Last Friday was the one year anniversary of my first post on this blog!
Happy Birthday to me!
The last year has been a learning experience in writing, and I have a lot more still to learn.
Here is a little look back over the last year:
In my first month of blogging I received 77 views of my site.
Over the next few months I didn’t really blog consistently and received very few views because of it, I was still trying to figure out what I was doing.
Then, in October, I published a very special post: He Finished the Race – Dedicated in Memory of Andrew Rundle . That post got more attention than anything else I’d ever written, or have written since. I knew it wasn’t really because of me, but because of the beautiful testimony of someone else. Still, it was a turning point in my blogging life as I realized, and was humbled, that my words really could reach out and touch people. From that point on I decided to take my blog more seriously and really explore what I could do.
According to WordPress.com Stats:
To date Andrew’s Post has received 2653 views, far and away exceeding any other post.
The next highest Post in views is The Beauty in Me: Looking Past “Body Image” to Find True Beauty with 47 Views.
The site, in general, receives 5 views a day, the highest day receiving 564.
It has received 4127 views and 99 comments.
It has been viewed in 50 different countries, a sample includes 26 from Thailand, 9 from South Africa, 4 from Malaysia, 2 from Mozambique, and 1 from Israel. Many of the views from around the world were generated by Andrew’s Post, though I have gotten views of other posts since.
I have published 84 Posts, including this one.
The Joyful Truth has been consistently updated on a MWF schedule since the beginning of this year. Blogging has been a fantastic journey for me as it encourages me to dive deep into the word, to pay attention to the world around me as I actively think of things to inspire thought, and as I have been able to show myself that I actually am able to write consistently. It has also given me a platform where I can share some of my poetry, which is both frightening and exciting to me as some of my poems are very intimate to my heart.
Where do we go from here?
I’m still learning in so many ways. Networking and using Social Media to promote my blog is still a skill that eludes me in many respects. Still, as I’ve written and shared my heart with you, my readers, I’ve been encouraged that my words have value, and can be used to bless.
In celebration of my first complete year I am going to get my own domain. As yet I’m not moving to self-hosting, but I’m researching that possibility. As that would require at least a small, consistent financial commitment its not something we’re quite ready to jump into. However I’d like to look into the possibility of moving to a format that I could utilize more completely. After all, wordpress.com currently makes money through occasional advertisements on my site, I don’t know if I’d make a return on my investment, but I might, and it certainly would help my little family if I could generate even a small income through advertisement on my own site. This is still something I’m looking into.
I have a few plans and ideas to write a book. It’s still a very beginning, hatchling, of an idea, but its an exciting one. This is something I truly wouldn’t have had the nerve to attempt before my blogging experience.
In so many ways I’m still learning, still flexing muscles and spreading my wings. For a very long time I’ve felt limited in my world and abilities through a lack of energy, but I’m slowly opening doors in my life I’ve long left shut.
I can’t express enough how this blog has helped me to grow as a person. When I began it, I was working through a lot of residual stress of a very difficult year. My daughter, now two, spent her first 10 months on a feeding tube. It was a stressful time in which I felt very much helpless and like I was somehow failing my daughter. I had reached a point where my struggles consumed me, I couldn’t think or talk of anything else. In some ways I almost felt like my brain was starting to receive permanent damage from the cycle of stress. She had finally gotten off the tube but still every meal was fearful for me in a way I can’t describe. I was lost in a microcosm world where nothing else existed, and I had very little recourse in which to try to reach beyond it.
But as I started blogging, as I started sharing beauty from the Word of God, I’ve been able to put that time fully into my past. I enjoy my daughter now, and as she’s healthy and fairly normal in her eating patterns I not only rejoice, but I have learned to let go and not worry. I’ve had a new outlet, not to obsess over life, but to obsess over LIFE! To again obsess over my Creator in a way I’d almost forgotten how. I’m slowly learning how to look forward, and to dream again.
God has plans and purposes for all of us. I don’t always know what He is doing, but He is ALWAYS working. I believe He has something for me in my life, and I’m looking forward to it!
I’m glad, I’m happy, that I can invite you with me as I make my journey. I hope that as I learn and share I can bless you.
Thank you for reading!
~Joy Aletheia Stevens
Photo Credit: Birthday Cake By Ishikawa Ken (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Photo Credit: by Christian Schnettelker (CC BY 2.0)
Photo Credit: by Maria Reyes-McDavis (CC BY 2.0)
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