Welcome to my monthly reports. The aim of them – and the whole website – is to help you move ahead with your own projects, by sharing what I’ve been working on and the lessons I’ve learned. If I can learn from you at the same time then I’ll be more the richer.
I posted just the one article in April; a collection of tactics I’ve been using to cut down the signal-to-noise ratio and ween myself off the digital information addiction that affects so many online professionals. Thanks for all the great feedback.
I’ve since learned that I’m way behind the curve on this trend of working more efficiently via simplicity. It’s a movement known as minimalism and it seems I’m only beginning a journey that already has inspired hundreds of quality posts written by minimalist advocates such as Leo, Oscar and many more.
Minimalism – it’s good to find a name for it.
Anyway, on to last month’s report…
I don’t promote via Twitter or social bookmarking sites, so this website relies on old-school Web 2.0 methods to drive traffic: RSS (subscribe here!), blog comments, guest posts and organic search.
As a result, the growth will be slower than many comparable blogs. I’m cool with this however. No pressure, no expectations.
Traffic Overview
20% up on visits, 58% up on page views. This is driven by some comments I left on a few blogs, although Direct visitors have increased just over 23% too. However, at these low figures, it’s unwise to draw any conclusions.
Subscribers
| RSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Last Month | 0 | Last Month | 0 |
| This Month | 31 | This Month | 1 |
| Total Subscribers | 31 | Total Subscribers | 1 |
Top Referring Sites
| Referring Sites | Visits | Referring Sites | Visits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct | 47 | twitter.com | 6 |
| Google Organic | 37 | manchester-seo.org | 4 |
| smartpassiveincome.com | 11 | feedburner | 2 |
| viperchill.com | 9 | seomoz.org | 2 |
Top Referring Keywords
| Referring Keywords | |
|---|---|
| burndowneasy | burn down |
| david lindop | burn down easy |
| manchester meetup | |
| my blog guest | |
| It’s nice to see some branded keywords here – the visits are too low for this table to really be insightful, but it sets a baseline for future reports. | |
Activity
SAScon 2010
The digital marketing conference I’ve been organising, with some other very talented gents, went ahead and was simply fantastic. We had panels on blackhat vs. whitehat SEO, social media, pan-European adwords campaigns, and more.
I enjoyed some great chats with Yoast, Lyndon, Judith and Bas at the pre-event party.
Project Z
After last month’s exhausting bug-hunt on Project Z, I spent April working on a long-term, whitehat SEO strategy based on developing a brand.
What does this mean in non-geek terms? It means that given the choice between competing on price or inbound links, I’d rather spend my time nurturing a brand into something people trust and remember.
More minimalisation
I’m still unravelling my mind from the past year’s worth of digital overload. This month I tried leaving my iPhone at home when I went out with my wife; every so often I would reach for it and momentarily panic when I couldn’t find it – how very silly!
We fed the ducks at the river and picked dandelions for this year’s St. George’s wine. I suddenly remembered what’s important in life.
SEO
Finally, I’ve also been developing an pioneering SEO forecasting system with keyword-level accountability for all KPIs such as visibility, visits, sales, revenue etc.
It incorporates seasonality, click-through data, adwords search volumes, and if available also PPC and analytics data.
The next update will hopefully provide traditional PPC metrics (CPC, CPA etc.) as well as showing SEO and PPC as an integrated channel.
It should make it possible for clients and agencies to quickly and visually compare SEO performance with the forecast (I’m aware I’m probably constructing my own gallows!)
Lessons I learned this month:
Dandelions taste like asparagus
Minimalism really does work. You don’t need to go to extremes, but don’t allow everything you consume to ultimately consume you. Take a break and go feed the ducks!
