It’s hard to believe that 2013 is now upon us and 2012 is in the books. December was definitely a hectic month in the Frugal Rules household as we had family visiting throughout the month and we started looking at business prospects for the New Year. December was my third full month at blogging and as you read this post, Frugal Rules will be officially four months old. As I look at the New Year there are a few things, in specific, that I have in mind in terms of the site. The first, and most important, thing I am looking at is a complete redesign of the site. I really like the layout of my theme and the magazine feel it has about it. However, the developer of the theme has stopped supporting it and that has jumpstarted my desire to make some changes. I was already thinking of doing it, but his falling off the face of the earth is making the change necessary. Other changes are more conceptual in nature at this point, but suffice it to say that I am excited as I consider the future of Frugal Rules.
Statistics
Overall, it was a very good month for Frugal Rules. I am now consistently getting at least 40-50% of my daily visitors as a result of search engine traffic. The highlight of the month was hitting over 1,100 visitors on December 23rd. In fact, the weekend before Christmas Frugal Rules was going nuts as apparently a lot of people were looking for last minute Christmas gift ideas. The downside of getting all of the search traffic was that it skewed some of my other numbers, which is to be expected I guess. I am also nearing going below the 50,000 mark in Alexa and have pretty much stopped watching it as there are much more important numbers to watch in my opinion. Now on to the stats:
- 12, 122 Page Views in November
- 15, 839 Page Views in December (30.66% increase)
- 2.21 Pages per visit in November
- 1.77 Pages per visit in December
- 60.71% Bounce Rate in November
- 72.55% Bounce Rate in December
I also had a goal to reach 900 Twitter followers and 100 Facebook likes. Thanks to two giveaways I blew those numbers out of the water and ended up with 1,427 Twitter followers and 936 Facebook likes. Nothing like buying a little social media love! Speaking of giveaways, you’ll want to make sure and stop by this afternoon for another awesome giveaway. If possible, it’s better than the iPad 3 Giveaway. I also had one other goal of doing two guest posts and was able to accomplish that.
Blog Goals for the Month of January
I am not exactly certain what to expect as the New Year begins in terms of traffic but think the goals I’ve set are attainable with some effort. My blog goals for January are:
- 17,000 Page Views
- 1,750 Twitter followers and 1,000 Facebook likes
- Bounce Rate under 65%
- Guest post on two sites
For other bloggers, how are your goals going or have you even set blog goals? Is anyone using Google + for their blog? I have a page, but that’s about it.
Photo courtesy of: Capellas3
Great stats John, your blog is growing quite quickly.
I was thinking about adding google+. I might make it one of my goals for next month.
Glen @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted..Sell Structured Settlement Payments – Lump Sum vs Annuity
Thanks Glen, you’re not doing too half bad yourself either.
I just find that I don’t have the time at the end of the day to focus on another thing, who knows.
Truly phenomenal growth, John. I am reluctant to start up on Google plus or even a Facebook page due to limited time for maintenance. If you do decide to try Google plus, I would love to hear your opinion about it.
Jennifer Lynn @ Broke-Ass Mommy recently posted..Being sickies gives me the perfect excuse to shop.
Thanks Jennifer. I was as well, but just started one to say that I have one. Beyond that I am clueless on it.
Those are crazy good stats for a blog of your age.. Keep doing what you are doing, sir.. You are certainly on the right path!
Jefferson @SeeDebtRun recently posted..How to Handle an Epic Failure
Thanks Jefferson!
Awesome John! We don’t track things like we should but I would be curious to see our numbers.
You are doing awesome!
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted..$1,000 Cash Giveaway!!!
Thanks Holly! You and Greg are doing pretty awesome as well.
Wow your blog is definitely doing great! Good job
Michelle recently posted..Ways to Earn Extra Income Part 1
Thanks Michelle!
Great job! I finally got over the 1000 Twitter follower hurdle just this week. Congrats on the growth of your blog!
Thad recently posted..Guest Post: Why Restaurants are Moving to Mobile Payment Systems
Thanks Thad. It seemed like it took forever to hit 1000, hopefully getting to 2000 won’t take as long.
You`re doing so well. Congrats John, keep it up!
Catherine recently posted..Structured Settlement $1000.00 Cash Giveaway!
Thanks Catherine, you’re doing pretty good yourself.
