Monday Metics

by openclipart.org by boobaloo

If you are new, today is all about the numbers, not about my plans.   See the action plans I’m using to earn these numbers in previous posts.  My plan and reflects are on 6 week Review!  and the steps I’m taking are on 6 Steps for Twitter.

Twitter Analytics
I’ve been active on Twitter for 112 days. In the last 28 days I’ve had 236 posts, 517 profile visits, 83 mentions, and 129 new follows.  

Conversion based on profile views is 25%. I got included in a Follow Friday post by one of my Twitter friends and this saw a HUUUGE boost in follows.  We’ll have tosee if I can keep these follows in the upcoming days.
  
My engagement is 3.9%. My change in strategy: tweet less and respond/interact more, should continue to see increases in engagement.  It was a huge surprise to go from 2.1% to 3.9%, dropping off the weeks with a different style of interaction makes a huge different.

I post about 8 times a day.  My goal is to sit between 6-10 posts a day, so success!


My daily view count has lowered to just under 2,000 views a day.  Proportionately I receive 210 eyes per post.  Slight dip from the 216 eyes last week, but I held prolongedconversation on some tweets, the longer you go back and forth, the lesspeople see your tweets, but the higher your engagement is and the more you’re getting to know one or two people, instead of introducing yourself to a group of people.  This is a balance I’m working on.

Blog Stats

I got 41 views last week spread across 8 posts and 1 pages.  I’m trying to stay the course in overall blog promotion.  I’m noticing that I’m heavy in visits on the front half of the week and fall flat in the back half.  That ties back to general exhaustion from work and me quitting to promote my posts.  I don’t know if I can improve weekly consistency, but it‘sgood to know

The North Alabama Writers’ Group blog has 5 views this past week.  The last week of November I tried my hand at writing a more critical work called “Why I Stopped Reading Daily Science Fiction” and it seems that there is no interest from the community for why I might not enjoy the writing on the site. I am trying to evaluatewhether critical feedback has a place in my style.  It‘sa personal issue I’m touching onmore in a later post. 

  My December Open Calls for Submissions didn‘t bring in interested writers, but it may pick up as the month goes on.  Most open calls are for the end of the month.  

I’m hoping my second post on “How to pick a publisher” may have more traction.   I have some great topics scheduled for the NAWG blog and I’m hoping to see an increase as more discussion and interesting topics pop up.  

So talkto me!  What are your numbers?  What’s your social media strategy?  Are you counting anything else in your life and what does success look like?

Still need a number fix?  Compare this week to last week Dec 3rd, Nov 12th, Nov 5th, Oct 22nd, Oct 9th, Oct 1st Sept 24th, Sept17th, or Sept 10th.  

Tuesday Tell All: A Day Late so Wednesday Writers? Analytics Deep Dive

image from open clipart.org provided by J4p4n

Blog Update:

NAWG member Christopher M. Palmer created a delightful post on "Creating Aliens" and comment wise it seems to be taking off.

Traffic wise our most trafficked day is still only 19 views, but we are getting steady 10-15 views a day and we are receiving many comments.  I don't know how it works that there doesn't seem to be page views but there are comments, I would think you couldn't comment without viewing.  *Shrug*.  

I haven't written anymore posts for the North Alabama Writers' Group but my post "What's in a Name?" dropped on Aug 26th.  All the credit for the idea and structure goes to Rick Polad.  This was a fun response/ add on post and I'd like to write more posts along these lines.

I added a little more content to my "September Call for Submissions Roundup" Post which will drop Sept first on North Alabama Writers' Group, so keep your eyes peeled!  I also added more content to another post regarding writers' tools.

On this blog, I posted my Twitter Plan (sitting at 5 views with no Twitter promotion).  It's worth reviewing because you can compare what I'm doing with the results I post each week.

I also posted a page on Bloggers and Groups I follow to stay up to date with calls for submission.  It should a a great resource for authors who want to keep update with the markets.

In the to be posted file:  I wrote a post on batching that will drop on Sunday.  Basic stuff, but it made me interested in exploring my process and increasing productivity.  I've started a post that's reviewing a book on publishing and promotion, but it's not finished.

I changed the layout, the book shelf look felt old, so I went pink watercolors.  What do you think?

Thank you all for viewing and Retweeting posts around this blog.  Last week's update got an impressive 57 views.  It's cool so many people stopped in to look at my projects and plans!  

Twitter Update: 

I've been active on Twitter for 12 days in in that time I've posted 120 times (10 times a day—too much to be sustainable long term), received 9,953 views, 377 profile views, 26 mentions, and I've gained 58 followers.   per Twitter Analytics.

That's 38 more followers than this time last week!  If I average 25 new followers a week (and can keep them), that's 100 new eyes every month.  Combined with my current following I could have 1k followers in 6 months.  That's steady growth I could sustain long term.

If I'd posted this update yesterday, my most popular tweet would have been my tweet with last weeks update.  467 views and 16 retweets!  You guys rock!  I hope you had fun/ could gather something from the number analysis.  However, as of this morning my most viewed tweet is a reply to @oceanviibes.  He/She has so many following, it shouldn't surprise me this of hand response to first place with 501 views and 8 engagements.

