Yesterday was the One Year Anniversary of our first blog post. We’d had the idea a few weeks before that and started working on it the few days just before the 4th and our first post of any substance wasn’t until a few days later. For me this entire past week has been our anniversary. So this, the Saturday in the week of the 4th of November, will be our State of the Blog.

– – Blog Audit 2016 – –

• Views = 513
• Visitors = 394
• Likes = 142
• Comments = 14
• Total Posts = 91
• Total Books Reviewed = 54
• Followers: 21

– – Goals for 2017 – –

• Weekly,  at least 10 views and visitors each.
  • Stretch goal of 20 views and visitors each.
• A new logo.
• Reach 100 followers.
• Robert, twice weekly posts, including new release announcements.

A few remarks from Jared….

I like to think about the blog in two ways. Has the blog met my objectives, and has the blog been a success? Lets start with the second, has the blog been a success. I would argue yes and no. Yes because more than just me, Robert, our wives and our mother have read some of our reviews. No because not really all that many people have seen them. Also no because I have not succeeded at writing or reading as much as I would have liked and now there is a way of seeing that. Now the first point, has the blog met my objectives. Yes, yes and yes. I wanted to write this blog for a few reasons. I wanted an easy way to get book recommendations from Robert aside from out rare face to face visits. I wanted to FINALLY get Robert to read some of the awesome books that I recommended to him. And I wanted to challenge us to read and write more regularly to build the kind of habits it takes to create our own stories. To actually look at why certain books became all time favorites and others fell flat. So in ways this has been one of the best things we could have ever started. At the same time Robert is now a analytical book monster who both picks apart AND devours books at an alarming rate. I imagine its messy.

     Jared

A few remarks from Robert….

This past year has been hard for many reasons. I set out with the goal of posting something every week. I did not reach that goal. Not by a long shot. However, I did keep at it. For that reason alone I consider this past year as a personal success. What’s more I’ve begun striving for twice weekly posts. Yes, one of those is usually upcoming releases, but considering where we started it’s a significant step up. Balancing life, hobbies, and a toddler is not easy but I’m finding the sweet spot….slowly. Very slowly.

I want to thank everyone who has visited the blog. A special thanks goes to anyone who’s contributed, even if it was just a like, comment, or share. Just knowing someone is reading and felt strongly enough to do something keeps me going.

We’re still small, but it has been so much fun to reread old favorites and find hidden gems I never knew existed. I now have more books I want to read than I have money or time to possibly read for the next decade. Not that I’m thinking that far ahead, because even now I have trouble with the idea that I’ve been doing this for a year. But we did. So here is to another year better than the last!

Robert