Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter
Lines of code from The Matrix (1999).
One question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is: what sets the top blogs and websites apart, from a visitor’s perspective?
The question has an astonishing answer. It’s not traffic, it’s often not subscriber numbers and it’s not advertising revenue. These are the things visitors don’t see, or don’t have to see.
If what visitors do see makes your blog or website look popular and successful, to visitors, it becomes popular and successful. Once that happens, it’s only a matter of time before the numbers begin to fall into line with the way people see you.
I call this The Matrix model because, as we saw in the film, we accept what we see and experience as reality (even if that’s not the case beneath the surface). If you can influence the way visitors perceive your site, a blog or website with modest traffic and little advertising revenue can start to look like a niche authority.
In this post, I want to explain how you can apply The Matrix model to your own site.
Down the rabbit hole: thinking like daily visitor #134
We’ll start by looking at the evaluation process. What causes a visitor to see a website or blog as a niche authority?
As an experiment, let’s imagine you’re first-time visitor to Copyblogger (or maybe you are). It’s one of the most popular blogs in the world. As a visitor, you’d probably be able to guess this, even if you didn’t know. It ‘looks’ like a popular blog in a number of ways:
- The average comment count on posts is around 30.
- It has between 25,000 and 30,000 subscribers.
- It has a professional-looking and unique design.
- It displays 125 x 125 pixel banner ads — an advertising method common on well-known blogs and websites.
There are enough supporting characteristics that Copyblogger would still look like an authority, even if it didn’t display its hefty subscriber count. For the same reason, you’d know Dosh Dosh and Freelance Folder were niche authorities, even though neither blog shares its subscriber numbers.
As a visitor, you’d assume both blogs had several thousand subscribers — even if this wasn’t nearly the case. You’d also assume all the above blogs were turning a profit — but do we really know they aren’t running in the red?
What I’m trying to get across is that much of what a visitor perceives a website or blog to be is (necessarily) based on assumption. The assumption is based on characteristics common across popular blogs and website. Characteristics you can work to introduce into your own site, regardless of what the statistics below the surface look like.
Your site can tell a different story than the one told by your statistics. Your site can be a lot more than the sum of your traffic, subscribers and revenue.
The subscriber count/comment count see-saw
Let’s do another quick experiment. Open Church of the Customer in a new tab or window. One of the first things you’ll notice is a subscriber count we’d all die for. As I write this, it’s at 121K.
Forget about it for a moment. Imagine the blog didn’t display its subscriber count at all. Scroll down the posts, taking in the number of comments on each. While it’s not bad, it’s not what you’d expect from a 121K subscriber base. Most posts have less than ten comments.
If the subscriber count wasn’t displayed, you’d probably assume the blog was somewhere in the middle band of the marketing niche — not a niche leader, as CotC really is.
Here’s the see-saw: if you have an authority-level subscriber count, comments don’t matter so much. If you don’t have an authority-level subscriber count, your comments will need to tell the story you want them to.
Some tips to help you do this:
- If you respond to every comment made, you double your comment count.
- If you engage with commenters, they have a reason to comment again.
- If you ask questions, you’ll get answers.
- If you make commenting more rewarding, you’ll get more comments.
Practicing each of these strategies can raise your comment count to levels rarely seen on A-list blogs, even when your traffic and subscriber count is modest. Acknowledgment matters much more than traffic when it comes to comments.
Looking beneath the surface of a hallway in The Matrix (1999).
The truth about subscribers: your visitors will assume
One mistake I made with Skelliewag, now that I’m following The Matrix model, was to show my subscriber count too early. I starting showing it at about 300 subscribers.
Looking back on it, the community participation at the time (in terms of comments) would have made the blog seem a lot more popular than the story told by my 300 subscribers.
If I hadn’t shown my subscriber count early on, visitors may well have assumed it was significantly higher than that.
If your comments tell the story of a bigger blog or website, let your visitors assume your subscriber popularity — at least until the number starts to fall in line with assumptions.
Design matters: here’s why
Something we’ve all heard is that if you want to build a popular site, you need to take design seriously.
I agree, but it’s not just because there’s something intrinsically good about a unique design. It’s because clever and professional design is a characteristic of the world’s most popular blogs and websites.
As you’ll remember, The Matrix model hinges on imbuing your site with all the characteristics of a niche authority. Good design is one of them.
