Suba's right with the niche.  You'd be hardpressed to find active investors in the personal finance community.  Most are passive.  The most "active" of investors you'll find in personal finance are mostly interested not in the financial markets, but in real estate or other common (almost passive, perceptibly predictable) investment opportunities.

Excluding those who maintain an active dividend /real estate portfolio, I would guess that MAYBE 10% are interested in actively selecting securities on the financial markets.  This is a potential downfall in that the market size isn't as broad, but the potential for developing a very niche, actively engaged community is absolutely there.  http://dividendmonk.com is an excellent example of an investing blog that picked an audience, stuck with it, and really built something awesome as a result. You can't tell by the comments--there isn't much to add after he tears balance sheets/inc/cash flows apart--but he's got something like 1,000 subscribers, which is really good for the age/niche.

Thanks! I never thought of that.

I like how clean you site looks, but it almost looks too clean. I personally want some more color, but I know a lot of people have the gray background on their sites. I am working a re-design myself because I don't like how my sidebars look (that's what I get with the free theme I am using). With saying that, I know that content is more important. If you look at the big name blogs, they don't have the prettiest blogs. They are actively incorporating their story (even if it's anonymously). People like to read about others who are succeeding with their finances (because they want to do the same thing).

Excluding those who maintain an active dividend /real estate portfolio, I would guess that MAYBE 10% are interested in actively selecting securities on the financial markets.  This is a potential downfall in that the market size isn't as broad, but the potential for developing a very niche, actively engaged community is absolutely there.  http://dividendmonk.com is an excellent example of an investing blog that picked an audience, stuck with it, and really built something awesome as a result. You can't tell by the comments--there isn't much to add after he tears balance sheets/inc/cash flows apart--but he's got something like 1,000 subscribers, which is really good for the age/niche.

I will ask the same question some folks asked me. What are your actual number of visits? for different sources. If it is 60% out of 100 visits, yes you have a lot of work to do. If it is 60% out of 2000 visits a day for a young blog you might be doing nothing wrong and all you have to do is more exposure to your writing (guest post, commenting and social media).

With that said, I will tell you why it is not more appealing to "me". Nothing wrong with your content but I am not your target audience. I don't invest in stocks (most of the time). I am a passive investor, so I could read and comment but it will only so that I can nice to you. You don't want such visitors. Go to forums/blogs where active investors hang out. Yakezie is going to get you only so far. If I have to guess most of us here are passive investors. I read most of the yakezie blogs almost everyday so that is a very accurate guess. We are NOT your intented audience so even people who will visit you and say "great post" or "interesting analysis" are doing so as a favor to you.

Sorry to be straight forward. I needed it and when everyone said it frankly I was grateful. It was very easy to see what I was doing wrong and work on it. So I am assuming you are interested in that type of answer too. 

In fact the more I read the panda update recently and my hit in SE traffic seems to be stemming from my change in direction with my blog. Even though I am upset about the hit, the change in direction was on purpose, so I am ok with that. Know who your audience are and work to get them.

Tony Chou @ Investorz' Blog said:

My direct and referral traffic is pretty bad. SE traffic accounts for more than 60% of all my traffic. I'm trying to diversify my traffic sources (in case Google one day decides to randomly penalize my site in the search rankings). I know I'm doing something wrong here, but I just can't pinpoint my problem. Can you give me some criticism? Don't bother holding back, just say it as it is.

e.g.

Your content sucks.

Your design is too plain.

You're writing doesn't make sense.

Your advice doesn't apply to me.

etc.

You have to work hard for referral traffic, especially early on.  It's going to depend on commenting, guest posting, etc.

 

Your direct traffic is just going to take time.  After 9 months I am finally seeing an uptick in direct traffic, retaining some loyal readers...Others who post more frequently may achieve this sooner...but let's face it, the longer a blog has been established, the more credibility it has with visitors...thus more reader retention.

 

In other words, your blog is just fine...you just need to give everything more time.

I'll piggie-back on Justin's comment. He's right, your page and content look great. There's nothing that unappealing. It just takes time. Get some guest posts out there and submit some articles to sites like Buzzle and ezinearticles.com. They'll give you some more direct hits.

My direct and referral traffic is pretty bad. SE traffic accounts for more than 60% of all my traffic. I'm trying to diversify my traffic sources (in case Google one day decides to randomly penalize my site in the search rankings). I know I'm doing something wrong here, but I just can't pinpoint my problem. Can you give me some criticism? Don't bother holding back, just say it as it is.

e.g.

Your content sucks.

Your design is too plain.

You're writing doesn't make sense.

Your advice doesn't apply to me.

etc.

You have to work hard for referral traffic, especially early on.  It's going to depend on commenting, guest posting, etc.

Your direct traffic is just going to take time.  After 9 months I am finally seeing an uptick in direct traffic, retaining some loyal readers...Others who post more frequently may achieve this sooner...but let's face it, the longer a blog has been established, the more credibility it has with visitors...thus more reader retention.

In other words, your blog is just fine...you just need to give everything more time.

e.g.

Your content sucks.

Your design is too plain.

You're writing doesn't make sense.

Your advice doesn't apply to me.

etc.