How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights? In sunsets? In midnights? In cups of coffee?
In pageviews? In comments? In tech errors I’ve made?
Must I go on or do you fellow musical lovers see where I’m going with this?
A little fun fact: in 8th grade I was in chorus. Before you start thinking that I can even sing a little bit, let me assure you that they had to let me in. Everyone was allowed in. I was terrible, BUT I could lip sync with the best of them and one of my favorite songs that Mrs. Shook chose was 525,600 Minutes from Rent. That song still gives me all the feels.
Ok, I digress; let’s get to it. Before I can move on with hopes/goals for 2016, I wanted to take a look back…
::insert dream sequence music here::
In January 2015 I tried 10 days of paleo and shared my thoughts of the experience. I solidified the chores that Hailey (then 3 years old) should be responsible for and David and I both were honored to be a part of our dear friends Jay and Stacy’s beautiful Atlanta wedding.
February brought some highs and lows. The high was the release of my book! Sadly the low was our Koda’s canine lymphoma diagnosis. We started her treatment immediately and the whole family went hiking at Stone Mountain State Park in March, feeling well.
In April we celebrated Easter (and the bunny left proof of his visit!) and I really got into Burn Bootcamp with this two minute fitness test (that I really need to do again!). I got to spend time with my girlfriends at Laura and Wilson’s beautiful wedding. Somehow a year had flown by and my sweet baby Kaitlyn turned 1!
In June I shared what a day in the life of a mom of two looks like, even though each day is always quite different. We ate a lot of good food and spent some downtime of the lake. We had a blast celebrating the 4th of July with friends, then later that month David’s family came to visit.
August meant getting ready for back to school so I shared some of my favorite preschool learning tools and contemplated the right age to start structured activities for kids. Our master bath renovation was finally complete and I drove down to Atlanta to help throw a baby shower for one of my best friends.
September was busy. I shared how I talk to the girls about feelings and how that helped with tantrums. Hailey turned four and we threw her a princess themed birthday party at home! Over my 32nd birthday, we spent an entire week at Oak Island just beach bumming and hanging with family.
We didn’t slow down much in October, but had a lot of fun! We traveled to Athens to partake in a rain-soaked tailgate with my college BFFs. Then David and I had a weekend away alone together at the Annapolis Sailboat Show. It was so much fun! The fall weather finally started to sneak in and we soaked it up as a family at the Carolina Hot Air Balloon Festival. I decided to start sharing detailed meal plans again and the whole family dressed up in a pirate theme for Halloween (Kaitlyn was the parrot!).
At this point, there year really started flying by. I don’t even know where November went. I do know I nailed this kale salad recipe and am still eating it weekly. We had an amazing time bouncing around Georgia for a week at Thanksgiving and seeing so much family.
By the time December rolled around I was feeling the holidays! I wore an unseasonable dress to the Girls Night Christmas Party I threw, but had an absolute blast nonetheless. I shared my favorite go-to natural home health remedies that saved me from getting sick before Christmas. The week before Christmas I decided to take some time away from the computer. We took the girls to see Santa, drove around to look at Christmas lights, had breakfast dates and really enjoyed the holidays.
It was a good year.
That’s all personal stuff of course, so how about on the bloggy side of things? Let’s chat stats!
I always find it fascinating which blog posts take off and which ones are total busts. I’m terrible at predicting it, as I’m always surprised that posts I work my butt off on flop and some that I feel silly even posting become pinterest hits. Last year I shared the top posts of 2014, so I want to follow suit this year too. But first, lets take a look at some of the other numbers for anyone that finds these kinds of stats fun too!
In 2015:
# of posts published: 241
# of comments: 7,425
# of total pageviews: 3,128,468 (31% increase over 2014)
# of total visitors: 1,715,173 (68% increase over 2014)
# of different countries – 222
Ah-mazing. To me at least. And humbling that over 1.7 million people have been privy to my grammatical errors.
I also had the opportunity to work with some amazing brands in 2015. A big shout out to Blue Diamond, Blue Apron, Zazzle, Bitsy’s Brainfood, CVS, Moen, Almond Breeze and Plum Organics for being wonderful to work with and to you guys that support the brands that support this site. I’m truly grateful.
Now for the most popular posts, which took me a while to figure out. The most popular posts overall on almost any given day are easily the following:
How to Cure a Sore Throat in Just One Day – the post itself is goofy as can be with my ridiculous selfies that I thought were funny back in 2012, but the content is still gold in the fact that it WORKS.
10 Things That May Surprise You About Your Newborn – which totally cracks me up because I didn’t even write it! It’s a wonderful guest post from my friend Susan back from 2011.
Chocolate Dipped Almond Butter Banana Bites – I totally get this one. They are delicious! But so simple that I never thought they’d be pinned over 605,000 times. Pretty cool!
