This article should have been published yesterday but I was incredibly busy throughout the week and so didn’t have the time to write. Let’s jump right in to this week’s advice column.
Dosh Dosh reader Akemi Gaines wrote in last week and asked one simple question: “How do you measure the success of a blog?”
Here’s one way to define success: It is something that is achieved when you meet or exceed the goals you have set for your blog. Sometimes this definition of success is socially influenced. How much does your vision of success rely on comparative value and the views of others?
Perhaps respect from your peers and others in the same niche gives you a sense of achievement. Maybe you feel that your blog is successful because it gave you what you wanted. For instance, it may have helped you to get more clients or connect with others that have similar interests.
Avinash Kaushik has six excellent recommendations on how to measure your blog’s success and Darren Rowse has a collection of 18 markers you can use to track progress. Both of the articles contain useful tips on how to quantify success into numbers you can record, monitor and improve.
Don’t forget that the main question you need to answer is always this: What do I want to get out of maintaining this blog? Seek to answer that question everyday and you’ll find that success is something that is easy to attain over time.
In case you’re wondering, my favorite blog success metric is income. Feed subscribers, comments, link citations and page views make me very happy but the direct and indirect income derived from a blog is most important to me because I create websites mostly for revenue, in order to pursue other interests.
Income by itself denotes ability. You wouldn’t make lots of money from a blog unless you are skilled in getting traffic and converting it into income through monetization schemes. You’re making money because you are ranking well for the right keywords and partly because you know how to build a community around your site.
Income doesn’t lie. Pageviews can be inflated through social media traffic. Saying something controversial can get you links. Newsletter subscribers can be increased easily if you purchase enough targeted advertising. In a way, the income you get from a site is a excellent way to measure its overall success value.
Some of you might be just blogging for fun and so revenue might not be a suitable yardstick. Pick one that suits your purpose. Instead of quantifying success, you can also pick a hero or heroine that you admire and aim to work towards that level of competence/popularity. This is a more vague and flexible perspective on success.
Now for your views. How do you measure success for your blog?
This advice column is published every friday. If you have any questions at all, please send me an email and indicate that it’s for ‘Ask Dosh Dosh’.
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