Numbers Don't Lie: How Blogging 3 Times a Week Changed My Blog Traffic

As the one year anniversary of posting three blogs a week (plus once a day for NaBloPoMo) approaches, I decided to peek at my WordPress stats.

Now I can say I agree with all the bloggers who say consistency is key. Before I break the numbers down, here's a little backstory about my blogging history to put it in context.

A thousand years ago (in September, 2005) I applied for a spot on a newly created local color-type blog for the online version of a New Hampshire newspaper.

This was my pitch, "Confessions of an Internet Geek - the semi-fictitious story of a woman with a rich and rewarding life - in cyberspace. While the characters are based on real life (RL) people, they have been fictionalized to avoid public humiliation. However, the author of this blog is a living, breathing human being who welcomes comments, suggestions, and questions as her cyber adventure unfolds."

I was accepted, and I was determined to post an entry every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Needless to say, life got in the way, and soon I was lucky to post once a week. In fact, if they hadn't featured my blog every Monday on the home page of their online paper, I might not have posted even that much. The gentle hints from the guy in charge that if I wanted to bump up in the standings (I was almost last in page hits for all the blogs), I should be more consistent in my posting schedule fell on deaf fingers.

After about a year and a half, there was a changing of the guard, a plan to revamp the website, and I made the choice to discontinue my blog. I moved some entries over to Blogger, and convinced myself I could find an audience on my own. I began my plan by posting almost zero entries.

I did eventually buy the domain name, "InternetG33k" and tried to resurrect my blog there, with very inconsistent results.

After a particularly thought-provoking blog post from Kristen Lamb (or possibly a Facebook post), I bought my name domain and tried blogging again.

However, I was soon back to posting whenever the mood struck. Seeing a goose egg for the visitor count for weeks on end did nothing to inspire me. Unbeknownst to me at that time, I was severely deficient in iron and Vitamin D, which caused a number of health issues.

By October 2014, I felt healthier, and decided to start blogging on a regular basis, even if I was the only one reading my posts. I thought the best way to kick my creativity into overdrive was to do both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo in November.

And, miracle of miracles, I "won!" Inspired, I then set up a posting schedule to keep the momentum going. I picked three topics for three days - Musing Monday, Witchy Wednesday, and Fandom Friday.

2013Posts published - 7Visitors - 37Views - 200

2014 (prior to November)Posts published - 1Visitors - 164Views - 210

2014 (November and December)Posts published - 44Visitors - 395Views - 866

2015 (up to midnight, October 31st)Posts published - 134Visitors - 3,435Views - 5,403

Granted, I'm in no danger of breaking any servers with my traffic, but it's definitely respectable. Now that I've developed a schedule, my plan for the coming year is to find a way to reach my audience.

To my blogging friends out there in cyberspace - do you agree consistency is key (hey, that rhymed!)? Does anyone have recommendations for finding an audience?

Please feel free to shout out in the comment section, and you'll have my undying gratitude and a fresh baked batch of cyber-chocolate chip cookies. *grin*

~TraciTraci York, Writer Wordsmith. Witch. G33k.

Source: Numbers Don't Lie: How Blogging 3 Times a Week Changed My Blog Traffic