It makes sense that posts from previous years rank highest on the chart. They’ve had more time to gain google juice and be pinned. But what about the new posts written in 2015? Which of those were most popular? Could it give me insight into the direction I should steer the blog? Yes, it totally can. Take a look!
Most Popular Posts Written in 2015
10. 10 Kitchen Tasks for a Three Year Old
9. The Surprising Change that Cured my Threenager
8. 5 Things I Wish I had Known about Hiring Babysitters
7. Simple Strawberry Jam in the Bread Machine
5. 10 Meal Ideas for Baby Led Weaning
4. Baby Led Weaning 8 Month Meals
3. Calorie Dense Meals for Babies and Toddlers
and the #1 most popular post of 2015 was…
1. Baby Led weaning a blended approach
All 5 top posts from the year were about baby/toddler food! Well shoot, why didn’t y’all just say so? The look back has given me some great insight into topics I want to focus on for this coming year, but that’s for my next post because let’s be honest, this one is a little lengthy right? For sure.
Thank you all for being part of my 2015 and forgiving me while I play catch up this week on the blog. I’m super excited about what 2016 holds in store!
Brynn says
Your blog was a daily read for me in 2015. I loved your post topics, writing style and authenticity. Congrats on a great year!
Brittany Dixon says
What a genuine compliment- thank you so much for reading and being a face I recognize and feel like I know now Brynn! 🙂
Alyssa @ Renaissancerunnergirl says
I am off to check out that sore throat post RIGHT NOW! So clearly still a winner 🙂 Can’t wait to see what 2016 has in store for you!
Brittany Dixon says
Cliff notes version: GARLIC. Do it 😉
Morgan @ Morgan Manages Mommyhood says
I love these kind of posts! It’s a great way to remember my favorite posts as well as show any of the posts I missed (happily/sadly, there were none missed for me!) Here’s to an awesome 2016!
Kathryn @ Family Food on the Table says
So much good stuff here 🙂 I’ll be checking into some of these I missed – thanks for the recap and cheers to another great year in 2016!
Parita @ myinnershakti says
Congrats on all on the success in 2015! Can’t wait to follow along on all that’s to come!
Kate says
Haha, I think I’m responsible for about 100 clicks alone on the Paleo Sausage Bake – and I don’t even eat meat. It’s still super yummy as a veggie-based meal! 🙂
Keep up the good work! I’m looking forward to your posts in 2016!
Brittany Dixon says
I’m responsible for probably about 100 to that post as well haha! I always blank on how to make it and end up googling it from my phone because it’s a favorite at our house as well. So glad you like it as a veggie-only dish- brilliant!
Courtney @ Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life says
Brittany, I’ve truly enjoyed reading more of your blog this year, and look forward to what you have in store for 2016!
Lauren @ Oh Hey! I Like That! says
Reading your blog has definitely been one of the highlights of my year! I can’t wait to see what else is in store for your family!
Sarah says
It’s so funny that you mention the “10 Things That Surprise You About a Newborn” post, because that is exactly how I stumbled upon your blog a few years ago! My then six-month-old daughter was experiencing eczema and so I googled baby eczema and that post came up! I fell in love with your blog and I’ve been reading it ever since! My daughter is now 3 and I have a 9 month old son as well. I love reading your family, baby, and toddler posts, as well as all of the meal planning and recipes! Thanks for all the hard work you put into your blog! Best wishes for a wonderful 2016! 🙂
Brittany Dixon says
Oh my gosh that’s so funny!! Well thank you for the kind words and for sticking around for so long! 🙂
Leah says
Happy New Year! Love following your adventures with the family.
Erica says
Amazing page views! Any advice on how to increase them? Mine have been stagnant for over a year. To be fair I’ve started focusing much more on social media, and it’s paying off, but I’d love to break 100k monthly views this year!
Brittany Dixon says
I’m not sure I’m the best to give advice as my growth has been largely organic and slowwww. However, I do think specific-topic posts have helped, rather than just bits and pieces of my days (evergreen content) with driving traffic through google and pinterest. I’m going to try and do better with pinterest in 2016 since a large portion of my traffic is from there. Also, getting picked up by buzzfeed/huffpost drives a LOT of traffic, but whenever I’ve been on those posts,it’s been completely random, so I don’t even know how to strive for that (or I’d do more of it myself ;))
Honestly, it’s more important to me to foster community and connection than straight pageviews, so I try to focus on writing a blog I would enjoy reading and encourage participation/relationships rather than just pageviews. I know companies all want to know pageview # but it’s not the best way to define a successful blog to me.
Julie says
Congrats on the increase in pageviews & # of visitors! That’s awesome! (I’m an accountant so the geeky numbers thing gets me goin’.) 😉
Brittany Dixon says
Numbers get David excited too! He did all the % increase research haha 😉
Cassie says
Congrats!
Elizabeth says
LOL Ms. Shook! 8th grade chorus was the best because everyone joined it! I think most people that went to JJ know the same songs : )
How cool that your blog is read by so many people in so many different countries! congratulations!