Tag: Blogoversery

Two years ago on July 20th, I started The Oddness of Moving Things.  I planned on waiting until the actual day to post, but It seemed to fit right in with my stats this week.  When this posts, it will be my 201st post and I will have surpassed 14,000 unique views (not a lot I know, but I thought it was awesome it was right at the same time I hit 200 posts).  To see my very first post about why I started The Oddness of Moving Things click here and to see my One Year Anniversary posts click here, here and here.

It definitely feels like a lot longer than two years, but who cares!  This is my yay for sticking with something for longer than a year, and celebrating all you amazing people out there I’ve ‘met’ over the past two years!

I’ve got a couple of “Top Ten” lists for you below, so check them out!  The first is the top 10 most visited books, the top 10 tags from this past year and the last is the top 5 Commenters and top 5 commented posts.  There are very few surprises I think and it’s nice to see some of my older responses still being read.

Click here to continue reading.

The third and final post of the day! Yes, it is a bit excessive, but it’s your blogs anniversary only once a year!

As I realized the one year anniversary was approaching I began making minor changes to the blog. I switched themes to a darker, more modern theme and started cleaning up post tags and internal links to other posts. Below are other things I’ve already changed and things I want to change in the near future!

Check out what I’ve already changed:

• Upcoming Books – I’ve recreated each of the pages including embedding an up-to-date Google document on the My Reading List page of my infamously long list of books to read (currently at 295) books. I’m hoping to clean up the Booker Prize page and to actually get some of the Suggested books read.
• Recommend a Book – Again with the help of Google Docs, I’ve embedded a form which allows people to recommend books. I’ve not done a great job at reading many yet, but they are definitely on my radar! If you haven’t, you should recommend a book! If enough people recommend Twilight I might eventually read it (cough Alie and Tom cough).

And keep an eye out for things I hope to change:

• Create an updated and accurate About me and About this blog page. Now it still sits as my original post from July 20, 2010 talking about the 50 book challenge.
• Switch the blog over to geoffwhaley.com and maybe get a little crazy and try my hand at some CSS/design with a hosted website.
• And if I get a good amount of free time and some amazing design skills, create a static homepage with a bookshelf similar to the iBooks app (I think) where you can click on the books and it’ll open up the reviews/blog posts.

My plans aren’t grandiose, and I don’t think they’ll be too complicated if I put my mind to them. I started this blog for fun and hopefully I can keep it going as long as it remain so. Let me know what you think about the changes, or if there are any others I should make!

As promised, here is post number two for the day.

This post is about numbers. Over the past year I’ve seen a lot of traffic come to my blog, starting with only 67 views in July 2010 to over 600 views in May of 2011. I’ve had over 3,000 unique visitors over the past year. I know quite a few of the visits are by spam-bots, but I’m also convinced quite a few of the visits are by students writing papers, the most common searches leading people to my site generally starting with ‘quotes from…’

After the jump you will find a list of the Top 10 visited books. I’ve removed my old ‘Quotes from…’ posts as I didn’t actually review the books and I’ve grouped all the Artemis Fowl books together as they were almost all in the Top 10. I’ve also included the Top 10 most used Tags.

I can’t believe it’s been a year, especially with how quickly I abandoned my blog for my family and friends while living abroad for two years. I guess between my love of reading and my newly found “tech” skills in my position at work I’ve become better at keeping up with my posts.

The final post of the day will be about the changes I’ve already made and those coming to the blog! I know it’s a bit egocentric and self-serving to post this many on one day, but I might as well since I’m sure there will be a streak in the near future where I forget to post or refuse to post.
Click here to see the Top 10 Visited posts and the Top 10 Tags…

A year ago today I started this blog.

I started the blog because I was wrapping up a year of AmeriCorps and in the process of searching for a full-time job. I went from working 10-12 hour days to having no specific reason to get out of bed. At one point during the many hours of trolling the internet for jobs (or distractions) I stumbled across the 50 book challenge and thus this blog began.

My original goal was to read 50 books by the end of December 2010, but between getting a full-time job (with an awesome organization) and not writing posts for all the books I read, that didn’t happen. I reached 27 posts.

However, yesterday I realized if I looked at the calendar year for the blog, July 20, 2010 – July 20, 2011, I completed the original 50 book challenge. This is a feat for two reasons: 1) I didn’t believe I’d stick with the blog – I barely remember to email my family members on a regular basis; and 2) I actually read 51 books in 365 days (more read, but documented 51).

Perhaps this calendar year (July 20, 2011 – July 20 2012) I’ll actually get all the books I read into the blog. Stay tuned for posts later today about updates to the blog and the top ten books visited on this site for the past year!

One Year Anniversary! Part 2

One Year Anniversary! Part 3

*I did not make the picture, but I wish I had. I’ve gained the skill set this year to make that one so maybe next year I’ll make my own! I found it through Google Image.