I Got 586 Visitors During The First 24 Hours of My Blog

With the first 24 hours of my blog being live, I had 586 visits which resulted in 836 page views. The visitors stayed on average for 90 seconds.

I launched that blog on a whim.

Brief Background

I’ve been planning this blog for quite some time. I have google documents with sneeze page ideas and article plans. I have a notebook just full of my larger blogging plans.

I suffer from extreme anxiety and refrained from publicly blogging during the worst period. I could barely handle my life commitments without the added pressure of regular blogging.

Yesterday morning, I was reading many of the comments on The Essential Guide to Growing Your Blog on Minimal Time. Many people seemed desperate for more information on guest posting opportunities. I knew I get the perfect post in my drafts. I tidied it up and posted it. I then changed my twitter link and sent the link to a couple of friends on twitter.

The Immediate Reaction:

A few of my friends visited and sent messages of congratulations. It got picked up by a few top bloggers. I’d sent Darren the link because I’d featured him heavily in a few of the case studies.

This resulted in a ruch of traffic from twitter and many retweets. The post then got stumbled, which has sent about 100 visitors so far. Within 30 minutes, many of my friends requested guest posts.

The post Spread Further.

The post then got linked to on one of my favourite sites, Performancing.  It was also linked to on the Friday Traffic Report. I was very surprised by both of the links.

Its all about leverage.

For your post to really take off, it needs to get in front of the eyeballs that matter. You need to find the people who have a large following. This can be on twitter, via a mailing list or on their personal blog.

However, you can’t just shove a post in a persons face. I’ve tried to be really useful on twitter by privately sending links that would benefit their readership more than my own. I sent my own site because I thought it would have a similar benefit. That, and I was so proud I just had to get it out there!

Was it worth it?

Yes. I’ve learned so much in the past 24 hours. I’m petrified of what my blogging future holds. I’m still recovering from a mental illness and am a newbie to many aspects.

I really look forward to the future of this blog. I can’t wait to put my first year journalism skills to good use