10 Signs That Your Blog Is On The Right Track

Starting a new blog or growing an existing one can certainly be frustrating, as it may seem like you are not on pace to achieve your goals. Like anything worthwhile, building a solid and effective blog will take some time and hard work. As Daniel wrote recently, it gets easier with time if you can stick with it.

I see many bloggers completely give up or seriously slow down their activity because they feel like they are not getting anywhere, when in my opinion they are on the right track.

Hopefully if you are doing the right things and making progress you will recognize your growth and accomplishments, but not all do. Here are 10 signs that your blog is on the right track. If several of these items apply to you, don’t give up just because the achievements are not coming fast enough. I think if you give it some time and continue to work, you will reach your goals in time.

1. Growing Subscriber Count

If your blog’s subscriber base is growing, even slowly, you are making some progress. Gaining trust and subscribers is not easy, so try not to get your expectations unrealistically high. If you have realistic goals for subscriber growth you will more likely be able to feel good about your progress and stay consistent with your blogging.

2. Increasing Numbers of Inbound Links

Links are important for any blog. They help with click-through traffic, search engine rankings, and recognition. For bloggers, incoming links are also representative of how well you are known in your industry and your number of links will grow as you start to become recognized as an authority.

3. Increasing Numbers of Valuable Comments

If your blog is receiving a decent amount of thought-provoking comments, that is a good sign that people are reading and paying attention to you. Comments are the lifeblood of blogs, and those that have a lot of valuable comments from readers become even more useful for readers.

4. Increasing Visitors, Pageviews, and/or Pagviews Per Visit

Many bloggers are stats junkies. While growth in traffic isn’t always representative of meeting or surpassing your blogging goals, it certainly isn’t a bad thing. Hopefully, over time your blog stats will increase as more and more readers visit and subscribe to your blog.

5. Consistent Posting

If you are posting consistently on your blog, you’re already one step ahead of the vast majority of bloggers. It sounds pretty easy, but consistent posting is a huge challenge for many. If you’re able to keep posting consistently, good things are likely to happen.

6. Improving Quality of Articles

Quality is always going to be a somewhat subjective issue, but I think most bloggers can look back through their archives and get a pretty accurate idea of how the quality has trended over time. I know that when I look back at my first few months of blog posts I’m kind of embarrassed at the low level of quality, and I don’t think I’m alone. Growth in quality is natural as you will become more knowledgeable about your topics and as you learn about blogging and writing in general. Take a look back at how your quality of writing has improved and I think you will be encouraged to keep going and see what happens.

7. An Ability to Clearly Define Your Niche

One of the most overlooked items when starting a new blog is being able to accurately define the audience that you will be targeting. As time goes by, you’ll learn what types of content your readers appreciate (and what they don’t respond to) and you’ll most likely get a better idea of where you fit into your niche. Knowing your place is very important for branding and creating a blog that is appealing to the readers that you are targeting. If you know precisely where you fit into your niche, you’re on the right track.

8. An Increasing Network of Bloggers

Networking is probably the most crucial aspect of blogging outside of content creation, and in some cases it can be even more important. If you are continually meeting new bloggers and strengthening the relationships that you have made, you will drastically be in a better position for the future. Building a network will help you to learn from others, gain valuable and loyal readers, increase inbound links, increase votes at social media sites, and much more.

9. A Knowledge of at Least 1 Specific Way to Get Targeted Readers to Your Blog

As you continue to blog, you will learn more about traffic generation and getting people to read and recognize what you have written. If you have even one specific method that consistently helps you to reach your target audience, you are better off than most bloggers. Maybe you have spent some time writing guest posts for other blogs in your niche, maybe you’ve had success with leaving intelligent and relevant comments at other blogs, or maybe you’ve developed a strong profile at a niche-specific social media website. Whatever the source is, if it is something that you can continue to use in the future, you are one step closer to blogging success.

