Some blog stats for 2017 (Transparency report)

Total monthly blog views (2011-2017)

Last year I started regular transparency reports to share some stats on my blog in case anyone is interested. Even though I don’t generate any income from the blog, I think it is worth sharing how the blog is going and what types of posts are of most interest.

When I started blogging I had little idea how my blog compared to others and even now I don’t really know. While blogging isn’t all about how many views are received, it is still important.

I have a free WordPress blog (with the “no ads” upgrade) which works well for me, so the following are based on the stats available through WordPress.

Key statistics for 2017

• Total views in 2017 – 217,007 (134,343 in 2016)
• Average of 595 views/day (367 in 2016)
• Total visitors in 2017 – 141,047 (89,530 in 2016)
• Total like in 2017 – 89 (109 in 2016)
• Total comments in 2017 – 137 (108 in 2016)
• Total shares in 2017 – 651 (3,333 in 2016)
• Total followers of blog – 784 (619 in 2016)
• Total Twitter followers – 540 (458 in 2016)
• Total Blog Facebook page followers – 350 (231 in 2016)

As you can see, I don’t receive all that many likes, comments or shares (in fact likes and shares were less this year than last year). Most people come to the blog via search engines (around 90%) rather than because they follow it.

As the graph at the top of the post shows, the number of views is growing steadily – I presume because I have been blogging regularly since February 2011. As the number of posts grows (there are now 684) and as I move towards the top of search engines for some terms, the views slowly increase. December/January and June/July are much quieter months which suggests to me that quite a lot of students use the blog.

According to WordPress, in 2017 visitors came from 202 “countries” (Australia 30%; USA 26%; UK 9%; Canada 6%; South Africa 5%).

Top posts in 2017

The following are the top ten posts/pages with the most views in 2017. As you can see, most of them are older posts rather than new ones. :

1. What is the Strengths Perspective? (29,220 views, written in 2012)
2. What is asset-based community development (ABCD)? (20,279 views, written in 2013)
3. Types of community engagement (12,450 views, written in 2012)
4. What are social models of health? (11,675 views, written in 2015)
5. What is community capacity building? (11,602 views, written in 2014)
6. Making parents feel welcome in schools (7,990 views, written in 2013)
7. Home page / Archives (7,944 views)
8. What is the Spectrum of Public Participation? (7,650 views, written in 2017)
9. Seven principles for a strengths-based approach to working with groups (6,704 views, written in 2016)
10. 10 things I’ve learnt about strengths-based community engagement (6,019 views, written in 2013)

Top posts written in 2017

I write for a range of reasons so some of my posts don’t receive many views (e.g., this year 11 of the new posts had 50 views or less) but each year there are a few posts that receive quite a few views.

1. What is the Spectrum of Public Participation? (7,650 views)
2. An example of asset-based community development (2,947 views)
3. Special days and dates for the environment – 2017 (2,083 views)
4. The relationship between community engagement and community development (1,581 views)
5. In some countries (and USA states) our marriage is illegal (988 views)
6. New resources on asset-based community development (ABCD) (838 views)
7. Strengths-based measurement (521 views)
8. 3 reasons I do not support a postal vote on same-sex marriage (421 views)
9. A continuum of engagement: A focus on the individual to a focus on the collective (323 views)
10. Special days and dates for families and communities – 2017 (301 views)

In a separate post I’ll post a complete list of the posts with the number of views they recieved.

I’m really happy to share any information about the blog, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

If you liked this post please follow my blog, and you might like to look at:

1. Why I blog
2. Blogging as an academic
3. 7 principles guiding my work
4. About me
5. Special days and dates for the environment – 2018
6. Special days and dates for families and communities – 2018

If you find any problems with the blog, (e.g., broken links or typos) I’d love to hear about them. You can either add a comment below or contact me via the Contact page.