This year – my first full year of blogging! – I established my postings on a general schedule, and as much as possible, I drafted posts in advance and used Blogger’s “scheduled posts” function (thank you for getting that out of draft, Blogger!) to publish. I tried to stick to one post per day, and by the second half of the year, I wasn’t usually posting on Sundays; they became my main writing and catch-up day.
The one-post-per day plan and my preference for preparing posts ahead of time led to the launch of “TBIF – Thank Blog It’s Friday,” in which I combine my responses to several popular book-related weekly memes and the Friday Fill-ins. Not posting a comment on a Tuesday meme until Friday means that the post probably gets less visits from other participants, but it works for me, and a few visitors have told me that they like the omnibus approach.
The amount of time I spend with Google Reader, and the range of blogs I subscribe to there, mean that I frequently find posts I think are worth sharing. I began doing a links round-up on a semi-regular basis early this year – it’s gone by a few names during that time, but I think I’ve finally settled on calling it “The Saturday Review.” I’m by no means the first blogger to do this – I was inspired by others to start doing it in the first place – but I enjoy it from a community-building perspective, and it’s gotten very good feedback. I’ve seen a similar feature crop up on some of the blogs I read since I started doing it, and I’d like to think I’ve helped inspire that, as other bloggers did for me.
The general outline for the posting schedule here has evolved to this, with occasional variations and special exceptions:
Monday – Weekend Assignment
Tuesday – Ten on Tuesday or another meme
Wednesday – varies, but usually a “writing” day
Thursday – Book review or other book-related post
Friday – TBIF
Saturday – Saturday Review
Doesn’t seem very random to have such a structure, does it? But again, it works – now, anyway. We’ll have to see if it stays that way over the next year!
A look at the numbers for 2008 (rounded and somewhat estimated, since I put this post together a few days before the actual end of the year):
Number of posts, total: 330
Guest posts contributed by others: 10
Via Google Analytics
Total page views: 18,750
Total unique visitors: 6,050
Most popular pages (besides the main page);
Bookworms Carnival #14
Summer Reading Giveaway
December Giveaway
Clothing basics (this one was linked by Susan Wagner on BlogHer, which is probably why it’s gotten so much traffic)
Most popular search keywords:
Some variation on “three R’s,” plus 21 instances of search for “how to be a bookworm” – other blogs have much more interesting search-related visits than I seem to, or else I’m just not gathering that data from the right place. (Then again, the smallest percentage of traffic – 13.75% – ends up here via search at all, so maybe it’s not that surprising that this isn’t an exciting stat for this particular blog.)
Feed analysis/subscriber growth
Subscribers 1/08: 26
Subscribers 12/08: 121
This may be somewhat overstated due to people who have subscribed to the feed in Google Reader and are also using Blogger’s “follow” feature, which leads to double-counting, but even considering that, it’s still nice growth, and it’s probably my favorite blog statistic, since subscribers are the most regular readers (even if they’re not regular commenters).
A couple more numbers to wrap this up: hope you’ve been mostly satisfied with how things have gone in 2008, and let’s all hope for a very fine 2009! Happy New Year!
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How much have you already forgotten about the year gone by?
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You Remember 90% of 2008 |
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And you remember what happened really well. You’ll be able to talk about 2008 for years to come… Even when most people have forgotten what went down. |
Unfortunately, like most Blogthings quizzes, this one doesn’t tell you which questions you got wrong – but apparently I was awake for most of the year! How about you?
Wow – you’ve been busy this year!! Sorry I haven’t been around in a while, but work has kept me busy.
See ya in 2009!!
Bobbi – Good to see you! I know you haven’t even been at your own blog too much lately, so I’m sure you’ve been busy – hope things are settling down. Happy New Year!
Are you sure that people who follow and also sub in google reader leads to double counting? I think you probably have that many subscribers. 🙂
Amy – I THINK it does. There are a few blogs whose posts I get in GReader twice, and I think that’s because I’ve subscribed to their feeds for awhile and then “followed” them through Blogger. But it doesn’t happen with every blog that I’m both following and subscribing, so either I’m wrong or it’s glitchy.
And you’re very sweet to say that :-). Since I think I picked up quite a few of them during Book Blogger Appreciation Week, if I really DO have that many subscribers, you’re partly to thank for it!
I only remember 70% of the past year. Oh well, do I really want to remember much more than that?
Those are impressive stats. Keep it up!
Happy New Year!
Mike – I think not wanting to remember much of 2008 is pretty common, from what I’ve seen.
Happy New Year to you too!
I love your three part year in review. 🙂 I would like to try to be more organized post wise this next year too, but somehow I don’t see that happening quite as quickly as I might like. I’m very bad about preparing ahead of time. I don’t read enough books to plan too far ahead review wise for one thing.
I do like your idea of “TBIF – Thank Blog It’s Friday” posts. It’s a great idea. And I love the fact that she share some of the blog posts you find. You may not know it, but I read all of them.
I got 90% on the quiz too!
Have a Happy New Year, Florinda!
Wendy (Literary Feline) – You read more than twice as many books as I did this year!
I’m glad you liked the three-part year in review – I enjoyed doing it that way too :-).
I’ve noticed that some weeks, you’ve done a version of “TBIF” yourself – it does work pretty well, doesn’t it? And you may be the only person who reads ALL of the review links – but I’m glad someone does. Thank you!
Happy New Year to you, Wendy!