As the year comes to an end it is great to look back over the past 12 months. I’ve enjoyed blogging even more over the past year and have a few reflections.
More ideas than posts
There are innumerable great professional learning events that I attend each year. I’m constantly inspired by learning teams, teachers and educational leaders. The downside is that I never get enough time to blog.
Over the past year I’ve shared 25 blog posts which works out to my goal of two/month.
Making sense of statistics
An essential tool for anyone with a website is Google Analytics. There are endless metrics for looking at the visitors to your site. For example I know that there were 2000 Canadian visitors to my site followed by 1000 from the US. Way down the list I welcome visitors from Iran, Malta, Morocco and Turkey!
Most viewed posts
SMARTNotebook software and SMARTBoard vs. Mimeo
I seem to have created a niche around product reviews and and free tools for teachers.
Comments
It is always great to get comments from readers. Most comments on posts come from:
Thoughts? Would be great to hear from other bloggers. What did you notice about visitors this year?
Facebook/James McConville
Linkedin/jamesmcconville
Twitter/jmcconville1000
YouTube/jmcconville1000
Del.icio.us/jmcconville
GMail/James McConville
Blog/James McConville
3 comments:
Thanks James, your blogging has been a model I have used as I have started to experiment this year. Your blog has been my go-to place for new tools - particularly given the similar environments we have in West Vancouver and Coquitlam. It is interesting how we begin to find our voice / niche as we blog - I enjoy the practical nature of your work.
Thanks for being such a good model for others of us who are joining the blogging world.
Happy Holidays!
Congrats on sticking to your goal James. What I really noticed this year, when I looked at my stats, is that the shelf-life of a post has diminished, but there is a flurry of activity when a post first arrives.
I think Jeff Utecht talked about this a while back, about how twitter has transformed blogging. I used to get comments over 1-2 weeks after a post, now I get a bunch right away (if it's a good post), and then I'm lucky to get one more a week later.
For better of for worse, I now tend to plug my own links on Twitter a bit more than I used to, because I find that this helps maintain the 'conversation' and as Sabrina talks about here... http://sabridv.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/my-new-year-resolution-more-quality-comments/
"Comments are what separates a blog from a static website. As we write quality comments the conversation builds, and so does our relationship with the writer and the other people commenting."
Keep up the great work!
Dave.
I dabbled with blogging prior to Dec. 30, 2009 then decided to launch a new one with some commitment. Dec. 30, 2009 I launched Shift to the Future and committed to a post a week. I pretty much stuck to the schedule. It is interesting to see which posts generate the most conversation - it definitely varies. The more I write with a futurists perspective, the less conversation - I think maybe alot of people don`t like to think too far ahead. I really enjoy being able to `write outloud` and it`s encouraging when others join in on the dialogue! Good job sticking to it - 2011 will be even better.
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