I was sitting here ruminating, as you do, and started thinking about traffic – well there are worse things!

I saw the BAYB stats for April and where the traffic came from. It’s an interesting subject and it’s also interesting that hits don’t always come from the areas that the ‘experts’ say we should concentrate our efforts on.

My own blog my top three referrers at the moment are:

1) Google Search Engine
2) Technorati Tags
3) Blogger’s Choice Awards

With the top two I do put in some effort, every now and again, with keywords and writing about ‘hot’ subjects that people might search for. The third place isn’t long term but it’s okay for now, and all for doing nothing.

So a question …

What are your top three traffic sources at the moment?

No doubt we could all learn something from what is happening on other blogs – unless it’s all hush hush, of course.

Okay that’s it for now, ruminating over.

Good luck,
Mike.
Mike’s Money Making Mission

Chad Gramling from Word Up has been chosen for the next Blog about your Blog author interview. I have asked Chad a series of questions about some personal things, blogging and blog about your blog. I hope you enjoy the interview.

First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Are you married? Girlfriend?

I am married (of nearly 6 years) and I have one daughter.

What do you do when you are not blogging?

I work full time as a product manager at a credit union. It really is almost as glamorous and exciting as it sounds. Beyond that, I’m either writing, watching baseball, or spending time with my family.

I recently enjoyed the release my first book, Baseball in Fort Wayne, from Arcadia Publishing. I have had three signings (all of which went well). I hope to continue writing and one day do that full-time.

In addition to some follow-up ideas I developed in the course of Baseball in Fort Wayne, I have written a full novel manuscript that I am currently shopping to agents and publishers. For information check out Distant Replay.

I wish you success on any of your other future ventures, as well as Baseball in Fort Wayne. I am a proud owner of your book.

Let me ask you a few general questions about your blog.

When was your blog created?

WordUp was started in January of 2006. Before that, I had started several different blogs, but never stuck with any of them.

Why did you choose your blog topic?

WordUp was originally designed to help further my publishing efforts. It has evolved to become more of a creative writing outlet since its early beginnings. But I still use it to help promote my writing efforts.

Where do you see your website in one year?

Hopefully WordUp will grow in visitation from people who are looking to read it. I call that “legitimate traffic” versus the ploys and tactics used to get hits. I’d rather have 10 people who visit because they really do want to read it versus 1,000 people who stop for 2 minutes or less where they do little more than critique my design. I hope for the same with my other blogs too.

Do you have any new upcoming projects or ideas you want to announce?

At NoOtherRock, I am planning a web ring of sorts, but am still very early in the stages and cannot share the details. Sorry.

Well I’ll be looking forward to that. I’m not too much into religion, but keep us posted!

What do you rely most on to get traffic to your blog or website?

I rely on others to share the love. I do a lot of BOTB at BlogExplosion, but don’t know how much legitimate traffic that provides. I also do a lot of cross-promotion on my other blogs when there are posts of interest.

And the final series of questions, a little bit about Blog About Your Blog

How did you find us?

Matthew invited me at the very beginning while in ShoutBox at Blog Explosion.

That must of been forever ago. I just remember you as a good blogger and basically wanted you as a part of our blog.

What do you like most about BAYB?

I really like having the ability to have a forum to announce blog posts that have me really excited. Sometimes I create something and wish everyone would read it and comment on it. It makes me feel better to blog about it twice I guess (maybe I consider it to more like BRAG About Your Blog than BLOG About Your Blog).

What new feature would you like to see?

A BAYB Channels might be a nice feature. For instance, when someone visits, they can select the “Blogging” or “Sports” channel to isolate it down to posts only from those bloggers in the channel. I know the categories is kind of the same, but not sure it does it very effectively.

Not sure how we can do that, but that’s exactly why I added categories to our sidebar. With a blog ranging in so many different topics we need it.

A “BAYB Bloggers Profile” page would be cool too.

We have worked on something along those lines as you can see, however we don’t have anything solid. I don’t even have my own profile, but it’s something that will definitely evolve in the future.

What do you like the least?

Not to say they don’t provide a relevant niche’ but the “Make Money By Blogging” bloggers seem to overwhelm the blog. I’d prefer to have a little
more balance.

I’m not sure I agree, but I do see blogging as a topic seem to take over.

Who have you chosen to be the next one interviewed?

You mean I’m not last?
Simply because I think he is contributing a lot of good things to the blog-o-sphere and because I would personally like to read more about him, I am selecting Secret Simon of The Secret Life.

We had 7,400 unique visitors, which works out to be an average of 247 unique visitors per day. That beats last month by 1,000 visitors!

Our three biggest referrals were stumbleupon, Google (search engine) and linkreferral.

Our most blog referrals came from a new BAYB author. Mikes Money Rants sent us 167 visitors! No one else really came close, but our other Mike was second with 37 referrals.

Technorati rank has been going well pretty steadily. We are now on our way to the 10,000 mark with a rank of 12,981. 881 links from 279 blogs with 85 members favoriting us.

