Don't just look at it...
I know for a fact there are a lot of readers out there that will read something, but never change anything.
Why would you waste your time pin pointing a problem, Google it, then read about it, yet not implement the change?
I am not sure what I noticed was wrong with my blog at that time, but I Googled it, and when I found Traffic Generation Cafe on March 3rd of this year, I instantly fell in love with it.
If I did not understand something, I asked; if I had a related question, I asked. Ana has always answered and she always answers between 6am - 8am my time - that alone tells me she has a scheduled and sticks to it. Because of this I also created a schedule.
“If Ana does it, I am doing it.” - is my new blog motto.
If you don’t get it yet, what Ana tells us all to do really does work.
I started my blog on Feb 3rd of this year.
I have done blogs in the past and I set blogs up as my side job. I consider myself more of a design guy and always had issues with traffic. All my blogs have received a ton of traffic in the past, but it always took forever to get to that point.
I think most of the traffic I received in the past was because of the sheer volume of posts.
I’m sure you believe that the number of posts published corilates to the amount of traffic you receive.
This is true, but there are a lot of other things you can do to get to the top and get noticed. Ana explains them all and she explains them well.
As I said, I started my most recent blog about 6 weeks ago. Below is an image of all weekly traffic received since day 1.
Proof that Traffic Generation works
From day one my traffic has gone up, it might have been on pace to get to “high traffic status” quicker than any of my other blogs, but there was a spike in traffic for the week of March 13-19
This was the first full week I implemented everything I read on Ana’s blog.
The white section on the right of the spike is this week. March 20-27, already it has 63 hits and the night still has a few hours left.
Now I am not considering my blog high traffic, but I am saying if I continue to implement everything Ana has to say I will have a high traffic blog in a couple months.
Comparing the new to the old
This second image is the one that makes me go WOW, what she says really does work.
The graph consists of two lines.
- Blue Line - Is my traffic since I first read Ana’s blog on March 3rd (March 3 - March 20) 18 days.
- Green Line - Is my first 18 days of the blog. I used 18 days for both to keep the chart neat.
The first thing I want you to notice is the blue line - It stays pretty consistent in the beginning. Takes a dip for a couple of days. Then shoots way up. This is because I implemented a few small things on March 3rd and had to plan some larger things out. I took a break, implemented the changes and BAM traffic shot up.
I also want you to notice the Site Usage below the chart. All 6 categories had an improvement.
- Visits after adding Ana’s tips up 150%
- Page views up 180%
- Pages per visit Nothing major but still up.
- Bounce Rate dropped which is great!
- People are staying longer on the site
- Finally, new visits is 69% Meaning 31% of my visitors are repeats - Previously 80%
I am not going to get into detail as to which posts I read that mad a huge difference or which ones made a small difference. Because then you, the readers might go to the posts that helped me and implement them and nothing else.
You need to implement everything you read on this site. It works.
I will be glad to supply my charts again in a couple weeks if any one asks.
One of the things I noticed on her blog but did not find a post for was the tweet box below each of her posts. I loved it and have since wrote a how to guide on it: Find out how you can add a Personal Tweet Box & Brand Tweets
Marketing Takeaway from Ana
My first reaction when I read Eric’s post was I need to call it “Ode to Ana and Traffic Generation Cafe”!
All jokes aside though, Eric is absolutely right - everything I did to bring my blog from zero in July of 2010 to 12K Alexa ranking as of right now I wrote about right here, at Traffic Generation Cafe.
Learning about something and not acting on it is a waste of time and time is something that we, online business owners, don’t have.
Read it, act upon it, reap the benefits - it’s that simple.
And Eric - thanks for this post; it makes me want to not just keep going, but flying.
Image credit: http://funwithcats.blogspot.com/
Article by Eric Marke
Eric Marke believes that everyone is smart enough to have a stunning website, blog, use social media and other online products to gain new customers on a daily basis if information is given to them in a way they understand over a time frame that they can digest it all. The time frame for some thing like this is months – not an all day seminar.
More Great Posts on the Topic:
- How to Drive Traffic To a New Blog Through a Commenting Tribe
- Blog Traffic Challenge: Did You See My Glove Laying Around Here?
- Podcasting: The Alternate Universe Of Traffic Generation
- Bloggers: If You’re Not Struggling, You’re Failing
- 5 Things All Prebloggers Should Be Doing Now to Get Traffic Later
Traffic Generation Cafe happily runs on Thesis Theme
What do I love about Thesis? Everything would be the short answer.
If that doesn't work for you, then the fact that Thesis Theme framework is designed to serve is the rock-solid foundation for any website. My Traffic Generation Cafe and I fully trust and rely on the airtight SEO, incredible design flexibility, and lightning-fast loading times that Thesis provides.
