Blog Statistics Update April – May 2014
This last month we finally saw the traffic decrease I was anticipating. You can see below that EPF’s views are down over 30%. I actually have been thinking that the cause might not be solely my reduced posting schedule but also in large part because I’ve virtually stopped commenting on other blogs. I don’t know if my comments elsewhere really drive much new traffic, but I think it encourages other bloggers to visit.
I messed up my new normal posting schedule. This post should have gone up last Friday, and I was supposed to have another post each of these last two weeks. When I finally get around to posting again, you’ll know why… We’ve been quite busy and my commitment level and inspiration for writing is way down. In the past I’ve prepared for busy periods by writing more in advance, but this time I didn’t make it a priority.
Guest Posts
Cat from Budget Blonde recently gave birth to two precious babies; to help her out during her “maternity leave,” I wrote a post on how to adjust your finances to a big income increase. Please check it out and leave a comment!
If anyone is interested in writing a guest post for EPF during the next few months, please email me. As I’ve talked about quite a bit recently, I have a busy summer coming up as I have to finish my PhD very quickly. I would really appreciate you taking a post off my plate to keep the blog alive until after my defense.
Analytics Data from May 15, 2014
People who listen to us, as of May 15, 2014:
RSS subscribers: 212 (too many fluctuations to bother recording change)
Twitter followers: 875 (+37)
Facebook fans: 56 (+1)
Rankings:
Alexa: 101,801 (+10,576)
Google PR: 3 (no change)
MozRank: 4.92 (-0.20)
Some Google Analytics statistics:
Popular Posts
This is an interesting new pattern. Three of these posts went up in this last month and two of them are longtime popular posts. Usually there are more old posts, but perhaps with fewer posts being published in a given month each gets more views.
Most viewed posts:
1) Grad School vs. Blogging vs. Career vs. Money
2) Earned Income: The Bane of the Graduate Student’s Roth IRA
3) What Do You Consider a Good Salary?
4) Favorite Posts, Mentions, and Top Comments April 2014
5) Virginia Sent Me to Collections for Dodging Taxes
Most Commented Posts:
Grad School vs. Blogging vs. Career vs. Money
What Do You Wish You Had Discussed before Marriage?
Virginia Sent Me to Collections for Dodging Taxes
Top Blogs Referring to EPF
2) Grumpy Rumblings of the Formerly Untenured
Blog Balance Sheet
Zippo income this month – first in about six months. Well, there was some Adsense accumulation and a small affiliate sale, but they didn’t trigger payouts so I’m not recording them here.
Income
Adsense: $0
affiliate income: $0
Expenses
hosting: $10.95
Search Terms from Real People
lots of searches for grad student topics! yay!
“buying a house in graduate school”
“invest for graduate students”
“buying house grad school”
“buying a house on graduate student stipend”
“are graduate students employees earned income”
“i have a 401 k that i employer contributes to but i never contribute too can i cash out if i am termanaterd” – … yes? but you should just roll it to an IRA. let that money work for you and the tax man away!
“evolution of personal finance” – this guy gets it!
“how to file 1st quarter estimated tax payments?” – it’s pretty easy. you just fill out a 1040-ES.
“my employer contributes 10% retirement” – good for you. I’m jealous.
Do you think comments drive a lot of blog traffic? When you know you’re going to be busy, do you write extra posts in advance or let your normal schedule slide?
Filed under: blogging, month in review · Tags: commenting, traffic
Blog Statistics Update March – April 2014
Blog Statistics Update February – March 2014
Blog Statistics Update December 2013 – January 2014
Blog Statistics Update April – May 201312 Responses to "Blog Statistics Update April – May 2014"
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Hey Emily – it was great to have you on the site. People seemed to really enjoy your post! I’d be happy to return the favor and write for you when your defense gets closer so just let me know. 🙂
I will take you up on that, thanks! I’ll let you know when I have my date set the range I’ll need posts for.
I’ve started going a little bit AWOL lately (posting once per week instead of three times) and the comments have definitely declined. My referral traffic is down when I do that.
I’m really torn on the blogging community commenting practices. I love catching up with my blogging friends and that usually involves comments (sometimes twitter or email), but then it always feels like “tit for tat” commenting. If you wouldn’t visit my site without me visiting yours… it isn’t really about reading my stuff and finding out what’s new with me. I dunno…
Oh, and I’ll write you a guest post if you’d like.
One of my friends just posted this link and I thought you might appreciate it.
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2014_05_20/caredit.a1400126
I figure I’ll just keep the commenting policy that I want and not worry about what other people do. I comment on some blogs without them ever commenting back and likewise, while I visit the blogs of regular EPF commenters, I don’t always comment.
Yes, I would love for you to write a post for me! Maybe sometime in July or August? I’ll let you know when it draws closer.
Thanks for the link! I looked at the guy’s book on Amazon – it’s awesome that he was doing stand-up about grad school.
Keep up the good work!
I am just now starting to monetize my blog. Still trying to figure out the best strategy. I have been doing a few guest posts, which helps at some of the larger sites too.
How are you balancing guest posting with posting at your own site?
Commenting makes a huge difference in my traffic. When I went to Europe for vacation, my numbers dropped significantly, even though I kept posting.
I’m not sure if it’s overall a good thing or not. I guess it’s nice to know that active work can drive traffic, if you want some more. But it’s also good to have baseline traffic coming from somewhere passive.
Coming from a relatively new blogger, I think your stats are actually quite good. I find it funny that some posts I put so much time and effort into won’t get that many views, but other ones I wrote just for fun and quickly without much effort get the most views. Either way, keeping (and sticking to) a regular posting schedule is a lot of work!
I’ve noticed that pattern as well. I guess it’s just encouragement to keep putting out both kinds of content.
[…] high spending to celebrate Kyle’s defense and our net worth topping $100,000 – in addition to last month’s blog stats post, our monthly spending review for May, and one post promoting other goings-on in the […]
[…] @ Evolving Personal Finance writes Blog Statistics Update April – May 2014 – Blog traffic and income for the most recent month. It turns out that my commenting drives […]