Friday, May 8, 2015

Dyvers Q1, 2015 Report

I'm a bit late on this one because I've been swamped with other projects because that's the way that life works when you're firing on all cylinders creatively. So let's talk about what's been going on with Dyvers in Q1, 2015.

Search Engine Results

"Dyvers"
Bing - 1 of 78,500 results
Duck Duck Go - 1 in both Safe and Unsafe search modes
Google - 1 of 77,600 results in both Safe and Unsafe search modes
Yahoo - 1 of 78,500 results

"Greyhawk"
Bing - no result
Duck Duck Go - no result
Google - 145 of 592,000
Yahoo - no result


"D&D Blog" 
2,490,000 results
Bing - no result
Duck Duck Go - no result
Google - no result
Yahoo - no result
"RPG Blog"
30,100, 000 results
Bing - no result
Duck Duck Go - no result
Google - no result
Yahoo - no result
This is the first time that I've included this information in analyzing how the blog is performing but I think that it's actually an interesting metric to see its reach. In order to check the results I logged out of my accounts and cleared my cookies before performing a search with each word.

Let me just tell you that there is nothing more humbling than to go looking for your blog using words that you imagine should bring a result and none of the results include you. Still, when my blog is searched for by "Dyvers" it comes up as the first result on all the search engines I checked beating out the Wikipedia entry and a men's fashion magazine. So that's cool.

I'm not sure how to change things around on the blog and to increase it's scope but that's something I'm actively looking to do. I want to not only show up on the "RPG Blog" search but also on the "D&D Blog" search results. Ideally I would like to top those lists as well but I'm unsure how to go about doing that. If anyone reading me actually knows anything about search engine optimization I would love to hear your thoughts on how to improve the blog's results.  Otherwise my only thoughts on this is that I need to research it with an eye towards my goal. 

2015 ENnies

I had contemplated entering into the ENnie awards this year under the Best Blog category but in the end I decided against it as I didn't feel that I had a solid enough piece to enter. My goal in entering into any competition isn't just to enter, but to win. So the remainder of this year will focus on improving the overall content of this blog to ensure that when I enter next year's contest I will be able to place myself into any conversation the judges might have about the Best Blog category

Financials

In order to make the blog turn a profit so I can justify spending so much time on it to my Darling Bride this quarter I expanded the avenues through which it's possible to earn money on the blog by enrolling in the Amazon Associates program. The Amazon Associate program, comparison to Adsense Revenue, is a windfall as I've $30.17 in four months time as opposed to the Adsense where I've made $56.59 in nearly a year. 

I'm contemplating opening up a Patreon account in connection with the blog. I'm hesitant though because I feel like if I do so that I need to make sure that the rewards I'm offering to my supporters are more substantial than just me showing you the posts I write early. I have to think more deeply about this before I actually engage in it because I don't want to jump in and be a complete dink.

Social Media

I have made it my goal to become more active on social media this quarter by actively seeking out other, interesting, people and attempting to forge better relationships that way. On Google + this has resulted in me making more of an effort to comment and interact with other people which I had been backing away from since the Consultant Controversy that came about at the launch of Fifth Edition last year. So far this has worked fantastically as I've gotten to know more people and the ones I was already familiar with I have become better acquainted with which is awesome.

Twitter is another matter. For the most part many of the people that I talk to on a regular basis are really smart and funny; but it's harder to make a connection with people. I'm not sure what the answer is here.

I am also contemplating opening up a Facebook account for the blog since so many people use the thing. I would gladly welcome any comments on this subject as I'm not really sure whether I want to or not. 

Blog Statistics

38,049 : Total Page Views Jan 1 through April 30, 2015
   928 : Total Comments Jan 1 through April 30, 2015
 2,254 : Total Plus 1s Jan 1 through April 30, 2015
   152 : Total Posts Jan 1 through April 30, 2015

 9,512 : Average Page Views per month
   250 : Average Page Views per Post
    17 : Average Page Views per Plus 1

For each of these numbers I did not take into account posts from previous months even though they continue to accrue hits, plus 1s, and comments. This is strictly a snapshot to determine the relative health of the blog on a month to month basis for this year.

Since the beginning of the year the blog has steadily progressed on all of its markers (excluding March when I had computer issues). Page Views have risen at a steady rate with January having the biggest month to month percentage increase of 5.5%. February had a 0.2% increase; while March, unsurprisingly, showed the only decrease for the year at -0.4% which can be attributed to the substantial drop in content being produced on the blog. This was rectified in April with an increase of 0.6%.

By comparison to last year I am at a loss so far on my overall Page Views of -0.1% which is not surprising considering that I have written nearly a hundred less posts over the same period of time. My plan is that by reducing my overall output per month that it will allow me to avoid the troubles that I experienced later in the year. Now the overall goal for the blog is to see an increase in readers approaching 3% versus last year. This is still doable goal for the year as major projects such as the 2015 Great Blog Roll Call have not yet made their debut and I expect this year's version to do markedly better than last years.

If you have any questions about the numbers please let me know and I'll do my best to answer you.

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