Using Hootsuite, I have posts scheduled until Monday.  It is becoming more difficult to find things to RT or tweet.  I think some of Twitter's repetition is hitting me.  To fight this, I'm playing more in Hashtag convos and hoping this will give me more fresh content to post.  

I've continued to delete inactive accounts from my following feed.  Brought the number of following to 653 and with a following of 406 I'm close to "reasonable" range, whatever that's worth.

Writing Updates: 

I completed editing all but two of my short stories, so I have 5 stories ready to go.  One of my stories is a "novella" length so I will wait until I'm back from Vegas to dive into that.  The other two will also need a lot of love, so I'm on hold in working them.

I wrote a new short story on the flight here.  Current title "Comes in Threes" and it's a horror fantasy genre.  This was a 100% original idea that wasn't on the list.

I've also gone back in through my novel.  Chapters 1-3 are complete.  Chapters 4 &5 need a complete rewrite but I have plans to work on that later today.  

Other projects are likely to be touched: the writer's group round robin.  I played with it in July and came across an editor's ethical quandary.  Since then I've decided I can do what I want to my part of the writing and I should create two separate endings for the work and post all up on North Alabama Writers' Group.  

I want to look at Cress Legacy because I think I could bring it to a close this week.  Also, I have a short story called "1000 Words" that I think I could cross off my list.

Got into the writing class and it starts Sept 3.  Blog posts on that are sure to follow.

Goodreads Update :

-All my reviews on Goodreads.com are up to date.  I was about 10 books behind and now I'm caught up.  Goodreads is part of my organic social media promotion campaign.  Since I already read a lot and often review, keeping up to date with it felt like a natural minimal effort add on.  More to come on the part Goodreads may play in my future social media chasing.

Two weeks away from trying to engage Facebook.  I don't want to, but I feel like it's the obvious next part establishing my blogs and writing in the larger world.  We'll see, maybe it won't be so bad or maybe it will drive traffic so wildly I'll wonder why I never bothered with it before.

My Twitter Plan in 8 Steps

image from openclipart.org by GDJ

1. Create and Share Interesting and Unique Content

- retweets of stuff that grabbed my attention: quotes, articles, funnies, unique perspective/advice, books I plan to read or have read
-sharing my personality
-sharing personal efforts vs results.  This differs from the other generic "how to get views bro" because it's about what I'm doing and what results I'm getting, but it's also different cause I'm not really doing as they suggest

2. Schedule Posts.

-Some days I'm super into Twitter and some days I'm low on social mojo.  An obvious solution is to use a Scheduling site to plan out posts.  My goal is to have 4-5 posts a day with only 10 posts in one day for consistency’s sake.  I'm using free versions of Hootsuite, Commun.it and Buffer to achieve these goals.
-Side benefit to my feed, when I Retweet your posts a week later is won't show up in anyone's following both of us as spam.  Instead, it will breathe a second life into great content.  I want to showcase stuff so it doesn't feel like an echo chamber all the time For reals, I want to help other people while helping myself because I believe we can win together.


3. Create More Personal Connections on the Medium

-following hashtag conversations and replying to people/holding a conversation
-replying to questions, following up with others
-thanking people for helpful content, posting reviews and otherwise interacting beyond the like button
-I want to get into #sixwordstories and some other creative hashtags.  Meet other creators, contest holders, and stretch my own creative muscles more
-trying to be a friend to people by offering advice and support instead of "on and bubbly" or "sharp and snarky". Looking for a whole person approach
-@ people with content I think they'll like or that makes me think of them. Right now that's real life people but a goal is to build relationships with people online that I "know" well enough I can tag them
-checking in once a week with people's feeds whom I connect to.  I've got a short list of ten names where I make a personal check in.

4. Using Commun.it's "Popular Tweets of Your Feed" Section to See What is Trending and What People are Interested in.

-When possible, I make a relevant RT, like, or reply, scheduled out to give a second surge to something already popular (fashionably late and not just behind the times, I hope)
-Also so I can test what's popular on my feed and better style my Tweets to fit--this is limited for me because I want to find my audience for my writing and if I mimic someone else too much, I'll just find their audience

5. Use of Hashtags

-I have about four related lists I'm working with.  I also have days of the week plans, and I schedule.
-Also I'm interesting in cultivating my audience for writing, so I peek in to hashtags that match my book so see what people are saying and who's out to play

6. Once a Week Check in 

-This is part a batching thing and part a community builder
-I will look at everyone's feed on who has followed me over the week on Friday to see if we have common interests and then I may follow them back.
-I am also once a week checking in on some people who have consistent content I enjoy that might get swept away in my feed

7.Checking in to Twitter Analytics:

-By looking at my success and failures at least twice a week, I can see what works and doesn't work in my post records.  I can tell if it's content or time that may have garnered attention.  I can figure out if the hashtag communities I am drawn to are working for me.  And, as a little of a numbers geek, I can find endless entertainment in my ranking.  What worked, what didn't work, and theorizing why.

