Today instead of giving advice, I’m asking for it.
I have a dilemma, a good one. Two summers ago I read all the Harry Potter books with my then 8-year-old and wrote a post analyzing the writing-related takeaways I picked up from the books and J.K. Rowling’s writing style.
Somehow I hit the SEO jackpot. It soon became the most popular post on this blog. It was so popular that when “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” came out last fall, I updated it and ran it again. The rerun got as much traffic as the original.
In the months since, those two posts still draw a ton of traffic. One day in May when someone used StumbleUpon to share a link to the rerun, page views for the post hit 1K, which is a good day for my blog. Today, someone else Stumbled the rerun and as I write this, page views are headed toward 3K, close to 10 times the traffic on the entire site yesterday.
What to Do With a Hit?
My question: how can I capitalize on this? Keep writing more posts about Harry Potter? Keep rerunning the same popular posts? Put up a sidebar widget on the front page of my site to showcase my most popular posts? Keep writing posts analyzing writing styles of famous authors and what other writers can learn from them?
I’ve just started the third book in the Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series (The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, etc.). I’m thinking of conducting an experiment: I’ll write a post similar to the J.K. Rowling post about what I’ve learned from Larsson’s writing style – and I have plenty to say about it – to see if it gets a similar reaction.
With “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” due in theaters July 15, I’m wondering whether to re-run the Rowling post again, or do another update. Rowling recently created a website called Pottermore.com and is six days away from making a big announcement about what she’ll be doing with it. Speculation is running rampant that she’ll use it to tell the back stories of characters from the Harry Potter series. If so, it’d make the timing for another Harry Potter post even better. (P.S. Here’s the Pottermore.com teaser Rowling posted on YouTube.)
Have you ever had a runaway hit post? What did you do?
If you’ve ever been in a similar situation, I’d love to hear about it.
What a wonderful dilemma to have, Michelle! It just goes to show how SEO and keywords can boost your views!
I think talking about the writing styles of other famous authors is a great idea. All writers can learn from that.
As a side note, the English translator of The Millenium Trilogy (Steven Murray) has agreed to an interview on my site! I’m so looking forward to that and will keep you posted. Maybe it will boost my page views?!
Very exciting. I just learned that Murray used a pen name when he translated the books – I’d love to know why. Will you ask him?
Michelle
Great problem!! 🙂
Two things:
It is critical that people realize that when they take a picture from there smartphone and post it online, unless they have turned off their GPS locating, the picture and the location that you took it (your house? your work? your kids school?) can be identified by people that have a certain software from their own computers. Be careful about that!
Secondly, Dreamtime is a pretty good, inexpensive source for zillions of cheap pictures, especially if you are looking for anything technical.
Thanks Susan, though I think you meant to leave this on the post about where to find pictures for blog posts. But good advice nonetheless.
Michelle
Michelle,
I think your take on lessons to be learned from other famous authors would be a good way to go — also, perhaps, new things you’ve learned from Harry Potter since your original posts, including, for example, the things you’ll learn from the questions you mention here.
something I’d like to see you address (or point me to, if you have already) is the value of stumble upon traffic. I know it boosts numbers, and I know that’s useful when telling people about views and readership — I’ve had a few of those big hit days as well. What I find, though, is that stumbleupon traffic, in particular, comes in the form of people who spend very short amounts of time and do not return. I’d be interested to know your thoughts on the value of this sort of traffic and the best ways to use that value. just another thing for you to think about while you are sorting Harry Potter out…
Kerry, I’m not sure I know enough about StumbleUpon traffic yet to answer your question, but it’s definitely something I’m interested in finding out too. If and when I learn more I’ll share it with everyone.
Michelle
What a wonderful problem to have! Obviously I’m too new to blogging to have had a dilemma such as this, but I, too, like the idea of talking about the writing styles of other famous writers. At the same time, why not also capitalize on the Harry Potter craze right now and maybe update the old Potter post? My thinking is that there is likely two types of people visiting your page from StumbleUpon. Those who love Harry Potter and who are searching around for possible clues into the upcoming announcement and those who are truly interested in J.K. Rowling’s writing. When the first group arrives on your page, I’d think that the only way to get them to stay is if there’s another post about Harry Potter for them to read…so maybe a link to a new Potter post on your home page would keep them around for a bit. The second group, I’d think, are the ones who have the potential to come back over and over again to see what you have to say about writing. They might be interested in the Stieg Larsson analysis. So, I’m thinking do both! And since you’re not finished with all the Larsson books right now to do a complete analysis on the writer, how about a quick contrast in writing styles (what you’re seeing so far) between Rowling and Larsson…kinda like a teaser. That’s my two cents.
Julie: I just finished the last Millennium book and am already thinking of what I’ll write about Larsson. Not sure it’ll be a comparison with Rowling though, but it’ll be something, and soon.
Michelle
I’d love to more posts in this author series. I couldn’t get into Stieg Larsson’s books, but who knows? Maybe you’ll change my mind. I actually have a post about Kathryn Stockett’s The Help appearing on my blog tomorrow morning. It was mostly inspired by how much I loved the novel but reading your experiences covering J.K. Rowling definitely helped motivate me to finish my post.
I finished the third Millennium book this weekend and have a Stieg Larsson post in the works. I’m already starting to think of other authors to include in the series: I’d love suggestions, and I’ll be interested in reading your post on Kathryn Stockett.
Michelle