Downtown San Diego Skyline in October
Ok I know most people may find it odd that I’m doing an end of summer update in October, but the weather has cooled down out here and it’s finally starting to feel like fall. In my 9 years in San Diego, this summer has been the best weather-wise. And even though I can’t go to the beach after work anymore, I was able to take a hot shower this week for the first time in months without sweating when I got out.
For me, the best thing about fall/winter is the snow season. I’ll put the snowboard rack on my car in a couple months and be hitting the slopes a bunch this season. I don’t really like going out of the house when it’s raining though so I should have more time to work on the blog too.
Speaking of my blog, it’s coming up on its 1 year anniversary so I wanted to share some of the latest stats. I updated everyone at the beginning of the summer and set some goals to achieve by the end of the summer, so let’s see how I did.
| 7/10/12 | 10/23/12 | |
| Average Visitors Per Day: | 48 | 105 |
| Unique Visitors Per Day: | 25 | 78 |
| Avg. Number of Pages Viewed: | 1.89 | 1.61 |
| Average Visit Duration: | 2 mins 47 secs |
2 mins 17 secs |
| Percentage of New Visitors: | 65% | 72% |
| Views on the Busiest Day: | 138 | 303 |
| Number of Posts: | 40 | 67 |
| Number of Comments: | 157 | 534 |
| Social Media Stats: | ||
| E-mail Subscribers/RSS: | 39 | 60 |
| Facebook “Likes”: | 21 | 30 |
| Twitter Followers: | 17 | 79 |
I’ve tried guest posting on a couple sites this summer and I’ve even posted a couple guest posts on my site. It seems like this has helped my traffic a bit and also exposed my writing to a new audience. My goal at the beginning of the summer was to double the visitors per day and all of my social media stats. I didn’t double everything, but I made some nice increases in all the important categories.
I’ve also started engaging a lot of other personal finance blogs which has helped me to achieve the visitors per day and twitter followers goals that I set. My facebook “likes” and e-mail/RSS subscribers goals are still lagging though.
So if you enjoy receiving updates from this blog, please consider liking my facebook page, or subscribing via e-mail or RSS.
Favorite Posts of October
Here’s a list of some of my favorite posts from other personal finance blogs, I highly recommend all of them:
EE Bonds vs CDs and Bond Funds For Long-Term Investment on The Finance Buff
How to Spend Money Like the Government on Frugal Rules
Who Needs a Budget? I’m Doing OK! on Prairie Eco-Thrifter
Does Meal Planning Actually Save You Money? on Budget Blonde
Why I Would Never Lease a Car on Modest Money
Don’t Let Lazy Take Over Your Financial Life on Money Life and More
What Do You Mean, Average? on Planting our Pennies
Women Lie More than Men When It Comes to How Much They Work on My Family Finances
This Credit Card is Dangerous for Introverts but Good for the Ego on Married With Debt
Why Do We Work? on Leigh’s Financial Journey
Obama-ize your life! A valuable lesson of time management on Reach Financial Independence
Readers, are there any topics you would like to see covered? Have any suggestions for me about the site or any questions in general. Shoot me an e-mail at [email protected]
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Thanks so much for the mention Harry. I envy your weather…It’s 30 here now with about 20 mph winds AND it was 80 three days ago. Great job on your numbers. I too am lagging on the likes.
John, no problem, that may be a record for fastest comment ever, haha. I enjoy the nice brisk weather we’ve been having(in the 60’s), don’t know if I could handle 30 degree weather for too long, I’ve been spoiled.
It’s funny because I use fb a lot for my personal accounts, but primarily twitter for my blog.
Thanks for including me! Congrats on your one year anniversary. I totally forgot about mine, haha. I already miss summer, but it will be back again next year, sigh…
I used to comment on other sites a lot more heavily back when I first started blogging, but now I tend to comment only when I really have something to say. I don’t do social media for my blog though and I still seem to be doing fine without it. Then again, I’m not planning on monetizing, ever.
Happy almost weekend!
Yea I agree, I was doing a lot of commenting for a while, but I felt like my comments weren’t that meaningful. Now I only comment when I really like the article or I have a strong opinion about the matter.
Thanks for including our post, Harry! And we’re totally with you that it finally feels like summer is coming to an end. It’s only been in the last week or two that you don’t need the AC on in the car during the middle of the day and can open the windows and be fine =)
Good job with the growth of your blog, too!
No problem, it is so refreshing to take a hot shower and come out into cold air, haha. The little things 🙂
If you ever come up to Utah for some real skiing, let me know. I won’t drag you up to the world’s best resort, mainly b/c you’re a knuckledragger and won’t be admitted, but there are many other options which are better than 99% of the other places out there. Truly, Utah has the greatest snow on earth. 😉
Yea I need to get up to Utah one of these years. I’ve gone to Tahoe the past couple new years and it’s been pretty fun, even though there was no snow last year. I hope the weather would cooperate if I planned a big trip to Utah though, I’ve heard great things about the snow there 🙂
I pumped out 40+ ski days in 08. Amazing year. I thought about buying a snorkel. I almost got sick of powder. Ok, no I didn’t.
Great increases. Thanks for the reading list. I feel bad that you have to endure that horrible San Diego weather.
Haha I know and as soon as I posted this article, the weather went back up over 80 at the beaches this weekend haha!
Thank you for the mention Harry! Good job on the stats, I am playing the same game, it takes a lot of time and patience!! If you would like to guest post on Reach Financial Independence please drop me a mail! Tdmpauline at gmail.
No problem! I’d like to not worry about my stats so much, but I do find myself constantly checking, haha. I’m actually gonna start focusing on the SEO side in the next couple months so we’ll see if I see any increases from that.
Congrats on the blog progress the last year. That is great. I always find seeing progress motivating for my own site.
Winter hasn’t set in here yet but it is definitely cooler. I am still adjusting.
Thanks so much for the inclusion this week. I really appreciate it.
Thanks, I definitely agree and no problem. Keep up the good work 🙂