I’m kind of a data nerd. I like charts and statistics. Survey results make me giddy.

So, at the end of another blogging year, I like to take a little time to look back over the data. And inside my blog there’s this fabulous little tab titled “Stats” that let’s me do just that. You may not care about blog stats, in which case consider the next few minutes free time to do something else. But if, like me, you dig data, then here we go!

I began blogging in 2010 when I had just over 1,000 views–mostly my mother visiting again and again. By 2013, I’d gotten in the grove with nearly 9,000 views and around 3,000 visitors. So not just my mom. In 2015 and 2016 I seem to have leveled off with around 13,000 views and 6,500 visitors. Is that good? I have no idea, but it feels pretty good to me.

In 2016 I posted 107 times–twice a week with a few extras thrown in. Here were the top five posts for the year:

1. Appalachian Thursday–Old Christmas (This was carryover from a 1/31/15 post.)
2. Let’s Talk About Sex . . . In Christian Fiction (Published in October 2011, this post appears to be what’s called “evergreen.” Sex attracts attention. Who knew?)
3. A Blessing Disguised as a Medical Emergency (If you ever need to boost blog traffic, having a stroke and writing about it is super effective.)
4. The 10 Comments Authors Like to Hear Most (People seem to LOVE top 10 lists.)
5. Appalachian Thursday–The Outhouse at My Wedding (I’m guessing the juxtaposition of outhouse and wedding piques readers’ interest!)

Other interesting (at least to me) bits of data include:

• 89% of my readers are in America; 4% are in Canada, 1% in Brazil (really??); 1% in the UK; and .5% in Australia (thanks Rel)
• Most people find my blog via Facebook (#1) and Google (#2) with Twitter a distant third
• The top search term is . . . Sarah Loudin Thomas (people are spelling my name right!)

So what’s my takeaway from all this lovely data? Be honest, be real, stay active on Facebook and be nice to my mom–I still think she’s my biggest driver of traffic.