Year End Round Up

When I started this blog almost 5 years ago, it was intended to be a blog on “Tech, life, family, and faith.”

Those are things I’m passionate about, and I enjoy writing about them.

However, it soon became apparent that writing a blog for 2 very different audiences – tech and faith – doesn’t work well. So I blogged less technology and more faith. In time, this has become an almost exclusively religious blog.

But I occassionally sneak in a few geek-o-rama nerd posts, and today’s post is one of those! Not to worry, religio-people, it will be fun with lots of colorful pictures. And interesting stats. And ponies!

2007 saw about 10,000 visitors to the website.

I'm pleased to report that this year, that number has increased to over 16,000 unique visitors, a 60% increase in traffic.

16,000 unique visitors for this humble blog ain’t nothin’ to laugh at. (Yes, I know some of the big blogs generate 100,000 visitors/day, but hey, I’m happy with what I’ve got.)

Why the 60% increase in traffic? I believe it’s because I’ve been blogging more, and blogging consistently:

Remember the year-and-a-half old post, How To Achieve Blogging Success? That was the turning point for this blog. I was inspired by prolific tech blogger, Jeff Atwood, when he wrote,

I'm just trying to share my easy one step plan to achieve Ultimate Blog Success: find a posting schedule you can live with, and stick to it for a year. Probably several years. Okay, so maybe that one step is really not quite so easy as I made it out to be. But everyone has to start somewhere, and the sooner the better.

So when was the last time you wrote a blog post?

So I gave it a try:

To follow Jeff's blogging advice, here is my schedule and I'm sticking to it: 2 blog posts a week.

Shalom, and thanks to you few loyal readers who come to visit despite my sporadic postings. :-)

A year and a half later, I’m pleased to say I’ve accomplished that goal. 2 posts a week * 4 weeks in a month * 12 months in a year = 96 blog posts per year. This year saw over 120 posts, most of which was original material. Woot!

So an increase in blog posts generated an increase in visitors. Does an increase in visitors correspond to an increase in, ya know, the green stuff? I’ve got those little Google ads on the right side of this blog post. Click them and I get moolah.

Does more traffic mean more money? Yes, it does!

But not as much as you might think:

Granted, if I placed the ads in a more obtrusive location, rather than hidden away on the bottom-right, I’d probably get more clicks. But that’s OK. This blog is not a money-making venture.

And for the record, when Google cuts me that first $100 check, I’ll be donating the money to an online Messianic ministries.

 

One thing I’ve found really interesting is where all you fine blog readers come from: there’s readers from every state in the US, with most visits from Florida, California, and Minnesota:

Behind the US’s 18,000+ visits, the UK has sent me 1,500+ visits.

Asian and Middle Eastern nations send me the next most with 1,000+ visits as well.

Of Asian and Middle Eastern nations, Israel sends me the most traffic, with readers in Beersheba, Peta Tiqwa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Zohar, Rehovot, and Haifa.

Cool! You people need to say hello in the comments.

Almost half of all my traffic comes from search engines. Wow. Searches for “judah’s blog”, “torah for gentiles”, or “interesting facts about christianity”, or “lord’s prayer in aramaic”  have landed folks on the blog.

And I steal a lot of traffic from Derek Leman’s blog, with about 20% of my traffic coming from referrals from his blog! Ha! Thanks for the traffic, Derek.

A rather surprising statistic is the time you fine blog readers spend on this site:

Yes, the average reader spends a little under 2 minutes on this blog. Heheh. Which means, for long posts like this one, I’ve already lost most of you. You’ve moved on to greener interweb pastures, where your attention span is not put to the test.

Speaking of which, I should wrap up this already-too-long post.

Thanks for the great year of blogging, fine blog readers! Blogging is nothing without you fine blog readers. Here’s to another fine year in 2009,

:cheers: