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Blog Review – 2022

Posted in Random Reflections

I’ve enjoyed these past two weeks of looking back at 2022 and looking forward to 2023. I’ll likely keep this same set of posts for future years, although perhaps not in the same order.

Like with yesterday’s Goodreads reading challenge post, I haven’t ever dedicated a post to my blog stats. So today, I’m fixing that oversight.

I’m well aware that the stats I have available to me are almost certainly tainted by bots, etc. But, they’re still fun to look through. I know there are some other data nerds out there, so this post goes out to you.

All-Time Stats

With five and a half years of blog posts, there are, of course, a lot of stats I could share. But, I won’t bore you with tons of details. Instead, I want to highlight the ones that are most interesting to me. Keep in mind that 2017 only had half a year, as I started my blog on June 15.

Total Views: 86,217 | Total Posts: 550 | Total Words: 376,303

Stat201720182019202020212022
Views1,1335,59316,3019,24215,73036,463
Avg. Views per Day715442543101
Posts701377921136104
Words46.6K99.7K27.4K23.7K88.2K90.8K
Avg. Words per Post6667283471,126648873
Book Posts417326141012
Fountain Pen Posts6414528778

2022 Stats

I ran the below metrics for all of 2022, and only 2022.

Top Countries by Views

Some of the countries in my top ten were no surprise — hello to all my fellow Americans. Others, however, I can’t account for, although I’m reluctant to call them anomalies based on the numbers.

world map showing countries filled in that have at least one visit to my blog. Most countries are filled it, with notable exceptions including Belize, Panama, Guyana, French Guiana, Greenland, Iceland, countries in central and western Africa, Madagascar, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
I’m impressed with how widespread blog views are. I wonder how many of them are bots or hackers.
  1. United States – 23,660
  2. United Kingdom – 2,020
  3. Canada – 1,606
  4. Germany – 1,389
  5. Australia – 711
  6. Spain – 525
  7. India – 521
  8. Netherlands – 463
  9. Singapore – 438
  10. France – 433

Top Referrers by Views

A referrer is a webpage that sends visitors to a site — in this case, mine — using a link. In other words, it’s the webpage that a person was on right before they landed on my site. I’m only including referrers that hit double digits.

  1. Search Engines – 5,679
    • Google – 5,182
    • duckduckgo.com – 320
    • Bing – 118
    • Yahoo – 49
  2. Facebook – 1,910
  3. Instagram – 1,748
  4. PenAddict.com – 1,123
  5. WordPress Android App – 339
  6. Reddit – 69
  7. Twitter – 46

Top Visited Links

These are the top ten links that visitors clicked on from my site. Please note, these are top-level links. That means that the home page of a website is listed as opposed to all of its subpages. As an example, if someone clicks on a link to my Instagram profile and a link to Jim’s Instagram profile, rather than both being listed with 1 click, Instagram.com would show 2 clicks.

  1. Instagram – 3,071
  2. Etsy – 258
  3. BertramsInkwell.com – 252
  4. FountainPenNetwork.com – 194
  5. GourmetPensShop.com – 122
  6. Amazon.com – 117
  7. RichardsPens.com – 91
  8. Facebook – 81
  9. YouTube – 74
  10. My Newsletter Subscription Form – 72

Blog Posts

Top Posts by Views

Clearly, pen posts reign supreme. You all seem to enjoy pen porn, as 3 of the 10 posts are pen porn posts, and another 2 could be considered pen porn.

  1. Goodbye TWSBI – 1,071
  2. Fountain Pen Myths – 796
  3. Identifying and Dating a Vintage Esterbrook – 788
  4. Pen Porn: Benu Forest Pond – 691
  5. My Pen Collection Part 3 – 644
  6. Gourmet Pens Be Brave – 606
  7. 2022 DC Pen Show, Part 6 – 603
  8. The True Value of Indie Pens – 509
  9. Pen Porn: Enameled Sakura – 505
  10. Indie Makers Update – 481

My Favorite Posts

Surprisingly, I found picking — and ranking — my top 10 favorite posts from last year to be almost as hard as picking my top 10 favorite pens. Even once I’d managed to choose a top ten, I was left with a handful of posts I had to mention. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, it should come as no surprise that I couldn’t stick to 10.

  1. Making Pen Shows Accessible – August 26
    I’m proud of the response this post generated and the conversations it started. I hope that those conversations will lead to changes that will allow a more diverse audience to enjoy pen shows.
  2. Slowing the Shopping – November 23
    This post was helpful to me to write. It served as a reminder to evaluate my purchases right before commercialism’s biggest holiday. To hear that it helped others was the icing on the cake.
  3. The True Value of Indie Pens – September 23
    You don’t need to follow my blog for very long to know I value indie-made pens. I should probably add an “Indie” tag to my blog. So, turning the pen show class Jim and I developed into a blog post was a delightful exercise. If you haven’t read it yet, you should.
  4. Pens Unique to a Brand – November 25
    I always enjoy helping increase awareness of indie makers. While not all of them needed assistance, they all deserved the recognition.
  5. Provocateur Images – Passionate Photography – December 2
    I’m proud of myself for posting this one. The idea of sharing something so personal scared me. But I’m happy I did, and I enjoyed reading the stories in the comments I received.
  6. Gourmet Pens Be Brave – September 20
    I enjoy creating my pen porn posts. I also enjoy helping/supporting friends. Being able to do both at once increases my joy by orders of magnitude. The Be Brave is a very special pen. If you aren’t familiar with the heartwarming story behind it, go check it out.
  7. Additional Indie Makers – June 24
    When I come across Indie makers to add to my list, they’re usually on the smaller/newer side. So, I’m happy to help amplify their audience, even if only a bit. It’s a way for me to support their business since I can’t buy pens from everyone.
  8. Comparing Common Nib Grinds – June 3
    I had so much fun doing the research and comparisons for this one. I’ve fallen head-over-heels for nib grinds, and wanted to share my joy.
  9. My AD(H)D Journey – July 8
    Part of my impetus for this post was to help work through everything that had happened. It was a kind of public journal entry if you will. The other part was a desire to share my experiences in the hope it would help others.
  10. Vintage Sheaffer Research – June 17
    I’m just proud of the effort and research I put into this. I rarely write posts like this, and it was a fun change.

Honorable Mentions

So that I don’t have to rate them — yeah, I know it’s cheating — these are listed in the order they were posted.


Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. What’s your favorite type of post I write? Do you have an actual favorite post? Is there anything you’d like to see me write about? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.

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