Blogging Tip# 10 Stop Lying!

Yesterday, we talked about Klout Scores and Influence on the web, today we are trying something different, this post is about more numbers, but numbers that you might be more familiar with, Unique Monthly Visitors!  Some of you might dislike me somewhat after this post, but the reason for this post is not for you to dislike me, but to somewhat share some useful knowledge that you might not already know. The following info is useful to both bloggers and PR/Marketing agencies reaching out to bloggers.

For Bloggers:
The more popular your blog gets the more it’ll attract PR/Marketing agencies seeking bloggers to pitch products to. One of the things a PR/Marketing agency might ask you is the following: how much traffic does your blog get per month? Or in more technical terms, they’ll ask for your UMV (Unique Monthly Visitors), that’s the number you’ll find on your Google Analytics Visitors tab. It’ll say something like Absolute Unique Visitors. Please do not confuse this with visitors, page visits or page views, they are somewhat different.

So now that you know your “number” the question is: Is it great enough to share with the PR/Marketing agencies?!

Before we answer that question, this is where most people “stretch the truth” a little or maybe a whole lot depending on the blogger. There’s nothing wrong with rounding up the numbers a bit and/or putting up a range if you don’t want to state your actual numbers. Maybe your blog had a bad month, perhaps January wasn’t as popping as December was, no big deal. Stretching the truth becomes a big deal when you are doubling your unique monthly visitors. Maybe this isn’t a big deal to some, they figure, who’s gonna know. Very true. This is the part where morals comes into place and you’ll probably stop reading after this. Lol. But when blogging and dealing with PR/marketing agencies how can any of us take you seriously if you don’t even take yourself seriously. Sigh.

Blogging is about building relationships not to ruin them by lying about your numbers in order to get free stuff and sponsorships that will last but so long because after a company/PR agency finds out you’ve been lying about your numbers they will no longer want to work with you. Whew! That was a long sentence…

Anyways, back to the original question, is my UMV number great enough to share with the PR/Marketing person? Only you know the answer to that question. I never lie about my numbers. I might round them up or give them a range, but I never lie. It is better to be honest than to lie and looking like a fool when they don’t reach out again.
So think twice before stretching that truth a bit too far.

One last thing, remember that part in regards to doubling your numbers and who’s going to know?!  The truth always comes out. Well there’s a few tools out there that can show PR/Marketing agencies and anyone else interested in this info, to find out stats on a blog/website. Yep! One of these sites is called Compete.com, and even though the numbers obtain from compete might not be as accurate as analytics. It give people a good sense on how great or poor your site is doing. So keep that in mind the next time you try to say a white lie.

If you like this post, click the like button below. Also check out some of my other blogging tips, you’ll find the links below.