On My Sixth Blogiversary

Today marks, officially, my sixth Blogiversary.

Six years of writing in this space.

Six years of documenting the ups and downs, ins and outs of all things urban farming first, and rural homesteading/hobby farming second…

In 1,230 published posts (including this one)!

Whew!

And so, I’m obviously spending a bit of time reflecting today on the evolution of this space and on our journey.

I’m also spending the day smushing photos on the site so they’ll take up less space and hopefully increase my site speed.

WooHoo!

(As I write this I’ve got 594 smushed out of 4094…this is going to take a while…like, probably all day long. Yeah…I like to take and post a lot of pictures! Especially of eggs 😉 )

I’m thinking about my humble beginnings on Blogger six years ago, my intention to monetize this space when faced a job loss almost four years ago and my move to WordPress, the realization that monetization in the traditional sense doesn’t work for me (I really don’t like pop-ups and ads and blinking flashiness on anyone’s sites, let alone my own), and my quiet journey to find a happy middle ground of professionalism/creation of a nice, pretty space that also acts more as traditional blog than all DIY and Pinterest optimized images all the time.

Though, I thoroughly acknowledge the importance and helpfulness of social media in sharing my voice amid the sea of millions of others working to have their voices heard as well 😉

And so, on this Blogiversary, for posterity’s sake, I thought I’d outline a few stats, keeping in mind that these *only reflect the last three years since moving to WordPress and not my entire (short, six year) history as a blogger.

 

My top six posts/pages of all time are:

1. 1/8 acre Urban Farm with 47, 965 views – This page outlines exactly what we did on our 1/8 suburban plot to transform it from a lifeless nothing into a bustling, food producing, urban oasis.
2. Homestead Hacks with 36,743 views – Tips from yours truly and fellow homesteaders on how to work smarter instead of harder.
3. Sowing, Growing, and Harvesting Echinacea with 31, 922 views – This posts was originally written to be featured on Frugally Sustainable but fell through the cracks when she went off the radar during a huge transition period for her a couple of years ago so I put it up here and it’s served me very well.
4. Garlic Powder DIY with 14, 309 views – This was my first real DIY post that went “viral” thanks to Andrea at Frugally Sustainable who pinned it before I really even knew about Pinterest (about four years ago). All of a sudden I had all this traffic and no clue where it was coming from. This post was my first real Aha Moment about the power of social media in driving readers to one’s blog. With “only” 14k views, this would not be considered viral now, but it was such an exciting time for me 🙂
5. Backyard Chickens (Keeping and Care) with 7,854 views – This post was written in an effort to collect all of the knowledge we’d gleaned to date and put it one place in the hope it might help someone else learn about keeping chickens without all the ups and downs we went through to get to that point.
6. Sowing Seeds – Inspirations, Ideas, and Resources with 7, 682 views – Written to compile both my own tips and tricks alongside those of other bloggers (some of which are no longer blogging, so I just updated this post, removing broken links that no longer go where they used to).

 

And so, where does all this traffic come from?

1. Facebook with ~70k views – Where I share blog posts on my page as well as in a small FB group where we reciprocate shares, provide feedback and support for one another, and commiserate about Homesteading/Farming/Blogging/Everything in between 🙂
2. Search Engines with ~44k views – SEO works. Period.
3. Pinterest with ~26k views – Where I share some of my top posts from time to time and ask my FB group to share for me as well (again, the reciprocation magic at work there).

I honestly don’t play the Social Media Game like I used to because I’ve found it lends itself more to Hit & Run views (instead of the readers who stick around, comment, and enjoy the space) but putting myself out there and receiving a higher number of views does lend itself to the occasional real reader who finds value and wants to stick around beyond the DIY Garlic Powder type posts.

Now sitting in the awareness that I’d prefer to have regular readers who comment and enjoy the journey alongside me, I’m spending less time on social media chasing views and more time reading and commenting on other blogs (like I did in the very beginning) and working at building the community I’ve always longed for.

And so, if you’ve been here for a while, checking in, reading, popping about, commenting (or not commenting), thank you for being here and sharing in this wild and crazy journey of ours!

And if you’re just stopping in for the very first time ever, Welcome!  Please grab a cuppa and stay a while!

It is my aim to continue to write in this space for many years to come, sharing the ups and downs of this urban/hobby/rural farming journey of ours as we continue to grow and evolve and I am so deeply grateful for the company <3

Happy Blogiversary to me 😉

xoxo,
M