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Monday, July 27, 2015

Happy 6th Blogoversary to me!



Several years ago I started to write local history stories for the Londonderry news website. I didn’t know it was a blog.  I didn’t even know what the word blog meant.  After my first few posts, the editor gave me a password to edit my own stories in Wordpress, and that’s when I learned more about blogging.  I decided that if I could do that, why didn’t I start my own blog about my special interest in genealogy?  On 27 July 2009 I designed my blog and published my first post using Blogger.  The rest is history.

I had fun last night perusing some old blog posts.  Back in December 2011 I wrote that my most popular blog post had over 1,200 pageviews and I was feeling quite happy.  Through the power of the internet, and the incredible phenomenon of social networking online, my numbers have grown exponentially.  In December 2012 my top post had 6,000 hits.   My top post now has almost 145,000 hits, and my second most popular post lags behind at 28,325 pageviews, the third at 18,448.  Quite a jump in readers in 6 short years!

Over the past six years I have had six guest bloggers. None of them had ever written a blog post before I extended them the invitation to try a guest post.  Three of them enjoyed the experience so much that they started their own blogs, and have been very successful!  These are Bette Pye Wing at The Pye PlateJohn Tew at Filiopietism Prism, and Tom Tufts at Tufts Genealogy.   They are all still blogging away, gaining more followers every day, and making lots of cousin connections online.

My very first weathervane post was on 24 August 2011.  It was a story on the gilded centaurweathervane on top of Andy Mack’s barn in Londonderry, New Hampshire.  It was a terrible photo because I couldn’t get near enough to take a good close up.  But it was the start of something great, because now I have posted 218 “Weathervane Wednesday” stories, with weather vanes from all over Nutfield, and from all over New England, the US, and from around the world!

In the past six years I have posted:

51 Wordless Wednesdays
52 Women’s History stories
56 “Amanuensis Monday” posts (mostly transcribed letters)
57 posts that mention “Liliuokalani”
65 stories based in the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts
66 posts with the keyword “Spain”
66 stories with the surname ALLEN
72 stories with the keyword “Revolutionary War”
92 stories with the surname WILKINSON
96 posts about the city of Beverly, Massachusetts
114 posts about historic sites inside and outside of New England
130 posts with the keyword “Derry”
170 posts with the keyword “Londonderry”
176 Surname Saturday posts
228 posts with the keyword  “cemeteries”
255 Tombstone Tuesdays

Thank you to all my blog followers!  I love the blog comments, email and Facebook discussions.  Please continue to send your notes, comments and suggestions - and especially your cousin connections.  Thank you also to all the blog followers who have joined my “Nutfield Genealogy” Facebook page.   There are 441 people at that page, maybe by next year’s blogoversary I will have reached 500.  Fingers crossed!

More statistics for the truly curious:

I've written a total of 1961 posts
There have been nearly 4,000 comments (a dearth of comments this past year.  No clue why?)
A total of 1,563,669 (at the time I wrote this last night) pageviews to my blog.
My best month for readership was April 2015, with 59,394 pageviews 

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Happy 6th Blogoversary to me!", Nutfield Genealogy, posted 27 July 2015, (  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/07/happy-6th-blogoversary-to-me.html: accessed [access date]).

19 comments:

  1. Heather, Congratulations on your 6th blogiversary! I enjoy your posts and, through your blog, discovered that we are distant cousins many times over.

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  2. Happy Blogiversary Heather!

    With regards to blog comments, I've noticed fewer comments on blog posts as well, and I have wondered if it is because readers who "know" me on Facebook will sometimes comment there.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Elizabeth! I've heard the same thing about comments and Facebook from other bloggers.

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  3. Happy Birthday!! I have been enjoying g your blog since 2013.

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  4. Happy Blogiversary, Heather. One of my daily "must read" blogs, because I never know what new cousin connection with you I will discover! :)

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Cousin Bill! Your blog is at the top of my list, too.

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  5. Happy Blogivarsary for my favorite blog

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  6. Happy blogiversary and many more! I've enjoyed your posts and look forward to your future adventures.

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  7. Happy blogoversary, Heather! I've enjoyed following your blog (and discovering our Haley/Healy/Healey kinship) these past six years. Cheers to many future blogoversaries!

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    1. Thanks, Leah! I'm particularly fond of our connection to Washington Place in Honolulu, Hawaii, too!

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  8. I cannot believe it's been 6 years. It feels like so much more... Well, may there be many, many, MANY more!

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  9. Congrats! I hope to be following you in another six years.

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    1. Thanks so much, Deborah! I hope to continue writing, too.

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  10. Heather

    Happy Blogaversary!!! You have helped countless people find their ancestors and you have honored their memories. Thank you for letting me part of the experience, and the journey. Keep up the good work!
    Vincent, your biggest fan

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