Last week, I covered the origins of blogging, and how it’s evolved over the last 20 years. Then I shared some posting and linking strategies for your copywriting blog, based around the 500-word limit of my SBI website blog.
This week, it’s all about the numbers and data, so let’s get started.
While I might think my blog is doing okay, and that my visitors love the topics I write about, I always defer to the traffic stats for confirmation. I like definitive documentation about how my copywriting blog is doing.
Data doesn’t care about opinions, suspicions, or hunches. Data won’t lie to spare your feelings, or make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
I use two different resources for tracking my traffic and page views, the traffic module of SBI (Solo Build It) and Google Analytics. I check-in with Google on a quarterly basis, but I typically use the SBI option daily since I’m already logged in when building web pages.
The charts below include the visits, visitors, and page views for my website for the months indicated. In case you’re wondering why there are more visits than visitors, some visitors return to the site multiple times during the month. Stickiness, or the number of repeat visitors, shows that your website and blog are resonating, and people do enjoy your topics and content.
Last March, I added two new blog posts, and you can see the impact to my traffic stats — all three improved dramatically. Those two blog posts resulted in 900 more page views, and nearly 300 more unique visitors (prospects) for my website. What’s interesting here is that I didn’t do a copywriting blog post in April, and although my unique visitors dropped slightly, visits and page views continued to increase.
My Initial Stats
| Month | Visits | Unique Visitors | Page Views |
| February 2021 | 1,262 | 783 | 2,322 |
| March 2021 | 1,730 | 1,033 | 3,229 |
| April 2021 | 1,871 | 990 | 3,303 |
I’m going to do some basic math and drill down into my onscreen data a bit. When looking at my entry pages, my B2B copywriter blog page sits in third place, behind my home and contact pages. A quick glance at my exit pages shows the blog in ninth place, meaning that people are finding and reading the blog and then visiting and exiting from other pages on my site.
I didn’t get any new copywriting blog posts for my website done over the summer, since I was too busy with paid projects and deadlines. I did get back on my blog publishing schedule in November, so the next chart starts with October as the baseline.
My Current Stats
| Month | Visits | Unique Visitors | Page Views |
| October 2021 | 1,706 | 973 | 2,657 |
| November 2021 | 1,786 | 1,068 | 2,861 |
| December 2021 | 1,836 | 1,192 | 3,173 |
| January 2022 | 1,746 | 951 | 3,089 |
| February 2022 | 1,855 | 1,091 | 2,986 |
| March 2022 | 1,953 | 1,271 | 3,379 |
During November, I added three new blog posts, and as you can see, my visitor and page views went up again slightly.
Then in December, I added another blog post which yielded the same results. Unfortunately, with no blog entries for January, my traffic stats dropped a bit. I’m seeing a definite pattern here, but let’s see what happened with three blog posts in February.
Just as I expected, the March traffic stats went up again.
Obviously, regular blog posts can generate more traffic and page views for your company website, whether you’re a major corporation, or a freelance copywriter working from your home office.
I know that many copywriters, especially those just getting started, consider site blogging to be waste of time and energy. Much like a non-paying client, you do all this work, and your bank account doesn’t benefit at all… or does it?
Benefits of Blogging
Blogging will take care of one of the major roadblocks that most new writers struggle with: a lack of “writing samples.” While you’re busy trying to land that first, or next client, carve out a couple of hours each week to get another blog entry added to your website. Within a month or two, you’ll have more than enough writing samples to demonstrate your skills.
When a potential client asks about writing samples, simply send them the link to your blog. A regularly updated blog also shows you can meet a consistent publishing schedule or deadline, which does impress editors, managers, and copy chiefs alike.
Is it worth the time?
So, I can’t say that blogging alone will fatten your bank account right away. But regular posts around niche-related topics will improve your traffic and page views, allowing more prospects to find you via search queries.
I’ve found that when clients find me and initiate a discovery call, they’re more focused on my availability to take on their project, compared to my fees. I have one client who is paying one and a half times my normal rate for white papers because he wants a “true construction copywriter,” to handle his copywriting projects.
While I seriously doubt that my blog posts are the only reason behind the increased project fees, I’m sure they helped convinced this client that I’m the copywriter he’s been seeking. I received the second project outline yesterday morning, and an email today saying that he’s working on the third and fourth project outlines as I type this article.
It seems clear that blogging can improve your ranking, visitors, and page views, since the internet is still a numbers game, after all. And blogging can help establish you as an industry or project expert that every client in your niche wants to hire.
Next week, I will dive into a few of the challenges blogging can present, along with a list of potential solutions for you to check out. Take care, and I’ll see you next week!
