December 2009 Recap – A Great Ending to the Year

I was a little worried about how December would turn out given the expected drop off in web traffic with the extended holiday season.

I decided to double up on my posts for the first half of the month while I still had the attention of my readers before those pesky dancing sugar plums pushed all thoughts of blogs out of their heads.

It seemed to really pay off when I look at the response the blog received.  I’m so glad that it did because, as I found out, even bloggers are subject to the temptation of checking out during the holiday season.

I really wanted to hit 100 posts by the end of 2009, but my laptop crashed midway through the month and with both my wife and son out of school for the holidays there was no hiding in the office to blog.

The Christian Entrepreneur in the News

Even though I did not reach my 100 posts goal, it was still a great month.  I was inducted into the Famous Bloggers Club which was quite an honor.

The Christian Entrepreneur was also included in several lists and/or mentioned by other bloggers around the blogosphere.  It seems that word is spreading fast about the community we are developing here.

Comments are the Lifeblood of any Blog

Of course, this is due to all of you who participate in the discussion here with your insightful comments.  This month we had 42 commenters that left 189 comments compared to 35 commenters who left 117 comments last month.

Top 10 Commenters

1. Alison Moore Smith (23)
2. Will from Whatawebsite (18)
3. Mike Holmes (16)
4. Dana @ Online Knowledge (12)
5. Keith (11)
6. Rita J. Cartwright (9)
   Ileane (9)
   Brandon A. Cox (9)
7. Karl Foxley (7)
   Hesham (7)

As a way of saying thank you, the links above will share my Google PageRank.

Special Commenter Appreciation Goes To …

This month, I shared my new commenter appreciation program in Comments Are a Blogger’s Best Friend.  Thank you for taking the time to leave so many comments.

The free one month advertising banner goes to Alison Moore Smith for being the top commenter.  Please email your banner to brad@bradleyaharmon.com.

Alison Moore Smith, Will from Whatawebsite, and Mike Holmes will all receive a free write up on their blogs for being the top three commenters of the month.

5 Most Commented on Posts of the Month

1. The #BlogEngage Community, How Tweet It Is! (31 comments)
2. CommentLuv, DISQUS, or IntenseDebate? (28 comments)
3. How Much Money Am I Making with Blog Engage? (26 comments)
   All I Want for Christmas is Your Blog Engage Votes (26 comments)
   
4. How I Make Money From This Site (and You) (23 comments)

Website Statistics

I am in absolute awe of the website statistics for December 2009.  Increasing the posting frequency in the first half of the month really seemed to pay off.

Top Referring Sites

1. Blog Engage (186)
2. Whatawebsite (95)
3. Stumble Upon (78)
4. Twitter (71)
5. Facebook (21)

January 2010 Goals

• 1,200 visits
• 700 unique visitors
• 3,500 pageviews
• 3.00 average pageviews

December 2009 Goals vs Actuals

In the November 2009 Recap, I set four goals that I wanted this site to achieve in December.  We were able to accomplish three of the goals, but we didn’t just accomplish them – we clobbered them!

• Goal was 1,200 visits – Actually had 1,260
• Goal was 800 unique visitors – Actually had 710
• Goal was 2,400 page views – Actually had 3,656
• Goal was 2.00 average pageviews – Actually had 2.90

Final Thoughts

This month I spent a lot of time building up my web traffic from Blog Engage.  Looking at the most commented upon posts and the top referrer, it seems like this attention has paid off with quality traffic.

I wonder if the main purpose of this blog wasn’t a little over-shadowed by all of this traffic though.  I think I need to do a better job of balancing out my posting categories going forward.

Thank you again for making December 2009 a great month.

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