Last updated on June 4th, 2018 at 06:21 am
How to write a series for your blog and is it actually worth it? This is what I wanted to find out, so back in December, I wrote my 11-day blog series. I’ve been meaning to write an update about how it went, but I needed to give it time to see if I was able to see an improvement. Keep reading if you want to learn how to write a series and if it’s worth it.
If you missed the blogging series, you can check it out here.
Why I Ran A Blog Series
As you know I’ve been struggling to grow my blog traffic. I was stuck on 3,000 views and no matter what I did, I just couldn’t get over the traffic hump.
Donwload This Post and Read it Later
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Now I know what you’re thinking, I shouldn’t focus on page views or traffic. But the truth is that every blogger needs targeted traffic if they want to sell their Kindle Books, products, services or grow their email list.
If you’re not getting eyeballs on your blog, you’ll never be able to create a successful blog.
As you know I am a student of blogging. I love it and I love working with WordPress. That’s why I share my tips and tutorials with you.
It’s the only thing that I know. I can’t cook or sew or do anything else. But since I’ve been working with WordPress for over eight years, I’ve managed to create a WordPress freelance business from home.
While I love being able to work from home, because of the freedom it provides. The truth is that I no longer enjoy the whole freelancing business.
That’s why I work hard on this blog because I want to grow it into a full-time business so I can walk away from my freelancing business.
I’m always investing in educating myself and trying out and testing new strategies. After all, that’s the only way you will ever learn what works and what doesn’t.
Well, I purchased the Genius Bloggers Toolkit from the Ultimate Bundles the last time it went on sale. Inside the course, there was a course by Elna from Twins Mommy that talked about how running a 12-day holiday series really ramped up her traffic.
Testing Things On My Own
I am a huge believer that the only way to find out if things work for you, is to test it out on your own. By testing things out, you will be able to test out different types of blog content to see what actually works for growing your blog.
Since I was struggling with increasing my traffic, I thought that I would sit down and see if a blogging series would help me get over the 3,000-page view level.
Now, things didn’t go exactly like I wanted it to go. I ended up coming down with a really bad cold and had to deal with life issues during the week of my case study.
This made it impossible to do everything that Elna did with her blog series. I know you probably want to know if it actually helped me grow my blog?
Related: Blog Growth Stats for December 2017
Well, let’s take a look.
How to Write A Series for Your Blog
One of the first things you will want to do is find out what you want your series to be about. You don’t have to over-complicate it.
For instance, all I did was find a bunch of tools and resources that will help bloggers grow their blogs.
As you know, bloggers are extremely busy. So I did all the legwork of finding some great resources that I had no doubt would add value and help them with their blogs.
Once I found these resources, I sat down and wrote all the content and created the blog posts.
If you are planning on learning how to write a series for your blog, you better be prepared to work hard 🙂
It’s not easy and just like blogging, you’re going to have to work hard on the front end to get it ready for publication.
Getting the Content Written
If you do decide to run a blog series on your blog, you better be prepared to write. I wrote all my blog posts for the series in November.
I’m glad that I did otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to write because while I was sick, I just didn’t feel like sitting down doing a lot.
In November I wrote all my regular blog posts along with the 11-day blog series posts. Oh and I also spent time writing 4 guest posts in November.
Can you say that I did a lot of writing? I probably wrote well over 30,000 words for the month of November.
It was crazy, I never thought that I could ever write that much content in one month.
Now when I sit down to write my blog posts, it’s a hell of a lot easier than it used to be. I guess that’s why so many people say that you should just practice writing.
Because it works on getting clearer. Plus when you sit down to write a 1,000 plus word blog post, you’ll be able to knock them out of the park.
Created Social Media Images
As you know, I am focused on learning how to use Pinterest to help me grow my blog. Once I had all the blog posts completed I sat down to create the social media images.
Related: How to use Pinterest for Business Trying a New Strategy
I always create social media images for all my blog posts. If you’re using Pinterest, then you know that you have to create a separate image for your Pinterest marketing.
This is the social media plugin that I use for my blog. Then I use Tailwind to help me automate my Pinterest marketing.
Once the images were created, I took a couple days off and then came back and proofread my articles.
I’ve realized that I don’t mind the writing, but for some reason, I hate to proofread my content.
In fact, some of the blog posts, I didn’t even proofread. I figured I would just let it go, how bad can it possibly be? (Thank goodness I practice my writing on a daily basis.)
Plus it’s my blog, I can always go back and change something later if I need to.
Now if I was writing a guest post, I wouldn’t publish the post without proofreading. The last thing I want to do is post crap when I guest post on other people’s blogs.
Case Study: 11 Day Blog Series Started
My first blog post went live on December 12 and the last post in the series posted on December 23, 2017.
You can check out the blog series here.
I had all the content set up and scheduled to post automatically, so even if I didn’t log into my blog, the post still went live.
For 11 days straight I had new content published on my blog. (yes this even included the weekend)
My Plan for the Promotion
Before the blog series, I had a plan to promote the hell out of my blog posts. I wanted to contact all the people that I had mentioned in the blog posts to see if I could get them to share the posts.