Still not sure about Thesis? See what you can do with it, then decide.
- Thesis Gallery - Lots of well designed blogs powered by Thesis
- Thesis Awesome - AMAZING customization packages for Thesis
- Thesis User Guide - see how much incredible support you get
{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }
Eric-
What an awesome testimonial to the power of following a plan with deliberate persistence and consistency.
Bravo!
Thanks for taking the time to share all the details, too.
Wishing you well-
Nanette
Nanette invites you to read: Inspirations from Nature & Springtime Creative Musings
That was an inspirational post, Eric. Thanks for that. I’m just joining the Ana FanClub and I do need to go back and read ALL her posts to learn and implement, step-by-step.
Thanks,
Peggy
P.S. I didn’t know you could do a timeline comparison on Google Analytics! I just compared this past month with the same time period in 2010 and I have an increase of 1175% in number of visits.
Peggy Baron invites you to read: Internet Marketing Milestones – My Results Writing and Selling PLR
Hi Eric,
I couldn’t agree more with you that Ana’s advice is awesome. Congratulations to your successes thanks to following her advice. Keep it up !
Take care
Oliver
Oliver Tausend invites you to read: The School System – Entrepreneurial Lessons And How To Convince A Teacher
I wrote a similar article to this a ways back on my last blog. I never understood it myself; everyone says I need to research more, but they never end up implementing!
I actually have a really good article on this topic in draft.
Dennis Edell@ Direct SalesMark invites you to read: Pro-Blogging Is it All About the Money
I’m here to sing praises to the Tzarina as well!
Ana knows her stuff and she knows it well. She practices what she preaches and the social proof you will see here will attest to that.
I’m one of those people who unfortunately doesn’t implement everything I read right away - slowly, eventually though.
Ask Ana a question and she will reply with a thorough answer. Hell, you don’t even need to ask here a question - she’ll probably give you her solid advice on her own if she comes across something you’re doing that’s wrong or that could be better. What I’m trying to say is that if you connect with her in a genuine way - she’ll go out of her way to help you.
Eric - its awfully good of you to write this nice little “Ode to Ana” here for I have no doubt that she surely deserves it. But I am curious to know a few of the things you did that she suggested that got your blog to where it is. Your stats are quite impressive for a new blog - bravo to you
!
Keep flying Ana
!
Cheers to you both.
I have just found Ana and she is my to do list for the weekend! Thanks for posting this.
Sometimes my commentluv links don’t show up( like on this comment). Any suggestions as to why?
you need to include http:// if you already do unban your domain on comluv.com
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Ana must be a goddess! =) Thanks for this informative guest post, Eric! The graphs are especially convincing because I’m big on numbers and statistics. Can’t wait to sift through Ana’s tips!
Samantha Bangayan invites you to read: A Global Community in the Desert
Eric,
Very impressive.
Ana is a fountain of information when it comes to traffic generation and I love her blog audits. What I like best is her easy to follow directions for putting what she teaches into action.
Sheila Atwood invites you to read: The Blog Challenge Rolls Out With Guidelines and Prizes
Yet an other example of what actually applying what you learn can do for you. I am on the other side of the fence, unfortunately, that is I read a lot and I apply only certain things, I know this is a bad strategy, but it’s my way
).
More kudos to you, Eric, I am glad you made it and that you actually had the guts to put in practice what you learned.
Alexandru Petru invites you to read: Curse 3D
It is heard implementing new things, especially stuff you don’t know.
You always wonder if you’re doing it right. I say just go for it. If it doesn’t work try again.
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Hi Eric, I am really glad that Ana tips worked out for you and your traffic improved. Well I have been a silent follower of Ana tips for the past few months, but I haven’t checked my Google Analytics to check whether following link building tips had any impact on my blog’s traffic. Will take a look at it and will let you know for sure.
Sathish @ TechieMania invites you to read: 5 Cost Effective Marketing Tips For Your Small Business
Did not get in to link building yet on my blog but can’t wait to read about your results.
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Hi Eric - great to see fast and solid results about that. I’m curious as to what niche this blog is in and how you started getting traffic to it in the first place. Details man details!
Thanks.
Robert Dempsey@Internet Marketing Strategies invites you to read: A Leap Of Faith That Brought A Metric-Ton Of Traffic
The blog is geared to real estate agents.
I was active on real estate websites, blogs, forums I always included a link back to my blog.
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Thanks Eric. I’m always interested to see if people launch new sites and can leverage current audiences or if they are starting completely from scratch. No need to reinvent the wheel to be sure.
I have some friends in the real estate niche as well. Good stuff there.
