6 ms·

Running A Blog: 0 to 20,000 visitors/month

55 points by antjanus 14y ago

antjanus 14y ago
I'd love to have a discussion here on the topics I listed. If you have any questions for me, or concerns, or comments, I'm happy to answer :)
- bti 14y ago
  I've been thinking of starting a blog. It would be on my personal domain and basically represent my online self. I am a web developer professionally and as a major hobby, most of my posts would be about development topics. I have other interests as well: technology, design, guitar, etc... Should these other interests in my life be represented in my posts?
  - antjanus 14y ago
    I'd stick to similar topics such as: web development, technology, and design. Guitar may not be a good mix. :)
  - mhurron 14y ago
    What is the focus of the blog? Unless you are only making a technical blog, why limit its content to the technical aspects of your life? If it is supposed to be a representation of your online self it would seem the only limit you would place on its content would be content you don't want other people seeing.
kordless 14y ago
Database error.
- antjanus 14y ago
  I'm on cheap hosting, it sometimes happens. Everything seems to be working fine now. I'll soon be moving my blog to a better system and hosting. Sorry about that.
  - robbiea 14y ago
    wpengine.com all the way. I use it for my blog and I can't recommend it enough. I also did it after HN took down my site when my articles were on the front page.
    - antjanus 14y ago
      for those prices, I might as well buy a VPS :P I'd need the professional which is $100/month. There is better pricing out there for that amount!
  - toast0 14y ago
    Given that your commenting is on Disqus, is anything on the page actually dynamic for a given viewer? When you add/edit a post, can't you just precompute all* the html/rss output and serve users static pages? Even a super cheap webhost can server static pages super fast. (You'll want to be aware of HTTP caching if you go full out on this; if you serve from static files you'll get a Last-Modified header which triggers cachability heuristics that you don't deal with now) I do recognize that you'll have to update all of your blog entry pages to reflect changes in the recent posts section.
- ForFreedom 14y ago
  Try mediatemple.com
kafkaesque 14y ago
From a marketing point of view, yes, all this branding stuff is pretty accurate. I write for a living with varying success rates and we do all this stuff on our business blog. One constructive criticism I have is that, contrary to what the OP says, people (especially business/admin/management people) love lists. And they love when, in an enumerated list, there are pithy sentences in bold summarizing a given point. People also love sub-headings. It allows readers to quickly scan your article and find specific things they're looking for or look for things that may interest them. Most of these types of people do not actually read long articles either. That whole Keep It Simple Stupid and stuff. Having said that, and to add a bit of balance, it depends what purpose your blog serves. I have a personal blog which verges on the 'academic portfolio' side of things, and it couldn't be more different. I have zero ads, no SEO, few links, and as few images as possible. I do enough marketing at work that drives me up the wall, however. My personal blog focuses on content and writing organically. I use categories to organise the content. I never use tags, though I might change this. I try to write on esoteric topics and sometimes touch upon rare or hard-to-find vinyl records. I rarely write on controversial topics, mostly because my 'controversial' opinions would require a longer explanation; I don't have time to write them and people would most likely not read them in their entirety, yet still either feel offended or it would cause them to write an inaccurate, incomplete reply/rebuttal.
- antjanus 14y ago
  It's more of a personal preference. When I started writing the blog, the "top 10" was the craze and often offered no details on the topics. Such as "Top 10 ways to speed up your blog! #1 Cache, #2 Plugin administration" without offering explanation as to what caching is (for the non-tech audience) and how to get it working on your blog. I have a couple of "top 10" articles, and while they do very well (like you said, people love them), I'm not too fond of them. :) Anyways, I keep up ads to pay for hosting and such. It's not a big expense but it helps to have that covered!
  - kafkaesque 14y ago
    That's true. Another thing to note is that including numbers in titles also attracts more clicks. On our business blog, we've had varying success with that, though. Good luck with the blog! :)
andys627 14y ago
What were some key things that got you from 5-10 visits to 50-100 visita /day? Thx for awesome post
- antjanus 14y ago
  :) that's what the post is about: * my site is well designed, easy to read * responsive design ensures repeat visits from people (ie. people don't just say "well, fuck, can't see it on my phone") * publishing schedule that ensured I had fresh content every week * putting strong opinions into my articles. People like reading strong opinions * listening to readers and adjusting design/content according to concerns * analytics which allowed me to measure which topics are more successful and popular than others * strong branding and community involvement that makes my name recognizable on several well-trafficked forums. But let me simplify that a bit: * write GOOD content. Something new, something fresh, something that answers questions that people have. Put yourself into it, make it passionate. * share your content wherever you're active. Whether it's forrst, linkedin, or reddit, be active, be recognizable, have a history of commenting on other people's stuff, and post at good intervals. I get most of my traffic from there * analytics: analyze your strong points and weak points. Figure out what's getting ranked on google from all the awesome stuff you write. Make that topic stronger, support it with a few more articles. :) That's basically it! My articles were popular, they got shared, they got linked, raised my PR, gave me traffic, and show up on the front page for several great keywords!
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - gnu8 14y ago
    I feel like you wrote this post to the same standard. e.g. "people love lists".
    - antjanus 14y ago
      hmmm, I guess you caught me there. I wish I had been more specific. I find many list-based posts, short, and linkbait-like without any real sort of information, often covering broad topics with general statements. Or, on the other hand, provide 10 links to 10 places with 10 images and no explanation whatsoever why those ten links were chosen. I don't see the trend as prevalent today as it was last year where every post was a "Top 10 SEO tricks" and each "trick" was just a synonym for the same thing, eg "1. Write better - because writing is good. 2. Better content - because content is good. 3. Quality material - because quality is good". I definitely do have a certain structure to my posts. My headings allow easy scanning but I also offer detail on each topic. For example, when I discuss "Unreliable Hosting", I try to explain WHAT I did wrong and WHY. I feel like it's hard to get away from such a structure.

