One Month : 200 Subscribers
45Pro Blog Design had its one month anniversary this week, and so instead of the usual weekly wrap-up post, I’m going to do something selfish. I’m going to write about Pro Blog Design’s first month. And what a month it has been!
The Milestones
I have a document on my computer, where I save a list of all the milestones Pro Blog Design has passed. I wish I could list them all, but there have been so many!
The statistical ones are a nice start. After just 30 days, we’re on the verge of breaking into Technorati’s top 40,000 and we’re ranked 150,000 in Alexa (We only have 3 Technorati fans though, so if you’re up for it… ;) ). But those are just stats. The real milestones are all about the readers.
Readers. At the time of writing, we have 206 subscribers. 206! The idea that two hundred people find the articles here worth reading every day is quite astounding to me! Personally, I think Feedburner have tweaked my counter just to keep me happy. It’s working.
Better yet, the comments! The very best thing about Pro Blog Design is the comments. Liz Strauss awarded us an SOB because of the conversations here, and she was just right. We have 36 posts, and 604 comments. That works out at an average of 17 comments per post. Quite the articulate bunch, aren’t you?
So, the Pro Blog Design milestones that I’m going to list aren’t stats, or guest posts, or anything else, they’re my favorite comments from the past month.
- The most thought provoking conversation must have been on the post, Does Valid Code Help Your Blog? I’d like to name the best commenters there, but I just can’t. Each of the 39 comments were fantastic.
- In the Tools for Choosing a Color Combination guest post, we had one great set of tools recommended to us by Steven Snell. Then in the comments, we had a whole new set of great tools suggested by the commenters!
- We’ve had comments left by some of my favorite bloggers, including David Airey, Liz Strauss and Lorelle VanFossen.
- We’ve had hundreds of fantastic comments left all over the place! Sorry that I can’t name everyone, but if you look to your right you’ll find a list of 5 of the most active lately, whom I’ve enjoyed talking with tremendously!
The Future
It has been a great month. It really has. But the point of this post isn’t to bask in the past month, it’s to make the coming one even better. I’ve already told you how much I enjoy hearing your views on each topic here, so you already know how much I’d like to hear your views about the blog itself.
What topics would you like to see covered? Anything you’d like to change?
PS – I’ve added the RSS counter to the sidebar. I think we’ve earned that!
PPS – I couldn’t write this post without giving a special thanks to Darren Rowse. Never mind the invaluable advice he gives; he allowed me to write a guest post on his blog and has linked out quite a few times. Thanks Darren!
Enjoy this post? You should follow me on Twitter!
Michael – I’ve gotta say, a massive congratulations.
In 1 month, your growth has been phenomenal. I’m very proud of this site, even though I havn’t had that much to do with it – your continued effort in content writing, link building and joining the conversation around the blogosphere has earned you these magnificent 200 readers. It took me around a year to get 200 subs, so kudos to you for making it happen so quickly.
Here’s to another awesome month – I’m thinking that cracking 500 could be on the cards. Also, I think that this month will be a monetization one for you – this site now has a great potential to be earning some good pocket change.
Anyway, enough from me – you’re the man!
congratulations!
To be quite frank, for the content this blog writes it and the phenominal discussion that it creates it deserves more than 200 readers.
But in anycase, congratulations on your success. ^_^
Adnan – Thanks! 500 would be a dream. My original goal was about 50 (1-2 new readers each day), so I’m a few months ahead of schedule already. :D
And lol – You did have something to do with it. At the least, we’d all be commenting on “Designing Blogs” right now, instead of “Pro Blog Design.” ;)
Wallace – Thanks. And thanks again for letting me guest post. :)
Daniel – lol – I’m glad you’re enjoying the discussions as much as I am! :D
congratulations! :)
Oh wow. 200 is awesome! Looks like you’ve found a nice niche.
I have a similar goal for my blog. My first aim was 1,000 subscribers in 2 months. That was a little too ambitious for my niche (it’s good to have an impossible goal to shoot), so now I’ve toned it down to 50 after the first two months.
Thanks Marco! :)
Liberty – Thanks. I hope you get to your goal as well! (Preferably the first one, but if not, the second is great too. ;) )
Actually, yo have 203 subscribers currently… :D
lol Matt – But at the time of writing, I didn’t. I use future-posting. ;)
I’m just glad that it didn’t fluctuate back down below 200! That would have been a problem… xD
Congratulations, quite some impressive stats you got there :). And of course we want to see more topics like the ones coming now, they’re a great read :).
Congrats. I know how you feel. My blog is even more new than yours and I check the subscriber stats every day.
But don’t be so surprised at your growth. I subscribed to your blog the moment I found it. That’s because it’s an easy to read site with lots of solid content.
