Over the last ten or so days I’ve been asking a series of successful bloggers what their ‘tipping point’ is. We’ve heard some great stories from a variety of bloggers including:
- Leo Babauta
- Andy Beal
- Brian Clark
- Collis Ta’eed
- Frank Warren
- Wendy Piersall
- Jeremy Schoemaker
- Smashing Magazine
- David Peralty
- Trent Hamm
So there’s the responses of 10 bloggers (plenty to chew on) but I’m interested to hear what YOUR blog’s tipping point/s have been?
Some of you might be thinking that your blog hasn’t had one yet – but a tipping point need not just be those moments when you hit the BIG TIME. As a few of our respondents have said in this series – most blogs have a series of tipping points along the way.
What significant or defining moments have you had in your blogging so far?
My first tipping point was when i started blogging also about Second Life. Since my blog is about games and RPG it also makes some sense. However the big strike that the portuguese community (i blog in portuguese, my native language) started was my first big success. It doubled my daily visits.
A part from that special tipping point every day is a tipping point. My blog grows everyday slowly but steady.
I like the idea that a tipping point may not be hitting the BIG TIME. I think a majority of your readers are probably in a similar state to me – decent traffic, regular commenters, good subscriber base. So tipping point for us, then, becomes a more subjective matter, a moment of quality, or a moment of choice, that becomes crucial.
I think one of my tipping points was garnering a few devoted readers, wonderful folks that regularly comment, and that have created a sense of community. When I started my blog I admit I wasn’t thinking much about that concept of community, but more about myself and my ability to write. When I discovered a burgeoning community was developing at QRW, I realized what the blog was truly for. It’s changed the way I think about my blog, my plans for the blog, and my hopes.
Terrific series, Darren, and thank you for some great resources and food for thought.
Mine would be when I got recognized by an award just barely a year after I started blogging. It was unexpected because I thought my blog niche was quite somber. Then I just gained readership slowly,
Winning Everyone’s first tipping point was when the blog started to get comments by some of my favorite bloggers like Clay Collins (thegrowinglife), Shilpan (SuccessSoul), and Renae (renaebrumbaugh).
And started to get tiny increases in views for the following days without going onto any social media networks.
The second tipping point was when I got onto StumbleUpon, and submitted 2 posts as trial, and the number of unique views that were received in the very day itself jumped by 10 times!
Now, the 3rd tipping point was to see my friends starting to comment in the blog again after the latest post that was dedicated back to the ones who got me to start the blog for. Back to basics, while increasing steadily in content, quality, and traffic. :)
I’ve definitely not hit it big time (I know I have a Long way to go). But my own Tipping Point so far was when I switched from being an anonymous blog, to actually sharing my identity. It’s made a huge difference as far as giving me more credibility (I am a web designer, and with an anonymous blog, I could not share my complete portfolio, for example).
Another huge tipping point was with one of my posts (about the 6 phases of the web design & development process). I networked with the right people, and one of them submitted my post to several social bookmarking sites – I’ve received an insane amount of traffic (for me) and tripled my subscribers due to this one article and networking connection. Goes to show that content is king… I need to write more good articles like that one, LOL.
Great series, Darren! Thanks for sharing everyone’s tipping point with us. :)
Good post Darren :) Lets see what the other commentator bloggers have to say about it :)
I havent got anythig yet as started just recently.
To my knowledge every post is a tipping point.
I’ve never posted here before, but have read for a while and am really intrigued by this series, so here goes:
Just recently my site and myself was featured in a front page article of the Philly Inquirer, which was kind of a big deal and nice. But, that lead to a spot in TIME magazine and my meeting all sorts of people. Recently I was invited to write an article for Popular Mechanics (which was published two days ago), and got all sorts of chatter in the media. Our users and hits are going way up, and having recently signed on with an ad network, we’re making enough money that my partners and I can quit our real jobs and start working full time on making the site everything it can be.