Robert Dempsey@Internet Marketing Strategies invites you to read: Is Success In A Popular Niche a Foregone Conclusion
Hey Eric,
Fantastic post dude. Very impressive results. You’re doing awesome work with your blog Eirc.
Btw. I love your post about branding tweets. Great work.
Anyways, Thanks for sharing this awesome stuff.
Have a great weekend.
~Dev
Devesh @ Blogging Tips invites you to read: 3 Major Blogging Myths You Must Ignore
Hello Eric, its one of the good results at the end. Great:-)
Kudos to you Eric - That’s pretty impressive improvement is your stats… keep reading and keep rocking
Sandeep@CuriousLittlePerson invites you to read: SEO-The Most Effective Permalink Structure For Your Blog
That is the plan, hopefully I can continue to share my results via guest posting?
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
What a great comment — and testimonial!
Alison Moore Smith@Lifestyle Design invites you to read: Losing Pregnancy Weight
Great to see you over here Eric and really enjoyed the post. I totally 100% agree with what you said. I am on my own venture starting from scratch with one project and I have been implementing everything I am learning and each month my traffic stats and sales get better and better. All because I’m actually taking action. It really does work if more people would take the time to just do it. No more excuses for me. I’m done with all that!
A pleasure to read your post and so happy to see you over here at Ana’s blog.
Adrienne
Adrienne invites you to read: Make It Easy For Your Readers To ReTweet Your Post
Eric-
Your you and your blog are inspirational! I have implemented to many things from Ana’s advise. And I am still going. I need to go further back in her archives to see what hidden gems I can find, lol.
You know, come to think of it, whenever I use something she suggests either my traffic goes up or my productivity.
Thank you Ana and Eric for this great post!
~Allie
Allie invites you to read: 7 Posts I Wish I Never Wrote
ya, i know she has 200 some posts, I think I read them all but I also want to print each one. Need ink though. Lots of it!
Ana, maybe you should sell an ebook or something with all your posts.
It would probably be cheaper than ink
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
@heather and @lisa also have great tips on how to get traffic coming!
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Eric:
I can;t agree with you more. I have said this time and time again…Ana is the reason my blog is where it is today. Without her, I would have quit or worse yet…failed.
I am so thankful I stumbled upon TGC and had the courage to ask her a question….she and she alone made the difference for me. The rest I am learning along the way, but I am rooting for your success 100%!!!
Lisa
Lisa@ list building invites you to read: Link Building- What’s Up Doc sharing!
Eric and Ana, I saw this posted on Twitter by @AskKim and thought if Kim is recommending this site I have to check it out. I’ll be reading and putting your ideas into action, thanks!
Hi Eric and Ana!
Wow…amazing results Eric! I can say I’ve had similar results implementing what Ana teaches. The trouble with your blog Ana is that there are SO MANY great resources and suggestions that I break into a sweat when you publish another post, knowing my list for implementing is about to get longer. I think I could work 24 hours a day for a week straight and not get caught up on all the incredible things I’ve added to my list after visiting your blog.
I may move a a bit of a slower pace, but I’m taking it step by step and yes…it absolutely works! Since finding your blog, joining the commenting tribe, and implementing what you’ve taught, my blog has gone from the 3 millions to below 50K alexa rank in about 8 months. Thank you for always being such a generous teacher.
Eric…congratulations…not for the traffic, but for being one of the few who follows through! Way to go! I’m sure you’ll see a lovely little spike after this post!
(You deserve it!)
Heather
Heather C Stephens @ Business Blog Marketing Forum invites you to read: Want to Strut Your Stuff with a Guest Post On Clever Marketer
Heather,
I break into a sweat also. I look forward to Ana’s posts but at the same time I think, “oh no! She has yet another awesome tool or advice I will need to use or follow.” When Ana went on vacation I looked forward to a break but then I saw her on Twitter! My goodness, does this woman have 36 hours a day to work with? LOL!
We luv ya, Ana!
Allie invites you to read: 7 Posts I Wish I Never Wrote
The problem for me is, Heather, that a lot of times I publish posts about things that I just learned myself, which means that my own to-do list is growing exponentially the more I post.
That’s the thing about owning a business though - growth and learning are never-ending.
Ana | Traffic Generation invites you to read: How My Optin Email Marketing List Got Cut Down in Half in One Day
Ana’s website is a vast resource of knowledge and expertise. That is one of the reasons that I keep coming back.
Do you implement though? Where is your comluv link?
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Eric, aloha. Congratulations on the rapid rise of your Blog! Congratulations also for finding Ana, reading her advice and then, drum roll please, following it!
Branding tweets is on my “to do” list for this weekend. Eric, your results are an inspiration.
