Hello. Welcome back from the extended Labor Day weekend in the US. I sometimes miss this holiday, in large part because it is socially acceptable to consume excessive amounts of BBQ and beer.
It is a short work week for many, and correspondingly a slow blog week(recovering from BBQ and beer?), so there is no better time to share some interesting blog data… I know not everyone loves behind the scenes blog details. (What?!)
But here it is: Sometime today blog traffic for 2018 will exceed traffic for all of 2017. This is about 40% year-over-year growth. Blog revenue passed the previous annual record about a month ago.
Here are the details on what I did to grow Go Curry Cracker.
Growing Go Curry Cracker
I have been following the not so top secret 3 step approach to GCC18 that I outlined in the 2017 Business Review.
- Create and grow a forum
- Become a better member of the personal finance community
- Drive more page views
I’ll outline a bit of what I’ve been doing on each of these items below.
Create and grow a forum
Did you know there is a Go Curry Cracker forum? Of course you did!
It now has over 100 members, discussing a wide range of topics from early retirement to life as an expat to travel hacking. Good times.
The value of a forum in terms of growth is 2-fold:
- It is far easier to support and encourage a larger audience with the help of a community
- Easier support means more time to focus on other things…
But it is also just an overall good place to discuss anything of interest. Check it out.
Become a better member of the personal finance community
I feel pretty fortunate that we have been able to share our story in a way that has helped others. But there are a great number of fascinating people pursuing their own dreams (financial and otherwise) that are even more inspiring.
Our life is completely unconventional, and I really enjoy thinking about things in an unconventional way.
And I have a massive list of topics I want to write about, many of which I’m not an expert on (but want to be.) But why reinvent the wheel…
So I reached out to inspiring people who happen to already be experts doing unconventional things and asked them to write guest posts. Bonus points if these experts had smaller sites (so I could help) and didn’t fit the typical stereotypes (caucasian, male, tech worker.) Because what better way to be opened up to new ways of thinking than from somebody who is non-stereotypical?
Being a better member of the personal finance community
Drive more page views
Page views can come either from reaching a larger audience or an existing audience reading more. I tried to make improvements to both.
Regular publishing
In years past I just kind of published stuff when it was available and convenient. Sometimes weeks or months went by with nothing, particularly while we were busy traveling. This year new content has been published every week sans one. Guest posts are great here too.
Sharing new posts via email is one of the biggest traffic drivers, so I automated this with ConvertKit. (affiliate link, 1st month free.)
Social Media
Sharing posts on social media is a guaranteed way to increase page views, but it is such a hassle to keep it going. I experimented with Hootsuite and Buffer, but they required constant effort on my part to share older posts.
Now I’m using Revive Social (affiliate link) to regularly share posts on Twitter (and soon Facebook.) Their tech support has been incredible in getting this working. This one change alone has boosted views by 10%+.
Traditional Media
The best way I have found to increase traffic is to get exposure in traditional media. In just one day we had over 500,000 page views when we were on the front page of Forbes and Yahoo, for example.
This year, we were featured by Time Money and ABC World News Tonight, which brought a good amount of new eyeballs our way. It always pays to reach out to media people and to drop everything when they reach out to you.
Paid Traffic
People need to know you have content before they can view it. One way to make them aware is through paid advertising.
I threw about $4,000 at paid advertising on Facebook this year (on a credit card that gives bonus points for online advertising.)
Conclusion: it cost more than it was worth. (Although that credit card got us some free flights around the US, saving $900.)
I also joined the paid Rockstar Finance VIB program, which helps raise awareness, boost SEO, and raise page views. I also just think Rockstar Finance is great and want to make sure it continues being great, so sending some $ that way is also part of being a better member of the personal finance community.
Reducing bounce rate / increase time on site
Sometimes people show up at a site, read a few things on one page and then bounce, never to return. Bummer.
Page load time is a big factor in bounce rate, so I upgraded my server, improved caching, and made some backend changes.
But sometimes people really like what they see and want to read more, so they click on a link. Which leads them to another site, never to return.
I had a large number of links offsite, so I went through and added target=”_blank” to all of them. This opens all outbound links in a new tab/page, increasing the number of people who come back for more.
