Time to Celebrate: FanningSparks Turns 5!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5!  FanningSparks turns five this week!  This is the 264^th post since the blog was launched in March 2018.  Every Tuesday morning, for the last five years, I’ve shared a blog post with the world.  The stories have been illustrated with over 4,300 photos.  Today’s blog post is about celebrating this milestone and taking a look behind the scenes of FanningSparks’ world.
But first, and most importantly, I want to thank you for being here!  Thank you for reading the blog, viewing the photos and sharing your likes, comments and thoughts.
It’s always thrilling to see FanningSparks’ content being shared more broadly.  I was invited, for instance, to share the blog post 79,000 Steps and a Whole Lot of Apple Seeds on The Island Walk Blog website.

Two FanningSparks blog posts featuring mosaic projects, DIY Turkish Mosaic Candle Holder Tutorial and My Mandala-Inspired Oval Design, were included in a September 2022 roundup of 22 Unique DIY Mosaic Art Projects on The Spruce.

Occasionally, FanningSparks will be tagged by someone who has reposted a photo.  Here are two examples from Instagram: Sean Kenney Art who reposted photos from the blog post Nature Connects and Pops with LEGO Bricks and Landscape of Grand-Pré who reposted a photo from the blog post The Enduring Tale of Evangeline.

On a more personal level, I’ve received notes from readers asking about specific projects or topics of interest.  The posts about barn quilts, Have Barn Quilts Made a Comeback? and Lessons Learned from my First Barn Quilt Block, were particularly popular.  A few readers wrote to request the pattern I used for my first barn quilt block and one reader even followed up with a photo of her completed piece (Thank you Dawn!).
The most heartwarming message came from a fellow Canadian who read the blog post My Cherished Poesie Album.  She wrote “I came across your story of your Mother’s poésie book while searching the Internet, after finding my mother’s poésie book. Their stories are so similar! My Mother … is 96 and a half and received her poésie book on her birthday in 1938, 85 years ago.  The first page, written by her, is almost identical to Corrie’s; must have been a standard way to start these books. There are stickers and notes from 34 friends up to 1941.  … Thank you for sharing your story. It made my day!”  (Thank you Liz.  You made my day!)

Google Analytics reports that over 83,000 people have visited www.FanningSparks.com over the last 5 years.  It’s encouraging to see the number of visitors continue to grow year over year as illustrated in the below chart.

The growth has been steady with lots of ups and downs along the way.  The trend chart, shown below, illustrates how the number of active users has changed over the last 5 years.  The 3 trend lines represent the average number of visitors in 1 day (182 daily, up from 106 last year at this time), 7 days (1,200 weekly, up from 624 last year) and 30 days (4,900 monthly, up from 2,500 last year).

It’s interesting to check which blog posts are attracting the most visitors.  DIY tutorials tend to be the most popular over time.  The Turkish Mosaic Candle Holder DIY Tutorial (published in Fall 2019) is in the number one spot for the third year in a row.  The Bluebird-Approved Birdhouse DIY Tutorial (published in Spring 2019) has climbed up into the number two spot.  Two additional DIY tutorials, the Maker Apron and Strawberry Tower Planter, have joined the top 10 this year.  Links to the Top 10 blog posts are listed below this image.

1. DIY Turkish Mosaic Candle Holder Tutorial
2. DIY Bluebird-Approved Birdhouse Tutorial
3. Flat Plane Carving with Harley
4. Lucet Cordmaking – DIY Tutorial
5. Getting Started with Woodcarving
6. Maker Apron – DIY Tutorial
7. Strawberry Tower Planter – DIY Tutorial
8. Our Pony Wall and Banquette Combo
9. Natural Dye Making
10. Artisan Transforms Quahog Shells
Narrowing down the analysis to only the blog posts from the previous year provides a different perspective. Interestingly, the top two spots were blog posts about barn quilts.  I attribute their popularity to having shared them to Barn Quilt Addicts, a very active Facebook group. Links to last year’s top 5 blog posts are listed below this image.

1. Have Barn Quilts Made a Comeback?
2. Lessons Learned from my First Barn Quilt Block
3. All Around the Amethyst Cabochon
4. Traveler’s Infinity Scarf with Secret Zipped Pocket – DIY Tutorial
5. Fabric Gift Bag – Fast or Fancy – DIY Tutorial
One aspect of the FanningSparks blog that I rarely mention is the absence of advertisements.  This means readers can enjoy a full screen of stories and photos without being interrupted by annoying ads.  As you might guess, this also means the blog is a labor of love instead of a money-making venture!

The FanningSparks’ presence on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest continues to be well received.  The number of Instagram followers has increased a modest 15% while the number of Facebook followers has increased by a surprising 36%.
The number of Pinterest followers (aka pinners), on the other hand, has grown by over 50% from 584 to 1,300.  I’ve created over 3,500 original pins on the FanningSparks Make, Travel, Decorate and Nature boards and re-pinned over 2,800 images onto 17 FanningSparks Favs boards for specialized topics such as Fused Glass, Paper Stitching and Art Nouveau.
Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest all use mysterious, proprietary algorithms to determine which posts will be displayed to visitors (called impressions).  Thus, the number of impressions for FanningSparks posts fluctuates inexplicitly.  Recently, the Pinterest algorithms have been in my favor and the number of impressions and engagements have increased significantly.  See the below image for the details.

FanningSparks content is crawled on a regular basis for inclusion in online search engines like Google Search.  Google Search Analytics reports that FanningSparks’ content was selected from search results 1,000 times in the past 28 days.  The most popular content (aka blog posts) for that same period are listed below with the actual search queries used.

There’s something almost surreal about seeing FanningSparks’ content in Google search results.  When I tried searching for “strawberry tower diy”, I got the following results including two FanningSparks’ photos in the top Images section and the blog post Strawberry Tower Planter – DIY Tutorial listed 4^th in the Articles section (right after HGTV and before Fine Gardening!).
Note: The whimsical figures featured in today’s blog post were created by professional artist Sarena Mann.  Each paper maché figure is created “from wire, paper, fabric, paste and patience”.  You can learn more at Sarena Mann Online.

In conclusion, after five years in the blogosphere, interest in the FanningSparks blog continues to grow.  Thanks again, dear reader, for joining me on this incredible adventure!

Cheers,