Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for...
My 2021 blog highlights!!!
I know we have all been on the edge of our seats these last few weeks, yearning for this glorious post, starved of all that is good and lovely in its absence. *swoons*
I'm being sarcastic. Blog traffic stats are not necessarily my most favorite thing...and I'm sure y'all aren't too keen on them either. Which is why I am bound and determined to make this post as interesting - and short-lived - as possible.
For starters, I actually have a lot to share about last year's blogging. Considering the fact that I didn't actually have blog followers - let alone readers - until 2021 began, a lot happened. I tried out a lot of things, put out a lot of interesting content, and got a lot of views. So before we get into the fun stuff, let's jump right in to 2021's most popular...
most popular post of the year
This lovely award goes to...drum roll, if you please. *pauses as the drum sounds* *extends a huge statue of an eyeball*
This post topped all 208 of them this year with over 220 views! Of course, who can resist a short story writing prompt contest? *crickets chirp* Exactly.
Following close behind are the top posts from each month...
January: Liebster Award: Gabbing with Grace
February: Fantasy Writers' Worldbuilding Linkup
April: Reflections Tag
May: Short Story Writing Prompt Contest (aka most popular post of the year)
June: And the Winner Is...
August: A Day of Bookishness
September: Welcome to the Tour!
December: Single Line Story Challenge
most memorable blogging moments
This is tough. Why am I even asking myself this??? *glares at self*
Well, lemme break it up.
My most memorable blogging fail of 2021 would be my writers' advice column - Ask Ann-Marguerite. (I actually started it in, like, November of 2020, I think...) I thought it'd be super cool to do an advice column in actual anonymous column style...by using a different name/identity to answer any questions that came my way. Well, suffice it to say that I was never asked any questions and, like the writer I am, I let my fake persona take on a personality of its own, thereby becoming more of a character than anything else. So my few advice posts were actually written in story-form...which was fun, I guess, but extremely unpopular and just...not what I'd wanted.
In fact, I set about creating a separate blog (long story) just for my advice column back in February-ish, so because of how stressful that was and how little I'd thought that through, I ended up taking March off of my blog and posting a lot of guest posts.
I say I took March off. In reality, I posted just as much as I usually would've and just threw in several awesome guest posts. *shrugs* Then, come April, I started a weekly serial called Reign. That wouldn't have been such a bad idea if the story itself didn't take all kinds of crazy turns...and if it didn't distract me from working on Bound and Determined.
All around, not my best time.
I also decided to replace Name of the Week with Design of the Week...and let's just say DotW went over even worse than NotW...like a rat sandwich, my dad would say. Hence why there are no more "of the weeks."
As for a positive blogging moment...let's see...
I HAVE to mention joining Christine Smith's Know the Novel linkup from October to December. That was such a fun experience and something that I look forward to doing every year!
Speaking of fun experiences...my Daylight blog tour. That was...that was amazing. All of my fellow bloggers that came together to pour time and effort into helping me launch my short story...y'all, that meant so much to me and I will always remember the fantabulous tour we put together in September of 2021! *begins singing* Say, do you remember touring in September? *walks off humming*
And, of course, my What If series. I haven't posted any What If posts in several months now - only because of a shortage of time rather than a shortage of ideas. Trust me, have I got ideas! I would like to migrate What If to a YouTube channel eventually, but I'm not making any promises just yet.
That series is just something that I really enjoyed posting in...a way that I was able to express a lot of my thoughts, emotions, and convictions (as well as kinda indirectly rant at some people out there *winks*) in a manner that helped teach and influence my readers rather than just being clanging cymbals.
new things I tried
Number one, I tried my own linkup. I legit only had two people join...but I tried. That was back in February, though, when I had, like, two followers. Maybe I'll give it another go this year! Let me know in the comments if that's something you'd be interested in and what you'd like to see me do!
Number two, I hosted a short story contest. I honestly didn't think that would amount to anything at all...but I had ten entries - all of which were so good I had to bring in an outside consultant (as in, my friend Em) to help me choose a winner - and, as you can see, my contest kickoff post was the most popular of the year!
Number three, I tried out a summer reading scavenger hunt...which was (1) not prepared well, (2) a little early, and (3) not all that I'd envisioned...but it was still really cool and something that I'd definitely like to do again!
And, as mentioned above, I tried out a serial, joined a linkup (two, actually, because I do think you're right, Issabelle, that I didn't do the Meet My MC linkup too late. I'm pretty sure I actually had time to give Maya my link), hosted my first ever launch tour, and tons more!
favorite post
I'll be honest. I'm only including this section because I titled the post "Blog Favorites." Iin actuality, I don't have a favorite and I'm not even going to try to name one. Rather, I want to know what YOUR favorite post was! Was it a book review, my short story contest, a tag or linkup, a BAD sneak peek, a photo dump? Let me know in the comments which of my posts you enjoyed the most last year!
I'd also like to know, while you're down there, what you'd like to see more of this year! I don't want to make the same mistakes I did in early 2021 and just try out whatever pops into my head without (1) preparing and (2) consulting my readers!
What about you? What do you enjoy blogging about? What's the most post views you had last year? What would you like to try in 2022? Gab away, my friends!