If you don’t know how to code or can’t afford a designer, pick a rarely used but high quality theme and design a custom header image for it. If you don’t have the ability or the resources, get someone to do that for you. It will be a lot cheaper than buying a design from scratch.
Do anything to avoid using themes that we see everywhere. They’ll quash the uniqueness of your site.
Make money like you don’t need it
Take a look at the most popular blogs in your niche and pay some attention to how they advertise.
If they use AdSense, it’s often tastefully blended with the site design and color scheme.
They might also be using 125 x 125 banner ads, which you’ve probably seen at ProBlogger (a blog I know many of you read). These are probably the most visually pleasing ad styles and have become increasingly popular with well-established sites.
Even if your blog or website shares many characteristics with the main players in your niche, a gaudy or unsophisticated advertising strategy can make your site look cheap and desperate for money.
The most popular blogs and websites tend to opt for a less-is-more strategy. They have less ads, but are able to charge more for each.
On a smaller scale, there’s no reason why you couldn’t emulate this. The reason most young blogs and websites end up using AdSense is because they assume no other advertisers are going to be interested. You’d be surprised at what you can achieve by being audacious.
You are what you do
You’ll never be seen as an authority unless you act like one. If no-one ever talks about you, if you’re not remarkable, people simply aren’t going to take notice.
In the beginning, few people will know about you, so you won’t be mentioned often. In that space, you need to do a lot of talking about yourself. Guest-post, join forums, leave comments.
I don’t want you to talk about yourself in the traditional sense. Instead, I’m referring to the things you do to reach out to new audiences.
Carry yourself like an authority. Communicate professionally and politely. Share your knowledge and insight. Most of all, help people. You can’t make a stronger connection with your audience than that.
Because you can’t do all the talking yourself, start doings remarkable things once you have a base to work from. Write your most popular post ever and send it out to your niche’s main players. Elevate the places you talk about yourself. Guest-post on a huge blog. Write something you want to see on the front page of Digg. It’s easier than you think (the key ingredient is time).
Like most things, all you’ve got to do is ask. If you want a link, ask for it. If you want social media votes, ask for them. If you make a habit of giving more than you take, people will be eager to help you in return.
Once people begin to see you everywhere, they’ll assume you’re a dominant force in your niche. If your blog or website tells the same story, to them, you are dominant in your niche.
What this all means
You can create reality for your visitors by presenting your blog or website in the way you’d like it to be seen.
Feel liberated by the fact that your visitors can’t see your traffic, your subscribers and your profits unless you decide to share them. Don’t let these factors constrain you.
If your visitors perceive you as a niche authority, they’re more likely to subscribe, to read what you have to say, to vote for your articles and link to your content. Soon enough, the statistics beneath the surface will begin to reflect the story you tell.
If you have any questions about The Matrix model, I’d like to answer them in the comments here.
This Matrix model reminds me of social proof ideas….letting your readers see evidence of your blogs authority and making assumptions about how knowledgeable you are based on those various things.
Hmmm….how to blend in with the crowd (look like popular and successful blogs) but also stand out enough to be unique? That is the question…..
Patrick, it’s very influenced by social proof ideas. I think that’s an area that has a huge influence on what we do, but doesn’t get enough coverage. This was my attempt to change that, just a little.
I think you can absolutely be unique while assuming some of the characteristics of popular blogs. Within that scope (lots of comments , or subscribers, a unique design, certain types of advertising, acting like an authority) there’s plenty of room for innovation :-).
*Aaron looks over his shoulder, hoping to find Skellie’s hidden camera*
Skellie, you’re doing a great job of writing *fresh* articles about blogging. If I didn’t know any better, I swear you are a mind reader because this has been my strategy all along.
Btw, I’d really appreciate the option to subscribe to comments. The plug-in I linked to makes it much easier to respond to follow up comments.
Your insights in the meta-blogging arena continue to impress, Skellie.
I’ve been implementing a similar strategy without ever realizing it. I’ve tried to make my site as clean as possible, in line with the less-is-more philosophy — a vast transformation from my previous design which was cluttered with useless widgets like my recent tracks from last.fm or pointless polls.
And I have to say, you really have taken the great Grid Focus theme and made it your own, Skellie…now, whenever I see it on another blog, I think of this site! In fact, I’ve even gone ahead and used it for a client site (albeit with significant customizations), and they loved that it looked similar to your site!
