I’m taking a cue from public companies and issuing a quarterly report on this blog. I started WordCount as a New Year’s resolution, so the end of March marked the end of my first quarter as a blogger. Here are some highlights:
Readership – More people are discovering the blog. Page views grew exponentially over the quarter, hitting 2,000 in March, up from 300 in January. A good trend, but still pretty measly numbers. I have a lot to learn about marketing my blog – that’s on my to-do list for Q2.
Top posts – Since WordCount is a blog for freelance writers, it follows that the most popular posts have been on topics writers are interested in. Hands down the most popular post I’ve done to date is a list of the best blogs for writers. Here’s a list of my top 3 posts based on number of page views:
1. Best Blogs for Writers, 635 page views
2. What Freelance Writers Need to Know about SEO, 320 page views
3. 10 Basic Web Tools for Freelancers, 215 page views
I’m tracking these things as a way to helping me decide what to write about.
Reader Interaction – I can still remember the day I got my first reader comment – from my mom. I love my mom and she’s a faithful reader – just as I’m a faithful reader of my daughter’s blog from college. But talk about a reality check. Since then I’ve heard from lots of freelancers and other random readers. I’m working hard to make WordCount more interactive, keep the conversation going and be a reciprocal commenter.
What I need to work on – Regularity. I’m trying to post three times a week, but in reality when I’m on deadline or things at home swirl out of control, my blog posts drop to twice a week. I’m trying to write more spur-of-the-moment posts and not as many on pre-planned subjects, though the latter – like the best blogs for writers post – appear to attract the most readers. For the foreseeable future, expect to see the same mix of insta-posts and more deliberate, researched items.
I also need to work on some updates. During the next quarter I’ll be updating the links on my front page and overhauling my Clips page. My LinkedIn profile is due for an update too, to reflect some new work I’m doing.
If there’s something you think the world of freelance writer blogs is missing, let me know and I try to cover it here.