After a month gap, here another monthly blog update edition. Where I talk about the growth of this blog in the past month.
Any thing that starts, grows, it is the rule of nature, it’s how the things are and it’s how it is meant to be.
OCAAT took birth in March, 2011 and growing ever since, in terms of number of visitors, in terms of number of page views and in terms of blog ranks.
During growth , often the growth stops. Sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently, again, by the rule of nature, a tree only grows up to a certain limit, a human being grows only up to a limited height. They can’t grow any further.
A blog has its limit too. At some point they start to stagnate or decline. It is my job to not let OCAAT stagnate as yet. If you know there are people who are this tall, your natural tendency would be to reach that height yourself and be at par with those tall guys.
This thought of competing with tall guys keeps me motivated.
I am not at all near their caliber. I am learning and improving my writing skill and knowledge every day.
I work 50 hours a week on my day job and give 30 hours to this blog.
Shall I quit day job and blog full-time? Not at all, my highest monthly blog income is just a fraction of my monthly salary at day job. Plus, we are a single income family. Plus, I love my job.
I am not one of the job-hater bloggers. I love what I do, at work and at leisure. I am equally devoted in both worlds. I do respect the sentiment though that you should do what your heart suggests. So if you are a blogger who want to take on blogging full-time I would encourage you. Follow the heart.
I know someone who is making 10 times more money as a full-time blogger than at a day job.
That was the thought update I had for OCAAT. You must have read my last week’s rambling about low blog earning. I assure you even without money I shall still be writing. Now it’s time for traffic data update.
Traffic Data For January 2012
Total Visits – 12,980
Total Unique Visitor – 10,890
Page Views – 20,680
Pages per visit – 1.59
Average Time on Site – 1:51 minutes
Bounce Rate – 76.59%
New Visits – 81.96%
January top 10 Traffic sources were as follows
1. The Simple Dollar – 1600+ visits including simple dollar mobile and increased traffic from various mail clients.
2. Get Rich Slowly – 389 visits
3. Google.com – 335 visits (this includes, Google plus, Google reader and Gmail)
4. Twitter – 264 visits (Including t.co and Hootsuite)
5. Yakezie – 232 visits
6. Reddit – 214 visits
7. Free Money Finance – 108 visits
8. Technorati – 78 visits
9. Facebook – 67 visits
10. Retire By 40 – 65 visits
I do not have any traffic target for February. I will take whatever traffic come my way. I notice many blogs provide a monthly goal in terms of the increase, but, sadly most don’t provide any plan for reaching to that target. At work if one of my sub ordinates set goals without any plan of action, he/she will be in my black list. It’s good that these bloggers don’t report to any one.
My only goal is to provide better articles. I compare my posts with that of GRS and TSD, and I am not there yet. Day after day these blogs provide better content than what I am doing.
I am trying hard, I even outsourced proof reading, but the proof readers do not find the work fascinating enough to stick for longer term. My main problem is, improvements take time and English is my third language. I didn’t speak or write English till I was 10.
I am not planning to put any additional hours in to blogging either. I am already spending significant amount of time on the blog.
Some other good news on the blog front, apart from Yakezie, I am also a member of Indian bloggers community, called indiblogger network. I was given my first rank over at indiblogger in January, and as per the blog rank data, I am one of the top 10 personal blogs which are run by Indians. (off course, Asian Indians)
Since joining that group I happen to develop a tiny but steady readership, which should grow over time. One of the blogs, Subhorup recently awarded OCAAT a Versatile Blog Award, it’s a blogging meme.
That’s all for this edition of the update. OCAAT is growing on the back of your co-operation, let it grow and let it provide value to you.
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Thank you for posting your stats! 🙂 I recently got a boost from one of the roundups at The Simple Dollar – it gave me a glimpse into how things could be if I just put in the time and the effort to make it happen. It’s awesome to see the stats on other folks, because it lets ‘little guys’ like me know that there’s hope for traffic.
I remember thinking about reaching 20K page views a month, not too long ago. Believe me you don’t need any strategy, any SEO just get the contents rights, everything would fall in to its places.
Those are pretty impressive stats for a blog reaching one year old. Keep up the good work!
Thank Latisha, you have a wonderful blog too
I too think you are doing awesome for one year old. Way to show how it is done. Keep it up, I am sure there will be more gains and growth in the future. Congrats on our indi blogger rank. That is awesome.
