PureBlogging

Last week I wrote about building your network.  In that article I talked about several different options to build the amount of traffic that comes to your site.  I just scratched the surface of the different traffic building tools you should be using.  the problem is, there are only so many hours in a day, so you really have to pick and choose a couple to concentrate on and really work them.  You want to concentrate on whichever tactics give you the most bang for your buck, so to speak.

So, how do you know what works and what doesn’t?  If you choose 3 different tactics to concentrate on, how do you know which were the most effective, and which were a waste of your time?  It’s possible that one is driving themajority of the traffic to your site, while the other is barely generating a trickle.  That’s where a good stat tracking program comes in.

I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here.  I’m sure you’re all serious about this and your tracking your results, right?  Well, for those of you that aren’t, you should.

Back in December Sharon Hurley Hall wrote about different stat tracking programs.  Go back and look at that post for a nice run down of a few of the many different programs that are available.  The best part about these programs is the cost…Free!!!  Some are better that others, so you’ll need to spend some time trying them out to see which one delivers what you want.  The most important thing is that you do something.

What you are looking for is a program that not only gives you the visitor count, but will give you some details about those visitors.  You want to know notjust overall count, but how many of them were unique visitors.  While total visitors is important, you need to be able to separate out the returning visitors from the ones that are there because of your current marketing efforts.  You also want to be able to see where the visitors are coming from.  If I am seeing a great deal of traffic from one effort, but hardly anything from another, I can scrap what isn’t working and focus my efforts on something new.

Remember though, most of the things you will be doing take time to really work.  This is especially true when your blog is young.  When your blog is more established and you have a larger reader base some things will happen faster, but early on you need to show a little patience and not abandon your efforts too soon.

Another thing that tracking your stats will do for you is to give you some insight into the many different ways people are finding you.  I always look at my visitors that come to my blogs through Google.  When I first started doing that I was surprised to see some of the things people were searching for when they found me.  That’s a useful bit of information.  In order to succeed I need to give my readers what they want.  By knowing what they are searching for, I can aim some of my posts to answer their questions.  That will keep them coming back for more.

A stat program will help you identify trends and patterns with your traffic.  I know from watching my stats that my visitor counts go up on my blogs every Wednesday when my post gets published onPureBlogging (thanks to those of you who are visiting).  I know that my restaurant blog tends to have more traffic on the weekend.  Knowing that helps me to know where to focus my energies.

Knowledge is power, and the more you know about what works and what doesn’t with your blog, the more successful you will be.