I don’t pay much attention to the amount of visitor traffic I receive here at Hop Step Jump. It’s a fair amount, I suppose, but it’s only about 1/10 of what Nowhere Anime Blog received. If I truly cared about reaching as many people as possible, I’d still be posting screenshots and writing one paragraph episode reviews - not wasting time on this editorial shtick.
However, I do pay attention to trends, and when I notice significant shifts in the number of people visiting, I start looking for the reasons as to why. In the end, it always boils down to the simplest of explanations: the more often I post, the more often people visit. Links from other blogs and sites typically only have a brief impact on the amount of traffic I receive. It’s so brief, in fact, that’s it’s lost in the noise in the long run. For example, Jason recently buried a link to Hop Step Jump in this post, resulting in a noticeable spike in traffic for a two or three day period. That’s since evaporated, however, and all I’m left with is curiosity about how much traffic Jason receives in the first place. It was an awfully big spike for such an inconsequential link.
But, anyway, returning to the matter of posting frequency and its impact on traffic, you might notice that I posted more in October than I did in the previous few months. You can probably guess why. In the period between June and September, traffic tanked, bottoming out a level I hadn’t seen since the blog’s earliest days. And it came at a time when I was tired, worn out, and seriously considering exit strategies (for the blog, that is… I wasn’t planning on jumping off a bridge), so I was clearly disheartened by the numbers I was seeing. So, I told myself, “you gotta post more,” and started making an effort to do just that.
Thankfully, it worked. My only goal, really, was to increase traffic from September levels. And as bad as September looked, I figured that was an easily attainable goal. However, when all was said and done, my October traffic was of a similar level as back in June - right around the time everything started going to shit in the first place - so I feel confident I managed to turn things around. And if last year’s numbers are any indication of what’s to come, I should continue to see increased traffic through the end of the year. The Year in Review got a lot of attention.
I have to keep posting, though. In October, I averaged one post for every two and a half days. That’s always been my target post rate, so if I can keep it up, I figure I’ll be fine. There will be good months and bad months, I’m sure, but if I can maintain my current posting rate in the long term, I’ll be satisfied. And I figure you guys will be satisfied, too.
And, yes, I just wasted a post on a bunch of oh-so-interesting meta-blogging.
See you again in two and a half days. Sorry.
Keep posting the Alpha images and I’ll be certain to keep visiting…
if it makes you feel better I have your blog RSS’d right next to jason’s :D
If it makes you feel better, firefox completes “anime.” typed in the location bar as “anime.jefflawson.net”, not “anime.miao.us”.
La Starial has good suggestion. You could post “today’s image: discuss” and it would be more interesting than quite a few other blogs.
Here’s an idea: If you want the hits for your blog to rise, then write more about ANIME…instead of, you know, just writing how you’ll write more about anime.
I miss your series reviews. They’re the main draw to this blog for me. Hell, you don’t even need to review only the new shows…older ones will suffice as well.
Turn off your webstats.
Don’t be discouraged!
I am a first timer here, will be back to read more!
Sagacious, when you say “series reviews”, what posts are you referring to? I’m curious, because I generally don’t write actual reviews. Are you referring to the any and all posts dealing with specific shows, or are you talking about when I list my impressions of ongoing shows, and so on?
And, yeah, I enjoy writing about the shows I’m watching, but sometimes, there’s not much to say, aside from, “I’m enjoying this. You should watch it.” Generally, I’d rather wait until I have something worthwhile or interesting to say about a show before writing a post about it.
It must be hard, having a blog that people actually visit. *chuckle*
Seriously, though, is the number of hits you get really that important? If you were trying to make money off the site, I could understand it, but… I don’t have the faintest idea how many people visit my blog every day, and I don’t really care. If I’m enjoying blogging, that’s all that matters to me.
Of course, my attitude might change if I had more visitors.
I had a site counter for a couple weeks–but I caught myself looking at traffic and thinking “I should post more”, which made me feel like blogging was turning more like a job than something I do for fun. I got rid of the counter over a year ago, and it was the best blogging decision I ever made. It seems like a lot of anime bloggers are obsessed with how much traffic they’re getting (I’m thinking more the “6,000 hit GET!” kind of posts), but I’m with Wonderduck, when I blog it’s purely for fun, so I couldn’t care less if I get one visitor or a thousand.