I’m pretty damn excited, :)
Thanks for the great site here, darren!
I’m still heading towards the “true” tipping point….
But I will say that when I made the decision to change from my original intent (to provide studio information for the students and parents) to one that reaches those students I can’t teach, I noticed growth in readership, hits, RSS and revenue.
Now that I have the path forward, it is now time to work towards that tipping point.
– When Barbara of http://www.BloggingWithoutABlog.com featured my site, I got some loyal new readers along the way and for that I am forever greatful
– When my comments left from averaging 2 to about 14,15
– When I started receiving requests for guest posts
– When I started getting such amazing reviews on StumbleUpon. Bless their hearts .. this is why I try not to be cheap with appreciation of good content.. it really affects someone’s day. My first review came from a Stumbler who said so many KIND things.. I was stunned. It brought me some real traffic :)
– To be continued. lol
In the last month I was quoted on CNN, made the front page of digg, and had my blog banned in Qatar.
Along with that I did a massive redesign and I think I am moving in the right direction. I don’t know if it is my tipping point but I feel like I have momentum now and I don’t want to lose it.
I’m not sure I’ve had a “tipping point” exactly, but possibly the most fun days started with a post of mine being featured on Boing Boing.
I went from being happy to break 100 hits a day to getting over 1000. Two days later, I rode a StumbleUpon wave for that post, and then another post. The waves have subsided but I’m happy to say that I’ve picked up a bunch more loyal readers and my RSS numbers have doubled.
What was pretty funny to me was the BoingBoing’ed post was one that I had written in about 10 minutes one night when I couldn’t think of anything else to write. Go figure! :-)
I’ve yet to tip…when I do, I’ll let you know!
~tcb
Tipping points of traffic and money were separate for me. Traffic started from my Ubuntu Linux howtos. Money started 1 1/2 years ago with Text-Link-Ads.
I honest didn’t take it all too seriously until my paypal account started filling up. About the second month that’s when it really hit me hard.
Too pass along what I know I’ve helped janeybell.net, phoebekate.com & macewan.net start blogging for some extra income.
It turns out that a tipping point for my blog was its actual creation. I had started about five blogs in the past and after reading them, I felt that they weren’t helping anyone. I finally have one that I feel is important and also helps people. That motivates me to write.
My personal tipping point was when I realized that other figure skating bloggers regularly wrote “Susan at Lifeskate said this and that…” The other point was when Figure Skating in Harlem’s founder and executive director wrote that my site had a “wonderful reputation” in the community. Just made me feel great.
My tipping point was when I reached 500 hits in a week. I was giving myself a year to get 1,000 hits a week and 500 hits happened about six months in. (I like number goals because they are measurable.) Reaching this point made me realize that people did want to read what I had to say… and by people I mean beyond friends and my mom!
I think I just had my first baby tipping point. Getting a post Stumbled boosted my traffic about a hundredfold. I’m considering this my first success, and it’s great inspiration to keep focusing on content.
I got shoved over the tipping point after another popular local blogger spotlighted a post about my grade school memories (or horror stories, depending on how you look at it). He sent me tons of traffic and a lot of them stayed.
After that, I gained momentum, in part, because I respond to every comment left on posts. It can be a challenge sometimes, as I’m lucky to get an average of 35 comments per post. The level of interactivity in my blog is one of the reasons for my relative success. There’s always a party going on at The Junk Drawer!
Still waiting for mine to tip :0)
I have had three major tipping points.
1. One of my Digg articles received 5500+ diggs and sent over 100,000 unique visitors in 3 days.
2. A review from JohnChow sent a decent amount of traffic, but with a very high conversion rate that subscribed to my RSS.
3. My startup launch for rssHugger.com had thousands of blogs writing about it and a good deal mentioned the founder (and linked to my blog).
