Warning: this post is of no interest to anyone else besides me, so if you’re not me, feel free to skip it.
I reached my prime in 2019 and it’s been downhill since then. And by “I reached my prime,” I’m talking about my blog.
According to the totally reliable and completely accurate WordPress stats, my blog received more than 178,000 views in 2019. It had almost 49,500 visitors, received more than 53,500 likes and 21,500 comments.
In 2020, my views dropped by 4%, down to just over 171,300. Visitors were up slightly, at 51,200, but likes and comments were both down to 47,276 and 20,616, respectively.
And in 2021, views dropped again, to just under 153,000, which was a whopping 11% drop! Visitors were down to only 44,100, but while likes were up to 52,278, comments dropped ever so slightly to 20,428.
I acknowledge that I wrote more posts in 2019 than I did in 2020 or 2021. But I published 45 more posts this past year than I did in 2020, yet still had far fewer views! What the hell?
Anyway, who, other than me, cares? Still, in a totally egotistical move, here are my top five posts in terms of views, exclusive of my prompts, my about page, and my archives, in 2021. You know, just in case you have absolutely nothing better to do today.
2. Free Speech
4. Insurrection in America, which was posted one year ago today, by the way
This, That, and the Other 
Not to disdain your statistical efforts, but I’d be curious to see if there are aggregate statistics from other bloggers showing long term trends in blogging.
We look t our own blogs in isolation, but I can’t help but wonder if there are wider systemic influences as well. Without weighing for those it’s hard to say if you’ve hit a zenith (prompt, prompt) or just an unfathomable dip. We all know that you are indefatigable in your efforts, and await with anticipation the results of your further research.
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You did an admirable job of crafting a prompt-filled comment, Lou. But you make a good point about looking at my stats in a vacuum. Maybe everyone hit their zenith in 2019.
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My stats took a major dive in 2016 dropping by over a third despite having more visitors and posting over a hundred more posts than 2015. However, I believe WP had changed the way likes and views were recorded. Glad to say 2021 was my best viewing figures so far, but they are nowhere near as high as yours Fandango.
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I hope your stats continue to climb in 2022, Di.
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Thanks Fandango. It’s nice to see them, but like you, I enjoy the comments more.
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okay
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We still like your blog. 🙂 I especially appreciate the one-word challenges.
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Thanks! What a nice thing to say.
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This happened to me too. My blog views have dropped for the past two years. I do blame it on changes in my own circumstances to some extent. Since I moved house, it’s been harder to keep up a blogging routine and since the pandemic I’ve had less to write about as for several months I barely left my house. It’s only lately we’ve started to go on a couple of outings and I’m not really sure how long that’s going to last.
I do wonder if is a general trend though. Maybe a lot of people who used to have time to read blog posts have also had lifestyle changes, maybe blogging is now “old hat” to millennials who prefer other forms of social media. Maybe a lot of my readers were bots anyway. I don’t know. However, I intend to keep doing it as long as it makes me happy and I hope that you will too.
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I think it IS a general trend. The kind of blogging we all did is beginning to fade. Everyone want’s hot, sexy, exciting stuff — regardless of whether or not it’s true or totally fake. These same people are pushing fakeness because that really IS what they want. They don’t want the truth. They don’t even want to be in the same room with truth.
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I will continue to blog for, as you said, as long as it makes me happy.
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I reckon the rise of TikTak and other social media platforms has meant less people are interested in blogging on platforms like WordPress.
You still have very impressive stats F!!
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Thanks. I think you’re right. Sites like TikToc, Instagram, and Facebook are more visual and probably appeal more to the short attention span younger generations (I’m a baby boomer) than do text-oriented blogging sites.
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Since I have been doing photo challenges – 2018 – 9,465 visitors, my stats have increased.
First year 2013 1,268 visitors to last year – 2021 25,478 visitors
Posts published much the same since 2018. Also follower numbers have grown sorry to bring bad news for you Fandango but I am a new follower of yours so I am helping maintain your stats a bit 🙂
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I always notice a drop in views when I don’t do the challenges I normally do.
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Keep up the good work keeping up my stats, Brian. 😏
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I think that your dip in popularity may be connected to the time when you started exclusively blogging on your phone.
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So blogging on my phone makes my posts less readable?
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I didn’t say that. I was just wondering why such a great blogger like you should be getting less readers. It is probably nothing and I predict that 2022 is going to be your best year.
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I was just bustin’ your chops, Jim. And as to 2022, I’m making no predictions.
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I’m seeing the same thing. BUT. I also post less and am not getting posts from Tom and Ellin. I sort of stopped really worrying about stats after I hit a million. I’m more or less back to where I was in 2016. I peaked in 2017 (170,000) — but that was a BIG year for bloggers. I did well — around 135,000 for the next three years. Then it dropped last year, but I have really not been pushing as hard. I’m finally doing what I keep saying I want to do: writing when I have something to say and not posting three or four times daily. I still post daily, but it’s often as little as a single post. I can’t do everything and I can’t even try these days. I want to do other things. I like posting, but I decided I don’t want it to be quite as all-consuming as it was for my first decade.
I also thing boomtown for bloggers is slowly but surely changing. Fewer people want to actually read. They seem to be — like news viewers — looking for “hot” material. These same people are driving America to become a different country than the one in which we grew up. And finally, our age group is thinning out — FAST these days. Of the friends we used to have six adults in our age group are still alive and reasonably well. Everyone else died, mostly of cancer, but also a few strokes and a heart attack.
We are aging out. How did THAT happen? Wasn’t I young just last weekend?
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You’re right. The younger generations seem to be all about TikTok, Instagram, and other more visual media rather than text-based blogging sites. And yes, our generation of Baby Boomers is rapidly shrinking.
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Those are still good numbers. Try to make your articles more seo friendly and you should see more average views in 4 to 6 weeks!
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I just checked my yearly stats and seem to be pretty consistent for the last 4 years. It really didn’t change much. I wonder when did you start the daily challenge, if it was in 2019 that could account for the big stats. Face it Fandango… some of us you are just plain and simply stuck with for the duration. Ha, ha, ha!
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I started FOWC with Fandango in June of 2018, so 2019 was the first full year of that prompt. So you’re right, that may have been a big factor for the jump from 2018 to 2019.
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It makes sense that the 2021 stats are down from 2020. I think that in 2020, with so much being in lockdown for a good portion of the year, a lot of us were looking at computer screens and there may’ve been more eyes on blog posts then there otherwise might be. In 2021 (portions of it, at least) some of us were looking to move past the lockdown stuff. I don’t know…I’m just trying to come up with an explanation for the traffic being significantly down not just on your site, but mine too.
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I think you make a very fair point. Thanks.
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The very reliable and accurate stats of WP are not so, at all.
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I think so too, Sadje!
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🤣
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I get nowhere near those types of views, but it’s not the views that count. It’s keeping myself writing that’s important 😁
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Very true.
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I’m not sure whether or not I’m you, but I would guess 2021 was such a strange year we can’t really use it as a baseline for anything. I may be hyperbolic, but just a little. Still, I love seeing people’s stats, even when I barely look at mine, so thanks for sharing! I hope you’re doing alright and having a good start of this year!
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Thanks.
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Still astronomically large stats from an outsider point of view haha, plus your blog is still entertaining regardless of the number of views you get
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Thanks. I’m glad you enjoy my posts.
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