55 points by antjanus 14y ago

I'd love to have a discussion here on the topics I listed. If you have any questions for me, or concerns, or comments, I'm happy to answer :)

bti 14y ago
I've been thinking of starting a blog. It would be on my personal domain and basically represent my online self. I am a web developer professionally and as a major hobby, most of my posts would be about development topics. I have other interests as well: technology, design, guitar, etc... Should these other interests in my life be represented in my posts?
- antjanus 14y ago
  I'd stick to similar topics such as: web development, technology, and design. Guitar may not be a good mix. :)
- mhurron 14y ago
  What is the focus of the blog? Unless you are only making a technical blog, why limit its content to the technical aspects of your life? If it is supposed to be a representation of your online self it would seem the only limit you would place on its content would be content you don't want other people seeing.

kordless 14y ago

Database error.

antjanus 14y ago
I'm on cheap hosting, it sometimes happens. Everything seems to be working fine now. I'll soon be moving my blog to a better system and hosting. Sorry about that.
- robbiea 14y ago
  wpengine.com all the way. I use it for my blog and I can't recommend it enough. I also did it after HN took down my site when my articles were on the front page.
  - antjanus 14y ago
    for those prices, I might as well buy a VPS :P I'd need the professional which is $100/month. There is better pricing out there for that amount!
- toast0 14y ago
  Given that your commenting is on Disqus, is anything on the page actually dynamic for a given viewer? When you add/edit a post, can't you just precompute all* the html/rss output and serve users static pages? Even a super cheap webhost can server static pages super fast. (You'll want to be aware of HTTP caching if you go full out on this; if you serve from static files you'll get a Last-Modified header which triggers cachability heuristics that you don't deal with now) I do recognize that you'll have to update all of your blog entry pages to reflect changes in the recent posts section.
ForFreedom 14y ago
Try mediatemple.com

