The new year isn’t catching me by surprise. I’ve been expecting it. The year reborn is an exciting time because it allows me to reflect and reboot. I’m able to look back across the year to be encouraged by my accomplishments and learn from my failures.
One particular piece did come as a surprise. It was Jetpack’s Annual Report of my blog. While it confirmed things already known, it served as a good reminder of how things have been.
This past year was my first full year of blogging (I started in October 2013). So, in addition to my Reflections on One Year of Blogging, here is a piece on the 2014 high points—according to Jetpack—and the goals that come from them.
Overall, I had about 44,000 views in the year. That breaks down to more than 3,600 per month, 122 per day. This is a rather interesting fact because the average views per day nearly quadrupled since January. Even more interesting, it was not a slow increase, but a leap that began in November with the promotion of My Brother’s Keeper and the accompanying help of my newly created WordPress plug-in, Mad Mimi Digest (more about that in early 2015). Ever since, my annual average views have doubled.
To take it further, I noticed that my average views on “post days” (days that a post is published) are exceedingly higher than “non-post days” (days no posts are published), which lowers the daily average. The gap between the two is pretty wide—380 to 150, for example.
Goal #1: Write more frequently. These stats tell me that I can easily increase readership by simply publishing more posts throughout the week. (It may cause readers to grow weary due to post-bombarding, but we’ll see how it turns out.) I’ll set my goal at five posts per week—whoa!
Goal #2: Write more briefly. I can’t always be brief—as this post indicates. But I sure can try to shorten things up. It will require me to think more openly about subjects, instead of the more fleshed-out writings I’m used to doing. I’ll set my goal to 500 words per post—at least for the short ones.
Goal #3: Write more personally. For the most part, my writing voice has not been very personal. I tried to be somewhere in the middle of essay and conversation. Feedback has taught me to be more personal. Open the door a little and let my audience see inside more often. I’ll set my goal at relating at least one personal story each week.
More blog goals will come tomorrow as I look at the effect that Wednesday Wallpapers have on the annual report. Subscribe so you don’t miss out.
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