How’s the blogging going – 2021 version

Posted on by

Eight years, going on nine. That’s how long I have been doing this blog. Sometimes I read something about how a blog just “takes off” and I laugh and laugh. I’m sure it happens, but more of it is about hard work and ignoring rejection and apathy. I do this for me, and I find it useful. That is enough.

As with previous years, here is the geeky post about progress and numbers. I like it and it gives me perspective.

Posts and Other Numbers

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Posts 158 124 71 64 112 41 49 69
Sessions 2899 7081 2700 2277 3545 7388 N/A N/A
Users 1262 5108 1691 1334 2795 6235 N/A N/A
Page Views 9790 13586 7009 7925 9888 14355 N/A N/A

The analytics program I switched to last year really let me down, so I still can’t track the overall information for sessions, users, and page views. However, I did just download (another) plug in so here’s hoping next year will be more complete.

Newsletter (2021 new metrics)

I started out the year with 434 addresses on my newsletter e-mailing list. At the end of the year, having published a newsletter every month, I have 342 subscribers. This may seem like a downer, having fewer addresses than when I started, but I’m encouraged. 342 people have stuck with me during the last year. I’ll take it.

Painting Sales

With COVID-19 and all the rest, painting sales have been challenging. But I sold two paintings DIRECTLY because of my monthly newsletter and four others through some other connection. That’s six paintings for the year, the same as 2020.

Most popular posts (by month)

While I lost some data, I was still able to see (in general) what the more popular posts were.

Conclusion

In spite of all its challenges (and there were a lot), 2021 was a pretty good year for the blog and my art in general; however, I’m not hoping 2022 will lighten up!