Well, like I said, I don’t care about the total number of visitors. I couldn’t even tell you off the top of my head how many actual visitors I see in any given month.
At the same time, I’m not writing for my own sake here. I write because I have readers. Now, whether I have ten readers or a hundred readers doesn’t really matter; as long as I have regular readers who enjoy what I write, I’m happy. If I didn’t have those regular readers, I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be sitting outside drinking a beer.
Since most of my traffic is return traffic, however (like I said, I don’t get much traffic from other blogs, nor do I get a lot of search engine traffic), a significant drop translates into lost readers. I’m not thinking of it in the sense of lost ad revenue, or lost bragging rights, or whatever… I think of it in the sense of losing my reason for blogging in the first place. And if it’s of my own doing, it’s only natural that I try to fix things.
I understand the, “blog for fun,” and “blog for the sake of blogging,” approach, and I think it’s great. It used to be my philosophy as well. But not any longer… after seven years or so, I’ve found that I get more enjoyment out of writing for other people than I do writing for myself.
> “Sagacious, when you say “series reviews”, what posts are you referring to? I’m curious, because I generally don’t write actual reviews. Are you referring to the any and all posts dealing with specific shows, or are you talking about when I list my impressions of ongoing shows, and so on?”
Yes, “reviews” may have been a wrong way to put it. What I was trying to say was that I enjoy your impressions (and sometimes off-tangent passing thoughts) on anime…and by that, I mean the actual anime itself. I don’t quite care for the commentary on fandom or insight into your personal life (hoping that didn’t come off rudely). You have a unique voice in the community, a style that I could easily differentiate from other generic blogs, and that’s why I continue to check out what you have to say. I just prefer it when you stick to anime.
For example, your “Year in Review” segment was excellent…one of the better annual recap features in the blogging community. I remember your coverage on Kanon 2006 was quite a pleasant read as well. Stuff like that is what draws me in.
I’ll be doing the Year in Review once again this year, so look forward to that.
As for the rest of your comment, I agree… I don’t know if I’ll necessarily stop writing about fandom (since I think there’s a lot of good material there), but I’ve been trying to write more posts about the shows I’m watching (and have watched). Unfortunately, I have so much crap on my mind nowadays that I mostly watch new episodes and move on without giving them much thought, but there are still certain shows that catch my attention.
Glad to hear it. That was my subtle way of reminding you it’s getting close to that time of the year again. =)
Also, the point of my comments weren’t meant to tell you what you should or shouldn’t be writing about, but to just give you an idea of what your readers are looking for. If you actually enjoy musing about the fanbase, then, by all means, feel free to do so. I think that much is obvious, but I just wanted to clarify nevertheless.
When did you change formats again? I forgot. My traffic also dropped staggeringly low when I changed from a handcoded website to a blog…I think Google treats websites and blogs differently in searches, but I’m not sure.
I understand blogging for self and blogging for the sake of blogging, but there’s nothing wrong with being a responsible site owner IMHO. Personally, I enjoy most of your articles because they’re interesting, regardless of what category they cover.
Griever, I changed formats back in late 2005. I closed Nowhere in September and launched Hop Step Jump a few months later in January. So, Hop Step Jump is almost two years old.
All I know is that unless I’m out of town, I check your site daily. So I would miss you. Not that I imagine that having a 45 year old fan in Houston, TX would be all that.
Craig
Actually, it gives me hope for the future! I’m pushing 30, so I’ve been a feeling a little like an outlier.
“I’m pushing 30, so I’ve been a feeling a little like an outlier.”
*raised eyebrow* I remember nearing 30… 10 friggin’ years ago.
Poor Jeff, all these old farts read his blog.
That’s why I don’t post after midnight. It’s past everyone’s bedtime. Mine included.
1214am:
Do you have a link to the full-size of the picture for this post?
I do, but the quality is kind of so-so. Here you go.
Thank you! I find I have an unhealthy level of interest in the series/manga… and I didn’t even know the name of it until this morning.
You posted a picture from it many moons ago, and it became my wallpaper for close to three months. Considering that I change my wallpaper every week or so, that’s saying something.
With the average age of your regular readers, maybe it should be renamed, “Hop Step Oops!” ^^;
j/k
Cheers.
No way!! I supose there are more people reading Hot Step Jump!! blog than the Nowhere Anime Blog… I anyway check both sites.. even the betsu ni blog (Jeff’s personal) for the photos.
I like a lot this blog.
^_^