Thanks for another great article,
-Ravi
@ Aaron: Thanks! I was a little worried this strategy would come across as strange, so I’m glad to hear that others have already been thinking about (and using it).
I just activated Subscribe to comments, but it’s not showing up for me yet. Hopefully it sorts itself out eventually :-).
@ Ravi: Thank you. It’s great to see that you implemented some suggestions from the simplicity review I did. The header is really eye-catching!
Grid Focus was a really lucky find. I’m the kind of person who will design something and then get sick of it after a few weeks, but I can’t see myself changing this theme. I plan to be very boring and stick with it for a long time ;).
Skellie, I see a checkbox below the submit button now. That’s where the ’subscribe to comments’ text and box should be, so I’m going to give it a try.
Odd. If you look at the html, it is the subscribe to comments button, but no text is included to label the box.
Okay Skellie,
That was a BRILLIANT post. Just B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T!
I’ve been setting our own blog to follow what the major players in our arena are doing. We’re also aggressively looking at off line opportunities to get our name out there.
Not long ago, we got asked by one of the major search engines to write content for one their divisions … that was a joyous day, but we have bigger plans in mind for the future.
Skellie, I read you post every night (my time or morning your time) because they make me think and they allow me to readjust our business.
Because our niche is not business or money making, we can adopt and adapt some of the best techniques from these niche to our own.
Once again this is not only brilliant, but uplifting.
Thanks!
Gisele
Hi Skellie
I agree a well written post, and along the lines of the “social proof” concept that Patrick mentions (I’ve never seen the Matrix, so I can’t really make the parallel).
One thing that stopped me though, was when you suggested “asking for links”. That’s just something I’d never be able to do. I always feel very awkward when someone asks me for a blogroll link exchange, for example, and I’d hate to put anyone else in that position. Maybe it’s just me? It’s a fine line I guess.
@ Gisele: That’s wonderful to hear. Thank you!
@ Meg: You can do it in a pretty subtle way. Usually it just involves sending a link to a blogger you read (preferably one you might have corresponded with you before) and just say: “I’m really proud of this. I thought your readers might be interested.” That’s it. I’ve received links from a number of big-name blogs that way.
I absolutely agree — it feels a little weird, a little audacious. But I think audacity is something that can really help a blogger.
Hi Skellie,
Wow, what a fantastic value-packed post. I’m so impressed with how well you expressed these ideas. The Matrix model is brilliant. It’s so true, we indeed accept and assume what we see and perceive as reality. What’s wonderful about this post is that it isn’t just applicable to blogging, but can be expanded to any area of life. The “You are what you do” especially stroke a cord with me. I’ve sent this article to my boyfriend who isn’t a blogger, but found the message from this post to be valuable through me telling him what I’ve learned. :) Thank you!
One question: You mentioned that you wished to have posted your subscriber count much later. If you had the chance to change time, how many subscribers do you think is suffice before revealing to the public?
Tina
@ Aaron: I’ll keep shopping around for a solution, as I think the ’subscribe to comments’ tick-box is a great idea. For whatever reason, the one you linked doesn’t seem compatible with my blog (but it seems to work on a lot of other blogs).
@ Tina: That’s great to hear. One thing I really like about writing Skelliewag is that I find the principles can be transferred into other, very different areas. I’m glad that your non-blogging boyfriend found some value in a post here :).
If I could do things differently, I think I would have begun showing my subscriber count at about 800 — simply because that’s the number where other blogs start to really impress me and used to make me jealous ;).
Nicely done Skellie!
Add value to the lives of your readers and your blog will flourish :)
@ Mark: Thank you! I always appreciate it :).
Wait… are you saying there is no spoon? :)
By the way, if you’ve really added a subscribe to comments plugin (thank goodness) you might need to fiddle with your theme files. I don’t see it.
Another great masterpiece, Skellie! And I strongly attest to your thoughts and ideas. It’s precisely the same reason why I showed my RSS count earlier than scheduled, to increase readership. There aren’t a lot of comments activity from my readers, and my blog design sucks (working on a redesign…). And I think it’s working. RSS readership did increase after I put it up.
Thanks for sharing your insights on The Matrix model. Awesome take.
Cheers,
Ellesse
This is a great read Skellie - thank you.
