How My Blog Went From 5 Views A Day To 1,000 Overnight

[PatprecisionE]

I had something interesting happen on my blog the other day. This is my personal blog, not a business one, but I think the takeaways are still relevant.

I like to write about music, movies, comic books etc. pretty much anything that interests me. To celebrate the start of June, I put together a list of trivia and fun facts about some of the greatest albums released in June. The article took less than an hour to write and post. I shared it once on StumbleUpon, then went to bed.

Well to my surprise, the post had received well over 1,500 views in one day! This is coming from a website that would get maybe 5 or fewer views a day.
Now granted, this was a post focused on a general topic like music, but what can we learn from this that we can apply to our business blogs?

1. Be Timely: A post that celebrates great albums released in June, that is posted on June 1st, certainly helps in grabbing people's attention. Try to write posts that relate to an upcoming event or holiday.
2. Did You Know...: We see it all the time on sites like Buzzfeed and Cracked. People love to learn something while they are entertained. While you might not think you have an interesting product or service, there may be some interesting history that a potential customer would like to read about.
3. Share Your Posts: All I did was share my post once on StumbleUpon, but you need to be sharing your content through as many networks as possible.

What other takeaways can be gleaned from this experience?

[Ulriikkasmith]

Well first of all congratulations for your blog's success. I would say that the content on your website would have been genuine and of good quality to draw that kind of attention. So same thing goes for the business blogs as well..you can easily apply the same things to your business blogs as well.

[angieincolor]

That's pretty cool. Like you said, people love to learn new things while being entertained. I've noticed that doing "quick lists" types of posts attract a good amount of people, especially if you put a number in the title (ie. 5 Albums You Won't Stop Listening to This Summer).

I'm dying to add a blog portion to my online store which will probably feature fashion and cutesy stuff, but I am short on cash. Hopefully soon. I realize blogs are almost essential to business (which is why big companies reach out to bloggers for advertising!).

[PatprecisionE]

Originally Posted by angieincolor

I'm dying to add a blog portion to my online store which will probably feature fashion and cutesy stuff, but I am short on cash. Hopefully soon. I realize blogs are almost essential to business (which is why big companies reach out to bloggers for advertising!).

Plus as an added bonus, if your website is being consistently updated with fresh blog content, it will look good to search engines.

[PatprecisionE]

Originally Posted by Ulriikkasmith

Well first of all congratulations for your blog's success. I would say that the content on your website would have been genuine and of good quality to draw that kind of attention. So same thing goes for the business blogs as well..you can easily apply the same things to your business blogs as well.

Thanks, although it is somewhat disheartening as I put this list together very quickly, and it didn't require much thought. Unlike other posts that I put much more effort into and felt more passionately about. I suppose I'm splitting hairs as it's good that anyone's reading at all.

Also keep in mind, that the traffic is already starting to dip back down to its normal levels. I just wanted to share this on the forum so that maybe we could figure out why it was so popular, than we could use that info for future content.

[steve henderson]

congratulation on your success. The "do you know" idea is great. Definitely gonna try that one .
Happy blogging

[BeBizsmart]

Great post,the tips-excellent.Couldn't agree with you more.Sometimes it just happens that the posts you don't put too much time and effort in are the ones that get all the traffic.I can attest to this,having blogged for several years now.

In addition to the few tips,another great way visitors will click on your links is including several 'How to's'...it's always good to give people something worthy of reading though,not just to bring in the traffic.As much as you will be adding value to the global community,this will ensure visitors keep coming back-if you have something to offer,something of value,something that's of benefit to them.

Don't worry about the decrease in traffic after the big party.At least it opened your eye and I'm sure you've learned something from the one-off experience.

Thanks for sharing.

[PatprecisionE]

Originally Posted by BeBizsmart

In addition to the few tips,another great way visitors will click on your links is including several 'How to's'...it's always good to give people something worthy of reading though,not just to bring in the traffic.

How tos is a great idea! But yeah, as the cliche goes, it's all about quality content.

[lucytrueman]

Originally Posted by PatprecisionE

I had something interesting happen on my blog the other day. This is my personal blog, not a business one, but I think the takeaways are still relevant.

I like to write about music, movies, comic books etc. pretty much anything that interests me. To celebrate the start of June, I put together a list of trivia and fun facts about some of the greatest albums released in June. The article took less than an hour to write and post. I shared it once on StumbleUpon, then went to bed.

Well to my surprise, the post had received well over 1,500 views in one day! This is coming from a website that would get maybe 5 or fewer views a day.
Now granted, this was a post focused on a general topic like music, but what can we learn from this that we can apply to our business blogs?

1. Be Timely: A post that celebrates great albums released in June, that is posted on June 1st, certainly helps in grabbing people's attention. Try to write posts that relate to an upcoming event or holiday.
2. Did You Know...: We see it all the time on sites like Buzzfeed and Cracked. People love to learn something while they are entertained. While you might not think you have an interesting product or service, there may be some interesting history that a potential customer would like to read about.
3. Share Your Posts: All I did was share my post once on StumbleUpon, but you need to be sharing your content through as many networks as possible.

What other takeaways can be gleaned from this experience?

GREAT!!!

You have given us a good idea. This is true that people like stats and some true & interesting facts to know.

You are gonna be a good blogger. Keep it up.

[jgbreeden]

Can you share some analytics? Did most of that come from search or referrals?