In 2.5 years of blogging I never publically shared any of traffic statistics. It isn’t because I was embarrassed but because to be honest I never thought anyone would care, but how am I going to hold myself accountable if I don’t put it out there? Since so few bloggers share these numbers I don’t know if they are good or bad. If you have published a similar post let me know and I’ll add it to the post. Unless otherwise stated, all traffic statistics are taken from Google Analytics.
I am willing to put anything out there in this post so if you have questions ask them!
Key Metrics of My Journey to Millions as a Website
My Journey to Millions has a Page Rank of 3 and a Moz Ranking of 5.02 (Check out A Definition of Moz Ranking and why Moz maybe more important). Currently, I am ranking #14 in the Yakezie Challenge of the Best Personal Finance Blogs. My Journey to Millions also has an Alexa Ranking of around 88,000 (was as low as 70,000 earlier this year). My Journey to Millions has a bit over 300 Feed Subscribers and over 620 Twitter Friends. I am most proud of the the Yakezie challenge position, feed number and twitter number.
Traffic on My Journey to Millions Year to Date
From January 1, 2010 until December 16, 2010 My Journey to Millions has had:
- 98,557 Visits
- 144,123 Page Views
- 62.88% of my traffic comes from Search Engines
- 24.35% of my Traffic comes from Referring sites (Thanks Guys!)
- 10.64% of my traffic comes from direct traffic
- 2.13% comes from other
If we were to break down these numbers to monthly averages (11.5 months since I am 2 weeks from the end of the year):
- 8,500 Visits Per Month
- 12,532 Page Views per Month
As soon as I get excited that I might surpass 100K visitors this year I think about all those massive personal finance blogs that probably do that in a month! I have no clue what my goals should be so my plan is just to keep working along fixing things I have done in the past and learning from mistakes. To just say I want my traffic to increase x% seems disingenuous and fake without a plan. I thought I would kill the traffic numbers working with a mentor but it didn’t work out for either of us.
So while I don’t have specific goals like I do for my personal finances (2011 version to be written in a couples weeks) I do know that running this site and writing for it, is my hobby (regardless of whether it is an unhealthy hobby).
Some Recent Blog Statistics I Have Come Across:
- Budgeting in The Fun Stuff
Not bad! I have a lot of work to do to just get to where you are. Remember that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. 😉
I am completely envious of your interaction with people and your comment count!
Yep, it’s really one of the things that keeps me going! You have some pretty decent participation here, too.
P.S. Since you installed Conditional Captcha, it’s become much easier for me to participate here as well. 🙂
Nice stats. Looks like you should be on target with 100K visitors next year, just keep up the good work and don’t focus too much on Alexa rankings.
I should actually hit 100K by the end of the year!
Way to hit the 300 mark! And those are awesome stats, congrats!
I like how you’re not setting goals. I don’t know how I would work hard to improve certain numbers and I think my time is better spent writing quality content.
Also, you’re right around 100,000. About how many times have you checked your own statistics? Is it close? So addictive!
I check my stats WAY TOO OFTEN! WAY TOO MUCH!
I am so jealous right now, lol. I hope to be where you are by the end of next year. Thanks for including my blog stats link!
Jealous?! You are crazy. I just checked and despite being around 2.5 years…most of my TOTAL traffic was this year. By the end of next year you will have destroyed me.
and no, Thank You for that post it inspired this post.
I started using Google Analytics on Sept 30th of this year, and I have 4,220 visits since then, with 10,603 Pageviews.
I’m 67.27% from referring sites, 25.36% direct traffic, and only 7.37% search engine.
However, search engine is going up. I’ve had 19.1% of my traffic from a search engine this month!
Those numbers are freaking fantastic! Great job.
Search engine numbers is where you make your google adsense money. Do you use All in One Seo?
Yeah, I use All in One SEO. I think the reason search engine has been so low is because my site is just so freaking new. I only launched it about four months ago, so as I keep adding content and getting links, I think my search engine stuff will grow (as I’ve already seen in December).
Wow you only launched 4 months ago and you have those numbers? That is fantastic Kevin!
