My blog is one year old today. If it was a baby, it would be starting to walk and talk by now … and that’s kind of how I see it, that it’s beginning to take a few hesitant steps on its own.

I discovered in the past 12 months that blogs and babies have quite a few things in common. They both go through teething problems, they both keep you up late at night, and when they go quiet, you find yourself leaning over both trying to tell if they are still breathing!

Unfortunately, there’s no $5000 bonus for having a blog, and you can’t get time off work by telling your boss that your blog is unwell and needs your attention. Well, I can’t anyway – maybe you’ll have more luck with that one.

Just like a proud mama with her baby book, I have all the statistics on my growing Matilda, kindly provided for me by WordPress.

All the Dirt

I have just over 70 000 views. I thought that seemed reasonable, and then I saw a blog started around the same time as mine that already has 2.8 million views. It has funny pictures taken from the Internet, mostly cats. Why have I not tried to appeal to these vast numbers of hilarious cat lovers? A great opportunity lost.

I received the most number of views on January 9, when Practical Parenting Magazine linked to my article, You Can’t Call It That. Thank you to Practical Parenting and its readers for their interest.

Most of my views were gained from search engines, especially Google.

The most common search term people used was flynn christopher bloom.

The most common girl’s name that people searched for was Hazel, and the most common boy’s name was Link.

The blog that sent me the most views was Appellation Mountain. Huge thanks to Abby, who is so generous when it comes to supporting other bloggers!

After posting this, I will have made 362 blog entries, so I never quite succeeded at the “Blog Entry a Day” challenge that WordPress suggested I take up when I joined.

My most popular entry is Flynn Christopher Bloom, which Wikipedia provided a link to at the bottom of their article on Miranda Kerr. More thanks are due to Wikipedia, as this was very encouraging for a novice blogger.

I have posted a ridiculous number of photos, somewhere between 400 and 500. The most popular photo that people clicked on was the one I made of Miranda Kerr and Orlando Bloom, each with baby Flynn. At this point I’m thinking that if I’d done a blog entirely devoted to the Kerr-Bloom family and their offspring, I would basically own the Internet by now.

I have 19 Categories and 244 Tags. The most popular Category is Celebrity Baby News, and the most popular Tag is celebrity baby names.

The most popular link on my Blog Roll is For Real Baby Names. Congratulations Sarah, you’ve obviously come up with a winning blog title that people can’t resist checking out!

The most popular website link is to the Baby Name Explorer from the NSW government.

The most popular news article is on rugby league star Mark Gasnier, and his 2010 marriage to Claudine Bonnechere.

I have 49 people following my blog, and as far as I can work out, have maybe another 50 or so following it in a more casual, commitment-free way.

People have left me almost a thousand comments, not including comments from myself (this is what WordPress says, but I don’t think it can be right; maybe it’s counting pingbacks).

Askismet has protected me from from more than 5 500 spam comments, which unfortunately means thousands of my views came from spammers.

My most loyal commenter is Lou at Mer de Noms, who has left well over 100 comments, meaning that more than 10% of my comments are from Lou. Thanks heaps Lou; I feel like I should give you some kind of award!

I got a surprising amount of fan mail, and hardly any hate mail at all.

My Birthday Presents to Waltzing More Than Matilda

I got her a new theme, as Pilcrow was beginnng to get on my nerves. One of the reasons I chose Chateau is because it is mobile compatible, so if you are out and about, and feeling as if you simply must read my blog for some reason, you can if you have a mobile device handy. (You could before, it just wouldn’t have looked the same).

I have got her a Twitter account. I don’t really know what to do yet, but I’m sure I’ll pick it up in time.

Many happy returns, Waltzing More Than Matilda, and may we enjoy another year of blogging together.