Being ‘Discovered’ vs ‘Slow and Steady’ Blog Growth
Kumiko asks - ‘I was studying John Chow’s traffic patterns through Alexa and noticed that his popularity really surged after four of his articles were listed on Digg and his traffic went through the roof. He was “discovered” through these and his traffic levels have never really looked back. And receiving a link in one of your posts has done wonderful things for my own traffic!
What were landmark posts or actions that you did in order to receive the traffic that you have now? Was there a single post or link that sent your traffic sky-high and made you a ‘pro-blogger?’
Good question - although not the easiest one to answer as there have been many such moments in the 4 or so years that I’ve been blogging.
Before answering the question from my own perspective let me make a more general observation.
Being ‘Discovered’ vs ‘Slow and Steady’ Blog Growth
Every blog is so different and for some the process of ‘being discovered’ that you write about above is definitely a factor (usually after a big blog or social network site links up).
On the other hand there are also many popular blogs out there where the rise to success was much more slow and steady.
For this second group it is the accumulation of good blogging over a sustained period of time that gets them discovered - one reader at a time, one day at a time and one post at a time. I suspect this second group represents the majority of bloggers.
Speaking Personally
If i were to plot my own blogging experience on the spectrum between being ‘discovered’ and the ’slow and steady’ approach I’d have to say that it’s differed for me from blog to blog. Here’s how it’s been on three of my own blogs:
LivingRoom
My first blog LivingRoom (a personal blog that I really need to reinvent) was definitely a slow and steady growth blog. While it did become very popular in it’s niche (emerging church/spirituality) there was no major moment when traffic exploded and stayed at high levels. Sure there were moments along the way where I had bursts of traffic but it was a long and slow growth over a number of years of blogging. The growth initially came from regular readers and then from Search Engine Traffic as my ranking in Google increased.
ProBlogger
Here at ProBlogger things have been a little more ‘explosive’ at different times - however the slow and steady factor has definitely played a part. Perhaps the posts that put ProBlogger into the minds of many readers in it’s early days were my posts talking about the kind of money I was earning from blogging. These obviously caused a real stir - particularly when they got onto Slashdot and other large blogs (I’m not sure Digg was on the scene back then).
Also along the way there have been many other occasions where I was Dugg or LifeHackered or featured in mainstream media - however I’d still say that these exciting bursts of traffic were just part of the slow and steady growth that I’ve experienced over 2.5 years of blogging. While the big explosions of traffic are great - the readers they bring in do tend to disappear a few days later and only small percentage stay on. What you do the day after you get on the front page of Digg is in my opinion just as important (if not more) than what you did to get on the front page itself - this is where your day to day readership decides whether to keep coming back or not.
Digital Photography School
Traffic levels at DPS have been somewhat more explosive than here at ProBlogger. Perhaps it is that the topic there is a little more mainstream - but I’ve noticed that the big link ups really do have an impact - and a more lasting one than when they happen at ProBlogger.
Perhaps the post that started it all for ProBlogger was ‘How to Hold a Digital Camera‘ (a post featured on many large tech sites). I’m almost embarrassed by that - it’s the most basic post I’ve ever written - however sometimes basic is what people are after and for some reason that post was like a call to action for potential readers - the action that they took was to sign up for my newsletter, bookmark the site and subscribe to the RSS feed.
There have been numerous other posts that have done well along the way in a similar fashion - each bringing bursts of traffic that resulted in more people becoming loyal to the site.
Final Thoughts
Two random thoughts have come to mind as I’ve written this:
Write for ‘real’ people
Writing about how to hold a digital camera might not be the most profound thing I’ve ever written - but it struck a cord, met a need and connected with real people (not those cool web 2.0 types - but people like our parents, neighbors and school kids). Write for real people - after all, it’s not just the web 2.0 crowd who surf the web.
Balance is the Key
While I’m someone who is always on the look out for a way to ‘get discovered’ in a new space I’ve found that it’s the day to day posts that you write that really matter most. While your linkbait might bring in 20,000 new readers from Digg today, what will you write tomorrow and what have you got in your archives that you wrote last week to keep them hanging around? I suspect that many bloggers put so much time and effort into the 1% of posts that are about getting discovered that the 99% of posts that really matter suffer.
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Study: Growth in Worldwide Ad Spend Led by Internet Exponential Growth in Blogging - Getting Through the Early Days Six Figure Blogging - How Long? Google’s Sandbox Documented? Apple Australia - Slow and Steady doesn’t win the race!
