BiggerPockets Saw RECORD Growth in January 2013

BiggerPockets Saw RECORD Growth in January 2013

Joshua D.Pro Member
BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes

Hey Everyone -
I wanted to report in with some incredible news. January was our best month on BiggerPockets and we ended up just shy of a monster milestone: 500,000 unique visitors for the month.

That's right -- we ended up just a few thousand unique visitors short of a half-million unique visitors on BiggerPockets in January.

Our total visits, visitors and pageviews were all up between 24% and 28% over our next best month. We also saw considerable increases in activity and posting on the site.

What Does This Mean for You?
While it may be an anomaly or the "January Effect," I believe that more and more people are coming to recognize the value of our community. These new visitors are your potential colleagues and partners; your potential teachers and students.

If you remain an active member of the community by engaging on our forums and blogs, you're going to see more and more opportunity as new people come to the site.

So -- here's another reminder:

1 - If you haven't already, be sure that your profile is filled in completely.
2 - If you haven't uploaded a personal profile pic, do it now.
3 - If you haven't set up keyword alerts for terms you're interested in - do it now ( tutorial)
4 - If you're not actively engaging on the site by participating in discussions on the forums or blogs, you don't exist to the majority of people here. These places are where people connect, make friendships and partnerships.

Don't miss out on your opportunity -- set a small block of time each day or every few days to connect and participate here -- you'll find that it is certainly valuable to your business.

Thanks to everyone who has been a part of the site and especially to all our new visitors! Jump in!

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J ScottPro Member
Moderator
Investor · Sarasota, FL · Member since 2008 · 17k+ posts · 17k+ votes
13y

I was just talking to Josh about how much traffic I get to my blog from BiggerPockets, and he asked me if I'd post the information to give others an idea of how valuable BiggerPockets is in terms of helping me get readership and build my personal network.

In January, I had just over 11,000 unique visitors to my site. If you remove the search engine traffic -- which accounts for over 60% of my traffic -- more than 1/3 of the rest of my blog traffic came from BiggerPockets. In other words, nearly 2000 unique visitors in one month referred from BP!

If you have a real estate website, a blog or just want to be able to network with others in the industry, staying active and visible on BP will probably be more valuable to you than pretty much any other online resource.

Thanks Josh!

See this reply in the discussion

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  • Real Estate Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2013 · 415 posts · 84 votes
    13y

    Thats awesome! You have developed an amazing site that has huge benefits!

    Great Job!

  • Karen MargraveBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Realtor, General Contractor, and Developer · Redding, CA · Member since 2009 · 7k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    13y

    Joshua Dorkin I'm not surprised. Also, one has only to watch the forum threads and how fast new ones come on!

    I don't know that this is the place for it, maybe you can start a new thread that explains just how members might promote BP on their websites, etc. I personally have a link to BP on my site.

    Also, (I'm not a techie, but what are trackbacks and pingbacks etc.?)

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    Aaron Junck - Thanks. I appreciate that!

    Karen M. - Thank you very much. As one of our regulars, I definitely appreciate the time you and others put in, but I know that if we weren't providing value to you and your business, you wouldn't be here -- we work every day to make sure we can best serve you!

    As for your idea, it is a good one! I'm going to talk with Brandon Turner about how we can best communicate this to everyone.

    On the trackback and pingback thing, these are terms that refer to how blogs notify one another of mentions. Here's a great tutorial on WPBeginner - What, Why, and How-To’s of Trackbacks and Pingbacks in WordPress

  • Rental Property Investor · Manchester, NH · Member since 2013 · 447 posts · 81 votes
    13y

    Congrats Josh!

  • Residential Landlord · Compton, CA · Member since 2012 · 6 posts · 2 votes
    13y

    Awesome! You may be seeing a little bit of the "January Effect," but also I think Real Estate Investing is finally starting to be "cool" again -after taking a beating over these last few years!

  • Rental Property Investor · Northern, CA · Member since 2012 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    One thing I've noticed is that it seems like BP is coming up a LOT more on Google searches, and pretty high up in the results. That says a lot and really shows that this is a go-to place for answers. I wouldn't be surprised if that had something to do with the increase in visitors.

    It also seems like there have been quite a bit of "new member introduction" posts, sometimes multiple a day. It's pretty cool to see all the new people coming to this site and introducting themselves -- and even better when they start engaging in the forums. :) Always good to have new blood (and opinions and experience).

  • Lender · Tyngsboro, MA · Member since 2009 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    13y

    Awesome, Josh, you are definitely the marketing man! (Don't want to say guru) :-)

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    Sean Brennan - Thanks bud!