You’re doing a super job.
Man, this is amazing!
And I thought getting 387,818 Alexa rank in 100 days was already a great feat.
I guess I was comparing myself to the wrong people. :) I look forward to learn from you!
Slevi – lol – Guess we’ll be sticking with those topics then. :)
Dean – It’s my favorite statistic as well. I can’t help but check it the moment I log on!
Thanks for subscribing. Hope to talk to ya in a few more comments. :D
goldfries – That’s a great achievement! Congratulations! The best way to judge success is to forget about everyone else, and see what your blog means to you. Geting that Alexa rank really is a great achievement, so be proud. :D (See ya on TBE btw. ;) )
@Goldfries: If you want to rise up in Alexa you should try to get people which visit your blog frequently to use the FireFox “SearchStatus” plugin, it just like the alexa toolbar triggers alexa that you’re visiting the site so will count as a visit.
Get about 7 people visiting your site frequently with that and you’re already ending up at about 60,000 or so in Alexa rank.
Just a little tip ;-). It’s the reason why using Alexa ranks for anything above a rank of about 10,000 is so useless, since it says nothing about actually traffic one is getting, just the amount of people which has a plugin installed to track it and too little is needed to get there.
Thank Michael & Slevi. :D
My site visitors are largely local (Malaysia) and I think most of them wouldn’t bother those plugins. Other than myself using Search Status and Sparky, I don’t know who else does.
Well I look at Alexa and whatever stats just for kicks. My focus is always on content. :D
I’m definitely adding your blog to my blogroll. I like blogs that focus on great content. ;)
You know what? I’ve managed to convince myself that you will take over the
Internetworld someday–and that “someday” translates to “really soon”. XDThis whole blog came as a pleasant surprise for me–
so this is why you’ve been missing in action for quite a bit lately, eh?–and I just want to congratulate you for such a remarkable feat! You really deserve all of this! [And so Michael’s head gets bigger than the Milky Way. :lol: Don’t let all the fame and fortune get to your head, though, because we’d still want to have the awesome Michael around. ;) ]It is true–I keep learning new stuff from you. You are definitely wise beyond your years. You rock, man!
Congratulations!
Anyway, see you around! ;)
PS: Oh, and okay, I will subscribe to your feed
to bump up that countbecause this is an awesome blog. :PSlevi – I used to have the Sparky addon installed, but I disabled it because I think it was slowing down my page load times a little. It probably wasn’t much, but every little tweak helps. :)
goldfries – Thanks! Glad you like the blog. Stats like Alexa don’t have much purpose other than blogging kicks. You can’t really improve your blog based on a ranking. The useful statistics are the usual referrers, top content, visitor info etc. that you find in a normal statistics package. :)
pam – Hey! I suppose I can’t call you “darvit” anymore?? ;)
Thanks for all the kind words. They mean a lot! I’ll definitely see ya around. :D
Congratulations on your one month. Not bad for subscribers either. Ah, the beauty of a well designed, well written niche style blog. Here’s to keeping up the pace and having a successful year to come! :)
Thanks Kirk! If the year to come is anywhere near as exciting as the past month has been, I’m looking forward to it! ;)
This is very impressive Michael. I had no idea that this blog was a new kid. Due to the ammount of commentors you are getting, I thought your blog was several months old – at least since the last PageRank update, which was April I think.
It would be good if you posted an entry about how to build a successful blog. Most people will have to wait a year or two before they can do that, but somehow your there after one month.
To make your blog better I would suggest nesting the comments so people can comment on each other. I think this builds a stronger community. I am much more likely to read the comments if they nest. If youhave no idea what I am on about check out the comments at – http://hamletbatista.com/
and all should become clear.
Hey David – The comments really are the best thing here. (And lol – Good point about the PageRank. I’m glad I don’t have the Google Toolbar installed anymore. The 0 would bug me! :lol: )
I like your idea for a post. There are many others who write about the topic, and others who are more experienced, but I’d definitely sharing what I thought went well for PBD this month. Perhaps it wouldn’t suit this blog though. I might write to someone about a guest post. :)
As for the threaded comments; once again, great suggestion. I’ve actually toyed with the idea before. It would certainly suit this blog well (I reply to just about every comment written here, and many other commenters reply to each other. :) ). My only problem with it is that you sometimes find people clicking the “Reply to this comment” link in the first comment, just because they don’t know any better, and their comments end up being nested somewhere they shouldn’t be. (Seems to happen on the more popular blogs mostly)
I think I’ll ask about the idea in next week’s weekly roundup, and see what others think of the idea. :)
@Michael: Nah, I just comment on blogs using this name. :D Congratulations again. Still quite shocked and very much impressed — I just had no idea you were doing this. :shock: Amazing. :D
Pam – I imagine darvit wouldn’t mean much to others. Pity. :lol:
And lol – Must make ya wonder what other secrets I might have up my sleeve. j/k ;)
@Michael: Yeah, that’s exactly it, so why bother? XD
And yup, I’m actually getting quite scared now. [kidding. ;) ]
Hello again,
Just for info’s sake, the last Google PR wrap up began at the very end of July and continued through the first half of August. You’ll need a few months before you actually register and somewhere I heard that it took around 100 backlinks to be noticed at the next PR wrap up. That may be just one of the PR myths that are floating around though. The PR wrap ups occur every 90 days or so if I remember correctly.
