Two years and counting! I seem to remember that some of you have blog birthdays around this same time too right?
Quick Stats:
47% Increase in posting frequency, Comments on my posts increased by 163%
Total Views: 21,407 (3,055 last year)
Best Month: 2,281 views in January, 2010 (1000 last year)
Busiest Day: 270 views on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 (100 last year)
Top 5 Posts: Carrier Strike Group, A New Breed of CSM, Naming Your Ship, APB “Review”, Battleship…ur doin it wrong.
* Note, views to my home page blow all of those away. This is the up and down of not requiring you to “jump” after a break in the post.
Search Terms That Make You Go “Hmmm”: strange buzzing at night, “birthday . come”, koolaid, common sense (one of the highest rated search terms lol), things that make you dizzy (26 times…)
Statistic That Means Something, But I Don’t Know What: Most actively commented month was July (52), which was the same as last year (55)
Top 5 Bloggers Who Helped Me With Traffic: Eve Bloggers, The Ancient Gaming Noob, The Combat Archeologist, Ardwulf, The Beast Within, aka Drew.
Top 5 Bloggers I Helped With Traffic: Broken Toys, Stylish Corpse, Grouchy Gamer, MMO Gamer Chick, The Ancient Gaming Noob
Highest Rank on MassiveBlips: #34 on the MMO Blog Charts
Quick Thoughts:
A friend asked me this year – what does it take to have a successful blog? Thats a good question. It depends really on how you define success. For me, I think this year was a success. And I think the reason why, honestly enough, is time. Lots of people can write decently enough to keep a blog running, and have enough ideas to keep people coming back. But dedication is the key. When you look over to the side of my site and see archives dating back to 2008, that means something I think. You know that I’ve been here awhile and will continue to be here awhile.
One interesting thing I found is that after I decided not to try to knock myself out posting every day, my average posting rate actually went up. All things in moderation right?
Anyway, to answer the unasked questions – yes, I do still plan on upgrading a bit to a hosted plan with my own domain, which is technically my wife’s birthday gift to me. And yes, this week, I do plan a post revealing my vocation – which, as I have noted before, I think has a unique vantage point on MMO’s.
Goals for the Coming Year:
I aimed waaay too high last year. I missed both my goals. But that’s okay, nothing wrong with a little learning experience, right? So with that in mind, I tried to set more reasonable goals this year. Just FYI, I don’t set goals around statistics. (-:
1) Get a regular gaming group together. Every time I read about The Ancient Gaming Noob’s weekly group gaming sessions, I get jealous. I haven’t had a regular gaming group since the early days of Vanguard, and every time I try to form one with friends in real life or friends online, something goes astray. Consider this a recruiting notice. I am looking for a few good players, bloggers or not, to get together on a regular (read: weekly) basis to play an MMO together. I don’t really care which one. I don’t really care when we play and I’m open every night from 8pm CST onwards.
2) There isn’t really one. If I get the above group going, that’ll be good enough for me. I would like a custom header for the new site at some point I guess. And game wise, there is always the elusive “Max Level” achievement that I’ve yet to reach in any game, even in (and this is really sad) Shadowbane. But mainly just the group.
Games:
MMO Subscriptions: Eve Online (11 months), Star Trek Online (8 months), Champions Online (2 months), LotRO (1 months), EQ 2 (3 months), APB (20 hours played)
Free Games and Unlimited Trials: The Reincarnation, Age of Conan
Free Time: LotRO, Fallen Earth, City of Heroes/Villains, Champions Online
The Best of the Rest: Arkham Horror (Board), Anima (Card), Arcana (Card), Anima RPG (Worldbook and GM Guide both goth released this year)
THANK YOU!
Thank you to all of you who continue to read and support me. Special Thanks (above and beyond the above 5 bloggers who drove traffic here) to Ysharros for continuing to light up my comment board on a regular basis (50 this year, 76 total, plus 3 direct links)! I’m looking forward to finding out what year three will be like!
Harbinger Zero 
Happy birthday, H-zero blog! What a cool rundown of your stats and trivia-type info! Gotta remember to do that for my own blog when it comes time for my own blog-o-versary!
Good luck on your goals!
Thanks! I have a strange love/hate relationship with statistics, probably as a result of my psych degree.
Congratulations! Glad I could help out a bit.
I, too, get a surprising amount of traffic from Ardwulf. His readership seems to actually click on his blogroll. I know mine doesn’t do so very often.
Oh, where did EVE Online Pictures rank for sending traffic? Or did it?
I folded the pictures site traffic into the sum from your main blog. As of right now WP’s stats page says its netted 44 referrals. Don’t know how that ranks in the grand scheme of life, but thats about mid range on my referral list.
I was surprised to see Ardwulf up there too. He must have some kind of shadowy connections…
Congratulations on hitting two years. It’s quite an achievement these days.
Thanks! I keep telling my wife that, but she just laughs at me. (-;
Hahaha HBD! I think I missed my own! 😀
See, I thought yours was the same as mine. Didn’t someone else share one with us too..Tesh maybe?
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Congratulations, and happy birthday! I’m glad I was able to point some traffic toward your great blog – you deserve it.
Was there any easy way to get those stats, or did you just hunt through your Dashboard?
Also: I’m all down for getting a gaming group together, in STO. Unfortunately, I’m not currently MMO-agnostic, otherwise I’d join you in whatever game you were most playing now.
I’m subbed to STO through next February, so thats fine with me lol. I wondered where you went, hadn’t seen you in APB in awhile.
Happy Anniversary!
As I’ve been in a bit of an MMO slump riding out the time until FFXIV releases, I haven’t directed much traffic your way lately, I’m afraid.
I’m most definitely going to be playing FFXIV come September, and I’m generally free after 9pm ET, too. I know you hadn’t expressed much interest in it, but I’m just throwing it out there. 😉
I honestly know zip about FFXIV. I harbor resentment to FFXI for breaking up my EQOA clan in a harsh way. I’m a fan of early FF but not late FF, so it really depends on how they lay out the game. I’ll do some digging I guess.
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Happy Sophomore year!
Thanks! Same to you isn’t it?
Indeed. Onward and forward, eh? 🙂
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