kafkaesque 14y ago

From a marketing point of view, yes, all this branding stuff is pretty accurate. I write for a living with varying success rates and we do all this stuff on our business blog. One constructive criticism I have is that, contrary to what the OP says, people (especially business/admin/management people) love lists. And they love when, in an enumerated list, there are pithy sentences in bold summarizing a given point. People also love sub-headings. It allows readers to quickly scan your article and find specific things they're looking for or look for things that may interest them. Most of these types of people do not actually read long articles either. That whole Keep It Simple Stupid and stuff. Having said that, and to add a bit of balance, it depends what purpose your blog serves. I have a personal blog which verges on the 'academic portfolio' side of things, and it couldn't be more different. I have zero ads, no SEO, few links, and as few images as possible. I do enough marketing at work that drives me up the wall, however. My personal blog focuses on content and writing organically. I use categories to organise the content. I never use tags, though I might change this. I try to write on esoteric topics and sometimes touch upon rare or hard-to-find vinyl records. I rarely write on controversial topics, mostly because my 'controversial' opinions would require a longer explanation; I don't have time to write them and people would most likely not read them in their entirety, yet still either feel offended or it would cause them to write an inaccurate, incomplete reply/rebuttal.

antjanus 14y ago
It's more of a personal preference. When I started writing the blog, the "top 10" was the craze and often offered no details on the topics. Such as "Top 10 ways to speed up your blog! #1 Cache, #2 Plugin administration" without offering explanation as to what caching is (for the non-tech audience) and how to get it working on your blog. I have a couple of "top 10" articles, and while they do very well (like you said, people love them), I'm not too fond of them. :) Anyways, I keep up ads to pay for hosting and such. It's not a big expense but it helps to have that covered!
- kafkaesque 14y ago
  That's true. Another thing to note is that including numbers in titles also attracts more clicks. On our business blog, we've had varying success with that, though. Good luck with the blog! :)

andys627 14y ago

What were some key things that got you from 5-10 visits to 50-100 visita /day? Thx for awesome post

antjanus 14y ago
:) that's what the post is about: * my site is well designed, easy to read * responsive design ensures repeat visits from people (ie. people don't just say "well, fuck, can't see it on my phone") * publishing schedule that ensured I had fresh content every week * putting strong opinions into my articles. People like reading strong opinions * listening to readers and adjusting design/content according to concerns * analytics which allowed me to measure which topics are more successful and popular than others * strong branding and community involvement that makes my name recognizable on several well-trafficked forums. But let me simplify that a bit: * write GOOD content. Something new, something fresh, something that answers questions that people have. Put yourself into it, make it passionate. * share your content wherever you're active. Whether it's forrst, linkedin, or reddit, be active, be recognizable, have a history of commenting on other people's stuff, and post at good intervals. I get most of my traffic from there * analytics: analyze your strong points and weak points. Figure out what's getting ranked on google from all the awesome stuff you write. Make that topic stronger, support it with a few more articles. :) That's basically it! My articles were popular, they got shared, they got linked, raised my PR, gave me traffic, and show up on the front page for several great keywords!
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- gnu8 14y ago
  I feel like you wrote this post to the same standard. e.g. "people love lists".
  - antjanus 14y ago
    hmmm, I guess you caught me there. I wish I had been more specific. I find many list-based posts, short, and linkbait-like without any real sort of information, often covering broad topics with general statements. Or, on the other hand, provide 10 links to 10 places with 10 images and no explanation whatsoever why those ten links were chosen. I don't see the trend as prevalent today as it was last year where every post was a "Top 10 SEO tricks" and each "trick" was just a synonym for the same thing, eg "1. Write better - because writing is good. 2. Better content - because content is good. 3. Quality material - because quality is good". I definitely do have a certain structure to my posts. My headings allow easy scanning but I also offer detail on each topic. For example, when I discuss "Unreliable Hosting", I try to explain WHAT I did wrong and WHY. I feel like it's hard to get away from such a structure.