Time for the first full monthly update on the 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge!
Let me first preface these numbers before I begin: This site was launched on June 18, 2009 – so be gentle with me on the actual traffic volumes, ok? 
The “newness” of this site is part of what makes it a good test for something like this – results can be directly attributed to current actions versus flow-through from prior efforts.
So here goes…
This graph shows the number of unique visitors to the site for the month immediately prior to starting the challenge: (If these graphs are difficult to see – the results are written out and explained below).
Here is what happened in September:
Not bad. Number of unique visitors in September was up 2.33 times over August (725 vs. 311) and total number of visits increased from 2.15 visits/visitor to 3.12. Total number of page views per visit did drop significantly from 9.01 to 5.41. I’m not sure exactly why this was – but the average time on site remained pretty consistent (7:16 minutes in August to 7:10 minutes in September) – so I am not overly worried about it.
More visitors returning more often and staying about as long is a good start. However, I am far from patting myself on the back and shouting Woo Hoo! I understand these are very small numbers and it is much easier to double a small number than a larger one – but am pretty happy with where things are heading overall…
The other stat I would like to cover is back links, although I find the reporting on them spotty, at best. Google just depresses me (they only show “4″). Yahoo is much better (54) BUT they include internal linking (where I linked pages within the site vs. from outside sources). For some reason, when I do a site: domain.com search on Yahoo – it doesn’t give me the option to filter out internal links. Not sure why.
So, I used an external back link checker (www.backlinkwatch.com) – they show 49 back links for WebCopyResults.com, with 9 of them being “no follow.” I don’t have a screen shot from the beginning of this challenge, but the number of back links was 18 at that point.
The three things working best so far in this challenge:
- Daily Blogging
- Social Media (especially Twitter!)
- Commenting on other blogs and forums
In my opinion, the last two are probably most important. Judging from where traffic is coming into the site, the value of these two activities is significant. In fact, I would be remiss if I didn’t send a special “thank you” to Lynn Terry and the group at the Self-Starters Weekly Tips forum. The encouragement and advice I’ve received from that group has been great- so thank you!
Opportunities for improvement include guest blogging and the weekly eNewsletter. I made the mistake of switching providers mid-stream (am glad I switched to aWeber, but should have done it before the 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge began). Live and learn. The good news is that is resolved and will be on track for the remainder of the challenge.
The BEST part so far has been the built-in accountability – and the fact that this exercise has challenged me to work at this a little every day. I’m excited to see how things progress from here!
How about you? How is your own Content Marketing publishing schedule working out? Leave a comment below and let us know!
Til Next Time,
PS If you happen to create your content right in your admin panel (if using WordPress) – be sure to save your work frequently. I lost almost 100% of this post this morning for some unknown reason and had to start over. Frustrating and easily avoidable. Have a great weekend!
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Hi Trish,
Great results!! More than doubling your unique visitors in ONE month is nothing to sneeze at
One tip about backlinks, go to Yahoo.com and type this into the search bar:
link:http://www.webcopyresults.com
That will take you to Yahoo Site Explorer where you can look at all backlinks, remove internal links, etc. Here is a direct link for your site:
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/search?p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.webcopyresults.com&bwm=i&bwmf=u&bwms=p&fr=yfp-t-701&fr2=seo-rd-se
I am seeing a total of 95 backlinks, with 49 from external domains (ie not yours). Oh – and Google never shows accurate backlink numbers. They do that on purpose. So always use Yahoo Site Explorer or your other backlink tool.
I look forward to the next update!
Thank you, Lynn! I really appreciate your feedback on this.
Also, thanks for the heads up on using Yahoo to check back links – I wasn’t entering it correctly, but am glad to see the back links they report mirror what I found from the other site.
I knew Google’s would be lower – but still bummed me out to see how much lower!
Thanks again for the great feedback!
For the next 90 days, Im going to think about, sketch, draw, and prototype ideas about mobile design and post them here.
