Garaphernalia 6.0

Analysis of my attempts to figure out blogging and podcasting

Entries for the ‘Blogging’ Category

So that was quick…

In 2009 one of my goals was to do 100,000 visits in one month. I had no idea how I could do it, and I didn’t reach that goal until the end of the year.
For 2010 I set a goal of getting 250,000 visits per month. I also had no idea how I could [...]

Something Has Happened

Something very odd has happened this month. I don’t know why.
On January 4, my search engine traffic increased by about 40%. I have no idea why. I have done nothing that I know of that would have increased traffic. I’m still a long way from my 2010 goal, but it is a nice bump [...]

2010 Blog Goals

Here are my 2010 blog goals.

Google traffic: 2,000 visits per day
My social media traffic has vastly outpaced my search engine traffic. I need to rectify this. This would be about a 10x increase in my daily Google traffic. This will mean publishing more content and better SEO. Google traffic requires more upfront work, but [...]

My 2009 Blogging Year in Review

I set several goals for 2009 with my blog. I achieved most of them and the one I didn’t achieve was more a matter of not having enough time. Here were the goals I set out and where I am now:

5,000 RSS subscribers.

7,500 Twitter Followers

Average 100,000 visits per month

Have a book published

Get my podcast [...]

Q3 2009 Blogging Update

The last three months have brought about a lot of changes. I’ve come back to the United States, launched a new travel podcast, and have started a two month road trip through the American west.
The goals I set out for 2009 were as follows:

5,000 RSS subscribers. (5x increase)
7,500 Twitter Followers (2.5x increase)
Average 100,000 visits [...]

2009 Blogging Goals: 5 Month Review

Back in December I set out some goals for my travel blog for 2009. This is what they were:

5,000 RSS subscribers. (5x increase)

7,500 Twitter Followers (2.5x increase)

Average 100,000 visits per month (5x increase)

Have a book published

[...]

How Twitter Has Worked For Me

On December 20, I posted about how I was going to change my use of Twitter from just using it for communication to as a tool for marketing as well. The fundamental change I made was following everyone who followed me, and actively going out and following other people who might be interested in travel. [...]

Facebook Fan Pages and Google Friend Connect

I’ve been doing a few experiments this last week as I’ve been sitting in Tel Aviv waiting for my batter replacement to show up. They involve Facebook and Google:
Facebook Fan Pages
I’ve not put a ton of effort into my fan page in the past. Honestly, there are serious limitations with what you can do with [...]

Blog Status Report: Q1 2009

My goals for the year are on track.
7,500 Twitter Followers: I have demolished my 2009 goal of 7,500 followers on Twitter. I am almost at 20,000. I pick up 100-200 a day without doing anything at this point. If I try, I can get even more. Twitter is far and away the #1 marketing [...]

Launching Everything Everywhere 3.0

I’m about to launch the 3rd iteration of my travel blog. This has taken way longer than I had hoped, but but the launch day is close at hand. Just a few minor bugs to get worked out.
I have never been quite satisfied with my website. This time I got hired help and [...]

A Public Reply to Lara Dunston

I’m writing this post in response to this March 3rd article by Lara Dunston. I’m commenting here because my comments aren’t being posted on the site in question and I would like to defend myself. I’m the person she is talking about. The subject she is talking about is MY need to use guidebooks. [...]

The Twitter Experiment Continued

My Twitter experiment has been a huge success. My 2009 goal was 7500 followers. Two weeks into the year and I’m at 4,200 already. As you can see in the graph, since I’ve turn auto-follow on, my following rate has gone crazy. Once I got into the Twitterholic top 1000, it took on a life [...]

Twitter: Marketing vs Communications

I am at a crossroads with where I want to go with Twitter. It all has to do with what you can use Twitter for. Unfortunately, the two things are sort of mutually exclusive.
There are two schools of thought when dealing with Twitter. 1) Follow as many people as possible in an effort to [...]

2009 Blogging Goals

About 1 year ago I made the decision to start marketing my site more aggressively. At the time I had about 100 RSS subscribers and the readership on my site wasn’t much more than friends and family.
Now at the end of 2008 I’m looking at 1,000 subscribers, almost a 10x increase over the [...]

Buh Bye Entrecard

I’ve decided to remove the Entrecard widget off all of my websites. It no longer serves any purpose.
Here is a graph of my traffic from Entrecard over the last year.

The big spikes are when I bothered to drop cards. At its peak, I got 94 visits in one day. Lately I’ve been averaging [...]