This is a guest post by Amber Shah.
I am in the process of launching my startup, Code Anthem, for great programmers and the companies that hire them. I was thinking over some of the logistics of running a private beta program and realized that I needed a group of people who could be my beta testers, early adopters and even evangelists when we launched.
I decided to start a blog and open a twitter account. That was 1 month ago, and since then I’ve had over 50K visitors to the blog, over 500 subscribers via RSS and email, 221 comments and over 150 Twitter followers. I didn’t have an existing audience of any kind to pull from, so this was all starting from zero.
The following is a short list of what made our blog grow in its first month:
1. Start a Movement, Pick a Fight
My husband and I had worked for years in the software development industry, so we had a lot of axes to grind, dirty laundry to air and big ideas to use as fodder for the content. My goal was to take a stand and go big or go home, so that readers would either rally around it immediately or hate it. My biggest fear was of people reading the blog and *yawn* moving on. On Let’s be Independent Together, I got this comment:
I got goosebumps at the end of that …
You guys are awesome, and I enjoy reading your blog entries very much, and look forward to seeing what your up to behind the curtain!
-TD
I was careful to strip out any ambivalent phrases like “I think that … “, “It seems to me that …”, or “Sometimes it may appear that …”, etc. Using them would whitewash my ideas. Leaving them out probably makes me appear more arrogant, but at least I’m having an impact on my readers.
2. Social Media and Social Proof
Social media is a big part of how Code Anthem’s blog was able to get so much traffic and subscribers early on. You can see in the screenshot below where our big spikes were and what social media site they were related to:
It wasn’t just the big social news sites driving traffic, a huge part of it was also Twitter and Facebook. My last post, “How to Keep Crappy Programmers” was tweeted over 200 times and shared on Facebook over 90 times. I also have a sidebar showing these stats and inviting readers to do the same, which keeps the momentum going.
3. Comments, comments everywhere and not a drop to drink
My first blog promotion strategy was to comment on blogs that had a similar audience to mine. I would only bother to comment if I was one of the first, and if I had something compelling to add. I wasn’t going for SEO points here; I was trying to get people to follow my link out of curiosity.
This accounted for the first 10 visits a day, or so, before my blog picked up in social media sites. I think that for any new site, especially ones that don’t work as well in social media, commenting early, often and with interesting insights on other blogs is the most effective tool to drive traffic.
Because there is so much advice out there on the right way to blog, and only so much time, it can be hard to figure out what to do. Here is a list of the things I did not do:
Respond to Every Comment or Tweet
The sentiment behind this idea is a good one but it doesn’t scale at all. I did this right at the very beginning, but as soon I couldn’t keep up. Sometimes I would think about responding, but if I waited, someone would come along and beat me to it. And what I realized was, that people started to have discussions and debates amongst themselves and that was priceless.
On a related note, if you get listed on a social media site: don’t go read the comments there. Somehow people feel that it’s ok to be much meaner when they post things not on your site. While many people were dismissive or nasty on external sites, comments on my own site were overwhelmingly positive and thoughtful.
Put up an About page, Contact page or other meta info
Between managing the blog and building the Code Anthem site itself, I never got around to putting up a bio and photo or a contact form. One reader called me out in the comments, saying:
I am enjoying the articles. However, the anonymity and the stealth-mode is a little weird. I think using real names would give your company and site a lot more personality.
And I think he’s right. The point is not “don’t do those things”, the point is just to prioritize on what makes the most sense for you, and realize that they aren’t necessary to having a successful blog, at first.
Talk about WHY I’m doing this
Meta blogging, aka blogging about blogging, is annoying (unless you happen to run a blog all about blogging *ahem* Remarkablogger). When I decided to share the story of my blog’s early success, in the hopes of helping other, I knew that I would not post it on Code Anthem’s blog, because the programmers who read it don’t care about blogging. Instaed, I asked Remarkablogger if I could guest post it here, and thankfully, Michael agreed.
I also did not talk much about my startup itself. Some company blogs talk about company-related things, like inventory or startup topics, but the audience for that is not my ideal customer. I’m sure I talk more about Code Anthem as we move into private beta and then public beta launch, but I hope to keep the blog focused on the ideas.
