So, first off, apologies for the delay on posting this week. With the additional federal holiday on Monday for Christmas Eve, and then the fact that I had viral pneumonia which prevented me from doing much of anything (including Christmas), the blog got lost in the shuffle. Add to that computer troubles now I’m back at work, and everything is sort of topsy-turbo right now. But since I’ve got another holiday next week and don’t plan on posting Monday (just because!), I’m going to do some year-end wrap-up stuff now.
The year started out a little slow. Interestingly, the most popular post in January was my old recipe for Yorkshire Puddings. But if we’re looking at new content, the tops were movie discussions of Get Out and Baby Driver. Even though both were not “new” movies at that point, it seems they were still of interest.
February was another slowish month in terms of blog traffic, although that wasn’t very surprising. The most popular posts were about saying “I love you” to the people in your life (a very appropriate Valentine’s Day theme), and then also breaking news when Baby B showed up on the scene, and I announced I’d be taking a break from blogging for a little while. So when you stop producing new content…a drop in readers isn’t surprising. In fact, it was nearly a month before I started posting again (in late March), and even then, my schedule was going to be reduced for a while until I figured out how much I could handle. Even then I had some issues, but I did come through with a great chocolate avocado mousse recipe!
April was relatively quiet (though this easy and freezable minestrone soup recipe seemed to find a readership), and things began to pick up again in the late spring and early summer. There was a well received post about my first Mother’s Day as a Mom, and two baby-related posts in June about going back to work, and baby products I liked at that point in baby-having. It makes me think I should do another baby-product post after B turns one and let y’all know what held up and what was awesome.
There were some interesting discussions on posts in July, including one around my birthday when I talked about my “things to accomplish before age XX” list that I maintain. The other that I think of now and feel guilty about is the meal prepping post. Mainly because I had such high hopes for myself, and I was so excited. But it turns out that while meal prepping is AWESOME, it was eating up a lot of my Sunday afternoons, and so I sort of abandoned the idea.
When we got into the fall, I loved talking about professional development. It’s the kind of thing where I have decided to be more proactive, and have even put things on my calendar to follow up about conferences and doing reading so that I actually get stuff done. I was also super proud of my post about how I use points and miles with credit cards, which I feel like is a really good super-basic primer for people who are interested. There are a ton of links in that post, and generally good ideas about how to take advantage of systems without bankrupting yourself.
As we’ve gotten into the wintertime, blog traffic seems to have slowed again (aren’t you people spending more time indoors? Shouldn’t you be reading my blog more? J/k. You do you), and I took realized I needed to take some time to breathe too. But I feel like people should really make this spinach-artichoke pull-apart bread, and maybe even this bourbon chocolate pecan pie. Because there’s a holiday weekend coming up before you make New Years Resolutions, right?
As for numbers…
(as of 12/28/18 at 11am)
4179 total views (and no – reading on a feed reader doesn’t add to this count)
1742 total visitors (nor this one)
2.4 views per visitor
… all increases over the last two years!
111 total posts in 2018 (fewer than previous years, not surprisingly)
94 total comments (fewer than previous years also…)
0.847 comments per post (up from 0.826 last year, and 0.507 the year before!)
Top 10(ish) new posts by views in 2018
1. DIY/Recipe – How to Make a Galaxy Cake – 81 views
2. TV – Turn – 39 views
3. Knitting – Garter Squish Blanket – 37 views
4. Theater – Camelot – 30 views
5. This is Not a Drill – 27 views
6. (tie) Personal – My First Mother’s Day – 23 views
6. (tie) TV – Chef’s Table – 23 views
8. (tie) Personal – Back in Action – 21 views
8. (tie) Personal – On Saying “I Love You” – 21 views
10. (tie) Personal – Back to Work – 20 views
10. (tie) Personal – What I’ve Accomplished – 20 views
10. (tie) Personal – Taking a Deep Breath – 20 views
Top 5 old posts by views in 2018
1. Recipe – Yorkshire Pudding – 480 views (WHAT???)
2. Recipe – Sorting Hat Cupcakes – 74 views (I get it. These are super cute)
3. Movie – Trolls – 71 views (I will never understand why…)
4. Recipe – Chocolate Cake with Cloudburst Frosting – 62 views (this is legit delicious)
5. Theater – Twelfth Night – 56 views (uh…ok?)
(Known) Search terms that brought people to my blog
maggi yorkshire pudding
maggie’s yorkshire pudding recipe
cloudburst recipe
maggie carbonara
hamilton playbill kennedy center
chocolate chip banana bread mini loaves
So that’s my wrapup with thoughts and numbers. Did you have a favorite post of mine this year? Or something of your own that you think we should discuss about 2018? Anything you want me to write about in 2019? Since I won’t see y’all with new content on the blog until Wednesday – Happy New Year!