Two Year Blog Anniversary and Stats

I can’t believe it has been two years since I started writing.  I have looked at my first posts recently, and I can’t help but laugh at them, and myself.  It’s not that I think I was terrible when I first started this site, but I can see how I have improved (thank goodness), in the span of two years.

 I think I will always be learning new things about using WordPress, about networking, formatting posts, how to engage readers and everything involved with being a blogger.

Looking back on the past two years, I feel very honored to have met so many amazing people through my adventures with blogging.  Other writers, people who share common interests, musical artists, entrepreneurs, people bettering their communities… the list goes on and on.  I really cannot say thank you enough, to all of you who have been a part of Joanna the Montrealer.  Thank you so much to everyone who has been interviewed, who has left comments, shared my posts or who have subscribed and Followed me.  It means so much to me and I really appreciate it.  Never be shy to say hello, I love hearing from all of you, and if you have something you are working on that you would like me to share or write a post about, don’t hesitate to ask.  I would love to help.

One of the amazing tools WordPress offers is the Stats Page.  It offers insight into how many views you have, the day your site gets the most traffic and at what time and what search terms led people to come to your page.

How have the stats changed on my site since I started?  Well, to be fair, when I first launched this site, I was not consistent in updating my posts so it was a very rocky beginning.  I only truly became serious about JTM about a year ago.

Here is a screen cap of the stats I had from back in 2013:

As you can see, I only published 43 posts that year.  While I started in November, I suppose that’s not too bad- but when you see the quality of my posts, it’s not hard to see why I only had 386 views, by 192 visitors.  Still, for a blogger who was just starting, I don’t find 192 visitors to be too bad for two months worth of writing!

Next, here are the stats for 2014:

As you can see, my stats improved for the 2014 year, although, my amount of posts published had not increased that much, especially since this time, it was over the span of a 12 month period.  School did take a lot of my time in 2014, so it’s understandable why I didn’t write too often.  While I did get an increase in views and visitors, the views per visitor decreased.

And now, for 2015, my best year yet:

 There are still two months left in the year, but I already had an increase to 8, 132 views by 5,601 Visitors.  I doubled the amount of posts I did from 2014 and my content got much more interesting.  The other change I made in 2015, was start a Facebook Page for my site. I started using other forms of social media to promote my posts, (Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+…) and I increased the topics I discussed.

Therefore, overall, throughout this two year adventure, I have had:

My posts have reached 99 Countries this year and I am feeling very humbled.  Several other blogs I follow have much more of a following than I do.  I know these stats aren’t groundbreaking; they are far from it. However, I am proud of the improvements I have made this year alone.  I remember feeling a bit discouraged when I shared my first few posts.  It was hard to think that anyone would ever care to read what a girl from Montreal had to say.  I wanted to share the stats for this reason. It is to show other bloggers that even one year, one month, one post can change everything.

If I had any advice for bloggers who are just starting, it would be to just enjoy it.  Don’t expect to get rich quickly by blogging.  It will take time and a lot of effort.  I have only started to see a few small earnings in the past six months.  This came in the form of tickets to events, free products, discounts etc.

While it is nice to be offered forms of compensation for my work, it is not why I started this journey.  I never expected for any of that to happen to me but it is.  I won’t get used to it either.  Truthfully, I have people who can vouch for me on this.  When I have a certain amount of views, or I am contacted to write an article, I do a happy dance.

 If you enjoy writing, then write!  If I didn’t enjoy what I was doing, I would not be doing this two years later.  Just don’t give up, have fun and keep being the unique individual you are.  People will notice.

I will be launching a new segment to discuss more of my adventures using WordPress and I will include tips I have learned along the way so stay tuned!

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to comment below, find me on Facebook, all other forms of social media or, e-mail me at [email protected]

Much love is being sent to all of you for being such great Followers, Readers and Friends.