Today’s post is a retrospective. We’re two months into 2019, and I’ve already done a 2018 recap for Cash Fasting, but it’s always fun to take different approaches. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I’m sending a thank you to all the sites that sent readers my way.
Why This?
Data Analytics is my day job. I work in Digital Media, and a decent portion of my time is spent looking at web traffic, audience segmentation, and slices and dices of data that I just find fascinating.
As I’m still contracting part-time and have a full two more weeks before returning to a full-time work schedule, I had some traffic questions about Cash Fasting and plenty of extra time to dig into it. Here’s the question today’s post is answering:
Where did my traffic come from in 2018?
How Readers Arrived at Cash Fasting
Disclaimer: This was a very basic analysis and Google Analytics has so much more capability than what’s below, but to be perfectly honest, Cash Fasting doesn’t get a ton of traffic – I’m used to working with sites with tens of millions of pageviews a month, and the data infrastructure that is set up for that work is far more complex than this site, where I really don’t need more than the basics.
I already know what my most read posts were (and how they became my top posts), so I wanted to dive more into where my traffic came from last year.
As an aside, if anyone wants Google Analytics help/tips, let me know! Tracking your traffic beyond basic stats isn’t necessary by any means, but since I find it interesting, I’m sure some of you may as well.
Top Traffic Sources
Ever since my NYC cost of living post started ranking highly on Google, my traffic really began to take off. Despite being published well over a year ago, it’s my top trafficked URL on days that I don’t publish anything new. With my writing style and the topics I tend to cover, I don’t expect to be cracking the search algorithm anytime soon. I’m just delighted that something I’ve written is helpful to someone.
Twitter is my largest social traffic source, which is no big surprise. Sure, I tweet pretty regularly, but this is traffic that really comes in when the Twitter community shares my posts or expands the reach of my own tweets through likes and retweets. So to all my Twitter friends, thank you and a big Happy Valentine’s!
Thanking the PF Blogging Community
Happy Valentine’s to all my fellow bloggers!
Ever since Adam included me in his Interactive Guide to Early Retirement and Financial Independence, his site has been my largest source of blog-to-blog traffic. I’m wayyyy at the bottom of the page, but my largest traffic day ever was the day that blog was featured on Rockstar Finance. (Ahhh, the memories..) A happy blogging Valentine’s to you, Adam!
Penny at She Picks Up Pennies gets a Valentine, as well! Her February 2018 post, Are Side Hustles Still Stupid? drove quite a few clicks throughout the year to my side hustle post. C.J. at Vow of Practicality included me in a round up a while back, Angela at Tread Lightly Retire Early has her amazing Meet The Women of the Financial Independence Movement list, and Frugal Asian Finance included me on her List of Asian Personal Finance Bloggers. Thank you, all!
Google Analytics allows me to understand which pages readers from each of these referrals are landing on, but I’ll spare the site by site details. A huge thank you (and many Valentine’s) to Reaching for FI, Mama Fish Saves, Zero Day Finance, Countdown To Tranquility, Debt Free Geek, and the many other blogs that sent readers my way last year!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Cash Fasting readers!
Comments
What a cute idea! Now I’m sad that I didn’t not get a Referral Valentine. Clearly, I gotta up my game!
And nice SEO tip on the cost of living in NYC. Maybe I gotta write my own one day…
Luxe, you get a different kind of Valentine! You were, BY FAR, the most click-to site from this one in 2018 (highest volume of outbound clicks).
I didn’t include it in the post because I could’ve just gone on and on with the data. :]
Ooh this is fascinating! And yay, I’m glad my (not terribly high traffic either) blog sends some people your way!
Yes, and you’re always sharing my latest posts on Twitter, so really an extra Valentine to you for all the referral love!
I always enjoy reading your posts. I am regretfully not the best linking to other blogs from my own. It is a new year, though, so plenty of time to get some referrals in to my other favorite bloggers.
Very true! It’s hard to write about personal finance without being a part of the PF community, so I feel it’s important to not just recognize the other voices in our space, but also recognize the impact of sending & receiving readers from these sites that cover so many topics related to money.
This is so fascinating. Now I want to know what mine looks like. But I likely won’t do it because I end up doing nothing on the tech side of things haha.
From the data side, I promise it’s very little work! You could do the vast majority of what I did above if you’re using WordPress and have Jetpack installed, or have Google Analytics (self-install or via a one-click plugin).
Woo! Glad to see the Interactive Guide is still driving some traffic!
Well Happy Valentine’s to you too!