Blogging
Looking Back at 2012
8When I first started blogging in Dec 2011, I was fascinated by the Annual Reports on a couple of WordPress Blogs. At the time, I could only imagine what mine would look like but after seeing the first report appear on a fellow bloggers site, I began to wonder if I’d actually receive one.
So a few days after the new year and no email in sight, it appeared to be a little more complicated for a self-hosted site. I remember reading last year that not everyone received a report so I was really hoping I would be one of the lucky ones. After some troubleshooting on the .ORG site, I ended up asking Jetpack (who connects your self-hosted site to WordPress.com) directly for assistance.
Tonight, I was surprised to find a new link on the stat page as well as an email version to the report in question. Even though I celebrated my first blogiversary a month ago, the results may seem somewhat familiar. Not surprisingly, my Pet Battle Guides had the highest number of views.
Here’s an excerpt:
About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 300,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 5 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!
I actually visited Liechtenstein in 1997 so I got a real kick out of that comparison. But once again, thx to all my visitors, readers and commenters. See you all in 2013!
One Year of Bubbles!
24How exciting! Today, it’s officially been a year since I created my blog which makes this my very first blogiversary. As some of you have mentioned before, it seems like I’ve been blogging for a lot longer. But don’t worry, I feel the same way too. As I look back on my past year, here are some of the highlights.
In the first month, my readership reached its first peak due to a lovely post Beru wrote for the Welcome Wagon at Twisted Nether.
I should probably note that I’ve made a move twice since I started my sporadic journal on our Guild website. That was actually the start of my blogging history as I joined Blog Azeroth and their community event for Thanksgiving in 2011. Then in Dec last year, on a whim I created a blog on wordpress.com but after a few months, I took the plunge and made a move to a self-hosted one with Safe Shark Hosting – the rest as they say is history.
Now if you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’d know I have a certain affinity for Silver Dragons, costumes, transmog, achievements, fun items and more recently Pet Battling. Like a lot of people, I never played Pokémon so I wasn’t sure how much I would like this new side game in WoW. It soon became clear on the beta that my love for this extra-curricular activity would take off in such a way that I’ve devoted an entire section just for Pet Battles. Since Mists went live, my Pet Tamer posts have become some of the most popular posts on the blog.
Just as my all-time page views reached a staggering 250K+(!!), I need to say thank you to all the referrals from WoWWiki, Rades, WoW Roleplaygear, WoWHead and WoW Insider for the highest number of direct referrals to my site (other than search engines, Twitter and Facebook). So a BIG thank you to adding me to your blogrolls and side menus :)
At this time, I’d also like to add a special thank you to WoW Insider for linking my Pandaren Hunter Pets post during the beta. It was the first huge spike in traffic that I’d received so it was really exciting for me. :)
It’s easy to see who my biggest contributors are in terms of comments as you can see my top 20 in the side menu. I think it’s aptly named my ‘Wall of Fame’ for that very reason. I feel it’s a great way to reward my top supporters by having an easy way to link back to their blog, etc. (if they have one). But there are three special people in particular who have gone far and beyond all others – Navimie, Tome and Coolidge. Thanks so much for all your comments, big or small, as I love to read your thoughts on the many things I’ve shared.
I consider the blog as more of a photo journal of some really great memories and accomplishments, but I also enjoy writing the informational guides for you; as well as a reference for myself to look back on. So I can’t help but feel ecstatic when I read or hear one of my guides, etc. has helped someone out or given them that extra little bit to achieve something. All I ask is that you don’t be shy about leaving me a comment every now and then.
On another note, I’ve had some pretty interesting search terms over the past year. The most popular being ‘geosynchronous world spinner’ and ‘depleted kyparium rocket’. Some of the more obscure ones include:
- tentacle mischief
- Cleopatra in a tome
- tauren scratching
- cool dps for girls
- poison ivy leg
- red cow in short pants picture
- hat the elite dragon
- I’m stuck on the sandbox tiger at darkmoon faire
- naked blood elf
- sexy naked harpies
- I want tyrande whisperwind’s dress in well of eternity
But for whatever the reason that brings you here, I’m so glad for every page view and comment. Hopefully you all get as much out of the blog that I get from writing it. <3
Milestone Marker
12It’s hard to believe it’s been just over 10 weeks since my move to Safe Shark Hosting. Looking at my stats just now, I’ve just reached 30K views of all-time which I think is pretty incredible. It’s still another five months until my 1st Blogiversary – which I’ve been looking forward to since I started blogging back in Dec last year. My only regret is that it took me so long to start :P
Roll panda, roll
The pic above is from a funny little quest on the beta which requires you to go looking for someone’s relative but when you find him he refuses to move. Guess who ends up being rolled back to camp? :P
At times, esp when you’re new to blogging, it can feel like no-one is really there to read what you have to say. That can get you a little down, esp. if you put a lot of effort into a post. Other times, you may feel like you don’t have a lot to write about but you still want to get something out there so you end up with posts like Pets Behaving Badly.
But when I had my recent hacking incident, it became apparent that there were so many people who cared and left a comment. Some were readers who I didn’t even realise were following my blog and others were long time readers who hadn’t posted a comment before.
So thanks again to everyone who’s made an impact by returning visits and esp. the ones who have left me a comment.
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