April 14th, 2007 at 2:08 am
Great question, followed by a great answer.
I just started a website: webtrepreneur.co.za, which is all about making money online. There are so many of these websites out there, this I know, but what I aim to achieve is collecting a membership, based on the fact that I am going back to the beginning, and writing articles which are not aimed at experienced ‘monitizers’. A website were people don’t arrive in the middle of things. Very slowly working my way up to more technical stuff basically.
In my opinion, explosive traffic bursts are great for landing people all over your website, but in my opinion, building up a slow membership is a bit more personally rewarding, what do you think?
April 14th, 2007 at 2:19 am
nice article, I agree that its more important to strive for the daily reader rather than a burst of people that won’t come back. However I still hope that my blog would blow up big like others have.
April 14th, 2007 at 2:27 am
I’m so happy to read this article. A slow and steady grow is probably more rewarding in the end. Instead of bursts of visitors you will have loyal visitors who will stick with you.
At the moment I’m trying to get a burst of visitors, without even worrying if they will stay, just because I have a message I want to bring across: A Surinamese girl was crowned Miss India Worldwide and I want the world to know that. I’ll use my blog to help spread the word, even if I go back to the point in my slowly climbing visitor number (100 unique visitors)
In short, I think getting a burst of visitors is sometimes necessary to bring a message across. You get that burst by being dugg or to have your article featured/mentioned on an A-list blog.
April 14th, 2007 at 2:38 am
Yeah, getting a blog to “blow up” hasn’t happened to me personally but I think it would be a very exciting event. I am re-dedicating myself to blogging after purchasing my name as a dot com and am hoping to win the race sloe and steady… if it blows up along the way, great, if not, then no big deal!
April 14th, 2007 at 2:40 am
Thanks for this article. This is my constant debate. I started up in late November and have been doing the slow and steady since then. It has slowly paid off. I went from a few uniques a day to clearing a hundred now.
Yet I still find myself envious of the dugg bloggers. I wish I had thought up some scheme to get me out there. My focus now has been on writing that one “killer” article and let that be my way out there.
Well, at least this article reaffirms the approach I have taken so far.
April 14th, 2007 at 2:43 am
Thanks for the answer Darren! It was great to hear about some of your other blogs as well.
Kumiko
April 14th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Hi Darren,
I feel like it’s out of my control whether or not my blog is “discovered” or not. I do know that what is in my control is the quality of my content, my writing, and the time and effort I put into it. I have to keep thinking that if what I am writing makes sense to others then they will tell other people and it will keep going from there. Also, I definitely strive to write for “real people”.
…On a side note, I wanted to tell you that I have come to use your site as a my first resource for any blogging question that I have, even before google. Whether it’s a term that I’m unfamiliar with or something that I want to learn more about, I come here first and search your site. Thanks so much for all of the info that you share with us, and the time that you put into it.
JoLynn
April 14th, 2007 at 3:03 am
[…] Darren Rowse, creator of ProBloger.com has an interesting article called Being ‘Discovered’ vs ‘Slow and Steady’ Blog Growth. It’s actually a response to readers questions about statistics and making money with blogs. […]
April 14th, 2007 at 3:29 am
It is funny that I want to be a “noticed blogger”, but I never really thought about how I was going to get there. I suppose I follow the “slow and steady” pace, but i think there is a lot to be learned with the “being discovered” state. In my mind, the question is: Do I want to be controversial and eye catching or just be informative? I have found that blogs about some of the most basic things (things that I seem are also TOO trivial) brings the most visitors. I suppose I just keep doing what I do and hopefully, one of my blogs gets “discovered”, else, we do it slow and steady…cheers…matt
April 14th, 2007 at 3:41 am
I saw a huge increase in the statistics when I released my first WordPress plugin, Hot or Not Admin Panel. I haven’t noticed much of a “slow and steady” growth, except gradual increases in the search engine referers.
April 14th, 2007 at 3:47 am
Both of those factors have their own roles to play in growing your blog to new heights. I prefer the slow and steady approach rather than caring about sudden outbursts. Those bubbles are tough to handle when compared to slow and steady flow of visitors you get. Content plays the most important role and one should not think about anything but writing great articles for first 6-12 months and then look around for other ways of getting discovered.
My 2 cents!
April 14th, 2007 at 5:10 am
Wow Darren its great to hear about your past! … I really had no idea you had so many sites!
