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Over Analyzing Your Website Traffic

As a new blogger I was constantly checking Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. It was so bad that I was checking these reports many times per day, even though they only update once per day. I suspect that most new blogger’s are making the same mistake of over analyzing their traffic. It’s not that we shouldn’t analyze our blog traffic, but if Google Analytics updates only once every 24 hours, then there is no point in wasting time checking GA more than once per day. I wasted a lot of time studying my blog traffic, time that I could have used to write more content. It’s not very sensible to waste so much time over analyzing your blogs traffic because it takes time away from doing the one thing that Google loves, writing more content.

When starting a new blog, it’s best to focus on writing your content. Getting visitors to your new blog takes time and so does writing your content. I no longer over analyze my website traffic. No, instead I now focus that time publishing new posts. Each new post adds a new entry point to my blog so I’d rather utilize my time publishing more posts and analyzing web traffic less. I still check my web stats but I wait until I’ve posted 30 posts before really digging into the analytical side of things. 

Covering Too Many Blogs Too Soon

If you are new to blogging, it is better to start with just one blog. When I first started out I created so many blogs that I lost track of them. I wanted to blog about too many things that I liked at one time. Some of those blogs could only contain a limited amount of information before running out of ideas to write about to keep the topic going. Blog traffic wasn’t equal either. I might pick a topic that I really love and, have exceptional knowledge on, as well as one I like a bit less, and the blog I was less passionate about might end up getting more organic traffic.

Make a list of topics you’d like to blog about. Rank your topics until you’ve reached the topic you’d like to blog about the most. Save the list someplace convenient and start searching the web for the topic you chose. It’s time to research your newly chosen blog topic. See what others are writing about on that topic. Check for existing web pages on your topic, not just other blogs. It doesn’t matter if the websites returned in search results are dynamic or static, both are competitors. All you have to do here is read what has already been written on your topic from existing websites and determine if there is anything you can add to the existing information.

Inconsistent Posting Times

I publish new posts on this blog inconsistently, as a result my traffic to this blog can also be inconsistent. This site is not a money maker, but I do like writing about the stuff on this blog. Some of my blogs, like this one, are just to hear myself talk. I didn’t have that luxury when I first started out and I doubt you do either.

If you will be blogging for the first time the only thing you’ll have is your content for a while, so choose a topic that you can write at least one post per day on for the first thirty days, and weekly thereafter. In 30 days you’ll have 30 posts and one per week thereafter. Post frequency is less important if you don’t intend to earn money from that blog but as I said, blog traffic will be just as inconsistent.

If you intend to blog for a living, you’re first priority is content. You can have a blog with sporadic posts, but I suggest doing it anonymously so that you can attach your name only to the blog you intend to write a lot of content for. There is no need to put your name on a blog you only post to once per month, if you have another blog which you publish new posts daily.