12,258 Unique Visitors In 7 Days Can’t Be Wrong – How A-List Blogging Bootcamps Helped My Blog Stand Out From The Crowd

A Case Study by Karol Gajda of Ridiculously Extraordinary.com

Hey there!
You probably don’t know me, so I’ll quickly introduce myself and get right into the good stuff. My name is Karol (Karl not Carol) Gajda (Guy-Duh) and I’ve been working for myself my whole adult life (since age 19; I’m 28 now).

I launched my blog, RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com, on July 1, 2009 with little to no fanfare. I spent the 30 days prior to launch writing at least 1,000 words per day for the blog (without posting anything). After launch I posted to the blog for 2 weeks without even telling anybody.

The goal was to build up a handful of high quality articles.

Side note: Please pay attention to the bolded sections of this Case Study. They’re especially important.

I finally began telling people about the blog in mid-July. From my old Internet Marketing days I still have a very small list of people on a private AWeber e-mail list.

Besides a few friends, these were my first visitors. From that small list, an even smaller number subscribed to my blog. For the first 6 weeks my RSS subscriber count hovered around 30-40 and my daily visitors were in the range of 10-20 per day.

While I was taking blogging seriously by sticking to a schedule and writing what I thought were high quality articles I wasn’t getting anywhere.

So I started researching what the big bloggers were doing. Being that I was a regular reader of ZenHabits.net by Leo Babauta I thought that was a good place to start. I noticed that Leo was offering private blog consulting for upwards of $1,000 and I was getting ready to sign up when…

In early August Leo and Mary Jaksch (from GoodLifeZen.com) announced a 10 day blogging bootcamp and I signed up immediately. The cost, at $395, wasn’t cheap, but quality information from the likes of Leo and Mary is worth any price if you’re serious about blogging.

(By the way, hiring Leo privately is no longer even possible.)

On August 18, 2009 I participated in Day 1 of the first 10 day A List Blogging Bootcamp and…

It changed my blog forever.

At the time I was receiving less than 100 visitors/day and had less than 100 RSS subscribers.

If you take nothing else from this free Case Study and even if you don’t sign up for any upcoming A List Blogging Bootcamps, please at least take action on the following 2 points.

(I hope Leo and Mary don’t mind that I’m sharing this…)

1. Write high quality content.

That means take the time to craft your blog posts. Take the time to find relevant pictures. Take the time to edit your posts, making sure that you highlight certain parts so they’re scannable. Remember, most people online don’t read, they scan.

Be sure that a “scanning reader” can get the point of your article without much work. If they like what they’ve scanned, they will read the whole article. And hopefully, they’ll also subscribe to your RSS and maybe even comment.

2. Write high quality guest posts for other blogs

Quality content gets people to subscribe and stick around, but guest posts attract readers.

Without readers it doesn’t matter how great your content. It’s like the philosophical discussion:

“If a tree falls in the middle of a forest and nobody hears it, does it make any noise?”

“If a blog offers great content but nobody reads it, does it provide any value?”

This is important so let me reiterate:

Provide high quality content and Write high quality guest posts for other blogs

One without the other is absolutely useless.

How To Get A Guest Post Published

There are secrets to getting your guest posts published on other blogs and I’m going to use a specific example for a blog that is NOT accepting guest posts: Leo’s ZenHabits.net

I can’t go into as much detail as you’ll get if you join the A List Blogging Bootcamps (and I don’t want to piss Leo and Mary off by giving away what they’ve worked so hard creating), but what I can do is give you a couple big tips.

1. Write your guest post with a specific blog in mind.

If you write for a specific blog in mind it’ll show in your words. You’ll end up writing a little bit differently, naturally tailoring it to a slightly different audience than your own.

This may sound trivial, but it’s important:

2. Format your post before sending it off.

Don’t send a pitch e-mail and wait for a response. Send a pitch e-mail WITH your article ready to publish. Attach it in WordPress HTML format and also copy/paste it into the bottom of your e-mail without HTML so it’s easy to read.

What I’m saying is don’t make the blogger work to publish your post. Make it easy as possible.

There is a lot more involved in writing/pitching guest posts, but if you follow just these 2 tips you’ll have a pretty good success rate.

Here is what I did to get on ZenHabits along with stats/screenshots

1. I joined the Bootcamp and volunteered for my blog to be discussed on one of the Webinars.

What better way to get the attention of Leo and Mary than by forcing them to improve my blog for the whole group of participants. It’s a double whammy.

Pro tip: Be sure to volunteer your blog for a webinar. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get on a webinar, but I highly recommend it.

2. I participated on the Bootcamp forums and helped others where I could.

The specific webinar I ended up volunteering for was about writing blog headlines. During the Web cast Leo actually said: “I could learn a thing or two from Karol’s headlines.” That was quite humbling to hear.

So I mostly helped others with their headlines.

Pro tip: Participate in the Forums. Yes, it takes time to do so, but a support system helps when you’re just getting started.

