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If you’re new here, each month I share the exact websites and keywords that sent traffic to ViperChill over the course of the previous month. I do this as I want ViperChill to be a case study for all of you on how to grow a website and make money online.
June was quite a quiet month in terms of updates and activity on other sites. I’ve just bought two massive new websites (and I’m arranging assistants to run them) so that has taken up the majority of my time. Plus, I’ve been enjoying quite a few World Cup games while I’m here.
Overall Traffic
- Visits: 38,444
- Pageviews: 67,191
- Avg time on Site: 2 mins 29 seconds
Despite only writing four blog posts – and none at all last week – the site still received just less than 40,000 visits and almost 70,000 pageviews. The only traffic source which dropped was StumbleUpon, so really the site is still growing nicely in channels like search and direct traffic. The time on site also increased slightly so that shows the quality of traffic was higher. The articles written in June, were:
- Mass Engagement: How to Get Hundreds of Tweets & Comments on Your Blog Posts
- How a 3 Month Old Website Received 958,373 Visits from Google
- Getting Mass Traffic from StumbleUpon: A Definitive Guide
- ViperChill Surpasses 10k Subscribers (Or, How I Gained 9,000 Subscribers in 9 Months)
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 June:
- Direct: 12,548
- StumbleUpon: 5,733
- Google (organic): 5,584
- Twitter.com: 2,121
- Sphinn.com: 1,503
- Google.com: 1,382
- SmartPassiveIncome.com: 1,053
- Facebook.com: 517
- Sweeva.com: 446
- Mediapost.com: 330
Top Referring Keywords
There were a total of 5,787 visits via 1,519 keywords this month. The top 10, were:
- ViperChill: 916
- Viral marketing: 564
- wordpress seo: 541
- viper chill: 246
- social media strategy: 215
- guest blogging: 203
- glen allsopp: 162
- cloud living: 154
- most important blog post: 132
- hqhow: 55
While search engine traffic is still a tiny portion of the traffic that arrives at ViperChill, it is growing steadily month on month with the number of referring keywords increasing by another 25%.
Subscriber Stats
I really don’t know if I should continue reporting on Feedburner as the count is just far too erratic. Every day the figure fluctuates by thousands of readers, going as low as 4,000 to as high as 12,000. I now think my post on reaching 10K subscribers was indeed a bug (I did say it might be in the post) and the site is at 7,543 readers. Although I don’t have any goals for the size of the community here, I still think it is an interesting metric to monitor.
- June 1st: 6,866
- May 31st: 7,543
- Change: +677
I really don’t know what is going on (I’m still down over 1,000 Google Reader subscribers compared to usual) so that would suggest I’m at least over 8,500. But with Feedburner, who knows. If you’re also having issues, I urge you to @MattCutts on Twitter and ask him to look into it. It actually has nothing to do with him, but Feedburner aren’t updating their status blog nor answering support questions in Google Groups and he is in a position where I believe he can get someone at Feedburner to look into it.
If you’re reading this in a feed reader or inbox, thanks for subscribing!
Personal Update
We’re coming to the end of the Fifa World Cup which is being held here in South Africa, where I live. I’m staying in Cape Town and managed to go and watch England vs Algeria (awful game) and then I was in the VIP box for Netherlands (my second country) vs Cameroon, which was much more eventful.
I was devastated when Germany beat England but we really played poorly. I spent Friday in my favourite pub, Dubliners, to watch Netherlands to beat Brazil which was a great win for them. As I’ve been there about 8 times in my life, I consider them my second team so I’m hoping they go on to win the trophy.
I’ve attached a few pictures of the games as I always find things like this interesting, so I hope that you do as well. The pictures with the white tables are the VIP area of Cape Town stadium.
RSS Subscribers: 
Wow, I believe this is the first time I didn’t have to scroll down to leave a comment! Sorry to hear about the whole feedburner thing, I think we are all kind of feeling that it is just way unreliable. There has to be a better way!
That VIP box for the game looks like it was a lot of fun. I purchased cloud living, have recently finished reading it, am now going back to re read a few points, and then get to work and put the stuff to action! I can’t wait to get my hands dirty.
Thanks for what was clearly a lot of work on that book! Cheers.
Hey Joshua,
No worries. I’m just glad I was honest in the post about that it possibly being a bug, but the lessons I share would be the same anyways.
Yeah the box was great. I have some better photos so I may update the post later today.
Thanks, it took around 2 and a half months but it was worth it!
Thats awesome! Its great to see that you keep track of your statistic so thoroughly. That takes a big commitment!
Damn, these are pretty bad-ass stats for only publishing a few posts. But then again, they really are long and high-valued. Every article you post is evergreen, and I’m doing this style as well in order to get more people coming back to my page.
