That's right folks. My goal for 2008 is to drive enough traffic to the site to
receive one million page views. This article is a look back at February 2008. I
think it is another great month. I show improvement in Alexa Traffic Rank and
it appears that I will drop well under 100,000 in March. Another area of
improvement is the increase in the amount of Direct Traffic as measured by
Google Analytics.
40,707 Page Views in February
So, let's get to the numbers and see what they all mean and how I can improve.
Google is showing 23,469 visitors and 40,707 page views. I actually had over
1,200 more visitors in February than in January. That is what I want, more
visitors. I have found that I have enough good content, that if I get the
visitors the page views will happen.
In January I had a couple of large spikes of Stumble traffic. In February, I
had Stumbles but they didn't produce the spikes like January. I see that as
another positive. I don't want to be a one hit wonder. That comment is from the
old record industry where a recording artist made it to the top of the charts
with one song. But, once that song died, then the artist never had another
great hit.
I am definitely heading in the right direction. One area I need to improve upon
is direct traffic. I should be sending out emails at least once a month,
probably once a week. That would help drive more direct traffic. But, still
even though I was laxed in that area, I still had more direct traffic than
January. In January I had 1,796 visitors come to my site directly. February
shows 2,277 visitors came directly to my site.
Direct traffic now represents 9.7% of my visitors. For February, I wanted to
increase that to 10% by being more proactive in sending out newsletters. I came
within .3% which I am going to claim as a success. For March I am predicting
11% of my traffic will come as direct traffic!
If you look at the chart below you can see that my page views were consistently
above 1,000 page views per day, with many spikes above 1,500 pages. I want to
see a spike above 2,000 in March. So, take a moment today and each of you that
read this article go read another 5 of my older articles. There are a number of
articles that will help you be more profitable in March.
My traffic slows down during the weekend. I can only assume that people are
coming to my site when they should be working. I think I can up these numbers
by sending out emails over the weekend. Then if people are at home or check up
on work issues maybe I can encourage them to stop by on the weekend when they
normally wouldn't. This was my goal for February. I only managed one newsletter
for the entire month. I need to create a better strategy for my email
campaigns.
Alexa Traffic Rank Dropping Rapidly
The image below is a snapshot of the Alexa detail page on March 1st, 2008. You
can see my yesterday score is 66,956. Any time that number goes below 100,000 I
am a very happy camper. When the weekly average also dips below 100,000 that is
excellent.
But, the real number that means something to advertisers is the 3 month
average. I will consider my hard work a success when that number dips below the
hundred thousand mark and stays there. I am probably two weeks away from the
Alexa Traffic Rank number to be below 100,000. 
So, there it is. I have done some things right. All my numbers are moving in
the right direction. They aren't moving as fast as I want them too, but the
year is still young. I expect to continue to follow my plan, see the article on
Ten Things to Make Your Blog Successful in 2008 to see what I am
doing this year to drive traffic to my web site.
How Were Your Numbers in January?
I hope your numbers for the month are also improving. If you are looking for
tips on improving your traffic be sure and read,
Eight Blog Traffic Generators I can't Live Without. I am
planning on being involved in a super huge Entrecard contest where I will be
hosting the Home and Garden section for the contest. It is a contest for
newbies and could prove quite exciting and profitable to all participants. More
details on the contest coming in the next few days.
As always you don't want to dwell too much on the past. You need to live today
and prepare for tomorrow. I am wishing you all an excellent March. Please take
a moment and comment on how your February numbers are looking. I always visit
the websites of my commenters.
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