On Taking My Blog To The Next Level

Since attending Book Blogger Convention I have been pondering what taking my blog to the next level means and how I personally define the next level, because we all have our own ideas and benchmarks of success.

Leveling Up

Leveling Up

Stats

I love having something to work towards. I know it’s weird, but for someone who hates math, I sure do love numbers. I like how concrete they are. I like that numbers give me a benchmark.

I feel like stats are a topic that gets people talking. We all really want to improve our stats right? And I am sure we all have different ideas of what is a correct measure. Some of us measure based on followers. Some on RSS subscribers. Some on page views. Some on unique hits.

I know some people are private about their stats and seemingly get offended when asked what their stats are. Personally,  I am wide open about mine. I think the transparency keeps me honest. When I say I get X amount of hits per day, I can back it up with an open sitemeter that anyone can click on and see. However, I did take down the followers widget, because I don’t see that as an accurate measure of stats and for a myriad of other reasons.

Now, why oh why am I prattling on about stats? Well, they are part of what I want to do to take my blog to the next level. Right now, today 6/5/2011 I get an average of 339 unique hits per day according to my sitemeter. Now, this is awesome. This is a benchmark I couldn’t have forseen when I was just barely getting 100 hits. However, I am greedy. Maybe not greedy, but I have a new number to strive towards. In taking my blog to the next level stats wise, I’d like to be at 500 unique hits per day. I use SEO, I network, I write decent reviews. Now, I think I can get to this amount with some killer content, and staying consistent. I feel like the average that I see for blogs with open sitemeters is from 100-300, so you know, this is something possible to work towards. I’ve seen the big bloggers with sitemeters of 1500 hits a day on average. That’s not me or anywhere close, but you know seeing them makes me think, okay 500 isn’t so bad and it’s a reachable benchmark.

Reviews:

Of course on this BOOK REVIEW blog reviews would play a large part in my own personal definition of taking my blog to the next level. Guys, my need to be reviewed queue is pitifully LONG. I have got to make myself more timely about writing reviews.

Also, one of my goals for hitting the next level: Having at least 500 reviews posted here at Good Books And Good Wine. As of today I am at 280 book reviews. Not bad, huh? So that leaves me 220 more to post until I hit that goal. I am thinking I can totally hit that goal by this time next year.

Right now I am satisfied with how I write my reviews, but you know that’s something that I think I constantly improve with the more reviews I write.

Generosity

This was one of the pieces of blogger currency mentioned at the Book Blogger Convention Keynote. I think this is something that I definitely need to work on. I’d like to add a charity component to the readathons I participate in.

I’d like to be kinder to fellow bloggers, especially new bloggers. I’d like to do what I can to promote new blogs. Even if it’s just a mention on twitter of a new blog. FYI if you ever have questions about blogging, feel free to contact me. I can’t promise immediate answers or a quick answer back, but I will reply. I don’t mind using my knowledge to help others.

Speaking of that, part of my plans are to do a weekly link based post featuring awesome content I’ve read during the week, because although I am an awesome blogger, surely I am not enough to sate your appetite and well, there’s a world of fantastic posts out there.

So, that’s my take on me personally taking my blog to the next level.

I do have a few questions for you though.

1. What do you consider to be good stats?

2. What is your measure of stats?

3. How do you personally define the next level for your blog?

4. Do you have any plans on taking your blog to the next level?

 

The following two tabs change content below.
April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.
About April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

Comments

  1. 1. What do you consider to be good stats?

    I think taking your average unique each year and trying to increase it by 15% is a great likely goal.

    2. What is your measure of stats?

    The only stats that matter in any tech sense are unique visitors. That’s how many different people read your stuff. Doesn’t really reach farther if the same 10 people are reading your five new blogs.

    3. How do you personally define the next level for your blog?

    Again 15% growth per year.

    4. Do you have any plans on taking your blog to the next level?

    From here at 1500- 2000 a day unique I have hit my ceiling I think. Now I am looking to write reviews elsewhere professionally. I do that now for the San Francisco Book Review newspaper.

  2. I love the idea of you starting a weekly roundup. YA Highway does one (Field Trip Friday) and it’s my absolute favorite way to start the weekend. It helps me find awesome blog posts I may have missed. Those links focus more on writing and publishing, so I think the content you’ll have here will be different and just what a lot of book bloggers would love to see 🙂 Keep up the good work!

