One year ago today, I started Fantasy Debut. It's been a much more interesting year than I expected!
Here are some numbers:
- Debuts announced: 91
- Reviews: 29, of which 8 are guest reviews
- Interviews: 15 (including one that Raven helped with)
- Guest Posts: 5
- Contests: 4
- Best Technorati Authority: 101
- Current Technorati Authority: Varies wildly, currently inexplicably back up about 20 points to 101. Oops! now, it's back down to 88 so who knows?
- Visits: 23,590
- Unique Visitors: 11,856
- Pageviews: 35,454
- Number of Countries: 97
- Number of States: 52 (How does that happen? Turns out there's a region called "not set" and then there's good old Washington, DC.)
- Top Referring Blogs: Fantasy Book Critic (1,266 referrals), Pat's Fantasy Hotlist (742) and Graeme's Fantasy Review (411) -- thanks to everyone who has sent traffic here!
Have you any advice for me? Should I run more contests? More interviews (two are in the works)? More guest posts? Something else, entirely? Any complaints? The suggestion box is now open.
28 comments:
Happy Birthday!
:)
Happy birthday! And no complaints here. Contests and guest bloggers don't do much to make a site more attractive to me, especially one like this that fills such a nice niche. Since I like the niche, that's what I come here for. I enjoy your in-depth reviews and your debut announcements.
Perhaps another feature you could add (if you liked this idea, natch) is "fantasy novel hall of fame" where you post about a novel that you read years ago and has stuck with you. If you ran out of novels, that would be an opportunity for someone to guest post, perhaps even a commenter. People come to your blog looking for fantasy novel recommendations, so this would be an extension of that.
Happy anniversary! I hope the next year is even better for Fantasy Debut. :) You do a fantastic job of keeping up with all the new authors.
Happy anniversary, Tia.
Your counter isn't even counting people who read your blog through a reader--like me. :o) My visit won't show up unless I pop in and comment.
I don't see a need to change anything. Your site is polished, easy to read, and it fills its niche nicely.
You did good, woman!
Wow; I didn't know counters didn't count feed readers. I would have a terrible time keeping up with all the blogs I read if it were not for feed readers.
Congrats Tia! Here's to many more years of Fantasy Debut!
~Aidan
A Dribble of Ink
Happy birthdanniversary! :)
Absolutely no complaints here, I think you do a wonderful job of posting frequently, and cover all the bases (debut announcements, interviews, giveaways, etc). Technorati's all jacked up anyways, don't sweat it!
One suggestion though, if you're trying to get/keep track of more readers, you could put your feed subscription in a more visible place, maybe subscribe to Feed Burner (which is awesome, tracks detailed stats on not only clicks but also feed readers, if that's your thing)...
Great job, as always, and congrats again!
Happy 1st Birthday! And many, many more! : )
My blog isn't far behind you -- it'll be a year old on June 24.
Congrats on your success!
Lisa
Happy Birthday!
Glad to see I helped put a few asses in the seats!:-)
Well i just discovered this blog a week or two ago and i am very impressed. Keep up the great work.
Happy Birthday Tia! And keep those debuts coming :)
Now, how cool is that :-))
HAPPY Anniversary!
a SFFWorld member
Happy anniversary! No complaints here. I love coming here to read about fantasy debuts.
Thanks, everyone!
Happy bloggerday! :) You do a great job, Tia, and I'll look forward to the next year! I'm one year old soon, also! :D
Happy Birthday! I look forward to many, many visits!
Congrats, and now it's time for "Fantasy Sophomore Efforts," the natural spin-off, right? :P
Happy (Belated, sorry...) Birthday Tia! I'm looking forward to what you have lined up for the coming year :o)
Larry, I actually cover those! I call such author "debut graduates." I have a couple upcoming in the next few weeks and months.
Thanks, Graeme.
Congratulations! I think you're doing awesome.
Lemmesee, the only tip I can think of is 'If you like this book, you might like that.' The authors and readers at my blog like it when we end a review by saying something like, "If you like MAGIC LOST, TROUBLE FOUND by Lisa Shearin, you might also like GOBLIN QUEST by Jim C. Hines and THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkien." Readers are always looking for more books like the ones they love and authors are always looking to build up their genre/subgenre.
Happy Anniversary!!!! So much success in a mere year! You deserve it. It's a great blog. -C
Happy Blog-o-versary!
Happy anniversary!
Thanks again, everyone!
Congrats!!! That is so wonderful :)
Wow, a year? Congrats!
I like annalisa's idea - a fantasy novel hall of fame where you post about a novel that you read years ago and has stuck with you.
That sounds really cool. :-) And like annalisa said, if you ran out of novels, you could have someone guest post about their hall of fame novels.
Ooh, and I also like kimberan's suggestion as to "If you liked this, you'd also like..."
Other than those suggestions, I think this is an awesome blog (which I should come by and read more often :-)).
Happy anniversary!
Thanks to everyone and I appreciate all the suggestions, Nancy!
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