Trends in my blog traffic: strengths and weaknesses

I noticed a simple but striking pattern in the popularity and readership of my blog posts over the past year and thought I would share here for what it may be worth to others. The traffic report is compiled by Jetpack as a WordPress add-in for traffic on about 1,300 blog posts recorded since November 2015.

HIGH READERSHIP – The posts that got over 1,000 views last year were all targeted for accountants. The high traffic posts are strongly correlated with practical information for other professionals. They are peer-to-peer tips but unfortunately do little to promote my business with prospective clients.

MEDIUM READERSHIP – The posts that got between 300 and 1,000 views are primarily related to presidential politics. Again, they contribute little to my business development but do draw readers.

LOW READERSHIP – The median number of viewers for all of the rest of the posts that get under 300 views is about 70; indicating a sharp drop-off from the prior two categories. These are primarily financial tips for small business owners.

My conclusions based on this simple review:

1) I am effective as a peer educator and a political editorialist but not effective as a business developer using a written blog format.

2) The traffic from accountants/professionals/insurance agents looking for specific technical information to employ in their own practice, for example, sample documents, legal citations or work forms. They are willing to use Google search to find information they need and this boosts my traffic totals over a longer period of time.

3) There is no evidence that traffic from professionals or traffic on political editorials contributes to business development.

4) There is little evidence that business owners use Google to search for information anymore (as was the case a decade ago).

5) Few posts could actually be called ‘popular’ with small business owners. In other words, my posts have wide appeal based on the criteria above, or else they aren’t really popular at all. I need to focus on my work in this area.

6) I do not have the ability to assess objectively evaluate the effectiveness of blog posts that are read by less than 100 people. The sample size is just too small. My suspicion it that this level of readership does not warrant the time spent under current conditions.