Here’s a look at visitors and pageviews for Walker Tea Review for the full weeks extending from 2 January to 25 June 2011.
A few points about the dashboard stats:
- a significant portion (over 70%) of traffic is new visitors. This means visitors are not other, established tea bloggers or the same tea retailers checking-in to see their reviews. These are new eyes of tea drinkers
- people stay and look around. An average of nearly 4 pages are viewed by each visitor. People are doing research- looking for places to shop, comparing quality and prices
- A majority of visitors don’t watch videos in their entirety. The average visitor spends about 3 minutes on the site, so visitors often do a quick check of scores and prices. This breaks down to less than a minute per page
A few points about the pageview stats:
- this averages to 159 pageviews each day
- again, these are new visitors looking for info. Tea retailers and other tea bloggers already know of Walker Tea Review and are direct traffic who spend less time on the site
- I did not employ Google Ads during this period, so these are organic search results
A few points about the map stats:
- 70% of visitors are U.S. based, or sent via a U. S.-based server
- the NYC region remains the single greatest source of traffic, with the busiest traffic region extending from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania
I share these stats for:
- tea retailers and tea industry folks who want more of a snapshot of what tea blogs actually bring to the table. Who knows, maybe some of you want to submit a tea for review or want to advertise to reach a targeted, niche audience of tea drinkers.
- bloggers who want info or interaction. You want to know if your blog is keeping up with the digital Joneses. I showed my cards- will you comment and share yours? If you like what you see, lets talk about working together.
Most of my audience remains U.S. based, which jibes with my intended goal of supporting U.S. tea customers.
I share these stats for:
- tea retailers and tea industry folks who want more of a snapshot of what tea blogs actually bring to the table. Who knows, maybe some of you want to submit a tea for review or want to advertise to reach a targeted, niche audience of tea drinkers.
- bloggers who want info or interaction. You want to know if your blog is keeping up with the digital Joneses. I showed my cards- will you comment and share yours? If you like what you see, lets talk about working together.
Basically, the stats reveal steady annual growth in the marathon of building a blog business. Most of my audience remains U.S. based, which jibes with my intended goal of supporting U.S. tea customers.
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- Over 33,000 pageviews: Over 20,000 were new visitors and over 12,000 new visitors indicate that Walker Tea Review continues to grow. Peak viewing months extend from the cooler months between September and March.
- 73% of total audience is U.S. based
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- approximately 700 Twitter followers
- over 150 Facebook fans
Over 300 tea reviews published by end of year 2010.
Want to know more? Contact me: jasonowalker@gmail.com
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1,019 average visits per month over last 3 months- down from1,345 average visits the previous 3 month period
63% new visitors
74% U.S. audience
approximately 650 Twitter followers
150 Facebook fans
Note: new visitors arrive via organic searches or direct referrals. No Google ads were employed to market Walker Tea Review.
Want to know more? Contact me: jasonowalker@gmail.com
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1,500 average visits per month over last 6 months
70% new visitors
74% U.S. audience
over 100 Feedburner subscribers
approximately 600 Twitter followers
140 Facebook fans
Note: new visitors arrive via organic searches or direct referrals. No Google ads were employed to market Walker Tea Review.
Want to know more? Contact me: jasonowalker@gmail.com
Below is an article I published in May 2010. I thought it useful to share here as well.
I recall someone saying that in e-commerce, there are 3 types of shopper:
- The Snatch & Grabber: With the surgical precision of a military operation, these shoppers know what they want, and want to get in and out with maximum fluidity.
- The Researcher: Researchers study up before a purchase. They do more comparison shopping before reaching a decision. They want to kick the tires.
- The Hand-Holder: Hand-holders are lost little lambs, and they know it. They expect someone to guide them through the process. For them, the shopping experience is built on the confidence created by that personal touch.
What does that mean for online tea sites?
Over the next weeks (maybe months), I’ll be looking at online tea stores.
We’ve been talking about the teas at these stores, but let’s take a few minutes to look at the stores themselves.
To serve us pure, loose-leaf tea drinkers, stores need 3 main components:
1. Quality: Walker Tea Review has looked at the quality of teas, and we’ll comment on the overall quality of the tea retailer’s menu. Levels of quality come a different price points, so we also want to discern whether tea price and quality are a good fit.
2. Selection: When we find a tea and a vendor we trust, it would be great to be able to return to them as much as we like for other teas. Or, maybe we’re looking for that niche vendor who is offering something unique.
