My Lofty Blog Goal for 2009
As I mentioned here on my Missions Minded blog, the ministry I serve with, CFCI-Nicaragua, just wrapped up a week of strategizing and planning for 2009. As part of the week we all set goals for our areas of ministry, which for me includes the mission’s web presence. I was the facilitator for the exercise, so using my biz school background I encouraged everyone to set their goals using the “SMART” method (yes, I realize I’m a geek). Goals should be…
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Timely
With those elements in mind, I set a goal to reach 3,000 hits per month on the CFCI-Nicaragua website by the end of 2009. That’s pretty specific and measurable. It’s timely: I have one year to get there. And it’s relevant because with that hit-count it means that the website is fresh, interactive, informative, and relationship-forming — meaning people are going back to the site often, deepening their involvement with the Christ for the City ministry in Nicaragua.
But does it meet the third criteria? Is it attainable?
Well, in the first nine months of the site it’s grown from 0 monthly hits to 200. So how do I grow it another 15 times over in the next 15 months?
My first step is to do a lot of praying!
After that, what should I do? Any suggestions?
I’ll keep you posted on the steps I’m taking, and the progress we’re making, on reaching this lofty blog goal.
Matt Larson said:
What’s up bro - I’ll toss a couple out there
interview other christian bloggers or ministers, post them on your blog, trackback their blog, and they’ll usually mention the interview on their site
If you want your visitors to be people from the US looking for info about Nicaragua, find out what people are searching on about Nicaragua and work that into some posts, tying it back into ministry, what God is doing here, etc.
If you want visitors that are people looking for ministry opportunities, write about those and work it into what you are doing here
watermark your youtube videos at the bottom with the website address
set up a specific youtube account for the ministry, using their name as the youtube account, and upload the watermarked videos there along w/ a link in the profile
rinse and repeat, setting up accounts on some of the other popular video-sharing sites. Granted, this would be a lower-priority one looking at the 80/20 rule since the others probably don’t send much traffic, but hitting up something like Godtube couldn’t have a more relevant audience. http://www.tubemogul.com/ can help you do it quicker.
buy some contextual or even search ads. Yeah, it sounds crazy but you can pick up clicks on ministry-related terms for a couple cents - and that’s only if they click. The overall brand recognition when you get a couple hundred thousand impressions for free on google adsense can start to add up. Give me a shout if you want to do a test run. I’m curious if it would actually work so I’ll buy…
Nathan said:
Matt, thanks for the great ideas! Just so I can get them all straight in my mind, I’m going to recap:
1. Interview other missionary or ministry bloggers and trackback
2. Use the keywords that people are searching for in posts and SEO
3. Write about specific ministry opportunities, again paying attention to keywords
4. Watermark YouTube videos with web address
5. Setup a CFCI-Nica YouTube account and channel
6. “Rinse and repeat” on other video sites (e.g. GodTube)
7. Buy some contextual or search ads (e.g. Google Adsense)
I hope I got them all. Suggestions 1-3 I can start doing right away. No brainers. 4-6 will require a little more work, but I think you’re right that I need to proceed this way (especially #4 and #5). I’m not sure about #7. I’m with you, I’d be curious to see what would happen. Let’s talk about this more…
Thanks again, bro!
Matt Larson said:
I’ve done a few experiments with piggybacking on other people’s brands for traffic, or writing about particularly contentious subject matter and using Search optimization skills to bump ahead of other Christian web publishers less experienced in SEO.
The former works like this. I used google’s keyword tool for “sermons” and looked to see what people are searching on. I found a pastor that I somewhat agreed with. I then wrote a post about them and linked out to their sermons. For most of these ministries, ranking in the top 10 on google is pretty easy. Occasionally, two absolute geniouses manage to pull it off and end up #3 & 4 for some guys name that rhymes with “Fat Handler Sermons”
Another good example were my promise keeper 2008 and 2007 posts which brought thousands of visitors each month over the spring and summer. That was partially intentional but I had no idea for a year or two I’d be outranking PK’s own site. Not because I was doing anything difficult or smart - ministries are still relatively clueless about search. (no offense to PK, they got it back together)
Is the traffic from brand piggybacking worth it? I honestly don’t know what the conversion rate is since I haven’t been tracking - bounce rate is pretty high but I guess in my “business” if 1 of 100 guys looking for “rob bell sermons” or “Matt Chandler sermons” sticks around for a couple posts and recognizes their need for help or that there is hope for their struggle then it was worth. I was showing up for what I thought was a typical “5 ways to improve your ___” sermon (before my church got out of that funk) and found myself listening to some guy give his testimony. Next thing I was in a 12-step group. Oops!
Of course my experiments were not topically-related to my blog which reduces chances of success considerably. Thus I’d recommend only taking that general concept and weave tighter with your current theme. Checking Technorati may link some popular ministries to what you guys are doing, too. Setting up some google alerts for keywords your ministry blog is about will literally put you on the cutting edge of what is going on in that field.
Re: the latter idea of contentious content. I actually don’t recommend this at all and know that is something you probably wouldn’t do anyway. It worked for me, but had a poison pill. I wrote a post about a couple topics I really didn’t care about and now they’re my most commented upon. Ridiculous topics, really. I’m 1/2 tempted to delete the posts to get rid of these people but maybe I just need to find a Christian who knows about these topics to replace my post with theirs and chime in on the conversation. Guess there is a flipside to popularity on the web… or would that be more notoriety?
Nathan said:
Matt, I have to re-read your emails and comments about 20 times to grasp everything you’re talking about. Could you spot me a couple of dozen IQ points?
One thing I halfway understand is the idea about linking out to sermons by a guy who rhymes with “Fat Handler.” So, I’ve already written a couple of posts about him — and I can do more — but what do I do next?
Nathan said:
I forgot to mention, Matt, that I have your email and I’ve read it 2 or 3 times. I just need to read it 17 to 18 more times before I can come up with an intelligent response for you.
Matthew Ledford said:
Matt has some great points! I’m considering pulling together a webinar for some missionary friends to help them get a better grip on web strategy as it applies to ranking, traffic, reaching support and prayer goals. Would love to include you both as co-presenters if you are game! May be a small group, probably use go2meeting and probably be FREE. Honestly, CFCI seems to have one of the best web strategies I’ve seen.
It is how I found you guys, from PR about the ride across NICARAGUA!
Nathan said:
Matthew,
Thanks for the comment. Matt actually does SEO for a living…and most of what I’ve learned over the past 3-4 years of blogging is directly attributable to him! He might be the best person to lead a webinar. But I’d be happy to contribute in some small way if I’m needed.
Maury Buchanan said:
Thanks for what you do!