Just awesome! I couldn’t help laughing at the picture considering the context!
Just noticed that… haha, wtf!
you’ve got some nice numbers up there Evan, keep it up and things will only improve!
Thanks BTI!
Great stat! I need to get my search engine traffic up. I’ll try all in one SEO this weekend.
Hands down best thing you can do this weekend is read and apply just 10% of what is in this:
https://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/
I find new stuff to implement EVERY time I re-read it.
Sorry wrong link check this out:
https://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/
Thanks for the correct link! I was looking through the first page this morning and was thinking – is Evan telling me to install this plugin? 🙂
Great job! Keep up the great work and striving for those awesome numbers.
Thanks a lot Briana!
Congrats, sounds like you had a great year1 Trending up or flat? And are you seeing monetization improvements with time as well? combo of increasing traffic and getting better at making money is a nice combo!
Traffic is slowly month by month going up – as important my monetization is going up at a faster rate!
Good work, Evan! Those seem like pretty good stats.
My blog is at now about 3,000 visits per month now, after getting started in March. December has been a bit slow, so I’m going on averages from the prior few months – which were ramping up.
Anyway, seems like you’ve done well this year. Congrats on your success.
BTW, that’s a damn funny picture and captions.
Thanks for the compliments! 3,000 visitors in the first 9 months is FANTASTIC!
Great stats!
It’ll be pretty cool once you hit 100,000! Are you going to celebrate?
Hopefully next year will be a banner year for us all 🙂
No hope about it! It will be.
Its inevitable that I’ll 100K visitors in the next few days and will hit over 150K page views. No plans to celebrate though…I am thinking kegs and strippers you down?
I know a guy that leaves the wife and kids and goes to Vegas every year with a group of other friends… She has no idea what they do, but I hear the stories!
So think about creating a 100K / year club, and Vegas could be the yearly meeting location.
Hey, wait, how close is your wife’s site to that 100k marker? Maybe that wouldn’t work out after all (lol)
That’s extremely interesting. I didn’t figure out how to get Analytics to work until halfway thru’ July, so it thinks FaM had 0 visitors the first half of 2010.
Yours are certainly better than mine, tho’ last summer my stats were comparable to what you’re reporting. They began to trend down after the fall semester started & there was less time to work at blogging.
Less time? You write at least triple! WOW
@ Evan: Over the summer, I really pushed SEO as hard as I could, given my limited tech understanding. Also, I joined Yakezie, which led to untold numbers of hours reading members’ posts and including them in round-ups. Round-ups are very time-consuming, and with class in session I just haven’t been able to do that. Plus I never did figure out how to get into the Yakezie members’ blog, so by default I seem to have dropped off that group’s roll.
Evan, your numbers look great! Especially to me seeing that my site is less than a year old!
Khaleef you have some real steam and a ridiculous passion – you will dwarf my stats within a couple months I can guarantee it!
And that is in DESPITE of being from Dirty Jerz
Thanks Evan! You know, being from Jersey gives me A LOT to write about!
Wow, look at all this discussion! Guess a lot of people are curious!
Can you tell me why I’m not curious in my blog’s stats and others though? All I see are numbers.
I think I have ~60,000 page views a month since I last checked 6 months ago with. Donno.
Maybe you don’t care because you are really confident in your blog’s reach?
Don’t think that’s the case. I know I should do more guest posting on bigger sites and such (so should everyone if they want to increase their audience), but I’ve been very focused on building the Yakezie.com infrastructure and process. Someone has to do it.
I have been focused on networking outside of just the PF space though. My time frame is 2017 believe it or not. I will start caring about my stats then, but not now.
Sam
Sounds like you have a huge master plan… but how come you know if you are getting closer to it if you don’t measure your efforts?
I think you should look at your stats at least once a month, thoughts?
I guess I’m just happy with the alexa toolbar, the amount of comments I get, and what I see around the sphere.
If It was up to me, I’d check once a year.
Also, I know there is progress b/c of the income that’s rolling in. If I cared mainly about income, then I’ve already passed my goals 3 years from now.
I guess it’s time to boost your goals then 😉 hahaha!