My tipping point happened after reading a Stuart Wilde book. In the book he teaches a very important lesson about self-discipline and learning to tame your Ego. To implement the lesson learned I DECIDED to set a goal to run on my treadmill every day for 90 days straight to completely obliterate my Ego’s laziness and I completed my goal on April 1st, 2008.
After that, I *knew* that anything else I DECIDE to do will be done, so I made the decision to finally get serious about my Blogging career and to start working on my Blog every single day starting on April 7th. Since then my traffic, my RSS subscribes and my Blog income have sky-rocketed – and I’m loving every moment of it.
I now live by this quote:
” If you are willing to discipline your ego, the competition you have is near zero, in any field you choose to go into.” – Paul Piotrowski
My sites tiping point was when I was mentioned twice in magazines that have a very large readership around the world. In a single day my traffic increased by more than 7,000% and has held steadily since then.
My first noticeable tipping point was when I added Blogher ads to my blog.
My second tipping point was when I became a contributor to two websites: greenmomfinds.com and momsspeakup.com.
Wonder what my next tipping point will be?
My current tipping point happened when I started writing tutorials instead of stand-alone articles….it doubled my subscribers in 4 days.
Data points,
Barbara
This post is really great to read. Well it’s not the post itself but especially the comments. Very nice to read all the stories. As I’m only blogging for about two months now I can’t really add anything, but I will after a few more months!
As noted by many others, I have experienced what could be described as tipping points along the way. For me though, the real tipping point has happened more recently.
I reached the stage where my site was getting so much traffic that even the top level VPS account I was on could not cut it. I was faced with the choice of paying high hosting costs for a dedicated server, or basically quitting.
I chose a third option. My site gets high traffic and page views, so I actively approached a host and asked them to sponsor the site. The first one I contacted was more then happy to accommodate. I now have a dedicated server, just for me and at no cost, my site no longer goes down due to insufficient resources and I can concentrate on blogging, without the constant problems I had with the previous VPS.
Now, while this was good, by itself, it was not the tipping point for me. At around the same time, as getting the dedicated server, I was also contacted by a National magazine to do an interview and have been asked to do more for other magazines. Also at this time, I started getting advertisers contacting me directly, rather then having to chase them myself. I now get daily emails form various companies and PR firms.
Armed with all of this, I underwent a slight change in mindset, where I had more confidence to approach different companies. One US company had a product that I wanted, but cannot get here in Australia, not even off the net, they simply wont ship them; I emailed them and basically said I needed one.
A little forward perhaps, but it paid off, as they are sending one to me.
Many other thing have happened and continue to do so from the point, where things were looking grim. As far as tipping points go, having to make the hard decision due to the VPS problems of either continuing or not, enabled me to develop a changed mindset. I think that for me, this changed mindset has been the tipping point, everything else has flowed from there.
Darren,
Very informative post – I love Schoemaker’s story…
About my tipping point, I’m still waiting for a significant tip from someone :D…
Anyway, I did get a tip (or a nudge) when one of my post, is included as Top 50 Franchising blog post 2008 by Evan Carmichael – http://www.noobpreneur.com/2008/05/17/noobpreneurcom-is-on-top-50-franchising-blog-post-2008/.
Cheers!
I really enjoyed reading the tipping point of each blog for each entry in this thread.
However, Benjamin Jones’ contribution touch me tremendously.
I could only imagine how many first time bloggers dream of the day when they could describe the success of their blog as enticingly as Benjamin did.
Thanks for your motivating contribution.
The first contest I held.
I’ve read some of the “tipping point” stories and felt that mine isn’t any where near close to that since I’m not getting that many visitors…..
But then when I read this post, it got me thinking that I might be getting close to a tipping point (or two):
1. Traffic to my site is up 200% in the last three months.
2. As of June 2, I’m taking it from a site devoted to talking about the bad things going on in the mortgage industry to a site devoted to talking about the things that affect mortgage rates and the things that people need to know when they are buying a house or need a mortgage. I think that’s going to be a tipping point because it will make it much more “real” for people.
