to see how I grew my blog this year.

This is the time of year where it’s easy to scrap everything and start fresh. Unfortunately, doing that with your blog is most likely a mistake. Instead, it’s time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t work in the previous year. I’m taking a paragraph out of Paige’s book and I’m doing a year end review of my blog, Making Mrs. M.

I’m nosy by nature, so I really appreciate seeing the raw data from other bloggers. I decided to make this year’s data public. I really don’t have anything to hide. I’m not in a competition with anyone but myself, so here it is:

Growing your blog takes a lot of hard work. This is a simple way that helped one girl grow her blog 300% in one year.

2015 Blog Stats at a Glance

*from January 1st – December 20th*

– Pageviews: 138,272

– 1st Quarter: 14,987

– 2nd Quarter: 38,606

– 3rd Quarter: 35,896

– 4th Quarter: 48,783

– Average Time on Page: 2 Minutes, 12 Seconds

– Bounce Rate: 81.25%

– 28.74% of traffic came from my How to Make a Killer Capsule Wardrobe post (whoa!)

– Pinterest was my Top Referrer with 30.42% of my overall traffic

– These Reads brought 20.59% of overall traffic (and I only started using it in October!)

– 81.89% of my audience is from the U.S.

– 38.81% of traffic was to makeup related posts

– 35.75% of traffic was to capsule wardrobe related posts

– Facebook Fans: 873

– Twitter Followers: 1391

– Instagram Followers: 1524 (over 400% growth this year)

– Pinterest Followers: 1245

What My Blog Stats Tell Me

– I saw tremendous growth this year. I more than doubled my page views from the 1st quarter to the 2nd quarter. I attribute this to being smarter with my blog promotions and writing more shareable posts. I had many posts go “viral” on Stumble Upon during the 2nd quarter. That helped with traffic, but ultimately the traffic wasn’t sustainable, hence the small drop in the 3rd quarter. During that 3rd quarter, I focused more on sustainable traffic like Pinterest. It didn’t give me the huge instant boost that Stumble Upon did in the prior quarter, but it’s more sustainable and will continue to grow, while traffic from Stumble Upon will (generally) peak and fizzle out quickly. I ended high in the 4th quarter because of Pinterest and the implementation of the These Reads app. Follow me on TheseReads here.

– I need to diversify my traffic sources. Pinterest traffic is great and much more sustainable than boost traffic like Stumble Upon, but I need to diversify where traffic comes from if I want to continue to see growth. Never trust one social media platform. With a simple algorithm change, you could have a MAJOR traffic dilemma. I worked hard in the last quarter to diversify, and that’s why I saw the increase in traffic.

– People like capsule wardrobe stuff. Clearly. People are searching for it, pinning it, and reading it. Apparently, this one isn’t played out.

– Makeup is my strong suit. People are searching for information on it, pinning it, reading it… just as with capsule wardrobe stuff.

What I’d like to Improve in 2016

– Diversification. Like I mentioned before, I saw a boost in the last quarter largely because I made this a priority. This needs to be a priority, without spreading myself too thin. In the past several weeks, I’ve increased my Facebook view ability from the low hundreds per week to 3K per week. I’m hoping to keep that momentum going. I’m also working on interacting more on twitter and promoting posts more strategically there.

– Finding more ideal readers. I have some huge things in the works for 2016 that will appeal to my target demographic. In 2016, I’m going to be focusing less on overall follower numbers, and more on the types of people who are following me. I want followers who are engaged and interested in what I’m saying and less of those who are following me just because.

– Solving reader problems. I think this is the best way to find and keep readers. When you become more about the reader and less about yourself, everything grows. I saw a lot of that in 2015, and I hope to see even more of it in 2016.

Strategies I’m Employing for 2016

– Better photography. This one is going to probably be a constant goal. I improved my photography quite a bit in 2015, but I hope to continue to improve in 2016.

Improving your blog photography can help you drastically increase your Pinterest presence. My taking bright, crisp, clear images, you can make Pinterest graphics that turn heads.

– Listening. I’m going to keep my eyes and ears glued to social media to see what people want to know. This will help me determine what questions need answering.

– Pinterest maximizing. Getting better pins in front of more eyes. More on this strategy later – there’s a full post coming – it’s too in depth to squeeze into a paragraph.

– Continuing to rock Facebook. What I’ve been doing for the past several weeks seems to be working. I’m getting more eyes on my posts, and they’re being liked, commented on, and shared more. I plan to keep that going. I will continue to stay OUT of the Facebook share groups, share articles I find interesting/hilarious/helpful from around the web, and interacting on other Facebook fan pages organically.

– Stepping back from Instagram. I think Instagram is a powerful tool. It’s the most popular social network, but for right now, there’s not tons of traffic stemming from Instagram. It’s almost like a miniature blog in itself and it takes so much time for not much growth (to do it in a non-sleazy way). I’ll continue to post there, but I’m not going to break my back to do it. It’s not worth it right now. Maybe in the future Instagram will make it easier to share articles, but for now… not worth the time and effort.

– Building my email list. This is the one platform that will NEVER change algorithms. You are in full control (other than people unsubscribing). I started working on my email list during the last quarter of 2015. It’s small, but it’s growing. I’m going to spend 2016 working on and pushing out special exclusive content for email list subscribers… so if you don’t already, make sure you’re subscribed! You can do that at the end of this post.

Strategies I’m NOT Employing for 2016

– Anything “follow for follow”. Participating in these inflates your numbers and doesn’t help with interaction or converting people to fans or customers. Growth will be slower by not taking this route, but each new follower will be more in tune with what you’re “selling” (figuratively or literally) on your blog and across your social media platforms. I did a few of these in 2015, and I’m kind of kicking myself for it now.

"follow for follow" is terrible for your blogging community. Inflated numbers do not equal increased community. Don't participate in follow for follow threads.

– Blog sponsorships. 2014 was my big year for blog sponsoring. I sponsored many and while I wouldn’t say I had a bad experience, I don’t think that blog sponsorships are the best places to put promotional funds. At the beginning of 2015, I stopped doing sponsorships, and I’m really glad I did. It freed up money that I used to promote in places that helped get more eyes on my blog.

– More is better… as far as blog posts go. I cut way back on the number of posts I shared each week during the last quarter of 2015. Doing this, I was able to spend more time on each post and I feel like the quality of my posts increased tremendously. Quality is always greater than quantity. Maybe one day I’ll be able to push out 5 quality posts per week, but right now 3 is the magic number.

I’m excited to see how these strategies will effect 2016. I have some really special things planned and I’m nearly bursting at the seams to tell you what they are! I hope this run down of how I grew my blog was helpful, or at least satisfied your nosy-tendencies. 😉

What strategies are you employing for 2016? What are you deciding to let go of? Inquiring minds want to know (mine!).

And… because I love you, here’s a little giveaway. Share, share, share! For every friend who signs up from your referral, you’ll get FIVE extra entries!
$50 Sephora Gift Card Giveaway

Giveaway ends January 31st, 2016 at 11:59 pm CST. The giveaway is open to all US Residents, 18 years or older.