And in some cases, I had outbound links to sites where I had my own content on the same topics. So I changed the outbound links with the most clicks to point to my own site instead. I did this subjectively… if a site also sent a lot of traffic back to GCC, I kept the outbound links. But if it wasn’t a reciprocal relationship, I didn’t. {For example, IRS.com doesn’t send many views my way ;) }
Summary
At the heart of blogging is producing great content.
Right nearby is making sure people are aware that your content exists and want to read it. It’s more fun to write when people read your work and enjoy it.
This year I put significant effort into both of these. It seems to be paying off.
Now… where can I find some beer and BBQ around here?
How are you growing your blog?
Don’t have a blog? Check out why I think everyone should blog and our step by step guide on how to start one.
Editorial Note – Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Thanks for sharing this. It’s cool seeing your blog grow. I’ve started many with no intention of using it as a business, but simply for the joy of writing and talking about the current adventure in my life. I love reading your stuff and getting a small dose of inspiration to live more in line with my values, so thanks!
Thank you Lia
I started GCC mostly so friends and family could follow along with our travels. Then things kinda went wacky and here we are
Congrats on the growth of GCC, Jeremy! You’ve inspired countless among us. I’ll be checking out the forum and visiting your site more consistently to help out with those page views. They’re increasingly hard to come by in an ever-crowded field, but I still subscribe to an abundance mindset!
There are still billions who have yet to be served
Nice work, and thanks for having us as one of your guest posters! Glad to hear your efforts are paying off and things are growing :)
Our blog has been holding steady. Probably following your lead and writing more would help boost traffic. It’s just been too nice out :)
I’m with you…. enjoying good weather is way more important than sitting in front of a computer. We were on the road for 3 months this year and I did next to nothing blog related. Just got back to Taiwan and now my priorities are family, biking, guitar, gym, and then maybe blog. Or naps.
Wow! I really appreacite this “behind the scenes” look at the specific steps you are taking to grow your blog.
40% is a big jump, especially considering that you had over a million views in 2017, congrats!
I was hoping for 100% growth but I’ll take 40% :)
Since I haven’t heard from Forbes yet ;) I have been growing my blog with Pinterest, being a part of blogging communities, and now I’m starting to see direct Google traffic too (yay!). I also have a guest post coming out at the beginning of October on a big site. It’s my first guest post ever so will be interesting to see how that goes!!
An idea: look at every reporter who has ever written about anything personal finance related, and then follow them on twitter. Interact with them. Share their stuff. And then pounce :)
We seem to be in the stage of simply keeping our head above water with the little kids, farm chores, and the tiny house, and so Love Liberty Shelter is simply a creative outlet for now.
But it’s so good to have some concrete ideas for future blog growth. Congratulations on your success and growing readership to share an upbeat message!
GCC was started so family and friends could follow along on our travels. Everything else just kinda happened accidentally.
I can’t figure out the answer to which flavor of crackers are the best when trying to register.
Curry?
oh gosh. not smart enough. lol
My site gets about 15K page views a month so I’m in the little leagues compared to you. Most of my traffic is from google searches (helps to be in a niche) and from Facebook. My bounce rate has dropped from about 67% to about 30% in the last year or so (yay!) just due to having a better organized site I think.
FYI my niche is gold prospecting in Colorado- nothing to do with FI or low cost travel haha!
I did a bit of gold prospecting near Colorado Springs when I was 4 years old or so. Copper Creek or something like that. I remember bringing home one of those tourist packages of fool’s gold and thinking I was the richest kid in the world
Congratulations! Great job growing GCC. I need to focus on this aspect of blogging more. Traffic has been flat at Retire by 40 for a couple of years. I need to network more.
I suspect future growth will be harder to come by.
I tried to join the forum but had trouble getting through the registration for some reason
how so?
I’ve been enjoying your regular posts this year! Thanks for the pertinent and timely reminders of how to grow a blog, just before FinCon. :)
Bravo Jeremy! Some times I talk about you and Winnie to my financee like I know you two. Lol. I do keep on coming for more. It would be cool if one day I was your guest blogger. ;) Thanks for all the inspiration. Cheers!
I started a blog, but have nothing original to contribute. I may need to keep searching – :)
Thanks for sharing! I’m currently figuring out how to increase my blog traffic as well and this information is really helpful. I’ll be excited to see what the next set of goals will be and how you go about meeting them :)
I’m curious to see what the next set of goals will be too :)
Probably reduce time involved.
