Many would argue (me included) that social media drives traffic to a website. A large Facebook and Twitter following means more traffic, right? Yes, but no one starts with a large following. Gaining followers on Twitter and Facebook takes work, and a time investment. The more time you spend growing your social media following the less time you spend on your website, which means the less time you spend creating new content.
Is it possible to grow your blog without spending significant time on social media? Is it possible to make a part or full-time income blogging without spending time promoting yourself on Twitter or Facebook? Many bloggers I know have suffered from blog burnout. They stay up late, get up early with the kids and spend hours a day on the web. Much of this time is spent on social media. The constant noise of so many channels vying for our attention can definitely lead to blogging burn out. Many bloggers feel like there is not enough time in the day to do it all, but are afraid to give up Facebook and Twitter because they will lose traffic.
What if you gave up social media? Could your blog survive?
Recently I interviewed a blogger who is making a full-time income from her blog. She has a Facebook and Twitter account, but they are set up to auto publish so she spends virtually no time on either social media platform. She focuses almost exclusively on content, ebooks, and website usability.
She agreed to the anonymous interview a few weeks ago and her answers have me rethinking my social media schedule!
How long have you been blogging?
3 1/2 years (November 2007)
What do you blog about?
Food/recipes, natural living, faith, family, homeschool
How many posts have you written?
1646
Monthly Pageviews?
865,000 (google analytics)
Twitter Followers?
434
Facebook Fans?
3624
Average number of posts a week?
7-8, not included “Giveaway Winners” posts and little blurbs like that
Amount of time spent blogging per week?
10-15 hours ( this only accounts for my blog writing hours – I spend other hours doing “business deals”, working on ebooks, etc. Plus of course answering email, which is addressed below)
Amount of time spent on Twitter per week?
None, I have Twitter Feed set up so that my posts go directly to my twitter, in case others want to follow me there, but that’s all I do with Twitter.
Amount of time spent on FB per week (for blogging- not fun)?
10 minutes or so…Again, I have this set up through Twitter Feed to automatically post on FB. I hop on every day or so to see if my posts went through and to check for questions.
Amount of time spent on blog related email per week?
3-4 hours. I’m constantly behind on emails, so if I can ever find more time, that’s what I spend time doing. But realistically, I probably only get in 3-4 hours each week.
Do you respond to all emails?
Yes, eventually. I’m currently a month and a half behind on emails that need to be answered. I just do the best I can, giving up on the idea that I’ll ever be caught up.
Do you have canned responses?
I used to (I had an autoresponded message set up to shoot out with each email), but I found that to be annoying, and instead just put on my “Contact Me” page that I love people to email, but please expect a long wait time before I can get back to you.) The only other “canned response” I have is for emails asking me to do a review/giveaway. I copy and paste over my rates and policies.
Do you accept guest posts?
Occasionally
Do you write guests posts for other sites?
Very infrequently and only if I feel like it will be worth it for my time as a way to help grow my blog.
Do you accept advertising?
Yes, I’ve now set up OIOPublisher (a wordpress plugin – the only one I’ve ever purchased) and it saves a great deal of time as the advertiser can set up the ad through the software. They are automatically sent a renewal notice at the end of their paid time…OIOPublisher runs my advertising for me, freeing me up to do my other blog work.
What is your primary income source from your blog?
Depends on the month. My main sources of income are: Advertising/Affiliate Sales/Ebook Sales. If I run an ebook sale, that generally becomes my top money earner for the month. It really changes from month to month, but I’d say overall, my top income source would be sales of my own products.
Do you need your blog’s income to pay your month bills?
Yes, but that’s simply because my blog income has been doing so well that my husband was able to quit his job in December to come home to the family. WE ARE SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS. We don’t live entirely on my blog income. We have a couple of other businesses that we run from home (mostly) that supplement our income. This is great, since blogging income fluctuates. My husband and I are now able to work as a team with home schooling, parenting, ministries and running our businesses. We feel so, SO blessed to have the opportunity to do this.
How much do you earn per month from blogging?
I’ve made a full time income on my blog (consistently) since July, 2010. Before that time, I had been making part time to three quarter time income since probably May of 2009.
What advice would you give someone who is struggling with time management and blogging?
I felt some pressure (two years ago or so) to join Twitter and be actively involved, but it just never felt right to me. I had been spending enough time on the computer just keeping up with writing posts and answering emails, plus writing ebooks and “working my site”. The idea of adding something else, like Twitter conversations, seriously made me feel sick inside. How would I add ONE more thing?
I decided to put off “doing the twitter thing” for a while since it was so overwhelming to me. Then, I saw blog growth without it and decided that I truly didn’t NEED to spend the time on it. There are other ways to go about building relationships and traffic. I focused on what was working well for ME, even though I heard from many ”how to grow your blog experts” that twitter was a very important part of growing a blog. It CAN be, but it’s not the only way. Every blog and blogger is different in the way they go about running their business. Twitter has worked great for some. Just not for me. I have no regrets about choosing to avoid the social media scene.
I’m also very pleased that I have the option to use Twitter Feed for Twitter and FB, so that I can still promote through the two, I just don’t have to spend any extra time doing it!
While I’m not suggesting people delete their Twitter and Facebook accounts, I am suggesting considering the return on investment for time spent on these sites. If you view your website as a business it is important to figure out what works best to reach your business goals. I also found it fascinating that in a ProBlogger guest post, 5 Lessons from an Internet Millionaire, there was not one mention of Facebook or Twitter. Maybe it’s time we rethink our social media strategy?
