I started this website almost 5 months ago. I have had other websites that I still run as well. This time I used a different method than I normally do in the past. Other websites I have always had to push social media, paid advertising, and back link building techniques. None of them have really helped with my organic traffic.
With this website I have learned that organic traffic needs very little of those things. In fact I have used no paid advertising or back-link building techniques what so ever. I do use social media though. Instead I have focused only on posting consistent articles with, what I think is, quality. This coupled with good keyword research.
Yes it takes time to build an online business. It took me a bit under 30 days to get my first sale. Then it took me a long time to see a steady growth of traffic. Organic traffic is what we all really want with a website. The more organic traffic we see, the more sustainable the business we are trying to build becomes.
Help and Commitment
There are so many things I have learned over the past 5 months with this website. The first thing it is hard to do it alone. There will be times when you just don’t know what is happening, why something is not working or why something is. It is great to have a community you can turn to in order to ask those questions and get answers.
Another thing I have learned is you really need to be committed. I wrote an article about committed and trying. There are times when I wanted to say forget it, this is not working, this is crazy, and I am spending far too much time on this for nothing. I just wanted to build things the way I had in the past. When I first started this program I made a commitment to myself that I would be dedicated to a year of work on this site at minimum, before I threw in the towel.
I have had some friends and family members tell me to focus on some other things at times. I myself as I mentioned thought okay, maybe I should just move on with life. Then that commitment I made to myself would creep into my mind and say, “MARC you promised yourself”. So I plod along and keep the proverbial nose to the grindstone.
Time to Build Traffic-My Journey
It takes time. You have seen me say that before. This is a stark reality. It takes time to build an online business. The reality is nothing good happens overnight with a business. So set yourself small goals. One of the first goals I set for myself was get indexed by Google. Once that was accomplished, I set a goal of so many visitors to my site in a day. Then so many visitors to my site from organic traffic per day, week month. You want to keep challenging yourself.
Organic traffic seemed difficult to find at first. Once I started getting some organic traffic, I was very happy. The numbers stayed stagnant though from day to day. I remember there was one day in May when I realized I hadn’t seen a zero organic traffic day on my site in a while. That really got me going. I was still hovering around it once in a while but it was never zero. So I went back and looked. Do you know what I found? I found that the last day of zero organic traffic was April 27.
That all happened in May, but my numbers were still not great, sometimes I would get 1 organic visitor a day, some days I would have 4, 7 or even 2. This became a little discouraging. But I still worked through the program because I had made that commitment. Then one day in June it happened again. Another zero organic traffic day, Friday June 19, 2015, another blow I had hoped I would have gotten past that. I still worked at it even though up until that point the best organic traffic day I had was 9 visitors.
Then something happened just a few days later, June 22. I hit my first double digit day of organic visitors. Remember what I said about making and celebrating those small goals. Then there was another and another and another. Wait does this mean that the Zero days are behind me? I even had a day with 19 visitors. Then it would drop back down again to single digits, so I didn’t want to get my hopes up.
By July 6 I hit a new high in my organic traffic of 21. Yes I know it is not lighting the house on fire but it was nice to see. As always it still fluctuated, but it seemed to be in an upward trend. July 10 marked another apparent milestone. That was the last day I saw single digit organic traffic. I know that is less than a month ago from now, but let me explain more.
My numbers started to quickly grow now and on July 14 I had 44 organic visitors on that day. Then it dropped back down to 24, but then jumped back up. This trend continued, the growth trend to the point that I am writing today. Google Analytics has a two day delay in their charts. As of Aug 4, 2015 I received 83 organic visitors. I expect this number will continue as I blog more. I also suspect that I will push through the 100 visitors a day ceiling soon. I am not done and will continue to expand and push my goals.
Be Sincere
When you write about something don’t put half your heart into it. Really talk with people and show them what you mean. Don’t just tell them or talk at them. Pretend you are talking to your good friend and telling them about something that you found. Let them know how it works, and show them how they can do it too, but don’t be pushy.
Dedicate Time Each Day
I myself dedicate time each day to work on this blog. A little bit in the mornings and a little bit in the evenings. That does not mean that I have to post a new post every day. Sometimes it just means doing research, or answering people’s comments. It doesn’t take long. But promise yourself that every day at a certain time you will work on your website. Even if I am traveling, I will dedicate some time to writing. I normally know in advance when I am going to travel so I will do research before I go then all I have to do is write.