  3. For me taking my blog to the next level will be getting 100 unique visits a day, where I’m currently at about 60.

    Concerning taking down the follower widget and it not being a good marker of how many people are visiting your blog… For publishers that want to see how many visits your blog is getting, what would be a better way to show them this?
    That’s what your site meter is for I guess?

  4. i always wonder about this too. and i feel almost exactly the same way you do.
    I think a good stats is all relative. There isn’t a magic number. I usually take my unique visitor count as the most important stat. If the same person is looking at my post 10 times, it might make my number go up but it’s not really reaching anyone new.
    my stats have steadily been going down. i’m not sure why that is exactly… i’m thinking it has to do with me doing a lot more reviews than discussion type posts. But finding that balance is something i know i struggle with. I mean do people come to my blog for book reviews…? or to discuss bookish things?
    I really want to take my blog to the next level, but i’m at a loss of how to do that.

  5. Hi April! I’ve been book blogging for five months now and I’ve been thinking of ways to take my blog to the next level. How can I increase traffic? How can I help good people find good books to read and enjoy? This post definitely gave me some new things to think about – like site meter! I’ve been relying on the Blogger stats tab to keep an eye on how well I’m doing. I’m seeing slow, yet consistent growth. But maybe this isn’t the best way to track how well I am doing and to formulate new goals? Again, you gave me a lot to think about.
    My next big thing for my blog is a makeover. I’m not too internet savvy with the HTML nor am I much of a graphic artist, but I need to find someone who is so I can give my blog a fresh look that’s me, not a standard Blogger template that other book bloggers use!
    Again, thanks for posting this!
    Grace at Feeding My Book Addiction

  6. I think your blog is fantastic. I enjoy your reviews and I think you have a lot to offer the reading community. I hope that you will continue to see your stats grow but I think your blog is great either way.
    I don’t like to look at my stats. I’d find it a little depressing I think. For me taking my blog to the next level would be about writing better content. I’ve gotten lazy since I started working full time again and I have been struggling with writing my reviews. It sometimes feels like I am back in school with a paper to write and I just stare at the blinking cursor. I’d like to not depend on memes so much (though it is what drives traffic to my blog) and work more on reviews and maybe just writing about books. I’m a librarian so you’d think I’d have something to say…
    Anyway, keep up the excellent work on your blog 🙂

  7. Love your blog! My blog’s almost a year old (end of the month!) and I’m trying to decide where I want to go with it. Since I started it with my students (teens) in mind, I review and talk about YA mainly but I’d like to throw some more stuff in there like book discussions (like an online book club thing) or I wonder if I should have more teen reviews posted (I have teen reviews on Tuesdays, mostly, but wouldn’t mind more).
    So, I guess my “next level” is a more interactive blog, though I haven’t figured out how to get there, beyond commenting and talking to other bloggers.
    Mary @ Book Swarm
    As for stats, it’d be great to have more people visit my blog but I’d really like more interaction and comments from those who already follow.

  8. I have no idea how to do stats. I am not techy at all. I still consider my blog relatively new and am beginning to get comfortable and confident with content.
    My goal for taking my blog to the next level is to learn about the stats and what they all mean and then go from there is a small but steady forward direction.

  9. I really like Pam’s suggestion of a 15% increase annually. I might have to adopt that one. I just installed a visible sitemeter on my blog and it looks so depressing with all of those zeroes.

  10. I had an urge to take my blog to the next level after BEA and BBC – and have been trying to figure out exactly how I want to achieve that. Stats were one thing I was really focusing on as well as reviewing more books 🙂

  11. I love this post. It’s so honest. I’m working on one about growing blogs as well, and am going to have links to others who have written about it — will add this post to the list. It’s interesting because so many bloggers don’t talk about growth (almost like you are selling out if you want to grow/ make $ from your blog). I think it would be so much better if we just started talking about it and helped each other, right?
    I missed the keynote — got there late — but have been very inspired lately to grow my blog so I can start trying to make blogging lucrative.

  12. Currently touching 400 uniques a day after 2 years and 400 posts and a heck of a lot of love and devotion – would like to be at 1000 by year end. My blog is at http://thebuddhasface.blogspot.com/

Trackbacks

  1. […] come up with other bloggers lately as well. Amy wrote a great article that relates to this, as did April. And Pam mentioned the attitude she received recently from a “professional” reviewer. I […]