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Now that we’re one month into the New Year, I hope you all realise that this one is going to fly by as quickly as the rest. The people who stagnate are going to be left behind. I could relax this year and do absolutely nothing, but instead, it’s going to be my hardest year yet.
As I recently revealed, I’m moving back to Cape Town to focus on my next two goals: helping my siblings financially and buying a nightclub. The latter will probably not be achieved for 2-3 years. I love travelling but I really feel like I need to stay in one place to give me the best chance of making my massive aims a reality.
Each month I give a personal update on my life and where I am in regards to my Cloud living lifestyle. On top of that, I openly share all stats from this website in an aim to be radically transparent. I reiterate each month that I like to look at these stats but I don’t have goals for them. I don’t rely on this site to make money; I simply enjoy writing here. I of course like seeing the traffic go up, but I’m more focused on building a community than seeing some nice spikes in my Google Analytics account.
Overall Traffic
- Visits: 37,474
- Pageviews: 60,481
- Avg time on Site: 1 mins 24 seconds
Last month the site had 23,250 visits and 34,869 pageviews so I’m not going to complain about almost doubling my traffic month on month. The articles written in January, were:
- The Very First Thing You Should Do in 2010
- What You Can Learn From The Most Tweeted Blog Posts Ever
- How I Wrote a $30,000 eBook (And You Can Too)
- Minimalist Internet Marketing: My Personal Guide
- $1M Case Study: My CMS & Content Strategy
Here at ViperChill there are a lot less articles published than most sites, but typically these articles are 2,000-3,000 words and cover topics in massive detail. You could say that we prefer signal over noise.
Top Referring Websites
Here are the top referring traffic sources for the month of January:
- StumbleUpon: 22,634
- Direct: 6,001
- Twitter: 1,872
- Google (organic): 1,049
- Google.com: 730
- MaxBlogPress.com: 478
- Copyblogger.com: 452
- Sphinn.com: 398
- Ow.ly: 295
- SmartPassiveIncome.com: 261
Top Referring Keywords
There were a total of 1,081 visits via 281 keywords this month. The top 10, were:
- ViperChill: 241
- glen allsopp: 182
- guest blogging: 80
- viper chill: 36
- glen allsop: 33
- glen allsop guest post: 18
- viperchill.com: 15
- how I wrote an ebook: 12
- site:viperchill.com 66 visitors: 12 (Not sure I believe this one)
- pluginid: 11
Up until a few hours before hitting publish on this post, I had removed the keyword stats you see above. I did this because I know that as soon as I find a keyphrase that sends me a lot of traffic, I’m going to set myself up for a lot of competition. I quickly saw this as a silly move because a) no other blogger is your competition and b) if something helps people, I want to share it.
If you want to outrank me in Google for phrases that send me traffic then feel free. If it’s relevant to your niche and helps your own blog grow, then I’m achieving what I set out to do with this blog.
Subscriber Stats
Monitoring your subscriber stats is probably the best way to track how well your audience is growing. Although I don’t have any goals for the size of the audience here, I still think it is an interesting metric to monitor.
- January 1st: 3,284
- January 31st: 3,814
- Change: +530
Last month the site grew by 260 subscribers so it’s nice to see that doubling traffic has almost directly doubled feed subscriptions. I had 3 guest posts go live this month on some big blogs which obviously had an impact on the stats but apart from that, I just focus on writing the best content I can.
Personal Activity (+ National Press)
Without a doubt, the biggest thing to happen to me this month was being featured in the Guardian newspaper in the UK. The Guardian is the 2nd largest UK newspaper according to most sources, and I was featured in both the print and online versions of the piece.
Here is a picture of the actual newspaper:
If you would like to read the article online, you can do so here (I’m at the bottom). Please ignore the figures they quoted. I did ask for nothing specific to be mentioned and that is quite a lot lower than my average income now.