Ask for Feedback
If you have read enough of my posts you already know that at the end of the post I always ask for comments or questions. I always try to answer the questions or reply to the comments within 24 hours. I do some traveling at times and this is the only glitch in the system, but I still respond as quickly as possible. Another thing is ask people to share and give share buttons. The more interaction you have with your readers and engaging you are with them, the higher your rankings will be. Then you get more traffic from big brother Google.
Conclusions
I did not write this to brag or show off but instead that the system works. I promise you the numbers are nothing to brag about yet. But I will stay dedicated and continue to work on this blog as I love the people I help. It does take time and you need help to become successful. I mentioned several times in this page about a program. The program I am referring to is my number one recommendation. As you see it does work if you follow it. You can about my top recommendations as well as all my other recommendations for things that have worked for me.
I want to thank all of my readers for taking the time to read my articles. They are really from the heart. I want to see people succeed. Of course I make a little money from affiliate links, if you click on them and purchase something. Some programs I don’t make anything on but because they are good programs and I use them myself. I blog about them and refer people to them not for money, but because they are legit programs that have helped me. If you find something you like on my page please share it with others on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or whatever social media you prefer. You can even share them on all, I promise I won’t get upset.
As always if you have any of your own personal experiences or questions, please leave them below and I will be happy to respond. Thanks again for reading!
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Hi Mark,
Stumbled upon your Google plus post and decided to read this month 5 journey 🙂
I myself know your feeling. It is super tough to get an online business up and running. We need a very solid foundation, effort, as well as dedication. I promised myself to work my butt-off for 3 years. But the fact that, the first year is the most painstaking moment as I see what most successful entrepreneurs said. At least we know it is going to be hard, so this anticipation can help a lot in my opinion.
Anyway, glad to see you have good progression here. I’d see your month 6, 7 ,8 ,9 , 10 ahead!
Cheers,
Edy
Edy,
Thanks for the comment. My initial commitment is one year then I will assess. I am expecting to work for a good 3-5 years. Right now it is coming along very well and I am very happy with my overall success at this point.
Yes there will be more to come following up on this post in the future.
Thank you again for the response and best of luck to you.
Marc
Dear Marc,
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with us. 🙂 As in what worked and what didn’t. 🙂 I can’t believe I little I knew on how to maintain a steady flow of organic traffic to one’s website until I ran across your Blog Post now. 🙂
Great job outlining the key highlights one may consider pursuing when building up an online business. 🙂
Thanks for your enthusiasm in helping people make better decisions on products you have mentioned here. 🙂
Wishing you all the best with your online success above and beyond the horizon,
~Angel
Angel,
Thank you for the comment and the support. I really thought I would share a part of my life with this post. It is really amazing looking at the little successes. Oh and by the way Yesterday I hit the 100 mark that I thought was not far away.
It does and can work. Thank you again.
Marc
Marc you have the commitment down and deserve the success you are starting to see, it is great to see the traffic steadily increasing. Organic traffic is definitely the best traffic, but also takes a lot more effort to attract, but you are proof that if you stick with it and work hard, then you can get it.
I think you have achieved a lot in 5 months, and its exciting to think where you will be with this website after 1 year. Keep at it 🙂
Rob
Rob,
Thanks for your comment and support. It really is nice to see progress. Too many times when you first start a website you have reasons to quit. You need to stay focused and push through that. Over time it will reward you.
Marc
Hi Marc , thanks for your blog it is encouraging to see that it will work at some point.
Brilly,
Thank you for the comment. Yes it does work. This blog is almost a year old. I am planning on doing a one year anniversary post as well. The numbers are much higher than they were during this 5 month blog post. I am between 10,000 and 11,000 visitors a month, currently.
Marc
Hi Marc,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. You really captured the frustration that new bloggers go through with their writing.
During the last couple of years, I’ve put a lot of work into several blogs…and I could never escape the question of: ‘Does anyone care about what I’m saying?’
But your blog post inspires me to keep on working.
Thanks 🙂
Kindest regards,
Mike
Thanks for the comment Mike and I am glad it was an inspiring post for you.
Marc
Thank you for writing about your experiences. It was quite an interesting post and quite inspiring for me. I have steadily building out my site. Although my organic reach seems to be lots of hills and troughs. I feel though that this will improve in time, like yourself.
What I have taken from this is to put in the work, but also to ask for feedback. I guess I will have to be more interactive through my site and my posts. That way I can get more reach.
Thanks again.
Owain,
Peaks and valleys are normal traffic. Especially if you look at it from a weekly time. However, when you look at it from month to month you should show steady increases. Keep me posted.
Marc