Any ideas on how to start people commenting? My readership are predominantly baby boomers who have bought second homes and are now supplementing income by renting them out. It is a generation that can be sceptical of the ‘new’ - social networking being one thing that sets up barriers. I am encouraging them to set up their own blogs to market their properties and gently bringing them into new ways of promoting themselves. It is a long process and one that gets frustrating at times particularly when I spend so much time creating content.
Funny thing… to the casual observer, the Church of the Customer blog probably does really well with that high subscriber count… it *is* powerful social proof. But because they are bundled with the Google Reader marketing section, most of those subscribers are not actively engaged, as they didn’t subscribe to that blog in particular.
It can be easy to be envious of that situation, but my plans for Copyblogger rely on having true opt-in subscribers. And to the trained blogging eye, the difference in engagement levels is readily apparent.
Good eye, Skellie. :)
@ Michael: I think I am… if spoon = ‘authentic’ authority ;).
I did try the Subscribe to comments plug-in but, for whatever reason, it didn’t work. I’ll shop around to see if there are other plugins which do the same thing. Perhaps someone can help me out with that?
@ Ellesse: Growing your comments is something that happens over time. I’d suggest starting by responding to every comment you get. Over time, you’ll start to develop repeat commenters, and that will build up with time. Good luck with it :).
@ Heather: I’d start by finishing your posts with something like: “I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments section.” One thing you’ll find is that people who aren’t tech savvy feel a little bit shy about those things. Inviting them to share their thoughts might counterbalance that a bit. As I recommended above, I’d also suggest that you respond to every comment that you *do* get, because it encourages repeat commenting, and that builds up over time.
@ Brian Clark: Ah — I didn’t know! I agree with you re: opt-in subscribers. Un-engaged subscribers are just a number. It looks good on the page, but doesn’t do much other than that.
Hi Skellie,
I’ve had a blog for a while now, and have only recently begun looking at informative sites such as yours — in fact, only recently have I discovered the wondrous thing known as the RSS Reader.
Thanks to you and similar-minded sites, I’ve begun, or perhaps, restarted along my path to popular blogdom, or so I hope.
Keep up the great work!
Skellie, another insightful post. I did the same thing with my subscriber count but later took it off, since we all know most people like to follow.
If a subscriber count is low readers assume that the blog hasn’t been able to maintain its status. If you take it off, its a guess whether or not the blog is popular.
I find commenting an extremely useful way to find out if a blog is popular or not. Well, may be the post more than the blog itself. Also I have applied the tactic of responding to comments by readers as they come but lately I haven’t been able to do that since I am not on the computer most of the time.
Thanx for a great article, again!
Concerning Church of the Customer’s high subscriber count, you have to remember two things:
1 - Ben and Jackie have authored two very popular marketing books, in fact they coined the term ‘customer evangelist’.
2 - Ben and Jackie are constantly speaking to clients and groups, usually separately. At these groups, they are exposing new people to their blog, and probably encouraging them to subscribe.
IOW, Ben and Jackie are just as well known for their efforts OUTSIDE the blogosphere, as for what they do at their blog. And their blog has been around since I think 2004.
But that 100K+ subscriber number is hugely impressive, and Ben and Jackie deserve it, as they are truly ‘authorities’ in the marketing blogging community.
For the customer, perception IS reality. When I worked, our “customer” was the department that operated the facility. Their perception of my knowledge, skills, and ability had the potential to significantly impact my annual performance appraisal.
Great read. On-line, every visitor is a potential customer. If they have a good perception of your site, they may stay awhile or even bookmark your site or subscribe.
I’m working on learning how to redesign my static sites and much of what you are talking about here is very applicable for me.
Thanks!
This blog is the best on the internet. These tips rock.
Thanks.
Great post that really made me think a lot. I’m not really all that skilled at thinking like a “blogger”, I think more like just a person with a blog. there’s a difference, and I could use a lot of improvement.
I still display my subscriber number though. I don’t even know why except that deep inside I want to. I could call it some kind of weird validation but I’ve done it since the blog was created basically and the number was tiny, so it isn’t all that. I have to think about what my motives behind that really is, because I know deep down somewhere there is a reason :)
I do respond to comments often and it almost feels like cheating when I look at my comment # and know that 1/3rd to 1/2 of the comments are my own, but I guess it is all about perception. Heh.