3. I’m having conversations with the people who run another real estate blog that generates a LOT more traffic than mine does and they might be wanting me to move some of my writing over to their site. That could be a tipping point as well.
It’s a good life!
Tom
I’ve had a few different events that caused surges in hits that kept the volume up. The first surge was within a month of my site starting – Stephen Colbert had challenged his fans, the Colbert Nation, to vote for his name on a bridge in Hungary. I stayed up until 3a translating the voting site (it was in Hungarian), and was the first blog to get English instructions to vote for this bridge. I had massive surges in hits that took my hits per day from double digits per day into 1000+ a day within a month.
My second major tipping point, and one of the biggies, is when Stephen Colbert came out with a new ice cream, Ben and Jerry’s Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream. A fan of my blog worked for a grocer, and when she got a preview of the carton from Ben & Jerry’s she sent us an exclusive picture of the carton. We were the first and only ones to have the pic for quite some time. We got serious link love for the story scoop (pardon the pun), and the story gave us serious credibility for our news gathering capabilities.
Finally, and this is the most important bump in my opinion, was the bump we got from the Writer’s Strike. Within a week of the strike starting, we had gotten e-mails directly from a half-dozen writers and staff thanking us for our support of the writers during the strike, and for supporting their show. The fact that we had continued to blog with integrity made these staff trust us enough to share with us and thank us, the fans, during their most tumultuous time.
So, basically, we got our Colbert Bumps, as it were, first by blogging with passion and assertiveness, and making sure we got the story first. Then, after we started to get fans for our site due to said passion and excellence in blogging, the best news started being delivered to us first. Then after becoming the best blog for news source in our niche, we found out that the staff behind the source of our inspiration, ‘The Colbert Report’, were also supportive of us and our efforts, which really made us all feel very validated for all of the work we had done with the site.
You must be a mind reader Darren. As I was reading this post I’m thinking “well, I don’t have an answer because my blog hasn’t ‘tipped’ yet”. So I had to smile when I went on to read your statement about not having had to reach “big time” to have something to share. :)
I would have to say my most significant step so far was moving from a free blog to a self hosted dot com. It’s given me a LOT more options with my blog and given it a much more “professional” look. I had read people saying how important your own domain name is but had always thought “why? It shouldn’t be”. But my experience since moving has been that it DEFINITELY makes quite a difference. Well, it has for me anyway.
My tipping point was when I realised it could be done. I could make money from blogging, I could make a full time job out of this.
Once I had this belief, then that was the tipping point. Ever success I have had in blogging and running my website is because of this one belief
I’m still headed there, but I’d say some of my tipping points so far have been:
• when I made it to 100 subscribers
• when I made it to 300 subscribers
• when I started getting 1K visits a day
• when I got my first ad inquiry (without a broker)
• when posts went from having around 2-3 comments each to having 10-40 comments each
• when some “bigger name” bloggers in my niche left a comment or two
But I’m hoping to keep growing, so this series has been really encouraging!
I am enjoying these posts and comments!
Our first tipping point was just 3 months after we started our blog in 2006 when National Geographic Travelers blog called us ” one of the best family travel blogs in cyberspace”. That was like a xmas present!
Recently we were added to Alltop travel and that has been another tipping point.
Darren, Great topic…read every comment!
My tipping point came about through traffic analysis. I started out blogging with a personal finance “watch me get rich” blog. Not too original, but you have to start somewhere. I was getting about 20 unique visitors a day and was pretty happy. However, one day I posted an article not about me, rather, something like, “What your hair color says about you”, and noticed the traffic was way beyond my normal numbers. I continued mixing personal finance articles and top ten lists and finally created a blog dedicated only to these type of topics; top xyz lists, outrageous celebrity stories, and other trivia. Traffic for the new site was around 3000 hits a day last year, when I plowed it all under…Bored with the content.
