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Well, I’ve learned a ton of things since my first post about 3 and a half weeks ago (I created my blog on 10/14). Of course, I’ve been keeping track of my traffic using Google Analytics. Understanding that traffic is key, I’ve done a variety of things including consistently creating and updating my sitemap, posting comments on other blogs (meaningful comments, of course 
), referring to my page on forums I enjoy reading when it is pertinent to the discussion, etc.
When I first began using Google Analytics, for some odd reason, I only inserted the code in one[WordPress] template. Well, I should have figured that given the traffic I was getting…or that I thought I was getting. Clicks directly into a story were not recorded. Once I inserted the code into all of the templates, here’s what happened:
Moral of the story? Paste the Analytics code into your Main Page Template, your Single Post template, and your Page Template for starters. My traffic went from about 25 visits per day to 133 visits on 11/04. But don’t be misled by the sudden spike. It was probably always higher than the 25, but wasn’t being tracked properly.
My next project was to add any plug-ins that would make developing the blog easier…and help me generate traffic, of course. Here is a post that includes 10 WordPress plug-ins that I am currently using. I recommend each one of them.
As far as Google Adsense is concerned, I made $5.07 in just 17 days that I had the blog in October. To date, I’ve already paid for my domain name (I’ve surpassed my October revenue in just 5 days in November). While in your AdSense setup, it is a good idea to use the competitive ad filter to help increase your earnings. This helps eliminate links from MFA sites (Made For AdSense), which pay bid the bare minimum for a keyword on your site.
So, while I’m still learning everyday…if you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to let me have it. I’m like a sponge.
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November 6th, 2006 at 10:59 am
good job on your adsense earnings so far.
I also use google analytics and only inserted it into the main page.. I will add it on every page. maybe im receiving more to than i know…
thanks for the usefull article !!
greetz, Nomar
December 20th, 2006 at 8:23 am
I’m amazed that your site gets so much traffic. Where does your audience find you? I looked around and couldn’t find many incoming links…
I’ve been blogging about six months and have built a loyal following, but nothing like what you’ve done in a much shorter time…
How are you doin’ it?
December 20th, 2006 at 11:21 am
I’ve found that leaving comments on other’s sites helps just about as much as creating a post. I’ve searched for topics I think will appear on my blog…ends up they appear on bigger blogs where I’ve left comments about similar topics. SEO magic? The number of hits I’ve seen from search engines has grown pretty nicely. From that, I can only assume that I’ve attracted repeat visitors. So, on that note, I’m surprised you hadn’t found any return links. Either way, I’m not ignorant enough to say that posting commetns alone is the reason, but I’ve simply tried to mirror my blog (not appearance, but in function) after successful blogs.
January 18th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Are you really getting as many hits as blogtopsites says you’re getting? What are you writing to get 26K hits in just a few days?
January 18th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Usually when I posted videos, I receive the highest amount of traffic. My return visitors percentage has increased to almost 40%. I take it you think what I’m writing doesn’t warrant that type of traffic?
January 18th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but I guess that’s kind of what I was thinking.
Typically the top blogs are single subject. I just haven’t been able to figure out where 26K people could even *find* my blog. (I get less than a hundred visitors a day – but I have a narrow audience.)
January 18th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Well that’s understandable. I tend to post videos weekly…sometimes more. When I do, I post my link on about 5 forums that I frequent. If I’m lucky enough that my “peers” on those forums find them as hilarious as I do, then they in turn post my link on their frequented forums (whether its one or more, I don’t know yet) and I get traffic from that as well. It’s not hard to fathom heavy traffic for a video when each forum brings an average of 200 hits. My 5 forums bring a little better than 2,500 visits (they are larger forums), but I’ve gotten hits from gamer forums (I’m not by any means a gamer) and even ak15.com, which is a forum about firearms. Very odd, but I’ll take the traffic. From that, I’ve accumulated a nice, regular audience.
January 18th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Interesting.
I’ll see if that’s something I can apply in my corner of the world.
Thanks Derrich. Great to learn along with you.
January 19th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Speaking of your corner of the world, any chance you’ll share your blog URL? I’d like to check it out.
January 22nd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Sent my site to your email.
Nice move today on BlogTopSites (190ish to #2!)
January 22nd, 2007 at 7:14 pm
I don’t know if I caught it. Send it again if you don’t mind. Yeah…my server went down yesterday for about 6 or 7 hours, so I droppped all the way to 262 or something like that.