I know what it takes to get 1,000,000 unique visitors. I know because I remember reaching my 1,000,000th visitor. It happened at 8:17:55am (PST) when some dude from

Location

Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : Wisconsin City : Milwaukee Lat/Long : 43.0522, -87.965 (Map)

dropped by to take a look at the post  93 million people with the same last name on my blog at PanAsianBiz.

What does it take to get 1,000,000 unique visitors?

1. Write a lot. I wrote a combined 4,318 posts and some 850,000 words (abt 200 words/post).  That’s just barely one+ visit per word that I wrote. Thank goodness they turned the pages.  Page views = 1.59 million.

2. Write often. I posted 10-20 posts every day…every every day. Less you think I don’t have a life…I have been on extended cruises with NO INTERNET , attended week long swim competitions several times in different parts of the country, and, and…so on. The solution, I know how to use a scheduler and I use it quite a bit. My posts come out every day. ( I think I said that.)

3. Write well. I say this only because I KNOW that many people can indeed write better than I do. Make that much better than I do. I am a mediocre writer at best. (Seriously, no false humility here). I write too quickly and too much. Write well and you will likely reach 1,000,000 visitors much sooner than I did. It took me one year, 1 month and 29 days.

4. Write what is interesting. A good topic choice will get you to one million visitors much quicker than I. I write about business in the PanAsian region, about Japan in particular and about the business of education…NOT your hot topics  – blogs, money, sex, diet, celebrities – though I do touch on those topics from time to time from my blogs‘ perspective and they do get read.

5. Write as part of a network. My blogs belonged to the KnowMoreMedia network before I purchased them and went out on my own. My posts got ranked more easily because of the link power of this network. If you do not belong to a network …build one…smooze, contact others like you and share blogroll links…the more the better.

6. Send your posts to social network sites. I hate this part and did it even more than I could tolerate at times.  Posts got sent to Netscape, Digg, CollegeHumor, Ebaumsworld and other such sites. Few got read, some never. But, I am faithful at finding/searching out like minded sites and promoting my blogs and promoting the sites that publish my blogs and promoting theirs as well. It makes a huge difference.

7. Don’t give up. I learned a long time ago that the number one reason businesses fail is because the owner does/can not stay with the business long enough for the idea to catch on. (runs out of money, or whatever). Still, they just didn’t or couldn’t stay with it long enough. If it is a good idea, dog it, stay with it, be persistent until it catches on. Walt Disney made the world fall in love with a MOUSE. Sooner or later your good idea will catch on, too, if you don’t give up.

8. Learn from the experts – think Copyblogger.com. If I had known about the likes of Copyblogger from the getgo, indeed I would have reached the 1,000,000 mark much sooner.

Someone should write in the comments below, “What took you so long, Bill, to get to 1,000,000 visitors?” And, I will humbly bow my head and respond, I am just not that good a blogger….yet. But, I do know how to stay with an idea and stubbornly work it until I see some results. If I were smarter, I could no doubt do things better and quicker and with more desirable results.

A normally quite critical friend of mine kindly pointed out to me when I reached 1,000,000 page views, “Bill, 1,000,000 people can’t be wrong.” I don’t know…I still feel I am lucky and also extremely grateful to all those who have stopped by…including you.

Tell me, please, how did you get to 1,000,000 unique visitors?

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written by wcbelew     Blog