Category: General Topics

Are You Tracking?

Startup Stock Photo

One of the first mistakes I made when I started this blog and my author website is not monitoring the traffic coming into these sites. Even with all the advice from top bloggers on how much work went into blogging, I still thought blogging was just about posting and publishing. That is until it occurred to me that monitoring (and recognizing) growth is just as critical as growth itself.

Yes, we know, we don’t do this for the numbers but we cannot neglect the fact that keeping an eye on the numbers is essential to any thriving business. Even if you don’t see your blog as a business per se we can all agree that numbers don’t lie and can play a bigger role in getting the blog to where we want it to be. I mean, we’ve already established that the blog follower number is not very reliable in terms of how the blog is really doing (it’s probably better to look at your blog views).

Traffic to your website is a major component to growing your audience online. Whether you’re trying to grow your blog, website, or email list, the best thing to start with is leveraging your traffic to grow these platforms.

Now, judge me not for being late to the party but I just started using Google Analytics this year. So, for those of you who are late like me, Google Analytics is the easiest way to track your site (aside from plugins). Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic.

What you want to do is go to https://www.google.com/analytics/ and create an account if you don’t already have one. If you do have one, go ahead and sign in. (You will need a Gmail account). It should look like this:

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If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to add the sites you would like to track.

Go to Admin > Account > Create New Account

Fill in all the details for creating an account and adding a site. You will also see a page where you need to check off boxes. I check them all just in case. The box looks like this:

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Once you’ve set up your account you can do one or two things. You can let it do it’s thing and return to check the stats (for those who cannot add plugins to the blog at this time) or you can add a plugin directly to your blog. Right now I am not using the plugin (not until after I upgrade next year) but it’s important to note that you don’t have to add the plugin to track your site.

To add the plugin, find your tracking code.

  • Select the Admin tab.
  • Select an account from the dropdown in the ACCOUNT column.
  • Select a property from the dropdown in the PROPERTY column.
  • Under PROPERTY, click Tracking Info > Tracking Code.

It looks like this:

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Then, install a plugin named – Google Analytics for WordPress.

Once you’ve installed and activated it, go to:

– Settings > Google Analytics > enter Tracking ID.

I want to stress again that you do not have to add the Tracking ID to your blog for this to work. You should if you can (I plan to real soon) but if you can’t you can still track. Just log into your Google Analytic site and monitor it because guess what? It’s already tracking. It started the moment you entered your site.

You’re In

Once you’re set up you should be able to see your stats for the sites you’re tracking already pulled up whenever you log in. You can track several things:

  • Number of visits per hour/day/month
  • Demographics
  • Countries
  • Referrals, resources

What you’re looking at below is a snippet of my stats for The PBS Blog from Nov. 12 – Dec. 12th. Once you’re logged in it should look something like this depending on what site you are looking at (you can add multiple websites).

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At the bottom of this graph are more stats. I want to give you an example how this can help you with your blog. Take a look at the returning and new visitor graph on the bottom right there.

According to Google Analytics for The PBS Blog, 97% of traffic coming from this blog is of returning visitors. This tells me two things:

  1. I am keeping my current followers engaged
  2. I have to work harder at acquiring new visitors

This means that for the coming year, I can set blog goals that will help me to improve in the area of acquiring new visitors.

Let’s look at something else (quickly):

If you look at the graph above, see the number under bounce rate? The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to the blog who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. According to my stats, my bounce rate is 7.25%. This is a huge help to me to make sure I am in fact keeping the subscribers I do have, engaged. Since my visitors are returning, it makes sense that my bounce rate is low, so everything matches sorta speak (if my visitors are returning I should not have a high bounce rate).

If possible, you want to keep this bounce rate as low as possible. A rising bounce rate is a sign that the blog is not attractive to visitors or something about it has made people leave after just viewing a page (or after just a couple pages). Maybe the site is too cluttered, the color is distracting or whatever.

So, go ahead and start 2017 off right. Set up your Google Analytics and track those websites. Don’t think “Well, why do I need to track? I don’t have a lot of followers.” Me either but that’s precisely the point. Tracking will show you the numbers you need to strategically apply changes and improvements and use organic traffic to grow your blog or email list for free.

