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!)
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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:
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:
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.)
Every 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!
Of 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.
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.
Finally — 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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The Daily Post 
So I’m new here and I’m only 18. And I really need help, i only know how to manage posting and themes, how do i get ppl to read? Please help and thank you
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Apparently, I missed the boat. Will this course be offered again in some way? I’d be interested!
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Yes it will, as will other courses — check out the Blogging U. link in the menu up top to see what else is going on.
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I just signed up with Word Press this week. I obviously have missed something. Please let me know as well. I want in on the next class.
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Take a look at the Blogging U. link in the menu to see what else is going on — a new writing challenge starts Monday.
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