Learning from Traffic Spikes
By Chris on Aug 23, 2006 in Get Rich Project
Last week’s entry 5 Ways to Improve Your Affiliate Sales was linked to twice by Darren over at Problogger. This lead to a big surge in traffic for The Get Rich Project - on Monday (when most people read Darren’s entry) there was over four times as much traffic as on the previous day. The entry is now the most read on GRP, by a big margin.
This is all well and good, but what have I got out of it? What has it tought me? Time for another list!
- List Posts Rock - Everybody likes a good list. Darren’s list meme was a stroke of genius and taking part was a smart move for everyone involved.
- Problogger readers don’t click Ads - I expected this, but I hoped I might get at least a little boost in click-throughs. It wasn’t to be. My CTR fell because page views went up, while clicks didn’t. I suspect if the entry had ended up somewhere with a more “newbie” audience I might have got a few more clicks, but that’s by-the-by.
- I should have had a strategy to monetize the extra traffic - I knew extra traffic was coming, I knew I likely wouldn’t make any extra from click-throughs, but I didn’t have anything in place to profit from it. Big mistake, and not very entrepreneurial of me. To be fair, I only wrote the entry a couple of hours before the deadline, but I still should have had something in place. This is the biggest lesson of the lot. Always Be Prepared!
- That said, I doubled my subscriber numbers - I did get something tangible out of the experience. My feed subscriber count has doubled, particularly email subscribers, which I always forget I have an option for. This was very encouraging to see, as you might expect. I’ll be changing the email subscription system in the next few days, and will write more about it when all is complete, because it does have an entrepreneurial slant. Current subscribers may see new entries (such as this one) in your inbox twice — I’m really sorry about this, but it should only be temporary until all the changes are made.
All in all, it was a worthwhile experiment. The Get Rich Project was exposed to a far wider audience than it had been previously; my readership has grown; I’ve learned some valuable lessons about monetizing strategies (i.e. have one!), and I got to write a top-notch ‘pillar’ article for my archives!
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Wendy Piersall | Aug 23, 2006 | Reply
Ha! I LOVE this entry! Been there, done that last week too! :)
I did throw together a few monetization options on the fly once the traffic hit, but they didn’t really pan out. I think that Darren’s group is a pretty savvy bunch, and aren’t probably seeking to spend $$ - they are seeking to make it.
That being said, I also more than doubled my subscriber base - which to me is worth more than a few bucks over a few days. Alexa has skyrocketed, I’ve received more inbound links (and spam) than ever in the last week, and my reach is expanding.
I wrote a post about this subject before I got my ‘boost’ here: http://emomsathome.com/blog/2006/08/07/preparing-for-a-blogjolt-turn-your-one-night-stand-blog-traffic-into-a-marriage-proposal/
I believe that big bursts of traffic, handled accurately, are more of a long-term audience-building strategy. The few times I have received ‘choice’ inbound links, my traffic jumped significantly, and always stays higher than it did before the boost.
With your great blog here, you’ll make your $$ over time thanks to this exposure. I’m sure of it! :)
Chris | Aug 23, 2006 | Reply
That’s the overall effect I’m hoping for. It’d be nice to have a steady upwards curve of traffic, rather than the odd spike.
As for the money making aspect… it was secondary, but a smart entrepreneur would be able to “sell snow to penguins”, as they say, and would have been able to financially capitalize on such a sudden increase of demand.
Heh. Your post title reminds me how I met my wife…
Wendy Piersall | Aug 23, 2006 | Reply
A little TMI - but a great chuckle nonetheless !! Keep up the great work! :)