Organic traffic is when someone stumbles upon your blog, likes what they see and subscribes without the aid of payment or coercing. It is traffic you get just from people searching the web, certain keywords, phrases,  or whatever they’re searching for and stumble upon your website (You can Google Organic Traffic for a more in depth definition). You didn’t go out and beg them and you didn’t pay for them. You earned them just by first providing valuable content and taking a few seconds to track.

Yecheilyah Ysrayl is a Blogger, Poet, and the YA, Historical Fiction author of eight books, most notably, The Stella Trilogy. She is currently working on her next book series “The Nora White Story” about a young black woman who dreams of taking part in The Harlem Renaissance movement and her parents struggle to accept their traumatic past in the Jim Crow south. “Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One)” is due for release spring, 2017. For updates on this project, sneak peek of chapters and the pending book cover release for this project, be sure to follow this blog and to subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list HERE.

The Trouble with Series – Guest Post…

Excellent post. Post Quote: “One more tip: write at least two books in your series before you publish the first. Really, it’s worth it.”

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

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One of the best things to do as an indie author is to write a series. People like reading them, and it makes your author page look much better when you have more than one title to your name.

For most of us, writing our first book is a Big Thing. Finishing it, whether after six months or six years, does not immediately change your mindset into ‘published author’. It’s often only much later that you read the advice about series and start to think of the sequel.

Even the most successful authors fall foul of this. I was at a Crime Writing event last year (Noirwich), where the well-loved British writer Elly Griffiths confessed that she had never expected her first book, The Crossing Places, to lead to the long run that is the Ruth Galloway series. If she had, she wouldn’t have packed so much into…

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The Writer’s Journey – Guest Author, Yecheilyah Ysrayl

Y’all know my schedule, I am off on Saturdays. I’d just like to share my Guest Post and to give a special thank you to Kim for hosting me. Here, I give you three of the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far in my Self-Publishing journey.*Comments disabled here. Please hit me on the other side.*

kimwrtr's avatarKim's Musings

Welcome author, Yecheilyah Ysrayl to THE WRITER’S JOURNEY segment of  Kim’s Author Support Blog. Take it away, Yecheilyah. This is her journey.

fot4ce93 Self-Publishing Lessons I’ve Learned this Year

As we come to the end of another year, this one has been one of self-reflection for me both on a personal as well as a professional level. There’s been ups, downs, doubts, excitement, frustration, and everything in-between.

I’ve come out of my shell a lot this year and have learned to embrace my own vulnerabilities without fear of judgment. I used to be timid and shy about what I did or thought for fear that people wouldn’t understand me. This has caused me to, consequently, shy away from opportunities that could have been of help to me as a writer.

This year I’ve learned to be unapologetically me and to not let anyone bait me out of my character. I think…

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Blog Changes

Blog Changes Ahead

As we come to the close of 2016, there will be some changes made to this blog.

The major change is that I will be transitioning from http://www.thepbsblog.wordpress.com to www.thepbsblog.com. I want to give everyone an opportunity to prepare for the transition (please save the new web domain) so I will not be making any moves probably until the end of this month or the beginning of next month. (Special thanks to the commentary that led me to edit this part of the post. I just want to clarify that I am not moving the site. I am simply purchasing the domain for The PBS Blog so its .com instead of .wordpress.com. That is the only change to this site. I am not moving. I would also add that I am not doing anything yet so if there’s anyone with insight into switching over I’d love to hear your thoughts before I make the move. What are your thoughts? Is social media sharing still available? Any technicalities I should know about? Did you switch? Are you liking it so far? Thanks!)

I didn’t want to acquire a domain in the beginning because I already have an author website I’m paying for and I did not always know that I would continue with this blog. There was a time where I did consider hanging it up or just doing it temporarily. As I’ve continued however and have started to put some real hours into nourishing this community and providing value, I have decided to stay for a while longer and for that will finally make that transition to a more professional look, starting with a domain name. (I will probably add a donation widget as well to the slide-side bar once the domain goes up for those who enjoy this blog and would like to see it continue to run).

Other changes are minor, such as updating all the pages and sticking to a more permanent theme. Once I settle on a layout that I feel is right for this blog (I do like this one, but who knows), I’ll be sticking with it.

