2014 In Review: Goals and Stats

/ December 29, 2014

I started Victim To Charm at the beginning of 2014. One of my resolutions was to “try blogging.” You can tell by the way I worded that goal that I doubted my likelihood to stick with it.

Yet 163 posts later, here we are.

I started out writing once or sometimes twice each week, primarily in the “Personal” or “College Living” categories. That lasted until April, when I took the Daily Post’s Blogging 201 course. It encouraged me to set concrete goals, write more often, and interact with more bloggers. 

On April 15 I set three specific goals:

year in review 10And a few more general goals:

year in review 9

I didn’t reach 100 followers by my goal date, but I hit that number later in May, and continued to grow my audience by writing more frequently and broadly, including travel posts and discussions of society & culture. I began making sure that every post included a photo to break up the text.

coffeeIn June, I started a monthly Firsts series.

In July, I released my first themed photography collection and purchased my own domain.

In August, I guest blogged for a fellow Blogging 201 participant and released another photo series.

In September, I hosted three guest bloggers, began doing the Weekly Photo Challenge each week, and I participated in Feminist Friday.

In October, my Feminist Friday post got Freshly Pressed (dream come true!). I did Blogging 201 again–I’d missed a few assignments during the April course and wanted to go back and review some things–so that meant more goal setting.

year in review 11

I ended up investigating all the themes and then sticking with my tried-and-true Sight theme. I gave up on the widget (I tried a few things and didn’t like any of them) and instead wrote myself a tagline that is now in my header. I interacted more on Twitter, and the followers…well…

1000 followers selfieIn November, I hit 1000 followers. I also successfully completed both NaBloPoMo and Photography 101 simultaneously. No big deal. 

In December, I wrote one of my favorite posts of all time, Sex and Reading, and participated in Secret Santa. It’s been a more low-key month due to finals and the holidays and NaBloPoMo recovery, but it’s also been a huge planning month for me: I figured out an editorial calendar system that works for me and filled in posts for next month. I’ve committed to the April A to Z Challenge and decided on my theme and topics–all except N (how is it that I have genuinely good topics for X and Z but not for N?), and I’ll be offering up a few slots to guests.

The above milestones also reflect in the stats.

I’ll admit, I love looking at my blog’s stats. I don’t prioritize the numbers (if I did, I’d write a LOT of highly uncreative list posts), but that doesn’t mean the peaks and dips don’t interest me.

Here are some of those peaks:

year in review 2The views break down by month as follows:

year in review 1I’m not overly surprised by these numbers. November certainly makes sense because of NaBloPoMo and Photography 101: when you post more content, views will be higher–there’s simply more to look at. The fluctuation, especially in April, July, and September, catches my eye. We’ll see if those trends repeat next year.

The comment number is especially impressive to me. We’ve had a lot of good discussion this year on topics like growing up, dating, social media, feminism and gender roles, and disability.

year in review 3

Hint: These are also good posts to go back and read again ;)

I also love looking at the country data. Here are the countries with the most and least views, plus the world map:

year in review 8year in review 6

year in review 7

I’m hoping to fill in some of those white spaces in 2015 in my quest for world domination a diverse audience. Right now the number of Americans vs. everybody else is staggering, so seeing if that gap narrows next year is part of what I’m keeping an eye out for.

What does 2015 have in store for this blog? Here are a few things you can expect:

  • A lot of the same:
    • stories from life and college
    • discussions of feminism, race, and disability
    • monthly Firsts
    • posts about my travels
    • Weekly Photo Challenge participation
    • silly and serious tweets about writing and life
    • (hopefully) quarterly photo series releases
  • New things:
    • monthly Favorites series where I’ll be featuring music, movies, blog posts, and other things that stood out to me in the four weeks prior
    • discussions on other social justice/discrimination issues–I’ve been especially interested in the prison industrial complex recently
    • book-related posts for Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge (more on that in January)
    • April A to Z Challenge

If you’ve read one post or all 163 (if you’ve read them all, holla at me, you deserve a trophy), left a comment, and/or tweeted at me this year, know that I appreciate your support–I wouldn’t be doing all these things without such an awesome blogging community behind me!

Let’s make 2015 the best year yet!

Related posts

51 thoughts on “2014 In Review: Goals and Stats”

  1. love you <33333 even though I am your roommate, and we discuss your blog, I still love reading every new post :) you are such a smart and caring girl, and keep working hard!!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  3. Congrats on a very good year and belated congrats on your Freshly Pressed status as well – though I don’t know how I didn’t notice that earlier :-(
    World domination eh? Not to encourage you on taking over the world, but from what I’ve read from you so far something tells me you’d be a fair and benevolent overlord :-P
    Happy Holidays and all the best for 2015.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  6. You have had a most awesome & impressive year indeed! Congratulations, and thank you for the inspiration! I, too, wasn’t sure I would stick with it once I started blogging, but I’ve held on for almost four months now. Here’s to an even better 2015!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  8. Fantastic stuff! You’re doing a lot better than I did at the one year mark and you have far more followers, and I’ve been going for over four years. I think you participate far more in the community, which I don’t really have the time for with work and it’s clearly paying off.

