I’m simply amazed how thing how things have changed in just 2 short months. I started Points, Miles & Martinis in 2009 with a friend. Since we were traveling every week, and earning tons of miles & points through great promotions, we started this blog as a way to share earning and burning stories with my friends and family. We originally started our small blog over at blogspot where we might have had about 50-60 page views a day. Soon we were over a couple of hundred page views a day and thought we were on a roll.
My friend had to back out of the blog shortly after we started but I kept going as a labor of love. Not long after my friend left the blog, the team at BoardingArea picked me up in early 2010 and I moved over to BoardingArea.
At first, my site traffic and reader engagement was increasing at a good clip. But soon after I joined BoardingArea, life, work and a move to a different city got in the way. I never really gained traction until this year. As a result, the blog slogged away for the last two years. Occasionally, I would post something interesting and would see a spike in traffic. My little blog was destined to continue on the same path as I didn’t have a content strategy. Basically I was frolicking around the blog world with no clear path.
Increased Readership In Short Time
I think readership in November was more than I had from the entire period of January 2011 through October 2011. Why the increased readership I asked myself?
- Increased page views by 1162% from October to November
- Increased page views by 1532% from October to December
The increase in my frequent posting is because of comments from viewers like you who come back to share tips, read about trip reports, catch up on the latest promotions, or just come for the occasional small contest.
Thank you for reading Points, Miles & Martinis, seriously. You keep me going with your comments, questions, and rants by keeping me honest.
Technorati Ranking
Points, Miles & Martinis is now tied for 122 in the Technorati blog rankings for the travel segment. I’m proud and yet humbled at the same time. We are even tied with the entire upgrd site where there are some great travel bloggers.
Reasons For Increase
In November Boarding Area offered to send some of us to the Blog World event in Los Angeles. I took them up on their offer and off I went to LAX on a Delta 777 in Business Elite. I didn’t know what to expect at Blog World, I’m not a professional blogger and have never been to a blog event. I did know that I wanted to leave the event with a general content strategy on what Points, Miles & Martinis is and should be in the future.
I got way more out of the event than just a content strategy. I met fellow bloggers and got to know Deals We Like, Mommy Points, Loyalty Traveler, Frequently Flying, AAdvantageGeek, Randy, Wandering Aramean, Road Warriorette, and Flight Diversions. I also learned from some great speakers including William Torgerson (professor at St Johns), Ross Borden (the CEO and founder of Matador Network), Chris Faust (Editor at C Around the World), and many others.
Additional benefits included a content strategy, approach to post more frequently, and a desire to improve the site user experience through additional features like a trip reports page, categories, and better use of twitter and facebook. I’ve made significant progress and will continue to make progress because of readers like you.
Like I said from the beginning this has been a labor of love. I look forward to sharing many more travel tips, promotions, and just plane old road warrior war stories.
About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
Sign up for Email || Twitter || Facebook |
Hotel Offers || Airline Offers || Bank Offers || Cash Back Offers
Second comings are always better. Welcome back, fellow Blogger and good to hear about the next steps! 🙂
Congrats! sounds like you are on the upswing. I have often wondered how it is that some bloggers come along and in very little time (mommypoints and millionmilesecredts) and are ranked so high among the frequent flyer world and then there are others that come along (say the man of a thousand places, or noobtraveler, or infamousdx) don’t get the praise. I actally find all of the above mentioned blogs very interesting and helpful, so just wondering what it is that makes one blogger “brought into the fold” (as they say) by the “old guard” and another blogger not?! and so why some “old guard” bloggers (I won’t leave a name here as to not offend them) get so much praise when actually sometimes they just rehash what are on other blogs in the frequent flyer game.
Thanks for always being there to help me too! Keep up the great work, I read daily.
Hi AJ – It’s good to be back. Thanks for the note.
Hi Worldtraveller2 – Good questions, agree but don’t know the answers.
Hi Angelina – My pleasure, keep up the good work over there. Thanks for reading.
Congrats and you’re welcome! Your stats reflect when I first started RSSing you.
Keep up the great reads!
Hi Chris – Interesting. Would be cool to know how many readers still around from 2009 when I started, but there is no stat for that.
Thanks for all of your guidance! I love seeing good people succeed.
Kudos to you, and Congratulations! We have been trying to start our blog, and we can resonate with a number of points you mentioned above. It’s definitely not easy blogging everyday – it takes a lot of time, and there are a lot of other things happening outside of your blog life as well. Well, seems like you are doing well. Keep working at it!
Congrats and I look forward to your future posts.
Hi Kathy – Thanks for the note, same here
Hi DT – Thanks. Nice blog. Keep up the good work. I agree it takes a lot of time and there is a balance between work, play and travel.
Hi Denise – Thanks, I’ve got a lot more planned. Including a trip report on the St Regis Bahia Beach this week.
Well done! I honestly don’t know how you blog as much as you do, but keep it coming! I absolutely agree re: “labor of love.” I get an immense amount of happiness from blogging about the industry we’re so passionate about.
Hi Darren – Thanks, keep up the good work.