The Formula I Used to Write a Post that Got 95,000 Views (from Quality Sources)

Almost 2 years ago, I wrote a post titled “30 Websites that Pay You to Write, Instantly”

My blog was struggling at an average of 400 daily visitors when I wrote this post and my most successful posts were averaging 500 – 800 views the month they were published. However, this post set a record on my blog.

Here are some quick stats on what happened when I wrote the post:

Day the post was published: October 16, 2011

Day I’m writing this post: September 19, 2013

Total traffic the day the post was published: 1,340 visitors

Total traffic the day before the post was published: 804 visitors (another post went viral on Stumbleupon around this time, which made the number of visits the previous day higher than average)

Total number of views to the post within a month of publication: 2,929 views

Average time spent on the post in the first month: 16 minutes 52 seconds

Total number of views to the post today, almost 2 years after it was published: 95,752 views

Average time spent on the post since it was published 2 years ago: 10 minutes 54 seconds

Here’s a screenshot that shows the post has indeed gotten 95,752 views since it was published:

Here’s a screenshot that shows traffic to the post since it was published almost 2 years ago:

As you can see from a quick summary of the stats above, the post didn’t just have a lot of traffic but it also had quality traffic.

Here are the top 5 sources of traffic and the number of visits they have generated to the post:

Google: 65,274 views

Direct: 15,603 views

MakeaLivingWriting.com: 1,708 views

Facebook: 911 views

T.co (Twitter): 567 views

Here’s a screenshot showing the top 10 traffic sources to the post according to Google Analytics:

Why I Call My Approach to Writing the Post a Formula

You would have noticed in my title that I called my approach to writing this particular post a “formula.” The reason behind this is simple; I’ve used this approach again on my blog to achieve similar results and I’ve also used it on another brand new blog of mine; the result? Traffic doubled month after month.

Second use of this “formula” on my blog

I wrote a follow up to this post on my blog later this year. The follow up post is titled “45+ More Websites that Pay You to Contribute an Article, Instantly”

The post was published in April of this year and it’s been approximately 5 months since the post was published. The result:

Date post was published: 9th of April, 2013

Total number of views to the post the month it was published: 4,664 views

Total number of views to the post in 5 months: 14,100 views

Average time on post: 6 minutes 31 seconds

Here’s a screenshot that shows the total number of views to the post since it was published (5 months):

Here’s a screenshot that shows traffic growth to the post since it was published:

This second post is on track to beat the first post, on the long run, in terms of page views since my blog was more popular when the second post was published.

However, since it is a follow up to a post that is already very popular, it’s easy to say that the approach towards writing this post cannot be proven i.e. it only became popular because of the first post.

Third use of this “formula” on my brand new blog

I repeated this on a brand new blog of mine in a new niche, when it was averaging only 500 visitors A MONTH; note, that traffic to be blog is five hundred visitors monthly, not daily.

However, this time around, instead of publishing it as one main post, I created subpages on the blog that featured various parts of the post. This makes it difficult to track overall traffic to this post so I’ll be tracking traffic growth to the blog the month the post was published.

One thing is certain, though; this post has been responsible for over 20,000 page views on a blog that was initially averaging 500 visits monthly.

The post I’m talking about is The Ultimate List of Blogs that Accept Guest Posts and it’s on another blog I own (under a pseudonym).

Here are some quick stats:

Date post was published: 9th of February, 2013

Traffic to blog a month before publishing the post: 630 visits

Traffic to blog the month the post was published: 1,010 visits (almost double the previous month, even though this post was published middle of this month)

Traffic to blog a month after post was published: 2,218 visits

Traffic to blog in August 2013 (7 months after publishing the post): 4,497 visits

Average time on site 3 months before the post was published: 2 minutes 58 seconds

Average time on site 3 months after the post was published: 5 minutes 36 seconds

Note: Since I’m not focusing on the blog full time, I only started it as an experiment, only one more post has been published on the blog after publishing the post using this formula; in other words, I didn’t publish a post on it for 7 months, yet traffic kept increasing because of this “formula” in action. That post was also published after this stat was taken so it had no influence on it at all. All stats are from Google Analytics.

Here’s a screenshot of traffic growth to my new blog 3 months before I published the post:

Here’s a screenshot of traffic growth to my other blog since I published the post:

Here’s a screenshot of traffic sources after publishing the post:

What Do These Posts All Have in Common?

You’ll notice one thing instantly across both of my blogs when I published posts using this formula; traffic increased significantly. Not only that, the quality of traffic and average time on site skyrocketed.

So, what do these posts have in common? They are all resources posts. That’s what they have in common; every of the posts I referenced in this article showcased resources to help make some tasks easier for people.

• The first two posts on my main site featured a list of sites that pay writers so that they don’t have to struggle to get paid for their work
• The post on my other blog featured a list of sites that accepts guest posts, in various niches, so that people don’t have to struggle to look for these sites.

The key to replicating my success is simple; write your own resources posts.

Tips for writing your own resources post

1. Look for a pain point in your niche; in my own example, writers want to get paid and bloggers/marketers want blogs to publish their guest posts.

2. Provide a resource that helps people overcome these pain points and that people can act on immediately; in other words, don’t share another “10 ways to find blogs that accept guest posts” or “10 ways to find sites that pay you to write.” Instead, share the actual blogs that will accept their guest posts or the sites that will pay them to write.

How I market my resource posts

In my experience, marketing or not marketing my resource posts wouldn’t have made much of a difference; on my more established blog where I published the list of blogs for writers, I did some marketing to help the posts get traction quickly. On my new blog that was averaging 500 visitors, I did little to no marketing – in fact, I kind of abandoned the blog after publishing that post – yet, traffic kept increasing month after month.

So whether you market or not, your post will still be successful but I believe you’ll be able to make a lot more impact if you can dedicate some time or effort to marketing your resource posts.

So, here are my tips for marketing my resource post:

1. Occasionally reference it in relevant posts on your site.

2. Share it on social media every once in awhile; even if everybody have forgotten about it, make it your duty to remind them.

3. Look for relevant blogs in your niche that accept guest posts; submit guest posts relevant to the topic of your resource posts and try to include a link back to your resource post in the author bio or in the post content when relevant.

The above are the 3 things I’ve done to market my resource posts; it’s worth paying special attention to the bit on guest blogging.

So, start writing your resource post today!

Get Similar Tips from Me!

If you want to learn more about my approach to using blogs to attract traffic and clients, sign up for my new FREE E-Course: How to Build a Blog that Consistently Attracts Freelance Writing Clients. You’ll find it very helpful if you’re a freelance writer or consultant who wants to get clients from your blog.

This post was written by Bamidele Onibalusi, who is a young blogger, freelance writer and the founder of Writers in Charge, a popular blog for writers.