How I increased my blog views in 30 days

I wanted to drop by and tell everyone about how the views on my blog is going.

I started the blog on blogger.com called Missing Persons of America to run side by side with my Missing Persons Examiner column.  I picked this one because it was simple and it was very automatic for putting adsense and amazon ads on it.  Since I don't have anymore time in the day to dedicate to one more thing, I knew it had to be simple and easy.

I started off with a eerie looking background and a very "bloggy" look to it.  Then whenever I posted an article on Examiner, I just hit the "Add This" button on my browser and clicked on the "Blogger" button and the headline was posted as a hyperlink.  I noticed some traffic, at the most one day 20.  I was getting hits, that I never really thought I would get.  With blogger it was easy to see where the hits were coming from and the majority were coming from searches on google.  I earned five cents.  Not much, but that is the way all the earnings start, you get a penny, a nickel, and it just grows from there.

I get Pat Flynn's newsletter and decided to read more for tips on growing your blog.  I decided at the first of the year to see if I could grow my blog and possible get it to the front page of google, like Pat Flynn was doing.  First I noticed that my website needed updating.  Goodby, eerie background, hello white background.  I rearranged things, still am, but not as much the last week.  I also started putting more details in my columns.  Instead of just pasting the headline, I decided to paste the first paragraph.  What was cool about it was, when I did, the Examiner automatically added a link.  Perfect. 

I saw my hits start to grow substantially.  I added a link to my Examiner articles back to my blog and saw through the stats on blogger that it was sending people to my blog. 

Then I got an email from a woman connected to the Nancy Grace show.  She asked if I would watch the show about Adji Desir (that's him in the picture) since she saw that I had just written about him, and then write about it in my blog.  Notice she didn't say on my Examiner column but my blog. 

I believe this was the turning point for my blog, as I realized that was what was missing.  Posting the stories was good, but my own voice wasn't there.  Writing as a journalist is different than writing as a person, and that was what I needed to add to my blog.  I needed to switch from fact writing to emotional writing.  Tell people what I'm really thinking.

Then the following week, I realized there are many times that I will read a update about a missing person, but it is not enough to write a whole column about.  For example, last weekend they announced they were going to get a search party together to search for Brittanee Drexel.  I posted that on the blog, and over the weekend other updates on other missing persons.

I saw my hits begin to grow more and all of the sudden last night I received 358 hits, the biggest night I have had on the blog, so far.  So, when I started I was getting about 5 views a day and by the third week was averaging 175 and then last week I received several 200 days and then yesterday 358.  68 of the views came from the Examiner from the link I put in at the bottom of the article.  Please note, at the Examiner I received 75,000 views in January for my national column.  If you have a national Examiner column, too, you can get that many hits, too.  If I get enough Email's wanting to know more, I will write about it here next month. 

With blogs you need to get around 1000 a day to see any substantial money, but what is encouraging is when you see views going up, you begin to think that maybe there is a possibility you can get up to 1000 a day, and you begin to brain storm on ways to do it. 

My next step is to buy an url and switch the blog to that URL.   I think that if google see's me as a website instead of a blog (as what is in my current URL) that I will begin to see myself on the front page of google.

Thanks for reading!  --Jerrie