Thx to both of you for all you have so generously shared with us. Aloha. Janet
Janet @ The Natural Networker invites you to read: It’s a Storyteller’s Business by Janet Callaway The Natural Networker
Let me know if you need help with the Tweet thing
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Hi Eric
Those are the sort of results we are all looking for, but notice that you say…
“I am not going to get into detail as to which posts I read that mad a huge difference ”
Looks as though you will have to do another guest post and give us all the info.
Hope that you do.
Keith Davis@Public Speaking and Presentations invites you to read: Surfing the video wave
All the information is right here on TGC?
Read a post a day, she does not post to her blog EVERY day so you will slowly catch up.
As far as how I plan to implement everything from her blog.
I have baskets, each filled with things that need to be done.
I have the easy and do now basket, the easy but do when the time is right basket, much harder to implement but instant results basket, stuff that will take longer to see results, and finally the stuff I need to do and plan for now but can’t implement just yet basket
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Thanks for the reply Eric.
Best start right away.
Keith Davis@Public Speaking and Presentations invites you to read: Surfing the video wave
You can’t argue with results , it You want traffic Ana’s Your man Lol. 12,097 alexa rank? Enough said, read , pay attention then do! Full stop.
Get Em Ana!
Jonathan Sweeting invites you to read: How To Win any Affiliate Contest & gain instant recognition
Thanks, Jonathan; will do
.
Ana
Ana | Traffic Generation invites you to read: Link Building Tip- How to Do It the Smart Way
Those are nice figures Eric. I wish you best of luck for th future and hope it improves more and more, but could you help me out a bit here.
I started out in January but the traffic I get daily is just below 100 or sometimes reaches 100 and is not increasing. So what were the things that you applied upon your blog and it showed you the changes? I can’t go through all posts so can you please have a look at my blog and help me out a bit?
Salman Saeed invites you to read: How to Enable Instant Resuming on Windows Phone 7
I think you have way to many advertisements - your entire header is essentially an advertisement.
My first impression was shock - after scrolling down a bit i noticed non of your posts have thumbnails -
Your opt in is boring.
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Hi Eric
I think that it is pretty impresive that you already have so much traffic in less than 2 months.
I have also been learning a lot from Ana. She really knows what she is doing and are willing to share it with all of us
Thomas@IT-Blog and reviews invites you to read: 10 Awesome bloggers I follow
So do I, It seems like all of my traffic goals are being meet in half the time.
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
@eric @ana, that’s for sure a good program, but can we also have the sources whose this increase came from ?
Recette américaine invites you to read: Recette des nuggets de poulet maison
There are over 200 posts here, each one of them have something valuable as far as traffic generation is concerned.
If I tell you the posts that worked for me you will forget about the other 150 posts.
Also what works for me might not work for you.
My advice to you..
Go to Ana’s first post
https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/what-is-seo-traffic-generation/
then go to her 2nd post, and then the 3rd etc etc.
Take something from each post.
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Fantastic - implementation is everything. I love the results you’re getting and yes I’m also a fan of Ana although not doing enough to implement
A good reminder for me.
Cathy
Cathy Presland invites you to read: Freedom In Business
What is holding you back from implementation?
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Oh it’s a timing thang. I mostly work offline (well online but person-to-person) and so haven’t quite decided exactly where the online part of my biz is going… I’ll get there.
Cathy Presland invites you to read: Freedom In Business
It sounds like you figure that next step out for your clients. Figuring it out for yourself should be a walk in the park
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
Yeah, exactly right. Nice to chat Eric
Cathy Presland invites you to read: Freedom In Business
Could the traffic spike be at all related to Google’s changes last month? One of my websites has noticed a 250% increase in traffic over the last 15-30 days depending.
Could be a mix of both too.
I Googled those changes to try to find the date that they happened. The earliest results I found for the recent change are from 2-25-11.
My spike did not happen until March 15th which was also the day I implemented a few bigger things Ana recommended, after a couple days of doing nothing to my blog which resulted in a slight drop in traffic.
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents
I came across this site the other day and I’ve been so impressed. The content has solidified a few ideas I’ve been dabbling in. I thought I might be crazy but now I’m seeing these are proven techniques and strategies.
I can now make adjustments and tweaks thanks to the tips. I will take note of today’s date and take a look in a few months to see if I see the kind of things you’ve seen. My blog is older but it doesn’t mean I should ignore this amazing info.
I have a bunch of questions and thus, you’re going to see a bunch of comments from me. Please don’t think it’s spam. I am genuinely interested in this stuff as I want to help others with strategy online - mainly photographers.
The great guest posts should not go unnoticed either. This is a great post here that helps to reinforce whats going on.
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am thinking about starting a 2nd site for photographers. If you have questions, ask away. As you can see, she is big on interaction.
Eric Marke invites you to read: Twitter for Real Estate Agents