Excellent piece! I hadn’t considered focusing on the comments in that way while hiding subscriber count. You’ve got some great ideas on developing social proof here, Skellie! And it’s obvious you practice what you preach, both by your responding to comments and getting folks like Brian’s attention. It’s not the first time I see a great piece here - I bookmarked the Flickr piece.
That could be another great element of social proof, come to think of it, if you could display how many people have bookmarked you in their browsers etc. How about giving us a firefox/WP hybrid plugin/extension that sees how many people have bookmarked your site?
Other things that are useful, imho, for social proof is getting published on other sites. For instance, on the blog my comment name links to, I’ve got a list in the sidebar of places I’ve been cited or published. Similarly, I’ve got posts showing me with friends and acquaintances from the local internet marketing industry that show a certain level of recognition. Any other measures of social proof you can suggest.
I understand the reasons you might want visitors to assume you have more visitors or are a bigger blog than you really are, but I don’t think it’s as important as some people make out.
Some visitors may think you have nothing of value to say if you aren’t a certain size, but I prefer to let my articles speak for themselves.
I publish my stats once a month (they aren’t impressive). But I do have regular visitors and regular readers and the site is growing. If you have something to say, I think people will respond to it regardless of whether or not you’re one of the big boys.
I really like this Matrix model… I use it quite a bit myself. Thanks for a really top notch article Skellie!
Thank you so much for this article. I started my blog, We The Change, less than 3 months ago and it has 600+ subscribers. I do not offer any advertising yet….but I am going to start. I found the information in this article very very useful as I would like to grow it to be one of the big boyd…I appreciate all your hard work. Thanks again!
Todd Goldfarb
Skellie, I’m not sure but I think your strategy works fine for my site as well. I’m all excited about the future.
In my book you did not do a mistake by showing your stats in the beginning. I felt I discovered a very good site and as I’ve said before, I judged skelliewag by it’s design and content, not the subscriber counter. Actually I had no idea what that meant at the time :-)
Another example that demonstrate that the size of the readership has no influence at all, are the sites that are annoyingly slow to upload. Too many puts too many fancy stuff on their sites - or the list of posts on the front page is so loooong or whatever. That is a turn-off so big I do not care if a zillion subscribe!
I don’t show the reader count either and don’t think I ever will. I only started blogging last month and absolutely love the response, the comments as well as the private messages.
Having a low subscriber count can turn people off as RITU above said. It is actually the same with putting that little Digg symbol on the bottom of every article ( the one that shows vote count) When people see nothing there or some low number, many will just click away.
The reverse is also true, If I got to blog that looks like crap, have a hard time knowing or looking for what I clicked to, and yet the subscriber list is off the wall and way high, I’m thinking the blog is either fixed with fake numbers or it is for some specific organization or company that forces it’s members to subscribe. There are many crappy blogs like this but for bigger organizations.
To your continued success!
The show and tell stuff has always had me ducking and weaving.
I’ve always had visitor counts on each article - specific to the page. I keep those stats so I can have a “most popular” list and also so that other authors can see how well their articles are doing without asking me. I thought it would seem odd to have the stats show for everyone’s articles but my own, so I show them (way at the bottom of the page) for everyone.
More recently, I put Feedburner buttons on. Buttons, plural, because I let people choose partial or full text feeds and after all these years FB still doesn’t let you consolidate your feeds.. oh well.. I only show two, but have more subfeeds by category; someday I’ll write some code to do my own consolidation.
On again, off again I have added stats of daily uniques/pageviews but I keep taking them off because it feels like bragging and 90% (appx) are just one time visitors I may never see again so it doesn’t feel right: yes, I may have seen 10,000 different IP’s today, but a lot of them weren’t significant..
Good post, thanks.
Thank you!
For new bloggers such as myself, it’s a mine-field out there. Thanks so much for articulating what I instrinsicly knew about blogs that looked “professional” - I could never put my finger on what combination of elements made a blog “successful.”
I really appreciate your insights! Keep them coming!
It’s true people will assume you are successful if you look like it. I guess this has good and bad aspects.
I think it needs to be backed by solid content though.
And to be contrarian - do you know any wildly successful sites that don’t look good? Some of my favourites are generic themes and no attention to how they look. They’re my favourites because they have great content.
@ Dave Wong: That’s great to hear. I agree — the RSS reader is a wonderful thing, something I’ve known about for less than a year. It’s addictive, though!
