Blog Milestone - 300,000 pageviews!

To some of the bigger blogs this might not seem like that big of an accomplishment but it always amazes that anyone would come by to get my thoughts on dividend growth investing and financial independence.  I started this blog back in November 2011 to chronicle my journey as I strive to reach financial independence.   It was slow going as far as readers in the beginning as it took me just over a year to cross the 10,000 total pageviews mark.  However, during the end of 2012 traffic started to pick up and 2013 saw traffic growth really start to ramp up here.  2013 saw me cross the 100,000 total pageviews level in June and then also got me past the 200,000 mark in the November.



Well, it's time to announce another milestone along the way.  Yesterday I crossed the 300,000 pageview mark.  It was around 13 months to reach 10,000, then 8 months to cross 100,000, then 5 months to cross 200,000, and now just 3 months to go through 300,000 total pageviews.  This is very similar to how compound interest and dividend growth investing work.  It's slow in the beginning and then it finally kind of clicks that "hey, this could really turn in to something if I keep at it" and then you start getting returns on your returns and the growth starts to take off.  Obviously dividend growth investing will take longer than the rate of change I've experienced in the traffic here but it's a great example of how sticking with something can lead to big results.  If only we could have that kind of growth with investing we'd all be FI in no time.

I can't say this enough but thank you all for stopping by here, commenting, and sharing my posts.  It's always inspiring and motivating to see more and more of you starting your own journey's towards financial independence using dividend growth investing.   It's all of you that continue to make this great community what it is and keep the conversation active and moving forward.

This blog is as much about my own journey as it is about all of us growing and learning to be better investors.  As always if there's anything you'd like for me to cover, whether it's specific concepts or topics, companies you'd like me to take a closer look or anything else, please let me know through either the comments or using the contact form on the sidebar of the page.  Thanks again!

Comments

  1. Congratulations JC. Seems like just yesterday that you hit 200,000. Keep up the great writing. Soon you'll be hitting you monthly page view goal.
    -RBD

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    Replies
    1. RBD,

      I know, it's crazy that I just knocked off another 100k. I'm already thinking of pushing the monthly goal up to 100k from 50k to try and push me harder to network and really grow the readership.

      Thanks for the continued support!

      Delete
  2. Congrats, my blog just can't get the readers that I want, but again I really created it to get the word out about investing in stocks and also guiding readers to some great resources. Maybe this year I will spend some more time engaging more. Congrats again.

    Joe S

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    Replies
    1. Joe,

      Blog traffic here didn't really start to increase until it'd been up for about a year. I know others have done much better and much faster, but that first year I didn't really do much as far as promoting. The thing that really gets me though is that it's all been fairly organic. There's not much that I've done other than write content and comment on other blogs. I think the key is to make sure you're engaged with the readers that do stop by as well as with other blogs. Keep on working at it and I'm sure traffic will start to pick up.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
    2. Wow... This is really heartening news for aspiring bloggers to keep at it! I've been up since July and should hit 10,000 page views some time next month. Do you get much traffic from google (or start getting it once your traffic started to ramp up?) or was it all from comments you'd left on other blogs? I supposed after a year of commenting on other blogs... that is a hell of a lot of links back to your site! I've left a fair few so hopefully all of that "work" will start compounding soon... just like the investments :)
      (I say "work" because reading other interesting blogs and joining in the convo is clearly not really work... it's been great fun and extremely eye opening so far!)

      Cheers and well done again!

      Delete
    3. theFIREstarter,

      I should have joined Google Analytics when I first started blogging to have better records, but I started it at the beginning of last year so I have a years worth of data now. Over the last month I've gotten around 20% of my views from search, mainly Google. It continues to grow as there's more and more content for Google to find and more people continue to link to my stuff. Almost all of the growth has been through commenting on other blogs. It sure helps that there's more people starting DG/FI blogs too. Don't get discouraged one bit because it took me forever to get to 10k pageviews. You're ahead of me if you should be getting there next month since mine took until the 13th month.

      If you ever want to write a guest post feel free to do so and I'll get it posted. That's not a specific goal of mine for the year but I do want to host and write more guest posts this year. Of course I just need a bit more time in the day to get it all done.

      I know what you mean about this "work". I love it and if I could I'd gladly do it all day.

      Thanks for stopping by and if there's anything I can help you with I'll gladly give it a shot.

      Delete
    4. Thank you so much! You are a gentleman and a scholar.

      I am aiming to write one guest post a month throughout the year so I will have a think of a few subjects and drop you a line soon(ish - I have a couple already lined up that haven't even been written yet, so it might not be for a fair few weeks!). I know nothing about dividend investing right now so I'm afraid it will have to be on the general topics of frugality / FI though if that suits? Cheers again!

      Delete
    5. Something along either frugality or FI is just fine. I don't know if my friends would classify me as either of those. ;)

      Delete
  3. Congratulations JC! Truly a testament to the quality content you are producing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. w2r,

      I still have plenty of ideas floating around in my head, notes on my phone, and draft posts. Now I just need more time to get them written.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. First Million,

      The first million is the hardest, eh? Thanks for joining in and have a great week!

      Delete
  5. PIP,

    Congrats on hitting 300k so quickly! Hopefully that snowball just keeps rolling for you and reach one million hits before you know it. Keep up the good work, I look forward to continuing to follow your progress.

