In my final look back at 2025, I’m looking at my blog performance and favorite posts again. You know that I love data, so this type of post is a lot of fun for me. If you enjoy data, too, take a look at the Data tag for posts you may have missed.
My yearly reminder: I’m aware that the stats I have available to me are almost certainly tainted by bots, VPNs, 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
Given my downward trend in the number of posts in the last few years, I suppose it’s not entirely surprising that, for the first time, I had fewer views than last year. Let’s see if we can turn that around for this year. I also made my Lume deodorant review unsearchable toward the end of last year because I was getting all sorts of weird comments on it, and that was a significant chunk of views each year.
A reminder for those who haven’t seen the previous years’ posts: 2017 only had half a year, as I started my blog on June 15, and originally planned it to be related to books and reading.
Total Views: 263,180 | Total Posts: 842 | Total Words: 677,934
| Stat | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Views | 1,133 | 5,593 | 16,301 | 9,242 | 15,730 | 36,463 | 51,102 | 66,222 | 60,857 |
| Avg. Views per Day | 7 | 15 | 44 | 25 | 43 | 101 | 140 | 181 | 167 |
| Posts | 70 | 137 | 79 | 21 | 136 | 104 | 114 | 98 | 83 |
| Words | 46.6K | 99.7K | 27.4K | 23.7K | 88.2K | 90.8K | 124.5K | 88.5K | 86.6K |
| Avg. Words per Post | 666 | 728 | 347 | 1,126 | 648 | 873 | 1,093 | 903 | 1,043 |
| Book Posts | 41 | 73 | 26 | 14 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 2 |
| Cat Posts | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 16 | 3 | 18 |
| Fountain Pen Posts | 1 | 21 | 38 | 2 | 47 | 63 | 51 | 47 | 28 |
| Ink Posts | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 34 | 9 | 21 | 24 | 22 |
2025 Stats
The metrics below only pertain to 2025 posts.
Top Countries by Views
Continuing an 8-year trend, the USA still accounts for the vast majority of my total views, beating out the next highest (the UK) by nearly 33,000 views this year. However, there were many other changes to viewership this year, with China appearing out of nowhere to be number 4, and India jumping to number 5 above Germany and Australia, who swapped places again this year. France and Spain also swapped places again this year.
- United States – 36,533
- United Kingdom – 3,985
- Canada – 2,734
- China – 1,735
- India – 1,463
- Germany – 1,460
- Australia – 1,357
- Netherlands – 864
- France – 671
- Spain – 651
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 combined some results, where the base domain was the same — for example, there were three different results related to Reddit. I’ll have to do some research into number 8, as it’s a link tracking site used in emails. I’m not sure which email service uses it; perhaps WordPress, in their subscription emails.
- Search Engines – 22,458
- Google – 21,437
- duckduckgo.com – 518
- Bing – 335
- Ecosia.org – 84
- Yahoo – 84
- PenAddict.com – 2,086
- WellAppointedDesk.com – 1,957
- GentlemanStationer.com – 1,548
- Instagram – 715
- Facebook – 433
- Gmail – 191
- track.pstmrk.it – 139
- Reddit – 286
- relay.fm – 80
Top Visited Links
These are the top ten links that visitors clicked on from my site (not counting links related to my site, like my newsletter sign-up page).
Reminder: 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.
- Instagram – 1,907
- Amazon.com – 891
- Etsy – 411
- Jet Pens – 396
- Google – 305
- FountainPenNetwork.com – 300
- StanfordPenStudio.com – 178
- YouTube – 154
- hidden.melz.io – 134
- RichardsPens.com – 133
Blog Posts
Top Posts by Views
Once again, I’m surprised by the top posts. Only one post is from 2025 — please let me know what you’d like to see more of, because clearly I’m not hitting the mark. I didn’t include my Kencko review post, because it’s definitely throwing off everything else, with 4,885 views in 2025.
- Plotter Alternatives, Part 1 (2023) – 1,489
- Plotter Alternatives, Part 5 (2023) – 1,297
- Plotter Alternatives, Part 3 (2023) – 1,110
- Plotter Alternatives, Part 2 (2023) – 1,295
- Identifying and Dating a Vintage Esterbrook (2019) – 1,093 Discounting the Kencko post, this is also my most-viewed post ever, with 5,004 views.
- Plotter Alternatives, Part 0 (2023) – 965
- Pen Porn: SPS Egyptian Cats (2024) – 815
- My 2025 Favorites (2025) – 673
- It’s An ADHD Thing?! (2022) – 645
- TIE
- Comparing Common Nib Grinds (2022) – 626
- Never Buying These Again (2025) – 626
My Favorite Posts
I cheated with this list this year. I grouped a few related items together. Still, these are the posts I either most enjoyed writing or am proudest of for 2025. As with last year, they’re listed alphabetically
Long Live the King: This post stands alone as my homage to my wonderful familiar, Bumbledore, who crossed the rainbow bridge almost a year ago. I still can’t read it without crying, but I’m impressed that I was able to be so coherent when I was hurting so much.
- And Now For Something Completely Different
Changing how I handle my pen rotations worked well, and I think it will help me figure out which additional pens to retire or sell. - Cat Health Info: These are the types of posts I share for people to find later in online searches. I know from experience that it can be difficult to find information compiled together in one place, and I hope that these posts save people the hours of searching I’ve invested.
- Floofenstein Series: After we adopted Bumbledore in 2019, I often looked back and wished I’d documented his first few months with us. As Floofenstein is a gift from my sweet Bumbledore, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity a second time.
- Fountain Pen Rainbow 2025
I always love my fountain pen rainbow post. It’s both an opportunity to appreciate pens I already own and a moment to revel in Pride Month. - A Quick Reflection
This was a quick, “filler post” about my longest-owned pens since I hadn’t had time to prepare a longer post for the week. However, I’d like to do more short, highly-focused, posts like this in the future. - Snarky Posts: I allowed myself a few snarky posts in 2025, indulging in poking fun at some bad stationery and reviewing things that should have been done differently.
- Stanford Pen Studio Model Comparison
I don’t usually write this type of post, letting other stationery voices take on the role of “true” reviewers. However, I was so surprised at the shape and size of the Intwana model that I felt a need to share a comparison. I wanted to make sure that those who shy away from small pens didn’t feel a need to avoid the Intwana.
I did better this year with unique posts. Of my 83 blog posts this year, 37 (44.58%) weren’t part of an existing series! The remaining posts were annual posts — like this one — (16 or 19.28%), ink battle/skirmish/dupe posts (17 or 20.48%), pen porn posts (7 or 8.43%), pen show posts (4 or 4.82%), or book reviews (2 or 2.41%).
Be prepared for more book reviews and more pen porn posts this year. I have a backlog of both that I’m hoping to prepare for and during my annual mid-January through February quasi-break from blogging.
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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