I am also looking to add more author services to accompany the Book Reviews. I have tried once before to open for Guest Blogging but that did not work out. Instead, I am working on something I can add as a permanent feature for authors. I have not decided what that is yet (Author Interviews, Q&A, Author Promo or what) but I will let you know when I’ve decided. I will say I am leaning toward Author Promo since I already promote books through my email list and book reviews. I will consider adding structure to it as something for 2017. What do you think?

In the meantime, thank you all for your continued support of The PBS Blog! If there is anything you’d like to see more of I would appreciate your feedback. Please do not hesitate to let me know what it is you want. It is truly my pleasure to serve you. I mean that sincerely.

How Does Reading Level Matter in Fiction?

This is cool.

Kristen Twardowski's avatarKristen Twardowski

How well do most published authors write? Would you be surprised to hear that Jane Austen wrote at just above a 5th grade level, Stephen King writes at about a 6th grade level, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote at slightly more than a 6th grade level, and Leo Tolstoy wrote at about an 8th grade level?

To find out all of this information, Shane Snow did a readability analysis of the works of different bestselling authors. He based his exploration off of their scores for the Flesch-Kincaid tests, which were developed in 1975 on behalf of the US Navy to assess the difficulty of technical manuals. These tests take into account total words, sentences, and syllables in order to assess a written work’s grade level.

Snow’s analysis found that higher level writing did not necessarily result in successful sales. In fact, the bestselling fiction books that he looked at all fell…

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Between Books – When the Blog Comes in Handy

This isn't my PC but this is how it looks. I have sticky notes everywhere! Uhh.
Google Images Pic.

Only a writer would be folding clothes at twelve o’clock at night and contemplating whether they should make a batch of coffee to spend just a few more hours writing, all of this while the History Channel recaps an episode of Pearl Harbor as background noise. It was then that this post was conceived. In fact, I still have a pair of pants under my arm as I am drafting this. What can I say, gotta write when the spirit moves.

As I took a break from my work to finish laundry that could have waited until morning for normal people, I thought about how much this blog has helped to fill in the gaps during my “Between books” stage (thanks for your support BTW!). I like to think I write at a decent speed (six months to complete the first draft) but after that things tend to slow way down as the revision and editing process kicks in. I thus find myself in the waiting room watching as an author after author fangirls over their new release while I’m in chill mode, waiting for my name to be called. It will be awhile before my book is ready. This is when blogging (among other things) helps a great deal.

It helps because while I am in limbo I can keep up with learning new things, reading new books, and keeping myself in tuned with my readers and supporters until the next book is due. It almost feels like teaching but being off for the summer. Some teachers volunteer to teach summer school for some extra funds while others take advantage of the free time. Blogging for me is like a writing summer school, a way to stay active between books. This also helps me to brainstorm on other ways to expand my business beyond the book itself and into other areas of product.

I do admit it’s a challenge to produce blog posts, engage with other bloggers, share content, engage in social media and keep my ear to the Indie Publishing ground all while writing a novel and there are days where I must turn the phone off. It’s either that or pull my hair out. However, I see it all as part of the work and it’s also a lot of fun to me. I’m a worker bee which means that I HAVE to be doing something and while the blog is still a small part of my life in the full scope of things, it does help to keep me active in more ways than one. I guess that’s sort of the point of this post.

It’s important to continue to produce material and sometimes that will take time. The Blog (and the email list) is the answer to how to stay engaged while you wait. Or at least it is for me. The ability to schedule blog posts is a huge time saver and I could sit my butt in the chair and finish what I’d been putting off. Patience truly is a virtue and I am quite pleased with the revelations I’ve been given so far. I can only hope for increased growth. #HWPO is something I try to keep at the back of my mind. That is, hard work pays off. Let’s hope so.

Now, I should probably go ahead and publish this post and get back to these clothes. It is after 1am my time after all. I’m pretty sure I’m somewhere in dreamland when you’re reading this…or not (shout out to my night-owls with the tiny light under the covers scrolling through blog posts).

 

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Yecheilyah Ysrayl is the YA, Historical Fiction author of The Stella Trilogy, Blogger, and Poet. She is currently working on her next book series “The Nora White Story” about a young black woman who dreams of being a writer in The Harlem Renaissance movement and her parent’s struggle to accept their traumatic past in the Jim Crow south. “Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One)” is due for release spring, 2017. For updates on this project, sneak peeks of chapters, the pending book cover release, and full blurb for this series, be sure to subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list HERE.