There are many different paths that lead to a successful blog. My best advice for other bloggers (and entrepreneurs) is to read and learn as much as possible, but to be very selective about what you actually implement. Be bold, confident and whatever you do, don’t look down.
Amber Shah is the founder of the upcoming start-up Code Anthem, for great developers and the companies that hire them. Visit their blog here or follow them on twitter.
Thanks for sharing your story Amber! Congrats on the success of your blog!
The tips are really great. It's inspiring to hear how you advanced your blog to such great lengths in such a short amount of time. Unfortunately many of us aren't so lucky. It does however give us some pointers to try to make ours better! Thanks!
I don't think Amber's accomplishments can be dismissed as luck. Where in all
of this do you see that she was lucky instead of getting results based on
her actions?
The thing about any “overnight” success is that there is always a back story. I've been following pro blogging as well as my own industry blogs for years. I have years of experience in the industry I'm blogging about and feel very passionate about the topic. So when I put all of that pent-up passion and experience and opinions and knowledge together in a blog for the first time – boom!
I am not saying that it was just luck. I see that she put a lot of work into it. My point was that often times bloggers that put a lot of work into their blog do not get such great results. I was not trying to dismiss her hard work. To quote myself “It's inspiring to hear how you advanced your blog to such great lengths in such a short amount of time.” I'm sorry if I stated things differently than they were meant. I am truly impressed with what Amber has accomplished.
Thank you interesting article and story. Very impressive work on the visitors. Thanks for sharing
That's an inspiring story. Thanks for sharing. Did you do some networking to get your site to show up on the front page of social media sites? Or did people naturally start promoting your stuff after clicking on your blog comments/tweets and checking your posts out?
You're so lucky.
Amber was not lucky. Sure, we all experience luck to some degree. But to say
she was lucky is to take away any credit for her planning, strategy, and
actions. It also means we couldn't learn from her example and follow suit,
because if she was lucky then it's not reproducible, when in fact it is.
Anyone can do what she did and improve their results.
I was just kidding. Hence the emoticon. I read the comment above about “luck.” Sorry, I'll be clearer next time!
I agree 100% that Amber worked hard to get where she is now. That's why I asked her some questions about her strategy. I'm takin' notes here!
Hey no problem. You were the second person to mention luck and it seemed a
Thanks so much for your comments!
bit odd to me.
I didn't have much of an online network when I started, so at the beginning it was just people naturally promoting it up. The blogs that ranked high had satire or some sort of humor and that's why I think they were spread so much. I did get a lot more hits once I installed the Digg Digg plugin – highly recommended.
Well, I'll break your rule here Amber and post in at number ten. I think you've proved that committment and good planning goes a long way when you're looking to be successful. If you're just flying by the seat of your pants, you'll get nowhere.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us – I'll be certain to take on as much of your advice as I can.
Ouch. Your blog was hacked while on family vacation? I always worry about that. I saw it on the graph (but not in the story). The post is fantastic. I admire the boldness, the courage and the authenticity. Be yourself and be proud of it. Start a trend, a debate, a discussion and let it take off. Thank you for a great set of ideas.
Yes, my husband and I were frantically trying to figure out what happened and get it back up with our laptop on the hotel bed, while trying to keep a toddler entertained. After some attempts ourselves, we eventually got the hosting company to restore a backup from the day before. Next time that will be my first stop.
Gosh I feel your panic….and on vacation no less. Websites chose the most optimal time to crash, I tell ya! Thanks for sharing…!!!!
This is nice. I like the fact that you've provided an honest assessment with both the good and bad.
Hard to stay away from blogging about blogging, so glad to hear you stayed true to your audience, which I imagine is a tough one!
I've heard that slashdot is great for traffic, but terrible for retention…is that similar to what you ran into?
Congrats on the pageviews…that's impressive.
Yes, I think all my visitors from social media sites were much less “sticky” than once you get organically … but I barely got any organic traffic in the 1st month, so that's all there was. My bounce rate has already dropped from where it was initially, and I hope it will continue to. That's why I think there is such a big difference between the > 50K visitors and “just” 500 subscribers. The large visitor number sounds more impressive, but it's the subscribers that I really value. They're the ones who saw enough in my vision to want to hear more.