April 14th, 2007 at 5:19 am
For me, the progress seems to be a little bit of both. The readership is steadily increasing, search engine traffic is more than steadily increasing, and I get a few spikes of traffic here and there.
Those spikes (and I’m not talking Digg front page type) are fun to ride out for a day or two, but they also help with the long term traffic. They create steps in my traffic, kind of like little power boosts.
By the way Darren, my first (and largest) spike was from the Digital Photography School. You posted a one sentence link to one of my articles in your Sunday roundup, and I was riding a wave of traffic for a week or more. That spike created a big step in my traffic and it’s continued to grow from there. Thanks again for that!
April 14th, 2007 at 5:30 am
I totally agree with a slow and steady growth. But you should also make a plan for yourself as to how slow and steady you want it.
If you want it quick enough there are plenty resources to do so on the internet, and today you could virtually be “discovered” overnight.
April 14th, 2007 at 5:36 am
Great post. Obviously this is something everyone struggles with.
Steve Pavlina talks about on his blog how his traffic exploded and went from 0 to 86,000 hits in his blog’s first five months when he started back in Oct 2004. He recommends submitting your post’s to blog carnivals.
In my early traffic-building days, I’d do carnivals submissions once a week, and it helped a great deal in going from nothing to about 50,000 visitors per month.
Unfortunately, blog carnivals havent really worked so much for me. I think Steve’s success had more to do with the fact that blogging was just becoming popular when he started out. I dont think I’ve heard of anyone else generating that much traffic in just 5 months of starting a blog.
Has anyone else had success with blog carnivals?
April 14th, 2007 at 5:49 am
Interesting post! I never thought of blog growth in terms of slow steady progress or “being discovered. If I had my choice, I think I’d rather have slow and steady growth. That way, I can cultivate my style and earn readers’ respect through quality posts on a regular basis - not because my blogg was featured on some other website (although that would nice as well).
My readers are everything to me, and I want them to stick around. I’d rather have ten regular readers that keep coming back than a one time surge of a hundred readers who disappear and never return.
Slow is the way to go!
April 14th, 2007 at 7:09 am
Great post Darren!
April 14th, 2007 at 8:41 am
[…] ProBlogger asks (and answers): which is better, Being ‘Discovered’ vs ‘Slow and Steady’ Blog Growth? […]
April 14th, 2007 at 9:18 am
it such a painful of being discovered and then forgotten — although there’s long-term effect too e.g. have one page that highly indexed by google for particular “key word”
always prefer steady growth =)
April 14th, 2007 at 10:40 am
My site, www.beyondbehaviors.com, is definitely an example of one of those “slow and steady” blog growth.
I think there are a few things bloggers ought to keep in mind:
(1) The success (whether slow or explosive) comes with what we’re writing and who we’re targeting. My blog has to do with classroom & school crisis management, counseling and crisis intervention, and mental health. So my repeater guests and visitors as well as those who found my site make up a very small percentage of the millions of web surfers since most people aren’t as interested in these specific areas;
(2) From what I have seen (as a normal web surfer myself), those blogs that eventually make it “big time” have one of two things…
(a) they offer an interesting service that others highly value (like ProBlogger where Darren shares about blogging tips and ideas for free) and/or
(b) they contain coherent, well-written, easy-to-understand, and/or interesting things (like www.dooce.com where Heather opens up about about her life).
The blogs (like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, ProBlogger, Dooce, etc.) all have one thing in common, they offer either an interesting service/advice that others highly value or they contain coherent, well-written, easy-to-understand, and/or interesting things.
I’m hoping that my blog does a little bit of both…in my very small corner of this vast place we call the Internet.
April 14th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I think most would prefer fast and steady growth instead of slow and steady. ;)
April 14th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Steady growth with occasional traffic spikes would be nice. Especially if those spikes comes in a regular interval.
April 14th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
My blog is just a couple of months old and I’ve ad a couple of decent spikes from digg and stumbleupon but overall its the slow trickle of readers that keeps the site going. I think the biggest factor is still content. If you have good content you’ll get readers.
April 14th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
For some reason, I always thought you had many more sites than those three. Of course, two of those three are pretty darn successful!
April 14th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
2.5 years and you’re here? You’re not SLOW and steady!
April 14th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Excellent post! It’s good to remind bloggers that all that exhaustive effort getting onto social media still means you need to keep blogging the next day. ;-)