Of course, I’m delighted with the coverage which resulted in thousands of people “Googling” my name and landing on my various sites. It’s great to see that all of the hard work I’ve put in online over the last few years is starting to get recognised.
I made another big announcement this week when I told the world that I sold my biggest blog, PluginID. You can find my reasons for doing so over here, where I also revealed that I received a mid five-figure sum for the site. My duties there have officially ended now, although I’ll still be popping into the site from time to time to share my updates. Note: ViperChill is going nowhere. The site means far too much to me — and it was my first ever blog, so many (4) years ago.
On another note, as you’re reading this, I’m in Paris! I’ve been before and loved the place, so decided to go and check it out again. My next stops are going to include Prague (Czech Republic), Berlin (Germany) and then back to Amsterdam (Netherlands) before flying back to Cape Town (South Africa). If you can’t tell, I really love this lifestyle.
I want to help you live it too, so make sure you grab the feed.
This has been an excellent month for me and I’m excited to see more of Europe before returning to Cape Town and becoming a slave to my personal goals. Thanks to all of you for your support, comments, links, tweets and everything else. I’ll try my best to keep the value coming.
| I constantly aim to find new, awesome articles to share with you all. Today I want to share: How to Really Profit from Your Blog via Pat Flynn, Working on the Web and Having a Life via David Turnbull, The Hustling Secrets No One Talks About via Jade Craven and finally there’s an interesting Stumbleupon advertising case study that might teach you a thing or two via DumbLittleBlogger. |  |
RSS Subscribers: 
Great report Glen, had no idea StumbleUpon could send so much traffic until I checked out your other article. I also read the news article, pretty sweet advice! Congrats on selling PluginID, must have taken a lot of guts and contemplation, but constant evolution and change is what personal development is all about right!? Good luck buddy.
Hey Ron,
Where have you been??
Thanks. It was a massive decision and not something I took lightly. I’m looking forward to seeing Bud’s journey evolve over there though.
Glen, how do you feel about SU traffic as a whole? I get random stumbles all the time and it will usually result in an extra 200-300 uniques but I’m always curious as to how valuable this traffic is. I mean, obviously someone thought enough of my stuff to share it but I just wonder how many of these people are actually spending time on the site, reading and then subscribing or just continuously hitting the SU button in their browser.
I know it’s an impossible question to answer but just wanted to get an idea of how you feel about SU as a traffic source.
Spending time on your site or on ViperChill?
Most StumbleUpon traffic is pretty useless in my eyes, but some of it converts in ways that I want it to.
Glen,
Man, I love these reports and all the info you share. Congrats for selling PluginID for that mid-five figure income
I barely make that much in a year at my job, and I don’t even like it (I’m working on changing that).
Here’s to working towards an awesome 2010!
Hey Moon,
Thanks buddy.
Cheers to that!
Good stuff Glen. I’m really intrigued to know, where you see Bounce Rate, Page Views and Time on Site in terms of importance?
I know when I stopped using Stumble Upon my traffic took a hit, but my bounce rate dropped over 10% and my time on site went from about 1.6 to 1.90, I also saw an increase in subscribers coming on board, although I suspect that was purely coincidental.
BTW, my single biggest source of quality traffic is YouTube. My average new YouTube visitor that comes from my videoa stays on the site over 15 minutes!
Hi Tim,
I know that the stats would look far better in terms of time on site if StumbleUpon wasn’t in there, but it doesn’t stop other sources of traffic staying for a long time. So, on one hand it looks bad, but on the other it doesn’t really change anything.
Wow, that’s pretty amazing. There was just one site that I guest posted where the average visit time was about 15 minutes as well. Sadly, it’s hard to get articles up there
- Glen
Congrats on the press coverage Glen, that’s pretty cool.
Cheers Steven!
Great update. Have a wonderful time in Paris. I lived there for a while and enjoyed every minute of it.
Thanks Anne,
I have actually spent the last two days in bed here as myself and travel-mate are pretty sick but we did get to tour around
. Sadly, the French seem to love striking so I can’t even leave the country by train at the moment haha.
