About Steven AitchisonLast month I wrote an article on focus and how I intended to reach 10,000 subscribers by December 31st 2009. That was when I had around 3480 subscribers. As you can see the subscriber numbers have gone up to around 4200 which is an increase of around 700 in a little over 1 month. This is terrific considering I was previously adding 100 subscribers per month. However I need to get around 1500 subscribers per month from now until the end of the year to reach that goal.
Why focus on subscriber count?
It’s not really the subscriber count per se, it the fact that the subscriber count is measurable and it adds an element of social proof. At the moment I am converting at around 1 – 1.5%, so for every 100 visitors I am getting between 1-1.5 subscribers, which is around 15-25 subscribers per day as I receive on average 2000 visitors per day. The key is not on the visitor numbers the key is to get new visitors to the site, people who have never read Change Your thoughts before. A lot of subscribers come back and read Change your Thoughts but the more new people that come the more subscribers there should be.
The key to winning new readers
I attended a blogging bootcamp run by Leo Babauta of zenhabits.net which gave me a lot of ideas to make the site a better place for readers to visit. One of the key things was to write guest posts for blogs in the same niche as me.
I have now written and published 6 guest and freelance posts at
The post from zenhabits brought in an extra 6000 visitors and an extra 270-350 subscribers which was fantastic. The other sites have not brought much traffic however has got my face and name out there in my field. So I will be popping up all over the place and hopefully this will help to reach my goal.
The key to get readers to return
The design
Making the design as reader friendly as possible was one of the keys at Change Your Thoughts and I duly changed it a few weeks ago and received a lot of positive comments about it. I am still tweaking and when I see something I think is useful from another blog I will add it to the CYT blog.
Making the content as useful as possible.
I have always tried to do this and I think the content has always been of a high standard by myself and all my guest authors who have done great with helping CYT and obviously helping themselves in the process.
I have added Ask The Coach which myself and Ayo Olaniyan run, I am still not sure about this but will keep it for now.
Videos – I tried this and then abandoned it as I didn’t feel it was working, I may revisit this if I work on my presentation skills.
Sunday Siesta – Will be kept for the moment as I feel it is good practice to read and learn from other blogs.
Book reviews - I have not done many of these yet but will look at this and see if i can use it.
Writing every day – My original strategy was to publish one post every day. Although I write every day I have decided against publishing every day as I feel it can be overwhelming for readers and subscribers and can actually harm the subscriber numbers. In light of this I will be publishing once every two days.
Advertising
The advertising I had on the other theme was overkill and I have now cut back on them drastically. I have also removed Google ads to give the reader a better experience. I will still advertise text links and one image ad for $350 per month which works out at $5.83 per thousand views, the click through rate on the ad I have just now is around 0.6 – 0.8%, which is good since the ad is well below the fold. The new ad will be placed higher up the fold and hopefully command a better click through rate. So in all I will be earning around $500 – $700 per month from advertising on CYT.
Keeping in touch with the readers
One of my goals is to reply to every reader who leaves a comment on CYT. This is something I didn’t make a habit of before and will concentrate on this for the future.
I will also be offering more to the readers who sign up via email. This was one of my goals in the past but I didn’t do anything with it, now I see it as a way of giving readers a better experience.
You will have seen a lot of guest bloggers at CYT recently but to keep readers of CYT, I have decided to offer 1 guest post slot per week.
New writing
I currently have penned two ebooks as part of the CYT guide series: CYT Guide to Lucid Dreaming and CYT Guide to making true friends. I will be writing more ebooks in the future as a way of boosting my income and hopefully become a professional blogger (How long have I been saying that 
).
Your ideas
I am always open to new ideas and it was reader feedback that prompted me to give CYT a facelift. What do you do in your blogging practice that, you feel, gives your readers a better experience.
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I’d like to hear more of your input on how successful the bootcamp was for you. Since starting, has your traffic gone up? Has your subscribe rate intensified? Anything you wish were covered in the bootcamp that you realized later?
