I measure success based on two metrics, are my unique visits growing and what is the return rate percentage. It tells me whether my posts are helping people. In the past many months I have started getting more comments and having some great discussions.

My idea to measure this would be the visitors and the repeat participation by members.

Thought provoking as always!

My few thoughts …

1. People who write “how to be successful” without actually *being* successful holds much less water for me. In my humble perspective you cannot be one without the other.

2. Metrics of success: I find that its determined by the blogging author. Sometimes its bucks. Sometimes its engagement. Sometimes its traffic. And not all of them are mutually inclusive.

3. Digg / Slashdotted / Redduted etc: It is totally possible to build your blog this way; on the other hand, you have to have consistent and sustainable content both in the past and in the future to hold them up.

4. For me, success = great content + some kind of marketing effort (I listed a few ideas on a guest spot at Problogger)

Cheers
t

“The sad thing is, when people follow a set formula for how to be a successful blogger, we end up with lots of clones that pat each other on the back for rehashing very similar content.” – Andy Beard

Thank you Andy, this needed to be said. Do we really need another review of an Apple iPhone hidden among the google adsense?! Success vs. Failure is a matter of perspective which is directly related to the intentions of your blog. If your intention is to make $1000/mo in income within 6 months of establishing your blog, then success or failure can be determined at the 6 month mark because either you hit it, or you didn’t. It’s funny, we all get caught up in the obsession about more readers, our ranking on site X, our subscriber numbers, or whatever… Successful blogs are like successful companies – they give value. When they stop giving value, they fall off the radar. Sure, you can go on the ad campaign and push and promote like crazy, however, make sure you’re backing it up with some content that adds value.

For example, for me, I got into blogging and websites because I wanted to make some extra money. Now, three years later, I want my sites to be authority sites; I want people to consider me an expert in my chosen topic areas. My personal measure of popularity and success is how well I’m getting to those goals. All of the stats (be they revenue, comments, number of subscribers, etc.) merely gauge my progress.

I have never followed a fixed formula in my blogging, other than writing things I believe in, truthful information about what works for me that might be things others haven’t tried, and actually try hard not to write about anything unless I can give a totally unique perspective.

It takes much longer to build up readership if you don’t follow the “chummy” path, but the readers you do turn into subscribers tend to be regular repeat visitors and commenters.

Another successful challenge consisted of people making blocks that were assembled into quilts and sold on Ebay for Katrina huricane survivors – we raised quite a bit of money.

I don’t check my stats often – about once a week – As for me success is when I can organsie something like a fundraiser successfully – or a creative challenge that people engage in. When this happens the blog and what I do becomes something greater than just me – its a buzz to see it happen

Yet I feel my blog’s successful – why ? Because I have regular visitors who leave comments and provide me with encouragement. In other words, I have created a community of like minded people (freelance writers).

My point – maybe blog success is not in the numbers but who visits and how many are regulars.

Cheers, Liz

Sorry for the link dump but I wrote an article a couple of months back on How NOT to be a successful blogger that is relevant to the discussion.

It’s 1 part satire of those “how to be a successful blogger tips” and 2 parts analysis of how I don’t fit the mold. Quite a few people liked it.