@ Ritu: Thanks! I agree, sometimes I can’t respond to as many comments as I’d like because of time constraints. If I miss a lot of comments, I try to do one big response post… like this one!
@ Mack: I absolutely agree with you. I love Church of the Customer, I’m one of those 121k subscribers. But I still stand by my statement that if you looked at the comments alone (and nothing else), you would think it was a much less popular blog.
It does suggest to me that some of their subscribers are not engaged, particularly after learning that they’re autobundled with the Google Reader marketing feed package. However, I still think a big proportion of subscribers — more subscribers than I’ll ever get — are actively reading and enjoying the blog — as we both seem to be :).
@ Mike Goad: That’s excellent. Once again, you’ve shown how these principles apply far outside discussions about blogging and websites.
@ ESVL: Well, thank you. I’m flattered :).
@ PaidTwice: I did exactly the same thing — I started to show my subscriber count as soon as I started to become proud of it :). Looking back on it coldly and rationally I wish I hadn’t, but from a more humane perspective it has been really nice to see it there. I can sympathize!
Don’t feel like it’s cheating to leave comments on your posts — readers love it, I can assure you. So many bloggers are unengaged with their readership, it makes for a nice change.
@ Gab: Getting published in other places is fantastic social proof. It’s the backbone of my strategy and something I really recommend.
@ Jason: I agree — what you say is the most important thing. The aim of this method is to make it more likely that readers will give you a chance and actually start reading your posts. I think a lot of people make judgments about the value of a site before they’ve even really read the content. This method is about encouraging more readers to give you that chance to impress them.
@ Alex Kay: My pleasure!
@ Todd: Congrats on the fantastic progress with your blog. I bet it will be 1,000 by the end of the year :).
@ Bente: I’m using dial-up so I can completely sympathise with you there. If a blog posts too many big images it makes my feed reader take forever to load. I have to unsubscribe even though I might like the content!
@ Michael Lodispoto: Sometimes I do wonder if a website just saves a screenshot of a high feed count and puts the image on their blog, rather than using the widget. You’d know that was the case if it never changed from day to day ;).
@ Anthony: Sounds like you’re pretty proud of the stats beneath the surface — which is a great thing.
@ Heidi: Thank you — great to hear that I’ve helped.
@ Evan: I absolutely agree. This stuff is more about getting people to give your content a chance. If people have a reason to believe your content will be high quality (if lots of people seem to enjoy it) they’re more likely to stick around and read what you write, rather than navigating away.
As for fantastic sites with mediocre designs, there are plenty. But I do think most of the sites that are doing really well have good designs. It’s a general characteristic of popular blogs and websites, but it’s certainly not something that exists across the board.
Hey Skellie,
This really relates to the email I sent you! Did i give you a hint of inspiration? I have been thinking along these lines for a long time. Essentially what bloggers are providing is a product.
A product that looks good does better. I mean if the Ipod was made out of crappy plastic in a sickly yellow colour and had a screen that scratched with the brush of a feather nobody would want it, no matter how good the performance.
One day I expect the internet to go retro. This will only likely happen once the internet is perceived to have reached a peak at which point telling authoritative voices from the non will be near impossible. What do I mean by retro? I mean minimalist picture+video+text only as one day we will be able to decide how the internet looks regardless of the site that you’re on.
This can be seen with userstyles.org and a load of others that provide a similar function. We will all be RSS-ing by then. When will this happen? I’ll have a guess at within the next 5 years, everything is happening so fast that keeping up with the fads is becoming ridiculously tiring even though the apps and sites keep on getting better.
People are fickle and beauty deceives and one day we will need a new system. Luckily skellie hasnt sold out!
GREAT POST!
[...] Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter “If what visitors do see makes your blog or website look popular and successful, to visitors, it becomes popular and successful.” (tags: blogs blogging success) [...]
The Matrix. What a great analogy! It is so true that people expect to see things from a good blog. Content is king but everything else matters just as much.
Some excellent tips. It makes a lot of sense too. I looked at the Church site, Who woulda thunk??
Skellie ~ thought I would ask in the comments instead of sending an email…might help some others.
Have you managed to find a “Subscribe to Comments” plugin that works…? If/when you do please let us know which one you choose as I am having a problem with my comment plugin.
Kind regards,
Mark
Great article, and very true. It’s the same with almost any product. Act like you’re popular/efficient/highly regarded, and people will assume its for a reason and then you will be!