Lol, sorry about the football disaster with Germany and England. But we beat Argentina 4 to 0, so that puts everything in perspective. The fire is on with our team, and I believe the strongest team besides us are the Dutch. Talked to Diggy about that – it will be an interesting match if they’ll play in the finals…
Thanks Mars,
Yeah I was pretty devastated. I hope Netherlands destroy you guys if you play in the final
I had tickets for tomorrow’s semi-final in Cape Town but I have to go to Johannesburg on business.
I agree with you Mars, These are really an amazing stats for only a few post for the month. Glen you are really providing information like gold, where there is no fluff but pure meat.
Keep it up!
Regards,
Gary
Hey Glen,
Thanks for sharing your stats. It really helps us.
Yup you are right about the feedburner stats. They are fluctuating wildly on every blog I visit!
Kindest,
Nabeel
Thanks Nabeel,
I hope that get it sorted out soon.
England have good players but they never seem to do well in tournaments for some reason.
I’m hoping for Uruguay to win. They’re the crappiest of the teams left so it would be cool if they did.
Victor
Too true Victor,
I don’t want them to win simply because Uruguay didn’t deserve to beat Ghana after that hand-ball.
Glen, A lot of your traffic comes from Stumble, do you actively market via Stumble? Or at this juncture people stumble you?
Or do you hang out on Stumble and interact with friends to drive that type of traffic?
Hi Mark,
The last time I used StumbleUpon properly was over a year or two ago I believe. I don’t do anything to get traffic from the site. I just write the best articles I can
I think that shows how powerful SU is. Even if you don’t participate into it anymore people are still stumbling your content, and after a while it becomes routine (if you have great content of course).
I agree with you Glen. Some people are even saying that social bookmarking is a waste of time. What they don’t know is it provides you additional exposure as long as you create a valuable content. You don’t focus on SU or any other social bookmarking site, if you have a valuable content, people will just stumble you and drive traffic to it.
I really need to echo this comment – it’s amazing how much of a force StumbleUpon is with your site, especially considering you don’t use it “properly.” Clearly, you’re getting this traffic due to high quality content, but I’m a bit amazed that such long and in-depth posts do well on SU. It seems like the typical SU user doesn’t have the attention span to read more than a paragraph, so it’s really quite astonishing how captivating your content has been.
Keep up the good work Glen.
- Eric
Hey Glen,
Awesome man. Thanks for sharing this great report man.
You’re really doing a great Job.
Thanks
~Dev
You’re welcome.
Thanks Dev!
i always find that report very useful,
you are very lucky to have the world cup where you live
Thanks Farouk,
It has been a great experience.
About the FeedBurner thing, I don’t think its technically possible to accurately count the number of RSS subscribers. So any service that says it will give an exact figure would be wrong… it would just be an estimate (probably a better one)
Well, the service that is fluctuating the most is Google Reader (Google own Feedburner) so I don’t think they have any excuses in that area to be honest.
Well… not everyone uses Reader… people who use other feedreaders might “request” your feed several times a day from multiple IPs… that can significantly contribute to the wrong figures.
Of course, but, like I said, my Google Reader count fluctuates by thousands daily. if you can’t see how that may be a problem – since they own both services – then I’m not sure what else I can say.
The service had “worked” until may this year. They too stated that their internal api are broken, so this is a real issue.
Hey Man,
Congrats on the good stats and sweet pics of the game! Pity you have to go to Joburg, would been sick to go watch the game tomorrow!
Indeed. You should still go
Really impressive pics
Hope you had a great time watching poor games. Wait for Wendesday when Germany vs. Netherlands will rock your place.
all the best from Germany
Tobias
Netherlands vs Cameroon was great…
Wow Glen,
This is awesome, Viperchill is really growing and keep it up man!
I have already learnt a lot from you and I will continue to, I am also thinking about the feedburner issue, it is really discouraging.
Thanks a lot for the great post,
-Onibalusi
Hey Glen,
Pls, concerning cloud living, I so much love the book and I will like to promote it – Do you have an affiliate programme for it? I couldn’t find any on the sales page.
Thanks a lot,
-Onibalusi
Hi Oni,
Yes and no. You can promote it here: http://www.pluginid.com/cloud-living-affiliates/ but I don’t make money from that.
Great Glen,
Thanks so much.
-Onibalusi
Thanks for bringing that up Oni. I would also like to promote the cloud living report. I’ve actually checked the affiliate page, and was really amazed about your accomplishments from 16-20 years old, Glen.
Keep up the good work. Will start to promote cloud living and share it with my subscribers as well.
Thanks Gary,
I hope you all get something from the promotions.
Hey Glen, glad to hear everything except the Feedburner count is coming along nicely here.
One thing… I’m 18 and own a bunch of websites that make me money (yay!) but I find I spend a lot of time alone in my house working. You’re alone in South Africa, how do you do it?
