FanningSparks Turns 2!

While everyone is hunkering down, we’re taking a minute to celebrate a significant milestone in the FanningSparks’ corner of the blogosphere.  This week marks the second year the FanningSparks blog has been in existence.  So it’s time for a little celebration—time to pause and note what’s been accomplished in the last 2 years.
Firstly, and most importantly, I want to thank you for reading this blog.  Knowing someone actually reads the stories and/or looks at the photos keeps me energized.  Many of you have taken the time to send a note, make a comment, signal a like, or mention the blog to me.  I appreciate your feedback more than you can imagine.  It’s also very helpful when you spread the word and share this blog with others who might be interested.  Thank you so much!

New Features Launched
Before we dive into the accomplishments, I’d like to announce a few new features that are launching today.  I hope you’ll find these improvements helpful. With the number of posts steadily growing—this is the 107^th post—it was time to beef up the organization.  My former colleagues will appreciate that I spent the last few weeks working on the blog’s “information architecture”.  I’ve created 26 new sub-categories and slotted all the posts accordingly.  I trust this additional granularity will make it easier for you to scan and navigate the blog.  For instance, prior to these changes I had one category called MAKE with over 60 posts in it.  That category has been subdivided into 9 groupings as you can see in the menu flyout below.
I’ve also added a series of index pages—one for each category.  These are accessible from the boxes in the sidebar at the right of the blog page.  The index page shows the posts by sub-category at a glance.  It’s an alternative way to see all posts for a particular subject.  I’ve also switched out the category cover photos to keep things fresh and interesting.  Here’s a screenshot of the TRAVEL index page.

You may notice a few additional changes in the sidebar on the right.  I adjusted the order of the options and removed a couple that were redundant.  Plus there’s a new featured post box which allows me to highlight a previous post that you might find interesting at this time.  For instance, the arrival of spring might be just the time to check out the DIY Bluebird-Approved Birdhouse Tutorial.

FanningSparks Blog
The viewing statistics for the blog indicate the audience is growing.  Yay!  Over 9,000 unique users have visited the blog since it originally launched.  Of those 9,000 visitors, about 3,000 visited in the first year and double that number visited in the second year.  In December 2019, the blog hit a new record with over 1,000 visitors in the month—a significant milestone for this little blog!
It’s always interesting to see which posts are the most popular.  Here are the top 8 posts, to date, from the FanningSparks blog.  Links are listed below the image if you’d like to check out them out.
1 Flat Plane Carving with Harley
2 Getting Started with Woodcarving
3 Artisan Transforms Quahog Shells
4 Madison Decks the Halls
5 Weave a Market Basket
6 First Impressions as a Work Study Student
7 DIY Turkish Mosaic Candle Holder Tutorial
8 DIY Woven Statement Necklace Tutorial

FanningSparks Social Media Channels
FanningSparks has a presence on several popular platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Bloglovin’.
There are nearly 200 posts on the FanningSparks Instagram account.  The account has 118 followers which is a slight increase from last year.  The below image shows a summary of FanningSparks’ top Instagram posts.
The FanningSparks Pinterest account has grown by leaps and bounds in the last year.  There are over 2,363 pins across 14 boards.  Pinterest shows these pins to an average of 338.3k viewers/month (up significantly from 10.7k at this time last year).  The most popular pin is this adorable rabbit, a woodcarving in process, by Richard Carter of the Brasstown Carvers (Thanks again, Richard!).  This was from the post Getting Started with Woodcarving.  Over 2,450 viewers have viewed a closeup, clicked the link or saved this pin in the last year.

The FanningSparks Facebook account continues to draw visitors to the blog.  Announcements are published every week to let folks know about the latest blog post.  Facebook is also a great channel for sharing posts with artists, businesses or organizations mentioned in the posts.  Often these individuals will share the FanningSparks post with their followers.  I’m grateful for these shares and appreciate the exposure to new visitors.  Facebook had a noteworthy impact on two blog posts in particular.  The Facebook announcement regarding the post, From Sheep to Shawl, reached an astonishing audience of 3.1K with over 225 users clicking on the link.  While the Facebook announcement regarding the post, Madison Decks the Halls, reached 1.7K users with 229 clicking through.
Bloglovin’, if you’re not familiar with it, is a platform that allows users to follow, organize and read all their favorite blogs from one place.  Bloglovin’ notifies followers when new posts have been published.  FanningSparks has 63 followers on the Bloglovin’ platform.
Another way to be notified of new posts is to sign up for FanningSparks email notifications.  Check out the details here.  Then simply follow the instructions in the Can I Count You In? box in the far right sidebar to join up.  FanningSparks currently has a few dozen active email subscribers.

About That Girl
The little porcelain figurine of a young girl holding the number 2 was a timely vintage find.  As I discovered after the fact, she is part of a collection by Enesco called Growing Up Girls.  She was introduced in 1988.  According to their website, “For generations, Growing Up Girls^® figurines have documented a girl’s journey to adulthood – from birth to marriage. These popular collectibles remain timeless”.  The tradition of marking birthdays with figurines is new to me.  I doubt I’ll start the tradition but I am glad to have found this one for the FanningSparks’ milestone celebration.
Thanks again for following along with FanningSparks.  I hope you enjoy reading the posts as much as I enjoy sharing them.
Cheers,