This is great advice. I’m definitely guilty of only publishing stuff when it’s “available and convenient” (though I aim for around one post a month). By posting weekly, are you starting to feel like the blog has become a full-time job for you? You mentioned using services to help with the social media aspect of it (which is also very time consuming!), but do you feel like you’re starting to delegate/outsource more work as the blog grows? I’d love to hear some advice on that. Since I did all the development for Grow Mad Green myself, including making the WordPress theme, I realize there’s a lot I still have to maintain (including fixing issues with my theme and working on better SEO), and it can be overwhelming. I really want to write great content without getting too bogged down with the other stuff.
Thanks for the great post Jeremy!
For 2018, I think I put in about 16 hour weeks from January – May, and then did nothing from June – August. Maybe that averages out to a 10 hour week? Blogging is usually my lowest priority so I just work on it when nothing else is going on, or on Sunday night after Jr is in bed to get the Monday post ready.
I still don’t really know anything about SEO and could probably get some big traffic boosts by improving it, but it is really boring for me so I don’t. I suppose that is something I could outsource. I’ve more automated than delegated.
It’s actually really good to hear an idea of how many hours a week you’ve been putting in—I think it definitely makes a big difference! I’ve been enjoying your blog for a few years now so I’m happy to see regular posts from you. Congrats on the new numbers!
So an important metric that you haven’t included is spousal eyerolling when we mention your blog. It’s down at least 80% on the homefront from when I started reading and passing the info on to my wife! Thanks again. You deserve success—you’re awesome!
That is a fantastic metric, thank you!
Strong work! The national media exposure has done wonders for you, no doubt. 500,000 pageviews in a day?!? That beats my best MONTH by 200,000 and that was a good month for me due to media exposure from Business Insider (https://www.businessinsider.com/weekly-spending-doctor-retiring-early-2018-8).
I didn’t know about the forum — I’ll be sure to check it out. I went the Facebook Group route. One for “Physicians on FIRE” and one for “fatFIRE.” Since starting those, Facebook has surpassed Twitter as my top social media referral source.
Pageviews for my site surpassed 2017 numbers about a month ago. I did get some mainstream media exposure and would like to grow that — it will be easier when I’m actually retired a year from now. Mainly, I’ve just been consistent with frequent blog posts, engaged in the blogging community and various forums, and doing the work.
I’m also part of a mastermind group with bloggers more experienced and successful than me.
Cheers!
-PoF
Cheers! I’m trying to get on the forum but there are issues with the verification code..
what kind of issues? Please send me an email if you can with the details
Thanks for the detailed post on what you’re doing to drive views and improve your blog overall. As someone with a teeny tiny little blog who is trying to grow, it is very helpful to see some of the tactics you have used.
Timely post! As someone who literally just started an FI blog, I found this to be very beneficial. Thanks for sharing all of your tips and tricks. Keep it up GCC!
Some great ideas here that I need to take note of for my website! I just started and have the very basics down. It’s just crazy the amount of work that goes into having your own website. I am by nature a very private person and don’t really like advertising via FB or insta so it can seem like a chore. That said you don’t make any of the shots you don’t take.
It is great to see that after blogging for so long you are still able to improve traffic and continually make improvements. Great blog and alway fun to follow!
We’ve played with the idea of having a blog for years about our own FI journey with a bunch of travel thrown in. But we just never get down to writing. We’re going through our pictures from Nepal, a trip we took back in April/May. Haven’t even started writing about it yet, if we ever document it. Good for you for keeping this up; I’ve noticed the increase in posts lately and I’ve just been LOVING it. I like reading about what you are up to, your perspectives, etc.. Good job! :)
Such exciting growth! I know that you say social media is a pain, but I really enjoy seeing your updates on Instagram (and Winnie’s painting is getting pretty amazing!) I just passed my sixth month blogging mark (yay) and I have decided to dial back on the social media…Pinterest and SEO are where it’s at for me, personally. I have NO IDEA what I am doing on Twitter, hahaha. I know I follow you, that’s for sure.
I haven’t done anything on Pinterest. I hear it can be a good source of traffic but getting started seems a big hurdle.
Congrats on the 6 month mark
This is great info. Thanks for sharing! I hear what you’re saying about the big media mentions driving big traffic. I’ve gotten lucky with a few of those. I also agree that clicks from the emails I send to my list are a HUGE traffic source. I had a list of 40,000+ for a website I used to own and getting a bunch of clicks was reliable every time I posted something new and sent an email about it.