I used Google Analytics Site Overlay feature to identify non-performing click-through zones. You can access this feature through 'Content -> Site Overlay' from GA dashboard. After analyzing site overlay report it was quite clear that my sidebar was not receiving the required attention.
Here is the composition of my old sidebar.
1. Categories
2. Four - 125x125 Ad Block
3. Recent Posts
4. One 250x250 Adsense Image Ad Block
5. Subscription Box
6. Social Media Profiles
7. Entrecard
In old sidebar, there was more stress on stuffing ads rather than providing links to some useful stuff for the visitor. After revamping the sidebar now it has the following elements and performs very well.
1. Subscription Box
2. Categories
3. Popular Posts
4. Best Lists And Resources
5. Recent Posts
6. Social Media Profiles
I completely removed all the ads from the sidebar, shifted subscription box on top and highlighted the best content on MintBlogger in different sections. In coming months, I'll divide these sections into Popular Posts, Best How-To's, Best Lists & Resources and Free Themes by MintBlogger, giving more options to the reader to scan and navigate the archives.
Commented On Tons of Blogs
You must have read several times about commenting on other blogs to get more exposure and traffic, but how many of us do it consistently over time. I have set a goal to daily comment on at least 10 different blogs similar to my niche.
Don't limit your comments on some selective blogs but evenly spread your comments across the blogosphere on as many new blogs as you can. Regular commenting will create new connections generating more traffic and exposure for your blog.
Did Aggressive Social Media Marketing
After getting the taste of success on various social media sites back in November 2008 (see traffic chart above), I became quite active on Digg, StumbleUpon and Twitter. The result was some additional traffic from social media sites.
Changed And Tweaked Blog Theme
In the beginning, I was using Minyx template for MintBlogger. I was not satisfied with the theme and decided to change it with Adspress. This new theme has much cleaner navigation, fast load time and has a non-standard look. I edited the CSS to give it a unique look to provide a pleasant browsing experience to the visitors. I don't know how much it has contributed to the cause, but some of my peers agreed that after these theme tweaks MintBlogger doesn't appears to be hosted on blogger platform and looks reasonably good.
Networked With Peers
Nobody can grow in vacuum. Socialize, connect and interact to see your blog grow faster than your expectations. I used social media, emails, IM and discussion forums to connect with fellow bloggers and readers. This created a chain of people who knows about me and definitely some of them talk about me with their contacts spreading the word about MintBlogger.
In The End: Change of Traffic Pattern
I would like to finish this post by comparing 2 traffic pie charts generated through Google Analytics. You are going to see a classic example of how traffic pattern changes drastically when you change your approach and blogging routine.
Traffic Pattern Before November, 2008
Traffic Pattern From 1st Nov, 2008 To 20th Feb, 2009
Updated Archives Page
After analyzing the Google Analytics reports, I saw an alarming trend. Lot of visitors were heading to archives page and exiting immediately without any further navigation. The poor design of archives page was the culprit.
I completely updated the archives page by including yearly/monthly archives, highlighted categories section, list of posts in reverse chronological order and a search box. This drastically reduced the bounce rate. Recently, I've written about creating a high performing archives page.
Revamped Sidebar
It is very vital to know which parts of your web page are receiving the most attention and which parts are completely ignored by the visitors. There are some hot click-through zones and some non-performing zones. If you are able to identify them and manage to improve the latter ones, traffic is automatically going to increase.
From both pie charts, you can clearly deduce how percentage of traffic from organic sources and social media sites has completely reversed in last 3 months. Before November 2008 just 20% of traffic was coming from search engines, now it has swelled to 57% (indication of inflating archive with posts getting good rankings in SERP's). In the long run, this organic traffic is going to matter the most.
So these were some changes, tweaks and various methods implemented by me to pull more traffic towards MintBlogger.
Over To You
I would like to know various methods you may have implemented to build traffic on your blog?
Image Credits: _neona_