Blogger True Stories: The Highest Traffic I Ever Had

As a blogger, do you ever wonder to yourself how a certain post (either yours or someone else’s) got so popular? There’s no universal secret to why certain posts are more successful than others. It often has to do with timeliness, but sometimes people just like things; they have a gut reaction that causes them to share, to comment and to talk. The most popular post of all time on my personal blog (I’ve been posting for 3 years) was this post on a DIY project I did one weekend. It wasn’t especially good, but it was picked up and reposted by my ad network, The Huffington Post / Stylelist. Same goes for the second and third most read. So my reason is pretty obvious, but not everyone has a network that pulls their content that way. Sometimes all it takes is the right retweet, a properly shared link or a very timely topic to help a post shoot to the top of your rankings or go viral. I wanted to know what the most popular posts from some of our favorite bloggers were, and if their authors could pinpoint a reason. Below you’ll see five very different experiences from five very different blogs. You’ll notice that spikes in traffic happen for many different reasons, non of which are out of your reach! Jessie Thorpe, Denimology I find the posts that have the largest amount of views extremely humorous! Our number one post (Kendall Jenner in Taverniti Cargo Pants) was read by 22,000 people and Kendall Jenner wasn’t even that well known at that point, nor was Taverniti that popular in the denim world. Although, Kim Kardashian’s star was shining brightly and cargo pants were all the rage. Take note of the fact that all 3 of our top posts embrace celebrity denim style, our second highest being this Coachella style-related post (20k views), and this one on Kate Middleton (19k). Anna Derkin, See Jane Once it was announced that I was a finalist in Refinery29′s ‘Next Big Style Blogger Contest,’ in 2011, I received a ton of unexpected traffic to my site. It definitely was a wake-up call for my blog (and me) and it was definitely unnerving coming to the realization that it wasn’t just my family reading it anymore! Of course, they were the original readers and they’re a tough crowd, so I still aim to please them with every post. The exposure that came from taking a chance and entering that contest inspires me Victoria McGinley, Vmac Cheese I can think of two examples of posts that got serious traffic. The first was actually a series of posts I put together before attending the Altitude Summit this past January. I dubbed it ‘Mini Alt Week’ and designed infographics using quotes from lots of bloggers that I reached out to ahead of time. The series offered tips, insights, and best practices into the world of blogging. I think it was successful for lots of reasons: 1. It provided major value to other bloggers (and even potential bloggers), 2. It was pleasing to look at (if I do say so myself!), not just huge blocks of text with no color or images, and 3. it had sharing power. So many people ended up linking to the series that week, both on Twitter, Facebook, or their own blogs! The other recent post I can think of was discussing my honest views of diving into the world of wedding planning. I never DREAMED the post would get the response it did (in fact, I worried it might even alienate people). But it was real. It was ME. Sometimes, I think putting yourself out there and being vulnerable can resonate with your community. It shows that you’re just like them, and can make you as relatable as you are in real life! Jess Estrada, Fresh Jess I did a post back in 2010 on feather hair extensions, right before they really took off and became a big trend. To this day, it’s seen over 400% more traffic than my second-highest traffic-driving post. I’m pretty sure that when you Google “featherlocks” my blog pops up in the top search results. It was my first time getting on the press page of a brand’s site (the salon & the feather extensions both included me) and seeing my blog next to Vogue & InStyle made me so happy! That post really kicked off a slough of fun brand campaigns and sponsorships for me. Ashe Robinson, {putting the} Ash in Fashion My most popular post, in terms of traffic, was inspired by a post by lifestyle/finance blogger Fabulously Broke in the City. It was calledFinance & the Fashion Blogger: Things I Won’t Give Up to Save Money, but I slanted it with a fashion & beauty twist. It was quoted in a post at The Consumer — completely out of context. Then others began to link to the post, with their own commentary– again, out of context. That day I received 6700 page views (about 10x my daily traffic!). I received comments calling me a bitch, shallow, claiming that I must own a $500 purse for every outfit– one person even accused me of having a job! LAWD HELP ME I HAVE A JOB. People COMPLETELY missed the point that a) I run a niche blog and b) took a post idea and applied it to my niche. That much traffic actually sucked when people were coming to my site for the wrong reason; defending myself was useless. I learned a lot from that post, and it definitely helped me develop a thicker skin as a result. (And by the end of the day, I just kept telling myself– and the computer– hey! thanks for all the traffic!) We would love to hear about the highest traffic post you ever had! Go into your Google Analytics (or the analytics of your platform) and see what post has the most views. If you feel comfortable, share a link and some ideas of why you think it was so popular!