Hope to come back some day.
Ahhh, Mr. Transparency has struck again! Dang Glen, I love your ‘update’ articles like this one, and it really gets my creative juices pumped. So glad you’re kickin tail and doing it the right way. Keep it up brother.
Thanks buddy,
I have decided I’m going to do them for a year and then just focus on writing an extra, awesome article each month. That way there is going to be a year-long blog growth case study that people can follow and learn from.
What do you think?
Dang Glen, Mr. Trancparency has struck again! I just love these ‘update’ articles that you do. They get my creative juices jacked up and I’m so happy for your success. Keep it coming brother!
Loving your transparency as always, Glen.
I’d be very interested to know how you deal with taxes as nomadic entrepreneur with a presumably UK based business? I’m not earning anywhere near your level right now, but I wouldn’t mind some insight on how you deal with the old Inland Revenue.
I also love how your traffic is exploding with 5 bigger posts per month. Sure goes against those who churn on 4-5 posts a week at the least in an attempt to keep momentum.
Hi Ian,
I ran a company from 2007 – 2009 which I ran all of my income / taxes through. I found a great accountant on ukbusinessforums.co.uk who handles things for me. I started there when I was small (just making a few hundred dollars per month). Now that I’m spending most of my year in other countries, things get a little more complicated. That’s a good place to start though if you’re staying in the UK (although I have no idea why you would wanna
).
- Glen
Cheers dude. Will check those forums out.
Well my girlfriend is about to give birth in the next few weeks so I think she might object if I buggered off to Spain without her!
Thanks for the shout out Glen. Much appreciated.
Hi Glen,
Awesome post! It’s amazing that you share your traffic numbers and analytics for others to learn from. I’ve noticed my top source of traffic has been from StumbleUpon as well, it’s crazy how many page views it can generate!
I’m curious about your page views and visits as they seem a little low considering how highly your site is ranked on Alexa (36,775). Does Alexa factor in other metrics to determine a site’s ranking?
Would you recommend any other traffic ranking sites besides Alexa to get an idea of how one’s site may compare to its competition?
Thanks for sharing!
Hey TS,
Thanks for the comment!
Alexa is quite skewed towards the IM niche as a lot of marketers have the toolbar installed on their browser and then visit this site. You’ll find the figures look high for a number of blogs in this industry.
Alexa is at least a week behind though in terms of actual tracking.
Compete and Quantcast should have some information for you if the sites are of a decent size.
- Glen
Nice Jump in page views. What a great leap! I am impressed with the amount of traffic you get from StumbleUpon. I signed up for that site, but haven’t looked into it much. I just don’t get it lol. Plus, I can’t stand adding more taskbars. Maybe it’s time…?
I moved to the taskbar right next to my address bar so that it doesn’t add any clutter.
I also believe that you can actually hide the bar and use shortcut keys to operate it still.
I’m starting to try to do as many guest posts as I can muster. And while I recognize that they’re basically all outside of my niche — we’ll see what happens. I just think it’s the most tangible, direct way to grow your blog. In that case, do as much of it as you possibly can. At least for a short burst to see what happens.
Don’t forget to focus on what your site is about Bamboo. That is always one thing that has confused me. Not an insult (some of your stuff is hilarious) but your site doesn’t seem to have a clear direction which might be confusing to visitors you are receiving from guest posts.
Hi Viperchill, doubling! Congrats.
May i know, where do you get thumbnail images for your blog?
iStockphoto.com
Great report, Glen. You really are laying it all out there for others to benefit from your incredible success. The stats on Viperchill month to month are impressive to say the least. Since reading your posts and implementing some of your strategies I’ve already, within a few days, begun to see significant improvements in readership and subscribers. Not quite as exponentially as the amazing success you had this month, but it’s a start. Looking forward to more useful insights.
Paris is great isn’t it.