After all, we’ve all heard that whenever you mention someone in a blog post, you should let them know.
Well, that didn’t happen. I think I may have let a few people know, but as I mentioned, I ended up coming down with a cold. Then Karen ended up getting a kidney stone and we had to go to the hospital for emergency surgery.
So that took me away from my blog for pretty much the whole week.
Life Gets In the Way You Just Have to Roll With It
One thing that I realized is that my series did not go the way that I had wanted it to go. Yes, I had all the content written and the images created.
But I wasn’t able to promote it the way that I wanted. I also had wanted to create two Pinterest images for every blog post.
That didn’t happen either.
Now I did end up doing some promotion, I just wasn’t able to do everything that I wanted to do.
I think that if life hadn’t gotten in the way that it had, I would’ve been able to do a lot more promotion.
Maybe that would’ve helped me grow my blog more? You know what? It is what it is and regardless I am pretty happy that I finished the 11-day blogging series.
So while it may not have turned out the way that I had wanted it to, I did learn a lot.
What I Learned
I won’t be doing another blog series for a while. If I do decide to do it again, it won’t be for at least another 11 months. It was a hell of a lot of work. While I can’t tell yet if this helped my blog traffic, I can tell you that by posting more, I was able to increase my email subscribers.
Of course I did end up purchasing the PostGopher Plugin and that alone has increased my opt-ins. If you haven’t heard about this plugin, you can read more about it here.
It takes time to see traffic results from Google. If you do run a blog series on your blog like I did, don’t expect to see immediate results from Google.
It takes time to start seeing traffic from Google. Read this case study from Search Engine Journal to get a full explanation of how long it takes to start getting organic traffic.
I’d love to tell you that if you run a blog series you will start to see the results a month later. The truth is that I don’t know how long it takes.
The only way to find out is to sit down and do all the work and run a blog series yourself. Then you’ll know what to expect, instead of taking other people’s opinions to heart.
I’ve Changed My Blog Schedule
As you know, I started this blog because I want to walk away from my freelancing business.
The sooner that I can grow this blog, that means that I’ll be able to tell my freelancing clients they can’t afford me.
Since I noticed that my traffic increased because I was posting every day. I’ve decided to change my posting frequency on my blog.
Instead of just posting new content on Tuesdays and Fridays. I am now changing it to Monday, Wednesdays and Friday’s.
This also means that I am going to have slowed down on my YouTube video creation. I can’t continue doing a new video every week while posting 3x on my blog.
Especially, since I’ve decided to really start focusing more on learning Pinterest. Plus I’ve also started working on creating a couple of products for my blog.
Yup, it’s a lot of writing and working. Thank goodness I really enjoy what I do.
The cool thing is that if I need to go back to publishing 2x per week, then I will. Remember, it’s your blog and you can change things up if you need to.
Would I Do It Again?
Probably not, a lot of work went into getting the content written, proofread and creating the images. (only time will tell)
I write all the content for my blog by myself. This is one of the main reasons that I love using an editorial calendar.
It helps me stay on top of my upcoming blog posts without having to worry about what I am going to be publishing the next week.
At the time of this writing, I am 2 months ahead of my content. I’d love to get to where I am 4 months ahead, but to tell you truth, not sure that will ever happen.
I always have so much to do, I don’t have time to sit down and write a bunch of content for my blog.
Did It Help Grow My Blog?
At the time of this writing, it’s been exactly two months since the blog series has ended on my blog.
I’ve managed to go back and create 2 pins for most of the blog posts.
As whether or not it helped me grow my blog traffic? I have finally managed to break into the 4,000 page view mark. A lot of that traffic has to do with Pinterest.
A few of those pins that I created for the blog series tend to bring me quite a bit of traffic and subscribers. Thank goodness I was able to create multiple images for some of the posts.
Of course, I know that eventually, I may start to get more traffic from Google. The thing about SEO traffic is that it takes time to see results. So, I’ll just continue working on my daily blogging tasks, without worrying about my blog traffic.
I’m just going to say that my blogging series has helped me grow a little bit. I’d hate the thing that I put in all that work and didn’t get any type of ROI from my efforts.
Will It Work For You?
I honestly don’t know, the only way for you to find out is to test it out and run your own case study.
I’m a true believer that you shouldn’t take other people’s word for anything. You should always test things out on your own.
Remember, just because something works or doesn’t work for someone, the only way you will know if it works or doesn’t work for you is to test it out.
As bloggers, we have to constantly be testing things out. That’s the only way that you will grow.
If you do something and it doesn’t work. It’s not the end of the world. At least you tested it out and saw for yourself that something didn’t work.
Remember, my blog finally made it over the 4,000 page view mark and I wasn’t even able to promote my blog posts the way that I wanted to.
Imagine if you run your own case study for your blog, I have no doubt that you can get better results than I got.
If you do choose to run a blog series for your blog, let me know how it goes for you. I’d love to hear about it.
