Jeff started a blog from scratch over the course of 6 days and saw rapid growth in traffic and social media engagement. On day one he published his first post but only got 3 visitors. By day three, after sharing his blog on Facebook, he got 113 visitors, a significant increase. Traffic and Facebook fans continued growing each day. By day six he had 298 visitors and 44 Facebook fans, having doubled his lifetime visitors in one day thanks to sharing his Facebook page. He was encouraged by this early success and ranked highly in Google searches related to his niche.

1. Blog ZERO to Blog Hero in just 6 days!!! Jeff McLeod jeff@jeffmcleod.ca How I went from NO blog, to over 600 hits in less than a week!

2. Day ZERO – Sept 2, 2010 I purchase jeffmcleod.ca and get my tech friend to show me how to host it on BlueHost.com I install Wordpress, apply a hideous skin and a handful of plugins This is a dry run for the videos I later create as my first posts VISTORS = 0 (don’t actually know, stats weren’t installed yet)

3. Skin #1

4. Day ONE – Sept 3, 2010 Install more plugins (including stats), try skins number two and three Make the videos for my posts about how to set-up WordPress Write the first post “How to Style WordPress” and publish it (Yaayyyy, my first post!)…nothing happens. VISITORS = 3 (lifetime visitors is also 3)

5. Skin #3

6. Day TWO – Sept 4, 2010 After partying only medium-hard on Friday night I take most of Saturday to get healthy (ie, do nothing for the blog) VISITORS = 4 (lifetime visitors more than doubles to 7)

7. Day THREE – Sept 5, 2010 I complete posts on “How to install WP” and “How to optimize WP” and publish them (blog looks much less hollow) Dying to unveil it to the world, ready or not, I post to facebook “Just started a new blog, give me your thoughts”

8. Skin #4

9. Day THREE – Sept 5, 2010 Facebook banter goes back and forth a little more Install more plugins, tie my blog to su.pr (twitter + FB) Start a Facebook page for jeffmcleod.ca (1 fan) VISITORS = 113!!! Yay for social media (lifetime visitors grows 1700% to 120 total)

10. Day FOUR – Sept 6, 2010 Connect my blog to Facebook app NetworkedBlogs (auto-detects new posts) Send out “Powerful checklist/vid on must have SEO plugins for wordpress: http://jeffmcleod.ca/ikM6” using su.pr, getting 10 comments on facebook Continue tweaking WP plugins Get my first comment ever, and I don’t even know the person!!! VISITORS = 64, FB fans = 3 (lifetime = 184)

11. Day FIVE – Sept 7, 2010 Publish a post describing what the blog is all about, and the “My Story” page. Both get sent out with su.pr and both go micro viral (total shares on Facebook is 16). This is a major victory for me. Get comment #2 (from buddy in Winnipeg) I find a way to suggest my page to all my friends on Facebook, publish a story on ING Direct, then go to bed VISITORS = 101, FB fans = 7 (lifetime = 295, starting to think this thing might have legs!)

12. Day SIX – Sept 8 Things exploded overnight! Finally Global Translator is working (translation begins for 40 languages: http://jeffmcleod.ca/sitemap.xml) FB Fan page takes off like a Russian Wildfire Tie blog into LinkedIn Contact President of ING Direct via FB and LinkedIn, requesting for comments VISITORS = 298, FB fans = 44 (lifetime visitors = 593, doubles in one day thanks to Facebook page suggest)

13. My blog’s rise

14. My blog’s rise Ranked #8 on Google for key word “How to optimize Wordpress” (880,000 pages returned) Own 4 of the top 11 spots on Google for “Jeff McLeod” Gaining traction… vroom, vroom! YOU CAN DO THIS TOO!