Well, I made it. They say most blogs don’t last more than a couple of months and I’ll say that I’ve taken to this writing thing.
I’ve managed to write 105 posts and have 1168 comments on my site. I’m averaging over 200 hits a day on the days I post, with my top day being almost 1000 hits. I’ve also made a lot of great new friends in the process. My alexa rank is now at 103,000 which is a far cry from the 6MM I started at. Of course, I wanted to do more, but it does go to show you that a little bit every week does add up. For me, it goes against the grain to do the slow and steady approach but I think in this case, that’s the best one for keeping the blog alive and kicking.
The most disappointing stat is that my search engine traffic is only at 2.2% (with 10% of that number being a direct search for First Gen American). After some help from a few folks I realize that the search engine rankings probably won’t increase much unless I start writing about really strange topics (where there’s not a lot of content out there) or have an article get mentioned and/or picked up by a larger site (so my reputation increases and I move further ahead in the google search line). It’s good to have something to work on right?
Many Thanks to my Top Referrers
Invest It Wisely
Grumpy Rumblings
Frugal Dad
KNS Financial
Money Reasons
Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
The Lost Goat
Move to Portugal
Netherlands Frugal Living Site
Squirrelers
Everyday Tips and Thoughts
I’d also like to give a special thanks Financial Samurai for starting the Yakezie network and allowing me to be part of such a wonderful community. I really appreciate the leadership and time that it takes to keep the ideas flowing. I don’t think I could have survived this long without the constant support of the members of Yakezie. I’m really looking forward to graduating from challenger to full fledged member.
AGAIN, I’d like to thank all my readers, commenters and fellow bloggers for helping keep the blog going. It has been a great outlet for my thoughts and a way to immortalize one of my favorite family members, Babci. I always thought the world was missing out by not knowing about the thoughts that come out of her head. Through First Gen American, people now get to see a little piece of her crazy and fun wisdom. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
As for the next 6 months, I think I’d like to do a few more guest posts and carnivals. I also love leading the coffee talk writing challenges. I really hope that they take off in a big way because it’s so fun reading about 10 people’s takes on the exact same subject. No two articles are ever remotely close to another so it’s very cool.
Here are a few more articles I’ve been starting to do a round up on. It’s not complete, but then I realized I was 6 months old, so this post must go out today.
Frugal Village talks about ways to reuse Christmas Cards. I wish I read this before I tossed all of mine. One of our friends took a creepy santa card we send him last year and send it back to us. Speaking of creepy, I could use people’s photo cards and cut out the people and put them into odd surroundings and stuff. I must file this idea for 2011. I’m sure some of my artsy friends could do wonders with this idea in both a disturbing but also fun way.
Penniless Parenting takes food waste seriously and she’s figured out how to Eat Banana Peels with her home made Chutney.
Early Retirement Extreme’s Article about A Stranger in a Strange Land is a good article challenging the status quo of the 8-5 life in the rat race.
Nicole and Maggie talk about Ambition. It’s a great article and everyone should have ambition.
Money Reasons has a brilliant post about paying allowances from dividend producing stocks. I like the idea of buying some Disney stock or some other fun kid company as a gift. Then the child gets dividends every year. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. Cool.
Everyday Tips and Thoughts reveals that her kids are in Private School. I’m all for it as long as it’s a good school. The school I went to was academically a mess so I’m a little gun shy putting my kids into private school but if there is a good one in your area and you can budget for it, then I say go for it.
Lindy Mint has some real tips on how to survive a diet. When was the last time you really felt hungry? I remember when I was pregnant, I didn’t ever feel hungry because I was eating all the time, and it showed.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Great job! I love your stats for being only 6 months old!! I’m roughly 6 months old and don’t even know how to look up my stats! ha. 🙂
I’m not sure how you found my blog, but thanks for visiting. I think I’m really going to enjoy reading through your archives!!
Have a great day and keep up the good work!
A lot of times, Google won’t even really present your listings until your blog is 6-12 months old. They don’t want to spend a lot of time on sites that aren’t going to be there long. Now that you’ve hit six months you may find that your search traffic picks up a bit even without writing about weird stuff.
Money Beagle – Good to know. I’ll check again in 6 months and see if it’s any better.
Congratulations on your six month mark! Those are some good stats for that age, and you definitely deserve it. I like Money Beagle’s comment about Google search traffic picking up – it can only go up from here.
(And thanks for the link!)
Happy 6 month blogiversary! And thanks for linking to us!
Happy Anniversary Sandy, may there be many more!
….and I’m happy to send you some visitors 🙂
Congrats on 6 months! I felt like I’ve been reading you much longer, so that surprised me. 🙂 I completely forgot/missed my 6 month mark, but my 1 year is coming up in February. Woot for lasting, right? I hope you stay in the blogging world for quite a while since I truly appreciate your friendship and love your posts!!!
Crystal – you probably feel that way because I visited your site since the very early days of BFS, so I’ve been around cyberspace longer than 6 months, but it does feel good that you think I’ve been around longer.
Congratulation Sandy! It’s been awesome reading your blog even though I stumbled upon your site only quite recently!
MoneyCone – I’m so glad you did. Thanks for all your comments. It’s appreciated.
CONGRATULATIONS! that is an outstanding start! You are doing great! You are destined for success. Here’s wishing you continuing progress toward your own goals.
Barb – thanks. I wish I were as disciplined as you with my blog goals and plans. You’re someone to look up to.
I can’t believe your only 6 months old! Congratulations- I know you will just continue to grow and grow.
I’ve been thinking about the next ‘Coffee Talk’- what’s the topic? When is it?!
Molly – next subject is “financial lessons learned from your first boy/girl Friend” I figured I can do it right before Valentine’s Day, but I haven’t set a date yet.
You have definitely done a great job over the last 6 months. You have very creative ideas, and you have built up quite a loyal community.
I’m glad that I was one of your top referrers!!!
Khaleef – that means a lot coming from you as your articles are always so good. Hopefully I can keep the wacky material coming.
Congrats on your 6-month anniversary! You’re doing a fantastic job with blogging, so keep up the great work! I enjoy reading about Babci’s quirky ideas. 😉
Congratulations!
I really enjoy the way you write and value your viewpoints on the topics you chose. I enjoy reading your Babci’s stories, but really I enjoy whatever you write about. I think you keep the blend to a good mix between Babci and other topics! 🙂
Thank for the mention too.
Congrats on the 6 months, Sandy. I have enjoyed reading your blog and commenting on your posts. Your Babci posts have been cool – from the point of view that she obviously has had a lot of hard-earned life wisdom that may be different from how mainstream America views things. Which is why it’s cool, because there’s common sense and practicality there…things that many folks don’t have but they don’t know it. Also, just as importantly your respect for her comes through. As someone who himself treasures the advice and teachings of his own parents (hard-earned for them), I can appreciate it.
Anyway, congrats again.
Congrats on 6 months Sandy, although it feels like I have known you for much longer.
I disagree on the Google Search thing. I have only been around since March, and my search is between 40-50 percent each day. I don’t write about anything too odd (except the Dutch Sandwich Tax). I used to be around 2-10 percent for a long time, then it just popped. I really did work on adding more mega tags and I went back and internally linked a bunch of my posts. Plus, I submitted my blog to a few carnivals and things like blogcatalog.com and such. I wish I knew what made me jump, but something did.
I say, take an afternoon and just work on some SEO stuff and see if you find a jump.
Also, thanks for the link!!!
Six months? I thought that you’ve been around for quite a while. Because you are that good. 🙂 Your blog is great and your writing is very expressive (can I say that?). Congratulations and way to go!
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