Monday, March 16, 2009

A Look Back on Two Years of Blogging... and a Giveaway!



It's been two years since I started this blog!

It took me a long time to actually hit the button to start it because the whole idea made me a little nervous. But I knew I would have fun letting my book enthusiasm run free. And I really needed an outlet for that, so I went for it. And wow! I was soon getting comments and finding tons of other book bloggers out there! Something I totally didn't expect. It was all very exciting.

Now it's two years and 560 posts later! Here's a quick look back over the past couple of years:

Posts with the most hits:

My review of Deep and Dark and Dangerous. I'm guessing tons of kids are coming to get ideas for a book report. Other reviews on books I promoted for the book fair come in at a close second.

A Couple of Twilight Previews: Not sure why people find my blog for this, since these reviews were posted everywhere!

The first vote for the Bookword Game. The enthusiasm was high for the first vote! I'm needing WAY more votes for the current round!

Dewey, we'll miss you. I happened to catch this news just shortly after it was posted on Dewey's site, then quickly posted my reaction. It seemed I had a lot of hits that sad day.

What is Jason reading? The was first time I posted Jason's name in my title! It works to get lots of hits... but only one comment!


A couple of my favorite posts:


Literary Couples : Inspired by a contest hosted by Literary Feline.

Guess the Author Pictures : A Weekly Geek post.

Blog Advent Tour: Decorating the Tree : This past year's advent tour contribution.


My first commenter two years ago: Lisa at Books. Lists. Life.
My most recent commenter: Boy Mom at Boys-R-Us

By the Numbers:
120 reviews

47 Weekly Geek experiences

81 Booking Through Thursday questions answered

ONLY 5 posts labeled Josh Groban! (Did I miss labeling a few? )

2 Blogger Christmas exchanges and Blogger Advent Tours participated in

Only 3 blog tours.

31 Sunday Salons

17 Teaser Tuesdays
23 random memes completed (at least those properly labeled!)


Okay. I guess I could go on and on looking back. So I'll stop now.

Anyway, it's been a fun two years. I hope to keep it up for a long time to come (even though it often gets discouraging!) Thank you to all of you who have connected, commented, followed, friended, or whatever the word of the day is, with me! You are all wonderful! :)

And to celebrate lasting two years, I'd like to give away a ten dollar Amazon gift certificate to one of my readers! But I'm going to ask for a little blogging critique from you all. So, to enter, please comment on this post with an answer to these questions (and an email address):

What do you most look forward to when visiting my blog? (Or what am I doing right?)

What should I add, change, fix, delete from my blog? (Or what am I doing wrong?)

I'll pick a random winner next Sunday.

Thanks!


17 comments:

  1. Congratulations on hitting the two year mark! I have been so bad about commenting lately, I know, but I do read your posts regularly.

    What I like best about your blog --everything! I can't think of anything I haven't enjoyed. I do like your reviews especially. And I love finding out what Jason is reading. :-)

    I'm afraid I have no ideas for improvement. Just keep up what you are doing.

    I hope you have a great week.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have to say I just recently found your blog, but I love it! I love that its not ALL just about books. It's like we get to know you as well.

    I would say keep up what your doing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congrats! I really enjoy reading everything you post on your blog! I may not comment every time, but I do read your posts, and they make me want to be a better blogger. I love your reviews and the bookword game is a lot of fun.
    I don't think you are doing anything wrong, so keep your blog the way it is!:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey, we're twins! It's my second Blogiversary today too :-) - best wishes to you on yours! I liked your stats recap.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy second blogging anniversary! Mine is next week...we started almost at the same time.

    What I like the most about your blog: Your enthusiasm; your obsession with John Green :D

    Suggestion for improvement: an alphabetic review index! I wish everyone had one :P They make a blog so much easier to navigate.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your blog is so fun to visit. I love the word-definition game, but I never see them until it's time to vote. Where do you have the posts about submitting words?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Literary Feline: I'm so glad you enjoy the Jason feature! :) Sadly, he hasn't updated us on what he's been reading lately!

    Stephanie: Glad you found me!

    Chantele: I'm really enjoying your blog too!

    Florinda: Happy Blogiversary!

    Nymeth: Happy Blogiversary to you too! I thought you'd been bloggin WAY longer than me! Great suggestion about a review index... I think I'll work on that...

    Jeane: So... Raidergirl at An Adventure in Books, and I take turns. This Wednesday, the "winner" of the current vote will be announced on my blog and then I'll also introduce a new word to figure out and take suggestions. THEN the vote will take place for THAT word at Raidergirl's blog... then she will introduce a new word and take suggestions... and on from there. Get it? Hopefully everyone will get the hang of it soon!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Two year? I got a long way to go!

    I love the book reviews.

    Suggestion? A new picture for your banner. Guess that is more of an aesthetic change, but I love the content already!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi there! I need your e-mail address to enter you in my Blogiversary giveaway :-). Please stop by and leave it in a comment, or if you'd rather not make it public, e-mail it to me at 3.rsblog AT Gmail DOT com. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Melissa: I really do want to change my banner picture but haven't figured anything out yet. I'll keep working on it!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Happy blogiversary! I hope you have many more years of blogging fun!

    --Anna
    Diary of an Eccentric

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi, Suey! Congratulatinos on two years! Sure does go by fast, huh?

    I don't have any content changes...I think you do a great job as is. :-)

    For your blog itself, I agree with Melissa about the header. The other thing that jumps out at me is that I have no obvious way to subscribe to your blog. You might want to add in an RSS button. I mean, I could follow you if I'm into blogger, but if not, there's not an obvious option.

    The only other thing I think you should change is the url you have for me. I've changed it to heylady.net. :-) The feed has changed too, in case you follow me in a feed reader.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi! Congrats on the blogiversary! I've just come across your blog (through BTT) and am now a follower :) So far, I really like the Bookwords. Hilarious! I'm looking forward to reading more of your posts and reviews!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Happy Anniversary! I thought you had been around before me but I just had my 2 years last month. There was a whole bunch of us that got going at the same time.

    I like the books you review, I like your list of favorite books from past years, and I really like that new Bookword Game you have going:)

    Keep up the fun, and happy reading. (I just started Looking for Alaska)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Happy blogiversary!

    I agree that a header change would probably be beneficial. On a positive note, I'm enjoying your reviewing voice. :)

    WordLily AT gmail DOT com

    ReplyDelete
  16. Happy anniversary! I especially like the updates on you and your family. I don't think I dislike or skip anything. :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Sorry I am so late with my Congrats! It's coming up on my 2year anniversary as a blogger as well. its been a fun couple of years and look how much our sites have grown!

    ReplyDelete