We’re celebrating a major milestone in FanningSparks’ world this week—the blog turns 4! It’s another ring on the tree, another trip around the sun, another chapter in the book… it’s time to take a step back and assess our progress. More importantly, it’s time to acknowledge those that make this endeavor possible—you, the readers! Thank you so much for reading the blog, viewing the photos and sharing in the FanningSparks adventure.
It’s always heartening to hear from readers directly. Whether it’s in real life or virtual, your feedback, comments, shout-outs, and reactions are greatly appreciated.
A few months ago, I received an email from a work colleague—we’d worked together on a short consulting engagement. We’ve lost touch but stay connected on LinkedIn. It was a wonderful surprise to receive his email with the subject line: Glad I Looked You Up. He went on to say “I stumbled across your name today on my contacts and on a lark, looked you up on LinkedIn. … pulling the thread a little, I found your website and am glad I did. I just love it. … I see excellence in clay, wood, leatherwork, fiber arts, … design/decoration, gardening and so much more! Then we add in a traveling spirit and an eye to capture the moments in photos. Keep going and keep making the world beautiful.” (Thank you Sean for your thoughtful email and kind words!)
In October-November 2021, I had the opportunity to participate in a Work Study program at the John C Campbell Folk School. As stated in their mission, the Folk School “transforms lives, bringing people together in a nurturing environment for experiences in learning and community life that spark self-discovery”. I love this nurturing and supportive creative environment and enjoy sharing my Folk School experiences on the blog. In turn, the Folk School often shares FanningSparks’ stories with their audience. Here are two examples from the Folk School’s Instagram stories. (Thank you Robert!)
The FanningSparks blog post, My Top 12 Picks from the Folk School Craft Shop, got top billing on the Folk School social media channels. There was a noticeable uptick in blog visitors that week!
In addition to hearing from readers directly, data analytics provide a comprehensive view of the blog. There are data points to consider for the FanningSparks blog, the associated social media platforms, and Google search.
FanningSparks Blog
FanningSparks blog posts have been published every Tuesday since the blog was launched on March 20, 2018—this is the 211th blog post! Google Analytics reports that over 44,550 people have visited the FanningSparks blog over the last 4 years. It’s so gratifying to know the blog is being read!
The number of blog visitors continues to grow: Year 1 -> 3,000; Year 2 -> 6,000; Year 3 -> 12,000; Year 4 -> 23,000. Below is a Google Analytics growth chart showing the number of active users (ie visitors to FanningSparks) over the last 4 years. The 3 trend lines represent the average number of visitors in 1 day (106 daily), 7 days (624 weekly) and 30 days (2,500 monthly).
A few months ago, Google Analytics surprised me with this message:
Google Analytics also calculates which posts are the most popular. Shown below are photos from the Top 10 FanningSparks blog posts since the blog’s beginning. Many of these blog posts were also amongst the most popular last year. But two of them, Lucet Cordmaking – DIY Tutorial and Natural Dye Making are new to the Top 10 this year. It’s interesting to note that tutorials and instructional posts continue to do well. Links to the Top 10 posts are listed below the graphic should you wish to check them out.
1. DIY Turkish Mosaic Candle Holder Tutorial
2. Flat Plane Carving with Harley
3. Getting Started with Woodcarving
4. DIY Bluebird-Approved Birdhouse Tutorial
5. Lucet Cordmaking – DIY Tutorial
6. Artisan Transforms Quahog Shells
7. Our Pony Wall and Banquette Combo
8. DIY Pyramid Trellis Tutorial
9. Pair of Mosaic Mirrors Completed
10. Natural Dye Making
Obviously, posts which have been available longer are likely to garner more visitors than recent posts. For comparison, I pulled the top 5 posts from the past year. Links to these posts are listed below the graphic for your convenience.
1. Strawberry Tower Planter – DIY Tutorial
2. Teacup Pincushion – DIY Tutorial
3. From One to Many: Propagating Flowering Shrubs
4. Swept Away by Broom Making
5. Old Silver Wind Chimes – DIY Tutorial
FanningSparks Social Media Platforms
The FanningSparks presence on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Bloglovin’ continues to be well received.
Pinterest continues to be the most active platform. This is to be expected since Pinterest content lives on beyond the initial publication. I’ve created over 5,000 pins and I’m thrilled to have 584 Pinterest followers (up from 268 at this time last year). FanningSparks’ pins were shown over 600K times in the last 90 days resulting in 17,740 engagements.
FanningSparks on Google Search
Google also provides helpful analytics about how visitors find FanningSparks via Google Search. Based on the following report from the past 28 days, I’d say visitors to FanningSparks are getting ready for spring by building birdhouses and strawberry tower planters!
This concludes our behind-the-scenes peek into the FanningSparks blog. It’s time to wrap up this celebration of four successful years and look forward to what lies ahead. Please join me for another year of making, traveling and sharing!
Cheers,
2 Comments
@Marian, Thank you! Peg
Congratulations!
Amazing reach!!!
Certainly my Tuesday highlight