2012 Blogging Year in Review & 2013 Goals

For those of you who might be visiting this blog for the first time, welcome. I’m a unpaid blogger (read: not a professional writer) living in San Francisco. I am cofounder and CEO of Referly alongside my husband Kevin. I write about whatever interests me. Usual topics include marketing tactics, personal productivity, things I’m learning as a first time CEO.

This year I published on my personal blog, the Twilio company blog, as a guest writer on TechCrunch Europe, and launched DistributionHacks.com where I focused exclusively on tactics for marketing and growth. I also took a very active role doing content marketing through the Referly company blog and on my Referly profile (I am counting collections as blog posts… I think we might be slowly be morphing into a blogging platform – more on that soon).

Blogging, by the Numbers

• 41 posts with 200 or more pageviews
• Averaged 3.5 posts per month
• Just over 200,000 total pageviews
• Averaged 3,760 pageviews per post

Traffic on DanielleMorrill.com Since It Started

My Top 10 Posts of 2012

#10 – Introducing the Distribution Hacks Blog

#9 – Who Owns the Website, and Why

#8 – Why Advertising on Mobile Sucks, From the Marketer’s Perspective

#7 – Got 99 Competitors and Bit.ly is One

#6 – Starting Referly Took Me Three Years

#5 – Post Startup Launch Checklist

#4 – Accidental Startup Office Manager: Ordering Food

#3 – How to Hustle SXSW for Fun and Profit

#2 – The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me (for Demo Day)

#1 – Don’t Waste a Single Moment

These ten posts generated 75% of my pageviews in 2012. The top 3 generated 37%. Here is the distribution curve for traffic.

Goals for 2013

Write About Amazing Startups Not Getting Press Coverage

I know I’m not alone in my complaint that I wish tech publications covered a broader range of startups with interesting stories beyond funding and product launches. For those blogs it might not make sense, as long think or column pieces don’t always hit their mark and result in traffic. But since I don’t have to care much about traffic, I’m free to write whatever I want and take as long as I please.

Consistently Publish at Least 2 Times a Week

In 2012 I definitely published at least once a week on average, but my activity was spikey and inconsistent leaving readers wonder when the next piece would come out on Distribution Hacks for months (thanks for being patient with me). Accomplishing this goal might mean I actually need to make myself an editorial calendar, which I’ve been avoiding because it makes blogging feel like a job. But that might just be what it takes.

Do More Funny Video Projects Like This With My Friends

Experiment with Having Guest Authors Post on *My* Blogs

I think it would be awesome to feature guest writers on Distribution Hacks, so I need to figure out how I want to approach people and get a bit more specific about the type of content the audience there expects. Guest posts are great because I can probably bring visibility to some awesome growth people who are just getting started with blogging. Are you one of them reading this? Contact me!

Figure Out a Syndication Strategy

Publishing across multiple sites it awesome because it let’s me segment audiences, reach new people, and explore different styles and topics. I expect I’ll be doing quite a bit more guest blogging in 2013, so figuring out a central place where people can subscribe to get everything is probably something I should work on. This is likely to be that site. This is the breakdown of where I’m generating pageviews this year:

Finish Some of My 216 Draft Posts

One good habit I’ve developed with blogging is to write whenever an idea strikes, even if I’m not sure if/when/whether I’ll ever publish. Now I’ve got 216 stub posts in various stages of completeness on this blog alone, with plenty of Google docs and other notes that might be worth finishing.

Rankings for My Remaining Blog Posts

Curious how my other posts did this year? Here are the other posts I made this year in order of pageviews:

#11 – Must Read Blogs for Entrepreneurs

#12 – Creating an Unfair Advantage

#13 – The Little Signup Page That Could – A/B Testing Results Are In

#14 – Growth Hacking Referly: New User Onboarding Workflow

#15 – Go Ahead, Feed the Trolls

#16 – Introducing Customer Acquisition as a Service: Referly API & Shopping by Categories

#17 – Announcing “Recommend It” – The iPhone App for Product Photo Sharing

#18 – Startup Office Snacks

#19 – Why We Buy: Redesigning Referly to Focus on Experiences

#20 – Referly Friends & Family Emails (aka Early Stage Investor Relations)

#21 – Books for Entrepreneurs

#22 – Finding a New Voice

#23 – Import Your Pinterest Boards as Referly Collections

#24 – Startup Metrics to Obsess Over

#25 – Saying No

#26 – 500 Details: The Process of Mentoring Startups

#27 – Don’t Break the Chain

#28 – YC Demo Day Prep Resources

#29 – Angry Birds Halloween Costumes

#30 – Referly + InternMatch Office Furniture

#31 – How I Earned $34.91 with Referly

#32 – Close the Loop on Your SXSW Campaign & Leads in 5 Steps

#33 – Referly Goes Social – You Can Now Follow Profiles

#34 – Introducing Referly Reviews: Hands-On Video Reviews of Products We Love

#35 – Halloween Decor

#36 – New and Improved Referly Website (Signup, Onboarding, Friending)

#37 – Click Metrics: What Referly Reporting Looks Like

#38 – Turning Recommendations from the Reddit Community Into a Store

#39 – So Meta: My Startup is a Tool for Distribution Hackers

#40 – Geek Girl Haul: The Corner Store

#41 – My Favorite Drink: The Kir Imperial