DISQUS

Trey Morgan · 1 year ago

I've enjoyed looking around on your blog the last couple of days.

I did a post a year or so ago about becoming a man who is "Porn Free" in his life. I still get dozens of hits from people searching for "Free Porn." But who knows, maybe one of them will stick around a read a little bit.

Blessings,

Trey

Trey Morgans last blog post..AND WE WONDER WHY CHRISTIANS ARE HATED

Vincent @ thedadjam.com · 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing this Tyler, I enjoyed reading about it because I was naturally curious about your traffic after you got the link from SI. It got me thinking about what I could do to provide more value for my readers and give them something they can actually use. I am constantly thinking about ways that I can make people stay on my site longer too. This is a big challenge. I use a Related Links Wordpress plugin (I think it is called "Yet another Related Posts Plugin), categories and tag clouds. Haven't yet looked into how well each of these work for me.
For ads, I think text link ads are better, and I will check out the Pepperjam Network too. I use Bidvertiser right now, which gets me some clicks, but not a lot. I also just want to recoup the hosting costs with ads, and at the rate I am at now, I might do that in a year or so!

Tyler · 1 year ago

@Trey: Thanks Trey! Glad to have you as a reader and hope to hear from you again. Hopefully you will get some people to read a little bit more of your site. If anything, maybe someone will remember your site when they want to be free from porn.
@Vincent: Glad you enjoyed the article. I think you're on the right track when you say "...something they can actually use". I think along those terms, at least try to, when I'm writing my articles. My main goal is be a great resource for men. Some of my articles are more successful than others, but it's hard to constantly write engaging articles.
I've offset my hosting costs through Text Link Ads. I get a $25-$35 check every month for two to three small ads in my right sidebar. I'm leaving them there because those are the only ads that have ever made me any money!

orlund · 1 year ago

That would have been exciting to watch! I would expect views to visit much more than one page on a blog as most viewers (at least repeat visitors) just want to read your latest post.

Keep up the good work even with us few viewers.

Vincent @ thedadjam.com · 1 year ago

Thanks for the reply Tyler, I think your site is a great resource and is nicely laid out. I like the look of the pepperjam network text ads. One thing I don't like about the Bidvertiser ads I use is that they are not always relevant (like Adsense). Although, with Bidvertiser you can reject ads if you want, it takes a long time to go through them all and do that. Keep up the good work.

Vincent @ thedadjam.coms last blog post..Another (controversial?) way to calm a fussy or crying baby

Tyler · 1 year ago

@Orlund: Yea - the latest post typically gets the most traffic since it's most visible. I guess I was expecting the S.I. visitors to at least click over to my home page and take a look around.
@Vincent: Thanks for the encouragement - it's always nice to hear. One more thing I like about Pepperjam is the ability to use text link ads or a banner ad from an advertiser. I know AdSense has image ads, but again, you can't control them like you can with Pepperjam.

Elliott - 21st Century Dad · 1 year ago

@Trey: LOL! Just put the word "porn" anywhere on a site and it's a spam magnet.

I should've started a technology blog instead. The dad blog niche is fun though. You don't make much ad revenue, but you end up meeting lots of great people.

My wife and I run 3 sites, and Text Link Ads has the best performance/effort ratio. We set and forget it early on and it outperforms AdSense every month. Imagine what we could do if we really worked it.

Jeremy (Discovering Dad) · 1 year ago

Dude, that is awesome! It's amazing how one link from a popular site can send tons of traffic, and as you said, while it's kinda cool and a huge opportunity, it's slightly depressing when we don't already get tons of traffic from men wanting to become better husbands and fathers and/or who want to connect with others like them. Great job Tyler!

Jeremy (Discovering Dad)s last blog post..Top 10 Reasons Why Dads are Hotter than Guys Without Kids

Tyler · 1 year ago

@Elliott: I toy around with the idea of starting another blog...maybe a tech blog or even a blog about blogging. Those types of blogs always seem to do pretty well.
@Jeremy: Well said - if I blogged about college football I'm sure I'd get a ton more traffic. Too bad more men out there aren't looking to get better.

TheFatherLife.com · 1 year ago

Yeah - I hear you on the fact that dad blogs / fathering is such a niche... but I do think that's steadily changing.

It's weird that "good traffic" for us is a drop in the bucket for a lot of sites. But that's why we all need to promote each other and link out to "mainstream" sites and media so this thing continues growing...

While it's true there are a lot of guys that would rather read about football/cheerleaders than good fathering. But for every guy like that (and there's plenty of 'em) I think there's at least one other guy who is looking to be a better father and a better guy... it's just that the niche we inhabit didn't even exist several years ago. It's still being invented --- by us! We'll get there!

-Ben Murphy / TheFatherLife.com

TheFatherLife.coms last blog post..Friday Round-Up! (DadTrends.com)

Splendid Marbles · 1 year ago

Thank you for this post. You've done great work modifying this theme, (which is how I found your site, honestly) and your explanation of the process of building traffic and increasing your community is highly useful. I don't have kids yet, but I liked your insights into marriage and being a better guy. Relationships are challenging, so thanks again. Here's a link to my site: http://www.splendidmarbles.com

Dcmba · 1 year ago

My spikes come when Trey Morgan references something on my site (like the image of his name in Google search, right, Trey?). But that is a couple hundred visitors, not 25,000+!

My hosting package supposedly supports unlimited traffic, unless it it for a long period of time. I imagine if I was sustaining 100,000/day, I would have to pay more. But that ain't gonna ever happen!

Dcmbas last blog post..On Being Married…

Tyler · 1 year ago

@Ben: You bring up some very good points. The "fatherhood" niche is so small compared to lots of sites out there. Imagine if our blogs became even a quarter as popular as Sports Illustrated!
@Splendid: Hey thanks for stooping by! I really appreciate your comment and I'm glad you've enjoyed the site.
@Dcmba: Man, I never realized how much traffic was really out there until the S.I. link. And if you were pimpin that kind of traffic you'd have sponsors pay your hosting bill!

Rob O. · 1 year ago

An article I wrote (Geoblogging - How to Geotag Your Blog) was published on Darren Rowse's awesome Problogger a few months back. It was a tremendous honor and brought in a flurry of traffic overnight.

However, I hadn't cached up any reserve posts for my blog and wasn't able to get very much fresh content on my blog in the hours & days after that guest blog was published. I sorta squandered an opportunity by not having new posts to push out to make my blog stickier during that influx of traffic - the opportunity to possibly convert more of those visitors to regular readers or subscribers.

And I've seen this same this with a post that got Stumbled. Sudden swell of traffic but just a quick a falloff since few of those newbies spent any real amount of time on the site or ever came back.

The thing to remember is that traffic alone isn't worth all that much - if it doesn't build your audience, then it's just the Internet's version of sugary junk food - tasty but only briefly satisfying and nutritionally worthless...

So, I advise that, whenever possible, you need to have a couple of blog entries queued up on the backburner so that you've got some fresh content when an unexpected spike in traffic comes along. And this'll also take some of the pressure off if you get a little too busy in the analog world to do much blogging for several days in a stretch.

Rob O.s last blog post..What a Crock!

Tyler · 1 year ago

@Rob: Great comment! I couldn't agree more with you and I certainly wasn't ready for the influx of traffic from S.I. I wish I could have at least converted a small percentage of those visitors to regular readers.

I've also had the same sort of traffic from Stumble Upon...one day I'll get 500 hits from Stumble Upon and the next day it's down to 1 or 2. I'm not sure why that happens and I never feel prepared to capitalize on the traffic.

Thanks again for the comment - it was good to hear from you.