.-= Mark Fidelman´s last blog ..Enterprise 2.0 the Week in Review =-.
Hi Mark thanks for stopping by. The bootcamp was run over 10 consecutive days and we had around 50 people each night listening to Leo give a talk on a differnt topic of blogging. We then had about 1/2 hour of questions and answers. there were also podcasts, hotseats and articles. I have to say the course was great.
In terms of visitors my daily traffic has increased about 15-20% since I changed the design and started writing freelance and guest posts. Subscriber rate has gone up by about 25 subscribers per day from 3-4 per day. Whether that continues or not remains to be seen.
In the bootcamp I wished Leo had gone more into freelance writing, however that really would have been off topic and not everybody on the bootcamp would have appreciated that as a topic.
.-= Steven Aitchison´s last blog ..The Books on The Back Shelf of Your Mind =-.
Hi Steve, this was very informative. In response to your last post about reaching 10k subscribers I said that I knew you could do it. Well, now I am even more confident. Great job so far.
.-= Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills´s last blog ..Balancing Stress Instead of Being Consumed By It =-.
Thanks Jonathan, always great to have my back covered by you.
Hey Steven,
Thanks for sharing some of your success secrets with us. I’m sure you’ll hit your 10K goal no problem.
.-= Steve @ MyWifeQuitHerJob´s last blog ..Weekly Musings – New Member of MWQHJ On The Way! =-.
Thanks Steve, I’ve always appreciated your support.
Personally, the replying to every comment thing, even if just to say thanks, seems to be awkward. Just makes more useless comments to scan through, for other readers, and I’d personally just prefer the occasional useful comment, such as your first one… but to each their own.
That said, I do have a question. With regards to subscribers, I am subscribed to your feed XML in my news reader, but does this count? For example, you click the RSS link, then, in the Subscribe Now! box, I just click View Feed XML, instead of any of the listed subscriptions, because I can then paste the feed XML into my news reader (none of the major ones… bleh). Anyway, just curious.
Steven, thanks for going into details with your blog. This is definitely worth studying. My plan is to write guest posts for bigger blogs in hope to reach new audience. Being new and all.
One question, how do you get into freelance writing? Does it mean you get paid and still able to publish your name in the post at the same time?
.-= Karlil´s last blog ..There’re Only 5 Ways To Get What You Want From Others And Most Have Forgotten The First =-.
Hi Karlil. Yes the freelancing you get paid for and guest posting doesn’t pay but gets you exposure. If you are looking to get into freelancing, check out all the big blogs and websites in your niche and start working your way down the list until someone accepts you as a freelancer. You could also diversify and write to other niche blogs such as parenting, blogging or health etc. Hope that helps Karlil.
Hi Steven,
Good post.
One question, when did you decide it was time to go more advanced or professional with your design and blogging strategies (e.g. attending the bootcamp)? Was it a certain number of subscribers or visitor’s rate?
.-= Anna Manasova´s last blog ..Online Presence as the First Step =-.
Hi Anna, good question. A lot of bloggers start with the aim of going professional. When I started this blog it combined my two passions; self help and writing. So I saw the blog as a way of cutting my teeth in writing and to hone my skills, which are being honed all the time. When I decided to get serious, coincidences started showing themselves and I took the oppotunities shown to me like the bootcamp etc.
Yikes! Essentially, 6000 followers in 17 days! Time to offer a prize for subscription. Contests are fun!
.-= Colleen´s last blog ..Kennewick Real Estate Listings =-.
Thanks Colleen, maybe a good suggestion for smaller bloggers but I would want to get a reader to subscribe becasue of the quality of the writing and not with an incentive. However it can be a good way when you are starting out.
I also like the guest post idea. I would like to do this for my blog and for other blogs. You got a new follower today!
