{"id":3039,"date":"2014-12-31T12:51:29","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T12:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=3039"},"modified":"2015-01-15T16:48:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T16:48:54","slug":"2014-my-blogging-year-in-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2014\/12\/2014-my-blogging-year-in-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 &#8211; my blogging year in numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>2014<\/h2>\n<p>2014 (well, the last three months of 2014) was the year I decided to really push on with my blogging and I think that effort has paid off.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014 I authored and published 25 posts on this blog. \u00a0At the end of October I decided on a new strict schedule of a post a week and have kept to that.<\/p>\n<h2>Overall figures for 2014<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3041\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3041\" style=\"width: 785px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3041\" src=\"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screenshot-2014-12-31-at-12.53.22.png\" alt=\"2014 stats\" width=\"785\" height=\"91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screenshot-2014-12-31-at-12.53.22.png 785w, https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Screenshot-2014-12-31-at-12.53.22-300x35.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 785px) 100vw, 785px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3041\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 stats from Google Analytics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Compared to\u00a02013<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>26.5% increase<\/strong> in unique page views (hurrah!)<\/li>\n<li><strong>8.91% decrease<\/strong> in av time on page (boo!)<\/li>\n<li><strong>0.95% decrease<\/strong> in bounce rate\u00a0(&#8216;bounce rate&#8217; is the %\u00a0of visitors to my blog who navigate away after viewing only one page. Usually, but not always, you want a low bounce rate.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m very pleased with the increase in views but unhappy with the bounce rate which is far too high at 76%.<\/p>\n<h2>5 most viewed posts of 2014<\/h2>\n<p>Figures are unique views:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/2014\/12\/homage-to-the-ikea-hobo-stove\/\">Homage to the IKEA Hobo Stove<\/a> (485)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/2013\/02\/kings-cross-to-birmingham-via-the-grand-union-canal-stage-5-moor-park-to-tring\/\">Grand Union canal hike &#8211; stage 5: Moor Park to Tring<\/a> (473)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/2013\/04\/wild-camp-in-a-hertfordshire-wood\/\">Wild camp in a Hertfordshire wood<\/a> (394)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/2013\/12\/my-2013-wild-camping-review\/\">My 2013 Wild Camping review <\/a>(334)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/2014\/02\/wild-camping-plans-for-2014\/\">Wild Camping plans for 2014<\/a> (329)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Top social media referrals<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Twitter: 44%<\/li>\n<li>Facebook: 24%<\/li>\n<li>Blogger: 13%<\/li>\n<li>Google Plus: 12%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Twitter is pretty reliable for visits to the site though I&#8217;ve started posting on Google Plus camping\/hiking communities and getting quite a few visits that way. \u00a0I&#8217;ve started experimenting with Pinterest, results are inconclusive as yet.<\/p>\n<p>Social media is a great way to increase visits to your blog, as long as it&#8217;s done in a non-spammy way.<\/p>\n<h2>Goals for 2015<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Increase unique page views by 25%<\/li>\n<li>Reduce bounce rate from 76% to 60%<\/li>\n<li>Increase newsletter sign ups by 30%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The main goal I want to achieve is that of driving my bounce rate down. \u00a0Sure, I&#8217;m super pleased you&#8217;re visiting my blog and reading the latest post but hey, there&#8217;s lots of great content here, why not look around?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Have a blog? How was your year and what goals (if any) do you have for 2015?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2014 2014 (well, the last three months of 2014) was the year I decided to really push on with my&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3039"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3131,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions\/3131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}