10. Achievement of Goals

Many bloggers have long-term goals, such as making a living with a blog, or getting 10,000 subscribers. But what many bloggers lack are short-term goals that will help them to take the necessary steps towards those long-term goals. If you are setting monthly goals for blogging revenue, subscribers, traffic, etc. and you are achieving those goals, don’t give up because you are not getting to the long-term goals fast enough. Take pleasure in meeting your short-term goals and keep challenging yourself.

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Steven Snell on March 4, 2008 | Filed Under Blogging Basics

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52 Responses to “10 Signs That Your Blog Is On The Right Track”

Ali from TheOfficeDiet on March 4th, 2008 4:29 am

Great advice, and very encouraging, thanks! I am seeing growth in these areas with my blog The Office Diet (albeit slowly at present) so I guess I’m on the right lines… And I only launched the blog 2 months ago so it’s early days yet.

This has given me considerable encouragement when my motivation for my blogging was waning a bit. Thanks

Ali
OldSailor on March 4th, 2008 6:36 am

Well written. Is there any specific data available in terms of percentage increase for subscriber counts,number of visitors,page views to assess the growth?
Ruchir Chawdhry on March 4th, 2008 6:42 am

11. Increasing Spam
12. Increasing Negative Comments
13. Increasing Income

Though I’d add some…
Barbara Ling on March 4th, 2008 6:56 am

14. Increasing “how to” questions arriving in your inbox

15. Unsolicited mentions in industry niche blogs

16. Articles written about you - “When so and so speaks, we listen!”

Enjoy,

Barbara
Jeremy Steele on March 4th, 2008 7:02 am

I’ll add even more…

Increased number of 12 hour work days

Increased number of e-mails

Increased annoyance at people asking asking you to link to their blog “just because” they linked to yours
Daniel on March 4th, 2008 7:21 am

Good additions .
Virtual Impax on March 4th, 2008 7:34 am

I’m a “blog pusher” by trade… and impatience is HUGE amongst beginning bloggers.

I tell my clients that it takes 100 posts for your blog to find “it’s voice”.

When I read about the io9.com launch… I wondered if I wasn’t setting the bar too low. io9.com had 700 posts loaded before launch.

The funny thing is, once my clients have a “goal” for the number of posts, they start focusing on that instead of on the other “distractions” such as how many comments, incoming links, etc.

Once you’ve got 100 posts… you have enough content to get respect from other bloggers. They can see you’re in this for the long haul and they’re more willing to link to you. PLUS it’s easier to find content to link to within a blog with 100 (original) posts.

I actually had a client who launched a blog and leave up the “welcome to Wordpress” initial post. Four months later, she did a search on Google and wondered why her site wasn’t appearing under her uber competitive keywords. Sigh.

That’s when I began my “wait until you have 100 posts” rants!
ITrush on March 4th, 2008 8:07 am

Very informative. Thanks for the signs.
Bookmarked!

nhick
http://www.itrush.com
engtech @ internet duct tape on March 4th, 2008 8:58 am

ooh… looks like I’m on the wrong track
Carol - Blog.ConchoLakeAZ.com on March 4th, 2008 9:26 am

I know from experience that you look at your website and wonder “Why am I doing this? I don’t see any results.”

The results are out there! Sometimes you just have to look them. And they are not always show themselves monetarily.

I have a website for a small rural community in Arizona. The website has been active for three years, but I branched off to include a regular blog format last October.

It’s been a slow growth and sometimes discouraging. However, I know I an doing the right thing when:
1. I had a school employee approach me and tell me that are referring the website to help recruit a new principal, and
2. I had the local UPS office excited about using my site for physical address maps.

It’s nice to know that I am making a difference in this community. I know in time the money will follow….

PS: Visit the site to join in on the Blog Contest for an iPod!
http://blog.concholakeaz.com/?p=162
Andy MacDonald - SEO & Marketing Blog on March 4th, 2008 10:51 am

Yeah that’s great advice there. Whilst my blog is fairly new and my subscriber count is still fairly small, i do receive adequate amount of traffic on a daily basis, i have thought about giving up at one point, but as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and i think the same can be true for blogging.