    All the best for 2015!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. Youve had an incredible year, well done! You always post insightful and well written content so you deserve every success :) Ive been doing lots of planning for my blog for 2015 including some feminisn posts which is a new for me! We should team up for some guests posts if youd be keen?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. Congrats on an awesome year. Just so you know, I love reading your blog. I hope you have even more success in 2015. And I’m not sure if I told you congrats, but congrats on being Freshly Pressed. I kind of hate I missed it since it was during my super busy time at work , and I was being blog lazy.

    Keep rockin’ Miss Thang!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  12. Thanks so much for sharing these. The sharing of the blogging accomplishments and techniques is an important part of the subculture, IMO. I think you have done very well.

    The concrete goals and the editorial schedule will help, and the photography is just indispensable. You have a talent for the selfies, and the photos in general. They add a lot of interest to your blog. I think your April will look very different this year, especially if you register early. Most A to Z visitors start at the top of the list — so many do that that last year, I started at the bottom just to give some love to blogs who would not otherwise have gottent it. Met Write On, Sisters! that way, among others.

    Your “best ever” day tops any single day I’ve managed this year. We’ve not broken 400.

    And I am also wondering about Kosovo.

    I’ll have one of these posts soon.

    Like

    Reply

    • I love discussing and reading both my own and others’ accomplishments and goals. It’s a good reflection and way to go forward. I’m definitely planning on registering as early as possible for A to Z. I was near the top of the BlogHer blogroll for NaBloPoMo in November and I imagine that helped a lot of my success there. I also try to start elsewhere in the lists to spread the love. I think that “best ever” day was from Freshly Pressed, which would make sense. I remember it threw off the way my bar graph looked and I was upset–but not TOO upset obviously ;)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • List placement is important. Our first big month was January. I stumbled into the Zero-to-Hero Challenge, got my first post in the top ten, and got a first-page comment on the forum thread. Then gave hundreds and hundreds of WordPress likes on the Zero to Hero tag over the next week and did contributor debuts the week after.

        It’s not something we can repeat. When you are doing a registration-thingy, it pays to be first, is what I am sayin’

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  14. Did you create your blog just this year? That’s amazing! You’ve accomplished so much. My favorite thing about this post is that you keep the old and the new for 2015. You don’t completely change everything, but you look for fresh concepts to keep things interesting. I look forward to everything you’ll write next year!

    Like

    Reply

    • Yes! My anniversary is in two weeks. I’ve put a LOT of myself (a lot of sweat, a few tears, no blood yet but anything could happen in 2015) into this site and it’s really paid off. That’s why I want to keep most of it the same, but a new year is a good time to debut new things. Thanks for reading & being a blog buddy :)

      Like

      Reply

  15. Pingback: 2014 Review, with Blogwanking | Sourcerer

  16. Great year! Hope I can emulate your stats in 2015! I blogged a lot 2004-2007, then stopped. Back at it in 2014 and now the new year. Thanks for stopping by my lil’ world. I’m glad we “met.” :-) Happy writing.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  18. Wow this is incredible! I was not keen on the whole commenting or followers of my blog. It was not meant for anything really and I still do not really care who reads it. But it is fun seeing a random soul comment now and then.

    Sure applaud you on all your hard work, I try posting at least 4 times a week and I am thinking of things to do but that will come in due time. So glad we came across each other, I placed you on my GCF, so now I can see every time you posted. Intrigued!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I think WordPress might be easier for building community (comments/followers) than a bunch of other blogging platforms. I certainly wouldn’t still be going like I am without the comments from people.
      Thank you! I’m not sure what a GCF is but I like the sound of that. Definitely glad we’ve gotten to interact :) and keep up your hard work too!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  19. First week blogger here, and it is so great to see a breakdown of your actual progress and how you achieved, giving me a great encouraging picture of what lay ahead! So much better then just a generic list of do’s and dont’s with no real reassurance of the source or results. Very brave, thank you!

    Like

    Reply

    • I love trying to analyze my stats and seeing where the spikes & dips come from and sharing that! I’m glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful. I SO highly recommend WordPress’s Blogging University courses. They’re free, low-pressure, great for networking, and honestly so helpful for teaching you what you need to know and encouraging you to blog. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello! Best of luck with your new blog :)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  20. Pingback: January Favorites | Victim to Charm

  21. Pingback: If We Were Having Coffee (Injury Edition) | Victim to Charm

  22. Pingback: On The #AtoZChallenge | Victim to Charm

Leave a comment