Hummingbird Marks One Year. Anniversary Post.
Hummingbird Marks One Year Anniversary!
It all fits together. Kinda-sorta!
About 2 years ago, I had this idea…that I kept thinking about… percolating, and then began floating on would-be contributors. The rest, as they say is history, and what I’d really like to say now is how the blog has taken on a life of its own and how the contributors have become like a family, but that definitely sounds too simple and sappy, and doesn’t do this amazing team and achievement justice.
First, I’ll fill you in on the numbers—letting the data set the tone for what has been achieved since we launched one year ago today!
To date, we have had approximately 13.5K visitors with 24K pages viewed/read. We have grown organically, mainly through word of mouth, with a little help from Facebook. We have have done no advertising, and no paid boosts of social media posts (Facebook). We think this is pretty good! Our audience is comprised of people who have discovered thehummingbirdpost and come back for the content they enjoy—whether it is recipes, book reviews, fiction, essays, art and conversation. Content is king. Our 30 day rolling numbers, my favorites, are up steadily, as much as 30% over the previous 30 day period at this time (it’s rolling, so it fluctuates.).
So, what I will say is that the blog is so much more than I hoped it would and could be, while remaining non-commercial, mainly non-political, AND, smart, fun, funny, sometimes sad, always timely and important. It is likely one of my greatest projects because it keeps morphing into more through the intelligence, caring and motivation of all of those involved. It’s been a phenomenal year—probably one of the best of my life even though for me personally a certain sadness still pervades— with our amazing cadre of contributors, Hummingbird is so much more than than a story about a happy or sad moment. There is a force of goodness that is ever present.
That’s not to say that there have not been a few times when I didn’t know when, where my next “story” will be coming from. More than once, I sat myself down and wrote a post that I pushed out within the hour, but more often than not, when the queue gets low, a flurry of work will come in—like everyone knows they are needed. It’s astounding really.
I think the best part is that everyone seems to get smarter, feel freer to try new things, and have all gained confidence. Yes indeed-y. It’s a real body of work that we can all be proud of and continue to build upon. I am just so grateful and happy with it. It makes me want to keep going, to make it more, and to watch the blog, and all of us, evolve to where it and we are meant to be. On behalf of all of us working on Hummingbird, thank you so much for your readership and support. It energizes and gives reason to the entire process. And, onward we go!