Thanks Mate!
Make sure you know when to switch off and get outside. I did absolutely no work this weekend and just went partying with my GF and friends. I also try to stop working after about 6pm.
Nice stats! Good luck with your new websites
The VIP box seems nice aswell.
You didn’t told us about that world cup website.
Hit me up on Skype
Tried times and times again, but no luck
Sorry I’m so busy. I’ll catch you on there soon
It’s interesting to see how crazy feedburner is lately. Thanks for the information on your traffic. The monthly reports are real interesting.
You’re welcome Dustin,
Thanks!
Glenn, I am new to your website and I think you are doing a great service to fellow internet marketers by providing us a case study of your website. I am grateful. Thank you for being a great person.
You’re welcome Khush,
Thanks for stopping by!
A few of the lads I know were saving money for a year to go to SA and watch a game from a VIP box but ended up getting regular tickets instead but extending their stay from a few days to two weeks. Now I see what they’ve missed out on.
Hey Laura,
I got it by chance (I wouldn’t normally have cared for VIP tickets) so took them. It was great having someone wait on your constantly and a nice experience.
Good to see you here.
I’m late again! Impressive stats again, even though you might not have hit 10K (yet). Feedburner has been too erratic lately.
Those pics–seems like you’re having fun.
Thanks Moon!
Where have you been?
I must say I am jealous I have not been in a WC since 94 and that’s when our dude got killed for scoring an own goal. I am sure some people can recall Colombia doing that. Anyway its crazy brother to see how you just crush these numbers. I wish I could get my site to get this traffic. I am slowly following the tips you give but I still don’t see any real results. I guess I just have to be patient, who knows.
Hey Wilson,
Someone was literally killed?? Wow.
Keep working at it and you’ll learn a lot on the way of what works. Maybe ask for some advice in the comments here if you have a specific site.
Well done! The Feedburner stats are nuts. I can’t believe that’s the only way and we don’t have an alternative way to track our growing subscribers.
There are alternatives for their email service but nothing good for tracking in my opinion. I wish Google cared about the service.
Hi Glenn,
I’ve got the same with Feedburner, very weird how these go up and down each day while the traffic does not represent this can actually happen.
Go Netherlands! (Dutchie myself) I’m helping out at the Holland House in Sydney (www.dutchdown.com) to see some great Dutch traditions and songs
We even have the broodje kroket and bitterballen! what more do you need
Haha, I tried some Bitterballen a few months ago. Not bad
Feedburner have always been weird with their stats from what I can see, I don’t understand how it can possibly vary that much in 24 hours with no significant catalyst. I see it all the time in my feedburner stats (although they’re much lower
) as well so I’ve basically stopped looking 
V.jealous of the box seats you had there mate, now I see what motivated your trip back
Must be hectic with all the world cup stuff going on!
It’s not really changing that much Josh, it’s just Feedburner reporting that is fluctuating and inaccurate.
Haha. It wasn’t the motivation, but definitely one of the benefits of living here
Glen – I found your blog a few weeks ago, but I was wondering why is it that you link to a post when mentioning a website or friend? Why not just refer to the link? I think I might of missed something – maybe you mentioned it before :O Congrats on those new subscribers!
Hi Nicole,
There are two reasons for this. The first is that it allows people to find the great content of that other blogger (which is why I recommend them) and the other is that it generates trackbacks so that they can see I linked to them.
I hope that helps.
Thanks! I totally get it now
Glen,
What’s awesome about the stats are the amount of people that came from searching your name!
In a completely off/related topic – how has the World Cup changed the surrounding area in terms of economics? I’ve been keeping up with the games but I’m also really interested to hear what sort of impact the games have made on the local community.
(I bet you made a website about Vuvuzelas didn’t you
)
When the games are on, the vibe is absolutely amazing around the city. Besides that though, I haven’t really noticed a difference — which is surprising to me.
The city looks much better with all the changes they’ve made though.
Awesome stats Glen. Good to see you back after missing in action for a few weeks. You really provide valuable posts that’s why you are getting that kind of stats, people just love what you are providing. I was really impressed about your SU stats, even though that you are not using them for a year or two now, it still brings you thousands of targeted visitors every month.
Keep it up Glen.
Regards,
Gary
Feedburner surely is unreliable. I don’t know why since it has been like this for ages, and Google really doesn’t pay attention to it I think. :/
But MORE importantly, the second picture from the top, of the pitch, which camera was this? That’s a mighty decent-lookin picture man!
That was just using my iPhone 3GS.
All of them were, that’s why they’re a little blurry. Thanks
That’s a great achievement you have there! Would hope my site could do the same like yours one day
Hey Glen – Is it me, or does the “viral marketing” referring keyword sending you 564 visitors last month seem low??