8.Unfollowing More People.

-I started unfollowing people on Tuesday. I thought it would only take one purge to get rid of everyone who is not relevant. Sooooooo wrong.  I've been dropping about 50 people a day.  When I got back to my Twitter, I was following 900-ish people and now I'm following 676 people.  This is cool becasue it means soon I'll be able to pick up more groups that interest me.  Agents, publishing companies, asuthors, and finding a few more of those dreaded content marketers.  I have a love hate relationship with content marketing.

- I am cleaning up contacts inactive for over a month or people whose account appears to have shifted away from my interests during my time off Twitter.  Of my Twitter plans this is my least favorite part of the work load, and I hope it's least important.

And these are hopefully my 8 steps to a successful Twitter Campaign.  Am I missing anything?  Do you have a cool sight you use that I should sheck out?  Tell me in the comments below.

Want to see how this plan is going? Check out:

August 21st Progress Report
August 29th Progress Report
September 4 Numbers 

Is Making and Maintaining a Popular Blog Best for You and Your Vision?

(from openclipart.org j4p4n's collection)

So when I first decided to come back on the writing scene I wanted to freelance write for others.  It wasn't just that I loved writing, it was that I hated my job.  I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone by writing again and feeding that part of me that keeps me stable, and making money at it--which would free me from my job.

(from openclipart.org from johnny_automatic's collection)

It was a few days research before I dove whole heartedly to blogging and surfing freelance sites for work.   I figured, look at all these people who do this, I can do it too!

I wrote a lot, and at first I felt better.  Writing anything after so long away was a relief, a purge of poison, and a dopamine injection straight to my neural pathways.

(from openclipart.org from GDJ's collection)

 Watching the numbers stack up also really boosted my confidence.  I thought it would take me months to build up a 1000 page hits, again based off previous interest.  It only took a month to hit 2000 page views.

The glow in victory was short lived.  Before long, I dreaded the blogging.   Instead of looking forward to sharing different thoughts and insights, I looked at it like so much work.  How will I title and structure this post for maximum hits?  Which communities will I post this in for advertising and have I read and commented on enough recent posts to get return traffic?  Have I looked at my core folks' blogs and +1, commented, reposted enough for them recently I feel confident in a return?  Do I have enough spacing between my own self promotion posts and posting other interesting articles?  Are the articles I'm posting of value, saying something new and different or at least saying it in an engaging way?

(from openclipart.org Steren's collection)

It became less and less about the writing and more about the marketing, or to use a buzz word more about the "brand".   At core, successful blogging comes down to creating a "personal brand" and marketing your "brand" to what people want.  People don't want to read frustrated rants about customers doing annoying things--especially when they may be that customer and doubly so if there's no suggestions on how to be less annoying.

(from openclipart.org j4p4n's collection)

• Readers want helpful advice broken into neat lists and bullet points. 

• Ideally, Readers want titles that tell them there are X number of things to look at here.  No matter how well formatted the following work, no one will look if the title doesn't suggest a strong list.

• Readers want tons of fun graphics that are engaging and apply to the posts they're reading. (and in this post, I've done an excessive amount of graphics.  Turns out I have a love hate relationship with supplying graphics for posts)   

• Readers want a cheery positive tone.  Better if it can be funny but minimally a positive can do attitude is needed.

(from openclipart.org johnny_automatic's collection) 

• Readers want to see you doing more than just writing.  They want to see you curating quality levels of knowledge in at "niche".  If they go to your feed, they want to see you liking and sharing related articles--even better if they see interaction between you and a more authoritative writer/blogger from the same "niche" positively interact

So what do Readers give Writers in return for all these extra hours of work--besides an audience?   Truthfully, the Writer gets nothing if he or she isn't selling or promoting a "brand" related service.   Adsense and amazon marketing tactics have shown to provide bloggers less than dollars a day in most instances.  So really, blogging isn't the money maker, it's the new advertising.  The question is--what am I advertising?  Is getting a ton of hits really effective to what I'm marketing?  Could I promote better through forum interaction that would be less demanding than maintaining a popular blog?  Do I get enjoyment or can I produce efficiently when blogging in the specific format it take to generate hits?

For me (and perhaps others)  it became apparent that blogging in the way that's designed to generate larger traffic was too exhausting.  While I felt driven to work on my novel, to browse through my poetry library, to share new thoughts and apply for more freelancing--the sheer time it took to maintain my presence via the blog ate all my time.

It's better for me to be more causal, with less readership, but have time to work on my actual projects: the novel and learning swift and playing with my Aquaponics fish tank.

For those of you who thought this would be a list of all the stuff to make a good blog--don't fret!  It's not in my goal set but I know who to follow to make that happen.  May I suggest:

Bloggers Who Offer Advice on Having a Successful Blog/Freelancing Career Whom I very much enjoyed reading and interacting with:
Kristy Stuart
Elna Cain
Sherman Smith
Sue Ann Dunlevie
Juntae DeLane
Carol Tice
Jeremy Crow
Gina Horkey