Oh wow Trish, I think you’re doing great. So pleased to see all your stats. Keep up the great work.
As for my content publishing schedule, I won’t go there HA! You’ll see in the SSWT elite private forum what’s going on with me. I’m thinking my Oct. 11th goal of my 1st ezine articles article submission will not be on target but who knows.
Anyway, I just wanted to tell you again how much I have learned from reading your blog. You make everything so easy to understand and I appreciate that.
Thanks for the comment Angie – I really appreciate it!
I understand where you are coming from re: your own content publishing schedule. Sometimes a step back offers a better perspective on things and can breathe fresh life into whatever you decide to do next.
“The three things working best so far in this challenge:Daily Blogging”
This may seem to be a silly question Trish, but how do you blog daily?
What I mean is how do you decide what to blog on? Do you plan in advance and then follow your plan?
Hi Alex – not a silly question at all!
When I first made the decision to blog daily – I was overwhelmed by the idea of creating informative and relevant content every day. At first, I sat down every morning to create each post (and more than once had to stare down a blank screen before the words would start flowing!
)
However, once I got in the habit – ideas seemed to be everywhere I looked. A couple things that really helped me start capturing those ideas were:
1.) Creating a master list of all topics I want to cover on this site (i.e., article marketing, online press releases, content creation ideas, etc…). This REALLY helps me stay focused – I’m not trying to be an “online marketing expert” (I’m not) – I am a writer with a more than 15 years of outside sales experience in the offline world – I understand SEO content creation/utilization and sales/marketing and I want to stay focused on that.:)
2.) Keeping a hard copy of this list post right beside my computer for inspiration throughout the day.
3.) Starting an “article idea” folder in my email in box AND on my hard drive.
4.) Writing in a plain old spiral bound notebook that I can carry with me. I’m kind of old-school with that and have about a dozen of these things lying around – but try to keep just one nearby where I record every (ok, not every!) random thought I have that can be applied to the site.
Since I started making a conscious effort to capture ideas when they hit – I’ve had a much easier time with coming up with daily posts. This also helped me start “thinking in series” – sometimes one piece of inspiration can translate into a series of 3 – 5 posts.
Hope that helps!
Wow! Great inspiration for those of us just starting out! I am glad to see what is working for you can also work for me!
GREAT JOB!
Deirdre J
Hi Deirdre –
Two things this experiment has taught me is that 1.) it gets easier to come up with ideas/create content the more you actually do it (go figure, right?
) and 2.) seeing your traffic increase – even by a little bit – is really motivating!
Thanks for commenting!
Wow – those are some awesome results. It shows that you just need to do a little every day and be consistent. The traffic will come.
Thanks
Jose
Thank you, Jose
Consistency has been key for me. Writing and adding to what I am doing every single day is really starting to add up.
Look at it this way – 1 page or blog post a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year = 250 pages of fresh content added to your online real estate during time that is going to pass anyway. Optimize those pages for search engines (in addition to being great informative stand-alone content) – and you will build something worthwhile before you know it.
Trish:
Nice job getting your numbers moving in the right direction. Has the increased traffic translated into paying clients?
Mark
Hi Mark
Great question!
The answer is “yes” – I have gotten new paid writing projects as a result of this project.
I rarely, if ever, talk about my writing services here (or heavily promote them anyway). This is mainly because my blog and article topics are slanted more towards the “DIY SEO” crowd – (I really enjoy that interaction with fellow entrepreneurs) – rather than towards those who want to turn over their SEO work to an outside firm.
Also, I am not actively marketing for new writing clients at the moment, as my plate is as full as I can personally handle.
(My strength is in face-to-face sales and networking – but I do find the blog beneficial in that regard as well (as a reference point)).
Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Trish, I am so glad your site is doing so well. This is very exciting. The challenges that Lynn Terry has for us to do keeps me very motivated. Good luck with your site. looks like you have it going in the right direction.
Gail
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