What you do have is an darn good Alexa rating which is currently 150,218 (the lower the better) which is outstanding for just one month. Your Alexa rating doesn’t even begin to be graphed until you’re below 100,00 and your only 50,000 or so away! My effort may have attained a PR 5 but my Alexa rating has never been below 360,000 which is due to the blog being a personal one that wanders from one subject to the next.
Looks like your on your way!
Kirk – Thanks. I do know about PR, but I don’t place a lot of store by it. At least, not by the toolbar number. The only problem with that is that it can be a nice indication of a site’s size/age, so when Google only updates 4 times a year, you can get a little frustrated with the old ranking if it is quite low.
Congrats on the PR5. Breaking into the 5+ half of the scale is definitely a great achievement. :D
Great job Michael, though I must say that I’m not surprised as you are by your success :). You’ve picked the perfect niche for you and you’re serving it perfectly.
I’ve tried to spread the word by referring people who’ve had questions about design/code to you and your site, particularly as part of the simplicity reviews, for people who wanted some help in implementing the changes. I know you’ve gained at least one new reader from that process (which I know from positive feedback about your blog), so I’m going to keep sending them here until you tell me to stop ;).
Michael,
Congratulations! Your blog is definitely deserving of these accomplishments.
Congrats, you really have done an amazing job for such a young blog.
Hmm, I have no idea how many subscribe to my blog… maybe I should get Feed Burner.
Always a good idea to celebrate your blog milestones. Congratulations Michael, although it’s no surprise that you’re doing so well after JUST ONE MONTH!
Long may it continue.
Skellie – Thanks! Recommending someone else read here is the highest form of complement you can give (As well as the obvious fact that I’m delighted with every reader I get. :D ).
Steven – Thanks. :)
Kristarella – Feedburner is nice when you’re really interested in knowing who is reading your content. If you aren’t so bothered about tha though, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t actually help you with making a better blog. You will write your best work with or without the little button. :)
David – Thanks. That’s twice you’ve had fantastic words of encouragement now. I appreciate it. :D
The first time I stumbled onto this blog, I knew you have that something special to share and I am right. I am glad to see that you are reaping the joy of writing what you are good at. Keep it up and feed us with your blog designing tips Michael!
M glad to be one of your subscribers and putting into practice what you’ve shared :D
Thanks for the kind works pablopabla. I’m glad you’re a subscriber as well. I imagine there are few I’ve talked to more in these comments! :D
Hi Michael,
Congrats! And I’m not at all surpised of the great result of Pro Blog Design. You’re unique from the start, your tips are always so helpful and, you’re really good at interacting with the readers!
Hey Shine,
Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate it. :D
How did you get your rss readers so high in just one month? That is awesome. Any tips you might have would be great.
Thanks.
There are quite a few reasons I imagine, but in the end of it all, there is no big secret. There are a lot of things you can do to help yourself (And other blogs will explain those things much better than I can do in a comment! xD ), but at the end of the day, it comes down to your content.
Well, content and community. I’ve never paid for advertising, but the community here is so great, they’ve given me some great referrals. :D
Michael,
Perhaps one day you’d like to share on how did you market your site. :)
lol goldfries – I’m still trying to work that one out myself. ;)
That’s flippin’ amazing. Congrats. I just passed the four month mark on my blog and I’m sitting at 30 subscribers.
Thanks Deron! And 30 is a great achievement as well. I’d have been happy with that too. Contextualise it. How often do 30 different people read what you have to say offline? :D
You’re right. It still amazes me that even 30 people like what I’ve got to say enough to keep coming back and subscribe to my feed. Although, 271 would really, really amaze me. ;)
Exactly. That’s the way I look at it. :D (And it amazes me too! If it’s any help, it’s been fluctuating massively this week! Look back tomorrow and it will down by 50! ;) )
To be quite frank, for the content this blog writes it and the phenominal discussion that it creates it deserves more than 200 readers.
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