You might wonder what points 1 and 2 had to do with me getting a guest slot on ZenHabits. The truth is, I’m not entirely sure they did anything, but I feel like getting my name in front of Leo and everybody else helped.

By the way, I never expected a guest slot on ZenHabits (you shouldn’t either, Leo isn’t accepting guest posts), and I didn’t do any of this stuff expecting I would get one. Leo and Mary created a great community and it was a good time participating.

3. I wrote my guest post The Beginner’s Guide To Minimalist Travel specifically for one of Leo’s sites. It would fit on both ZenHabits.net or Mnmalist.com and I would have been thrilled with either.

If I was writing that article for RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com the tone would have been a little different.

But the content of my guest post would have worked well on my own blog too.

Did you catch that?

If you want readers from your guest posts to stick around on your blog make sure the content in some way relates. ZenHabits and RidiculouslyExtraordinary are two completely different blogs, but I found a common thread.

Tailor your guest post to the blog’s audience and not yours, but find a common thread between them.

4. I didn’t have Leo’s e-mail address, so I Tweeted him.

Before I did that, I wrote up a post and password protected it in WordPress so I could send him a link. Remember, make it easy on the blogger you’re pitching! THEN I tweeted him…

You see, I knew Leo wasn’t accepting guest posts (I can’t say it enough, he still isn’t). But this post was written specifically for him so I thought I’d give it a shot. Even if he used it a year in the future I would have been quite happy.

I made a promise to myself publicly on my blog that I would do a better job of going after guest posts. I thought starting at the top (ZenHabits) would be good even if I failed.

As you can see this Tweet was a Direct Message. You can only send Direct Messages to someone who is following you. Does Leo follow everybody who follows him? I don’t think so. I don’t follow everybody back either. It’s too difficult to keep track of too many people.

Why did he follow me? I’m going to guess because I was a Bootcamp member AND he enjoyed what I wrote on my blog. (I don’t want to put words in his mouth, of course, so I’m just guessing.)

5. He responded a few days later.

I broke my own rule and made him work for it since something went wrong on my end. Luckily, my Twitch (tweet + pitch) did the job and sparked Leo’s interest…

6. So I e-mailed him.

Remember what I mentioned above? Copy/paste your post in the e-mail AND attach formatted WordPress HTML.  If the blog you’re trying to get a guest post on isn’t WordPress format it in whatever format is necessary.

7. Success!

Leo liked my article and decided to publish it a few days later. I was quite shocked.

What Happens When You Get A Guest Post On A Huge Blog?

Since this is what you probably care about most I’m going to share very specific stats with you.

RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com traffic 7 days before ZenHabits guest post (Google Analytics screen shot):

So you see, I was getting ~20 visitors per day. Not very much.

RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com traffic 7 days AFTER guest post (screen shot) :

My favorite stat on this screen shot: Avg. Time on Site

As you can see, due to tailoring my guest post to Leo’s audience AND writing high quality content on my blog the average time each visitor spent on my site was almost 6 minutes!

More stats!

RSS Subscribers Before/After Guest Post:

The Subscriber count was steady (and low, at around 70) until  my guest post when it exploded!

Closer Look At RSS Subscribers After Guest Post:

RSS subscribers jumped from 70 to 928 in 7 days. Nice!

Amazon Revenue Before Guest Post:

Amazon Revenue After Guest Post:

This particularly surprised me. I didn’t even think about the fact that one of my articles (Travel Light, Travel Anywhere: The Ultimate Light Packing List) had Amazon affiliate links (very clearly labelled, I might add) and might get some revenue.

I know $76.87 isn’t a lot of money. The point is that visitors = revenue. Either with advertising (I don’t allow advertising on my site) or other revenue streams.

How do you get more visitors and, in turn, more revenue?

• High quality content
• High quality guest posts

Yes, I am getting repetitive, but those 2 points are very important.

If you’re serious about doing something extraordinary with your blog there are no better people to learn from than Leo Babauta and Mary Jaksch.

If you just want to run another blog that gets lost in the fray, that’s cool too.

Kidding.

Truthfully, you don’t need a bootcamp or eCourse or coaching or anything. If you can produce exceptional content and bust your ass going after guest posts you have a great chance for success.

<h3>Leo and Mary’s BootCamp will help you increase your chances for success. Especially if you’re like I was and don’t have a clue what to do to get more blog traffic.</h3>

Think of the Bootcamp as your foot in the door and a kick in the ass…

Sign up for the next A List Blogging Bootcamp or don’t. I highly recommend you go for it, but the choice is yours. No strong-arming here. (Do it! hehe)

Whatever you decide I wish you success with your Ridiculously Extraordinary Blog!

Karol Gajda
http://www.RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com – Freedom, Health, Travel, Life
http://www.Twitter.com/KarolGajda

P.S. Even if you don’t register for the BootCamp, click on Leo’s image in the sidebar and sign up for the free info they send out. It’s great stuff.

Note from Leo and Mary: Please go ahead and let us know what you think in the comments. The best commenter will get a FREE place on the upcoming Bootcamp!

We start accepting enrolments from February 8