How My Blog Post Attracted 10K Visitors Within 5 Days

My recent blog post “How important is one’s class 12 results?” attracted 10,000+ unique visitors to my blog within 5 days, resulted in 1000+ social shares, initiated interesting conversations on my blog comments & Social Media, appeared on Google Now cards, got shared by BlogAdda on Twitter, brought personal messages asking for career suggestions. Above all the post reached and made sense to a large number of students across the country. So when Souravda asked me to write a guest post on ‘how did I do it’, I readily agreed. I am sharing everything I did step-by-step, hoping it will help new bloggers to spread their message to their target audience more effectively.

I would not go by the numbers of the analytics tool as each tool give a different number when they analyse the unique visitors. Thanks to the use of social media, I would know how many unique people have come to my blog post and have appreciated it. That’s the minimum number of people who had come. The real visitor count must be way higher.

However I am sharing simple stat from WordPress dashboard.

Honestly, I did not plan to make it a popular post, I just wanted to spread awareness about this topic. But looking back, I can see that the steps taken contributed to the high reach and influence of the post.

So how did I start?

Started with a Question on Social Media

I posted this question on Facebook on 15th May.

I got 85 comments (at the time of writing this article) to the post. Students, parents, teachers, professionals, entrepreneurs in my friend circle shared their opinion.

Why this step helped?

• Firstly it gave me quality contents (comments from some people) and ideas to include in my post.
• Secondly, those who already participated in the conversation on Facebook, were more likely to read & share the blog post as it was an extension from that very post.

[Tweet “Extend a Social Media conversation into a blog post. #BloggingTip”]

Been Connected with My Target Audience

I generally do not make a post where I can not post photographs shot by me. I did this post because the sense of apprehension, the pale eyes of Saimantick gave me some real tough time resting. I decided to write about it because I got connected to it at a very personal level.

Not long ago did I also believe that marks were the only way forward. Rakshit and Rimbik made me realise how futile the marks are when you know you are chasing your dreams.

So when Saimantick was tense, I knew no way to calm him down. Hence, a blog post.

But I guess the post struck chord for many other readers too.

[Tweet “Better you know your target audience, more engaged your posts will be.”]

Chosen a Timely Trending Topic

I posted this question on 15th May, published the blog post on 17th. Around this time countless students, teachers & parents were talking & searching about this topic online. More than that, this was a burning question that every class 12 students had in their mind. And that clicked!

No matter where the target audience saw this post, they were more likely to click, read, comment and share. If I had published this same blog post at some other time of the year, it might not have reached this many people or created this much impact.

[Tweet “Right post at right time results in best impact. #BloggingTip”]

[ Here is a very interesting article on this strategy The Impact of Trending Topics: The True Story (and Real Stats!) of a Top Tweet . For Buffer, the primary medium was Twitter, but for my post it was Facebook. ]

Here are some examples of how people shared this post:

Our member blogger @sahaanirban wants to know ‘How important is one’s class 12 result?’. Do read & share your views. http://t.co/iuhns2YbqF

— BlogAdda (@blogadda) May 22, 2015

 

Kept the Conversation Alive with a ‘?’ on Blog post Title

When you ask a question, people love to answer. It’s that simple. I feel that keeping the blog post title a question, attracted more readers and insightful comments to the post.

[Tweet “Conversational blog posts attracts more engagements. #BloggingTip”]

Boosted the Post

I drafted the post and published it on the 17th. Generally my blog posts get slightly over 70 Likes, by sharing it on my page and profile. I knew this post would get slightly more traction because Saimantick alone should not have been the only one tense. My idea was, if it crossed 100 likes without any publicity in 24 hours, then I would boost it over Facebook. To my surprise, people read it and kept sharing. Over slightly 10 hours, the post got 148 Likes. I realised, umm there are perhaps more Saimanticks around. I decided to boost it and make it reach students who have taken their class 12 examinations. I boosted the post with Rs. 150, age being 18 years of age and location being Calcutta, Mumbai and Delhi. The time frame being 24 hours.

Coming back to numbers again, the results I got were stunning. After the 24 hours, 697 Likes. I got over 7 personal messages asking for suggestions about career.

Takeaway points:

• This is why I recommend bloggers to have a Facebook page for their blog, as personal profiles don’t have access to advertising & other useful professional features.
• By running targeted Facebook ad campaign (simplest one being ‘boosting’), you can reach to new audience.
• Paid reach (number of people who see your content from the paid advertisement – ‘Sponsored Post’ in this case) also increases Organic reach (number of people who see your content naturally – directly from you or by being shared by someone in their friend circle).

However the day next was more amusing. A few friends reported that the blog post was appearing in random people’s Google Now (Android platforms)

My friends were astonished, so was I. Their excitement added to my happiness.

Impact Beyond Numbers

Beyond numbers, was a satisfaction to see how people shared my blog link and referred it to their friends. A few close friends took a screenshot and sent it to me, showing how their friends shared the post without being asked to. Perhaps the most satisfying time for a blogger is when extremely random people from different parts of the country, who has no clue about you, shares the blog links and you can feel that they connected to it.

The response has made me happy. I would like to boost it again during the time the CBSE results will be out. If only people understand that marks do not matter during the time when young hearts are chasing their passions. Let their passions fly. What are we, the elders, for?

I believe anyone can get their messages across and is well accepted, if their messages make sense and is relevant. If applying these steps helps someone to reach wider audience, I’d be happiest.