Happy Birthday GrowMap 2 Years Old

Kelly over at 3BoysandaDog has an inspiring event going on in her Giveaway and Product Reviews blog she calls Blogger Appreciation Day.

She is asking bloggers to write a post about and link to the ten bloggers that referred them the most traffic over the previous month.

Blogger Appreciation Day – the perfect way to support the other bloggers who support you.

This edition coincides with the second birthday of this blog. I am usually so focused on writing and networking that I don’t look at analytics very often. Annually is a good time to check in and see where you are.

Kelly is offering a free month of ad space to a winner chosen from all the blogs that participate. Even if you don’t, do visit her blog and check out how the cool Linky Tools she uses works.

These are the blogs who sent me the most traffic between July 1 and July 31, 2010:

1. Search Engine Journal 57 visitors
2. CommentLuv 55 visitors – How CommentLuv works – How CommentLuv Grows Blogs and Businesses.
3. Kikolani 51 visitors Thanks Kristi – if you are a blogger and don’t read her posts regularly you are really missing out.  Great Blogging Tips plus how to promote your blog using Social Media. Kristi also writes for Search Engine Journal, Famous Bloggers, Social Media Examiner, Search Engine Watch, and Stay on Search.
4. iWoodpecker 49 visitors – see his CommentLuv Blogs List – Follow Allan on Twitter
5. SprawnyMarketing.pl – 48 visitors – I hope they see this link and contact me. I assume some of their readers read English; if they (or anyone else) would like to translate any of my content for readers whose native language is not English contact me.
6. Online Marketing Mashup – 43 visitors – Follow Zack on Twitter
7. BloggerLuv – 33 visitors – Follow BloggerLuv on Twitter – BloggerLuv is a rockin’ blogging community.
8. The Blog About Everything – Thanks Danny – 18 visitors probably most from the Does DoFollow Hurt PageRank debate.
9. Tech-Link Blog – 17 visitors – Thanks Paul – Check out his Cricket Cell Phone reviews before you buy another phone.
10. AffiliateXFiles Affiliate Marketing Blog – 16 visitors – Thanks Ron – If you want to know anything about Affiliate Marketing ask him. No one does article marketing as well as he does. Ron has been doing an entire series on Facebook Marketing that may interest many.

Thank you to the bloggers above and all the other bloggers who read GrowMap, link to my content, or approve my comments. Without you GrowMap would not have achieved what it has.

Easy way to follow your choice of the bloggers listed above:

To make comparing more fun, here are the stats I published on the First GrowMap Birthday post. (Numbers for first year, second year and total.)

YEAR ONE / YEAR TWO /  TOTAL

1. Published posts, 130 / 84 / 214
2. Active comments 2,402 / 5,777 / 8,179
3. Subscribers 1,300 / 747 / 2,047
4. Twitter Followers (Not included in my first post, but included now for future comparisons): 12,024

My thoughts on these stats:

1. While focusing on publishing posts daily is a good idea, interacting with your readers in the comments and promoting your posts across Social Networks are also necessary. Finding the balance and getting processes in place to keep all the plates spinning is a challenge I am continually working to improve. This year I spent a lot of time promoting the efforts of others and doing what is best for all. That is currently a higher priority than my own blog. As the processes come together posting here more regularly will happen.
2. As you can see, comments boomed here. That is a great indication that my readers are interested in specific content and have much to contribute. Thank you to every person who comments here – you add so much more to every discussion. Comments take a ton of time to manage well. I prefer to answer every comment because my readers deserve to be heard and acknowledged. That is not always possible in as timely a manner as I wish, but I do answer as many comments as quickly as I can.
3. I do not feel we can get a clear picture from subscriber numbers. Many people don’t actually read what they subscribe to, some read newsletters if you have one, others subscribe to comments and come back that way.
4. I recently came across a tool that tells you which Twitter followers are interacting and which are broadcasting. I’ve been pondering whether to unfollow those who don’t actually communicate on Twitter; however, for now I believe seeing the content they share is too important to me to give up. With the introduction of Twitter lists there is no reason to limit Twitter followers because we can easily zero in on those we interact with most.