Again a great post. I just started to read your site on a regular basis and I find your posts invaluable.
What in your opinion are some of the best places to go to monetize your site while you are beginning? I make a few cents a day on adwords and I have sold some space on Text-Link-Ads but other than that I really don’t have anything. I know I need to concentrate on building readership, but what can I do until then?
Thank You
Yikes! I have not even thought about how my teensy subscriber count makes my blog look. I just put it on there for fun, but after reading this, I’m definitely removing it until I (hopefully) have subscribers in the hundreds.
This was a great article. I learned a lot. Keep up the good work!
Jen
This is a great and well thought out post. There are a lot of things to take away from this post and I can only hope that I am able to put half of these ideas into practice. I love blogging, but I wish I had more time for it. I think your advice about acting like money doesn’t matter really hit home for me. I concentrate too much on the ads and how much they are making and I need to focus more on the content and how the reader perceives my blog. Thanks so much for the advice.
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[...] Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count, and Money Doesn’t Matter: a post over at Skelliewag.org that claims that “if visitors see what makes your blog look popular and successful, then it becomes popular and successful.” - it really comes down to perception, and without people perceiving your blog as being the authority in your niche, it’s going to be MUCH harder for it to become that “go to” site. [...]
Traffic (singular) doesn’t matter. Your subscriber count (singular) doesn’t matter. Money (singular) doesn’t matter.
Traffic, your subscriber count and money (plural) DON’T matter.
Good grammar does :)
[...] Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter from Skelliewag You don’t have to show your RSS reader count or your traffic stats to your users just to be considered an authority in your niche. This is a very well-written post by Skellie, it’s a must-read! [...]
Thanks for the article. I agree that even if you have great quality content, readers may be less inclined to give your articles a chance if you blog looks a little dead. Appearances do have a bearing on the matter, and you offered great advice.
Thanks for your valuable article. It will help lots of bloggers, including me. I think that Traffic always matters. But the thing is, how we convert the ordinary traffic into good subscribers! I am going to follow your strategies. Let’s see! Thanks again.
[...] Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter Live by the numbers, die by the numbers. An interesting opinion on the unimportance of blogging metrics. [...]
[...] matters the most? Blog Traffic, Subscriber or Money? Read “Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter” to understand the facts. (No Ratings Yet) Loading [...]
[...] Why traffic and subscriber count doesn’t matter [...]
To back up what Mack said, I think you would also have to factor in the differences in the audiences of Church of the Customer and Copyblogger. COTC speaks to a corporate audience, and Copyblogger is aimed at bloggers, online marketers and small business.
So, it’s fairly well known that people in my crowd comment to get traffic, or to catch my attention. The COTC audience has less motivation to engage in this behavior, and therefore it takes something more to make them break from their work and leave a comment.
Of course, none of this takes anything away from Skellie’s point about social proof and perception. People make decisions about things in seconds, and they won’t put anywhere near this much thought into examining why things are the way they are. They rely on judgmental heuristics to make snap decisions, and things like subscriber counts and comment levels are two of the things we look to, plus the other elements Skellie mentioned.
“@ Mack: I absolutely agree with you. I love Church of the Customer, I’m one of those 121k subscribers. But I still stand by my statement that if you looked at the comments alone (and nothing else), you would think it was a much less popular blog.”\
I agree with that Skellie. That’s why I think a lot of CoTC’s subscribers are coming from the people that hear them speak, probably mainstream marketers that aren’t active blog readers, and don’t yet feel comfortable commenting on blogs.
[...] Skelliewag - Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter [...]
Skellie, great post!
Your comparison to the Matrix is a great analogy!
I took some of your advice to heart and hid my FeedBurner subscriber numbers. I loved seeing everyone else’s numbers, I was displaying mine on my blog too. It made me smile to see the number creep slowly upward, but I never thought about how new readers might perceive a blog that had only a double-digit subscriber number. I have removed my subscriber count for now, and will focus more on getting comments. ^_^
I have a question though. You have a few posts that mention guest posting on other blogs, in particular to guest post on the “big guys”. Do you have a post about this practise already that I should read?
How do you go about doing it? It seems to me that you wouldn’t be able to write a guest post on another (larger) blog until you already had some real authority, instead of just perceived authority.
