As some of you may know I took part in the Ultimate Blog Challenge back in January. It was a great success, not only did it give me the motivation to blog more often but it also increased my blog traffic by more than double.
I recently heard about another blog challenge, the 28 Day Blog Challenge for Authors which I have promoted on all my social networks. I work with a lot of authors, eBook formatting and more recently helping them with their websites and social media presence – so this blog challenge is something I feel would be a great benefit to all authors who want to attract some new followers for their work.
While discussing the challenge on a Facebook group (SelfPubEbooks) someone asked me whether I had blogged about the results of the challenge I took part in earlier this year. The answer was no, I hadn’t… so just slightly belated (only 4 months late), this is my blog challenge results post!!
I think the best way of showing the results is with an image of my stats, taken directly from Google Analytics.
As you can see from this screenshot taken from my analytics account my traffic increased quite a bit. I published my website on 8 November 2011 and as you can see my traffic was pretty much non-existent. The blog challenge started on 1 January 2012 and the traffic pretty much appeared that day. Of course it wasn’t a case of writing a post and then waiting for people to appear – you have to be focussed on sharing your content. The thing about the blog challenges is that you have an audience waiting in the wings and ready to jump on your blog to comment and interact with you.
Some of the things you need to do to ensure you make the most of a blog challenge are:
- Write interesting and unique content.
- Share on all your social media networks, that means Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc… StumbleUpon is a great way of attracting traffic (I unfortunately hadn’t realised this at the time of the challenge, but now use it a lot)
- Reply to any comments on your blog posts in a timely manner and interact with people who take the time to comment.
- Visit and comment on other blogs in the challenge.
- Make sure you have an RSS feed available so people will receive your posts automatically – I received a lot of traffic through my FeedBurner feed.
It’s hard work being part of a blog challenge, to come up with a different post each day and then to share it as much as possible. A good thing about the challenge I took part in is it runs 4 times per year, it most recently ran in April but I just didn’t have the time to take part.
Even though I gained a lot more traffic through doing the challenge I didn’t gain any new clients directly – but I did learn all the skills I needed to attract new clients in the long run. I now get a lot of work through social media, mainly Twitter and I feel that if I hadn’t taken part in the challenge I wouldn’t have learnt the skills so quickly, that I have now.
So if you’re an author and want to get your work out there, I strongly advise you to take part in this blog challenge, it starts on 2 June and I will be following everyone who is taking part. Just remember the points I have made above, if you follow these tips the traffic to your blog will increase as mine did – and I guarantee you’ll get more sales by the end of the challenge too!
I would be happy to share more statistics with you, if you want to know something specific please comment below and I will get back to you.
Check out all the blog posts I wrote in the 31 Day Ultimate Blog Challenge!
What a great post, Jo. You’re absolutely right – taking part in a challenge ACTIVELY is like turning on the traffic faucet. Thanks for promoting the Author Blog Chalenge, too.
Laura (aka Marcie)
No problem Laura, will be keeping up with the author challenge myself when it starts… :)
Those are great results. I took part in the challenge as well. But I haven’t seen numbers like those.
Linda Ursin recently posted..New Shop, Amulet Art and Glovelies
Thanks Linda :)
A blog challenge is a great way to increase traffic. I’ve not made many posts this week as I’m re-doing my website, and the traffic through the site has dropped off a lot
Rob Scott recently posted..5 Popular Posts From The Last Month
I use Tweet Old Post Rob so that my old content is still being tweeted out, admittedly traffic is better the day (or day after) I post on my blog but it’s been quite consistent since the challenge.
Hi Jo.
As you know, I followed your January challenge and found your posts interesting. The stats are impressive, and I’m thinking of doing the next one myself. However, what I would’ve interested in is how your traffic has changed since the challenge finished. How has it been for you?
Martin Jarvis recently posted..WordPress post edit area is blank (displays white text on white background)
Hey Martin, My traffic has stayed pretty even since the challenge finished, there are peaks and troughs when I post on the blog but if anything my traffic has increased a little bit. Much of my traffic is coming via searches (Google mostly) now, but also a lot from social media, Twitter and LinkedIn mainly. I think if I stopped posting on my blog regularly then it would drop, so consistency is really important. Just had a quick look at my stats and around 69% of visits are from new visitors which is always good. :)
I’m not very familiar with Stumble Upon. How does it work with blog posts?
Kenja Purkey recently posted..Taking Over the World One Parent at a Time
Hi Kenja, StumbleUpon is great for driving traffic to your blog as long as you don’t overdo it (you could be deleted for spamming if you submit the same domain over and over). You can submit any page on the internet to StumbleUpon, tag it with a category and some keywords and then anyone using StumbleUpon can ‘stumble’ and come across new websites they wouldn’t normally find. It’s very random, you click the stumble button and it will show you a website based on your search terms. So whenever I write a blog post now I will submit it to StumbleUpon as part of my social media strategy.
Hello all,
Love this, but I’m a little late to the party. When is the next challenge?
I know the Ultimate Blog Challenge starts again on 1 July, I’m not sure about the author challenge.
HelloJo, I am so gald I met you during the #UltimateBlogChallenge. I have learned a great deal from you. I appreciate findig that you have visted my site also, even though I write about parnetig issues which is much differt from your great content.
My analytics were very similar in looks as yours. did change blog blog sites in the middle of the challnge. It is interesting to note that many new followers did stay with me. ( addressing Mrtins question)
I am a potentail client. The timing is not right yet for me.
Thanks for offering all that you do. I thiktha the challenge is more far reacing thanwe will know. for example, I do continue to read you and pass on your information via Tweets and someties use your links to validate my own work. I thinkthat is a win-win for all of us.
Malika