Nah, I’m happy with what I have. That’s the key to life! 🙂 Besides, you’d be happy to trade online net incomes with me. I just don’t care so much right now b/c I’m happy with the offline income I make.
Great Job Evan! Looking forward to seeing the updates in the future and watching you meet your goals.
Thanks Tim! I don’t really have any goals though lol
Haha, I guess I use the word goals loosely, but increasing traffic in general is a goal. Though you aren’t speculating a percentage, positive growth is definitely something worth hoping for.
You have envious statistics, that is for sure!!
I wish I understood SEO better. I do know that I made ‘some’ change and my search traffic did go up suddenly, but I have no idea what it was. I did start doing more internal links, but I have no idea what affect that would have.
I need a good SEO handbook or something. I probably should have done a better job of tracking my changes and done them one at a time instead of making a bunch of changes at once.
Kris check out:
https://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/
This will give you a HUGE step in the right direction
Great work as always Evan. Numbers are impressive, I usually evaluate on a monthly basis and your stats blow mine away. Especially impressed with the SEO numbers, I need to get my act together!!!
Doc check out the yoast link I gave out before….your numbers will fly up!
Great job on the hit numbers, Evan. Just found your blog this morning but got it on my favorites list now. Thanks for all the info in your posts, it has been helpful.
I am starting a residential/commercial painting business at the moment, on top of my day job (union construction). It’s been slowly building… my first bid was for painting our offices at my current company. Bid was accepted and job finished last Friday. Starting a business is fun, exciting, stressful, and very rewarding. But the hardest step so far has been getting off my a$$ and getting out there.
Keep up the good work, Evan.
Adam,
I am glad you found me but I am more pumped that you are looking into additional streams of income!
what part of the country are you in?
I’m in St. Louis, Missouri. I also thought about possibly blogging my successes and failures with my painting business. It could be something fun to keep up with and help me follow my own progress. Just an idea.
You absolutely should or if you want to guest post here just contact me.
There is a blogger,
https://deliverawaydebt.com/
Who blogs about his side job as a pizza delivery man to get rid of debt.
Thanks Evan. When I figure out what I’m going to do I will let you know.
Keep up the great blog!
Way to go Evan! You are growing every day. I hope someday you get those statistics but per month or less. Your blog will be big enough at the point you won’t be approving this comments but your staff.
David,
Thanks! but no staff here just me
Good job! Keep it up, you’re doing great! 🙂
I think posting stats is great (at least from my point of view). It gives me something to aim for. And don’t be embarrassed about your stats – they are far better than mine!
Thanks Jim! I am not a super blogger but I enjoy interacting with people!
Kudos on a job well done. I hope 2011 brings you all the success in the world.
Evan,
Nothing wrong with those stats. My traffic is higher than yours but my Alexa rank is 139K. I don’t understand Alexa at all.
I am a huge fan of your site. Your traffic must make my site look tiny, but I am more impressed with the loyal commenters and debate you got going on over there!
Thanks. I get a lot of complaints from some people that my posts are too controversial (usually my more liberal readers complaining that I’m too conservative). I’m sure it’s hurt my traffic some but it’s my blog and if I can’t post what I want, then what’s the point? It’s not like I’m earning subscription fees from my readers…lol. I do have a pretty strict policy that people have to be respectful of each other. We should be able to discuss controversial topics like grown-ups.
I have been very blessed to have some very intelligent readers (most of which are way smarter than I am). I have learned a lot over my 6+ years as a blogger.
I am with you…blogging isn’t going to come near my day job salary anytime soon so to censor myself seems just stupid!
I actually find it amazing how many of your steady readers really just don’t agree with you lol
Increasing traffic is probably the biggest challenge you will face. It seems that each site hit a plateau at one point or another… it’s hard to get through it.
The good news is that one you break a plateau, your blog will grow naturally until it hits another one 😉
Thanks for the words of wisdom from someone that lives it daily.
I wish you shared your income from this blog too- it’d be great to have some numbers to compare to the traffic.
I’m definitely opposite on goal-setting. I just finished writing a step by step plan for the summer, because I know if I have small increments that I can check off then a lot more will get done.