

Traffic spikes on the blog - zohaibr
http://blog.indextank.com/1136/traffic-spikes-on-the-blog/

======
ColinWright
I have 5 minutes while I wait for something to compile, so let me give you
some comments on this post. I'll take excerpts and make comments.

    
    
      Traffic spikes on the blog
    

What blog?

    
    
      In the last few weeks, we have seen huge traffic spikes
      on our blog,
    

No graphic? Pictures are good.

    
    
      ... the traffic has not converted well to our main site.
    

Were you expecting it to? Is that the purpose of your blog? Why do people read
the blog? What is your main site about? As yet I have no idea ...

    
    
      The traffic has been almost ten-folds since the beginning
      of July,
    

Graph?

    
    
      ... after looking at the analytics, we saw a mere 10%
      conversion to the IndexTank home page.
    

Who is IndexTank? Why isn't that a link?

    
    
      Diving deep into this issue, we realized that there are
      only two links referring back to IndexTank.com and one
      was of them was linked to the “Get Started” page.
    

You've made that observation, and yet your mention of IndexTank - two mentions
- aren't linked?

    
    
      Considering the amount of user-generated content that
      exists in this day and age, most people's attention span
      is limited.
    

You've just insulted me. My attention span is fine, my _time_ is limited -
ditto my patience.

    
    
      If after scanning a page, if a user can’t find who wrote
      the blog and why they are expert on this particular   topic,
      they move on to the next article on their list.
    

And yet I have no idea who you are, or why I should bother about what you've
written so far.

    
    
      We hope to educate people with our blog,
    

So what is this item trying to teach me?

    
    
      ... we also hope to generate buzz for IndexTank.
    

And again you haven't linked to it.

    
    
      We were able to accomplish the first part but we failed
      on the second.
    
      I have couple of theories on why it did not convert well.
    

To be honest - I don't care.

    
    
      Firstly, since we only had two tiny links on our page,
      there was no direct connection to IndexTank,
    

and there pretty much still isn't.

    
    
      unless someone Googles IndexTank, they won’t be able to
      find out who we are and what we do.
    

And you _still_ haven't told me.

    
    
      Secondly, the content of the blog have been very general
      and people interested in the content might not necessarily
      be interested in search technology.
    

Good content will pull people to read, and refer others. Not everyone will be
interested in your technology, but I'll bet the more readers you get, the more
will be interested. Your conclusion is faulty.

    
    
      Links to the home page are important
    

Yes - have you provided any within the article? No ...

    
    
      because they are designed to inform incoming new users
      about the company and its features,
    

and you still haven't told me anything I need or want.

    
    
      and convert those leads into sign ups.  Sine we already
    

Typo - "since"

    
    
      ... made the mistake, we are currently in the process of
      redesigning our blog, we want to capture our audience
      that come to our blog and help them learn about IndexTank.
    

Still no link.

    
    
      Driving blog traffic from sites such as Reddit and other
      feeds helps in rerouting traffic to the company site. But
      not all is lost if the conversion is not to your liking.
      You as a blogger did gain more audience and if they liked
      what you wrote, efforts will be made to find out more
      about you and what you do.
    

What? Why are you talking about _me_ as a blogger - I'm your reader, your
audience, not a blogger.

    
    
      IndexTank is a hosted search service that provides
      Full-Text Search, Real time indexing and much more.
    

Hah - finally! But it's too late - if I were a casual reader I would _never_
have got this far.

    
    
      Check us out http://www.indextank.com
    

Still no link.

    
    
      If you like the post, please follow me on twitter @zohaibr
    

You haven't told me anything useful - it's been a narcissistic ramble. Don't
blather about your navel gazing - make it focused on your reader and what your
reader can do.

OK - that's all come across as pretty aggressive, but I felt you just wasted 5
minutes of my time, and I hope that by giving this feedback you stop wasting
people's time and start doing something useful.

~~~
zohaibr
I appreciate your feedback.

~~~
ColinWright
I've been pretty harsh, I know, but it feels to me that you've really missed
the point about why the traffic comes to the blog and no further, and you need
to re-focus your efforts. The points I've made won't all be right, and they
will probably all be hard to take, but they are genuinely intended to help.

I was disappointed that it's taken this long for you to respond. We're all
busy, but I've taken time to give you a critique, and I thought you'd be
checking back for responses. It's not too late for me to engage further
because now I really do have other things to do.

Not sure that you'd want much more from me anyway - I expect you're feeling a
bit battered. For that I apologise, but I didn't have time to be more
diplomatic.

Good luck.

~~~
zohaibr
The best way is to learn is from critique and I really value it. I apologize
for taking so long to reply!

