Getting Past the Numbers Game

A successful blog must have a high number of visitors each day. A successful blog must have consistent, quality content. A successful blog must have a strong design that keeps the visitors around and brings them back. And a successful freelance writer MUST have a successful blog.

My journey as a writer began long before the internet was in every household, but it has only been in the last few years that the internet has enabled my writing to begin to take off. The problem for me lies in the fact that I began to trust the internet over all else.

Each morning started out with me reviewing my stats on two different sites. Every few weeks I would run my website addresses through page rank software to see how they had improved. My goal was to drive my page rank up high to pull in advertisers.

This month I stopped.

I stopped thinking about the advice of the internet experts.

I stopped focusing on the numbers.

I stopped writing content for content’s sake.

I stopped visiting sites in the hopes of having those sites visit me.

April began a new season in my writing and speaking career. The focus has moved to the words again. Yes, I do still want to drive my numbers up but I do not want the numbers to be the motivation.

Getting Past the Stats

1. Create content worth reading. Above all else, give visitors something of value for the time spent at the website because more time can ever be earned to replace it.

2. Listen to the readers. Many of the people that stop into my websites do not have the time to read something EVERY SINGLE DAY. And posting every day puts them “behind.” Better for me to provide strong content once a week than to overwhelm the loyal readers.

3. Rely on word of mouth. Building relationships with the readers to my website, on other blogs and forums, and even in the different social networks will to more to build my own website than all of the tips, suggestions and plans the experts can think or imagine.

4. Let it go. There have been a dozen websites that have been created with the simple idea of monetizing. I wanted to provide interesting content, but ultimately I was seeking a paycheck. Pursuing the things that drive my passion is more important to building the successful writing and speaking career that I desire.

I want to make money as a writer and a speaker. Most people want to make money doing the things that they love. The truth is that as I provide things of value then the value starts to come in. My new journey will not be driven by the figures of an algorithm.