For almost as long as I’ve been in business, my techie husband has told me I should post more regularly on my blog. Taking his advice just to see what would happen, I posted daily during the month of September doing #30in30.
Some lessons learned:
1. My overall website could have been in better shape. About a week in, I realized my traffic was increasing but sadly hadn’t managed to make all the tweaks and updates I’d intended. My homepage is good but other pages with info about services I offer not so much. Don’t go look now because they’re still not done. 😉 This leads me to the next lesson.
2. Writing a blog post a day takes a lot of time. If I know what I’m going to write about, I can knock one out in an hour, maybe two. When that’s not clear, hours can pass before I hit publish. I went into this challenge with a list of >25 ideas for posts but of course, a few didn’t pan out. Getting a post done was a real struggle probably five different days. This leads to another lesson.
3. Producing high quality posts on a daily basis is really tough. Reminds me how most Americans rate themselves as above average drivers. That’s just not mathematically possible. I’d like to say all my posts are above average but…
4. My website traffic increased significantly (probably tripled) and other social media following increased as well. Unfortunately, I failed to record exactly where my site traffic was prior but there has been a definite upward trend on my google analytics dashboard. Also, bounce rate is down and time on site is up. If I do this again, I’ll take a screen shot to have baseline data.
5. My twitter followers grew by about 15%. I didn’t have that many twitter followers to start with and still don’t because spending much time on twitter makes me feel like I’ve eaten an entire box of samoas. Come to think of it, much time on most social media channels makes me feel that way. However, I know the importance of a social media presence.
I shared my blog post each day to my fb and linkedin business pages but only shared posts on my personal fb page and linkedin profile a few times. For certain, those two places are where I have real volume of contacts and sharing to those really kicked up my web traffic. Why did I not post there daily? Re: facebook – I try to keep personal and professional separate. May not be the best business decision. Re: linkedin – I guess I hesitate to be so constantly in people’s faces. May not be the best business decision.
6. I wonder now if I should have promoted the business services I offer more specifically when relevant. For instance, including a statement such as Contact me here to find out how I can help you with ______ (leadership development, career development, team building, growing your small business). I did invite people to connect with me or subscribe to my enewsletter. I also linked to previous posts. For example, I’ve written previously about business blogging here.
7. What about new clients? No one has said to me specifically they contacted me because I wrote #30in30 but I consider it more seeds sown.
8. Finally, I learned I have some really loyal friends and family members who supported me fully in this (meaning they read all 30 posts). For them, I am especially grateful.
I’m pleased that I challenged myself and managed a post a day. I am especially happy that today is September 30 and this is the last one! However, my husband has suggested I continue and he’s mentioned multiple posts a day would be even better.
smh
What kind of inbound marketing do you do and how is it working? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
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My goal is to write 30 blog posts in 30 days the month of September.
#30in30
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