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    Replies
    1. Dividendasaur,

      Getting to 10,000 took forever but readership continues to grow even more now that I'm in the hundred thousand views. The jump from 200k to 300k was pretty amazing to me and I hope it just continues to build steam.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  6. Congratulations JC. Growth in viewership is clearly not linear! I think a drink is in order :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bryan,

      It's definitely not linear at all. I plotted the monthly views and it's pretty much textbook exponential growth. Now to find a way to repeat this on the same time frame in my portfolio.

      Thanks for the support!

      Delete
  7. PIP congrats on your milestone!
    Dividend Mom

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    Replies
    1. Dividend Mom,

      Thanks for the support and for stopping by!

      Delete
  8. Fantastic milestone, I am still below 5,000, but I have only been blogging for about three months. I dream of regularly exceeding 100 pageloads per day!

    From your progress, it appears that the main thing is to keep posting quality material, and the numbers look after themselves. Its a bit like investing for dividends, when you start it seems like small amounts, but as you keep the momentum the numbers start to climb.

    Here's to your next milestone, and who knows on current progress half a million in 2014

    FI UK

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FI UK,

      Don't get discouraged at all. You're well ahead of where I was 3 months in. It took me until my 10th month to pass 5k total pageviews.

      I think for the most part the biggest keys are writing content and interacting through on other blogs. There's not a whole lot that I've done in order to really try and grow the number of readers so it's all been fairly organic. Slow but at least it's natural.

      I think I'll cross 500k probably sometime near the middle of the year and if traffic continues to grow then 1 million could possibly be in the cards near the end of the year. It's been amazing and I love getting to interact with everyone. In my everyday life I don't have an outlet for discussing personal finance/investing/financial independence but the community allows for it.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  9. Wow that's amazing! Congrats! My blog currently has 2 page views, we shall see how it goes! Great blog:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dexter,

      Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't worry about just 2 pageviews so far, we've all got to start somewhere.

      Delete
  10. Hi PIP,

    congratulation for this milestone!
    With this growth rate you will have reached 500,000 pageviews soon!

    Keep going!

    Best regards
    D-S

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. D-S,

      500k sure will be nice. Half way to a million!

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  11. That's huge compared to us! Keep up the quality work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WE,

      Just keep at it. None of this came overnight for me and if you keep writing solid content then people will find it.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  12. JC,
    Thats a great progress! Congrats on the achievement.

    regards

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Roadmap,

      Thanks so much. I wish I could have been reporting this earlier than almost 2.5 years in but it's starting to gain momentum now.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  13. Congrats on the milestone. Page views do pick up past the 6 month mark as that is often the point where bloggers continue or stop.

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    Replies
    1. Charles,

      The 6 month mark is big for bloggers because you've either dropped out or committed to keeping it going. It was discouraging to see how little pageviews I'd had even through 6 months but it kept growing almost every single month so that meant more and more people were finding it.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  14. Congratulation for your milestone. Keep up your great work and all the best for the first million!

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    Replies
    1. Dividend Yield,

      I can't wait to be reporting that I crossed the 1M mark. That'll be a great day. Of course then it will be onwards to 2M.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  15. Passive Income Pursuit,

    Congrats on the pageview milestone! That's awesome and I'm sure you'll be accelerating. You've got a great blog and nice portfolio of stocks paying out lots of quality dividends. I continue to follow along!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SWAN,

      February is showing an increase over January so hopefully this trend continues. I'm going to bump my monthly pageview goal up soon.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  16. That's freaking awesome brother. Excited and happy for you that is one heck of an accomplishment. I look forward to seeing your blog continue to grow

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    Replies
    1. Marvin,

      I'm completely stoked to cross 300k and especially so given how much less time it took to go from 200k to 300k. I've got a few ideas floating around my head for where I want to take this blog including a possible ebook but one thing I do want is to make the swap to WP this year. Now I just need to find more time to be able to sit down and learn what all to do without screwing things up.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  17. Awesome progress going on here and I'm excited for you! This blog is awesome... keep at it and keep on inspiring!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FI,

      Thanks so much for the continued support. If I can help motivate one other person to improve their financial life then that's great for me. Although I have hopes that it's a much higher number than one.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  18. Pursuit,

    Congrats, man. That's an awesome milestone.

    We're all growing together as one big community. It's great to be a part of all of this. :)

    Keep up the great work. Looking forward to seeing where 2014 takes you!

    Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DM,

      Pretty much all things financial, other than the water cooler talk of the latest hot stock tip, are a taboo subject. There's not much of an outlet for those that want to discuss and learn about anything across the PF world in everyday life. That's one of the things I like the most about being a part of this community. It's a good group of people that allows for an open discussion on a wide variety of financial topics.

      I'm hoping for much bigger things in 2014 and to continue growing the viewership here. It should at least be a fun ride.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  19. Congrats! That's a huge milestone. Very inspiring, and I'm glad you kept at it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ryan,

      I never really planned to stop but it's been awesome to see the growth, especially over the last 6-8 months.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  20. Congrats! That's a great milestone. I'm hoping to hit the 200k mark this year.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All About Interest,

      Thanks. It's been awesome to see traffic pick up and I hope it continues. Best of luck getting to 200k!

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete
  21. Congratulations JC!

    I've just reignited my own journey.

    I've also just stumbled across your blog and will be digging through your sage advice.

    Wish me luck!

    ReplyDelete

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