Blogging

2018 in Review: Blog Highlights and Top Posts of the Year

Goodbye, 2018. Hello, 2019!

We’ve had another busy year here at This West Coast Mommy! This July, we celebrated five years of blogging. Wow! If you’d told me back in 2013 that we’d be where we are now (or that we’d even still be here), I don’t think I would have believed you. Back then I was a stay-at-home mom with a toddler and a baby, desperate to talk to another adult. What started as a passion project has turned into a comfortable income stream for my family and the opportunity to share my thoughts and experiences with a community of like-minded moms.

This year we had some health issues in the family which led to taking things a bit slower on the blog, but I definitely feel like having some breathing room was a good thing for all of us. Fortunately, Kay and Tee are now in the same school which is much more convenient for me. Witnessing their growth and self-confidence blossom over the last year has been simply amazing. Tee will be turning nine this March, and the changes I’ve seen in her as she takes on the “big kid” role at home and at school are particularly gratifying.

 

Over the past year, This West Coast Mommy has had close to half a million unique visitors. Wow! I’m so grateful to all the readers, new and old, who have taken the time to visit. I especially want to thank those of you who come back over and over, who’ve gotten to know me and my family, and chat with me on Facebook. You are the heart of the This West Coast Mommy community and the reason I’m here!

At the end of every year, I like to take a look back to see which posts were the most popular, how many people visited, and how my readers find me. If you’re a stats nerd like me or just curious, here are some of the highlights from This West Coast Mommy for 2018.

Top 11 Viewed Posts

The top post of 2018 was also one of the last. I wrote it late one night a couple of weeks ago after coming home from my kids’ school Christmas concert. I was disappointed at the many, many parents who left the auditorium as soon as their child was done, far more than could possibly be accounted for by work, emergencies, cranky babies, etc.

When I wrote down my thoughts, I had no idea the response it would provoke from other parents. Most agreed with me, some pointed out that there might be extenuating circumstances (a fact which I readily noted in the original post), and some very few doubled down, proudly proclaiming that they didn’t care how rude and selfish their behaviour might be because yes, they only cared to watch their own children. What stood out to me though was the number of music teachers and former music teachers who either commented or directly emailed me to let me know their own frustrating experiences with this.

 

The rest of our popular posts this year were a mix of cloth diapering posts and a couple of fan favourite recipes, a DIY post that continues to do well on Pinterest, a collection of Valentine’s Day riddles (people really like these!), a roundup of animated Halloween movies, and a post I wrote a few years ago about gentle night weaning. Did you miss any of these? Take a look!

 
 
 
 

Traffic Sources

But how are people finding This West Coast Mommy? Here are our top traffic sources for 2018. Organic Google searches are by far my main source of traffic, bringing in about half of the visits to the blog. This year, Facebook was #2, and Pinterest #3. These three are our main referral sources, sending 80% of our visitors.

After that comes visitors from our email newsletter, then more organic search engine traffic from Bing and Yahoo. Next comes referrals from Twitter and Yummly, the largest food site in the world (check out my recipes page there). Contestgirl (my favourite giveaway listing site) and Buzzfeed round out the list.

  1. Google
  2. Facebook
  3. Pinterest
  4. Feedpress/RSS
  5. Bing
  6. Yahoo
  7. Twitter
  8. Yummly
  9. Contestgirl
  10. Buzzfeed

So there you have it. If you have a year end blog report of your own, please feel free to share it in the comments so I can visit and read yours too.

Happy New Year! Here’s to another successful year of blogging!

 

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1 Comment

  • Happy New Years to you and your family!! All the best for the new year! wow I can’t believe how big the girls are getting!