Sunday Question – What Do You Hope To Accomplish In The Last 3rd Of The Year?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Aug 22, 2010
Man, that’s a tough question, isn’t it? Even though there’s one more week to go, the reality is that we’re 2/3rds of the way through this year. There’s so much more to do, but we’ve done so much already, haven’t we?
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When I took a look back to my goals for 2010, I can’t say that my progress towards them is all that pretty. However, it’s not a total loss like it was for 2009. So far, I have reached one of my goals, that being to get at least 3,000 real visitors a month coming to this blog. At the time I’m writing this, I’m averaging 3,200 visitors a month, which is pretty neat. And my Alexa rank did get to 106,000, so I was pretty close before it started going back up a little bit. But I still have a shot at that one.
I’ve also taken on some things I hadn’t planned on for the year as well, so it all balances out at some point. Still, I’d have to say that overall I haven’t quite accomplished what I was hoping for, though on 4 of the 5 I’ve improved over the beginning of the year.
What do I hope to accomplish by the end of the year? I hope to take my social media marketing workshop to another city. How I’m going to do that is still up in the air, but it’s a goal. I want to hit another milestone figure, that being $300 in one month online. I think my highest month was around $225, so it’s not totally out of range. Yeah, my goal for the year was much loftier, but at this juncture I just want to show progress. I have ideas; no I’m not sharing them. But if something succeeds, you’ll be the first to know.
I’m backing off my goal of 500 RSS subscribers for the moment and I’m going to shoot for 200. That might be attainable, as I was at 161 one day last week, and as of January the highest I’d ever had was 126. It will take a lot of factors to happen, but one can hope.
I also want to continue working on growing my influence locally, since, at least for now, I think I’m covered online. I think that if I can do better locally, my financial standing would drastically improve, and I’d feel more free to take time off to go to Barnes & Noble here and there just to have some time to myself out of the house. I work a lot; rather, I sit here at the computer doing a lot.
So there’s my bit of sharing; what would you like to share?
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Technorati Rank Worse, RSS Subscribers Stagnant
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on May 19, 2009
Well, imagine my surprise when I decided to check Technorati today, after not looking at it for a week or so, and finding that my authority has dropped significantly, which is course means my overall blog ranking has dropped drastically also. I mean, what the hey?
A big part of me is wondering whether this has to do with the decrease in the number of posts over the last month and a half than anything else. I’ve noticed that the number of visitors has also dropped, but I thought it was a pretty good experiment to undertake, especially since so many of you regular visitors complained a little bit that you had problems keeping up with the pace sometimes.
Now I’m not so sure that was such a good idea after all. I’m noticing that not as many of you are stopping by all that much lately, which of course could be my topics, but there have been many more new visitors coming by. Is it possible that this blog’s strength was built more on the backs of new visitors than my returning visitors?
There could be a point to that. After all, returning visitors, if they subscribe to your blog, don’t really have to return at all. I use my Feedreader program to read blogs, and I also have the ability to write comments from there, though I don’t. I don’t know if people get credit for visits from readers, though I believe they’d get credit for the feed. If that’s the case, then Technorati must not count it as true visitors.
And, speaking of Feedreader, y’all know that I had my big RSS subscriber contest back in January, and it resulted in a few more people subscribing to the feed, but since that time I’ve hovered between 65 and 75 subscribers, and since my beginning of the year goal was 500, that’s fairly pathetic.
Of course, part of the problem could be Technorati itself, which has been up and down often for the past week or so, but I’m thinking that would only impact pings not getting through more than them not getting my numbers correct. But I don’t know that; any of you who follow your Technorati rank, what’s it been looking like lately?
In any case, I’m not a happy guy. As someone who always wants bigger and better, being stagnant doesn’t suit me well, and going backwards is unacceptable. So, I’m going to have to do more thinking about this one; what say you?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
My Big RSS Subscriber Contest!
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jan 11, 2009
For those of you who read my 2009 Online Goals post, and those of you who will possibly go back and read it now, my third internet goal for this year was to increase my RSS subscribers to 500 by the end of the year. At the time I didn’t have any idea how to get there; now, I’ve come up with something that might help me get closer.
First, the reason why I want more RSS subscribers. I’ve been writing most of my life. I think I’m a pretty good writer, and I have a lot to say. And I like that people come here to read what I have to say, and comment on it, but the truth of the matter is that I’m somewhat of a writing narcissist; I want as many people as possible to read what I write, and pass it on to others. Not only in this forum either, but I’ll stick with this one for the moment. Not only that, but it’s always acknowledged that marketers have a better chance of making money if they have higher numbers of something, either visitors or subscribers or email addresses for those types of lists. Everyone knows that a big part of this blog is to help me generate income online, but I want readers and subscribers and the like. And this contest is geared towards that.
