Learning to blog
I think I am surviving blogging. A couple of days ago marked my blog’s 3 months in existence. Along the way I’ve learned a lot of things about ins and outs of blogging. I also gained some blogging friends who are genuine people like Extreme John of ExtremeJohn.com, Brian of BlogEngage, Karen of Blazing Minds, Nicholas of SiteSketch101 and Kristi of DoFollow to name a few.
The number one thing I’ve learned in blogging is it pays to connect to bloggers. They will give you advice, visit your blog, bring some traffic and best of all they will be your friends. You can start connecting by visiting blogs and leaving a comment yourself. Be genuine with your comment and don’t spam their blogs and soon enough you will see them visiting your blogs too bringing some of their regular visitors in the process.
The 2nd most important thing is update your blog regularly. It doesn’t matter if its daily, every other day or weekly as long as its updated regularly and consistently. If you always post every other day, don’t suddenly change it to weekly because your regular readers are expecting an article every other day. Because most of us are just part time bloggers, twice to three times a week post is acceptable.
Well it’s time for me to show my stats for the whole 3 months. Here are the screen shots.
3 months stats
As you can see, I’m getting 900 unique visitors a month on an average and about 2,700 pageviews a month. About 2/3 of traffic are new visitors which is nice because you I know I get new visitors all the time.
The bounce rate stat is bad. I’ve been meaning to lower it to less than 60 percent but it’s the hardest thing to maintain or manage. I also see high bounce rate from other high traffic blogs so I guess that gives my blog some consolation in some way.
Overall I am pleased with the traffic and the stats but there are a lot of things to improve as my blog ages along the way.
Incoming Traffic
Now its time to show you where all the traffic are coming from. The number one is from direct traffic. These are those who bookmarked my blog or those who type my blog url in their browser.
Close 2nd is from Google which is good. It means people find my blog through Google search results and organic traffic is the most important traffic.
I am surprised that StumbleUpon is up there at third and it’s my top referral traffic.
ExtremeJohn blog comes next at 4th and it’s my number 1 blog referral traffic. So I know that EJ’s visitors comes to visit my blog too.
Nicholas blog also send me some of his visitors and 141 visitors to be exact with Kristi’s DoFollow blog comes close behind. Brian’s BlogEngage also worth mentioning as I get traffic too from his site even though I’m not active there as before.
My Alexa rank traffic has been steadily improving since I first checked it at almost 17 million 2.5 months ago. I got to 1
Alexa Ranking
million mark in about a month then it slowed down. At the moment I’m getting improvements about 3k average per day.
My target is to break the 100k barrier before the year ends. At the current rate, I might do it but it will be very close. Lately I’m not been as active as before so you can see my 7 day and 1 month Alexa average ranking drops.
Some people will say Alexa ranking isn’t important but for us bloggers its our way to see and check how we rank among the other sites on the internet and that alone is important in my opinion.
PageRank
I’m still surprised I got a PR3 even before my blog turn 2 months old. I do not expect to improve it but I sure hope don’t lose anything on the next page rank update. If ever I get to improve it then thats just a bonus for me.
These stats helps my motivation to keep on blogging because there will be many days where you don’t know what to write or what to post and let’s face it we also have our own day jobs, families to attend to, friends to go with and some personal time for ourselves like watching our favorite tv shows or sports.
Well, that’s it for this post and I hope someone, somewhere learned something from my first 3 months experience in blogging.
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First off congrats on the three month mark, a lot of bloggers never even make it that far.
Thank you for the kind mention I really appreciate it and I am happy that you see some traffic from my blog, hopefully it continues to grow.
Extreme John´s last blog ..Extreme Johns $150 Christmas Giveaway
Thank you John. You contributed a lot to it because your blog gives me traffic and you always leave comment here. Thanks again.
ZXT´s last blog ..Go get them Tiger!
Congrats ZXT. I hope I could survive too. Mine is 21+ days old only and I’m running out of “one-time best-time article” for my blog.
Renz´s last blog ..3 Simple Steps to Get Neobux Direct Referrals
Hey Renz, Thansk and keep up the good work on your blog.
ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on YouTube
Ey Zee! Congrats! 3 months… Keep up the good work and keep those babes coming!
sernan´s last blog ..Microsoft Declaring War with Google?
Check my blog every Sunday and you’ll see babes everytime
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Congrats for three month mark. And your page rank sill amaze me because i only get PR 2 with same time.
Thanks Dana, I see you everywhere which means you regularly and consistently leave comments to other blogs. I’m pretty sure it contributes to your blog getting that PR2.
ZXT´s last blog ..My CNN Hero
Congratulations for getting to the 3rd month! And wow, I got nothing but envy for your PR3 ranking. Mine is going on its 8th month and only just got PR1. Man, what secret do you have to get that PR3?
James Moralde´s last blog ..Photo Fun
Hey James nice of you to leave comments here from time to time. Actually I got no secret and I myself was surprised for that PR3. I was expecting 1 or even 0. I think I’m just fortunate to leave backlinks on blogs or websites with PR’s.
