Tuesday, September 08, 2015

My Blogging Secrets | How I Got 250,000 Page Views In Less Than 3 Months ♥

For the past couple of months my ultimate blogging goal has been to reach 1 million page views. I'm delighted to say that I'm almost there and my other half has been instructed to get a celebration cake with the blog logo on standby for the day it happens - should be someday next week, hurray! It was only when I looked back through my milestone updates on my blog's Facebook page that I realised I only hit 750,000 page views on June 22nd - not too long ago at all, so in less than three months my blog has gained a quarter of a million page views - I'm absolutely awestruck at this fact!

I only stepped up my blog promotion back in May, when I decided that instead of resting on my laurels, I actually had to work for the blog and not just have it work for me. There was no point in me writing posts if people weren't going to see them and this is when I went in search of a free option on how to get my blog out there - wherever 'there' may be!

I began using Facebook groups for bloggers, all of us working together to help each other out and essentially be promoters and marketers for each other. Using these groups has been the best step forward for my blog and taking part in the daily thread has opened my blog up to a whole new audience who I'd have never have reached otherwise. The groups I use on a daily basis are - Twitter Marketing Group and Promote Your Website, I am also part of another called Social Media Network Group but I use this less often. These three groups are quite North American based, so I went in search of a group focusing on bloggers a bit closer to my side of the pond, I couldn't find anything beneficial to my blog and I so I decided to begin my own group, that's when Promote Your Blog was born. Particpating in these groups and running my own has been so beneficial to the traffic and audience numbers of my blog but it does take a lot of work and it's essential that everyone plays fair so that we can all see our blogs grow, so just keep those two things in mind if you chose to join in with these groups.

When I took a weeks blogging break from August 25th to September 1st I was convinced that my blog hits would decline substantially due to lack of posting and promotion - how wrong I was! My blog usually averages 25,000 page views a week, but this has been known to increase to 40,000 depending on content. In the week that I was away, no new blog posts, no promotion, no mentioning of the blog at all, I still got 20,000+ hits. It was at this stage that I realised that perhaps the blog, in it's two years of maturity is simply popular now and I have to admit that was a great feeling. However, everyday, no matter how much promotion I do for new posts, it is always my old posts, back from when I didn't have my own domain, that bring me the most traffic. These are all usually makeup reviews that people find via Google as most of them are listed in the top three on page 1 for searches. It seems having good, clear post titles has really helped my SEO to grow and get me noticed on Google.

I use every social sharing website I possibly can to promote my blog posts, even if they're old ones. I pin posts daily on Pinterest and have seen a lot of hits from the site recently - 500+ in September so far. I also add a new page of my blog to StumbleUpon everyday - this has given me 150+ hits from the site today so far, amazing! I've written A Beginners Guide To StumbleUpon too just in case anyone is looking for a few pointers on how best to use the site. I sometimes use Reddit to promote my posts but the site can be very hit and miss - I'm still figuring that one out! I also, of course, use Facebook and Twitter a lot for my blog promotion and find that people interact with my posts a lot more on there since I began taking part in the Facebook groups above.

If you're curious to see what I do for my blog on a daily basis you can read My Daily Blogging Schedule | How I Get 25,000+ Page Views A Week, it lists everything I do for my blog day to day. When I began blogging I was so naive and thought that giveaways were the way forward for bringing traffic to your blog - oh how wrong I was. Yes they do bring traffic, for a small period of time but they aren't bringing good traffic. What I mean by that is that they are essentially bringing people who are interested only in the giveaway prize, not actually you or your blog, this is why I've taken the decision to not host anymore giveaways unless a client is looking to host one or there are exceptional circumstances - such as it being Christmas and me feeling generous. Since stepping up my blog promotion I've gained new, loyal blog readers, ones who engage with me on social media, take the time to comment on the blog and who share my content, it's been amazing to see. I would much rather 10 loyal readers than 10,000 people who just wanted the chance to win a prize. The older I get and the more this blog grows the more concentrated I am on being true to myself, posting quality content and sharing what I actually love and want to show to the world.

Blogging is a whole lot of work and these page views and progress didn't just happen over night for me. I sometimes spend 10+ hours blogging within a day while my son is sleeping or at pre-school. I see this as a proper job and work so hard to make sure it's a success for not only myself but my family too. I by no means see myself as a 'big blogger' and probably never will but I'm so happy with my little slice of the internet, the visitors it is gaining and the feedback it's been getting recently too and really, that's all that matters isn't it? Be true to yourself and post quality content that you actually want to share on your blog, that's the best advice I could ever give a fellow blogger.
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25 comments

  1. Well done Fi, I really want to take out of your book and try get more traffic, over a year in and feel all the hard work of writing blog post and taking the pictures may not be worth it if I don't people viewing it. Its all good and well for it to be hobby but for me, at 33 this is what I want to do full time. Well done your posts are fab and I'm glad you getting the traffic you deserve xx

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    1. Thank you so much Sandra. I'm the same, this is what I want to do in life so I really had to step things up for myself. Thank you so much for your kind words x

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  2. I find your blogging tips so helpful. I've only really started to feel like a blogger this year and I always read your guidelines with interest - my traffic has definitely increased since I've followed some of your tips.