Hi Steve,
I am one of your new subscribers and love to get your updates. Always something interesting and inspiring to ponder and implement. This one I loved as I’m new to blogging and so nearly did Leo’s Bootcamp myself. Thanks for passing on these few tips and for sharing your enthusiasm. It’s certainly got me fired up and ready to set some goals of my own.
Good luck Steve.
.-= Phillipa – Everyday Woman´s last blog ..The Boss Movie =-.
Hi Phillipa, thanks for subscribing, I appreciate it, and for leaving your thoughts about the blog.
HI Steven,
But I am not complaining… 
Good for me. I am learning so much from you blog.
Since your initiative to add my blog to your ‘sunday siesta’, you know i am a fan.
But as you know, i am new to blogging..and am still in the intial stages of developing my blog. I cant thank you enough for the awesome info youve shared. I think you just blew your trade secrets
I am interested in doing a guest post for you blog. Do let me know how I can go about doing it.
Thanks for information galore!!!
.-= Zeenat{Positive Provocations}´s last blog ..What Each Must Seek{Inspirational Quote Of The Week} =-.
Thanks Zeenat, I’m glad you came back to check out the blog and I’m glad you found the info useful. If you want to do a guest post just use the contact me form and send in your ideas, I have one guest post slot per week, but it’s filling quite fast
Keep up the great work, Steven! I think the new design looks great, especially without the ads.
I’m working on a new design myself.
.-= Vin – NaturalBias´s last blog ..Are You Setting Yourself Up for Disappointment? =-.
Hi Vin, be great to see your new design when it’s done.
Hi Steven, this is very interesting how you’re keeping people posted with your progress. It’s great that you’ve having such success. Can I ask how much time you’re putting into it?
.-= Julian´s last blog ..The Phrase That Could Change Your Life =-.
nice strategy.. thanks for sharing… i’ve started blogging a couple of months ago.. its really great!!
thanks for the advices and your theme looks simple and neat
thanks
Sharath
.-= sharath´s last blog ..Social Media Revolution – where is it heading to next!! =-.
Thank you Steven
Grate tips, I will try some of them in my blog
.-= haim korkus´s last blog ..The clean desktop aproach – Computer desktop =-.
Interesting, thanks for sharing your strategy.
I’m curious what you mean when you say that you are considering offering email subscribers more. Wait, do I have to subscribe to find out?
.-= Marinka´s last blog ..Caption This! =-.
Hi Marinka, I have an email subscription as well to the site but I’ve not fully utilised it yet and wanted to offer a little more to email subscribers, not rss email but actual email where I would contact you directly.
Hey Thanks,
Some of the points you mentioned never came in my mind. Thanks a lot for sparking good ideas .
.-= Anand´s last blog ..4 basic steps to start a high earning blog =-.
This was very interesting. Nice points.
.-= Betty´s last blog ..How to Get Picky children to Eat =-.
Excellent insights into your vision and your strategy for manifesting – I am absolutely sure you will hit your target of 10,000 subscribers.
I also love your redesigned blog – it is much clearer and
You have also given me some great ideas for boosting my own blog subscribers to 10,000:-)
.-= Arvind Devalia´s last blog ..Why it is Okay to Blow your own Trumpet! =-.
Hey there steven,
Well i wonder what my number is on your blogging counter. As you will know i’m new to your site and i fully intend to have a good look around!!!! Having just subscribed i’ll look forward to some interesting reading on here.
ok am going for a wander around lol.
Take care
Angela
x
I have already recommended your site to a friend before reading this article. I am quite intrigued by your content and your insight. I hope to use some of the info – not only for myself personally (the insights on the debugging your mind, for example) but also for my blogging success.
Thanks for sharing!
.-= Katherine SOLO dot MOM´s last blog ..clouds in 3-D =-.
Good Day, I saw your site while surfing on Stumble Upon, so you know the source. I don’t place comments on blogs and waste my time, but I have to tell you, I am impressed with this particular post and I even opt in to receive your updates. On your adverstising posts, is the sources you recommend?
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Easy Downloads Of Wonderful Movies With Infinite Membership =-.