About six months ago, I decided to ramp up my efforts with this web site. I posted to the blog regularly, I tweeted regularly, I left comments on other blogs regularly, I have several other web sites that all point to this one, I have done link exchanges with other bloggers in the design field, I have fiddled endlessly with the copy and titles for SEO purposes, I have carefully run AdWord campaigns, I have samples that show what I can do, I uploaded some great little videos to YouTube (they have been viewed 154 times in about a month), blah blah blah. In short, I have done everything I think I should do to get people to visit and/or contact me. My work isn’t perfect. but hey….
I have even offered free video critiques of people’s work three or four separate times. No takers! For free!
As a result of my efforts over that time period, I have achieved the following milestones:
- my Google page rank has dropped to 2
- my Google organic search position has dropped from 6th to 10th on my main keywords, with similar drops with secondary keywords
- my Facebook friends list for NDS has stagnated at 42 (oops, someone must have unfriended me, it’s just 41 now), and most of them are family, friends or friends of friends
- my Facebook discussion questions have gone unheeded
- on AdSense, so far this month I have had 1,002 impressions, with 2 clicks for $0.11
- Google analytics tells me that, in 2010, I have had 2,727 visits from 2,176 visitors and 6,089 page views. No takers on the free offers, no sales of a good e-book, no sales as an affiliate of a great WordPress book, no contacts for my services
- my recent tweets with links back to blog posts have received 3-5 clicks. Tops. (I have 120 or so followers.)
- my recent request for “tricks of the trade” from designers who I know follow me on Twitter drew two (2) responses, despite several requests
Granted, I am ticked off most of the time at the spam, the banality of most tweets and Facebook posts, and I can’t seem to keep it to myself, but what curmudgeon isn’t lovable at his core? Have I missed my market? Am I not offering what people want? Is the answer obvious?
I should mention that my two main clients this past year came to me because of my writing/editing skills. I have received three queries in about two years regarding newspaper design, but none responded to my initial e-mails back to them.
So the question I have for the two of you who will actually read this is: What do I do now? I am inclined to just let the site and blog lay fallow for awhile and work on the novel I have been threatening to write. What do you recommend? Here’s a poll to help you focus. You may vote as many times as you wish.
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Owner, News Design School
Maybe you need to write this up as an academic article! Show that despite living in this technological age, its not always easy to maintain or get what you want… FB, in my opinion, is not a marketing tool… twitter, maybe… but perhaps this all part of some overarching question or truth that needs to be addressed??