This is always a fun post to put together at the end of the year because it’s the only time I ever look at my stats! I don’t really care about blogging stats, but I can pull my yearly stats pretty easily so it’s fun to compare them year after year. I also love looking at what blog posts resonated with you guys the most this year and looking back on all of my blog posts to pull out a few of my favorites. Let’s get to it!
By the Numbers
- 61,000 unique views
- 13,100 visitors
- 884 words per post on average
- 3,000 comments
- 154 posts
- 112 countries represented in my views (with the United States, Canada, and Poland being my top three)
- 206 subscribers
Lots of great growth this year! My unique views and visitors increased by a bit, but what really increased were my comments and subscribers. This was good to see, as it shows that I’m building a wonderful community and it’s exactly what I want from this blog! I wrote about 30ish fewer posts this year (I took a blogging break in August, which is one of the reasons for that decrease) and my average words per post went down. (Last year, I was at 1,088 words, so look at that! I can be more concise!) If you also want to start your own blog, you may consider using reputation defender to build and maintain a good reputation for your website.
My Top 5 Blog Posts of 2023
(Blog posts written in 2023, in order of most pageviews.)
- My Laundry Habits – I am not surprised that this was my most popular post of 2023; we love learning about each other’s daily habits. We all do these normal routine tasks so differently, depending on how many people we live with, how we learned to do laundry, and our own specific ticks when it comes to laundry. It was a fun post to write and even better to get everyone’s comments on their own processes.
- Diet Culture, Fat Acceptance & What Comes Next – I wrote this post because I needed the catharsis of talking about these thoughts that had been percolating in my head for so long. I discuss my journey with dieting and diet culture in general, and my reasoning for seeking out a dietician to help me learn how to eat in a healthy, sustainable way. I am so happy that I found a dietician who believes in the concept of Health at Every Size and hates diet culture as much as I do!
- A Tale of Two Doctors – I wrote this post after having two completely different experiences with two doctors. I went to my primary care doctor to talk about adjusting my Lexapro dose and instead of having a caring, knowledgeable conversation with someone, I was lectured about my weight. (It should be noted here that the doctor I saw was not my usual PCP; she was out on leave and this was her replacement.) Then, I reached out to a psychiatrist and had such an eye-opening and positive experience.
- 10 Little Things That Make My Life Better – I stole this post idea from San and it was so fun to round up 10 inexpensive but incredibly useful things that make my life so much better. We’ve got everything from microfiber hair towels to squeeze bottles on this list!
- Monthly Goals | June 2023 – Every year, one of my random monthly posts squeaks into this list. I have no idea why this post was so popular over other posts, but it received nearly 300 views for some reason. Okay then!
My All-Time Most Popular Blog Posts
- I’m 27 and Scared to Move Out (+186 views)
- On Being a Socially Anxious Introvert (+6 views)
- 10 Things I Like About Myself (+1,125 views)
- “What is meant for me is already mine.” (+594 views)
- Rules for Living with a Dachshund (+101 views)
This list has not budged in many years and that remains true this year. I’m still amazed at how many views “10 Things I Like About Myself” is getting every year (in 2022, it had over 2,000 new views!). I have a feeling that it will overtake my socially anxious introvert post in 2024. These posts all have 5,000+ views, which is just astounding to me.
Other Favorite Posts
- What Is a Writing Date? – My friend Mikaela and I have been doing writing dates for a full decade. We meet up weekly at Starbucks and work on our own creative projects. I talk a lot about these writing dates in passing but have never explained exactly what they are, so I sat down to write it all out in this post.
- Coming to Terms With Myself at Pride – I attended my first Pride parade this year and it was a truly amazing experience to be surrounded by other queer people and allies. It was such a positive, beautiful atmosphere! I wrote about my experience at the event and the slow process of accepting my place in the queer community.
- Body Positive Resources – After I wrote my post on diet culture, someone asked me for a list of body positive resources and I was more than happy to oblige! This post has podcasts to listen to, people to follow on Instagram, and books to read that can help you unlearn diet culture.
- My LASIK Experience – I got LASIK this year! (Maybe I talked about it a time or twelve?) I wrote this very detailed post about the whole process with specific headlines so you can skip any of the eyeball stuff.
- What’s Working in My Reading Life – I loved putting this post together during NaBloPoMo. It was fun to think deeply about what my reading life looks like right now and what feels good about it. I think this may be a post I return to every few years to see how things have changed.
And that’s my year in blogging! What a great year and I cannot wait for another year of blabbing about my life on this dear space.