I didn’t pay much to Alexa Rank until a few weeks ago, so I don’t know what it was last month. However we are close to breaking 100,000 on Alexa! We are currently ranked 108,248.

Our feed subscriptions have significantly increased. Last month we had about 40 readers, that number has now jumped to over 100. Remember if you’re subscribed to our feed, participate in our Mini Fridge Giveaway.

Our page rank, sadly, didn’t increase like I thought it would. We will remain a PR 4 for another few months. I had high hopes for a PR5-6 but it looks like we didn’t get that. My plans of world domination are on hold until the next update, but then we will take over the world.

Blog about your Blog Goals:

I’d like to see…

Technorati under 10,000
Alexa under 100,000
PR increase (next update)
More authors on different topics
More participation (we only get a few authors posting regularly)
200 Feed Subscribers

Along side my “Random” projects I have decided to start a new project. I recently discovered that I enjoy taking pictures of flowers, insects and other things found in nature. Because of this I have started a new blog called My Photo Garden. I has a couple of my pictures on it. What I am wanting to do is expand and have other people also get involved and contribute their photos of nature to the blog. If you are interested in becomming a member of the “Photo Gardener” team, please email me at spazymunky@gmail.com and we can get you set up as a co-author so you can post your shots of nature!

The Brief

Michael at GiveawayProject.com submitted his blog for a quick Blog Doctor health check.
One of his major concerns was about his graphics. He has good computer skills but not so confident on graphics. Another concern he has was in regards to the money making components of the site and whether or not they are distracting or placed correctly.
The ultimate concerns for him are how to increase his income without distracting and annoying the readers.

First Impressions

Straight away when I visit GiveawayProject.com I must admit I notice the limited graphic banner. The thing is I’m a designer so I notice these things anyway. But so does your average blog surfer. You’ve got a couple of seconds to catch their attention especially if you are a member of one of the blog exchanges. So you want your site to look nice if not eye catching so you aren’t losing any of the more shallow readers straight off the bat.

The next thing that draws my attention is… well nothing really and this is the second concern. The page doesn’t clearly define its regions and comes across as a bit of a whitewash of text.

Upon reading the material I immediately get what the site is about ‘getting free stuff from around the web’. The about section is blended in over on the side and on reading it it confirms the purpose of the site.

It is now that I turn my attention to the advertisements and these are fairly standard and I know what to expect which is all fine.

Suggestions

I’ll address my speciality which is the look and feel. Michael needs to make a statement with the design that he is indeed THE place to go for the give-aways etc. This means looking the part. And a more professional looking banner is an important place to start. Something Michael suggested in the briefing which is a really great idea is to try and get some aspiring designer to knock you something up for free or really cheap in exchange for the recognition or a link. It could be a good portfolio piece for them.

I may have a chat with Matt about the idea of a place on Blog About Your Blog for aspiring designers who want to pad their portfolios with blog designs or graphics to offer their services.

I had a quick stab at sketching a design based on the concept that Michael has already in place. Focusing on the piggy bank icon, changing the heading font and putting a slight pattern in the background.

-Â

When you look at the image you’ll notice how I’ve separated the posts up with alternating colour and the piggy bank icon in keeping with the banner. I’ve also highlighted the about section so that people’s eyes are drawn to it. In doing this it also makes the advertising sections more clearly defined even without doing anything to them.

Michael may want to consider using an image every once and a while to break up the text and add interesting cues for readers. Take a look online for royalty free clip art and images.

As for the content I believe that trying to promote the subscriber aspect especially considering the content would be beneficial. Promote it as a way not to miss out on any of the great deals. Another thing worth mentioning might be to point out that the site is mainly for American audiences. A good place being in the About section.

All in all the content is pretty good and I must admit I’m not usually interested in these types of things but it’s compelling stuff and managed to get a couple of clicks from even my concrete heart!

Summary

Great content. Design needs a little graphic designer love. Sections need to be better defined. Try and promote the subscriber element more.

If you’d like a fresh look at your blog contact us via the contact form.

This is my first post under the new theme regime, and I’d like to say, it is a cool new home. Well done to Matt and Lee for taking a big and positive step. Ironically, they probably won’t find much of interest in this post, preaching to the converted and all that! (And I hope this isn’t too long a post!!)

They say, if you stand still in business, you die. A bit demoralising to think that you have to keep pushing and can’t rest on your laurels. Not that natural-born entrepreneurs ever think of resting easy. You have that ache in your stomach to tweak what you already have, dump what isn’t working, and invent the next big thing. And natural born bloggers are the same too, I suspect.

If it ain’t broke…

What sets the good business/blogger mind apart from the average, however, is the ability to “see” what is going on. It is one thing to want to be dynamic, it is another to be able to analyse what elements truly are in need of attention – or should be left well alone. How many companies have fizzled in apathy, or fallen to earth after a CEO broke something that wasn’t broke!

