525,600 Minutes (Give or Take)

I’ve never really been a fan of self-congratulatory blog posts, but hey, as of yesterday My Not So Humble Opinion turned a year older (and by coincidence so did I), so I thought I’d take a little time to look back and reflect on what happened.

First, and I can’t say thank you nearly enough, over 20,000 views. I have to admit I’m more than a lot astounded by this. When I started this blog I expected it to be myself, family, and maybe a few friends reading it occasionally, and that was about it. If I got 500 views I would have considered that a success.

I got Freshly Pressed a few times! I can’t even begin to say what an honor that’s been. Of course I think my writing is great, but to have someone else affirm it is something else entirely. Affirmation, even.

Perhaps the greatest thing of all is that I was endorsed (okay, one blog post was endorsed) by the always amazing Christopher Titus. Yes, you read that right. On his official Facebook page. I tell you, moments like that make it all worthwhile. That and the adulation of my legions of fans.

Oh, didn’t I mention? Over 850 followers so far, and I love each and every one of you in a very deep and personal way. But not in a creepy way. Just a very deep, personal, likely to soon involve a restraining order sort of way.

Of course I can’t forget to mention my fantastic guest bloggers, My Not So Humble Wife Leigh Bonsall and Keri Anderson of Heels First Travel and Keri on Life (both of which are great blogs and if you don’t already follow them you should go check them out now. We’ll wait for you.) Both lovely ladies have been a tremendous help in providing me with fantastic content when I needed it the most.

Most recently I managed to bring Bobapalooza to the masses. This is one of my favorite projects that I’m involved with, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

If anyone is interested in my advice for success (such as it is), I would offer three points:

• Always focus on fresh content. Yes, I know, advertising, SEO, game the system any way you can. But here’s the thing: all of that takes time and money you can also (and more easily) spend generating fresh content, which works for you in more ways, like getting you re-posted, Freshly Pressed (why else be on WordPress?), shared, tweeted, and all the free media you can imagine. It also gets people coming back, and that’s worth a lot more than any advertising or SEO in the world.
• Pick a schedule and stick to it. When people know to expect updates from you, they get in the routine of reading you. You want to be a part of their routine. Morning cup of coffee, feed the cat, read your blog. Like clockwork. If you fall off your schedule they stop reading (even if you have a good excuse), so don’t fall off.
• Have a solid buffer. Before I even started I have 2-3 weeks worth of content in the can, and I didn’t even touch most of it for a solid two months because I was always writing fresh stuff. Eventually life caught up to me and I ran out, but I plan to refill it, and I still make sure to hit every update.
• Make friends and line up guest bloggers early. The only thing better than content in the can is good stuff from someone else. It makes your page look fresh, interesting, and expands your appeal.

That’s my thoughts anyway. It’s gotten me this far.

Now for the stats geeks out there, here’s some fun numbers:

• The most frequent search term that brought people to MNSHO was “abe lincoln”. The second most frequent was “abraham lincoln”. The third most frequent was “misogynistic tendencies”. What does that say about me?

• The most popular post of the year, not surprisingly, was “Dating Advice from Philosophers” (soon to be a major motion picture starring Brad Pitt). The second most popular (not counting the homepage/archive) was “How To Get What You Want Without Really Trying”, followed by “The War on Christmas” (being Freshly Pressed really pays off). The most popular non-FP post was “Dating Advice From Historical Figures”. Everybody needs love, I guess.

• I’ve gotten the most views from the U.S., followed by the U.K., Canada, and India, with the Philippines and Australia close behind. Hi there!

• I’ve had 170 posts so far, and I have plenty more to come.

Whether you’re a relatively new reader or you’ve been around since day one, I want to thank you again for being here. I’m committed (and some say I should be), and plan to keep going for at least another year.

Let’s enjoy it together, shall we?