September In Retrospect
September may have seen a small dip in traffic and the lowest amount of posts since February, but things continue to look up. September marked the end of summer and beginning of summer for many around the world, including me, so the time I had to write was dissipating and being used for client work.
I’ve been one to say that there is no excuse for not being able to find half an hour a day to write something, and with a job or going to school it shouldn’t be that hard. I found that time increasingly harder to locate throughout September, not because of work load, but more of an extra curricular way. It may come as a shock to you that someone can sit on a computer all day and still play sports competitively 
September’s Stats
- 2359 Unique Visitors (slightly down from 2669)
- 6237 Page Views (down from 6893)
- 115 Readers by RSS on average (up from 102)
That makes for about 79 visits a day at 2.6 pages per visit. This seems low, not because of the lack of posting I think, but because the “slow days” were very slow. Weekends tend to see dips in traffic, but there were days where this would happen in the middle of the week. Admittedly, they usually happen on days where I didn’t post, but those days usually see normal traffic.
September’s Highlights
As I said, September saw 22 posts, some of which sparked some great discussion and I felt were generally well done (self pat on the back).
- This is your website in IE poster. This was just meant to be a fun poke at IE, but at the same time reaffirmed what some of my readers think about the whole browser situation, and that’s for me to get over it. I’m a web designer, it’s impossible, sorry.
- On the road to Java, which details that I’m beginning to learn Java. The proper way also, as it’s a class for me everyday. It’s been a couple weeks, and the class is aimed at absolute beginner programmers, so it’s needless to say I’ve pushed a little ahead. I researched how to use arrays and a for loop for a simple program that by experience I knew called for that, not just tons of variables, which was surprising to the teacher.
- The Real Basics of SEO (according to me) was an in depth SEO article outlining several points for bloggers with no assumed experience can understand. This even got some StumbleUpon attention, thanks to those that bookmarked it!
- The article “UBD Takes over the Make Money Online Niche” was relatively short article that got my opinion on the situation across as I wanted, but to my surprise it started a great discussion, with highlights from both Ben Bleikamp and Nate Whitehill who were responsible for the respective designs in question.
Now It’s October
October has come, and while my schedule is anything but changing, my goals will change.
- From the first week or so of October, I think 3000 visits over the month is a very reasonable goal.
- 9000 pageviews seems high to aim for, but 3 pages per visit is my goal.
- Instead of trying to post everyday, I’m just going to relax and write when I can. If I have enough time I’ll write multiple posts and plan them out through the future.
- The new design will be out this month.
- September saw a high of 142 readers (Outlook 2007 had a nice inflation) and my goal for) October is to get back there.
I pretty much failed all my goals for September that I set except for the RSS reader one (not a lofty goal though) so for October the traffic goals are similar, but much more in reach. Only time will tell, however, so see you next month!
Leave a comment
Mike
October 6th, 2007 at 2:40 PM
Looking forward to see the new design! Posting every day isnt as easy as it looks. When you say outlook inflation what exactly do you mean?
Henry
October 6th, 2007 at 2:53 PM
:O you missed out the most important fact about october ‘07, OS X Leopard!
I can’t wait to see the new skin and i agree 1 post a day isn’t needed.
Adam
October 6th, 2007 at 11:53 PM
Nice stats… It’s hard with school to keep a regular posting schedule. Things pop up, assignments need to be done. Thats why my stats were done.
I moved my blog to http://thecompzone.com so hopefully I’ll start posting more regularly and make a name for it. I can’t wait for the new design.
Marky
October 7th, 2007 at 4:49 PM
A new design? I can’t wait for it. A post a day isnt neccessary. Its the quality of the posts not the quantity.
vincent
October 8th, 2007 at 2:32 AM
I’m always amazed when I see those great stats from Blog owners.
Acopic Web Design
October 8th, 2007 at 6:48 AM
Congrats on the stats and keep up the good work. Don’t worry about fewer posts - as Marky points out - it’s the quality not the quantity…
Rob Schultz
October 8th, 2007 at 8:46 AM
I, as well as everyone else, am looking forward to the redesign. I’m always curious to see how people evolve their designs.
I agree with the others in terms of quality…to a point. You can write the best damn article ever, but if your not heard, it doesn’t matter. This is where I think posting frequently helps. Each post helps with that long-tail and brings more traffic to your site. As a result, that amazing post gets found and recognized for what it is.
Keep up the good work. Looking forward to more!
Adam M
October 9th, 2007 at 3:33 PM
I’d have to agree with Rob, while the quality of your post keeps the visitors the frequency of your posting brings them in.
I’ve been posting two posts per day on my blog (re-posting) and the number of visitors and rss subscribers is higher than ever.
vincent
October 10th, 2007 at 3:07 AM
I cannot wait until the results of October.
Nathan
October 10th, 2007 at 7:08 AM
Do you *do* guest posts? That might be a way to get some readers to your site. You’re welcome to blog on my blog, but that’s not attractive cos I don’t have the sort of traffic that interests you.. But maybe you would get some more traffic by posting on other people’s blogs. I would definately go to another blog to read your posts anyway.
vincent
October 10th, 2007 at 9:38 AM
Connor, I would like to start a personal blog and my aim is to target as much people as on your blog. Is it possible to know for the month of september what was your bandwidth usage? This is to know which hosting is best for a blog.
Razor
October 10th, 2007 at 2:22 PM
he uses dreamhost so you can find the bandwidth allowance from their site.
http://www.dreamhost.com
Connor Wilson
October 10th, 2007 at 7:05 PM
I use about a gig a month. Nothing huge, but have at least 10GB, I’d say. I have like 5 TB though, which I’ll a) never user, b) never be allowed to use anyways.
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