Happy Two Year Blog Anniversary
Time to celebrate You Had Me At Solo’s second blog anniversary! I can’t believe how fast time flies. It really does seem like yesterday that I was writing my one year anniversary post. But here we are. I’ve come a long way since starting You Had Me At Solo, from graduating college and working my first job to exploring new ways to travel and live sustainably. I have so much more respect for local travel and advocating for the environment where I can and am endlessly grateful to all you readers!
For this blog anniversary post, I thought I’d do a little comparison to show the progress of the past year and where we’ve still got to go:
- Total number of posts:
- Year 1: 8 posts
- Year 2: 12 posts
- Site traffic:
- Year 1: 315 visitors
- Year 2: 350 visitors
- Most popular post:
- Year 1: A Local Adventure – Stoneleigh
- Honorable mention for the most interesting place I visited:
- Year 1: Columcille
- Year 2: Shenandoah National Park
NUMBER OF POSTS
I am happy to report that the number of posts per year increased by 4! I was writing pretty sporadically the first year I had this blog, pretty much whenever I felt something warranted a post. This past year, I set a goal of one post a month (which I did reach, though not as consistently as I would have liked). In total, I wrote 8 posts in year 1, 12 posts in year 2, and my goal for year 3 is to write 20 posts. Let me know if you have any ideas!
SITE TRAFFIC
My site traffic increased ~10% from year 1 to year 2. To be honest, I’m surprised it increased that much. In year 1, I promoted You Had Me At Solo a lot more on social media, etc. than I did in year 2. In general, most of You Had Me At Solo’s visitors are new (as opposed to returning). Year 3 is all about exploring new ways to expand the audience but also making content more engaging for all you peeps who already read my blog! Stay tuned for those updates in next year’s blog anniversary post ;))
MOST POPULAR POST
A Local Adventure – Stoneleigh was the most popular post of year 1. I had a really fun time writing this one: I took a Sunday morning and walked around Stoneleigh, a natural garden near my college campus, exploring all the trails and native plants. It was a great reminder that you don’t have to travel far to explore something new. My most popular post in year 2 was Habits I Picked Up When I Started My Full-Time Job. This really surprised me because most of my posts are centered around sustainability and local travel, so this post was a little out there for me and wasn’t my personal favorite of the year.
HONORABLE MENTION
While this isn’t a quantitative metric, I thought it would be fun to go back and review the most interesting place I visited for each year. In year 1, the most interesting place I visited was Columcille Megalith Park, a beautiful rock garden in Eastern PA (highly recommend if you’re in the area). Shenandoah National Park was the most exciting place I visited in year 2. It was my second national park and was absolutely stunning in the fall. I am definitely looking forward to crossing more national parks off the list soon.
I have learned a lot from my blog; it is something I truly enjoy doing. This blog is my way of raising awareness for sustainability and local travel. So here’s to another year of exploration, conservation and more of You Had Me At Solo!
Posted: by Anna Connolly