Thanks Miss T, I am an avid follower of your little site meter button. You have an impressive number as well.
Wow, great job on the nice stats! Now, time to work on your advertising revenue!
Yeah, I am working. Things would click sometime…being hopeful
Mate, what is it that you do for your day job?
thx
I get financial softwares developed for my employer’s credit card business. Let me know your personal linked in profile (not the blog one) and I can add you from my personal id. You’ll get more information on what I do.
Sounds fun man. How long you been doing it and how long more do you think you’d want to do it?
Good job on your blog progress!
This field is vast enough. Its not the same as “mixing cement” or building “car chassis” for life long. So the questions like how long I am doing it and how long I will do it, make a little sense.
If you are talking about how long I want to be in the field of software, then Yes, I think I will do it till I retire, or till I work.
Thanks, its a major satisfaction to get a nod from a blogger like you on my success so far.
Congrats on your stats! I also like my job and don’t ever plan on quitting. I make decent money, there’s lot of room for promotion, and the benefits are AMAZING.
Thanks Erica! Welcome to job lovers club 🙂
I’m in a similar position in that I do not plan on quitting. If you enjoy yourself and are having fun and are appreciated, then you have to think very carefully before leaving, right?
Great stats by the way!
Thanks Shawn, its good to see so many matching opinion on quitting day job. I thought personal finance bloggers generally tilt towards quitting day job.
This is an interesting topic to me. In fact, most of posts last month have dealt with entrepreneurship. I am a fan, but that doesn’t exclude having a job that you enjoy.
I am not talking about entrepreneurship here, its about quitting job and sitting at home. If you are doing something on your own, its, to me, as good as a day job.
I guess I don’t know the PF bloggers that you are talking about then. All of the ones that I hear talking about quitting their jobs are simultaneously trying to blog full-time, which I would classify as entrepreneurship.
I know what you mean about never quitting your job in order to blog primarily. While I love blogging, my job pays well and has good benefits,, so I don’t see myself quitting.
That’s great. Welcome to the club! Watch out for fallout though, and never do the job only because they pay well. If your heart is not in job, you’ll never grow really.
We have one big similarity: I really like my day job and don’t think on quitting it. And I do work about 50 hours (sometimes more) at my day job. I think similarities end there. lol Your traffic numbers are quite surreal in my world. I am not even close to anything like it. But I don’t expect it being such a young blog anyway. Well deserved numbers, SB! You have one great blog that I am reading almost every day.
You started in October, I did in March. You are really ahead of me in terms of numbers. At 5 month I was getting around 2000 page views a month. I think you are well ahead of that figure.
Your blog is totally cool and one of the reasons why I started one! Keep up the good work!
Thanks, I really appreciate this. These words are my fuel for blogging.
Great job on the progress, SB.
Thanks Marissa
You sound a lot like me. I am in no way under the illusion that blogging will replace my full-time occupation. Besides, I enjoy what I do and it has meaning. Instead, blogging is an intellectual outlet allowing me to read, write, and learn. After all, I had been writing for over 2 years and never made $100 in a single month even so I doubt I will be going anywhere.
By the way, impressive traffic numbers. I am about 1/6th of that. Maybe someday.
Exactly, blogging is an outlet to let out my thought, and to diversify my income. You will reach there pretty soon CFM. You’ll definitely earn more if you outsource your advertising.
Interesting, I didn’t know there was an indiblogger community. I wonder if they’d let me in, since I’m Nepalese (so I’m not ‘technically’ Indian … but where on earth would I find Nepalese bloggers?)
A great chance to be number #1 Nepalese blogger 🙂 I guess indiblogger would take you in. Register your blog and participate in their forum a bit, let people know you. It’s equally great place to be in similar to the Yakezie forum.
Awesome job SB! You have achieved so much in a short time. I know the only future for you is up 😉
GREAT numbers SB. I really enjoy following your progress. You are doing everything right and I’m glad you have stuck to your principles by building your reader base before pursuing ad revenue. Your blog is better for it my friend.
Thanks Hunter, that’s a great compliment from a successful blogger. Actually I am not getting that much ad offer, that’s the reason.
Really impressive SB! Confirmation that readers are interested in what you have to say. I am one of those readers!
Goo to hear Paul. Thanks