I am currently working on a subject I am passionate about…photography. It is the same process once again. Keep reviewing the content, design, keyword usage, trying to get the momentum moving. The site is less than 2 months old, and I’ve redesigned it 5 times…I like it now (well I do today)…Currently, looking for that content hook to build repeat visits..Each day I highlight at least one photoblog..To date, I have about 400 photoblogs in my community …Traffic is about 40 uniques a day and growing…Patience, Grasshopper…
Thanks again, Darren.
Mine was when the post 30 fonts all designers must know hit the Digg front page. Instant 600 new subscribers and ever since then it has gone upwards. Now 2500+
Jacob..I thought this would have happened with your post…”Ultimate List of Blog Heading Templates & Titles for Blogging”…I reference it all the time when stumped in a title selection…Great site.
Last summer when The Guardian newspaper named my website as one of their top ten favourite travel blogs.
I haven’t had one yet. But I think I may be close – if so, it is due to being more active in social media and interacting with more bloggers.
My tipping point was when I asked my readers to join me each day for a small thing to do to make our homes a great place to be. I committed to blogging each weekday for “Sanctuary is in the Small Things, 2008” and offered a few fun incentives. I’ve found a wonderful community of readers and faithful commenters. Adding a new “theme” song to each post makes it a little bit more of an “experience” to stop in.
Defining moments have been: getting a significant surge in visitors on the day my six week website was first Stumbled (c.200) Also, moving from anonymity to placing my photo on the site is a big step forward for me. Oh, and that Problogger interview with Mehdi from Stronglifts has been a big pointer in the right direction…
One tipping point was when our first article went viral on Stumbleupon. We had about 150 subscribers. But, this article has sent 100,000 visitors in the past few months. It helped double subscribers in one month and subscribers have continued to grow ever since. It was a tipping point becaus when you get stumbelupon user subsribing it becomes easier to get articles stumbled
My psyche believes it was put on earth for three reasons
– to love my family (and cats) so much they feel it
– to keep Starbucks in business
– to save the world
Still working on that last one, and it’s the one that brought me my “tip” moment. About a year ago, I got an e-mail (for some reason, my readers are e-mailers more than they are commenters) from a young man who was in his final semester of college. He had been struggling with a monkey on his back whose name started with a d- and ended with -rugs.
He told me that my words gave him the inspiration and courage he needed to keep the monkey off. He said that when he felt tempted, he’d read one of my blogs.
I think I cried for two days straight.
A far, far, far distant second tip was when my blog showed up #1 in google for “Self Help blog” – I’m a google freak, so it meant a lot.
God willing, there’ll be more tips around the corner. If not, the first tip will have made it all a very worthwhile trip.
Thanks, Darren, for all the hard work you do. You’re helping a lot of people live out their dreams. I raise my latte to you.
Mine is a fairly new blog…My first tipping point was when I started adding regular posts…I am keen to increase this to atleast 2 a day soon and hopefully that will take me to my second tipping point.
I was sputtering along at about 30 page views per day up until about 2 weeks ago when I stumbled one of my articles, which drew in over 2,000 visitors in 2 days, as well as hundreds of visitors since then. I am still receiving about 5-10 visitors a day from this one article. This was a huge motivator to see the power of social networking sites firsthand, even if it was relativley short-lived.
I think my first serious tipping point was the day I found my own blog in the Google alert I’d set up for relevant keywords. Now, 9 times out of 10, SoloMother shows up in the alerts, and I’m chuffed every time. There has been a slow but steady growth curve towards 10,000 unique visitors, and I’m hoping to hit that tipping point this month or next.
Tomorrow, the WORLD!
one tipping point my blog has seen is when i posted about not using geek squad.
boy did they come out of the woodwork to argue why i was wrong or right
controversy has it’s benefits :)
Thanks for all the great info… as always. I’m a newly motivated blogger that is consuming your information in large quantities. Thanks again for all the tips.
By the way.. congrats on the TV segment.