Very cool… especially being featured in ‘traditional press’
I envy your constant traveling! But I think you are right that probably its good to settle down at least for a year or two when you aim to fulfill REALLY big goals.
Go get ‘em Tiger!
I love reading these posts. So, so helpful. Keep doing these Glen.
Just discovered your site and I enjoy it .
Good year to move to South Africa, the year of the WC
Glen, I just read the Guardian article and I laughed so hard for some reason when I read “”Whenever someone asks about my profession, I simply say that I help people quit their day jobs,”. I think that’s an awesome profession. Maybe you can post some of your Europe pictures (I’ve never been to Europe, so will have to live vicariously through someone else until I get a chance to go:) )
That’s a great idea. Will share some of my videos / pictures next month
Well done on the press Glen!
SU didn’t seem to like me this month. For some reason the number of visitors from SU dropped by about 80% on one of my sites. I’m pretty sure it happened after the same group of people stumbled a number of my articles in a row. I was thanking them at the time
Glen,
First time poster here. Just wanted to say that I enjoy these monthly updates. It’s refreshing to read a blog about blogging and other related topics which isn’t trying to promote some other blogger’s newest eBook or online course or what-have-you.
Kudos on everything, and I look forward to the next post!
Wesley Craig Green
Well, this is big news. That’s the problem with surfing the Internet less and spending more time growing my business – I miss out on fabulous ideas like yours. I really appreciate your honesty. I do think you’re putting your neck on the line byu sahring all this info with us but it’s also a great way to show us that you know what you’re doing and your methods get results. Kudos:)
Now, you’ve probably noticed that I’m a cheeky cow so I have some questions for you and I’d love it if you share your expertise even more. Here they are:
1. How did you get featured in The Guardian? Major coup. Well done…
2. How much income were you making from PluginId when it sold? I’m resuming that must be a major factor in the sale price and convincing someone of a blog’s worth. I guess you were able to tell the lucky owners that they could expect a monthly income of x from affiliate fees for Cloud Living and x for pay per click advertising?
3. I’ve read many of your guest posts (Write to Done, Copyblogger and more) and wonder which ones were most successful in terms of getting new visitors to this blog?
Many thanks Glen. I was subscribing by RSS already but am signing up for emsail updates right now so I’ll be first to know when you add more posts.
Hi Ann,
Thanks for the comments.
1. I believe someone else who was involved in the piece recommended me, or had a friend who was writing the article who recommended me. I was ‘advised’ to tell my story to a certain woman via email and it took off from there.
2. Yes, it was a factor. More than $3,000 per month. No PPC or anything is used to promote the site. The only costs are hosting.
3. This blog or PluginID?
1. Wow, talk about being in the right place at the right time:) That’s brilliant.
2. Thanks for your transparency again! I do think it’s interesting to know how blogs and websites are valued. I suppose they are similar to buying a franchise or something…
3. Aha, good question. I was meaning ViperChill so I’d love it if you could share that but I’m sure the info would be interesting for PluginID too.
PS. So are you from the UK? I escaped over 20 years ago and have been working and travelling round the world ever since:) Did have an extended stay in New Zealand though where I had 3 kids and am now planning to stay put in Australia for the forseeable future. I’m with you – I think travel is fabulous but it’s great to have a base to come back too. Cape Town and South Africa sound amazing and I’d love to visit. I worked in Zimbabwe for a year and have travelled in Kenya and Malawi. Once you’ve been to Africa you always want to go back. Not sure if you are back there already but I know you’ll enjoy it. And I hear the night life is fabulous in Cape Town too – that would be a cool place to own a nightclub!
Mate I am impressed. That is all I am going to say.
Hello,
This is my first visit to ViperChill, and I’m already a subscriber. I’m really impressed to see that you’ve responded to almost every single comment. It’s nice to find someone who cares every once in a while.
Hey.
After you said that, I obviously had to respond to this one
Have an awesome day
Test. Something weird happened after that last comment.