I could write an amazing post, but if no one knows who I am I just can’t see some Big Blogger putting it up on their site as a guest post, even if it were relevant and well written. I mean, if I wrote in to you would you let some little nobody like me make a post on your blog? Hardly. You’d either have to already know my work, or else spend time doing research on me and my writing to make sure I was a good fit with your blog, and who has that kind of time?
And it’s not just technical things like linking, Digg voting, and subscribing that this opens up. Who people think you are can lead to all kinds of opportunities online that you might not have been able to have access to offline. It all depends on who they think you are.
[...] Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter To me, this is one of Skellie’s best articles. I totally agree with the perspective on “looking” like an authority, even if you’re not one. This article could change how you present your blog to the world. [...]
[...] Skellie has written at length on how she suggests that we implement these tips on our blogs in this interesting post. [...]
[...] tells us why traffic, your subscriber count, and money don’t matter. There goes SEOmoz’s business plan…I guess from here on out we’ll only feature [...]
Skellie,
Good point. I’ve thought many of the blogs with traffic, but poor design, tend to lose me. I love well-designed sites, if only for the navigation, less annoying ads, and easy-on-the-eyes factors. I’ve been hell-bent on making my own blogs, both ARRiiVE (listed in link above) and AspireNow - which you can find through blogger or aspirenow.com - both better designed and more streamlined.
Ever notice the plethora of widgets and links that take people OFF of your blog? Examples: Blogrush, criteo, other blogrolls technorati clouds, etc. These, in my opinion, are examples of poor design. I removed them from my blogs.
Great concept applying to The Matrix - a great movie (although II and III sucked). I’ll add you to my list of blogs I read - thanks!
Scott
[...] Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter [...]
[...] Why Traffic, Your Subscriber Count and Money Doesn’t Matter [...]
[...] that’s value-packed for its target audience. It’s also a good opportunity to see The Matrix model in [...]
Thanks Skellie
Your article inspires me and gives me the opportunity to reflect on my own way of trying to become an authority in my subject field by creating rich content posts and applying simple tactics to the presentation of my blog.
Best regards!
Union Point / Point d’Union
Hyperthyroidism, Paranoia and Reality under inquiry
wow.. Skellie this post is incredibly helpful to me. Come to think of it, this entire blog is :)
As a spanking new blogger I work on keeping my site looking tasteful and providing valuable content. I built it wondering if it projected a certain go-to image so that visitors would want to come back regularly.
I’ll keep perusing this site for more tips
thanks!
What a great article.
What do you think about using nontraditional formats for blogging? For example, I would use wordpress, but one of the magazine themes. Many of those certainly appear more sophisticated…
Hi Skellie, a really helpful tips you have here. After reading it, I need to sit down, have a cup of tea, relax and start thinking what should / shouldn’t for my new blog. Thanx again :D
[...] marketing of diamonds is still successful today because they are perceived to be valuable. As Skelliewag points out in this blog post, the only indication to your readers about the value of your blog [...]
please link to my site…just kidding….er am i….
great article and advice i will stick to every shard of advice err what ever that means…
my question to any one…
does linking to someone who links to you effect search? no body has told me this strait thankyou and good day!
Wow, these info are excellent sources of advice for beginner blogger like me who only knows how powerful social media like blogs and wikis do in the Internet arena till today.. And guess what? I am starting to love blogging and will use these info as a guideline for me especially that I’m just starting to blog… Keep up the good work!
Skellie, thank you for the very informative article. Being a new blogger I find I am constantly changing my mind about layout, content, etc. You have given me good advice. Keep up the good work. Thanks
I’m glad I ran across this article so I can come back again. Someone once said at a conference I was at, and I’ll never forget it, “Act like you are the person you want to be.” This is esentially what needs to b done as a blogger to, though it’s a little trickier when you’re not in person. Great article!
[...] resources for helping to increase feed subscribers, comment counts, incoming links and other social proof elements that you might like to look at. Instead, we thought it might be interesting to explore the topic [...]
Thanks for your insights! they are wonderfully relevant! I stumbled upon skelliwag today and will be back often!
Jared Lyda
http://www.fireandmotionblog.com
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Thanks Skellie
I had forgotten how much people judge a book by its cover.
I will implement what I have gleaned from your blog.
fell free to comment when you pop around.
thank you for the liberating post! :) What an irony. I use to coach people to liberate themselves from the pressure of the measurements they put on themselves. :)
Simple, amazing and very helpful post.
Thank you