May 23, 2014 / News

You Made Quite a Splash, Blogging 201!

You’re happier and more engaged with your blogs, but what does that actually mean for your blog’s growth? We dig into the data to see what kind of difference Blogging 201 made. (Spoiler alert: a big one!)

We’re thrilled that so many of you had such a great experience in Blogging 201: Branding, Growth, and Traffic. Looking at the feedback, the vast majority of you are happier with your blogs, feel like you’ve refined your brands, and are more confident bloggers.

What does this actually look like? We did a little digging into the data to see if there were changes we could quantify. Were there ever!

First off, you made a huge impact on WordPress.com as a whole. The 1,100 of you who blog on WordPress.com were personally responsible for:

stats-bar

That’s a whole lot of blogospheric love. Of course, it makes sense when you consider how many pageviews y’all generated for one another:

stat-total-views

But enough about the big picture. What about your blogs? The goal of this challenge was to help you develop your focus and following, right?

(You may want to sit down for this next bit.)

stat-viewsEvery blogger hopes for readers. If you didn’t have many before, you have them now: your blogs have over 200% more views than they did in the month before the challenge, and 62% of you doubled your views. An average Blogging 201-er has 5,000 more views than an average non-participant who started blogging at around the same time. Not too shabby!

stat-commentsOf course, we don’t just want readers — we want readers who engage with us. Your average post now gets 54% more comments than your pre-Blogging U. posts. Overall, your blogs saw a 160% increase in comments.

stat-likes The readers who aren’t leaving comments are still letting you know how much they appreciate your blogs; your Like buttons are getting quite the workout. Along with your increased comments, your blogs have 176% more likes. 43% of you doubled your likes, and 17% of you tripled them.

stat-followersFinally — and perhaps the most rewarding for a blogger trying to build a readership — these aren’t all Like-and-Runs. Your new fans are sticking around, to the tune of a 160% increase in followers. Nearly half of you doubled your follower count.

Congrats, Blogging 201 grads! We tip our caps to you. It’s exciting to see your success, and we’re happy we could help get you there.

(Eager for the next challenge? Writing 101 begins on June 2. Learn more and sign up today!)

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  2. You know, Michelle, those stats are really thanks to you. You worked your patootie off for both 101 and 201 and I’m sincerely hoping that everyone is grateful to you – whether they had increased stats or not! Thank you very much, on behalf of one person who was in 101, did NOT have “increased stats” but learned a helluva lot regardless!! 😉

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    1. Thanks, but also pshaw! Those stats are thanks to all the care and thought y’all put into both your blogs, and in reaching out and connecting with other participants. Without that, I’d just be shouting into the wind.

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  3. Those are some awesome stats that speak to a job well done. Congrats to all involved! Other blog hosting sites can’t compete with the sense of community on WordPress.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. It was a lot of fun and really useful. I think I might do it again next time y’all have it just to keep me thinking and on my feet–if that is ok.

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  5. It was great fun to be a part of 201 and I’ve become a participant in two new group blogs and a
    Facebook group because of it. I know I certainly started following a number of blogs after discovering them during the course.

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  6. Reblogged this on Exploring Alura and commented:
    Thank you so much for putting together this course. I really feel I got a lot of good information, made great leaps in stats, and happened to stumble across some of the best people. I truly was unaware how supportive the blogging community is. Thank you so much for everything.

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  8. I changed my blog name about 18 months ago and stats dropped from 1200 per month to about 300 but steadily rising. Thanks to getting involved with DP a lot more I’m averaging about 1000 plus again and on course to hit about 1300 for May – my busiest month since the name change.

    So, it does work!

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  14. Interesting stats. I have more people visiting but still no one bothers to comment on my blog. I did a poll. Out of 50+ followers and 100+ Facebook contacts, only two people bothered to take the poll. Their answers were the exact opposite of what my most popular topics would reveal. I don’t give the WP stats much credence. I quit my two weekly posts because the main one, which was meant to be interactive, got ZERO interaction. I’m just going to write for me now.

    I loved Blogging 201, honest. But I would like to see it disappear from my list of blogs since I cannot log into it anymore.

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  15. I enjoyed the challenge and learned a few things. I really didn’t add to my stats at all. I started late so I assume that’s why. I missed out on a lot of the interaction with other bloggers and I think that’s probably the most important part of these challenges. I hope there’s another one like this when I’ll have more time to get involved. (I AM still working on this one). 😉

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    1. Hi Capt Jill, I have taken on your offer and sent you several comments, waiting to hear back from you. Shared your “oldies and goodies” on my facebook page too. Cheers 🙂

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  20. I also really enjoyed this course! I wasn’t able to participate as fully as I would have liked, so I still go back to some of the posts and see ways I can continue to improve as a newer blogger. I hope to participate in future challenges – thanks again for all your work in putting together this!

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  21. I have signed up for the next challenge, missed this one, but I can’t wait to get started. It sounds like a fantastic opportunity and I am really looking forward to meeting other bloggers. 🙂

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  22. Would love to participate in the next one. When does it start and where can I enroll? Maybe you can answer that too, Jade….

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  25. Loved it! I can’t wait for Writing 101. Or is it 201? Well, you guys at the Daily Post and WordPress.com are much more supportive than most blogging platforms I’ve blogged on. 🙂

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  26. Unfortunately I worked at my own pace but determined to finish the course. It was only when I did Day Eleven that I released I had no “blogging buddy” from Blogging 201. By the time I did my assignments, comments were closed so I didn’t get a chance to interact like this. But the good thing is I am not giving up. My stats aren’t booming. It did at one stage from a post I did on SMILE and looks like the world out there was once looking for happy smile images that led them to my blog. Now there aren’t so many ‘happy’ people so my stats have dropped back to norm. I enjoyed the course though. If anyone out here wants to try “guest post” with me or be my buddy, I would love to hear from you. Thank you Michele W for Blogging 201 Class of April 2014.

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  29. It looks like I missed out on the course, I did not follow the course as I tend to write a post once a week but I do read other people’s posts I have not managed to attract many viewers I am working on it though. I am sure I will try to take part in the next course as I need to improve my blogging to enable me to get more viewers.

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