I see you’re in the 4th position for it and it gets almost 200k searches / month, so it seems like you should be getting a good deal more visitors than 564 visitors / month.
Did you just recently move into the 4th position?
It gets around 40-50k searches per month and my ranking does fluctuate between 4th and 7th position regularly so yes, that is the reason. There is a huge difference even between first and second, so first and fourth is also a huge CTR change.
Have you been unable to move up higher on the first page rankings for “viral marketing”, or have you not been actively trying? I would be REALLY curious to see how your traffic for “viral marketing” goes up with each spot you gain. Would make for an awesome case study IMO.
I have been semi-actively trying. Whenever I do a guest post I try to link to the site with that anchor text. It has risen quite a bit; it used to be consistently on the 2nd page and then 7th on the first page.
Very nice stats & I appreciate you sharing them with us. I am fairly new to your site, so this comes at a good time as I am trying to understand some of your other posts. Having something to relate the concepts to is very helpful.
Thanks again & have a great day!
P.S. I am a tad jealous that you were able to attend a few of the matches.
Welcome to the site Mark,
It’s great to have you as part of the community.
Hi Glen,
I was curious about your traffic for the keyword “Viral Marketing”. Google keyword tool shows that “Viral Marketing”, using the exact setting, gets searched 14,800 times locally and 49,500 globally each month. Viper Chill ranks in the 4th-5th spot for Viral Marketing on the first page, yet you only got 564 hits for that term. That strikes me as very low for being high up on the first page results for so many searches. Is this typical of most sites in the 4th-5th spot on Google? It seems like you would be getting much more traffic for the term than that.
Have any insight into this for me?
Thanks Glen!
Answered two comments above
Blah! Thanks Glen hah.
Hi Glen,
I did point it out last time that FeedBurner was getting some tricky figures as there was a duplicate issue with FriendFeed.
No matter what you still provide great value, although I must give a little criticism here; this was a lot less quality than your usual articles, and your language in the article seem to have changed from “I” to “we”.
Have you hired a ghost writer?
Glen, stats keep improving. Just goes to show that quality content has, does and always will work the best. Curious as to what the new sites are that you purchased?
I’m blown away by how well you’re doing.
Can’t wait to see the stats on my site hit the same numbers. haha
Keep it up dude,
Cheers
Hey Glen,
Glad to see you getting to a couple of games of football. I just scored a few tickets to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, let me know if you want to go to a game!
Josh
Glen, glad to know you could make to World Cup and had great time there. I love your book Cloud Living and it’s my inspiration to start my blog. I do enjoy your weekly detailed content and love to reach the level of success and traffic that you have. Keep it up!
Glen,
Congratulations! I have been long time reader but first time commenter, don’t ask me why? Maybe I was not adding to a value already here but now mistake has been corrected. Regardless of feedburner counts fluctuation, you have lot to celebrate here.
Preeti
Congratulations! Awesome stats! Very few internet marketers publish their stats so that’s very honest of you and there’s nothing to be ashamed of… lol
Your cousin John talked to me about you so I’m definitely following your blog. I’m gonna check out your previous posts as well. If you have time, you can check out my blog The Purple Choice.
Keep up the good work and the great posts!
Louise.
Holy Cow, Glen, Holy Cow. That’s about all I can say. I don’t understand your secret. I think some people just “have it” and others don’t. Whatever it is you’ve got, I’m sure everyone here wishes they had it, too! I have read through your other work and don’t think it’s a matter of following steps. There is a chemistry that happens between readers and bloggers. Yours is just very magnetic.
Good work.
Cheers,
Tia
Great blog, have soaked up some solid, well-written information here!
In fact, tried buying the Cloud Living book, but you only accept PayPal and I am from Pakistan. Enough said.
:/
Why isn’t your book on Clickbank btw?
That’s awesome, Glen. Feedburner does indeed suck! But, you still had a successful month in spite of it. You were one of the first to be transparent with your monthly earnings and it is definitely inspiring to see for other entrepreneurs like myself. Keep up the great blog and I’ll keep reading!
These are awsome numbers. They say that it is all in the numbers and the numbers don’t lie. I would like to have numbers like this. I guess I will have to try harder.
I have a quick question. I’m a big PluginID fan which was where I was first introduced to your writing. Great stuff =] I just started to read the posts on this site and everything seems really doable.
My question is what kind of time investment am I looking at for a definite payoff? I’m 19 in college and this looks like an awesome way to make a supplementary income. Living like you do is the ideal but all I’m looking for is a little pocket cash. If anyone else can give me a little insight that’d be great. =]
Damm, you’re a lucky guy.
I saw the games via internet, bunch of users around, at least I did entertain them while waiting.
See u in Brazil
Sergei