3. Tea Community: This is one of the most important, and most often neglected aspects of a tea retailer. Brick-and-mortar tea shops build clientele by being a go-to for information, news, and overall tea support. An online retailer needs to build that community to help both new and experienced tea drinkers connect to tea gardens, each other, and the larger tea environment. Because tea is not a beverage, it is an experience.
Without these 3 critical elements, an online tea store cannot meet the needs of all 3 kinds of shopper. And if they cannot meet customer needs, tea retailers can forget about transforming customers into returning visitors and ongoing supporters.
Which medium should you use for reaching tea drinkers? Most people would say a blend of media. But let’s face it- how many people have time and resources to maintain an email, Twitter, blog, and other campaigns?
Here’s some analogies to help you understand how/when to use media for reaching tea drinkers:
Email is like a flyer you get handed on the street.
- It may have some good info or a sweet offer, or it may not.
- The receiver may be getting so many flyers (i.e. email) that she can’t or doesn’t read them all. Imagine walking down a street filled with people handing out flyers. In fact, these eager people are stuffing them into your hands, gently sliding them into your coat pockets, dropping them into an open bag you’re carrying, etc. People get so easily overwhelmed with email that all email gets ignored.
Conclusion: use email sparingly, and for people who are already customers, or at least very interested.
Twitter is a cocktail party.
- Twitter allows everyone to briefly comment on what they like and listen to others in a short conversation.
- As in a party, no one wants to talk to a person who only talks about themselves
- You can eavesdrop on other conversations. Listen to any buzz about other brands or items people like. Respond to needs/likes in an appropriate manner.
- Like a cocktail party, your Twitter may be a smaller audience, but you have a chance to get more individual feedback. Don’t discount the Twitter cocktail party’s influence to spread to other areas.
Conclusion: Engage by giving your followers something to say about you while listening and spreading the news of those you follow.
The blog is your stage, library, and help desk rolled into one.
- If your content is interesting, people stop and look. By creating your own stage, you have more control over the audience you attract.
- Other tools, like Facebook and Twitter ultimately drive people to a blog or website. Why use Facebook or Twitter if you can’t drive people to more content? How many times can you repeat: “look at my goods” before people feel you have nothing else to say?
- Your blog is your customers’ first stop for information about you. The will use your blog to find resources or just get to know you. Without your own blog, you are relying on other bloggers to spread a message (or lack thereof) about you.
- Your blog content gets “borrowed” and put in other libraries. With a little bit of cooperation with other bloggers, you create links and connections to other blogs. A post you wrote months ago can still bring in traffic (if the content is still considered valuable). Compared to email, Facebook, or Twitter, blog content has the highest potential “staying power.”
Conclusion: Keeping an active, interesting, and useful blog will generate more return visitors while giving you more control over the message you deliver.
Want more info? Contact me at: jasonowalker@gmail.com
Think working with those small tea blogs are a waste of time? Think again.
More Conversions from Tea Bloggers than Larger, Broader, Audiences
A recent article from a ComputerWorld blog relates how Adagio gets more conversions out of niche tea blogs than mentions by larger, but broader publications:
Interestingly, they’ve found that tea bloggers, with only a few hundred readers each, are more able to drive sales than far more popular general-interest blogs. Popular technology journalist Veronica Belmont tweeted about the company, and though she had tens of thousands of followers, the sales increase was insignificant, Kreymerman said.
Which Tea Bloggers to Partner With?
On the other hand, you don’t want to just reach out to any tea blogger. You need to cultivate relationships with the right kind. Here are some tips to consider:
- Look for good content creators. Bloggers who use language and visuals effectively generate content that gets found by readers.
- Look for established bloggers. Go back to see how long the blogger has been posting. Ideally, a well-established has been blogging for over a year with at least 8 posts per month. Scheduled, regular content shows the blogger is serious, organized, and developing a loyal audience.
- Check for compatibility between your company and the blog’s tone, theme(s) and/or style. Some tea blogs are about tea lifestyle, while others may focus the specifics of pu’er teas. Read through several posts to get an impression of the audience that blog attracts.
- Look at the connected-ness of the blog. Does the blog indicate it has interaction with other tea bloggers? Type the blog’s name into a search engine (e.g. Google). Note the number of other sites that refer or link to the blog. A well connected blog extends beyond the bounds of its own audience and draws from other sources as well.
Finally, allow that the small tea blogger wants to grow. Most of these blogs are hobbies or fledgling business endeavors. Find ways to share success with bloggers by providing them with information or other resources.
Have a question or want further advice? Contact me: jasonowalker@gmail.com
