How do you measure success?

[jMcQuarrie]

I've seen a lot of posts both on blogs and forums lately giving and asking for advise on how to make a successful blog.

What worries me about this trend it that I rarely see anyone express what a successful blog looks like (as a whole, not just the design).

No one seems to ask about how to measure success or what "success" they are looking for.

Personally I'm not looking to make money from my blog, I love my job, I'm not looking to find an alternative income. I'd like to think what I write is interesting to some people - but I know it's not interesting to all - and as a result my goal is to get a small but loyal readership. I'd prefer 10 quality, contributing, regular visitors over thousands of one off visits who don't engage or add anything to the conversation. Probably sounds pompous, but if I can make one person re-evaluate their opinion on user experience or web development I'd be happy.

So, what does success look like for you? How do you measure it?

[SarahG]

If I know I've help someone then I'm happy.

[ses5909]

I think it will depend on the person or the blog. I'll list the 4 main places I blog and if I think I've been successful.

ilovecode.com - this blog was my dumping ground of anything I wanted. It used to be a lot more programming related but has since become some place I put my thoughts. I didn't really have a goal for it and still don't. Has it been a success? Yes. I've met some great people because of my blog, i've learned about blogging, and plenty of other great things happened because of that blog. My most rewarding is when I encounter a problem, solve it, post about it, and then someone comes to thank me for that. It's nice that i was able to help out.

wanderingfamily.com - this is a blog I keep for my distant family and friends. It's a place to document what we are seeing and doing. It is really not interesting to most people unless you know us personally, but it serves its purpose so I would say its successful.

TBE Blog - the point of this blog is to 1. provide helpful content on blogging and 2. help bring people to the community (here). I'm not sure I've done other :p

search-this.com - just write about web dev things. I didn't really have another goal. There are benefits that come along with it, but when asked, i thought, sure, this will be fun. Now in addition to the posts, I run a podcast there where I get to talk to people like eric meyer, rand fishkin, chris garrett, etc. so yeah, i would say that is successful as well.

[Cedric]

I can say TheBlogExperiment is really a successful forum because it just helps bloggers to learn what they have to learn, I even stop blogging about blogging because I still think TBE is the main source for the bloggers who wanna learn something. All thanks to Sara~~~ :D

[Jeremy]

It also depends on what stage you're in with your site. When I first started, I thought I was successful if I managed to get 100 feed readers. Then when I got picked up by a large and established site, that was another gauge of success. When I received my first Adsense check, that was a huge measure of success. Being able to pay my mortgage through income produced by writing... success.

So, success is certainly different for everyone, but there are also levels of success that change as your site grows.

[ses5909]

I agree with the different levels of success as well. Also, i think our goals change as we grow.

and thanks for the kind words Cedric!

[Cedric]

No worries, as a matter of fact I even boasted about how I got to know Nablopomo through TBE! Hehehehehe... :D

[goldfries]

some people equate success to traffic which i totally disagree.

[davemcnally]

I don't success can be measured very easily. Setting goals and reaching them can be called a success but as mentioned above, your goals are always changing once the previous ones have been reached.

Especially online, each person wants to continually grow the popularity of their site/product so the growth would be constantly increasing in an ideal situation. Along with this, your targets increase too.

I would personally measure my success online through freelance sales and total online revenue. I would not say I have been successful though until I am doing enough to pay the bills and take a couple of breaks throughout the year.

[Bob!]

If I can get a comment or two on most posts then that's a success to me. I'm not looking to make money or build the biggest blog on the net or any of that stuff.

If someone likes my photo's or finds the code I post useful that'll do just fine :)

(I'm easily pleased)

[shyflower]

I like Sara's way to measure success of her blogs... and I'd say the TBE blog is very successful and you are very generous to your members in keeping it up as your do.

I also agree with Sarah G. I think success is a feeling of satisfaction. As a writer, I'm never happy with what I've written until I hear that my client is. In fact, I think (for me anyway) recognition is a major part of success... not to be famous, but to be told that what I've done worked for (helped or satisfied) someone else.

[deronsizemore]

This is a tough question for me. Honestly, I don't know what success is for me currently.

I guess I need to start setting small goals, so once I achieve them, I'll know what success is. I launched my blog and never really had much expectations beside hoping someone would read, so I guess the fact that I'm getting the kind of traffic I'm getting and have the RSS numbers I have is a success in itself. I only have 50 subscribers, but that's 50 more people than I anticipated actually reading what I had to say.

Ultimately I would love to be able to publish sites and make all of my income online, that would be the ultimate success for me, but if that never happens it's okay by me because I do enjoy my day job.

[shyflower]

Don't mean to take this off-topic, but Dave... did you catch that fish in your avatar? What kind of fish is it?

Now... that's success! (if you're a fisher-person!)

[thetafferboy]

It's a carp.

Blog success = Potential Audience / Subscribers

[davemcnally]

Don't mean to take this off-topic, but Dave... did you catch that fish in your avatar? What kind of fish is it?

Now... that's success! (if you're a fisher-person!)

Indeed :) It's a 44lb 20z Mirror Carp, and yeah...I'm a carp addict! (That fish is currently my personal best too)

[shyflower]

Indeed :) It's a 44lb 20z Mirror Carp, and yeah...I'm a carp addict! (That fish is currently my personal best too)
Nice fish! Wow!