Alright, friends. Let’s get to some numbery maths for the year. I’m still at the point where I genuinely enjoy blogging (LET IT NEVER END) and I have a lot of fun breaking my year down in stats. If you’re interested the 2019, 2018, and 2017 breakdowns are linked.
Just as a note: I’ve spent zero pennies on marketing of any kind since I started this blog in November 2016. Instead, I’ve focused on blog-hops and building relationships. That means super slow growth and also super low stress levels. (If slow is not the way you would want to grow your blog, then these will not be very helpful posts for you.)
Visitors in 2020: Jumping Silly Gerbil Sh*t 3,090 visitors this year. 3K, what?!? 2019 topped out at 2,375, so this growth seems amazing to me.
Top 5 Posts from 2020:
15 Gorgeous Literary Tattoos. This one has been in the top five every year since I wrote it and cross-posted to Pinterest in 2017. I can only hope I’ve inspired someone to actually get some ink.
Friday Favorites Has Some Unfinished Business. Apparently my fellow bookworms enjoy frustration as much as I do, because this post is all about incomplete series.
The 5 Types of Query Letter Rejections. It is nice to know what might be coming for you/what to expect when you’re querying. It’s mostly rejection after rejection, in many different flavors.
16 Parenting Sites/Magazines That Will Pay You to Write for Them. I waded into freelancing waters back in 2016 and wrote up a post to share some of the places I found. It’s been a popular post ever since, and I can only wish my readers luck.
Be Proud of Your Writing. It seems like everyone needed a little boost in 2020 and I am utterly here for it. Be proud of yourself and what you’ve accomplished.
New favourite book blog/Bookstagram I discovered in 2020:
My favourite Instagrammer from 2020 is Lindsay (@pinkcowlandreads). She started this wonderful thing called Stepback Saturday where we find our romances with stepback photos, post the stepback art, and let other romance lovers guess which author/book the art comes from. It is SO MUCH FUN and the entire romancestagram community has embraced this trend with wide open arms. Heaving bosoms, bare manly flanks, heated clench poses in a rainstorm, man nip, bouffant hair, and improbable embraces are not only welcome, they are celebrated and I love it.
Favourite post I wrote in 2020:
Book Tropes: The Grovel in the Novel. I abso-freaking-loutely love groveling in a novel and this round-up of all my favourites is dear to me.
Post I wish had gotten a little more love:
What I Thought Author Life Would Be Like vs. What It’s Actually Like. I had so much fun finding the gifs for this one. And, honestly, the post comes straight from the bleeding, tell-tale heart.
Top three searches that led users right to me in 2020:
- amazon (yet again I have to beg Amazon not to take any copyright action here, I do NOT know why this search would lead to sewhitebooks? They don’t even have letters in common. But WordPress assures me this is the top search which had me as a result. I don’t even know, y’all.)
- query letter personalization (Yep, querying is hard. Godspeed my friends.)
- what happened to kresley cole (We’re all concerned, I think. I just wish her publicist would actually . . . you know . . . publish something.)
shower organizer pole super white made a comeback! It was the 8th most popular search term which led people to me. (For the first two years of blogging this was the top term which led people right to me and I’m actually kind of happy to see it again.)
Top five countries my readers came from this year:
- United States
- United Kingdom (mostly England, I think?)
- Canada
- India
- China (this one is new! Nín hǎo to my new readers.)
Reasons my readers continue to be the Actual Best™:
Still here for highbrow, v literary posts (see: my Stranger Things reviews packed full of curse words and gifs)
You still comment on the actual article content at the bottom of the post in question, a rare and precious treasure in the explosive Fireswamp which is internet comment sections. I adore you all for this and hope I bring something to your comment sections as well.