Final Take Away
Growing a blog is hard, don’t be afraid to test out new traffic methods or experiment with your blog. It’s not hard to learn how to write popular blog topics and different types of content.
It takes time to find out what actually works for growing your blog.
The only way something will not work is if you never take action and experiment. Most of us who get into blogging has never done this before.
This means that we really don’t know what works and what doesn’t. As an entrepreneur, you have to be willing try new methods out. Unfortunately, that’s the only way that you learn and find methods that are actually helping you grow your blog.
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Questions/Concerns/Comments?
Ask them below in the comment section. Have you ever ran a case study on your blog? If so share your experience with me, I’d love to hear about it. Do you think you will ever run a blog series on your blog?
I do a blog series almost every time I participate in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and I write those blog posts in advance. I always get more traffic, but how much is the series, and how much is just the normal uptick from doing the challenge? Well, I am not sure, but I do have a blog series planned for March and am almost finished writing those posts, so we’ll see what happens as a result. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Hi Jeanine,
I’ve actually seen those Ultimate Blog Challenges, but have never participated. Glad to see that they help you out with growing your traffic.
Good luck with your blog series in March. It’s a lot of work getting a blog series put together.
Let me know how it goes.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan
Hi Susan,
Blog series is a great way to grow your traffic, even though I haven’t written a series myself. But I have read some articles about blog series and how it helps to grow your traffic significantly.
It is a wake up call for me. I think now is the time to get my blog series rolling.
Thanks for sharing Susan!
Hi Moss,
It does help you grow your blog, but it is a lot of work.
If you do one, make sure that you don’t do it too often so you don’t get burnt out.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan
Hey Susan!
An interesting case study on blog series. I have never done one before, so I wouldn’t really know what to add here.
But, I can add a few pieces of advice from my own experience building traffic to a blog. I know that publishing content very often (3+ blog posts per week) really help boost up traffic, but it isn’t the smartest way to do so.
I have tested this myself. I have published more often each week for a while and did see more traffic come in, but this left me with less time to do what actually matters and that is Promotion.
So, I switched things around and started publishing one blog pots a week and spending the rest of my time promoting that one blog post and my blog like a maniac. This is when I saw a greater boost of traffic – way more than when I was publishing new content more often on my blog.
Here is a tip; you should blog everywhere, and not just your blog. Don’t be afraid to give your best blog posts to another well-established blog, because chances are if you wrote it once you can write it again and maybe even better than before. I’m talking about guest blogging here. You also have to blog with this energy of Abundance. Give more to receive more.
I’m not afraid to write epic blog posts that I would love to publish on my own blog and publish on another blog instead. Of course, you have to be smart with your guest blogging and only submit guest posts on well-established blogs with a big audience (this is key).
If you just spend way more time promoting the content that you already have, you will do much better with your traffic. Your 11-day series is super valuable and you can also turn it into an Ebook and sell it for a few bucks or use it as a lead magnet to gain even more subscribers.
Here is my way of thinking about this; if you are not able to reach thousands of people with such valuable content (that you already have), why keep creating more that often? Implement the 80/20 rule – which publishing less on your blog and publishing more on other blogs. If one person can benefit from one of your blog posts, chances are that a few thousand or even a million other people can benefit from it too. The key to successful blogging is not really in creating a lot of content weekly, but reaching as many people with the content you already have weekly.
I just want to share with you my experiences with blogging, so far, and how I’m getting the results I’m looking for, so you can become a smarter blogger yourself. You’ve come so far and you are making things happen. I’ve actually been learning from you on Pinterest because I’m a rookie in that field, I’m now giving back some knowledge to help ya out! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this and keep on moving forward, Susan!
Best regards! 😀
Hi Freddy,
Glad to see that you’re having such great luck with guest posting. I actually don’t mind guest posting, but I wasn’t getting that good results. I know that it was because I wasn’t choosing the right blogs.
I still guest post, but I will only give away my content to the right blogs. You’re right, it does make a huge difference if you’re not choosing the right blogs to guest post for.
As for my blogging schedule, I am building up an arsenal of content on it, so I’ll have more content that I can promote.
It doesn’t mean that I will always be writing 3x per week. That’s the beauty of blogging is that nothing is ever set in stone, you can always change things up when you need to.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment my friend.
Hope you have a wonderful week ahead 🙂
Susan
Hi Susan. I’ve just found your blog and would like to thank you for doing all this legwork for us. I’ve decided to start my own blog, and this information is so invaluable. I was wondering if you wanted help with your proofreading. I’ve been an ESL instructor since 2003, and in my current job, since 2008, I do a lot of proofreading (exams, reports, etc). Send me an email if you are interested. Thank you once again.
Hi Yolande,
Congratulations on starting your blog. It’s a lot of work, but I have no dobut you’ll do awesome.
I am actually not looking for any help right now. My proofreading doesn’t take very long, it’s just not my favorite part of blogging.
Thanks for asking though.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan
Really interesting read Susan! Thanks for sharing this very useful Case Study.
Hey Dustin,
Glad you enjoyed it.
Have a great day 🙂
Susan