I’m reading Technorati’s 2011 State of the Blogosphere report. As I do, I’m reflecting on my own stats, motivations for writing and measurements of success…
Here are some stats from the report:
- Professional Part-Time and Full-Time bloggers make up 18% of the total group surveyed. These are independent bloggers who use blogging as a way to generate income.
- Corporate bloggers make up 8% of the blogosphere. These individuals blog full-time for a company or organization (I fall into this category).
Of the corporate group…
- 70% blog to share expertise.
- 61% to gain professional recognition.
- 52% to attract new clients.
Lastly, 63% of corporate bloggers use number of unique visitors as a measurement of success.
I find these stats interesting as I reflect on my own motivations for blogging. While here (on my personal blog), I write to share subject matter expertise and professional recognition, on my company blog, I write primarily to attract new clients. And while unique visitors is a good measurement of success (that number’s growing consistently for me in the double-digits week over week and month over month), I also look at things like:
- Number of trial accounts people register for.
- Email list sign-ups.
- Comments & social mentions (as an indicator of whether people resonated well with the content).
This year, I’ve been focusing more on my objectives. Meaning, I try and think about the desired outcome and the desired effect I want my writing to have. At times I’m all over the place, but I find that sitting down and really thinking about what it is you want to accomplish helps a great deal in inching you towards your goals.
What about you?
What are your primary motivations for blogging? To establish yourself as an authority in your niche? Generate new business? And what do you track to measure your level of success?
I put my motivations in my about page (Share my perspective on a diverse set of topics. Create meaningful, ongoing relationships. Learn from you.)
But honestly, my biggest intention right now is to simply improve my skills as a writer. I am sometimes a bit lengthy and/or unfocused, but I’m getting faster/better with each article, etc.
I’m figuring in about another 100 articles, I’ll switch gears and create a more business focused goal. But for now, my blog is serving is purpose well!
Re: “I am sometimes a bit lengthy and/or unfocused”
Just write. Often we’re overly critical of what we write and put out there. What sounds strange to ourselves is really just the inner critic in us being, well, critical. You do get better the more you write.
For me, this year has been all about sitting down and outlining specific goals and objectives. Little by little, I feel like I’m getting there. Too often, I think people skip that part though – setting proper goals.
I hear you there. I’m in the process of paring down my commitments as well so I can do better at a few goals versus spreading myself way too thin.
As for writing. Absolutely. I’m becoming more prolific in my journalling. I’m now planning a few series of posts to transition that quantity of writing into my blog.
When I spoke at the NVAR convention as a panelist about content blogging, I mentioned that track my blogging success on closed, money in the bank clients (not # of subscribers or comments). My experience is different because people weren’t just contacting me about a listing, they were contacting me after reading my blog, getting to know me there and having made up their mind that I was going to be their real estate agent. A connection had been established.
It is funny how they will ask me very specific questions about details only discovered by reading my “About Me” page. So my goal has been to write content that engages my reader, teaches them something, and demonstrates my real estate experience.
Today’s consumer isn’t going to stop at a slick “landing page” and register for updates, they want content they can find useful right now!
Sounds like in your case it’s all about establishing expertise over the local community – not just pitching real estate. Establishing yourself as the expert for everything local. And that’s important… That’s what I tell people they NEED to do first and foremost.
Create opportunities for people who don’t know you, to get to know you. By sharing relevant, engaging info and being open about who you are and what you do.
In many ways, we’re selling to strangers. Gimmicks and tactics don’t work, you still need to make a connection first.
Thanks for the comment Doug!
Aren’t you just full of good questions, Ricardo!
I blog for all those reasons. Measuring, sometimes, can be tricky! Increased exposure and enhanced reputation are important to me. Of course, we all want that to manifest itself into financial compensation at some point. Whether that comes from ebooks, speaking, advertising, clients, etc.
It’s important to revisit our goals frequently to keep us on track. Why wait until the new year? Do it now! 😉
Ricardo, thanks for this! If you count my primary professional website, I have four blogs. Content on my website (blog) is designed to generate business. It does. I have a Tumblr blog about iP4 photography which has become a bit of an obsession for me, a Posterous blog where I share little philosophical insights on life and aging, of which I am doing both… and a WordPress blog expressing strong opinions on local community and political matters.
I consider these latter three blogs to be relevant, each in their own way, am not frivolous in how I develop and present content and enjoy a certain psychic income from their small successes. There has never been any other sort of income objectives.
Again, thanks for your contributions to this and other social media endeavors. You’re always a good read Ricardo!
Great Post!
My main motivation for blogging is to share experiences, content and ideas, however thoroughly thought out they may be, with whoever is looking for that particular type of content.
I blog because I love writing. I measure my blog by how I’m improving as a writer. I view stats through comments/pageviews on google analytics.