There was an initial problem, though. I can see how many subscribers I obtain through Feedburner, but it doesn’t tell me who’s subscribing. It does tell me who becomes a fan, though. So, I have to use a different method for determining who the winners will be, and there will be a first prize winner, a second prize winner, and a third prize winner. That’s it; no ties. It will be a drawing, which is going to require a lot of work from me, but I’m ready for it because I’ve done things like it in the past, and I’m well equipped to get it done properly. Everyone will be able to earn entries; how many entries they earn will be determined by what I’m writing below.
Now, the contest. Right now, Feedburner is showing that I have 54 subscribers to this blog. I want to increase that number to at least 250 subscribers in 28 days, which is the main thrust of the contest; the contest starts on Sunday the 11th of January, and ends on Monday, February 9th at 3AM EST, to give people on the West Coast a chance to have until midnight to enter if they so choose. In this introductory post, every person who writes something is automatically entered into the contest, but that’s not all. I want more than a blanket “here I am“, but I’m going to accept that as one entry; spam will be deleted, so don’t try it. But there’s more.
If you become a fan of this blog on Technorati, that will add another entry for you. We’re up to two possible entries.
I have a business newsletter, the T. T. Mitchell Consulting Newsletter, geared towards leadership, management, motivation, customer service, and other business issues, that’s fairly entertaining if I say so myself. Everyone who subscribes to that newsletter, and, in the subscription letter, tells me the name they use on my IJS blog, gets another entry. You don’t have to subscribe to the healthcare newsletter, since I write that one also, and subscribing to it doesn’t give you an extra entry. For examples of that newsletter, you can check out my latest issue, Chain Of Command and a previous issue, Credibility. We’re now up to three possible entries.
I participate on Twitter, and my link there is for Mitch_M. Anyone who follows me on Twitter, and mentions it on my blog, along with their user name (the only way I can go back and verify you’re actually following me), gets a fourth entry.
I now have a brand new blog, Top Finance Blog, and it needs a little bit of promotion. Anyone who happens to mention it on their blog with a link back to the site, then informs me here of it, earns another entry. If you happen to write an article and link to a particular post that helps the article, and you give me that instead, that’s two entries. We’re now up to either five or six entries.
The final opportunity for entries is to purchase a Top Spot link, which is over there near the top on the right. Those links are $5, and since I’m not expecting a lot of people to do that then it’s possible that your link will stick around for awhile, but anyone who purchases a link earns 10 entries into the contest. That’s now a possible 15 or 16 total entries into the contest; that’s not bad if you ask me.
Okay, I hear you now: “That all sounds well and good, but what the heck could you offer that’s worth all of that.” Well, it’s now time for the prizes. These are the minimum prizes that the winners will receive, but only if I hit that 250 subscriber number:
* First prize wins, at least, a website optimization review of up to 10 pages, which is worth $300 based on my SEO business (if you don’t have a website, or want cash instead, I’ll pay you a $50 prize, either through Paypal or by check); a copy of the book The Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner, which is worth $59, and will be purchased by me and sent to you by Barnes & Noble; a signed copy of my book Embrace The Lead on leadership, worth $25; and a copy of my ebook Using Your Website As A Marketing Tool, worth $20.
* Second prize wins, at least, an optimization review of three pages of their website, a $100 value (or a $20 cash prize); a signed copy of my book Embrace The Lead; and a copy of my ebook Using Your Website As A Marketing Tool.
* Third prize wins, at least, a copy of my ebook Using Your Website As A Marketing Tool and a written review of your blog or website, on this blog.
Now, why am I saying “at least“? Because I’m offering anyone who wishes to help sponsor this contest by adding a prize to any of the levels something. When I receive an offer of a prize for one of the levels, or all of the levels, I will mention that prize in a post on the day I’m notified of it in a blog post, along with a link to their website or blog, as I’ll be giving regular updates of how things are progressing (as well as my normal blog posts), mention all of them again on the day that I identify the winners and all the prizes they won; and create a widget for them that will appear on the right sidebar for a month, dofollow of course, with their blog name and, of course, the link to their blog, or website as you will, in that box. By the way, unless you’re offering something for all three prize slots, I’ll make the determination as to whether your donation is a first, second, or third prize gift.