    Ilir Salihi - I'm guessing both play somewhat of a role here.

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    Kyle J. - The more authority Google believes a site is, the better it will rank in the results. As we continue to build a quality site, the search engines take notice. Thanks for being a part of the site!

    Ann Bellamy - Thanks for refraining from calling me a guru. Otherwise, I'd have to charge you $97 a month to reveal my secrets....

  • Lender · Tyngsboro, MA · Member since 2009 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes
    13y

    It would be so worth it, Josh!

  • Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
    13y

    Any idea of how many were the spammers that force you to clean things up, or is that not included in the 500K figure?

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    That number is a tiny percentage, Steve Babiak -- probably a few hundred a month.

  • Karen MargraveBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Realtor, General Contractor, and Developer · Redding, CA · Member since 2009 · 7k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    13y

    Joshua Dorkin is there a way to stay signed in, to bypass logging in each time? ;)

  • Brandon TurnerPro Member
    Investor · Maui, HI · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    13y

    Karen M. - I haven't logged in in months! Mine stays logged in. Maybe it's the browser you are using, or a security setting on it? I'm using Chrome, fyi.

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    It is probably a cookie issue, Karen. I'm guessing your security settings in your browser are clearing cookies every session. I never log in either.

  • Lexington, KY · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    13y

    Great news! The increase was very noticeable on the forums and the increased activity makes BP an even stronger, better community. I can already tell, we will be seeing a lot of milestones in the very near future!

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    Thanks James Vermillion. We're in for a fun ride . . . all of us!

  • Real Estate Investor · Bismarck, MO · Member since 2013 · 32 posts · 1 vote
    13y

    Awesome, what bubble do you think will pop first? housing? or web marketing?

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    Chris Cox - Great question. I think the affiliate/web marketers who offer no value will certainly fall off. I think people are certainly getting sick of the guru upsell as well -- that trend is turning in the right direction as well. As for housing . . . it is so hard to predict -- I thought the bubble was going to pop in 2003, but it took another 5 years or so. That's why you can't worry about that stuff and need to focus on the fundamentals.

  • J ScottPro Member
    Moderator
    Investor · Sarasota, FL · Member since 2008 · 17k+ posts · 17k+ votes
    13y

    I was just talking to Josh about how much traffic I get to my blog from BiggerPockets, and he asked me if I'd post the information to give others an idea of how valuable BiggerPockets is in terms of helping me get readership and build my personal network.

    In January, I had just over 11,000 unique visitors to my site. If you remove the search engine traffic -- which accounts for over 60% of my traffic -- more than 1/3 of the rest of my blog traffic came from BiggerPockets. In other words, nearly 2000 unique visitors in one month referred from BP!

    If you have a real estate website, a blog or just want to be able to network with others in the industry, staying active and visible on BP will probably be more valuable to you than pretty much any other online resource.

    Thanks Josh!

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    J Scott - I love those numbers! You demonstrate the power of this network -- by engaging and giving of your time and expertise, the reward can be pretty impressive. In your case, the result is a flood of traffic. Others are doing deals and finding partners.

    Bottom line -- if you engage, you will see serious benefits!

  • Will BarnardPro Member
    Moderator
    Developer · Santa Clarita, CA · Member since 2008 · 15k+ posts · 10k+ votes
    13y

    I too have noticed this increase and also noticed that in Jaunuary, we started hitting over 1,000 users logged in in a 24 hour period. That is quite an increase over the 700-800 average we had just a few months ago.

  • Real Estate Investor · Bismarck, MO · Member since 2013 · 32 posts · 1 vote
    13y

    Josh you still lurking around tonight. Wanted to ask if bigger pockets had a reddit.com sub reddit. If not would you mind if I created one? I'm sure you know but reddit is a very large community. They currently have a /r/investment and /r/realestate. If bigger pockets had a /r/biggerpockets you could mingle both major groups, keep in mind the traffic I'm talking about. When a post on reddit makes the front page. Websites shut down. They don't tolarate spam good though, so you would need a moderator besides myself to keep it legit.

  • Real Estate Investor · Bismarck, MO · Member since 2013 · 32 posts · 1 vote
    13y

    I Just checked reddit and the top post TODAY has 4080 comments. How many ppl read something and don't leave comments? Sorry the post seem off the wall. Typing on my phone.

  • Joshua D.Pro Member
    OP
    BiggerPockets Founder · HI · Member since 2008 · 16k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    13y

    Chris - Check your PM box...

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