I know (because I see your comments and tweets) that you’ve put in a lot of effort into growing your blog and reaching out to others, so I’m happy that you are seeing results! I haven’t checked Google Analytics for almost two weeks now, and I’m pretty happy about that. I may check it sometime within the next few days just to see what search terms are getting me traffic so that I can brainstorm posts…but I am going to try not to focus too much on the traffic.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted..$1000 Cash Giveaway – Structured Settlement Edition
Yes, it has taken a lot of time and effort, but it’s worth it for me. I really don’t spend a whole lot of time on Google Analytics, maybe 5-10 minutes per day. I’ve created a handy dandy little spreadsheet that I put a lot of the info in each morning so it’s there for me to analyze.
It’ll be exciting to see any changes you make, especially if you get a new design! I love redesigns and new looks…
Anyhow, I do use G+ but I don’t see much that comes from it. I primarily use it simply as an extra link to my post. My website goals are coming together and I’m pretty excited about 2013. While things can change at any moment, I think there are some exciting times ahead for WSL. I guess it all hinges on the next PR update…so I’m anxiously awaiting that.
Jason @ WorkSaveLive recently posted..Recipe: Green Chile Enchiladas
It is exciting, but then again I remember I have to find the time to do it and wonder where on earth it’s going to come from.
I would agree with you about WSL. I think you’ve been doing all the right things and see great things for you.
Google+? Yeh, I use it, although I haven;t put a huge amount of time into it. Unlike Twitter, it has community pages, so you could join one for personal finance, debt management or what have you, and I think it’s a little more “serious” than facebook. What I mean by that, is that if I want to chat to my friends and look at pictures of cats being cute, then I do facebook. I don’t get the impression google+ is quite like that. Also, google+ posts sometimes show up in google news, certainly mine have.
Personally, I’m going to focus on spending a bit more effort on twitter if time lets me
Well done on your stats btw, I’ve been blogging for a little over 3 months and have a HUGE 83 twitter followers 0.o so I’m not too far behind
Matt recently posted..New Year’s Resolution – Getting Fitter
I’ve heard the same thing about G+ Matt. Looking at it does make it seem more serious than Facebook which I like to some extent. Twitter has been a huge boost for my site and get a good bit of traffic from it.
The other thing you get from google+ is some google love as well of course. Google doesn’t have access to a lot of facebook and twitter data anymore, but the G+ button does give it some partial social popularity data, which helps SERP rankings. I’d rather have 100 G+’s than FB likes anyday.
And if you’re looking for a PF community to join, try here: https://plus.google.com/communities/101521912806093147726
So if you don;t ming me asking… How did you get so many twitter followers? Was it just sharing other people’s posts on an industrial scale? Or was there some other tactic?
All the best for 2013, hope your blog continues to grow
Matt recently posted..Save Your Shoes!
Thanks for the information Matt! I’ll have to check that group out.
To be honest, the large majority of my Twitter following is through sharing a ton of other posts. I’ve picked up some through giveaways, but no more than a couple hundred.
Wow that is awesome. I wasn’t seeing those types of results until much later. You seem to have a good handle on this blogging stuff!
Lance at Money Life and More recently posted..Bold Move By Discover – The Discover it™ Credit Card
Thanks Lance. I have to admit that the biggest contributor is simply time.
You have done awesome John! My blog is the same age as yours, but I am not nearly as far along as you. Not too far behind, but I have a lot of work to do. Keep up the good work. I have a google + page and it is ok. I only put up a few of my best posts on there, but I did start a personal finance bloggers community page not too long ago. It only has a few members and I am not sure if it is worth the time. I do recommend promoting your page and adding posts to it. Google seems to like when you use it!
Grayson @ Debt Roundup recently posted..5 Pricing Tricks to Be Wary Of
Thanks Grayson! You’re doing a pretty awesome job yourself. I’ve heard the same thing about G+. I want to use it and see some of the value in it…I just don’t know where the time would come from.
Great job! I think page view is the only thing I really care about. Bounce rate and page view per visit are more dependent on the referral source. I don’t think those are a big deal.
Midlife Finance recently posted..Resolve Your Future in 2013
That is the main thing I look at myself. Well that and the amount of search traffic I am getting.
Congrats on the huge december traffic. I have a post like that about tipping the mailman which always takes off right before Christmas. My experience has always been that Jan-April are the busiest times for personal finance bloggers, so you should continue to experience great traffic!
The College Investor recently posted..The Bull Market is Set to Run for Years
Thanks! A lot of it came from my two posts around tipping & gifts. I thought the counter was wrong when I looked one day and saw 1,000 visitors.
