2012 was a year in which a specific shift in focus was made here on Seven Clown Circus. My site was originally started as a personal blog about my five small children and the happenings in my family. Over the years as they’ve grown and become more aware of the public nature of my blog they’ve become much more reluctant (read: refuse) to be the source material for my blog posts and so I had to decide how I’d like to continue, if at all. With that in mind, I decided to start publishing crafting tutorials, and birthday party how-to’s since crafting and party planning is a big a part of my life. If I couldn’t write about my kids, I might as well write about things I was crafting for their teachers and friends and showcase their birthday parties, right?
I also started implementing the strategies that my friend, Laurie of Tip Junkie used to make her site a power house. I had no idea that by shifting my focus and changing the way that I set up my posts I could drive traffic to my blog like I had never been able to do before. In 2012, my blog went from 14,000 page views on a really good month (in 2011) to 160,000 page views a month in 2012.
I also installed one of my favorite plugins called Jetpack for WordPress in July of 2012. I don’t even harness the power of the plugin, but what I do use (WordPress stats) makes me happy. Just the report they generated for me at the end of the year made the plugin installation worth it! Here’s what I just found out:
Fun Facts of 2012
I HEART my top referrers!
Top Posts of 2012
- Lemon Sugar Scrub Recipe {homemade gift idea}
- Coffee Sugar Scrub Recipe {homemade gift idea}
- How to Apply Gelish Polish {french manicure}
- How to Make a Sock Bun – {tutorial}
- How to Make Homemade Oatmeal Soap
Top Commenters of 2012
THANK YOU, Ladies!
- 1 Jackie
- 2 Twisted Cinderella
- 3 noelle
- 4 Stacy Uncorked
- 5 kristin
If you are interested in learning more about Laurie’s Monetizing Strategies for Your Blog, you can find more information, here {the giveaway is over, but there’s a good overview, or just click the image below}:
Wo. That’s a LOT of traffic. Glad I made the top 5. Cousins gotta show the love right?
Okay… I’m installing this one right now just so I can get the cool stats at the end of the year.
How in the world did I make the top 5 commenters?!?!
yay.. I was a top commenter? its because I LOVE Your blog 🙂
here is to another great year!!!!