2019 Blog in Review
Published: 2020-01-01 18:58:06

---
title: 2019 Blog in Review
published: true
description: I blogged regularly for the first time in 2019. How'd it go?
cover_image: https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/ashleemboyer-2018.appspot.com/o/images%2F2020%2F01%2F2019-review.png?alt=media&token=1125950d-2ca8-4427-b8dc-382683c3f749
canonical_url: https://ashleemboyer.com/2019-blog-in-review
---

_Originally posted on [my personal blog site](https://ashleemboyer.com/2019-blog-in-review)._

## Table of Contents

1. Personal Blog Stats
2. DEV Stats

In April of 2019, I knew I needed to change my life. I was extremely unhappy in a toxic workplace, had no involvement in my community, and the only tech people I knew in my area worked at the same place and none of us talked to each other. I decided to [join Twitter to network](https://ashleemboyer.com/why-and-how-you-should-use-twitter-for-networking) and figure out what was going on in the tech world. (Side note: I've gained 1,800 followers since!)

Then, I discovered [DEV Community](https://dev.to). It seemed like a great place to start writing. I needed to do _something_ with all of the emotions I was feeling at the time. So, I wrote about my process for looking for a new job: [How to Identify Your Knowledge Gaps in Under an Hour](https://ashleemboyer.com/how-to-identify-your-knowledge-gaps-in-under-an-hour). It got 187 views, 8 reactions, and 1 comment.

I'd never gotten so many views on one post before! So, I decided to write another one the next day: [It's OK to be Scared](https://ashleemboyer.com/it-s-ok-to-be-scared) (204 views and 6 reactions). Then I wrote my first "hit" the following day: [Neither You nor Your Work Has to be Perfect](neither-you-nor-your-work-has-to-be-perfect) (1234 views, 82 reactions, 24 comments). I think that was my first post that DEV Community ([@ThePracticalDev](https://twitter.com/ThePracticalDev)) tweeted out. It felt so validating having my post shared by an account with hundreds of thousands of followers.

I think it was at this time that I decided to do a 30-day blogging challenge. I've always loved to write, but never succeeded in making it a habit. My goal was to write regularly. This is something I'm still trying to figure out, and I think most other people are too. Life is unpredictable and very hard to plan for. Habits and hobbies are hard to keep up with.

So, I did my challenge, and I was hooked. Some posts did really well, some got less than 100 views. It helped me gauage what I really wanted to write about and what people liked reading about. If you want to read about the results of the challenge, I wrote about it: [After 30 Days of Writing on DEV.to](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/after-30-days-of-writing-on-dev-to-a08).

The challenge did exactly what I wanted it to. I felt confident in what I had to say and decided to spend some time to work on my own blog site. I'd cross-post everything and keep track of stats with Google Analytics. I started recording stats on my personal site on August 11, 2019. I'll spend the rest of this post sharing some of those stats and also the ones I can get on DEV.

---

## Personal Blog Stats

### Audience

- Users: 2,157
- New Users: 2,153
- Sessions: 2,558
- Countries: 100 (unset is not counted here)
- Top 3 days: September 3rd (186 users), September 17th (106 users), August 27th (105 users)

### Behavior

- Pageviews: 3,720
- Unique Pageviews: 3,160
- Top 3 posts: [Build a React & Firebase Blog Site: Part 1](https://ashleemboyer.com/react-firebase-blog-01) (417 views), [How I Keep Coding When I'm Low on Spoons](https://ashleemboyer.com/how-i-keep-coding-when-i-m-low-on-spoons) (364 views), [Re-Create an Image with Colorful Text](https://ashleemboyer.com/re-create-an-image-with-colorful-text) (281 views)

### Acquisition

- Social: 991 users (45.3%)
- Referral: 858 users (29.2%)
- Direct: 301 users (13.8%)
- Organic search: 27 users
- Other: 10

## DEV Stats

### General

- 9,500 Followers
- 3,186 Total Post Reactions
- 70,700 Post Views

### Top Posts By Views

- 7,650: [I Tried the Top 5 Coding Challenge Websites](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/i-tried-the-top-5-coding-challenge-websites-4lo9)
- 5,326: [The Perfect First Project for Exploring Any JS Framework](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/the-perfect-first-project-for-exploring-any-js-framework-48ip)
- 3,433: [Yes, You Should Have Hobbies Outside of Code](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/yes-you-should-have-hobbies-outside-of-code-4ao9)

### Top Posts By Reactions

- 225: [Build a React & Firebase Blog Site: Part 1](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/build-a-react-firebase-blog-site-part-1-4gn0)
- 224: [Why and How You Should Use Twitter for Networking](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/why-and-how-you-should-use-twitter-for-networking-357m)
- 163: [How to Dynamically Create Many Similar CSS Classes with Sass](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/how-to-dynamically-create-many-similar-css-classes-with-sass-1538)

### Top Posts By Comments

- 54: [I am a web developer, hard of hearing, and an a11y advocate, Ask Me Anything!](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/i-am-a-web-developer-hard-of-hearing-and-an-a11y-advocate-ask-me-anything-4f91)
- 51: [Yes, You Should Have Hobbies Outside of Code](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/yes-you-should-have-hobbies-outside-of-code-4ao9)
- 47: [Why and How You Should Use Twitter for Networking](https://dev.to/ashleemboyer/why-and-how-you-should-use-twitter-for-networking-357m)

---

2019 was an excellent year for me both professionally and personally. I'm so glad I decided to make a change 9 months ago. Thank you all for hanging out with me and helping me make this a great year. Here's to 2020! 🎉

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