Check my article about Alexa and Page if you haven’t read it yet.
ZXT´s last blog ..Go get them Tiger!
Congratulations on your 3 months, I can’t remember that far back for my blog, mind you I can’t remember what happened last week
But it is great to see that your blog is going from strength to strength here’s to the next 3 months 
Karen @ Blazing Minds´s last blog ..Latest Blogger Interview with Ileane from Ms. Ileane Speaks
Thank you Karen. I’m sure hope mentioning my blog in your Blazing Mind blog helped me reach this stats.
ZXT´s last blog ..Go get them Tiger!
Hey Z! Nice to see things are working out for you. 3 months is a great accomplishment. Perhaps it’s time to start looking at a new more organized theme to bring your blog to the next level. Who know it could make the world of difference.
I have great suggestion if you need some.
Let me know!
bbrian017´s last blog ..Generate Profits Using Text Link Ads
Brian nice to see you visiting my blog. BlogEngage has been a big help to me and formy blog so many thanks to you. So what do you should I do for my theme? What theme do you suggest?
ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on YouTube
For starters and to save money I would suggest using Nick from Elegant Themes. I just wrote an articel about them on my social blog. Check out my comment luv!
bbrian017´s last blog ..Want a professional but cheap wordpress theme
Congratulations to you — what an accomplishment! I’ve been blogging for a bit more than a month, and I’m still trying to get my arms around what I need to do to improve my pagerank (0), traffic, and bounce rate. Kudos to you!
Pam Dyer´s last blog ..Ford Sets Record for Biggest Tweetup Ever
Hi Pam, thank you for leaving a comment here. Check my article about PageRank and Alexa facts, you might pick up a thing or two. Also see this 5 proven tips for improving Alexa ranking.
ZXT´s last blog ..My CNN Hero
Wow! I am fully impressed! After just three months. I would love those numbers from google, but get nothing so I must be doing something wrong.
I wouldn’t say you are doing something wrong. Maybe you just don’t maximize your resources. For one thing, you put your wrong url http://www.yourpetstorewithblog.com/ here. I had to search for your blog to see the right url http://yourpetstoreblog.com/
ZXT´s last blog ..Go get them Tiger!
Aww Thanks for going through the trouble and letting me know. I really appreciate it!!!
Angela´s last blog ..Engage Your Blog
No problem. I decided to visit your blog then I got a 404 error so I decided to search for it and I had to make sure its you on the About Me page.
ZXT´s last blog ..What’s Hot on YouTube
Thats great that you have full command of all the stats and can see the direction and growth in a short time. I try to focus on the content and not over-obsess on the numbers but of course that is the fun part. Thanks for the theme suggestion bbrian017.
This is awesome; I have been blogging for about 4 month and am nowhere near your statistical success. However I have met some of the same folks you have listed and have found them to be genuine and friendly too.
I look forward to reading more of your post and getting to know your blog a little bit better.
Keep up the great work.
Ms. Freeman@ Baby Steps of an Internet Entrepreneur´s last blog ..Google Wave Invitations Giveaway Drawing
Thank you Ms. Freeman. I’m still learning what to blog but I usually I blog what I have in mind and what I stumble in my everyday life. BTW, you have a nice blog too with lots comments at the same time.
ZXT´s last blog ..Go get them Tiger!
Oh this is very good. Nice progress. I am using this wp theme as well, it is very plain but I think it can be customized pretty easily, maybe a little more color helps.
hotels nicaragua´s last blog ..Latin Latitudes Bed and Breakfast
Yes it is plain. I still haven’t find the time yet to customize it again. I was thinking of changing the background color a bit. Thank you for the visit.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Well done! Connecting with other bloggers really does pay-off! Extreme John linked out to my site in one of his posts and I must say he’s been in my referring traffic a few times a day since.
I look forward to seeing the development of your blog in the coming months (maybe when you write a six month milestone post)
Regards,
Karl
Karl Foxley@Derby SEO Company´s last blog ..The Really Sneaky CommentLuv Trick For Better Blog Marketing And Promotion!
Thank you Karl. Connecting with bloggers is priceless. You’ll gain regular visitors that will leave comments to your articles. An article with lots of comments attract more comments plus your article gain some reputation in the process.
ZXT´s last blog ..Go get them Tiger!
You have a very good stats for a 3 months old blog. Mine is five months and it is still way back, but I’m learning.
I’m pretty sure your blog will still improve Walter. Thanks for your comment.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Those are some pretty impressive stats especially for a 3 month old blog. Congrats on such great success and thanks for sharing your detailed stats with us
All the best,
Eren
Eren@ Embracing Blogging´s last blog ..Follow me on twitter buttons
Thank you Eren for the kind words.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Congrats. Keep it up up up.
Jayce´s last blog ..Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2009 Photo & Video
Thank you Jayce.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Hi, You have a Great Blog, I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep it up.