With this post we celebrate one year of blogging. On September 6 of 2016 Full Time Finance entered the world as a going concern. Today’s post will look back on why this blog came to be, some of the most viewed posts, my favorite posts, and some blog stats.
One year Blog Stats in Review
Lets start with the blog stats from our first year of blogging. Over the course of the last year 145 posts have appeared on Full Time Finance. 3 of these have been written by other bloggers and 142 by myself. In this same time period over 1800 comments have been recorded, more than half of them being to visitors.
A Missed Goal in Year One
Speaking of visitors in the last year approximately 18,000 sessions have been recorded with over 40,000 page views. The top page view month was June, with over 7000 page views. This is unfortunately shy of my original goal of 10,000 views a month in the first year. In fact it is slightly worse as views declined in the month of July due to the summer slowdown to 3500 page views. Before the summer the average page views were hovering around 5000 page views. I suspect September and October will return to 5000 page view levels.
But, still a Success
So I did not hit my page view goal, but I still had a lot of fun doing so. I also learned quite a bit about a mix of new investment options, investment law, and tips and tricks for saving money while writing these posts. Research posts have included Solo 401k’s, withdrawing funds from tax advantaged accounts, investing in international stocks, and even an early post on how to negotiation for a car. Researching these posts not only allows me to provide you a sound article, but also can result in me learning new things about my subject areas. Furthermore, commenting on others posts is a necessity to driving further views. By reading those thousands of posts I have also learned considerable new things from my fellow bloggers. I’d like to also think I have made a few new friends.
Before we leave our stats I have one more significant thing to add. In the course of the last year this blog has been recognized a few times by our fellow bloggers and larger organizations. These include: Think Save and Retire, Physician on Fire, Mama Fish Saves, and Rock Star Finance. Their featuring of some of my stuff has been of great help to the growth of this blog and their support is greatly appreciated.
Gratitude and Appreciation
Speaking of appreciation, I also greatly appreciate all of my readers. Without you’re comments I would be writing these posts while talking to myself. I started writing this blog to talk about finance to people who enjoy talking about such matters. While my personal friends and family understand my financial positions, most of them do not care to discuss such topics. This blog along with the Rock Star Finance Forums has given me that outlet, which is another reason I consider this blog a first year success.
Top Posts in Year One based on Readership
So what are the top read posts by you the readers? Here are the top ten in descending order:
- Why you can never have enough in Tax Advantaged Accounts
- Gen X Finance Blogs
- Why You Should Practice Stealth Wealth
- Are We Frugal
- The Secret to Our Financial Success
- Millennial Early Retirement Increase is Concerning
- Why My Wife Went Back to Work
- Money buys Options
- Low Cost Cell Phone Carriers
- Help, I’m no longer able to keep up with the Jones!
My Favorite Posts
My favorite posts over the last year look fairly similar:
- Are We Frugal
- Why you can never have enough in Tax Advantaged Accounts
- Why do Americans do so little International Travel
- Gen X Finance Blogs
- Why You Should Practice Stealth Wealth
- The Secret to Our Financial Success
- Game Theory and Personal Finance
- Why My Wife Went Back to Work
- Money buys Options
- Prize Tax
Themes and a Look Ahead
As I look back on all these posts a few themes emerges. Management of goals, happiness maximization, and planning. I didn’t start out for these to be the underlying themes, but it appears to have turned out that way. In any case as we celebrate one year, I want to again thank you all for your readership and leave you with an ask. If you have any topic you would like us to cover in the future, please ask here in the comments! Here is to a just as successful year 2.
Happy 1 Year Anniversary! Pretty big milestone in the blogging world. As a relatively new blogger myself, I know how much effort goes into keeping one up consistently. Congratulations FTF…definitely a success in my book!
Thanks Max. One day at a time…
Congrats on the first year, FTF! Those are some awesome numbers! That first year is definitely a learning one, but you really nailed it!
Good luck on your second year!
— Jim
Thanks Jim. It’s a continuous improvement effort, but well worth it.
Congrats on a great year and best wishes for continued success!
Thanks SMM
Congratulations on your first year! I can only hope to have a portion of the people reading/watching you. You have had a good year, and I look forward to reading more.!
You’ll get there. A little each day and eventually it ramps up.
Well done. A blogging year is like 10 real years . . . right? At least it feels like that sometimes. But you’re doing well, keep it up.
Thanks Chris. Sometimes it does feel like it. It’s a lot of work, especially in between family, work, and living. But it is worth it.
Congratulations FTF! I look forward to another year of insight!
Thanks Jack.
“The Secret to Our Financial Success” appears on both lists. Both links are broken.
Thanks Dan, resolved.
Congrats on 1 year! I really like your content and am always glad to see you comment on my stuff. Best of luck going forwards. Onwards and upwards! 🙂
Thanks Eric, as always I appreciate your contributions as well.
Congrats on your one year anniversary! I started blogging a little more than 5 months ago and have really loved the interaction with other bloggers. Summer is generally slow for most bloggers, so I wouldn’t worry too much about the slight dip of traffic.
Best of luck with your blog! 🙂
Thanks Ms. FAF. It’s still entertaining so it’s meeting my goals:)
Congrats on the one year anniversary. I admire you for being able to get out multiple posts per week – we struggle to find the time to write one per week.
Have you written yet on your retirement withdrawal strategies yet? I’m always interested in how people plan on dealing with their taxable and tax-advantaged accounts assuming they stop working before 59 1/2.
Looking forward to more posts,
-Mr. Need2Save
Thanks Mr Need2Save. I have not written about our withdrawal strategy so thats a good topic I’ll add to the list.
Congrats FTF on a successful first year! Super impressed by your 145 posts, that’s incredible, and not easy to accomplish. All the best in year 2!
Thanks MMM.
Congrats on one year, FTF! Although I don’t comment a lot, I do follow your blog regularly. Thanks for providing great content!
Thanks SRGO. Comment or not I appreciate knowing I’m not talking to myself here 😉
Congrats! One year is an achievement as there are many bloggers out there who could not even reach six months. Go go go for all of us.
Thanks For the words of encouragement.
Incredible output, what an achievement. That is a really solid body of work and readership.
Thanks AOF. It’s been a tough road but I’ve enjoyed most of it 😉