Awesome success -
you have your own true voice – you don't censor yourself, and you don't do things that others do – your actions have Purple Cow all over written, and I can see why you're sooo successful !!
Grrrrrrreat inspiration – makes me want to re-think my brand
thanx
“My best advice for other bloggers (and entrepreneurs) is to read and learn as much as possible, but to be very selective about what you actually implement.” <–That, to me, is the best sentence in this post. So true, and it's far too easy to get lost in the mix of “do this” and “try that”.
Common sense, actually useful posts like this make me smile.
Although, I don't get nearly as many visitors… recently, it has become increasingly difficult to keep up with every comment and such. So, now that I am setting back on that… the same has happened, interesting discussion and debates brought about by other bloggers. And its great. So, its just to continue deriving more thought provoking content.
But I also feel a sense of personal loss in not replying to each comment. How do you deal with the balance in this aspect?
I think I understand what you mean about the personal loss. If I feel very strongly, I definitely will respond. And I do try to respond to direct question. However, I don’t necessarily respond when I get a compliment, or someone adds their own story.
I think at some point you have to decide whether you want a small, carefully curated community or a movement that is bigger than you. If you decide you want the latter, then it’s easier to let go of the things that will hold you back from the end goal. This free e-book really helped me let go, also:
http://www.farbeyondthestars.com/createamovement.pdf
Thank you, Amber for your response. I just don't want to lose that personal attention towards my readers. Will need to find that balance and will try out your suggestions. And, I will definitely check out the eBook.
Luck is preparation taking advantage of opportunity and in that sense you have tonnes! Well done, what really gets me is the vision and being faithful to it.
Makes really think a lot and that for me is the big value add for any blog
thanks
I think your extensive experience in software development was very crucial in the success of your site. I also like how you made your titles interesting.
Thanks for these great tips Amber, love your post, and hope your site continues to grow!
Damn you Amber… you're revealing my secrets. The two most important on here are “pick a fight” and the “about page”. After re-doing mine and blasting out content that always elicits some kind of response, I have to say that you missy… you get it.
Seeing you get 50k visits doesn't even surprise me. You earned that shit, job well done.
Amber,
Congratulations on your success! Good luck with your start up, are you saying you got most of your traffic through social media? Aren't they not your typical buyers?
Micheal,
Lot of tips on your blog posts! I am going to check out more!
Thanks, Zengirl, please make yourself at home and contact me if you have any
questions. Welcome aboard.
I wouldn't say they are my sole target audience, since a lot of software developers do not spend time on social media, however, I'm certainly happy to have them! I mostly meant that they tend to browse and then back out to whatever social media site they came from. At least, I tend to do that when I use those sites. Also, I attribute the high-bounce rate to that (and also the fact that I don't have a large library of past posts, or other things to do on the site, yet).
I am curious what contributed to the major spike before your blog was hacked? Was that purely from Slashdot or other sources?
Thanks Amber for your info. I'm quite new on this and will try to apply your tips.
you are so strong and successful. at least you got many visit. i think it must have its reasons. hope you keep the level.
Excellent and very interesting post. I'll try to learn as much from it. I want this traffic one day and I know that it will not come by itself. I did not know that Reddit is so powerful for traffic….
You have to be the right audience for Reddit, otherwise you're wasting your
time.
You have to be the right audience for Reddit, otherwise you're wasting your
time.
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after i read your article, i'm start to try your tips, so its all about how to make the visitor enjoy and be friendly with the visitor, is it correct, but if we have low traffic, and we don't have a good style of writing an article, the visitor just run away, do you know how we make a good article, i just now how to put an ads on my site, hehehe, but i begin to learn what you did now, and start to write a good content to my blog, after all, thank you for your article, its really great
Figure out who your audience is and write what they want to read. It's as
simple (and as complicated) as that.
Hi,
Wow that's impressive. I don't think her accomplishments were achieved with luck, I just wish I could repeat what Amber did for myself
Thanks,
Jake Ruston.
hmmmmm…you heve pr5 Is it not affect the attendance of a blog? sorry 4 mi english.
Fantastic article and something that I think both small and larger sized businesses can use to drive awareness. Congratulations on your blog and thank you for posting this!