It takes time, stick at it and you will one day get the results you are hoping for.
Tony Lawrence on March 4th, 2008 10:53 am

Timely article for me.. I do get discouraged sometimes - I’m growing, but it’s never fast enough for me and sometimes I look at something I wrote and sheesh, it seems like good stuff but nobody else seems to think so Of course the opposite happens now and then too, but it’s never often enough, right?
Phil on March 4th, 2008 11:01 am

I have read how important (#5) consistant posting is. I am taking the 30 day challenge to make one post each day. I’ve read it has been a challenge many have gained value from. Making each one a quality post (6) is in mind as well.
RennyBA on March 4th, 2008 11:27 am

I came to yours from MattKeegan’s SU and are glad since this was a readable and educative post - at least a great reminder.

I have been blogging for a bit more than 2 years and I feel the success is based on that I’ve Clearly Define My Niche (post about Norway; our culture, traditions and habits) and stick to that subject. So my readers knows what they get and come back because they want more. I guess thats what you call Consistent Posting too.

I posted almost every day in the beginning, but that takes a lot of time. Now I believe more in quality that quantity.
Mike on March 4th, 2008 11:49 am

Very nice advice and some very good points. I struggle with a few of these things like others have posted, like being consistant.
Monevator on March 4th, 2008 1:42 pm

@ Barbara, @ Ruchir – Hey, I’d love to have some of these problems guys.

I feel like I’m getting somewhere because my RSS sub count is going up slowly, but Google still hasn’t indexed my site (I had a robot file disallowing it on there by accident for a few weeks. Eek! It seems the Googlebot holds a grudge!)

Daily Blog Tips must have one of the speediest comments section of any blog going. I guess that’s the advantage of writing for bloggers, and a sure sign of a blog that’s successful.

@Daniel, a question: when did you first realise that Daily Blogs tips was going to be a success? Is there a specific crossover? How would you compare the progress of Daily Bits and Daily Writing Tips? (Feel free not to answer of course just curious)
Steven on March 4th, 2008 3:04 pm

Thanks everyone for your feedback and additions. I’m glad it was helpful information for many of you.
Don on March 4th, 2008 5:24 pm

Very inspiring Daniel.

Thank you very much.
netvalar on March 4th, 2008 6:50 pm

Couple more things that shows forward movement

Niche leaders rather they blog or not contact you before you contact them.

New reader tells you they downloaded your entire blog (This one still confuses me)

Your stats show that people are finding your blog by googling your name. (If your name is important enough to google then your blog must be doing something to get talked about)

You get VIP passes to events within your Niche
Bruce on March 4th, 2008 6:56 pm

Thanks for this great information.

My blog has only been up for a little over a month, but I see that I’ve been doing a lot of things right.

Of course, there are some things that I could do better, and I plan to do so.

This was very encouraging for me…Thanks again!
Quiet Rebel Writer on March 4th, 2008 7:28 pm

Wow - thanks. This was just what I needed. Things are going well at QuietRebelWriter, but of course not as quickly as I would desire. This helped me remember patience, and what to look forward to in the future.
Todd Jordan on March 4th, 2008 7:59 pm

Good post. Makes me feel better about my current blog. Thanks for sharing the ideas.
Daniel on March 5th, 2008 1:58 am

@Monevator, it was a very gradual process. As the traffic increased so did my attention towards the blog. It still has a long way to go though before I would call it successful.

For Daily Writing Tips and Daily Bits you just gave me a good suggestion, I will write a post covering their launch process soon.
lonifasiko on March 5th, 2008 3:41 am

I also second that you must have very much patience, it’s impossible to grow in a couple of weeks/months, be famous all around the Internet and have hundreds of subscribers!

But all bloggers (I include myself) get a little bit nervous when we see our posts have no comments, visits are not as good as expected, no ads are clicked…it’s a bit frustrating to see your work is not properly judged….

However, the possitive side is I know I’m doing it well, no matter how many subscribers or readers I have, I know people who trust on me like and (sometimes) read the articles I write…that’s for me the most important thing.

