Artwork by Melissa Stevens at theillustratedauthor.net.
WORDPRESS
Being Freshly Pressed at WordPress is totally amazing. There isn’t much better than that. 🙂
I had a post featured on Freshly Pressed once. I made a poem entirely out of clichés (with a clichéd storyline) called “Once Upon a Time” in August, 2013, which was my most popular post ever. It had:
- 345 Likes
- 167 Comments
- 1234 views in August, 2013
- 298 views of that page on a single day
- 320 more views in September, 2013
- 73 more views of this page in October, 2013
- A few views of that page every week even now (over a year later)
- Dozens of reblogs, some pingbacks
- 25 Facebook shares, 12 Twitter shares
- Numerous follows during this period
That was my 15 minutes of ‘fame’ here at WordPress.
It’s pretty cool that numerous WordPress writers—including a nice variety—find themselves occasionally featured on Freshly Pressed. Everyone has a shot at it.
If you haven’t been featured yet, I hope you will be soon.
So what could be better than Freshly Pressed?
The day after my post was featured on Freshly Pressed, my website had a combined 432 views (298 were of that featured post).
At the time, I was hitting about 100 views per day. I remember thinking, “It would be so cool to hit 432 views all by myself,” i.e. without the help of Freshly Press.
My stats have always grown steadily, but slowly, yet when I was hitting 100 per day, 432 seemed totally unreachable.
A little over a year later, I’ve started to hit 300+ views regularly, and hit 400 a couple of times last month.
Then on November 16, 2014, the unthinkable happened: My site hit 580 views, for a new record.
This time, there was no help from Freshly Pressed. (But there was a nice boost from Australia. Down Under helped put me over the top.)
THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who has supported my humble little blog. YOU are totally awesome. And if you’re familiar with my blog, then you know I really mean that. 🙂
May your new records be coming soon for you, too. (Actually, this is the season for most stats to grow.)
ONCE UPON A TIME
If you want to check out my little poem of clichés, you can find it here:
https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/once-upon-a-time
A few readers have told me that the comments were at least as enjoyable as the poem itself.
I actually have a sequel to that poem called “Beating a Dead Horse”:
https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/beating-a-dead-horse
Read Tuesday
Imagine a Black Friday type of event just for book lovers.
You don’t have to imagine it. It’s called Read Tuesday, and it’s free: www.readtuesday.com.
Please support the Read Tuesday Thunderclap. This will help spread awareness on the morning of Read Tuesday (December 9, 2014). It’s easy to help:
- Visit http://thndr.it/1CkO2Bg.
- Click Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr and sign in.
- Customize the message. (Optional.)
- Agree to the terms. All that will happen is that the Thunderclap post about Read Tuesday will go out the morning of December 9.
- (The warning message simply means that Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr need your permission to post the Thunderclap message on December 9. This is the only post that Thunderclap will make.)
Chris McMullen
Copyright © 2014 Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers
- Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
- Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
- Boxed set (of 4 books for less than the price of 2) now available for Kindle
Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.
Comments
Click here to jump to the comments section:
https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/whats-better-than-freshly-pressed/#comments
chrismcmullen 
Congrats. Share your secret? 😉
Thank you. Sure, but my secret is surely just dumb luck. 🙂
Freshly Pressed was such a strange experience. I had just started really paying attention to my blog, just started posting regularly, and had about 40 followers (thanks to my friends and family). Then, in one weekend, I got Freshly Pressed and my grandfather died (which resulted in a few posts that also brought in some views). Needless to say, it was a strange weekend…. and I really feel like getting Freshly Pressed helped to give me a real boost. It is a pretty cool thing.
Getting Freshly Pressed when you’re relatively new to WordPress is a great way to be welcomed to the community. 🙂 It’s a shame about your grandfather (I’m sorry to hear that). That would indeed make it a strange feeling. “Pretty cool” is the way I felt about my Freshly Pressed experience.
My best ever is 667. I’ve never been Freshly Pressed, but I wrote some posts about a Youtube celebrity scandal that easily get a hundred hits a day. Since I don’t have ads on my blog and I don’t run a celebrity gossip blog this doesn’t do anything besides make my blog very visible to Google, but I’ll take what I get.
That is cool. Congratulations. 🙂
I have had some amazing spikes, best ever was 3470 in one day, when one of my posts ‘went viral’ on fb. Never been Freshly Pressed though, don’t know how that happens. These days I’m getting over 100 views a day, and I’m happy with that, as I have seen steady increases since I started blogging. Love blogging, reading other peoples blogs, and interacting with other bloggers, it’s such a lovely supportive community, and I’ve learned so much!
Going viral is the blogger’s dream. 🙂 But alas, it’s a spike, which means when it’s over, the extra views go with it. Your other stat of 100 per day may be the more valuable number. Congratulations. 🙂
Yes it was fun to watch but I was under no illusion! I have very slowly built up my views and followers so it is encouraging to read about your success. Its not something bloggers seem to talk about much, and its not something you can really ask, so you never know if whats happening is normal or not. I value and appreciate every view I get!
What is common is for blogging to start out very slowly and to grow very slowly. Most of the committed bloggers who’ve been doing this for a couple of years seem to have successful blogs. In that regard, it’s kind of like publishing books. There are millions of blogs, they usually start out slow, but most give up before they have the chance to really get going. 100 views per day is where I remember feeling like my blog was finally getting noticed. 🙂
Yes… it’s cool!
That’s awesome Chris! I find your articles to be so informative. Sometimes it feels as though you are reading my mind. And yes, when you say thank you I know you mean it. Keep up the good work!
Thank you. 🙂 (Get yourself one of those new mind-reading gadgets. They’re great for finding an audience.)
Averaging over 100 would be nice. I’m averaging more than 60 at the moment, and I’ve been passing 100 more frequently recently. My best was 257 last month, and that was because I was live-blogging a typhoon. I also broke 2,000 views for October, which was the best ever. I’m seeing an upward trend to my monthly views, and I’m currently on pace for my second best month. It is nice to see those numbers go up.
When the stats steadily improve, blogging can become addictive. It’s a nice feeling when your continued diligence starts to grow an audience. Congratulations. 🙂
It is a good feeling. It tends to give me some encouragement. When the numbers go down, it doesn’t really affect me, though. I just keep going.
WOW – WELL DONE and CONGRATULATIONS Chris 😀
Thank you, Chris. 🙂
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog….. An Author Promotions Enterprise! and commented:
AUTHORS – If you’re not already following Chris McMullen’s blog get over there now and sign up so you don’t miss ANY of his great posts.
The guy is full of GREAT information useful to you and I have reblogged only A FEW of his posts 😀
Thank you, Chris, for the apesome reblog and intro. 🙂
Well done! I was freshly pressed a year or so back, and my stats went ballistic and have now settled back down again. It was hard to get the grin off my face for days. Well Done!
It’s great to feeling. Congratulations on your Freshly Pressed. 🙂
Id I ever hit 100 day I would go out and tie one on!! Thank you, Chris, for your not so humble blog that provides such good advice and encouragement!
Someday you’ll get to that 100 mark (and beyond). 🙂 Thank you for the kind words.
Nice one Chris!
Thank you. 🙂
A.w.e.s.o.m.e. 😀 😀
T.h.a.n.k. Y.o.u. 🙂
Congrats! I’ve never been squeezed by WP before. Just color me green. 😉
Thank you. 🙂 Hopefully your turn will come soon.
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.