You’re going to be a huge blog in a very short time. I hope you remember the little people! I have a Google + page, but have done nothing for it. I just got the Facebook up and running not too long ago, but I’m sure Google is one more thing I should add. Congrats on the growth.
Kim@Eyesonthedollar recently posted..Would You Take a Lump Sum for A Structured Settlement?
Thanks Kim! While that is my goal, I do hope that I am the type of person who would not consider himself too “big” or “busy” to work with or help others. I am in the same boat in regards to Facebook/G+…I just need to find the time.
Same here, I do have a Google+ account for my blog but I can’t really understand how it works. I have two new blogs and I am still working on its design and layout. There is an article added every day to attract visitors every day and increase its traffic.
Manette @ Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance recently posted..GET HELP WITH DEBT; AND DEBT SCHOLARSHIP
I have been in the same boat Manette. I just need to sit down and take the time to learn it.
Wow, you totally rocked it in December!! Congrats!!
Mackenzie recently posted..Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Thanks Mackenzie!
Great numbers there John! It’s nice to see so much traffic coming from search engines
I would highly recommend you add authorship to your blog through rich snippet markup. I have noticed across various websites that posts that have author markup rank better in search than those that don’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw a third increase in traffic just by adding that. Also, the number of followers etc on Google+ on that author’s page influences your Authorship authority.
Hope that helps!
Veronica @ Pelican on Money recently posted..The Best of Pelican on Money 2012
Thanks Veronica! Be on the look out for an email, as I think I may be sending you one.
Wow you killed it! You’ve been putting the hard work in and it’s definitely showing! Keep up the good work…I know how time consuming it can be!
Budget & the Beach recently posted..I’m on a Money Diet
Thanks Tanya! Yes, it is terribly time consuming…too much so in fact, if you let it.
Great job! I have Google + like you, just opened, and I didn’t know it improved your rankings like Veronica said, so thanks for the tip Veronica, that is great to know. Twitter is already a time sucker and my FB page has recently taken off so I think I’ll wait until I master the two before adding G+
Pauline recently posted..$1000 giveaway! What are structured settlements?
Thanks Pauline! I feel the same exact way in regards to G+, the other two take so much time that I need to be comfortable with it so I don’t waste even more time.
I haven’t seen any case studies of how the number of followers on Google+ affects your authorship authority, but I have seen proven studies of how adding authorship to your articles increases their ranks. Here is a good article on “author rank”: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-prepare-for-authorrank-and-get-the-jump-on-google
Veronica @ Pelican on Money recently posted..The Best of Pelican on Money 2012
Thanks for this Veronica, I am going to read it tonight.
I have hit my goals consistently but am looking for ways to increase traffic as well. I’m very interested in learned how to host a give away.
Brick By Brick Investing | Marvin recently posted..Slow is Smooth & Smooth is Fast
That’s awesome Marvin! It’s always a good feeling to hit your goals. I’ll shoot you an email about giveaways.
Wow. That’s truly impressive. I’m on target to hit 6k pageviews this month for my food blog; only took 2 1/2 years to get there!
As far as Google+ goes, I have it but I’m not personally a fan. Aside from the hangouts, which I’ve never used, there is nothing really to differentiate it from Facebook and they still haven’t released the write-API, which makes it more difficult to actually incorporate it into blog marketing.
Edward Antrobus recently posted..3 Ways to Save Money When Moving
Thanks Edward. I can say one thing, it has taken a TON of time. From what I’ve seen I am not a huge fan of G+, but I wonder if any sustainable traffic can come from it or if it can help out in any other way.
Well, Google does take into account social media shares into rankings, at least for social media platforms that they can index. So by sharing your posts on G+, you are increasing your rankings and indirectly influencing your search traffic.
Edward Antrobus recently posted..DirecTV Saga: Part II
That’s very true Edward. I know I need to find the time to work on it some, but then again I would also love a 26 hour day.
Your pageviews continue to astonish and amaze me. Can’t wait to see what this year brings!
Kathleen, Frugal Portland recently posted..January net worth: a fresh start
Glad I can be here to amaze Kathleen.
I am looking forward to what this year has in store as well.
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Amazing numbers! What do you think is more important? Your killer content or the way you network with others? Keep it up!
Buck Inspire recently posted..Life Is Expensive, Be Prepared
Wow, thanks for the compliment Buck! I think it’s a combination of the two (Not to toot my own horn). You have to have the content to keep them, but the networking brings them in.