Photo credit: AJC1
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
[Reply]
[Reply]
Carrie
ourfullhouse.com
[Reply]
I’m wondering what the other bloggers and readers out there think about commenting on other blogs? Do you view that as useful or important to growing your readership? This also takes a lot of time, probably even more time than posting if I’m honest.
[Reply]
Saidah@AProverbsWife.com Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
[Reply]
Keri @ Pop Parables Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 1:29 pm
[Reply]
My personal philosophy is to pray, follow my instinct and consult with my husband in terms of what I should invest time in etc. Breaking out of the follow what the “BIG BLOGGERS say I should be doing’ mold takes confidence. I think in order to find your own success you’ll have to make a choice to do what works for you even when it’s not popular.
[Reply]
We get more from sending our articles to our list of people who want to use them in their newsletters/blogs. It’s not hard and does bring in good traffic.
[Reply]
[Reply]
The Happy Housewife Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 5:40 pm
[Reply]
Angela Reply:
March 12th, 2011 at 10:45 pm
[Reply]
[Reply]
MamaLaundry Reply:
March 16th, 2011 at 10:27 am
I just told my husband last night that I can do all of things things well most of the time. I just canNOT do them all in one day! Something has to be eliminated from my schedule.
Just saying I can relate
-Lauren
[Reply]
[Reply]
http://www.plaingraces.com/
[Reply]
[Reply]
I can say, Twitter is a large source of my traffic but only when I tweet. What does that say? I worry if I stop tweeting I will loose traffic. BUT if people come to my blog and see bad content (because I spend my time on Twitter instead of content) I will loose traffic also. Does that sound right?
[Reply]
I started blogging, like many moms, as a way to allow my friends and family to keep up with the new happenings in my life. About 18 months ago I got serious- mentally. I was amazed when I learned that people were turning their blogs into businesses.
Over this time my site has naturally morphed and now I do feel lots of pressure. I know there is money out there to be made. I feel the pressures of social media, great daily content, emails, networking, advertising/promotions, etc. With all of that said, I still need to be a mom.
Thanks for the inspiration and reminder that I can be in control.
[Reply]
[Reply]
However, I think we all know the blog world is quite saturated right now with people writing – and writing WELL – on just about every topic. Even if you are an amazing writer, you’ll have to work hard to build your audience, and convince people that they need to read you, when they’re probably already reading 5 other blogs on the same topic.
That’s not to take away anything or any credit from the blogger above or the point of the post – but I do think you have to factor it in to the above equation.
I definitely think bloggers need to do a better job of monitoring where there traffic is coming from so they know where to focus. You can’t do Twitter AND Facebook AND Quora AND BlogFrog AND etc etc etc all at once to build your traffic – it’s just not possible to do it all well. So, you need to figure out where you are getting readers from, and focus on that.
Do one social media thing really, really well, instead of five things just so-so.
[Reply]
Thanks!
[Reply]
Crystal Collins Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 11:07 pm
[Reply]
Heather - Dollar Store Crafts Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 11:32 pm
[Reply]
Since then, it has grown so, so much, in terms of my writing style, my posts, my readers and my followers.
Twitter certainly has helped increase my readers and my following, and it’s a great way to get information out. It is also a great way to connect with businesses and I have been very fortunate in that I get to work with a lot of great people and companies.
The downside with Twitter, find, is that most people will leave comments on Twitter instead of the actual blog post – this part I don’t like very much!
Overall, though, social media has helped bloggers. It’s just knowing how to use it well so that you can get what you want out of it!
[Reply]
I joined Twitter years ago and spent most of that time being totally inactive on it. I have recently jumped back in but ONLY for the social aspect. Chit-chatting with others, finding great reads. I have never gotten much blog traffic from Twitter. I very, very rarely post links to my new posts from there. It is fun for conversation, but that’s it.
I get a TON more traffic from Facebook.
I think the excellent overarching point here is to be honest with what works for you and work with THAT, not what works for everyone else.
[Reply]
For the rest, I’m always so surprised how numbers can vary from blogger to blogger. I have nearly 5,000 facebook fans, but only average 80,000 page views per month. It’s funny how my social media numbers are higher, but the actual blog traffic is one-TENTH that of the OPs. The thing is, my blog exploded after I created my facebook page last year, and I attributed most of my ten-fold traffic increase to having the facebook page. Or, maybe it’s just a coincidence?
I’ll tell you one thing though – managing my facebook page is a HUGE time suck and I think all the time about deleting it. It’s really grown into quite a community though, so I’m not ready to pull that trigger, but there are days where I honestly hover over the “delete page” link and wish I could do it!
[Reply]
[Reply]
[Reply]
[Reply]
For me? Social media is my number one traffic driver most days. I have Twitter and Facebook set up automatically as well, and maybe I could leave it and see if the traffic stays the same. But most days I retweet my post throughout the day using a quote from that post or some other type of engagement other than the title of the post alone. I never resend it through Facebook. Easier to find on Facebook than on Twitter.
I fully admit I need to cut down on the social media and spend more time on content. I’ve been meaning to experiment with this and just haven’t yet. Perhaps this is the kick I need? LOL Thank you so much for these insights!
[Reply]
Christin Reply:
March 24th, 2011 at 10:23 am
So, for me, it’s not entirely about self-promotion (which I hate the term). In fact, it’s really not about me…it’s about getting great content out to the community–whether it’s mine or someone else’s.
Typically, when you take an interest in other people and their stuff, they tend to reciprocate the gesture.
It can’t be all about me. 
[Reply]
[Reply]
[Reply]