2016 in review: Blogging

What a year it was for blogging. One thing is for sure — I learned a lot.

Such as posting every day doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have more views.

But I’ll get to all of that in a moment.

First, Jetpack/Wordpress, which usually sends out a yearly report with fun facts and such, decided not to do it this year. That’s quite disappointing as it’s always fun to see some of the things they show. Alas, they didn’t. So I am doing my best to do it by hand this year, finding those stats and all. Not everything will be covered, but I will do my best.

Blogging in 2016 has been interesting. I posted something each and every day, often coming close to missing. The plan was just to publish as often as possible, and that morphed into something much bigger. Once July and August came, there was no turning back.

So every day in 2016 had a blog post.

The last time I didn’t have a post was December 30, 2015, so I am a bit beyond a year as I haven’t missed yet this month, thanks in part to the 20 Days of Chill.

I am not sure how much longer it will last, but I’m going to try and not push or force things this year. It’s not worth it.

When you have a personal blog with a variety of topics, posting every day is hard. Some things aren’t good or just fill space. You also don’t end up having as much time as you once did to do other blogging things — such as visit and comment elsewhere.

My statistics showed the pain, too. Here’s my totals for 2016:

• Posts: 366
• Views: 23,915

In 2015, I had the highest amount of views ever on my blog at 30,026. I had a drop of more than 6,000 views and I’m going to bet some of that is the lack of interaction with other blogs. Unless you are some big-time blogger, you aren’t going to have a ton of visitors if you don’t go visit other blogs. That’s just reality.

This year, in fact, is the second-lowest amount of views I’ve had since having statistics in 2011 (my lowest year — and I started in March that year, I believe…).

I can’t hamper on things like this, though. Live and learn.

I have averaged, before this year, about 230-250 posts per year and I think that’s a good number. It gives people the chance to breathe. That’s probably what I will aim for in 2017.

Here’s my totals over the years:

• 2016: 23,915
• 2015: 30,026
• 2014: 25,539
• 2013: 26,017
• 2012: 23,925
• 2011: 20,669

Growth within a blog is good, but sometimes you need to take a step back to see what worked and what doesn’t. I have a few ideas for this year and I look forward to seeing if I can implement them. The real world takes precedence and sometimes I just don’t feel like working on in-depth things.

The other big news this year was my fight with my former webhost. My site was down often and I finally had to leave that host and move elsewhere. The move has been spectacular for me as down time has been virtually nothing, which is what you always hope for. I’m not sure what that other host has done to improve, but after 12 years I felt it was time for me to step away and get a fresh start and it’s worked out well for me.

Disappointing with no report

One thing I loved about the annual reports was all the little statistics one could get from it. They were just tidbits and such to make things fun to look at — such as where people visited from, who were the top commenters, and things like that. I messed around with the statistics I can access, and I don’t see the ability of doing that.

I’m not sure who commented the most on my blog, which is where I usually give my shoutouts. There’s a few other things the report used to give that made it a lot of fun.

Jetpack allowed the chance for people to give their opinion on this and I let them know it was highly disappointing they decided not to do it this year.

Stats I do have…

Peeking around the stats page via WordPress, some things are there.

Such as in 2016, my blog was visited by people from 77 countries (down from 122 in 2015). The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada remained the top visiting countries.

Seems some of my older posts are also still popular within searches.

Through 2016, I have a total of 2,348 posts on my blog over 11 years. Not too bad. It’ll take me a few more years, but I plan on reaching 3,000 and more!

My current streak is a long one … as of this writing, I’m at about 375 days (give or take) straight with a blog post. Who knows when it will end, but if I don’t feel it … the streak will be done!

Finally, I’d like to share some of my favorite posts from 2016. These aren’t in any particular order, besides by month.

• January: 20 Days of Chill: Home run (Day 17)
• February: Finding a hidden gem for macarons in Northeast Pennsylvania
• February: Hacksaw entertains with his one-man show 
• February: Why care how others geocache?
• March: Copyright! No video for you, says (redacted)
• May: It’s time for the next step in softball
• May: Renaming a minor league team isn’t easy
• June: Social media needs to be utilized by pro teams
• June: Internet people are just as real as those you know elsewhere
• June: Learning the art of scoring baseball
• June: Dreamers and realists — walking along together
• July: Baseball, life, and lessons learned
• August: When webhosting goes bad, one must move on
• August: The Yankees could learn some customer service skills
• August: Winning doesn’t suck at any level
• September: Nick Williams forgot about me!
• September: Getting the in on In-N-Out
• October: A great experience at my first NEPA BlogCon
• October: NEPA BlogCon: The other side of things
• November: National champions! 
• December: An open letter to the Baseball Hall

If you haven’t read these and have the time, I hope you’ll take a peek at some of these posts. I had 366 posts this year, and these are the ones that stuck out to me.

Overall, it’s been a pretty good year for blogging and I can’t really complain. Here’s looking forward to another great year in 2017!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!