An overview of the lifetime traffic around my blog made me realize how much my blogging has impacted my personal brand and the ROI around it. This quick exercise made me realize that I need to start blogging again on a regular basis and start investing again.
I love digging into numbers! And the steady number of visitors to my blog despite the lack of new posts reinforce the statements that I hear on an ongoing basis:
- some have said that it’s a Bible for Community Managers
- requests that I start blogging again
- it inspires people to join the profession
I started blogging in December 2006 on a niche blog. In early 2007, I realized that I needed to be blogging under my own brand and I launched this blog in September of that year. I posted articles many times a week consistently through 2009. Once the startup that I was working for was acquired in mid 2009 my blogging subsided. Part of that was because I was busy writing a series of 10 white papers on Social Media ROI.
It really surprised me that the traffic has continued at that rate and so I took a look at what’s been driving it. Interestingly enough, StumbleUpon drove the most traffic in 2007 and 2008 followed by Twitter. In 2009 it shifted to Twitter driving the most traffic. Over 25% of the traffic for 2010 – 2012 has been from the definition for Online Community Manager on Wikipedia.
The ROI of my blogging and the value of my personal brand is fairly easy to express even though I don’t have any direct revenue generating aspects on my blog such as affiliate links or ads.
Here is an overview:
- My salary has increased 178% since 2006 (the impact is over a quarter of million dollars income)
- Invitations to present and lead workshops at conferences at a global level
- Guest blogging opportunities
This review reminds me of the following five reasons of why it’s important to invest in yourself by blogging:
- Professional growth – Recently I have been using LinkedIn to document my experience, but it’s time to return to sharing my insights and learnings from them.
- Profession/career evolution – Online Community strategy is still a nascent role and companies are coming to realize the value of engagement and related KPI’s. (It’s so much more than the platform or social channel)
- Therapy – Writing has always been helpful for me to express my ideas and I find it quite relaxing. I have also become much more proficient with diagramming my concepts and ideas.
My goal is to publish weekly. It will also be a good opportunity to review some of my most read content and update it.
Have you done a high level overview of your blogging efforts? What are your take aways?
It`s good to remember our roots.
That’s such a great point Teddi! Before we can look to the future, we need to look back and learn from the past.
Hi Connie! I love posts like this where bloggers share what’s happened with their stats!
I would be curious, how has search traffic trended over the lifetime of your blog? Mine has consistently grown, and keeps growing even if I stop posting as often.
Hey Mack,
Yes, I asked if I wanted to expose my stat’s, but I think others find our thought patterns helpful.
The search traffic has been going up. The first year it was 12%, then 26% and in 2009 it settled at 50% where it’s stayed steady to present. That’s interesting to me because mid 2009 was when my social networking hit a tipping point.
Glad to see you back, Connie, and sharing important insights as always. I’m one of many who have learnt a lot from you!
[…] The ROI of Blogging and Personal Brand Building and 5 Reasons to Invest, conniebensen.com […]
I love seeing actual numbers behind the speculation – and of course it’s more interesting since you share the backstory on when and why you stopped blogging. Welcome back!
Thanks Steve,
I share because I hope that others will learn from my experiences (and foibles).
A couple of other people have committed to blogging on a regular basis again, so we have a little support group!
[…] but not least, having a business blog can do wonders for your online reputation. Become a leader in your industry. If your business blog produces valuable content, then you can […]
[…] (and is footnoted on Wikipedia!) For anyone considering the power of blogging, her article, The ROI of Blogging and Personal Brand Building, is a […]
Hi Connie,
Do you have more detailed stats around the first 6-12 months? The above graph looks very impressive and what all of us would love to see for our own blogs. As a new blogger I’m wondering how you started – were there periods were you blog was a ghost town in those first few months? What initially drove traffic to your blog? Was there a tipping point with visits in the first year when things really took off?
Any info you can share on your ‘early days’ would be a great help to new bloggers.
thanks,
Matt
[…] (and is footnoted on Wikipedia!) For anyone considering the power of blogging, her article, The ROI of Blogging and Personal Brand Building, is a […]
In the same way, it helps if you will have a blog. With a blog, you will not only be able to impart some news. You will also be able to share your thoughts and engage with your target market.
[…] The ROI of Blogging and Personal Brand Building and 5 Reasons to Invest, conniebensen.com […]
Connie, I just went through this post again after stumbling upon the link again. Still as good as the first time. :-)