Reflecting on Blog Data

The first week of the Slice of Life 2015 Blogging Challenge is in the books. I was reluctant to sign up for the challenge again this year, but I am so glad I did. The past week was just the push I needed to re-gain confidence in my writing.

I have had a blog since 2010. In the beginning I wrote very regularly – once a week on Saturday morning. Over the years my writing regularity would vary. Life got busy and I didn’t always spend my Saturday mornings reflecting on something of my past week or about education in general.

As an school improvement consultant, I spend a lot of time guiding teachers in various forms of data analysis. So naturally I became fascinated with my own blogging data. I often analyzed my daily and monthly summary reports. Learning which posts were popular drove further posts on similar topics.

Then something changed.

I moved my blog from one domain (free) to this one (paid) about a year ago. I transferred all my old posts because I wanted to preserve my writing journey. My past posts were important. I started as a very reluctant writer. The more I wrote the more my confidence grew. My posts were my history, my history of a developing writer. Unfortunately the visitor data on my new blog started over at square one.

I did leave the other blog up, but no longer post on it. On occasion I wonder about the activity on that blog and end up checking the summary reports. I don’t dwell on it, but there is a little part of me discouraged that the old blog has taken on a life of its own. I haven’t written a real post since on it since March 30, 2014. Yet it gets far more hits a day than this blog.  Many posts are linked to other writers’ popular posts which drives a lot of traffic. Some posts are linked to course work. Other posts have been visited so often they show up early on Internet searches on the topics.

For example –

• On February 22, 2015 my old blog (that will remain nameless) received 173 hits.
• On the same day (Feb. 22) this blog (http:kathyperret.net) received 3 hits.

Like I said earlier, this past week of daily blogging has boost my confidence. I have enjoyed having more visitors. The comments have been a breath of fresh air! Yesterday’s data on both blogs was closer than the example above. The old blog had 168 hits and this blog had 94 (an all time high – but a far cry from the all time daily high of 1,118 on the old blog.)

Writing has been difficult for me most of my life. I do not have fond memories of being a writer in my K-12 school life. I remember feeling that my writing was not good enough. Teachers always had “suggestions” on how to make it “better.” Writing wasn’t about expressing thoughts, it was about getting everything grammatically correct. I was pretty scarred by the red pens that bled over my papers. The reluctancy followed me into my adulthood

Now I love the challenge. I have always been the educator that shares with others. Blogging is like gardening. I love planting seeds of ideas and watching others grow. I love hearing about how someone took an idea from a post and made it their own.

But I do want to build my reach. My action steps include…

• Continue to write during the Slice of Life challenge and BEYOND.
• Strengthen contacts with other bloggers by commenting more.
• Check to see what is driving traffic to my old blog. Perhaps links can be changed to the current blog/post.
• Keep my eye open for guest blogging opportunities.

I’d love to hear how you build your reach?

March 2015, I am blogging daily as a part of the Slice of Life Story Challenge! This is post #9. More Slice of Life posts from other bloggers can be found on Two Writing Teachers.