Frankly, I don’t think I’ve seen many blog contests that offer so much, as such perceived value as it already is, and value that could increase as some sponsors might come out of the woodwork and want to offer something. Of course, my opinion is biased, but now it’s out here for everyone to see, and if you see it as a nice value then you’ll participate in the contest. And I hope you mention it to your friends, mention it in your blog posts, mention it on Twitter or Facebook or MySpace or Digg or StumbleUpon or Technorati or wherever else you want to mention it. Get the word out, and let’s at least get to that 250 figure. Like I said, it’s going to be a lot of work for me, but I don’t mind because, well, it’s all about y’all. Okay, it’s about me also, but it’s not like y’all won’t be getting anything out of it, right? Look at that Spread The Word thing just above the comment box, pick something, and do whatever it does to help get the word out. If this contest works, well, who knows what the next one, if I have another one, might be.
As Bartles and James used to say, “I thank you for your support.”
A Slave To The Numbers
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 25, 2008
Michael Jackson has the biggest selling record in the history of the industry with Thriller. At its peak, it was selling a million albums a week. Sales are estimated to be between 47 and 108 million copies worldwide. There were only nine songs on the album, but seven of them were released as singles and four of those songs went to number one; the others all made the top ten. Thriller the album won the Grammy, American Music Awards, and just so many other awards that it’s scary to try to think about it.
Thing is, since that time period, Michael Jackson has done fairly well musically, but he’s never been able to get anywhere close to the standard that Thriller did. It doesn’t seem to matter that no one else has either; people look at him as someone who did it once, so why can’t he do it again. And that’s with his second album selling over 25 million copies and having five of those songs hit number one. Even with that type of success, he, and everyone else, keeps looking at the numbers, wanting more, wanting to be better.
That type of thing hits many of us who are trying to monetize our blogs. We look at the top bloggers in the world, who show us their monthly figures, and wonder how we can get there. We check our Technorati stats to see how we’re progressing, and get worried if we slip a notch here and there every once in awhile. We check our Adsense and our Widget Bucks and our Commission Junction affiliate performances and do our tweaking, looking for that one big post, or that one big product, that’s going to put us over the top, so we can join the pantheon of top bloggers and proclaim our success to the world.
It’s tough not to. I’m one of those people, mind you. Not only do I post my monthly statistics on this blog, but I’m looking at my figures often, trying to figure out why one particular post hit the masses and made them stand up and say “hey, this was good”, or why I’ll write something else and have it totally get ignored. I wonder why my Adsense performance is so far down on my blog, but doing fairly well elsewhere. And I wonder how others are doing, those who don’t share all this information. I wonder where my blog ranks with all the other blogs in the blogosphere. Okay, sure, right now it’s ranked in the top 300 blogs, sitting at #279 (look at that badge on the right), but who knows how long that will last, or if I’ll be able to move up the ladder some more?
So, what determines our success with our blogs? Is it the number of visitors we get? Is it the amount of money that we might make, if we’re trying to make money with our blogs? Is it the design, how pretty our blogs are, or how ugly, how many ads we have on our blogs? Is it the pictures, or the widgets, or any of that fancy stuff? For that matter, is it our content?
Or is it the fact that we’re blogging to begin with, and not only blogging but adding more and more things as we go along? In a way, we put ourselves out here for the masses to grade us, and it can be somewhat scary at times. Not everyone agrees with our position, and sometimes we have to deal with that. It’s kind of life what I’m talking about in my book writing series, the guts that it takes to even start writing, let alone finishing. I look at all you wonderful people here in the blogosphere and then I look at my friends, and I can easily say that the friend to blog ratio doesn’t figure out all that well. It could be that most of my friends are older, but I’m not sure that qualifies anymore.
As I’m about to embark on another professional adventure, heading to Reno next week for a consulting assignment, I wonder whether the obsession for chasing better and better numbers will wane a bit, or whether they’ll stay as intense as they already are. In any case, I hope to keep up my blogging schedule as it is now, but realize that it might come down to 3 or 4 posts a day, unless I do what I’m hoping to do, that being writing a bunch of posts on the weekend and dating them for future posting. After all, that’s how I’ve done my book writing series, which ends Wednesday morning. I hope y’all have been checking it out, by the way, and sharing it with others. Oh yeah, I’m supposed to ask that of people, to share the idea and spread the word to anyone hoping to write anything. I guess I’m also supposed to ask you to flag them on any of those social networking blog sites so that people will supposedly come over and check the articles out for themselves.
Nah, I’m not going to ask that. It’s enough that I’ve told the world that I want more RSS subscribers (and I still do, by the way, so let’s keep it going!), but I’ll have to do with getting those higher numbers the natural way, I suppose. And I’m going to gain control over myself as it pertains to checking all those other numbers also.
Yeah, right; we all know that I’ve already checked my Adsense and my Technorati score. 
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
I'm Just Sharing is where I share my thoughts on internet marketing, writing, blogging and many other things. You never know what I'll be posting on. So keep coming back, read, enjoy, and buy something! ;)