I’m no CEO, but I have ruined a few good things in my time, due to inertia and an over zealous desire to “progress”. I am responsible for a blog now, which one day may be a business, so I want to do the right thing. The pressure is killing!!

Plus ca ne change pas! or thomesing like that.

As the lord and master/mistress of a blog, what to tweak, dump or invent, is one part of the equation, but starting from the beginning, what to keep the same while the rest of the mix evolves, that is the biggest question!

At the end of this month, staring wide-eyed at stats, one part of me is tempted to relax into the cosiness of traffic that has tripled over the past 30 days. Yeehah. But the niggly feeling takes over. Should I leave everything as is? Should I keep the formula the same – keep posting, keep talking, keep having fun on-line? More of the same means a step backward, doesn’t it?

Luckily, I am too young in blog years, to go changing too much. I have loads of work to do to be the best, but to be realistic, for better or for worse, I am happy to leave the core of the blog well alone for now. (Also, my guilty restless side willingly accepts that continuing the blog in its current format is excusable this month, so no major new decisions to make just yet.)

Tweaking a good thing – the devil is in the detail

Fortunately, instead of relaxing, a little devil kicks me in the shin and sets me to wondering how to keep peripheral parts of the Pisstakers blog moving on a bit more. But which parts could do with a re-vamp?

As a starting point, I am happy to see I got 28000 page views in April. That is almost 1000 per day, blimey, but is it quality traffic? Are people reading, or are they speed reading, or simply accumulating hits for gummi bears on MyBlogLog Sunday? Yes, to all of the above! So which part of the Pisstakers “brand” do I tweak, because there is no such thing as unexplained coincidences in my world and something has been attracting this extra attention.

I usually go on gut feelings, but that isn’t always a good premise. (Ask SEO expert Shyflower about my gut instincts before I implemented some new keyword tactics that actually worked, and I was way off base with my ideas on Polliwog Pond’s traffic generating prowess.) I cant read stats well enough yet, but I am sure that MyBlogLog Sunday is an intrinsic part of the recent popularity of The Pisstakers. However, I am ignoring my gut instincts to make a change to the rules, for now. I am just going to keep telling new folks about it, and hope that at least half of the 10 blogs featured for a mini review on Sundays are new blood. That would keep the idea fun for new blogs, fun for me and fun for my readers. And if a possible “Best of past reviews” that I have in mind doesn’t get a result… I can’t abide not doing anything new!

Irresistible new feature

I admit I am a mischievous person by nature, but under the guise of a proactive entrepreneur, to sate my creative side this month, I was talking with my man in Milan about a drool-worthy new feature. Bonsai Studios have obliged in kind, and are preparing a little something new, coming soon to a sidebar near you.

Features can even tweak themselves!

I have also seen that if you sit tight and let an untried idea run for a while, it may evolve a life of its own. Comments Friday here is hitting top gear nowadays with early commenters setting the topics without being guided by Matt.

And sometimes a feature can produce a new feature!!! I got a post from Mr MyBlogLog programmer extraordinaire, SEO Solo who kindly left a recipe for a top referrer widget for MyBlogLog members. And then you start thinking, should I look at packaging the MBL Sunday feature, syndicating it, getting it adopted, plus a multitude of other ideas. Who wants to jeopardise that sort of feedback and thinking with a tweak in the wrong direction?!

How long do you go between blog tweaks? Got any do’s and don’ts?

All advertising comes down to cost. If you are paying too much for an ad spot, chances are you won’t purchase it again. You want the most cost efficient advertisement possible. Obviously nothing is better than free, but what if you are paying money?

Recently I posted about using Linkreferral to get traffic. I also mentioned I am now purchasing the #1 spot, per month, on LinkReferral under the section Miscellaneous. The price for that spot comes out to be 35$ per month.

At 35$ per month, you want to be getting your money’s worth. In the month of April (according to their stats) Blog about your Blog has received 1300 hits.

To figure out how much I am paying for each visitor is quite easy. All you have to do is divide the 35$ per month into how many visitors you are getting. That figure comes out to be about 2 or 3 cents per visitor.

As I mentioned there are other factors that you can add, but can’t really put a price on. At Linkreferral your traffic, is somewhat targetted, but it still is basically a modern traffic exchange. Some visitors are quality, but definitely not all. We’ve had several people participate on this blog that found us on Linkreferral.

The other factor to add in is that at LinkReferral, you also get website reviews. How much value is that? It’s hard to put a price on it, but I think its valuable. You get great input on what people see, think, and feel when they first visit your blog. Of course there are those reviews that will be “nice site”, but others can really give you an idea of what they think about your website or blog.

Finding your Cost Per Visitor (CPV) can be very helpful if you are trying to decide whether your advertisements are worth keeping. I like to keep our Google Adwords CPV down as well. I want as many people to read this blog as possible. We aren’t big time yet, where we can really target traffic (and pay more).

Which advertisers work for you? Are you also using these methods to find your CPV? Or does CPV not impact your advertising decisions?