October 6, 2007

How I Tripled My Traffic in Less than an Hour

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:53 am

Watch Yourself!

“GET” STICKY!

Do you watch how you do things? Do you ask other folks whether they go about things the same way? When you find the places that they do things the same way, it could be that you’ve found something that most people do.

It was by paying that kind of attention that I tripled the traffic on my writing blog in less than an hour. No kidding! It had a similar effect here — traffic nearly doubled.

What I Watched: How do I use blog archives on other blogs — in a certain way or a certain order?

What I Found:

  • It depends. Often I browse archives from old to new — ideas build on each other over time. Other times I read for certain topics.
  • Folks I know do the same things in pretty much the same way. I found out through informal conversations. A blog post could have gotten the same information. When the issue is small, I use what I already know.
  • I devised a way to organize my archives to meet all of those needs — I made sure that besides the date archives, folks could access a list of Popular Posts and find posts that were part of a series. It took less than an hour. (I did this first on my writing blog — See the sidebar. Then I did it here — See the Popular Posts and Successful Series pages.)

The day I did that my pageviews were three times higher.

Ever made a small change that had that kind of impact?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
I make business sticky. Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar. Call me.

Related:
See the Customer Think Series on the Successful Series page.

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7 Comments to “How I Tripled My Traffic in Less than an Hour”

  1. October 6th, 2007 at 9:17 am
    Karin H. said

    Hi Liz

    Had a kind of same experience yesterday (nothing to do with blogs though). I’m ‘testing’ an autoresponder software program, which also enables me to send my monthly newsletter more ‘automagically’ than I can now. Only thing is, my newsletter readers have to re-register their subscription. I like small tests, so to a small group of my readers I mailed an extra short newsletter: explaining times are changing and would they be so kind to go to this and that page of our website to subscribe. 5% result.
    Then I found a way to make it simpler for them: sending a “Confirm subscription” email to another small test group. Only thing they had to do was click the confirmation link in the email and presto: re-registered.
    Result: 25% so far.

    Shortening the decision cycle comes to mind - plus keeping things simple of course ;-)

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  2. October 6th, 2007 at 9:41 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    Wow! Thanks for the report on your experience! What a great test! Proof again that we can’t do enough to make life easier for the folks we serve. :)

  3. October 6th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
    Katie Baird said

    Liz asks if a small change ever had a huge impac.

    Uh, yes, but mine was completely accidental.

    I was incensed when the author of a particular best selling book was found to be a fraud and I was watching Oprah live the moment it was all revealed.

    Strange, since I have only watched that show about 4 times in my long life…

    I wrote a rant about it right then to try to get it off my chest, not being a serious blogger yet at that time but WOW did I get a ton of traffic that day. Probably 10x the usual, if not more.

    Now, that was a rant, so not a constructive use of blogging, but the point is that accidental changes can sometime evoke amazing responses, whether constructive or not.

  4. October 6th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Katie!
    It seems you found out that timing, passion, and talking about what readers care about makes an incredible difference. Wow!

    I bet some of those readers are still with you. :)

  5. October 6th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
    How I Tripled My Traffic in Less than an Hour said

    [...] that they do things the same way, it could be that you’ve found something that most people do.read more | digg story October 6th, [...]

  6. October 6th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
    Steven Snell said

    That’s really interesting. I think it’s always a good idea to try to put yourself in the shoes of your readers and see what they will want.

  7. October 6th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Steven!
    Welcome! Great to see you!
    I always try to keep an eye on what I’m doing to see whether it’s something that everyone does (not usually). When I find one, I looke to see if there’s a need hidden inside what we do. :)

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