BLOG STATS: A Quick Review

It's nearing the end of #Blog2012 (just two more days to go after today), and that means it's time to take a look at the stats. What's been a popular read here? How does that compare over time?

If I look at where I am this month in terms of overall numbers, traffic has picked up considerably. My number on this home page shows a 10,000 page view increase over the course of the month. Amazing! But when I look at Google Analytics, there's a 3,000 page view discrepancy to that number. So I don't know what to make of that. Regardless, I'm happy to see the increase. Whether it's 10,000 pages views or just 7,000, that's still at least 2,000 more than what this blog was seeing in April. It's a decent jump in traffic, and to me means: If you blog, they will come.

You just have to post relevant content regularly. Here's why I say that. My stats this month when you break it down by the top five posts:

The post I wrote to be in the running for the SecondAct.com story turned out to be my all-time favorite when it comes to the numbers it attracted in the shortest amount of time. It's not the post with the most sites visits over all, however, but it brought it the most readers this month, and still made the top 5 overall, which you can see from this graph below:

When I look more closely at the posts themselves, these stats tell me a few things about blogging:

_Stick to a central focus or theme.
_Tell your real-life stories and relate them back to your readers.
_Offer thoughtful insights for the reader take-away.
_Link back to other posts from your blog if they can add necessary detail to your current post.
_Keep linking back; readers do click on those links.
_Ask questions at the end of your posts to encourage dialogue.
_Visit other people's blogs so you get to know your fellow bloggers, and they you.

A few things I need to do more of to continue growing the blog and its readership:

_Find and follow other bloggers who write about self development.
_Find and follow other bike blogs that may be interested in self development using a bike.
_Find and follow other bloggers who write about working through transitions.
_Encourage more readers to sign up for the RSS feed and become regular readers.
_Continue blogging regularly and find a schedule that I can stick to for the long term.

One thing I expect to add this year: vlogs (blog posts on video).

Now that you've been blogging for almost 31 days straight, what have you learned about your blog? 

Good news from Google Analytics

On occasion, I check my blog stats for specific information and just learned the link to this post below (dated in May of 2009) is the favorite all-time post. The post,"Crazy is as crazy does," earned the most page views of all of the 400+ posts I've written here at B.I.K.E. WITH JACKIE since 2007. That's good news to get from Google Analytics.

When was the last time you checked your stats for such detail? Why not check them now? Post the link to your blog's all-time favorite post, either here or on your own blog, and let's share comments back and forth to keep the dialogue going--and maybe attract a few new readers.