Social media also hasn’t helped much since I barely have any followers there, too, so it’s like I’m tweeting to no one but myself. Maybe I’m overreacting, but it’s frustrating not seeing any progress come out of dedication. I don’t mean to complain.

I think maybe the fashion blogging world should start forming “networks” like they do on tumblr that showcase a group of similar, or just great, blogs on one site. check this http://thejewelnetwork.tumblr.com for an example.

-Sarah

Given me a great idea 😉

http://beaufashionbygemma.blogspot.co.uk/

xx

Hi there,

Actually, #3 is vital to growing traffic. Every day we go over our traffic, even track it by the hour, to understand when peak times are for posting and how to best leverage content, and when to give extra pushes if it’s a slow day.

Since February our site has grown over 400%… well into the seven figures. This has been done by building strategies and tracking what works and what doesn’t work. So yes, I would heavily advise bloggers to check in daily where their traffic is coming from.

There are certain aspects to the blogging world that are simply over-run by local and world events. For example, NYC fashion bloggers can fully expect a massive dip in stats on Friday, Saturday and Sunday since most people aren’t in the offices. Likewise, you’ll see drops when there are major world events happening, such as Bid Laden getting killed or the Olympics, those have a far greater reach than just about any blog. These day-to-day happenings will have an affect on your blog and traffic, that’s just a fact. Looking at a 90 day capture and comparing that with the previous year’s quarter, or the previous 90 days will get you a better idea of how your traffic is growing.

More important than page views, and often over-looked by new bloggers is bounce rate. Achieving a bounce rate sub 55% should be a goal of bloggers, sadly most don’t even know what a bounce rate is. The next important goal should be conversions. Whether that’s clicks on ad space, sign-ups for email notifications or RSS subscribers, finding a baseline and then expanding on that is key to growing repeat visitors. Lastly, increasing organic traffic (via search engines / SEO) will ultimately help grow numbers across the board. Sure your site’s Facebook might have 5k fans, the new FB algorithm only delivers your updates to about one quarter of those fans, and you can’t sustain a site’s traffic on that alone. Having organic traffic, and consistently growing that is key.

Number 4 also doesn’t make sense. There’s virtually no reason to write down or keep spreadsheets of successfully written or poorly written posts. all that information is available via Google Analytics. Learning to utilize the tools that are probably already running on your site will give you a better insight to your traffic. Heck, they even built a “goals” functionality into their software! Oh yea, it’s free too.

louloudaniels@blogspot.co.uk xx