Well, we’re into 2012 now, and hopefully it’s off to a great start for you. The new year is often such an inspirational time, given the clean slate that we have. Hey, might as well use the marker of a brand new year to start making the positive moves that will help you reach your goals, right? As I posted on the first of the year, I’m pulling for your financial success in 2012! And of course, much happiness in general for you.
The new year also marks a good opportunity to reflect back and recap the prior year. Along those lines, I’d like to briefly share some thoughts on the development of Squirrelers in the past year. I won’t go into a long dissertation with massive amounts of stats, but just a quick look at how things have progressed.
Stats
There are many things one can consider, but taking a look at the amount of people visiting Squirrelers throughout the year, it’s gone as follows:
Total: 77,968
Q1: 10,889
Q2: 13,864
Q3: 24,061
Q4: 29,154
It’s cool to see that Squirrelers has attracted more visitors as the year has progressed, based on looking at the quarterly figures above. As it stands now, 800 people follow via Twitter, and 458 people are subscribed via feed or email. While I don’t have the beginning of 2011 numbers handy for these two metrics, suffice to say that the totals have markedly increased. It’s flattering to know that more folks are not only visiting, but also coming back and ultimately following.
Most Viewed Posts
It was interesting to go back and see which posts received the most attention during 2011, taking into account all since launch in 2010. Here are top 10 posts in terms of pageviews:
- Stock Returns by Month: Interesting Historical Trends
- Tax Rates by Country
- My Best Customer Service Experience Ever
- Your Will: Give Equally to Kids or Not?
- The Role of Money in our Life
- Is there a Silver Bubble? How High Can Prices Go?
- Survival of the Fittest in the Workplace, and Myths About Fairness
- The Case for a Bigger Emergency Fund
- Vacation Days by Country: How do we Rate?
- A Dollar Today > A Dollar Tomorrow
Top Referring Sites
I’d like to offer a sincere THANK YOU to those who have been referring sites, helping to bring people this way. Along those lines, I’d like to recognize the top 20 referring sites. These are the 20 sites/blogs that were provided the highest referral traffic to Squirrelers in 2011.
- The Simple Dollar
- Yakezie
- Lifehacker
- online-sweepstakes
- MSN Money
- Free Money Finance
- Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
- Len Penzo
- Everyday Tips and Thoughts
- First Gen American
- Grumply Rumblings of the Untenured
- Wisebread
- Mighty Bargain Hunter
- Get Rich Slowly
- Carnival of Personal Finance
- Interest.co.nz
- 101Centavos
- Festival of Frugality
- Money Talks News
- Invest it Wisely
Looking ahead to the rest of 2012
This year, I’m planning to keep the momentum going and continue to grow Squirrelers. If anyone has any specific comments/feedback on what topics you’d like to see more of (or less), please use the contact form in the upper left corner of the page, or email me at admin (<at>) squirrelers (<dot>) com. The idea is to have Squirrelers be a blog you enjoy and keep on your reading list!
One project that I’m considering undertaking is a site redesign. I’m considering changing the visual aspect of the site a bit, perhaps streamlining and adding some color. It might involve a different theme.
Additionally, as part of growth, there is another blog in the works! It would cover a different area of personal finance and life. Stay tuned 🙂
Thanks again for being a part of things last year, and making it so much fun. Looking forward to a great 2012 for all of us.