I have been blogging since 2008. In the beginning, it was simply a way to keep our family and friends up to speed on what was going on with our kids. The twins were little. Life was crazy. It was a great way to share our life in photos.

Then, this site morphed into this mommy resource and solution site, and here we are today.

This mom blog reaches over 80,000 readers each month with 120,000+ pageviews per month. Wonder how I am getting traffic to my site?

I do lots of sharing at over 50 linky parties each week. I share on Facebook, Twitter and Pinerest. I promote other blogger’s ideas. I guest post on other sites. I leave comments on other blogs. You get the idea. Sharing is caring.

Here are the top ten referring websites that sent the most traffic to Crystal & Co., in December 2012.

Top 10 Referring Sites December 2012

1. Org Junkie–  sent me 985 visitors in December. Every Monday I share my meal plan on her site. Org Junkie has been kind enough to also let me guest post on her site from time to time.
2. Online Sweepstakes– sent me 566 visitors. This is not always a top traffic generator for me, just depends on how many giveaways I do in a month. During the holidays I do more giveaways and therefore this site sends me lots of traffic because I use it to promote any giveaway I am doing.
3. Southern Mom Cooks– sent me 464 readers. This is my sweet blogging friend Kelli’s foodie site. She has been kind enough to let me guest post on her site and share some of my easy recipes with her readers.
4. A Slob Comes Clean– sent me 386 visitors. A great local Dallas area blogging friend who has also let me share some of my recipes on her site recently.
5. We Are That Family– sent me 338 readers last month. She has a great weekly linky, Works For Me Wednesday, that I religiously share my mommy solutions on every week. Her site has brought me so many readers in the last three years.
6. Smockity Frocks– sent me 281 readers in December. Love her site and love her readers. She has let me share some of my recipes and crafts on her site before. I am a firm believer that guest posting is a great way to share and let new readers know you exist!
7. Tater Tots and Jello– sent me 249 visitors. She has a very popular linky party each Friday. I link up each week and if I can get my posts shared early, I get tons of traffic. Her party does fill up quickly, like in the first 30 minutes there are already 300 entries. But share what you can even if it is later in the party because she does feature her favorites and readers favorites regularly.
8. Skip to My Lou– sent me 183 readers last month. Again, another great linky party to share your ideas on each Monday.
9. 3 Boys and A Dog– sent me 175 visitors. I have not guest posted on her site in a while, this traffic is from sharing ideas previously. Perfect example of how efforts from the past can pay off today.
10. Giveaway Promote– referred 169 readers my way last month. Again, because I did more giveaways in December then I normally do.

Social Media Traffic

1. Pinterest– sent 29,810 readers to Crystal & Co., last month alone. Pinterest is my top traffic generator and has been since December 2011 when my coupon resource page went viral (the first time).
2. Google– sent us 2,698 readers last month. Anchoring text appropriately and using relevant keywords with low to medium competition and high global monthly searches is key for getting Google to send you traffic each month.
3. Facebook– sent me 654 readers last month. We share ideas, promotie our readers and generate conversations over on Facebook.   Keep in mind, Facebook can be a gamble to spent lots of time on. Let’s face it, with all of the changes they have made in the last few months about how restrictive they are with  “pages” promoting links and photos is frustrating. They want you to pay to promote, which I am not doing. Because of restrictions just be mindful of the amount of time you spend on Facebook as Twitter makes great impact as well for free.
4. Twitter– sent me 300 readers in December 2012. I tweet regularly about my posts, ideas and respond to conversations consistently.

More Blogging Tips from Crystal & Co.

• How to Improve Your Blog
• 16 Twitter Tips
• Can You Make Money Blogging?

How Are Other Bloggers Getting Hits to Their Website?

• Southern Mom Cooks talks about how she is getting more traffic to that site so quickly!
• Deals_3BD talks about where her website visitors are coming from
• You can also go here for past hits to website traffic referrals on this site all list their top traffic referrals for the previous month!