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  3. Congratulations on nearly hitting 1 million views! That is a huge milestone & to accomplish that in two years is unreal! You have a lot of good advice here & I'm soaking it up like a sponge! Thank you for specific links, guides & advice. Your posts are super helpful! x

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  4. Practically perfect advice in every way! =) Huge congrats on achieving such a great milestone too.

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  5. Well done on nearly reaching 1 million!( eeek!) I'm a new reader to your blog but have enjoyed reading new and old posts as well as posts such as this one which is so informative and helpful. :-) x

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  6. Hi, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading this post, I'm a fairly newbie blogger, I started in June this year, have hit and miss traffic. I feel like I'm still trying to find my flow if you like for my posts. I found this post very helpful and inspiring, I'm a stay at home mum and started to blog so I had something that was mine something that took me away from wife duties and mummy duties if that make sense. Thank you
    Sam From clicksandgiggles.co.uk

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  7. I totally admire you, I love your blog and your pictures and I just wish I had met you at BritMums. Your blog is doing amazing to have that many page views. Hopefully there will be another event where we will get to meet. x

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  8. Fantastic advice Fi, and congratulations on your continued success, you deserve every ounce of it, you reap what you sow as they say. I have to admit I really admire the time and work you give your blogs and it shows, they are gorgeous, lovely and clean to look at with great content.
    I suspect I'll never have the same time to devote to mine, though when my youngest starts playschool next year hopefully I will do more.
    Nicola x

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  9. Great advice! I have been trying to do this but have got a Facebook ban for a month for my blog Facebook Page due to taking part in the Facebook groups :-( . I have seen an increase in views though. Thank you for the tips.

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  10. Great advice, I love reading your advice posts and they are always of a great help to me. I'm only just discovering Stumble Upon, and it was your post about it that clued me up on how to use it. My traffic is very up and down as I never really know how to go about promoting my posts, I used to join a lot of links but didn't find they made much difference and took up a lot of my time, so I have cut back on those.
    Well done on almost hitting 1 million!x

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  11. I desperately want to increase my views, I mean I'm in the 10s not even hundreds and I've been blogging for 19 months now. It's crazy how much work need to be put into achieve what you have done, for that I salute you! I have a part time job and I'm starting my own clothing line, so I really don't have time to promote like I should be. I know I need to be using pinterest, it's just finding the time to do it. I'm going to read a lot more of your posts to get me going :) xx

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  12. What an incredible achievement! And so well deserved. I'm nowhere near that kind of traffic but, hopefully, I'll get there one day. Thanks for sharing what works for you :)

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  13. Thanks for all the info you're sharing, Fi - it's very generous! I love your blog and it's a fantastic achievement to get to those numbers so quickly. Very inspiring!

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  14. Thanks for sharing this, well done on your blog, you have clearly worked very hard and deserve to get noticed!

    http://hedgefundgirl.blogspot.co.uk/

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  15. This post is what got me into really working for my blog. I've noticed the blog promotion groups earlier, but never bothered. It hit me though, that it's important, so thanks ;)

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  16. Well done!!!! That's amazing! Love this blog post, I've learned A LOT! Thank you so much sharing with us. And I love your blog so much! :) xx

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  17. Totally incredible achievements that I can only aspire to achieve myself. Really well done - I've bookmarked this page now! X

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  18. Great post fiona! Its one of my aims to bring more traffic towards my blog so hopefully with these tips I'll be able to achieve my goals! Keep up the good work :-)

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  19. I have been living by your tips for the last 2 weeks and have tripled my average daily traffic from day one. It takes a bit of work, but I'd rather promote each post and get maximum exposure for each, than write more posts just to gain traffic.

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  20. I think you are a real inspiration. You prove that hard work pays off and your new blogging group is great! Just what we needed to get things moving this side of the pond :)

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  21. Thanks for all your great tips and hints. It seems to be working well for you. I am definitely going to be trying new ways to get more readers.

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  22. Great advice and tips. Congratulations on getting your blog so successful :) xx

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  23. Thank you so much for sharing your tips. This helps me so much!

    Ana
    http://anarazon.blogspot.co.uk/

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  24. Great advice! I can't wait to read your stumbleupon guide. Thank you!

    Melissa

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