As you see, I’m a self-confident person, thus, I think I’m on the right track

Regards.
TzuVelli on March 5th, 2008 8:48 am

Great guide posts on the path to success.
Bob Younce on March 5th, 2008 8:54 am

Excellent and very practical. Two thumbs up (on StumbleUpon!)
Charlie Gilkey on March 5th, 2008 12:01 pm

Great post. It’s always somewhat comforting to see that you’re not alone, and it can get hard being a small fry blog. I think there’s great insight in this post and in the comments, especially Virtual Impax’.

I’ve found that your comment about goals is really helpful. I made myself a benchmark of 30 posts before I started worrying about monetization so that I could focus on content and have worked every day to get there. The funny part about it was that a past it a few days ago and didn’t realize it because I’ve just been enjoying the writing process so much.

Now I just need to work on not doing some of the unproductive things that I’ve been doing, especially with regards to stat fiddling with underbelly stuff.

Thanks again
Lightpearl on March 5th, 2008 12:32 pm

Wow. I just started blogging and this post is very encouraging. I’ll try to improve my Quality of Articles in the future^^
Love this blog.
Rob @ CSSnewbie on March 5th, 2008 1:41 pm

This is a very encouraging post. It suggests I might be on the right track with CSSnewbie after all. I’m struggling get conversations started in the comments, but otherwise, I’m right on course.

Well, and it’s tough to say how much my quality has improved when the blog is really only a little over a month old.
Soderhavet on March 6th, 2008 12:00 am

Great tips! We’ll be working to follow these great guidelines.
Solo Business Marketing on March 6th, 2008 5:25 am

Your 10 signs are right on track.

I was considering decreasing my number of blog posts, but then I looked at my stats (including Feedburner subscribers) and noticed a bump in readership.

Perhaps it’s because of the blog’s longevity, or maybe it’s because my Marketing Strategies book was recently published, leading people to the associated site and blog.

For whatever reason, I’m glad to continue blogging on a regular basis, increasing my readership as well as revenue.
Kelly J on March 6th, 2008 9:22 am

I almost give up till I stumble in your blog. Your article are encouraging and I will make a return to continue. At times it’s discouraging for a non-technics newbie to understand.

Will add bookmark to keep me moving. Thanks.
anil on March 7th, 2008 5:17 am

Gr8 article planning 2 start couple more have one http://www.jeqq.com its social bookmarking…
executivehacks on March 7th, 2008 12:47 pm

Thanks for the inspiration. I’d be curious to get more information on how peoples blogs have grown….is it slow and steady…quick bursts of growth thanks to things like Digg…is it exponential growth or linear? Or, as I suspect, is everyone different?
Daniel Scocco on March 8th, 2008 7:58 am

executive hacks, I would say that the long term for most of us is linear.

traffic bursts will come once in a while, but they overall impact is not that significant.

some blogs experience exponential growth though at some points in their life.
Giftcardblogger on March 14th, 2008 7:51 am

I always try to take at least one tip away from your post. This time, I am going to focus on consistent posting. I am trying to figure out which time works best for me so that I can get into a routine. Thanks for the article.
DJYano on March 17th, 2008 4:41 am

You have great advice there, im going to post this on my blog to let people follow these great guidelines.

Good job!

The-Online-Quest
Rob O. on April 1st, 2008 1:44 pm

#7 is a tough one for me since our blog is kinda nicheless by nature.

I think that being able to clearly define your niche - and the effect that will have - probably hinges on whether you’re blogging for profit or as a hobby.
Kristina on April 19th, 2008 1:47 pm

Daniel, thank you so much for this very enthusiastic and informative article. I’m relatively new to the concept of trying to develop my blog, and this helps. I’ve also started up another blog very recently as I’ve had feedback that the content in my main blog can be confusing (it’s a crafts blog primarily but I do some political rants to).

Anyway, thanks

Cheers,

Kristina
http://hellinateacup.com
http://besponkebybrouhaha.com